Chapter 10
Ilunged upright in bed, not sure what awakened me.
My heart pounded in my chest, and I tossed the sheets aside as I hurried to my feet, glancing sideways at Stuart, who was sleeping soundly.
I grabbed my switchblade style stiletto off the side table where I keep it next to my hand cream. Then I shoved my arms into my robe, and hurried out of the bedroom.
I paused just outside the door, listening. I didn’t hear a thing, and I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Maybe this was all my imagination?
I checked Timmy’s room, happy to see that he was completely sacked out on his toddler bed, and since I knew Allie was over at Laura’s, I didn’t bother sticking my head in there, especially since I’d just heard a scraping noise downstairs.
Instead I moved quietly down the stairs, avoiding the few squeaky ones that we’ve been planning to fix for years, but have never managed to put that plan into practice.
I found Eddie at the base of the stairs, one of my steak knives tight in his grip.
I started to ask what he thought, but he held a finger up to his lips, then pointed toward the living room, only a small section of which was visible from the base of the stairs. I pointed that direction to indicate that I was going first, and he fell in step beside me.
I wasn’t scared—I’d been on the hunt too many times for that—but I was pissed. This was my house. My home.
My family.
I’ll fight demons all day long if I have to, but a demon coming in my house? That really elevates the stakes.
As for Eddie, not for the first time I realized how nice it was to have another Hunter in the house. My whole life I’d worked in tandem, and in those months before Eric had become David, I’d missed that assistance and camaraderie.
I took a step forward, then another. I paused, having heard a small, whining moan.
I burst into the living room, blade at the ready, then stopped short when Allie’s scream pierced my ears.
“Mom!”
In a split-second, I assessed the situation, realizing there was no demonic threat at all. Just my daughter, scrunched in the corner of the sofa, a pillow hugged tight to her chest.
I tossed the stiletto onto the coffee table as I sat beside her. “Baby, what is it? Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I’m fine. I just feel ... I told Aunt Laura I feel bad. I needed to come home.”
I glanced over at Eddie. “It’s okay. I’ve got her. Go on back to sleep.”
He shuffled forward, his sleep tousled gray hair sticking up in all directions as he focused on my daughter. “You need anything, kiddo?”
She shook her head and hugged the pillow tighter, looking a little queasy as she did.
I frowned, wondering how much ice cream and other sweets they’d binged on while watching hours of television.
A lot, I knew, since it would take the monster of all stomach aches to get her back home from a sleepover with Mindy.
“I just want to sleep,” she said. “Can I go to bed, Mom?”
“Of course you can.”
I felt her forehead, but it was cool. “Do you need anything for your stomach? Tums? Chicken soup? Mine’s famous you know?” As a rule, I’m a terrible cook, but I have amazing can opening skills, and always keep chicken broth in the pantry.
Usually any reference to my utter lack of cooking skills gets a smile out of her, but this time she only shook her head and pushed herself off the couch.
“Okay,” I said starting to get concerned that she was truly ill and not just suffering the after effects of a junk food binge. “Let’s get you upstairs and in bed. Then we’ll see how you feel in the morning. This lingers too long, and we’ll take you to the doctor.”
She nodded, and as Eddie watched, I led my daughter back up the stairs.
I glanced at him one more time from the landing, and saw the worry carved into his craggy face.
It was the first time that either of the kids has been sick since he came to live with us, and he’d never been a parent himself.
“She’ll be fine,” I said. “Probably by tomorrow morning.”
He nodded, but he didn’t look convinced, and I wished I had the time to go back downstairs and give him a hug, for no reason other than the fact that he loves my daughter, too.
I got her into bed, tucking her in the way I’d done when she was little, then bent over to kiss her forehead before heading to the door and turning off the light.
“Mom?”
I stopped in the process of pulling the door shut. She pushed herself up in bed, the brown floppy-eared dog that had been her favorite children’s toy in her lap.
“You okay, baby?”
One shoulder rose, but she didn’t look up at me. A tight knot of worry formed in my chest, and all of the relief that I’d been feeling whooshed out me with the same speed and force as if I’d impaled a demon through the eye.
I hurried to her side, then sat on the bed beside her. “You’re going to rip that ear right off again,” I said, referring to the time she was eight and had carried the stuffed dog everywhere by his ear.
She met my eyes, hers glistening with unshed tears. “If I do, you can fix it, right?”
My chest tightened in response to the unspoken question. “You won’t,” I said.
“But what if I do?”
I moved to the bed and sat on the edge. I took her hand from the fuzzy ear and squeezed tight. Then I abandoned the pretense that this was a conversation about a stuffed lovey. “Father Donnelly said—”
“—that it’s only the good stuff in me. Strength. Speed. Blah, blah, blah. I know what he said. But how do I know he’s right?”
“You’re scared,” I said. “Rightfully so.” Considering how scared I was I knew she must be terrified. “But Father Donnelly’s as close to an expert as we’ve got. And it’s not as if you’ve ever showed the slightest sign of being evil.”
I forced a grin, gave her hand a squeeze. “I mean, there are times when I’ve thought your room represents the kind of chaos you might find in one of the circles of hell, but—”
“You are so not funny,” she said in that my mom is an idiot tone I knew so well.
“Maybe a little funny?”
Her mouth twitched and I forced myself not to show relief when she cocked her head and said, “Nope. Not even a little.”
“And yet I try so hard.”
I waited for her to say more, but she stayed silent. “What happened?”
She licked her lips, then drew a breath. “I had a nightmare.”
