The Curse Servant (The Dark Choir Book 2) (19 page)

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Wren was generally the first to reach for the salt in a given situation of a bizarre nature. Yet with her own child she seemed to be leaning toward the Mainstream.

“What do you think is wrong, Wren?”

“I love you, Dorian. Really. But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

I lifted an eyebrow at Edgar. He tucked his head down into his chest.

“Look, Edgar. You called me. I’m just trying to help.”

Wren peered over at Edgar.

Edgar looked up from his folded arms and shrugged. “I wanted to give him a shot, Wren.”

“Again, what do you think is happening, here?” I asked her.

“Elle’s just sick.”

“Elle isn’t sick, Wren. Something is being done to her.”

“Next thing you’ll say is this is somehow your fault?” She gave me a tired smirk.

“Well, not entirely.”

She shook her head. “Trust me. This has nothing to do with you.”

“Then why was she waiting for me? Why was she cocked and loaded with some frankly toe-curling salt when I walked into her room? There’s a presence inside her, taking her over.”

“That’s not what’s happening.”

I threw my hands up and took a few steps. “How can you be so cavalier about this?”

Wren’s face flushed as she slowly stated, “Because this has happened before.”

Edgar rubbed the back of his head as he turned into the kitchen.

I blinked a few times and reached behind me for the side of their coach. “Elle’s done this before?”

“Not Elle. This is new for her.”

“To you?”

“Not me. Lilah.”

“Who’s Lilah?”

“My sister.” She turned and brushed past Edgar, opening the fridge and pulling out a bottle of screw-top wine. “It happened when I was nine, I think. Maybe ten. That was a weird summer.” She dropped into a seat at the kitchen table and took a slug straight from the bottle. “Lilah was going to be a freshman. On her way to high school. Worked up about it, too. Scared of boys, scared of girls, scared of teachers. She stopped sleeping. After the Fourth of July when we came back from the beach, she started shouting in her bed at night. Wet the bed. ‘Night terrors’ was what the doctor called it, but something had him worried. Mom, too.”

I pulled a chair and took a seat across from Wren as she stared at the bottle.

“They gave her pills that put her to sleep, but that only made things worse. Lilah would start blaming me for wounds on her body. Tiny cuts. Said I was trying to steal her skin. Then she started seeing things when she was awake. Faces, she called them. Horrible, evil faces with sharp teeth. She’d be normal. We’d be having a regular conversation then she’d just get quiet and all the blood would drain out of her face. She’d get wide-eyed, and she’d stare into a corner. I mean the look on her face. It was terrifying. She’d shriek and shriek, trying to beat away the monsters. Said they were hurting her. One time, she caught me with her nails when I was trying to calm her down. Put three good red gashes across my neck. That’s when they took her to the hospital.”

I rubbed my face and took a moment. “What happened to her there?”

“The diagnosis was schizophrenia. They put her on drugs, but they only worked to a point, and we didn’t have good insurance. She had to miss the first two months of high school, then another month. Our parents ended up putting her in a home out in the mountains. Same home Aunt Marla got sent to.”

“Aunt Marla?”

“Same thing happened to her.”

“So this is genetic?”

Wren nodded. “Edgar knows. He knows all about it. Which was why I didn’t want him calling you in. I didn’t want to get you in a tear and not be able to do anything.”

I leaned back in my chair, trying to find a place to look.

Edgar cleared his throat. “I called Dorian because Elle was asking for him.”

“Of course she did. She worships Dorian.”

I squirmed in my seat.

Edgar continued, “And I wanted to at least get his take on it before you called Doctor Shenkar.”

“He wasn’t at the office.”

Edgar jerked off his glasses and turned to Wren. “You went to his office? Wren, I thought we were going to talk about this.”

She gave him a patient look from the business end of her wine bottle. “I’ve lived through this before, Edgar. And this time, it’s my baby girl in there. Let me handle this, okay?”

“Still, Wren. You gotta talk to me.”

“Doesn’t matter, anyway. The office said he won’t be in until Monday.”

