At the end of hall, Gabriel unlocked the deadbolts on another metal door. This one led down a narrow, wooden staircase. At the bottom, Jared and Lukas had to duck under a low archway that led into a claustrophobic tunnel. Portable construction lights hanging from nails illuminated wet stone walls.
Elle stepped closer to Lukas. “This place looks like a dungeon,” she whispered.
Lukas grabbed her hand, his eyes fixed on the barred door a few yards ahead of us. “I think it is.”
Elle stopped at the threshold of the cell, unwilling to go any further, and I understood why.
Aside from the stainless steel toilet, the cell looked like something out of the middle Ages—two hundred square feet at the most, with rough, aggregate walls and a dirty mattress in the corner. A Devil’s Trap was painted on the floor, and the Eye of Ever covered the ceiling. A huge, silver crucifix was bolted to the wall like a relic in a museum.
“I thought we were taking him to a sanctuary,” Alara said. Bear’s ears perked at the sound of her voice.
Dimitri dumped Andras on the ground beneath two sets of shackles. “This is a sanctuary. It was blessed by a Priest, and that cross,” he pointed to the silver monstrosity, “Hung behind the altar of Our Lady of Saints, apparently.”
“The clock is ticking, so you might want to step outside,” Gabriel unchained Andras’ wrists and ankles and replaced the chains with shackles. “I don’t want to offend anyone’s fragile sense of morality while we try to save the world.”
“You’re gonna kill him right now?” Priest asked.
Gabriel looked disgusted. “No. I thought I’d wait until he finds a way to open the Gates and invite all his friends over.”
“The children of the Labyrinth do not need an invitation,” the demon said, his head still bowed. “They will find a way, with or without me.”
When he heard the demon’s voice, Bear shot to his feet, a low growl building in his throat. Alara ran her hand along his back. “It’s okay, boy.”
Andras growled, sounding feral.
Bear snapped at Andras, baring his teeth.
Alara reached down and grabbed his collar, just as the Doberman lunged. She didn’t have time to pull her hand away, and the momentum hurled her body forward. Andras strained against the shackles, reaching for her.
“Alara!” Priest shouted.
Jared hurled himself at Andras, creating a wall between the demon and Alara. Jared slammed into Andras’ chest, and his protective sunglasses clattered to the floor.
Andras raised his head, holy water running down his face.
“Don’t look at him!” Gabriel yelled.
The demon’s ebony eyes locked on Jared’s pale blue ones.
“No!” The words tore from my throat, but it was already too late.
Jared hit the ground and fell forward onto his knees in front of Andras. With his arms bound in chains and Jared kneeling at his feet, Andras resembled a martyr from a Renaissance painting, staring down at one of his disciples. The demon tilted his head, and Jared mirrored his every movement, never once taking his eyes off the monster controlling him.
The criminal’s body jerked forward, his arms straining against the chains, and an invisible force slammed into Jared’s chest. The criminal’s body went slack, and Jared’s back straightened slowly, as if his spine was stretching one vertebra at a time.
We had witnessed the same scenario on the Boston streets, but this was different. It was happening to Jared. He was only a few feet away, but I couldn’t get to him fast enough. I scrambled in front of him, blocking his view.
Maybe there’s still time.
I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “Jared, look at me.”
The blank expression on his face didn’t change. He stared straight ahead like a zombie, as if I wasn’t even there.
I held his face in my hands. “Jared, you can fight this. You’re stronger than he is.”
Sounds filtered through the haze of fear wrapping itself around me. Bear barking. Someone crying. Voices shouting.
I’m losing him. If I haven’t lost him already.
I took off my protective glasses and tossed them across the floor. “Look at me.”
“Kennedy, no!” Gabriel yelled.
Jared’s lashes fluttered, and his sleepy blue eyes focused on me. My heart leapt.
He’s going to be all right.
Alara’s hand closed around my arm. “Get away from him.”
“Wait,” Lukas said. “He’s okay.”
