Cascade (52 page)

Valerie writhed on the floor. Unsure of what
to do for her, he wrapped himself around her. He closed his eyes
and willed his strength into her.

Until he saw blood.

“
You’re bleeding,” he
said.

“
Babies, Mike. Babies are
dying.” Valerie grunted.

Mike scowled. Picking up his cell phone, he
dialed 9-1-1. No response. His phone wasn’t working. He shattered
the phone against the wall. From his position on the floor, he
snatched at the kitchen phone on the wall.

One try. Missed.

Another try. Miss.

Finally, he had the phone in his hand. No
dial tone.

“
Mike save my babies,”
Valerie said. She passed out.

Mike lifted her into his arms. He carried
her to the security panel. With his precious bundle in his arms, he
was able to open the tunnel door. There was only one person who
could fix this now. He only hoped she was hiding in the Chapel.

He carried Valerie into the tunnels.

~~~~~~~~

Friday evening — 6:06 P.M.

Sandy pulled into the Castle driveway.
Always vigilant, Sandy noticed the dogs didn’t come to greet her.
Uneasy, she pulled forward to park behind Jill’s Lexus. At least
everyone was here.

“
We must be late,” Sandy
said.

“
Nah, dinner is at seven,”
Nash said. “Bet Mrs. Valerie is already here. They’re probably
already celebrating. She makes the party.”

“
I don’t mind being late!
I love love love love ice cream!”

Laughing, Sandy got out of the driver’s
seat. She scanned the backyard for anything out of the ordinary.
Nothing stood out. She went around the car to where the kids waited
for her. They moved across the driveway toward the Castle.

“
Sandy!” Jill called.
“Sandy!”

“
Sandy,” Noelle stopped
and pointed to Jill.

They could just see Jill’s face over the
edge of the building. She was peering out of a broken window in the
chapel. Jill waved for them to come over to her. Sandy ran over to
Jill. She dropped to her knees.

“
What’s wrong?” Sandy
asked. “What’s happened?”

“
I don’t know,” Jill said.
“Something is happening. Jacob made us go down here. He said we
were in danger. We keep hearing crashes upstairs and people crying
and screaming.”

Without hesitation, Sandy helped the kids
into the Chapel. Noelle went over to Katy and the girls hugged.
Noelle pulled a doll out of her backpack for the Katy to play with.
Not sure what to do with himself, Nash reached for Sandy’s hand.
Sandy smiled at him.

“
Would you mind checking
on Paddie?” Sandy asked Nash.

“
You want to talk to Jill
alone,” Nash said.

“
I want to talk to Jill
alone.”

Nash wandered over to Paddie.

“
What’s going on?” Sandy
whispered.

“
I don’t know,” Jill said.
“Katy says I have to… you know. She says it’s the only way to get
through this… without everyone dying.”

Sandy nodded. The two close friends shared a
long look. Jill shook her head.

“
I can’t. Never again,”
Jill said.

“
Just because you didn’t
save your father doesn’t mean…”

The women looked up as Mike carried Valerie
into the Chapel.

“
Please Jill, Valerie’s
losing the babies. She’s dying,” Mike said. “Please.
Please.”

~~~~~~~~

Friday evening — 6:15 P.M.

Johansen was weakening. To distract Jacob,
Johansen began flinging random furniture and heavy objects at him.
But Jacob was an expert hockey player. Avoiding a flying Tiffany
lamp was no different than avoiding a hockey puck. Jacob jumped and
weaved around the flying objects.

Johansen worked to open the kitchen door
while holding onto Delphie. The three focuses – Jacob, Delphie and
getting Valerie – were too much for him. The demon had to let go of
Valerie but refused to let go of Delphie. Jacob heard Mike unlock
the door to the tunnels. With any luck, Mike and Valerie were on
their way to the hospital.

Jacob pressed his energy forward and
Johansen stumbled. For a brief moment, Johansen let go of Delphie.
Jacob to create a power vortex around Delphie. Celia flew at
Johansen to distract him long enough for the vortex to solidify.
The energy spiral burned bright white in the Castle living room.
Delphie was safe from any energetic intervention. Out of the corner
of his eye, he saw Celia join Delphie inside the vortex.

