The creatures screech and cackle as they fly by. I hold out my charm, relishing their anguished cries as they dodge to avoid it.
“Maybe you should stay out here,” Dad yells out.
“No!” I say. “We’re all here—we all have to believe.”
“Let me go first,” Dad says. As he enters the cave, the exiting lamia weave around him—some circling a couple of times as if to see if he might be something of interest.
Mom and Tyler follow him, but Kiki pulls on my arm before I go in. “I’m scared,” she whispers. “Really, really scared.” She looks up at the dark sky. “Once again, in theory this sounded like a good idea and I pictured myself being really brave, but the reality—not so much.”
I take her hand. “You don’t have to do this,” I repeat, though I know she will.
She nods. “Oh, I’m going to—I’m just not going to like it. But if we don’t make it out of this, I wanted you to know I’m so glad you found me. Even though I didn’t make the greatest vampire slayer, these have been the best, and the freakiest, three days of my life.”
A tear runs down her cheek and my eyes water up. “I couldn’t ask for a better BFF.”
She holds out her arms and we embrace. Part of me thinks I should tell her about Gabe, but I decide that can wait. No sense putting her through any more anguish than need be in what could be our final moments.
“We better go,” I say, pulling away. I hold out my fist and she bumps it with hers. “Let’s hope the angels aren’t in the mood to smite anyone but Lilith tonight.”
We slide sideways through the narrow opening. The passageway widens to a small chamber with a high ceiling. The lamia are clawing their way out of a four-foot wide, fire-licked fissure that bisects the hollow. Once free, they spread their wings and rise to the top like smoke coming out of a chimney stack. They circle and claw at each other in midair before swooping down and exiting the chamber, no doubt to head out for victims.
In the flickering light, I can see the lamia are not as smoky and hastily formed as they were when they appeared at Kiki’s—perhaps the power of the new moon has allowed them to fully manifest themselves. Here they appear as red-eyed, bare-breasted monstrosities with women’s heads and torsos atop black snakelike bodies with tattered wings propelling them through the night.
Kiki puts a hand on my arm. “Look, on the other side—Mr. Harker.”
“Nathan!” Dad yells out.
We all turn, but I’m finding it hard to see with all the creatures moving about in the flames. I can just make out Mr. Harker sitting cross-legged in the middle of a pentagram enclosed in a circle. White candles burn in the tips of the star, and from what I can tell, it looks like it’s made from salt like the one Mr. Woods had in his shop. He’s rocking back and forth spinning his ring, and muttering to himself. I’m not sure how Mr. Harker was able to get the other side of the fissure—unless he got there before it opened to the fiery depths below—but it’s clear we can’t get to him.
“Dad!” Tyler calls out. “Dad!”
“Nathan!” my father yells.
Mr. Harker either can’t hear, or he’s choosing to ignore us.
Tyler turns to me with tears in his eyes. “How are we going to get across?”
I look helplessly at him. “We can’t jump through the flames.” If Mr. Harker wanted to get into hell I’m wondering what he’s waiting for—but maybe the fire is keeping him from going in, like it’s keeping him from us.
“Nathan!” Mom screams. “Nathan! Damn it, look up! Vince, he can’t hear us! It looks like he’s in some sort of trance.”
“What should we do?” Tyler implores.
“Kiki, get the incense out!” I yell.
She puts her messenger bag on the ground and I help her take out seven large cone-shaped incense candles. We line them up on the stone floor, and, using a grill lighter, she ignites the tips of each one. Thick, fragrant smoke pours from each one and the lamia in the cave fly to the entrance as if driven out by the smell.
My heart pounding, I press my amulet to my chest. “Help us.”
Dad and Mom join hands and bow their heads. I turn and see Kiki slowly putting on a pair of sunglasses. She looks at me and shrugs. Despite everything going on I can’t help but roll my eyes.
Suddenly, the lamia still clamoring to get out of the fissure start shrieking and fly out as if the devil himself was on their tail. My ears ring as they screech “Lilith” and “mother” louder and louder. A delicate hand grasps the top of the fissure and a beautiful woman pulls her way out.
