The Five Deaths of Roxanne Love (31 page)

R
eece paced the small bedroom—
cell
—he’d been allotted. What else could he do? Everything April had told him clotted in his head like an aneurism just waiting to make its move. He’d been used. Bad enough on its own. But he’d been used for something so horrific he couldn’t even bring it into focus. When Gary had explained that demons had arrived ready for bear, Reece had resisted. After he’d seen them firsthand, it had been easier to believe.

But demons using Reece’s death as a secret passageway? No way the old head would wrap around that one. Yet . . . He could still remember the cold waters of Canyon Lake, where he’d drowned when he was ten. Dad had taken the boat out and the four kids had been swimming, having a day like normal kids instead of being
little slaves at the restaurant. He and Roxanne had been playing mermaid—a girl game that she’d loved, so he’d agreed. He’d been the shark, of course.

They’d been laughing when the current had pulled them down. Only it hadn’t felt like a current. It had felt like hands, wrapping around his ankles and dragging him into the darkest place he’d ever known.

They’d been resuscitated, obviously, but Reece had never been the same after. He didn’t know why, but somewhere in his bottled-up memories, he figured something bad had happened down there. Something worse than dying.

Roxanne had come back serene. He heard Ryan tell Ruby she’d been talking about a friend who’d waited for her. Reece hadn’t talked for days.

“Knock, knock.”

He spun to find Karen at his door. He remembered thinking her hot the first time he’d met her. Now it was as if he could see what lurked beneath her skin. Not a pretty sight.

And speaking of skin, the rash that April called a symptom of the body’s rejection of its captor had made an appearance, darkening Karen’s temples and the area beneath her chin. She scratched self-consciously.

“Gary was wondering if you had a minute for him?” she said, like it was really a request.

Reece had something for Gary, all right. But he hoped it would be more permanent than a minute.

“Sure.”

He followed Karen down the hall, pausing outside that door marked
Chancellor
, recalling how freaked out he’d been the first time he’d stood there. Turns out he’d had the right of it. He wished he had one of the weapons they’d given him for the dawn battle, but they were locked up again.

“Go on in,” Karen said. “Gary will be there in a minute.”

Just like the asshole to make him wait.

Reece went in, taking note of the battered desk and weathered bookcase behind it. The surface of the desk was neat and orderly. An in basket with a few receipts in it—Home Depot, Walgreens, and one from a place called The Meat Shop. Reece picked it up and studied the order for beef. He tried not to think about why Gary had need of such large quantities of raw meat.

He glanced at the door before checking the drawers. All locked. On the bookshelf behind him he found a Bible sandwiched between copies of the Book of the Dead and the Book of Mormon. Others teetered or fell on top of one another for the entire length of the shelf. Most of them were in languages Reece didn’t understand, but a few had English translations. Something called the Hindu Tantras leaned against the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, and the New Testament shared space with the Book of Invasions. He’d only heard of a handful of the titles he saw, but he could deduce.
Sometimes, he even got it right. Gary had himself a collection of religious texts lined up cover to cover with no rhyme or reason Reece could see. Odds were good that Gary had them for all the wrong reasons.

Gary still hadn’t come, so Reece kept looking. A computer older than God sat on the desk. Reece shook the mouse, and something in its guts began to grind and wake up. After interminable seconds, the monitor came on with a password prompt. Reece couldn’t begin to guess what someone like Gary might use to access his files. He tried
demon
and
twins
and his name and Roxanne’s before giving up.

Frustrated, he looked under the giant blotter and tried the drawers again, when he noticed the calendar. It was one of those old ones that came installed in a little tray that looked like a book. Each day had a miniature month depicted at the top and a place on the opposing page for appointments. Like pay phones, they were a thing of another age.

The pages hadn’t been turned for a couple of days. Reece stared at a big circle around the date Gary had robbed Love’s and shot Reece and the others. He tried to make out the scrawl beneath it but couldn’t.

He and Gary had planned the robbery for that night, but now he knew that Gary had had more than that in mind all along. A math equation was in the corner, and listed on the side were the names of his victims. Someone had made little checkmarks next to his,
Jim’s, Sal’s, and Manny’s names. But Roxanne’s had a big circle around it and exclamation marks.

“Reece,” Gary boomed from the doorway. “How are you today, my friend?”

Rage simmered in Reece’s gut, but he forced himself to keep it together. “What’s this?” Reece asked, pointing at the calendar page.

“Accounting. What else?”

“Keeping tabs on your victims?”

“I told you, no victims. Look here.”

Gary came around the desk, then gripped the back of Reece’s neck in a friendly but persistent manner and led him to the window. Outside, training was going on. Gary pointed to the left. Jim and Sal stood opposite Shrek, listening while the other man gave them tactical lessons.

“I told you no one had been hurt,” Gary said. “I sent your dishwasher on an errand. Manny, right? He should be back soon.”

Reece didn’t say anything, but if April had told him the truth—and he believed she had—that really wasn’t Sal or Jim out there. It was some fucking demon in their skin. Manny had suffered the same fate.

“Why did you want to see me?”

“You were good this morning. You protected the compound.”

Bile rose in Reece’s throat, but he forced himself to
ask, “What were those things that we fought? I mean, I know they were demons. I believe you now.”