Jared reached up and curled his hands around my wrists, the first effort he’d made to connect. His icy touch sent goose bumps up my arms.
“I thought I’d lost you,” I whispered, choking back tears.
Jared’s pupils dilated, and the inky darkness spread, eclipsing his irises. “You did.”
It took a moment for the truth to register.
“Move!” Dimitri shouted from somewhere behind me.
A hand grabbed the back of my jacket and dragged me across the floor. “Close your eyes, and put your glasses on.” It was Gabriel.
Jared lost interest in me and turned toward the voice.
I put my sunglasses back on and followed his gaze to Dimitri, who stood just inside the cell, pointing the tranquilizer rifle at Jared.
“If you kill me, you kill the boy, too,” Jared said, in a voice that wasn’t his own. Gabriel appeared in the doorway with a hose. Andras’ eyes flickered with amusement. “What will you do now, Champion of God?”
Gabriel unleashed the holy water and Dimitri fired.
Jared charged them, pushing through the flood of water. His body jerked each time a tranquilizer dart hit him.
I watched in horror, praying for the assault to end.
By the time the third dart hit, Jared was soaked and his steps became sluggish. How much longer could he hold out?
Fall. Please. Just fall.
Jared staggered toward Gabriel, but he couldn’t push past the pressure of the water. He dropped to his knees, coughing and sputtering. In one last effort to reach his attackers, Jared dragged his body across the wet concrete.
The fourth dart caught him in the shoulder, and Jared’s cheek hit the floor. Even as he lay there with a demon inside him, I wanted to lift his head off the ground and cradle it in my lap.
Deep down, he was still the boy who made my stomach flutter every time he kissed me. The boy who fought for me, even when I didn’t fight for myself.
He was still the boy who meant more to me than I could ever tell him.
Wasn’t he?
23. COLLATERAL DAMAGE
Gabriel jammed his knee into Jared’s back and wound a chain around his wrists.
“Stop. You’re hurting him.” I struggled to slip out of Lukas’ grasp, but he tightened his hold on me, pinning my arms against my sides.
“It’s okay,” he said in a soothing voice.
There was nothing okay about this.
Jared lay motionless on the cell floor. With his lips parted and curls of dark hair stuck to his neck, he almost looked asleep.
Almost.
The burns marring his skin reminded me he wasn’t.
Gabriel noticed me staring and threw me a pitying glance. “This isn’t your boyfriend, kid. You’d better get that through your head.”
“You don’t know anything about him,” I snapped. “Jared is stronger than you think, and he’ll put up a fight.”
Dimitri looked away and lit a cigarette, crushing the empty pack in his hand.
Gabriel secured the chains with a padlock, yanking harder than necessary to test them. He was probably doing it to make a point, which only made me hate him more. He looked up at me from where he knelt next to Jared. “He’d slit your throat without thinking twice about it if he the chance.”
“Don’t try to scare me so you can justify what you’re doing,” I said.
Gabriel stood, his dark eyes drilling into me. He pulled down the collar of his shirt. A jagged scar ran across the fro
nt of his neck. “You should be scared.”
Alara, who had barely moved since the attack, gasped.
“That’s enough.” Dimitri adopted an authoritative tone, as if he wanted to remind Gabriel who was in charge.
Gabriel shrugged his shoulder and the fabric slid back in place, covering the gruesome scar. “She needs to understand what we’re dealing with, before she gets herself killed.”
Dimitri moved closer, until the two men were standing shoulder to shoulder. “I know how you felt about Elizabeth. “But this is not helping.”
Elizabeth. He was talking about my mom.
The thought of Gabriel having some kind of disturbing crush on my mother made my stomach turn.
“What are you gonna do with him?” Priest stared down at Jared.
My heart pounded in my chest, anticipating the answer.
Dimitri passed Jared and walked toward the wall, where the Russian was shackled. He flicked his cigarette on the ground and dug a heavy key out of his pocket. He unlocked the first cuff. The criminal’s arm dropped and his body lurched forward, his other wrist still chained to the wall. Dimitri slid the key into the other cuff—the one keeping the criminal on his feet.
