Chapter 8 #2
“Delia,” he said, “you need to listen to me carefully. I can sense at least six high-level demons converging on Angel’s Dream. Vinea’s brought backup. Serious backup.”
The energy surge within her pulsed again, and suddenly, Delia could sense what Ty was talking about.
Dark presences moved through the city like sharks circling their prey, all of them heading toward the same destination.
She could feel their hunger, their anticipation, their absolute certainty that they were about to achieve something they’d been planning for a very long time.
They were heading toward Caleb.
“We have to help him,” she said, the words fierce, not allowing any argument. “We can’t just leave him there.”
“No,” Ty replied sharply, and she could hear the strain in his voice, as if he was saying what he knew he had to say, even if he didn’t like it very much.
“That’s exactly what they want. You and Caleb together, in the same place, with all that ley line energy at their disposal.
Your combined abilities are part of whatever ritual they’re planning. ”
Delia crossed her arms, and the white glow surrounding her sparked for a moment before blinking out altogether. Had she closed a circuit, or had the energy simply done what it needed to do?
She had way too many questions, and she had a feeling none of them would be answered anytime soon.
“So, what?” she demanded, voice hard. “We just leave Caleb there? We let the demons do whatever they want to him?”
A muscle in Ty’s cheek twitched, but he sounded calm enough as he replied, “We’ll regroup. We’ll find another way.”
But even as Ty spoke, another part of Delia’s mind was reaching out, trying to sense Caleb across the supernatural network that connected Las Vegas.
For a moment, she thought she felt something — a familiar warmth, tinged with anger and fear and a stubborn determination that was so quintessentially Caleb Lockwood that it made her heart ache.
But then it was gone, blocked by something much darker and stronger, and she wanted to cry.
No time for that, though, not when trouble was assailing them from all sides.
“I have to call my family,” she said abruptly.
She’d been so caught up in what was happening with Caleb that she’d almost forgotten about the members of her extended family converging on Las Vegas in the very near future.
“Olivia’s flight lands in a couple of hours, and her parents are arriving a short time after that.
My parents are supposed to pick them up at the airport. If this escalates any further….”
She didn’t finish the sentence because she didn’t need to.
Everyone in that room knew what could happen if a supernatural battle erupted in the middle of Las Vegas while her family members were scattered across the city.
Her parents, her aunt and uncle, Olivia and Alec, his family, the rest of the wedding guests — all of them flying blindly into a war zone with no idea of the danger that waited for them.
The thought of her mother trying to navigate McCarran Airport while demons stalked the city made Delia’s hands clench in frustration and terror.
Linda Dunne was supremely competent and more than capable in her own world of real estate deals and client meetings, but obviously, she didn’t have any defenses against the kind of supernatural predators that had decided to take up residence in Las Vegas.
“Do whatever you can to keep them away from here,” Ty said at once. “Try to get them to delay their arrival, or better yet, cancel entirely.”
The laptop screen flickered, and Pru cursed under her breath, even as she hurried back over to take a seat in front of it and look at what was going on.
She picked up her headphones and stuck them back on.
“Shit,” she said, even as she reached over to adjust one of the dials on the scanner.
“Something’s jamming the signals. Maybe someone figured out that I’ve been listening in. ”
This just kept getting better and better.
Pru might have built her career on being unflappable, on being dedicated to finding the truth no matter how deeply it was buried, but everyone knew she was working way above her pay grade here.
That she’d been able to discover as much as she had already was something of a miracle.
Maybe someone was looking out for them after all, even though it didn’t feel much like it at the moment.
“Can you get around the jamming?” Delia asked, although she suspected she already knew the answer.
“I’m trying.” Pru’s voice was still even enough, but Delia caught the underlying note of frustration anyway. “I can’t tell if they’re blocking everything, or just me. I have to guess it’s the latter, because first responders would know something was up if all their radios suddenly went dead.”
Were demons usually that technologically sophisticated?
The infernal entities Delia had encountered so far preferred more direct methods of creating chaos, and they also tended to be much more physical beings, not much interested in technology.
The mere fact that these ones could be using these kinds of electronic warfare tactics disturbed her more than she wanted to admit.
What else might they be capable of?
With that unnerving thought floating through her mind, Delia went to her contacts and found Olivia’s number, her thumb hovering over the call button as she tried to figure out what she could possibly say.
Her cousin would definitely be in the air by now, probably somewhere over the Great Plains, but the plane should have wifi.
Maybe Delia could reach Olivia, convince her to get off the plane during her layover in Denver or wherever it might be, convince her that some vague “vendor problems” were serious enough to warrant canceling the wedding and sending her straight back to Chicago…
or maybe to that possible elopement in Cancun.
It was a long shot…but it was the only shot they had.
The phone rang twice before Olivia answered, her voice crackling with static and sounding harried. “Delia? I can barely hear you. We’ve been hitting a bunch of turbulence.”
A silent thank-you to the universe that she’d been able to get through at all, and then Delia said, “Olivia, listen to me. I really need you to think about postponing your arrival by a day or so.”
“Are you crazy? Why? The wedding is in two days, and we have a ton to do.”
Those everyday concerns — wedding preparations, vendor meetings, a family dinner — seemed absolutely surreal when contrasted with a demonic invasion.
How could she possibly explain to her cousin that Las Vegas was currently being used as the focal point for a ritual that could tear holes in reality itself?
“There’s been an, um, situation with some of the vendors,” Delia said, hating herself for the lie but knowing she couldn’t tell her cousin the truth.
