Chapter 22
“Here, here, here,” I shouted, pointing at the turn-off to get to the Stone Table, a road down which I’d been many times. So many that I was beginning to think someone needed to pave it. For that matter, someone needed to haul the ruins away. Bury them at sea, or at least deep in a landfill.
Because honestly? I’d had enough of this place.
Cutter was behind the wheel and we bounced along. I’d conceded my driver’s seat because I wanted to think and plan with this ragtag team that consisted of me, Cutter, Stuart, Eddie, and Jared.
Jared because we might need him. Cutter because he’s got bad ass skills.
Eddie, because he has the experience and has surprisingly sharp fighting skills for a guy his age.
That, and he’d arrived home just as we were heading out, and when we told him the situation, he refused to stay behind, not even to help Laura and Mindy play host to the entire birthday party.
And, of course, there was Stuart, who was only along because I didn’t have time to argue, and he was determined. “If you think I’m not going to be there for my daughter, you are so wrong,” he’d said.
They were the right words, and I’d caved. With any luck, though, I could convince him to stay in the van. I really didn’t want to split my focus looking out for him. Even more, I didn’t want him to end up dead.
We parked, then tumbled out. I knew from experience that we had to walk the rest of the way. And as I looked up at the sky and saw four white streaks above us, I also knew we had to hurry. A meteor shower. Fire and ice.
Eliza’s warning rang in my head.
Lilith.
I took off at a run,
It won’t matter Kate.
The voice, cold and feminine, seemed to fill my head.
I slowed long enough to glance at the men, and could tell from their expressions that it wasn’t just me.
I caught Stuart’s eyes, his full of fear, and took off at a run again.
Whatever was happening, the time was now.
And oh, dear God, I hoped we weren’t too late.
But you are too late, Kate. It’s okay, though. I won’t hurt you. In the end, you’ll be my mother, too.
“You stay away from her, you bitch,” I snarled, just before I burst through the final clump of brush and into the open area around the battered Stone Table. I paused to get my bearings, noting the perimeter of demonic guards surrounding the ceremonial site.
“Mommy!”
“I’m here, baby,” I called, searching the area and finding her bound to polished stone pillar I’d never seen here before. “It’s going to be okay,” I told her, even though I wasn’t at all sure it would be.
I heard the grass rustle behind me and knew the men had caught up. But I didn’t turn to look at them. I was too horrified by what I saw to my left—Eric tied naked to another pillar, his entire body covered with small cuts so that thin trails of blood crisscrossed his body.
No.
I meant to scream the word, but somehow it ended up only in my head.
Eric had already been bled. That meant there was only one chance left.
The chalice stone.
But where was it and what did it look like? For that matter, where was Lilith?
The second one was easy—all around us in the ether. But as for the other…
I met Allie’s eyes. “A ceremonial stone. Have you seen it?”
She shook her head, struggling against her bindings, but it was no use. I doubted I would do better, so I didn’t go over and try. There was no point. Until I destroyed the stone, she wasn’t safe at all.
“Jared,” I called. “What does it look like?”
He opened his mouth, then closed it when the air filled with the screams of a child in pain, as if trapped in a never ending nightmare.
It will never stop. Not if you help our Kate.
But be my right hand, and you will have your sister back.
Your sweet Celia who screams when the fire of my breath touches her.
Your little sister who is slowly going mad because you’ve failed her.
Who hates you because you haven’t rescued her.
You can free her now. Help me, and I will let her go. I might even give you her sanity back.
“She’s lying,” I called to him, as the demons who’d been standing like statues around the perimeter rushed the men.
“Don’t worry about us,” Cutter shouted, nailing one in the eye with his knife, and proving that his skills were just as extensive as advertised. Stuart and Eddie fought together, and I searched desperately for the chalice stone. But I saw nothing at all.
I had to find it. I had to.
“The chalice stone is the key,” Father Corletti had said.
“If she has already begun the ritual of the blood, then the next step will be for her to enter the chalice stone. It is an intermediary location between her realm and ours. She will go there, gather her strength and almost immediately leave again.”
My head spun with the memory—and the importance of Father Corletti’s words that he’d shared with all of us, speaking over the Odyssey’s audio system as we’d raced toward the Stone Table.
I had to find the chalice stone.
“You must destroy the chalice while she is inside it. If you do, then you will have destroyed Lilith in her true form, and she will be no more. If you do not, then she will enter Allie and there will be no stopping her.
I’d told him I understood. What I hadn’t told him was that his words had terrified me.
I hadn’t realized they would get even worse.
“There is a price, mia cara. The one who destroys the stone—there is no coming back. You must understand this. The ancient texts are clear. There is only death or insanity, should the destroyer be unfortunate enough to survive. Stopping Lilith comes with a price. You need to understand.
“I need to save my daughter.”
“In that case, you must know. The weapon is blood.”
I’d said those words then, and I said them again now.
We’d talked about finding another way in the car, but I knew there was no other way.