I leaned forward, spreading my hands out on the table. “Okay, so, I’m going to go ahead and just jump into the middle of all this. Wren?” I took as disarming a tone as I could muster. “I appreciate what you’ve been through with your sister, and I know you’re Elle’s mother. You need to do what you feel is necessary to help her. But, I also think you’d want all of the available facts before you make a decision. So, I have something to add.”

She nodded.

“This thing with Elle? It’s the third time in the last couple weeks I’ve seen it. Three different women. They were all the same voice, the same phraseology, same purpose. The first was a campaign volunteer up in Baltimore. She went berserk. I was called in to check it out. This woman was a complete stranger, okay? But the thing inside her knew me by name. Knew about my soul.”

Wren blinked.

“Right. She taunted me about losing my soul, then jumped me. The presence left her, and that was the end.”

Edgar asked, “Who was the second?”

I swallowed hard. “Ches.”

“No shit? When?”

“Yesterday. At coffee. We were just doing our thing when some switch flipped, and she attacked me. It was over as soon as it began. But both times they were taunting me about my soul. Wren? I never told Ches about Osterhaus and the soul contract. How would she know?”

Wren set down the wine bottle. “What about Elle?”

“She not only hammered me about my soul, she knew about what happened to Ches. How would she know about that? She’s been sick here at home for a few days, right? That’s unnatural knowledge.”

Wren looked up at Edgar then back at me. “Fuck me.”

“Something on the other side is trying to get my goad, and it’s pulling some nasty tricks to do it.”

“So what you’re saying is this thing is getting at you through my daughter?”

I sucked in a breath, and nodded. “Which is why I want to help her. I’m not trying to tell you what to do. I’m just trying to make sure we’re treating the correct problem here. Before your doctor doses Elle up on anti-psychotics, will you give me a chance to try to work this out my way?”

Wren lingered at the sink, staring down at the dishes piled up inside. She turned to Edgar who was hovering behind me.

“I made an appointment for Monday morning with Doctor Shenkar. Way I see it, we can do it your way, and if we can’t fix her, then we’ll do it Dr. Shenkar’s way. Sound fair to you?”

I nodded to Wren. “Sounds fair. This may not last long, anyway. If the other two women were any indication, this is more like a hit-and-run.”

“I hope you’re right,” Edgar muttered as we all turned back to the dark hallway leading to Elle’s room.

“Where’s Eddie?”

“Dropped him off at his friend’s house,” Wren replied.

“How’s he taking this?”

“He hasn’t seen anything bad. Well, nothing worse than Elle gets naturally. He doesn’t really know.”

“Good. With luck, he won’t have to.”

I stepped back down the hall to Elle’s room and, with a nod to the Swains, nudged her door open again.

Elle and the chair she was tied to were now on top of her bed. She sat staring wide-eyed at the door, her mouth still drawn back in that marionette grin.

“Back for more, Lake?” she chimed.

Wren bristled at my arm, but I held up my hand.

“I was just wondering how long this was going to take. I was going to bake brownies later, and you’re kind of screwing up my schedule.”

Wren leaned into me. I gave Wren a side-eye and a quick squeeze of her hand to reassure her I wasn’t about to completely fuck this up. But I had to play this cool to try to unseat this creature’s confidence. In my limited dealings with the Dark Choir in the past, their ultimate weakness was their utter disregard for humanity. This thing had me in its crosshairs, but it sure as shit didn’t know what I was capable of.

“I know you want me out of this girl,” Elle growled. “It turns your stomach looking at her like this. You’re wondering if she can hear you. If she knows what’s happening.”

I wanted to puke. Every part of me wanted Elle to be asleep, dreaming somewhere. I didn’t want her to see what was happening.

It cackled and tossed its head forward. Elle and the chair tumbled down toward the floor. I dove out to try and catch her. I succeeded only partially, managing to crack my knuckles on the floor underneath one of the chair legs. Elle’s head would have struck hardwood if Edgar hadn’t base-slid beneath her. I had never seen him move that quickly before.

Elle coughed and groaned, shaking her head. Edgar reached out and smoothed her soiled hair away from her face. She peered up at us with a frightened glance.

“Dad?”

Wren gasped, “Elle?”

“Mommy?”