Not yet. Not over a crackling phone connection while Olivia was trapped thirty thousand feet in the air.
“Some kind of issue with permits. It might be better to wait until things settle down.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Olivia said, her voice crackling and distorting.
Silence fell for a second or two, and Delia wondered if the connection had been cut off.
But then her cousin went on, “The people at the chapel said they would take care of all that stuff. It’s part of the package we bought. ”
Maybe it was. Delia would be the first to admit that she didn’t know all the ins and outs of wedding planning in Las Vegas, or what a specific venue might offer its clients.
“It’s something to do with the new management at Angel’s Dream,” Delia said desperately, even as she reflected that those words weren’t a complete lie. “They’ve really dropped the ball. I just don’t want you to get here and realize your wedding isn’t going to happen because they screwed up.”
Static crackled across the connection, and again Delia thought they’d lost the call entirely. Then Olivia’s voice came back, even more strained than before.
“Delia, what aren’t you telling me? You sound scared.”
Because I am scared, she thought. I’m scared shitless because demons are trying to turn your wedding into the opening ceremony for Hell on Earth, and the man I love is being held hostage by an evil being who just happens to be a lord of Hell.
“I just think it would be safer for everyone,” she said instead.
Another burst of static, and then Olivia repeated, “‘Safer’? What kind of vendor problems have anything to do with safety considerations? Delia, you’re freaking me out.”
The energy within her surged again, a white glow rippling out from the hand that held the cell phone, and suddenly, Delia could sense every supernatural presence in the city.
Vinea at Angel’s Dream, ancient and powerful and utterly without compassion.
The six other demons Ty had mentioned, circling like vultures.
And somewhere beneath it all, something else — a presence that felt familiar in the worst possible way.
Something that felt like Caleb, but wrong. Twisted. As if his demon blood was being forced to the surface against his will.
“Delia?” Olivia’s voice sounded very far away. “Are you still there?”
She forced herself to focus on the immediate problem. “Yes, I’m here. Look, can you please trust me on this? Just deplane during your layover and go back to Chicago.”
A huff of breath came through the phone’s speaker. “Delia, it’s a nonstop flight. Besides, my parents’ flight lands half an hour after ours. Alec’s family is already in the air, too. Even if I wanted to stop all this — which I don’t — it’s too late.”
Of course it was. Delia closed her eyes, the weight of responsibility settling on her shoulders, heavy as a lead blanket. In less than two hours, Olivia’s and Alec’s families would be in Las Vegas, walking into a supernatural nightmare they couldn’t even begin to imagine.
Time for Plan B.
“Okay,” Delia said, then opened her eyes and looked over at Pru and Ty, both of whom were watching her with obvious concern. “When you land, I’m picking you and taking you straight to Alec’s house in Henderson. We’re not going anywhere near Angel’s Dream Wedding Chapel.”
“Why would we?” Olivia asked, sounding puzzled. “I thought we already agreed to sit down and talk about alternate places to have the ceremony after Alec and I got to Vegas.”
Of course. So much had happened so fast, Delia couldn’t seem to keep anything straight. “You’re right. I’ll see you at the airport.”
“Delia — ”
“I have to go,” she said, hating herself for cutting off her cousin but knowing she couldn’t maintain this conversation much longer without breaking down entirely. “I’ll see you in a little while.”
She hung up before Olivia could protest further, then immediately tried Caleb’s number again. It went straight to voicemail.
Of course it did.
“Any luck with the emergency frequencies?” she asked Pru, who gave a grim shake of her head.
“Nothing. It’s like they’ve created a dead zone around the affected areas.” Pru slid off her headphones, expression now almost defeated. “This is all way above my pay grade.”
Delia could relate. Her psychic powers might have taken a quantum jump this past month, but that didn’t mean she knew what she was doing.
“You’re doing better than you think,” Ty said, and she raised an eyebrow.
Had he meant that, or had he just decided to play angelic cheerleader?
She didn’t have much time to ponder the question, not when another energy spike suddenly smashed through her, this one strong enough to make her stagger.
The apartment around them seemed to flicker, and for a moment, Delia could see through the walls, through the entire building, out across the city to a place where supernatural forces were gathering like storm clouds.
“This is getting worse,” she said as she gripped the arm of the sectional to steady herself. “The ley line energy is building toward something big.”
“How big?”
Before Delia could answer, the clocks on the appliances in the kitchen flickered for a second before going out. Emergency sirens began wailing in the distance, and both of Pru’s laptop screens went completely black.
Light still came through the big picture window overlooking the city, although she could see the sky outside was darkening as well, becoming heavy with unseasonable monsoon clouds.
Another text from an unknown number lit up her phone’s screen.
One hour. Come alone. Last warning.
“They’re escalating,” she said after she read the message aloud.
“And we still don’t have a plan,” Pru replied, her voice tight with frustration.
No, they didn’t. Delia’s powers might have been coruscating with energy like a flare-up of the aurora borealis, but she couldn’t control them, had no idea when they might be at their strongest…or whether they might abandon her when she needed them the most.
That meant she couldn’t go to Caleb’s rescue, not with any real hope of success. It killed her to be occupied with what seemed on the surface to be utterly mundane matters, but she knew there was nothing else she could do.
Right now, she just had to trust that he could take care of himself. If he’d managed to claw his way out of Hell, then he should be able to hang on for a few more hours.
“Keep monitoring the situation,” she told Pru, whose eyebrows lifted slightly.
“Going somewhere?” she asked.
“Yes,” Delia said as she slung her purse over her shoulder.
“I’m going to the airport to pick up my family.”