“Someone needs to catch him,” Priest said, pacing.
“No need for that.” Dimitri turned the key, and the Russian’s body crashed to the floor in a heap. His lifeless eyes stared back at us, open and unblinking.
Lukas loosened his grip on me. “He’s dead? But we saw Andras jump from body to body a half dozen times. The people he possessed were fine after afterward.”
Dimitri shrugged, his demeanor too casual for someone who had just handled a dead body. “Jumping from one body to another takes a lot of energy. He probably wasn’t strong enough to jump and kill the hosts. Every case is different, but the longer a demon possess someone, the less likely it is for the victim to survive. Unless the demon chooses to stay.”
Alara chucked the plastic bottle of holy water from her tool belt across the room, and let out a piercing scream. It sounded like rage and frustration and a hundred feelings I couldn’t name, even though I was feeling them, too.
Gabriel bent down and hoisted Jared over his shoulder. Jared’s dark hair obscured his face, and his limp arms hung down Gabriel’s back. He carried Jared to the wall, where the Russian’s body had been a few minutes ago.
Don’t chain him up. Please don’t let them chain him up.
Every muscle in my body tensed.
Gabriel held Jared upright and Dimitri closed the cuffs around his burned wrists.
Something inside me snapped.
No! No! No! Get him down! Get him down!
“Get him down!” I screamed.
“I wish I could, Kennedy.” Dimitri actually sounded apologetic.
“Then do it.”
Dimitri’s gaze flickered over the faces of my friends then back to mine. “I’m sorry. One screw-up is enough.” He looked down at the criminal’s body, before throwing it over his shoulder.
I wanted to blame Dimitri, but I couldn’t. All this started before he showed up. He wasn’t what my World History teacher referred to as the first cause—the initial action that set a course of events in motion. The first domino to fall. The finger that pulled the trigger. The one thing responsible for destroying everything that came after it.
Dimitri wasn’t the first cause, and he wasn’t the reason Jared was chained up in a cell.
I was.
Dimitri waved his ram. “Clear this room. I want everyone out of here now.”
“No,” I yelled as Gabriel grabbed my waist. “I’m not leaving him.”
My mind invented dozens of terrifying scenarios. Jared was helpless—chained to wall, burned and broken, with Andras inside him. Dimitri and Gabriel would do anything to destroy Andras.
What would stop them from killing Jared?
Nothing.
Gabriel dragged me a few feet, and I snatched my arm away. “Don’t touch me.”
Lukas crashed into Gabriel. “Get your hands off her.”
The three of us hit the concrete. Lukas lunged at Gabriel, and Lukas’ shoulders plowed into his stomach. For a second, it looked like Lukas had a chance.
Gabriel let his feet slide out from under him, taking Lukas with him. Once he had Lukas on the ground, Gabriel had the advantage. He fought like a seasoned soldier, flipping Lukas onto his back in one fluid maneuver. “I don’t want to hurt you, kid. But I will.”
I can’t let him hurt Lukas, too.
Instinct took over, and I scrambled to my feet, scrolling through the images of the cell my mind. Were there any weapons in here?
A flash of white caught my eye.
Gabriel knelt over Lukas, with his knee between Lukas’ shoulder blades. He cocked his arm, preparing to throw a punch.
I dove toward him, my body sliding across the icy floor. My hand closed around the whip and tore it from Gabriel’s belt strap. The weapon was heavier than I imagined, and it took all my strength to raise it. My execution wasn’t as smooth as Gabriel’s, but the white vertebrae unhinged and sailed above my head in a wide arc.
Gabriel turned, his body still pinning Lukas’. “You’d better drop my whip yesterday, or you’ll wish you had.
“Then get off him.”
“Kennedy—” Dimitri reached out toward me. “Hand me the whip. No one is going to hurt you or your friends.”
My hand trembled violently. I could barely keep my shoulder raised. “I don’t believe you.” The words came out in ragged sobs. “You’d kill Jared to destroy Andras.”
