Conduit (34 page)

She wanted to shout that she didn’t want him, she never
wanted him, but the drug forced her body to respond. No longer sure of what was
real, her face contorted and her thoughts twisted in her mind.

David dropped his hands to the sides of her thighs and dug
his fingers into her skin. “Let’s get you out of this dress,” he said. He
tugged upward on the sundress and raised it toward her hips.

Cool air kissed the newly exposed skin at the tops of her
thighs, and Emily regained a bit of control. She whirled around and stepped
back from him. She immediately recognized her mistake of pulling away and her
body trembled with fear.

Anger flashed in his eyes. He snatched her arm and dragged
her toward him. “Maybe I didn’t give you enough of it,” he said.

She squirmed under his grasp. “No, it’s not that,” she said.
“I just don’t want to rush into anything. I...I want us to take our time, David.
I want to get to know you first, and it really scares me that we’re moving too
fast.”

“We have nothing but time,” he said, “so we’ll rush into
whatever I want. Remember the rules, Emily.”

She faltered for a moment. The effects of the ecstasy surged
through her mind, blending with the darkness.

David pulled her body snug against his and the anger
vanished from his face. He touched her cheek and stared into her eyes. “I
remember the first time you let me into your mind. It was the most amazing
sensation, and it’s only gotten better since then. Right now, I can feel your
emotions. I can feel every part of you. I can almost read your thoughts.”

She let go of all of her thoughts except those of David. She
switched her thoughts of him to positive ones. If he was that deep in her mind,
she couldn’t let a stray thought set off his anger. “I feel you in my mind all of
the time,” she said. “There’s not a moment that I don’t feel you.”

He smiled at her revelation. “See? We’re part of each other now
and we always will be. Nothing can sever our connection. We are meant to be
together.” He softened his voice. “There’s no reason for you to worry about
rushing into something. I won’t hurt you. I only want to explore this amazing
connection between us. We both want this, we both
need
this.”

His hypnotic words floated through Emily’s hazy mind. There
were no more ways to delay unless she wanted to suffer the same fate as the
other women. She needed him to believe she wanted to be with him. She stood on
the tips of her toes and instigated a kiss.

“That’s more like it,” he said, in between kisses.

Emily slammed her eyes shut. She let him, and the drug, take
control of her again.

After following the light for twenty
minutes, Jake found the house where David had Emily in a rural area just
outside of town. He stopped the Jeep in front of a rickety mailbox worn from
time and weather. He climbed out of his Jeep and walked to the front of a long,
dirt driveway. Jake’s eyes followed the gravel path to a white farmhouse in the
middle of a tree cluster. The light brightened and he felt Emily’s presence for
the first time since leaving Marta’s shop.

The light Marta gave him as a cue to find Emily beamed from
the house, confirming her location. The darkness in her mind eclipsed the light
and Jake wondered what it meant for her safety. Much stronger than Emily, the
same evil he sensed at Cassie’s home threatened to overcome her.

Jake dialed Cassie’s number on his cell phone and she picked
up on the second ring. “Did you find her?”

“Yeah,” he said. He gave her the address listed on the side of
the mailbox.

“Okay, I’m calling Uncle Leo now.” She paused. “Jake, are
you near the house?”

“I’m at the end of the driveway, quite a ways from the house.
He won’t be able to see me out here.”

“Good,” she said. “Stay there and don’t go near the house.
Wait for Uncle Leo and Shawn to come with backup and they will get her out of
there. Don’t try anything yourself.”

“They have to hurry.” He disconnected the call so Cassie
could get the address to Lionel. He leaned against the back of his Jeep and
stared towards the driveway. The light Marta had him follow dissipated like
smoke from a blown-out match. He closed his eyes, but couldn’t sense Emily the
way he normally did.

Jake focused on what little bit of her he could find, and
tried to bring the feeling of her back. Every time he found her, her presence immediately
faded. He dug deeper into his mind and felt a flicker, a tickle, which he
recognized as Emily.

Stepping away from the Jeep, his feet inched down the
driveway. The closer he got to the house, the more he picked up on Emily’s
presence. Terror controlled her mind, and panic set into his heart. He could no
longer wait for the cops to show up. His legs raced down the driveway, faster
than he had ever run before.

Lionel walked behind Shawn through
the alley, careful to plant his feet in Shawn’s exact footsteps. Though Bill’s
crime scene unit had already scoured the alley for evidence, Lionel wanted to
preserve the scene as much as possible in case they missed something.