Wren collapsed around me, reaching over my shoulders to cradle her face. I stiffened and tried to separate her arms.

“Wait,” I whispered.

Elle’s brow drew together and tears welled in her eyes. “Dorian? Why?”

“Hey, little sis.”

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“What?”

She twisted her arms against the jute bindings holding her to her desk chair and started panting. “Stop it! Stop! Daddy?”

Edgar reached for the rope. I laid a heavy hand on his.

“Daddy, he tried to touch me.”

My stomach twisted. “Stop this.”

“I trusted you, Dorian. Why did you touch me there?”

Wren eased away from me, but I kept my eyes locked onto Elle’s.

“They’re not going to buy that crap. They know me too well.”

Elle looked over to Edgar, tears cascading down her cheeks.

Edgar pulled his arm back and rolled to a seated position. I heard Wren stand up behind me, clearing her throat.

The room was filled with silence as Elle looked back and forth between her parents, then finally back at me. The sharp smirk returned to her eyes and she chuckled.

“You caught me. I was just having some fun.”

Before I could respond, Wren brushed past me with enough force to knock me onto my side. She gripped her daughter’s shoulders and shoved her back to the bed.

Wren’s voice was low, clear, and terrifying. “You wipe that grin off your face. This is my daughter you’re fucking with! Do you think there’s anything I wouldn’t do to rip you out of her body? Because there’s nothing… NOTHING… I wouldn’t do.” She tossed a thumb toward me over her shoulder. “He’s off the leash, now. You better pray he’s quick.”

Elle’s smirk melted.

Edgar reached between the two of them and unwound Wren’s fingers from Elle’s night shirt.

Wren stood up and stormed out of the room. Edgar stood up, but stayed with me.

“Well, now you’ve done it,” I said to the thing behind Elle’s eyes. “You’re getting nowhere with this. You had your fun. Now it’s time to move on.”

“It eats you alive, doesn’t it?” Elle rasped. “Seeing her like this? No, I think I’ll stay for a while.”

“Why bother?”

“Because it brings you suffering. Why would I ever deprive myself of that?”

I stood up and motioned for Edgar to help me pick her up. We settled her in the middle of the room and stepped outside.

Before I could close the door, she added, “Time’s running out for you. The shadows are coming. Tick tock.”

I gave it one last look before Edgar and I withdrew back into the living room.

Edgar muttered, “What is this thing?”

“This thing is a little bastard, that’s what.”

“Got a plan here, man?”

“This isn’t exactly my field of expertise.”

“Got anyone you can call?”

“You’re the one with the Hermetic Rolodex from Hell. Got a priest or someone you trust?”

Wren barked from the kitchen, “No priests.”

“Why?”

“Just no priests.”

“I get that you’re not exactly playing for their team, Wren. And from the sound of this thing, it’s not dressing itself in a demon’s clothes. I think it’s a little older than the Church. But still, they have had success in the past with dis-possessing people.”

Edgar leaned in to me. “Dis-possessing?”

“Evicting? I don’t know, just trying really hard not to actually say exorcism.”

Wren stepped out from the kitchen with a pharmacy bag. “Okay. If you can find a priest who will deign to step into a witch’s house to exorcise her unbaptized child, then go right ahead.”

“Well, first, thanks. Second, you’re not technically a witch.”

“I know that, Dorian.”

“Yeah, I know you know. I’m just trying here.”

She reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. Her eyes were tired and hardened, but they managed to thank me without making Wren say it out loud.

“I’ll get to work finding that priest.”

Edgar added, “What about Emil’s Library? Anything in there that could help?”

“Very likely. Just have to drive back to the city and dig in.” I turned to Wren. “What are you going to do with Elle in the meantime?”

She lifted the pharmacy bag and shook it.

“I got something to help,” she replied.

“Aspenwood?”

“Sedatives.”

“No offense, but how do you plan on getting her to keep pills down.”

“They’re suppositories.”

“Oh. Ick. Yeah, well I’m definitely leaving before that happens.”

Edgar walked me to the front door and gave me a quick, tight hug before I exited.

“Don’t worry. I’m going to sort this out.”