Dimitri’s shoulders sagged and his forehead creased with what—worry? Concern? It was hard to imagine him experiencing either. “No one is doing anything to anyone right now.” He glared at Gabriel, until he eased off Lukas’ chest.
“Give me my whip.” Gabriel stalked toward me.
My shoulders relaxed, and the vertebrae fell against my back. The barbs bit through my shirt, cutting my skin like razors.
Gabriel’s expression changed from anger to concern. “Don’t move. You’ll only make it worse.”
I cried out in pain.
“K—Kennedy?” Jared rasped. This time, it was his voice.
I spun around whimpering, as the barbs cut deeper than the razor wire.
Jared’s head hung limp against his chest.
“He’s still in there.” My muscles seized with every word.
Through the blur of my tears, I saw Jared’s head move. He raised his chin in tiny jerks, until he found the strength to hold it upright.
Slowly, the malicious smile stretched across his lips.
“He’s still in there.” The demon mimicked my voice, capturing it perfectly. Andras reverted back to his own empty tone. “But not for long.”
24. BULLET WITH BUTTERFLY WINGS
I awoke to darkness and a damp cold seeping into my bones.
Where?
Images flashed through my mind like pictures in a flipbook.
Iron chains—
Raw, burned skin—
Metal cuffs—
The scar above Jared’s eye—
The sound of my screams—
Swearing to kill Dimitri and Gabriel—
Calling out for Jared—
My eyes adjusted to darkness slowly.
Jared pulled me against his shoulder. “You’re okay. Everything’s gonna be okay.”
I breathed into his shirt. It smelled earthy and rich, like a campfire. Nothing like the combination of copper and salt that always lingered on Jared’s skin.
The last few hours came flooding back, and I realized Lukas was the one reassuring me. Alara, Priest, and Elle were huddled around us, in the tunnel outside Jared’s cell. Elle was scrunched under Lukas’ arm like she was freezing, and Priest and Alara were propped up against the wall, dead asleep.
Where were Dimitri and Gabriel?
“Jared.” I shot up.
If they’d hurt him—
“He’s all rig
ht.” Lukas caught my arm. “I mean… he’s not all right. But no one’s been in the cell, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Are you sure?”
Lukas nodded, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “We’ve been here the whole time. Don’t you remember?”
“Bits and pieces.”
The horrible ones.
“You lost it.” Lukas picked up his jacket and draped it over my shoulders. “You were threatening Andras, and begging Gabriel and Dimitri to get him out of Jared’s body. Then you did a one-eighty and refused to leave Jared in there alone, because you thought Dimitri and Gabriel were going to kill him. Which is the reason for our fancy accommodations tonight.”
“I’m sorry.” I’d said it so many times now, but what else could I say?
How do you apologize for destroying someone’s life? Destroying their family? What can you say when words aren’t enough?
“Don’t be.” Lukas nudged me with his shoulder. “You scared the crap out of Dimitri and Gabriel. They agreed to let us all sleep out here.”
“That’s a lot of trust for those two.”
“Not really.” Lukas smiled. “They took the keys to the cell.”
The cell.
Were they burning him with holy water?
“We can’t let them hurt Jared.” I hadn’t meant to yell.
Bear sprang to his feet, and Priest bolted upright, knocking off his headphones. “What happened?” The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” echoed through the tunnel.
Alara’s eyes flew open. She yanked the paintball gun from her tool belt. “Is something in here?”
“Just us.” Lukas put his hand on the barrel of the weapon, guiding her arm back down.
Elle rubbed her eyes and stretched. The way she unfolded her long limbs in the small space reminded me of the night she’d slept in the bathroom with me, while I puked my guts out from drinking too many wine coolers.
Why didn’t I send her home? What if something happened to her, too?
Elle ran her hands through her russet hair. “What did I miss?” When she noticed me staring back at her, she dove over Lukas’ lap and threw her arms around my neck. “Oh my god. I thought we were going to have to lock you up in a padded room or something.”