I’m mesmerized by the sight of Lilith rising into the chamber propelled by her reptilian body. Long, shiny, dark curls glisten in the firelight and fall perfectly over her pale, bare chest. Her face is almost angelic, but her snakelike bottom half is scratched and scarred as if she’d fought a long battle to get here. Large, glossy wings unfold and flap—fanning the flames—making them lick and scorch the top of the chamber. She breathes deeply and stretches her arms over her head, then tilts her head back and screams.
Mr. Harker jerks up—panic clear in his eyes. “No! It’s not ready!” he cries, looking up at the creature. “The fire is still burning! Why is the fire still burning?”
Lilith undulates across the floor toward him, weaving like a cobra.
“No, stay back!” he says. He looks past her at the crack in the floor. “No!” he howls. “You’re supposed to leave and the fire is supposed to die and then I can find Rebecca.”
“Dad!” Tyler calls out. “Dad!”
Lilith winds her body around the salt circle he drew. She tries to cross it, but howls in pain as smoke rises from her scales. She then turns to us, and her red eyes bore into mine. I try to catch my breath, but I find myself gasping in the putrid air.
Kiki shrieks and she grabs my arms “Daphne, don’t look at her!”
My mouth opens but I can’t take a breath. Lilith licks her lips with a forked, flickering tongue and opens her mouth revealing sharp teeth. I find myself walking toward the flames—wanting to be with her—when suddenly I’m hit from the side.
“Daphne!” Mom cries. She yanks the necklace off my neck and holds it toward Lilith. “Stay away!”
Whatever spell Lilith had me under is broken, and the creature turns from the charm Mom is brandishing.
Mr. Harker’s eyes widen in horror as he finally realizes we’re in the cave too.
“Tyler, what are you doing here? Get out while you can! All of you! Now!”
“I’m not leaving without you!” he calls to his father.
In a panic, Mr. Harker gets down on all fours and frantically wipes the salt across the floor, destroying the protective circle.
“Nathan, no!” Dad screams.
His protection gone, Lilith is on him in a flash. She drapes her sinewy arms around him like a lover would and Mr. Harker’s eyes seem to glaze over. She speaks to him in a language I don’t recognize, as the tip of her tail wraps around his waist and lifts him up. Without warning she draws back her lips and lunges at his neck tearing at his flesh.
We all scream in horror.
“We need to get out of here!” Mom calls out. “It’s too late for Nathan.”
“We can’t leave him to die!” I protest.
“Look!” Kiki cries out. “In the smoke.”
I turn and see a face forming in the smoke pouring up from the incense. As the smoke curls and twists, snatches of bodies and wings and swords appear. A second face is joined by a third. Whenever I’d imagined angels, I pictured calm and serene presences, but these faces are brutal and harsh and I have to look away.
“Lilith!” voices booms, echoing around the cave.
The commanding sound vibrates through me and almost takes my breath away.
Lilith turns and howls at the angels. She throws Mr. Harker down like a rag doll and slithers toward the crevice. Blood drips from her mouth and stains her snow-white chest. My legs are shaking so badly it’s difficult to keep upright and I clutch
Tyler’s arm.
She continues to rant in some ancient tongue and I wait for the angels to strike her down. Lilith seems to sense their inaction and gives an evil smile that would scare even the deadliest snake. She slides back to Mr. Harker and picks him up as if he were as light as a feather.
“No!” he chokes out, as her tail wraps around his waist. “I have to find Rebecca!”
“Oh, my God!” Tyler screams out, as his father beats Lilith’s chest with his fists to no avail.
She teases her fingers through his hair and then grabs a handful, pulling his head to the side, letting her tongue flick in and out as she laps up the blood.
I turn to the smoky faces shifting in the smoke. “Please help us!” I beg. “Please!”
Suddenly, the smoke whips away and forms a tornado-like cloud in the middle of the chamber, drawing the flames up higher and higher. Strange sounds and chanting ring in my ears as the wind gets stronger. Faces of the angels growling and screaming appear fragmented in the dust and smoke and flames swirling over the fissure.