Allie was the one who mattered, and not just because of her newfound abilities.
She was my baby girl, and I wasn’t going to sentence her to an eternity of torture trapped with a demon. I’d make the sacrifice willingly.
Too bad I couldn’t find the damn stone.
“Mom! Something’s happening.”
Sure enough, the air around us seemed to shimmer. I felt a pull, as if all the air was gathering, and I heard Eric cry out, as if this strange vortex was pulling the life from him, too.
Allie screamed, and as she did, I saw it—The entire stone table, broken and battered, began to glow.
The table was the chalice, and that glow was Lilith.
It was now or never.
“I love you, Allie,” I said, then sliced my palm with my knife as I raced forward, terrified but determined.
I didn’t make it.
Instead, I was knocked on my ass by Stuart. “She needs you,” he said. “And the world needs her. I love you, Allie,” he said more loudly. “You and your mother are the best thing that every happened to me.”
“Stuart!” Allie cried in tandem with me. “No!”
But it was too late. “I know what I’m doing,” he called to us as he sliced his palm, then pressed it to the table, and the entire earth began to rumble.
Then I head Jared’s voice over the din. “Celia!” he shouted. “I’m sorry.” And in one crazy move, he tackled Stuart, knocking him free of the table and slapping his own bloody palm down.
Immediately, he was thrown backward, and I could only assume that vampire blood didn’t work.
But had Jared saved Stuart? Or had he opened a door for Lilith to escape again?
I glanced back at Cutter and Eddie, neither of whom looked as if they had any more idea than I did.
Then I ran to Stuart who was sprawled motionless on the ground.
I bent over him, then exhaled with relief when I realized he was breathing.
But although I shook him and spoke to him, he didn’t wake up.
“Lilith?” Allie said.
“Do you feel her?”
She bit her lower lip, then shook her head. “I think she’s gone.”
Tentatively, I touched the table, expecting … something. But it was just cool stone.
“She was expelled,” Eric murmured, barely audible. “I felt it.”
“Gone for good?”
“Don’t know. Hope so.” Exhaustion colored his voice.
“I’ll get him down,” Eddie said, hurrying to Eric.
“I’ve got Allie,” Cutter said, glancing my direction. “You take care of Stuart.”
I did, hurrying to him and trying to revive him, but it was no use. He was out. Completely unconscious. And I had no idea how long he would stay that way.
Behind me, Jared climbed to his feet and came over.
“Thank you,” I said.
He just shook his head. “Too little, too late.” He nodded to Stuart. “I’m sorry. I wanted to save him.”
“I believe you,” I told him. “And I’m sorry about your sister.” She was lost, of course. The chances of finding the poor, tortured girl were next to none. “We’ll help you look, I promise you that.”
“I know. It won’t matter.”
“Maybe it will,” I said, hoping to save her, but knowing the odds weren’t in our favor.
A moment later, Cutter led Allie to me, and I clung tight to her.
“We won,” she said, tears streaming down her face as she pressed a hand to Stuart’s shoulder. “But it doesn’t feel like it.”
“It was too high a cost,” I said. “It might be a victory, but we can’t call it a win?”
“He’ll be okay, Kate,” Eric said, pulling me close as the EMTs loaded Stuart’s stretcher onto the ambulance where Allie and Eddie were already settled with the paramedics. “He’s alive. We’ll figure this out. He’ll be okay.”
I nodded, fighting tears as I thought of my husband, cursed into insanity because he’d survived the blast from the stone. “He saved Allie,” I said. “He doesn’t deserve to fall into madness.”
“Maybe he won’t. Those records are ancient. Before decent medical care. Before drugs.” He pressed his hand to my cheek. “He’ll be okay, Katie-kins. Stuart’s going to be fine.”
I took a deep breath, intending to say that he couldn’t know that. Instead, I asked, “Is that what you want?”
The question came out harsher than I intended, and I saw the flash of pain reflected in Eric’s eyes.
“Do you love him?”
I nodded, tears stinging my cheeks as I wondered how such a simple question could be so fraught. “You know I do.”
“And that’s why I want him to be fine,” Eric said.
I swallowed, only then realizing that my throat was thick with tears.
“Mom! Come on!” Allie’s voice bellowed out from the back of the ambulance.
“Go,” Eric said, and I sprinted that way, climbing in as the EMT started to shut the doors.
I had one last glimpse of Eddie, Cutter and Eric standing beside Jared. I whispered thank you, the words meant for all of them.
Then the doors closed and the ambulance started to bounce down the rocky trail, leaving one man I loved behind as I leaned forward and took the hand of the other.
He’ll be okay, Eric had said. And though he had no mystical ability to make it so, the mere fact that he’d said it gave me hope. Not just for Stuart, but for our strange, messy extended family.
There were questions ahead, not the least of which was the bloodline that lead from Father Donnelly all the way down to my daughter. And God knew this family harbored secrets and demons and a strangely tainted bloodline. But we also had each other.
And despite everything, I had faith that would be enough.