Evidence had not yet come back from the lab and ballistics,
and they still waited on return calls from the jurisdictions in which Cassie
said David killed other women. Instead of banging their heads against their
desks at the station, Lionel decided they needed to take a look at the scene
where Cassie had been shot. They were in the hospital with Cassie while Bill’s
team searched the alley with Aurelio and Timmons, and though he had the upmost
confidence in them, he still felt the need to do another search.

Lionel’s eyes swung back and forth in a deliberate pattern,
but he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Bill had already made a second
trip back to collect Emily’s car keys from the trash bin, a piece of evidence
they were unaware of until Cassie relayed the details of the exchange.

They had also checked the alley for Sam, in case he
witnessed anything, but his tarp and shopping cart were long gone. He most
likely relocated to another part of the city where dead bodies didn’t land in
his backyard. If the killer did not plead guilty and the case went to trial,
they would perform large sweeps of the city to find Sam so he could testify. They
also had his statement and session with the sketch artist on video just in case
they were unable to locate him.

When they reached the end of the alley, Shawn said, “There’s
nothing else here.”

“I knew it was a longshot,” Lionel said. “We just need
something, anything.”

“We will get it. We need to be patient. Something will come
up from the evidence, someone will call in the tip we need.”

“Being patient isn’t helping get Emily away from him.”

Lionel’s cell phone rang and he took it out of his pocket.
Cassie’s name flashed on the front screen. “It’s Cassie,” he said, and answered
the call.

“Hey, Uncle Leo,” she said. “I need to make this quick. I
just remembered something else. In the kitchen where he blindfolded me, there
was a piece of mail on the counter. I only got a glimpse, but I think I
remember the address that was on it.”

Lionel took out his notepad and pen and jotted down the
address. “We’ll get over there right away, Cassie.”

Pressing the end button on his cell phone, he told Shawn, “She
remembered an address.”

They raced to Lionel’s car, where Shawn punched the address
into the GPS. Lionel flipped on the sirens and lights and pressed the
accelerator to the floorboard.

“We don’t know if this guy has a police scanner, so I want
everyone off radios,” Shawn said. He dialed a number on his cell phone. “I’ll
get someone back at the station to coordinate and we’ll turn off sirens and
lights when we get close to the house.”

“This can’t turn into a hostage situation,” Lionel said. “Emily
would never survive that.”

Shawn directed the situation over his cell phone and
requested backup, S.W.A.T, and paramedics be dispatched to the location. He
also issued instructions to immediately get the necessary warrants in place.

Lionel focused on the road ahead of him. Everything was
unraveling for the killer so quickly, and for that he was grateful. Yet he
worried what the killer might do once cornered. With Emily still his current
victim, no one could rest easy. What could catch the killer could also kill
Emily.

David reached once more for the
bottom of Emily’s dress. Though the ecstasy controlled every sensation in her
body, her fear resurfaced. Her hands grabbed at his to stop him from lifting up
her dress.

“Don’t fight me, Emily,” he said. “That will only make it
harder for you.”

He shoved her up against the wall and lifted her hands over
her head. He pressed his hands into her arms and pinned them on the wall. “Just
relax,” he said. He pushed his mouth down onto hers.

Emily kept her eyes glued shut. She had no more fight left. If
she kept battling him, he would hurt her and once he started down that road, he
might never stop. She couldn’t risk her life just to stall the inevitable for a
few more minutes. The only way to stay alive was to let him take what he wanted.

She retreated into her mind, as far as she could go until
she found a safe corner where she could curl up and hide. She didn’t want to be
here anymore, didn’t want to feel his hands on her body, didn’t want to taste
his vile kiss. Her consciousness tried floating away as she let go of her
senses, but the darkness held onto her, an anchor keeping her rooted in the
horror.

Tears escaped her closed eyelids and she desperately tried
to suppress her body’s response to him. There had to be a way to get through it
without knowing what was happening to her. If she could shield her mind from
remembering every repulsive second of David touching her, then saving Cassie
would be worth whatever she had to endure.

Jake.

He appeared in her mind and Emily’s heart swelled with hope.
It didn’t seem possible, but he was here. She knew he would somehow find her
and he hadn’t failed. With David’s mouth ravaging hers and his hands lifting her
dress above her waist, Emily gathered every bit of energy she could find and
called out to Jake from behind the veil of David’s darkness.

David pulled away from her, the monster unmasked. His hand
snaked around her neck. “Who is Jake?” He smashed his hand against the wall
directly next to her head, and his other hand squeezed her throat. “Who is he?”

Emily choked against his hand and struggled to pull air into
her dry lungs. She tried to speak, but nothing came out.