Then I hear the river as loud and choppy as if we were still on the boat. A hurricane-force wind whips into the cave and I’m ripped from Tyler’s arms and thrown to the floor. I frantically claw at the ground and water is forced into my mouth as I’m pulled toward the opening of the crack.
Even though we’re halfway up the cliff, water is flooding the cave as if a dam had just broken loose. Dozens of the lamia wash in and bump against me—their waterlogged red eyes stare up blankly as they’re tossed in the current and swept into the fissure that is now sending up billows of steam. Others are being pulled into the cave and they claw helplessly in the air as the wind drives them toward the mouth of hell.
Suddenly I realize Mr. Woods was right about angels. They can help, but not always the way we want them to. We’ve summoned them to help us—and they are—they’re pulling the lamia back into hell, but it’s apparent they won’t stop us from going in as well.
“They’re flooding the cave!” I call out—spitting water out of my mouth. “If we don’t get out of here we’ll drown or get sucked into hell!”
Lilith drops Mr. Harker and flies to the ceiling, screeching like a banshee.
Mom and Dad are heading my way with Tyler, and I grab Mom’s hand and they help her pull me up as the water gets higher, fighting its pull toward the fissure.
Kiki screams as she’s knocked over and swept toward the crack in the floor. We form a chain and rush after her. I grab the back of her hoodie, and we all pull to help her scramble back up.
Across the fissure Mr. Harker slowly pushes to his knees. Most of the water is heading down the crack so the ground on his side is relatively dry. He puts a hand on his neck and surveys the chamber. “This is what I was waiting for.”
“Dad!” Tyler cries as he clings to whatever handholds he can find on the wall. “I’ll come and get you.”
“No!” Mr. Harker insists. “I have to do this. I’ve been waiting sixteen years for this. Take care of him, Vince.”
Mr. Harker crawls on his hands and knees toward the fissure. He looks up at Tyler with tears in his eyes. “I love you and I hope you can forgive me someday.” He scoots over to the edge, and without another word, lowers himself into the abyss.
As if the earth had been holding its breath until this moment passed—it roars to life and the walls begin to shake. Large pieces of rock splash into the growing tide. Lilith flaps her wings and dives down as if to escape through the passageway, but every time she does a gust of wind rushes in to chase her back, slamming her into walls. She claws at the rocks for purchase and screeches angrily as her wings tatter from the beatings. Strange voices roar above the howl of the wind, and flashes of swords and faces surround her in the smoke and steam. Her frustrated screams pierce the air, and she finally dives toward the fissure carried by a hurricane-force gust that follows her back into hell.
I see Tyler’s eyes riveted to the spot his father disappeared down. “Tyler, come on!” I scream. The water is pouring in up to my knees, and the wind gusting into the cave is making it harder and harder to stay upright.
Tyler takes one last look, and moves just before the wall he was leaning on crumbles and washes away.
He pulls himself along the wall against the rising water, and I can see his fingers bleeding as he scrapes them against the rock to make his way to us. By the time we reach the opening my hands are bleeding as well, as I fight to keep from getting swept away.
Dad reaches out and pulls me toward the entrance. The water is up to our waists. I see now that it’s pouring up from the river like a waterfall in reverse. There’s no way we can climb down.
“We have to jump.”
It’s mid-April in Maine and I wonder how long it will take for hypothermia to set in.
The earth trembles again and we put our hands out to shield ourselves from the falling rocks.
“Daphne!” Dad yells. “Jump! Mom and I will follow you.”
My lip trembles. “I love you all.” Tyler fights to get to me and takes my hand and I reach back and pull Kiki toward the edge.
We squeeze hands and jump into the windswept air.
16.
I stick the end of a pencil under the edge of my arm cast and pray I can reach the itch.
Kiki laughs at me. It’s good to hear her laughing again, even if it is at my expense.
“The itching is driving me crazy. I can’t believe I have to wear this for two months.”