Johansen screamed with rage.

“
SHE’S MINE!”

He blew Jacob off his feet. Jacob flew
backward. He hit the wall hard enough to knock a hole in the
plaster. Johansen flew across the room at Jacob. Taking Johansen’s
cue, Jacob took a hockey puck from his back pocket and
energetically threw it at Johansen. The puck hit the man on the
shoulder. Johansen’s shoulder broke with a satisfying crack.

Johansen reached out his energy to grabbed
Jacob’s heart. Jacob deflected him.

“
Smart enough to protect a
weak heart!” The man gave a maniacal laugh.

Johansen tried to wrap his energy around
Jacob’s heart again. Jacob threw the other puck at him. The puck
went wild and bounced off the kitchen door. Johansen asserted his
will. Decades of rage and prison induced hatred flew at Jacob.
Tendrils of the man’s energy wrapped around Jacob’s heart.

Jacob gasped for breath. He fell to the
ground.

“
NO Marlowe will survive
this day!” Johansen yelled.

Jacob reached up his hand. He crashed
through ceiling into the second floor breaking Johansen’s hold on
him.

“
No matter. Time to kill
the Marlowe child,” Johansen yelled after Jacob.

~~~~~~~~

Friday evening — 6:15 P.M.

“
I haven’t done it since…”
Jill started.

“
You have to try,” Mike
said. “Valerie won’t make it to the hospital. The babies won’t make
it. Please. Try.”

Jill felt motion next to her.

“
You can do it, Mommy.”
Katy’s words resonated inside her.

Jill dropped to her knees. Envisioning the
most beautiful thing she’d ever seen, sunlight through of the
archangel Raphael stained glass window, Jill let the light fill
her. She rubbed her hands together.

“
I…”

“
Please try,” Mike
begged.

Closing her eyes, Jill placed her hands on
Valerie’s belly. Her mind flooded with images. She saw that one
child was already dead. The other was alive and hanging on through
the contractions. Jill used her breath to blow her healing light
into Valerie’s womb. The contractions slowed. Jill directed the
healing light to the dead baby but no spark of life was left to
receive it.

Another Marlowe male had been killed by
Johansen.

When the contractions and bleeding stopped,
Jill let go. Looking up, she was surprised to see everyone standing
around her. Little Paddie put his arm over her shoulder. Katy
kissed her cheek.

“
I’m sorry, Mike. You’ve
lost a baby,” Jill said. “I couldn’t revive him.”

Valerie woke with a gasp. Clutching to Mike,
she began to sob.

“
She should be all right
now,” Jill said. “I think I need to go.”

“
Go Jill. I’ll stay with
the kids,” Sandy said. “You can do this.”

Jill turned to run out the door.

“
Mommy?”

Katy ran into her mother’s arms. For just a
moment, all movement in their world slowed to a stop. The mother
and child held each other tight. Feeling pressure to leave, Jill
let go. She set Katy down.

“
Love you, Katy-baby,”
Jill said at the same moment Katy said, “Love you,
Mommy.”

Jill touched Katy’s hair one last time then
ran out of the room. Jill ran down the stairs and into the tunnel.
She made a sharp turn and jogged up the stairs to the kitchen door.
She unlocked the security for the door. Running into the kitchen,
she saw that Mike had blocked the doors to the living room.

Just then there was a crash in the living
room. Something bounced off the kitchen door. Jill tried to move
the table. She pulled and pushed but the table was too heavy for
her. There was no way she was going through either of those
doors.

She couldn’t get to the stairwell to go
through her loft apartment. She couldn’t gain access from the
second floor. She spun in place. She’d just have to go around. She
pulled a key from a hook and unlocked the back door. She ran across
the deck and around the house.

~~~~~~~~

Friday evening — 6:25 P.M.

After looking around the Chapel, Sandy shook
her head.

“
We’re not safe here,”
Sandy said.

“
What do you mean? No one
knows we’re here,” Mike said.