Gary beamed. The effect was terrifying. “So you’re on board?”

“Hell, yes. I just want to know when we go for my sister. I can’t stand it that she’s out there with one of
them
.”

“Wise decision, my friend. I’m glad to hear you say it.”

The smile didn’t falter but it didn’t lessen the threat in his tone either. Gary trusted Reece just as much as Reece trusted Gary.

“Those were hellhounds we fought,” Gary went on. “Creatures from the bowels of the demon world. Your sister’s captor thought they’d destroy us. But he didn’t count on you getting in his way, did he?”

“I’m going to make that demon see God,” Reece agreed, thinking of Gary when he said it.

Gary laughed. “That’s my boy. I have a plan, you’ll be glad to know.”

“Which is?”

“Your sister has been showing some spunk.”

Reece caught himself before he smiled. “She’s been accused of that before.”

Gary’s eyes narrowed. “We’ve heard rumors that Abaddon has sent his ravens for her.”

Ice formed in Reece’s gut. “Abaddon? Is that like the devil?”

“No,” Gary replied with a merry laugh. “But there
are things in the demon world to fear just as much. Abaddon is the king of such things. He sent the demon that has your sister.”

“And now he’s sent ravens?” Reece asked. Lost, as usual, in the twists and turns of Gary’s conversation.

“And she sent them back.”

Reece frowned. “I don’t follow.”

“There is only one way into this world,” Gary said patiently.

“Through this mysterious door my sister and I open and close,” Reece said in a bored tone. But that’s not how he felt.

“Yes. And Abaddon’s ravens were among the first to come through. They’ve been here years. Years, Reece.”

“How many years?” he asked, but he didn’t need Gary to tell him the exact date. He could do the math.

“Fifteen.”

Fifteen years ago, he and Roxanne had been fished out of a lake and miraculously revived.

“They are sentries. Messengers.”

Gary scowled down at his feet, brooding. And suddenly Reece had a moment of understanding, and he thought he grasped what had happened.

Reece didn’t even know what this mysterious door was. He had no clue how he opened it by dying and less of an idea about how Roxanne managed to shut it again. But somehow his sister had worked it out. And she’d sent those ravens back to meet their maker.

“So Roxanne figured out how to kick them out. That’s good, right?” Reece said, pulling Gary’s attention from the floor. Pretending for all he was worth that he and Gary were on the same team.

“Yes, yes. A victory we needed. And now we need to press our advantage.”

Reece’s face was going to break from the stress of smiling when inside dread roiled and ripped. “Great. What are we going to do?”

“Your sister has shown an exceptional ability. But we need to help her now. We need to give her the chance to work her magic on a bigger scale.”

“And how are we going to do that?”

“We have messengers of our own. And we’ve sent one with an invitation she won’t refuse. We’ve baited our trap, and now we just need to bring the rest of Abaddon’s servants to your sister so she can . . . dispose of them in the same way.”

For the first time since this conversation began, Reece felt a moment of relief. Yes. That’s exactly what they needed to do. But all he’d learned, all he’d realized had brought him to another point, one that settled low inside him and felt . . .
right
.

Roxanne could close the door . . . but what good would that do if he just kept opening it again? Before his sister
worked her magic,
Reece needed to find a way to destroy the only key.

S
anto felt numb, like he’d been encased in an insulated sleeve that made everything seem to happen in the distance. He watched the scavenger Roxanne thought was her friend hit the ground, blood splattering everywhere. The gunshot had been muted by the pillow and he hoped it hadn’t been heard, but quiet or not, the bullet had done its job. At his side, Roxanne stifled a scream, but the terror in her gasp clenched inside him.

He closed the door quickly, ignoring her. He couldn’t let himself feel her pain. He couldn’t let himself feel anything.

Keeping the pillow wrapped around the gun, he put three more bullets in the scavenger’s head, one after another until there was nothing left of the young man’s
skull. A dark shadow oozed out with the blood and scurried across the floor and through the open back door.

Roxanne made a tight, horrified sound, muffled by the hand she’d clapped over her mouth. Without pausing, Santo moved to the bedroom, yanked a blanket off the bed, and came back to cover up the corpse. It didn’t do much good. The bloody mess would be burned on his retinas long after he left the human world behind and no longer had eyes with which to see.

Roxanne watched Santo like she would a wild animal suddenly loose at the zoo. The hurt and fear in her eyes nearly destroyed him. He wanted to hand her the gun, to tell her to do the same thing to him. Put a bullet in his head. It’s what the real Santo had wanted all along. The reaper had been foolish to think he could play this game of human. He knew that now. But the game was near an end.

He stalked over to Roxanne, grabbed her arm, and took her outside on the balcony, away from the body. It was the only respite he could give her.

“Why did you shoot him?” she demanded.

“Manny was already dead. A demon killed him two nights ago so it could use his body.”

The hard, cold fact of it drained the blood from her face. She gave a small “Oh” and swallowed hard, accepting what he said without further questions. Some part of him rejoiced in the simple show of trust. Some part of him raged in fury.

“I didn’t know they could do that,” she whispered,
covering her face. “I didn’t put it together but it explains so much. The missing bodies.” Her voice cracked and her shoulders shook. “They would have done the same to me if you hadn’t been there, wouldn’t they? Use my body like a change of clothes.”