“At least this forces you take a vacation from slaying.”
Tyler walks in from her kitchen with a plate of nachos and puts them on the coffee table in front of me. He sits on the couch and gives me a half smile. I’ll take it. Since his father voluntarily entered the mouth of hell just a week ago, this is the best he’s managed. I slide my free hand into his and lean in and kiss his cheek. He leans his head onto mine and I hope he can forget, even if it’s just for a second.
I follow his gaze and look out the window across the river at the decimated cliff. The newspapers are still buzzing about the localized “earthquake.” We’re lucky we survived, and if Sam hadn’t fished us all out of the water, we probably wouldn’t be sitting here.
“So you’re going to do most of the talking, right, Kiki?”
“Yeah. How do you think they’ll take the news?”
“Hopefully they’ll take it a little better than your parents did when you refused to go back to the Pony Playhouse. But it doesn’t matter. There isn’t anything they can do about it.”
We eat until the doorbell rings. My stomach flutters nervously as my confidence wanes.
Kiki opens the door and leads Mom and Dad in. They look around with puzzled expressions and Mom puts her hands on her hips. “Where are your things? I told you we’d be here at four—plenty of time to get in your last good-byes.”
I take a deep breath. “Tyler and I aren’t going with you.”
Mom raises an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
Kiki clears her throat and straightens her spine. “They’re coming to New York City with me. I’ve already rented a place overlooking Central Park for Daphne and me to share. Tyler is going to room with an ex–Disco Unicorn dancer who works on Broadway.”
Mom straightens her jaw. “Not funny, girls.”
“We’re not joking,” I say.
“Doodlebug, you’re only seventeen,” Dad says.
I fold my arms across my chest and will myself to feel as confident as Kiki looks. “I’ll be eighteen in two months, and Kiki’s lawyers are drawing up the papers so I can file to become an emancipated minor.”
“This is ridiculous!” Mom snaps. “Now get your things and get going—you too, Tyler.”
Tyler sits up and puts an arm around my shoulders. “We have interviews with the NYPD vampire task force set up for next week. Officer MacCready has already sent in reference letters for us—and he told us they need new people, so it looks good that we’ll get hired.”
Mom scoffs. ??
?I don’t care if you have an interview with Santa Claus with glowing references from the Easter Bunny; you are both coming with us!”
“Dad?” He looks at me and I plead with my eyes. “You know this is better for me. You two are suited for traveling around—I’ve never stopped wanting to settle down. It’s time I get to live my own life.”
Mom scoffs. “You’re not old enough to know what you want. And after the near-constant complaining you’ve done about hunting vampires, I find it hard to believe you’d actually want to interview for a job doing just that.”
I look up at Mom. “I want to keep fighting, but I want to do it on my terms. I want to do it for your sister, Sharon—for your whole family.” I hang my head. “And for Mrs. Harker and Gabe.”
Kiki sits next to me and squeezes my hand. “Sam and his boyfriend will be living on the same floor as us. So we won’t be totally on our own,” she says.
“And Mom, you were basically on your own at an early age. You were sixteen when you decided to go with Dad and the Harkers. Maybe you need to keep moving around because it makes it easier to forget your home, but that’s all I’ve ever wanted. I need to stay in one place. I want a home for myself; maybe even take some college classes—plan a backup career.”
Mom looks at Dad. “I don’t know….”
“Joy,” Dad says. “She’s been slaying vampires since she was twelve—more often than not, alone. I think she needs to spend time with people her own age. What if we all go together, see them get settled in. And we can visit as often as you want to make sure things are okay.” He turns to me. “Can you handle your old man seeing you off—coming for visits at the drop of a hat?”
I rush up and hug him tightly. “I would like nothing better.” I pull away and look at Mom. “Please understand.”
Mom chews on her bottom lip. “Daphne …”
“I need to do this—just like you need to …”
Her eyes soften and glisten with tears. “Okay, we’ll give it a try. But I guarantee you’ll be calling us to pick you up within a month.”
“Maybe,” I say, but we both know it isn’t true.