“He’s here, isn’t he?” He let go of her neck and the back of
his hand crashed into her face. Her head dropped, and he tangled both hands in
her hair on each side and lifted her head. He kissed her fiercely, and Emily
didn’t dare squirm. When he ended the kiss, his hands painfully tightened his
hold on her hair and several hairs popped out of their roots. The back of her head
slammed against the wall. He pulled her head forward and threw her head into
the wall again. Her brain sloshed back and forth with the recoil, her eyesight
faded, and she fought against losing consciousness.

Emily slid down the wall. David grabbed the hair at the top
of her head and yanked her up. He pushed her through the kitchen, and into
another door. The door opened, his hand thrust into her back, and she crashed
to the floor, against the wall of a bathtub. She clung to the edge of the tub,
and David rushed out of the bathroom.

He came back a moment later with handcuffs and dragged her
by her hair to the plumbing beside the white pedestal sink. The cuffs tightened
around her wrists, binding her to the pipes.

David knelt down in front of her. He smoothed her hair down
and kissed her gently. “I’m going to take care of this little interruption.
Then I’m going to come in here and we’ll pick up where we left off. You better
not think about resisting me or I’ll get out my knife. Neither of us wants
that, so I know you’ll do what’s right.”

His feet walked away from her and into the kitchen. Though
she could only see him from the waist down, she watched him tuck a sheathed
knife into the back of his waistband. He pulled his shirt over his jeans to cover
the knife and walked away.

Emily bowed her throbbing head. She had to stay awake long
enough to get through to Jake and warn him about the knife. With every ounce of
strength she had left, she called out to him.

Jake slowed his run and stopped on
the grass in front of the house. He had no plan and wasn’t sure how far away
the cops were from the house. He only knew he couldn’t leave Emily alone with David
a moment longer.

David came through the front door, stepped onto the porch,
and walked down the steps. He seemed confused by Jake’s presence, but also appeared
ready to deal with him.

“Let her go,” Jake said.

“I don’t think so. I’m rather enjoying her company. Before
your intrusion, we were making our way back to the bedroom.” His lips twisted
into a sadistic grin. “She tastes so sweet, her skin so soft and warm.”

Jake’s face reddened and his fingers curled into tight balls
at his sides. “Let her go,” he repeated through clenched teeth.

David positioned himself a few feet in front of Jake. “She’s
not going anywhere and you’re trespassing, so why don’t we hurry up and settle this?
I don’t want to keep Emily waiting.”

Jake lifted his fists above his waist and waited for David
to swing. He dodged David’s first strike, but the second one hit the side of
his mouth. Jake threw a low punch into David’s ribs. David’s hands lowered and
Jake’s other fist connected with the side of his face.

David backed up a bit. Feeling overly confident, Jake
launched a fist at him again. David blocked him, and caught Jake’s nose twice. His
head recoiled with the punches, but he didn’t let the blood pouring down his
face stop him from attacking.

They exchanged several punches and jabs, neither one of them
truly winning the war. Then David’s fist landed in Jake’s cheek. Jake lifted
his hands to block another hit, but David went for his side instead, stunning him
with a painful punch to his kidney. As he bent over, David went for his exposed
side and the subsequent assault crushed Jake’s ribs.

Breathless, Jake gathered his strength and smashed his fist
into David’s head. He backed up from David to get a reprieve from the beating,
but David stepped up to him. Jake recalled David’s words about Emily, and he used
every bit of his anger and rage. His fist flew out and hit David’s mouth,
giving him the shot he needed.

As David’s head rebounded from the punch, his hands flew
downward, out of a defensive position. Jake hit him again and again, fueled by
a shot of adrenaline. David managed to land only one other blow and Jake repeatedly
struck until David crumpled to the ground under his furious attack.

Despite never having a broken nose before, the river of
blood freely flowing down Jake’s face and the sharp pain between his eyes told him
it was badly splintered. His body flared with pain at even the slightest movement,
but he wasn’t done expelling his anger. He rolled David onto his back and
climbed on top of him. Jake threw his fist and landed on his intended target.
Again and again, his raw knuckles crashed against David’s rawer flesh until
David lay motionless on the ground.

Jake slumped on his knees, muscles tense and ready to strike
again if needed, yet drained of strength. He stilled his jagged breathing long
enough to survey David and watch for any signs of life. He wasn’t sure if he
had killed him, and though the thought of killing someone normally would have
disturbed him, he hoped he had somehow managed to extinguish David’s life.

David didn’t move.

Jake blew out a long breath. He needed to get to Emily, but
pain gripped him and his body refused to respond to his commands to stand.
Instead of rising to his feet and racing to her side, he dropped his hands to
the ground. With a broken nose, at least one broken rib, and a throbbing right
hand as just the beginning of his list of injuries, Jake wondered if he would ever
find the strength to move again.