“
There’s only one entrance
that we can’t really lock. We can’t close off the window and if we
did, there are other windows. No, we’re not safe here,” Sandy said.
“I can feel it in my bones. Trust me. I’m no psychic. I’ve just
been in this type of situation. A lot. Can you carry
Val?”

Mike nodded.

“
Anyone know of a better
hiding place?” Sandy asked.

“
There’s a wine cellar,”
Nash said. He blushed deep red. “I’m not supposed to know anything
about it.”

“
I don’t know anything
about it,” Mike said.

“
Delphie wanted to get
something from the tunnels. I told her I would get it but she said
no. She was so weird that I… watched on the security tapes,” Nash
said. “We were making dinner together a few months ago.”

“
Have you been there?”
Sandy asked.

Ashamed, Nash hung his head and nodded.

“
Why don’t I know about
it?” Mike asked.

“
Do you ever cook?” Sandy
asked.

“
Never,” Mike
said.

Sandy dug around in her purse and gave Mike
some pills.

“
Tylenol,” Sandy said. “Do
we have water?”

“
In the wine cellar,” Nash
said. “Delphie keeps everything there. Cheese. Wine. Chocolates.
Champagne and fancy water.”

“
Let’s go,” Sandy said.
“Nash, help Paddie. Noelle, help Katy. We have to move…”

The children ran from the Chapel.

“
Fast.”

Mike lifted Valerie and carried her out the
door. Feeling a little sheepish, Sandy closed the chapel door and
followed the children into the tunnels.

~~~~~~~~

Friday evening — 6:45 P.M.

“
No matter,” Johansen.
“Time to kill the Marlowe child.”

“
NO!” Jacob yelled. He
jumped from the second floor on top of Johansen.

But he was too late.

The Castle rocked with the explosion. The
entire wing bowed forward then backward. The hallway broke open
exposing a doorway at the end of Honey’s rooms.

“
The Chapel!” Jacob
yelled.

Johansen gave another maniacal laugh.

Enraged, Jacob flew at Johansen. But
Johansen was ready for him. Johansen threw a massive attack at
Jacob’s injured heart. Johansen gave another maniacal laugh.
Clutching his chest, Jacob fell to the ground. Johansen stepped
closer to Jacob. The man’s entire attention was focused on
destroying Jacob Marlowe.

“
Stop that,” Jill
said.

She swung the hockey stick with all her
might. The stick hit Johansen in the back of his head. He stumbled
and fell but did not release his focus on Jacob.

“
Crazy old man,” Jill
said.

Jill reached down to put her hand on the
back of Johansen’s neck. She thought of the love that surrounded
her from her circle of friends, her Katy-baby, Jacob, his family,
her family, their family. She forced the healing light into
Johansen. She watched his anguish, black despair and desperate need
for power wilt and turn to dust.

She searched for the good inside the old
man. Somewhere deep inside, she found a tiny kernel of love. The
rest had slipped away a long time ago. She opened her eyes to find
herself touching a husk.

Johansen was gone.

Jill rushed to Jacob’s side.

“
Katy.” Clutching his
chest, Jacob gasped.

“
She wasn’t in the
Chapel,” Jill said. “I looked in when I came around. The room was
empty when he blew it up.”

She moved to touch his heart when Delphie
let out a terrible scream. Delphie writhed on the floor.

“
Go,” Jacob said. “I can
wait.”

Jill ran to Delphie. When she reached for
her, Delphie began to have seizures. Jacob rushed to Jill’s side.
He held Delphie while Jill tried to soothe Delphie’s brain.

Jill shook her head.

“
I can’t… She’s having a
stroke. I can’t stop it.”

Jacob wrapped himself around Delphie’s body
and whispered in her ear:

“
Please don’t
leave.”

CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE
The glorious light

Friday evening — 6:15 P.M.

Delphie almost collapsed with relief when
Johansen released her. In the last few hours, he had been brutal
with her. She wasn’t sure if the old man was getting careless or
simply didn’t care if he hurt her. At one point, she wondered if he
wanted to destroy her psychic capacity. Her mind and body felt
battered and bruised.