I wanted to relax. I wanted this to be like all those times when she was in elementary school, and I would have to go get her from slumber parties because she’d had a bad dream. But I knew in my gut that wasn’t what was going on this time.
Whatever she’d seen in her sleep, it wasn’t just a nightmare. It was something important. Something horrible. Something that was going to spook me as much as it has spooked her.
I forced my expression not to change as I looked back at her, this time taking both of her hands and leaving Floppy Dog between us. “Can you tell me about it?”
She bit her lower lip, but nodded. Then she closed her eyes and started to speak.
“It was—it was that night. You know, the night we got the demon out of Daddy. And in the dream, there was this black slimy goo that seeped into the ground and then oozed over to where Nadia was. Only she didn’t even look like Nadia anymore.
She just looked like Lilith. Or, what I think Lilith looks like. ”
I nodded, encouraging her to continue.
“I mean, I don’t really know what she looks like. I guess nobody does, but I’ve done all that research and seen all those ancient books with the pictures of demons and stuff. She was supposed to be beautiful and horrible all at the same time, and that’s how she was in my dream.”
She drew in a stuttering breath, then swallowed like she was holding back tears. “But Mom, it wasn’t anything like I’d seen in those books. I think—I think I was seeing what she really looks like.”
I winced, but not from her words. She’d been squeezing my hand, almost cracking my bones. “It’s okay, baby. Go on and tell me the rest.”
“That’s really it. I just— I just think she’s coming back. I think she may already be here. And I’m afraid that she’s going to go after Daddy again.”
I forced my expression not to change as I nodded, trying to pretend like her words didn’t terrify me. Before the beach, I probably would have written this off as a bad dream. Now, though…
Well, now I’m scared.
Consort.
The one who’s blood runs dark.
The demon’s words rattle in my head, haunting me. Terrifying me.
I wanted to hug her close. To reassure her that even if it was a premonition, it didn’t matter. That we would fix it.
But those would be hollow words. Because with every gain, we have losses. And how am I to know what we might lose this time?
So I did the only thing I could do. I hugged her tight, then whispered, “Whatever happens, baby, we’ll face it together.” And then, because she was still my little girl, I added, “I’m not going to let anything happen to you or your father.”
At that, she actually laughed. “A nice thought, Mom, but I’m old enough to know that you can’t make that promise.”
“Yes, I can,” I said fiercely. “I can make it, and I will do everything in my power to make it come true. But you’re right. I can’t do better than that. All I can promise is that I’ll try.” I hugged her tighter, then pulled back to face her. “Is that enough?”
She nodded. “I love you, Mom.”
“Love you, too, Al. More than you’ll probably ever know.”
She swallowed, then wiped her eyes before looking straight at me again. “Eliza was right, you know.”
“Eliza?”
“That knife that I threw—the one that hit the demon right in the eye. I’m not that good. Or, at least, I wasn’t. I wasn’t before we went to Rome. I wasn’t until we were in the crypt. But there was something about that chamber…”
“What?” I asked, though I already knew. I’d seen the way she’d run and leaped and battled her way to the dais.
“I don’t know how, but even before I got to the dais and closed the gate there was something about that room. We went in there, and I felt something inside me change. I thought it would be the same for you and Daddy.”
“Not me,” I said. And as for Eric … well, I really didn’t know.
“Here’s the thing,” she continued. “What if that was the whole point? What if the demons always knew that we’d be able to close that gate?
What if it was like some really long con to get me down there?
To make all this stuff happen inside me so that some demon buried deep inside me comes out?
What if I was never the result of a plan by good people wanting to fight demons, but of bad people wanting to make me be some sort of weapon for their side? ”
With ever word, my mouth went dry and my heart beat faster. I forced myself not to let my fear show as I shook my head hard, her hands gripped tight in mine. “No,” I said firmly. “No.”
“But—”
I shook my head again. “No. You are you. You’re good, Allie. You always have been. Nothing in you has changed. Whatever you are now, you always have been.”
“But what if I’ve always been dark?”
“Do you want to be dark?”
She shook her head so forcefully the bed moved.
“Well, then. That’s your answer. If we have to fight something in you, we will.
But we’ll deal. I promise. Because you’re Allie.
You’re sweet and you’re smart and you’re snarky and you’re badass, and you’re a pain in my butt sometimes, but you’re a good kid and I love you. ”
A single tear streaked down her cheek as she nodded then ran the back of her hand underneath her nose. “It almost got Daddy. We almost lost him.”
“But we didn’t.”
“Because of you,” she said.
I thought of that horrible moment when I’d watched a blade slide deep into the eye of a man I loved.
I’d expected him to die that day. But he hadn’t, and that had been one of the biggest miracles of my life.
But I can’t guarantee that will ever happen again.
Could I ever do the same with Allie? Let someone do it to her?
I didn’t know, but the truth was, I didn’t think so. And surely, whatever demons lived in the ether around us, knew that too.
Time moved differently in those in other dimensions. I’d been told that, but never had proof. Now, though, I did, because Eric had told me. He’d been in one of those dimensions, after all, and to him returning to me had seemed almost instantaneous.
Which means that a long con for a demon, would not be very long at all.
But none of that was the kind of thing I was willing to tell Allie. Not yet. Instead, I’d carry her worries as my own burden for a while. And somehow, I would try to fix this.
“We all have your back, sweetheart,” I finally said.
“I know you do. But...”
“What?” I pressed when she trailed off with a shrug.
“I guess I’m afraid that it won’t even matter. Because someday, I’m going to have to do what you do all on my own.”
I saw the fear in her eyes when she looked directly at me. “And Mom, I’m really scared that in the end, we’re all going to lose.”