He lifted his eyes to the house and squinted to see the front
door that seemed miles away. Somewhere behind that door, Emily relied on him to
save her. Her presence was stronger than it had been since he arrived, as if
she were right next to him. Her voice filled his mind, but he couldn’t make any
sense out of the garbled words.

Closing his eyes, he strained to grasp onto a word, any word.
Jake made out the sound of his name. Emily called his name several more times,
and he struggled to hear what else she tried to say. Then he heard one other
word.

Knife.

A flash of white hot pain seared through the right side of
his abdomen, and Jake’s eyes flew open. Emily’s voice exited his head and her
presence left him. The knife pulled out and pierced his flesh again.

The blade freed itself from his body and Jake rolled to his
left until he landed on his back. His breathing shallowed, and he stared up at
the sky. Several clouds intertwined and Jake did what he could to focus on
those clouds, rather than the pain. They reminded him of being a child, lying in
the backyard next to Janie, the plush summer grass cushioning his limbs. For
hours, they would watch clouds roll across the sky, forming various shapes.
They argued over the pictures the clouds created, each determined they knew what
images floated in the sky better than their sibling.

He thought these clouds resembled a whale, although Janie
would have declared them to be something different. A ship, perhaps. The only
thing of which he was certain was that at any moment, they would take on the
shape of something sinister.

Blinding pain tore through the center of his right thigh.
Jake tried to lean forward and grab at the source of his pain, but his frozen
limbs resisted movement. He managed to lift his head, just in time to watch
David twist the knife clockwise, ripping and shredding his thigh muscle. Jake did
not recognize the inhuman scream coming from his mouth.

David appeared over him and eclipsed the clouds. His bloody,
shattered face barely resembled the one Jake first saw walking out of the
house. Jake thought if David was in the shape of the clouds, it would be that
of a feared medieval creature.

“Don’t worry,” David said. “I didn’t get your artery. Wouldn’t
want you to bleed out too fast and not enjoy all the pain that comes with knife
wounds in the stomach.”

Jake placed his hand on his abdomen and into a sticky puddle
of blood. A moment earlier, he thought he had won. He’d been close to building
enough strength to save the girl. His girl. Now he stared into the sadistic,
broken face of a monster.

The monster grinned.

“I’ve never killed a man before,” David said, “but so far, I’m
really enjoying it.” He held the knife up. Sunlight caught the blade,
illuminating the red that dripped down the handle and onto David’s hand.

Jake grimaced at the sight of his blood on the knife. Excruciating
pain flared in each of his stab wounds and he groaned against the agony. The
pain released him and a dreamless sleep beckoned. His eyelids slowly lowered,
and his body detached from the pain.

David wrapped his hand around Jake’s face and shook his head
back and forth, jolting him back to life. “You’re not going anywhere yet. I
want you to enjoy this as much as me. It’s actually quite exhilarating. Is it
for you as well?” He turned the knife downward.

The blade moved with conviction, slicing through his shirt
and skin on his left side. Jake cried out at the penetration of his torso. He
tried to move, to shove David off him, but all of his energy was caught up in
the pain.

David withdrew the knife, and Jake screamed. David held the
blade up again for him to see the fresh blood. The sight made his wounds all
the more agonizing. If these were his last moments, he didn’t want to see David
grasping a knife coated in his blood. He wanted to close his eyes and drift off
to sleep with Emily’s face in the front his mind. She was so close to him, so
close
. But he couldn’t reach her, couldn’t
muster enough strength to push David away and race to her rescue.

David held the knife flush against Jake’s left cheek and
leered. “I could do this for hours,” he said. “Just taking away bits of you,
ripping apart your skin, stabbing you randomly. How long can you keep it up?”
He pressed the blade into Jake’s skin and sliced across his cheek.

Jake cried out again. The pain of the multiple stab wounds overwhelmed
him and a tremor controlled his body.

Would you die for her?

David leaned over, his face only inches away from Jake’s. “Not
long before you came here, Emily told me how much she wants to be with me. In a
few minutes, when I’m holding her warm, naked body in my arms, I’ll be thinking
about how much I loved killing you. I wish I had more time to do this right and
really make you suffer, but I don’t want to keep her waiting any longer.”

Would you die for her?

At David’s words, rage surged through Jake, but weakness
defeated his anger before he could use it against David. There was nothing more
he could do for Emily. He only hoped he bought enough time for the police to
arrive, before David violated her and hurt her even more. Every second he kept
David busy was one more second Emily was not exposed to him.

Would you die for her?

“Yes,” Jake whispered. “I would die for her.”

David sat up straight and angled his head, confusion
furrowing his brow. His expression froze as he considered Jake for a moment. He
raised the knife again, positioning it over Jake’s chest.