Authors: Apryl Baker
“Yeah.”
“Shame on you for not telling me. If I’d known, I could have warned you,” he sighs.
“Warn
ed me?”
“You did notice you were blurting things out you normally wouldn’t have?” Silas gives me a look one bestows upon a two-year-old when saying, hot, don’t touch!
“So he
did
do something to me and Dan?” I ask. “Did he drug us?”
“
No, he didn’t,” Silas says and then curses when he pricks a finger. “He doesn’t need to. You
can’t
lie to Ezekiel Crane, no matter who you are. Well, except for your mother. Melissa lied to him every day quite easily. I still don’t know how she managed that one.”
That’s an interesting fact I file away for later. My mother could lie to Zeke. He did say she never told him anything about her family.
“I can lie to
anyone
,” I scoff. “I’m very good at it.”
“
Oh, I know that, my darling girl.” He gives me a smile that thaws his eyes just a bit. “Unfortunately, even
you
can’t lie to him. As I said, no one can but your mother.”
“Not even you?” I ask curiously.
“Not even me.” He frowns at the black blood welling up on his finger before dipping the file into it. “It’s harder for him to get the truth out of me, however. Give me your hand.”
“What? Why?” I ask.
“Emma Rose, are we doing this again?” Silas sighs wearily. “We
have
had this discussion.” This time he doesn’t wait for me to obey, but simply grabs my hand and turns it over so the soft flesh of the underside of my forearm is exposed. “My pets are waiting for me to send them to your foster mother. Remember
that
when I say…Do. Not. Scream.”
Before I even realize what he’s doing, the nail file cuts my arm. I bite my lip to keep from crying out. The file slashes at my skin and I try to pull away, to fight, but he’s got me in a firm hold. “Be still,” his hisses. “You’ll make me ruin it.”
Fifteen minutes later, Silas admires his handiwork, while I fight down all the things I want to scream at him. He slices open his finger and uses the blood to trace the design carved out on my arm. Once he’s satisfied with that, he reaches into his jeans pocket and pulls out a tiny vial the size of a quarter that glows with a solid blue light. Silas pulls the stopper from the top and dumps the glowing contents into his hands. He cups it gently, stroking it almost with a loving touch. The light shies away and I feel terror emanating from it.
“Remember, no screaming,” he warns and grips my arm once more. “The neighbors are watching.” Silas forces the tiny ball into the open wound and I nearly black out from pain. Fire scorches every
ounce of my being, tearing through me. I force myself to take shallow breaths. It’s not just physical pain, either, but also blind terror, anger, and death. The same emotions I feel when ghosts get close enough to invade my personal space. No! He can’t have…
“What was that?” I whisper.
“Don’t concern yourself with the
what
, Emma Rose, just the why. There now, all done.” He lets me pull back my arm.
I turn it over and examine the intricate design he gave me. It’s foreign and looks very, very ancient. The black lines are wide and spread from my elbow to my knuckles. A flash of light chases from one end of the design down to the other and
then it’s gone. I stare blankly at my arm. Where did the design go?
“You can’t see it,” Silas says. “No one can, not even your father.”
“Why?” I ask, running fingers along my arm. It hurts, but there are no wounds.
“Well, mostly so you’ll stop giving away our little secrets, of course,” he tells me. “Your father has the ability to ask you a question and you will answer him truthfully. I
’m not sure how he does this. It’s an ability that’s been in his family for centuries. It’s also one we have no real weapon against…except for
that
.” He gestures toward my arm. “It’s a dangerous solution, however. We’ve been trying to perfect it, but had only one other live through the Searing.”
“The Searing?”
“You felt the fire burn through every cell in your body?”
“Yes.” I can still feel it.
“That sigil sends a fire through you. I won’t get technical, but since you survived it, your father can never force the truth from you again. You can look him in the eyes and lie to his face with a smile.”
“What about Dan?” I ask. “Dan knows a lot. We both spilled the beans earlier.”
“I took care of Daniel earlier,” Silas says, his grin wider. “You may have to go and untie him, though.”
“What?” I shout and jump up. “What did you do to Dan?”
“Oh for the love of…sit down! That old man over there is becoming much too curious. If you don’t behave, I may have to go over there and pull his stomach out through his nose. It will be very unpleasant for him, but very therapeutic for me after the day I’ve had.”
I glance over to see Mr. Burnett frowning at us. He’s a nice old geezer, always smiling and helping out people in the neighborhood. I’d seen him help Mrs. Moore unload her groceries just this morning. I can’t let Silas hurt him.
“Hey, Mr. Burnett!” I wave.
“Everything okay, Mattie?” he hollers.
“Yes, sir! This is my cousin, Silas Crane. He and I are just getting acquainted.”
The old man frowns, but doesn’t say much else. The entire block
knows I’d found my dad. I’m hoping Mr. Burnett will leave it be and take it at face value.
“You going inside?” he calls.
“No, sir, not until Silas leaves.”
He nods and goes back to his flowers. He’d been pulling weeds when we sat down on the swing. As long as I’m outside where he can watch me, he assumes I’m safer. Nice old coot. I’m just glad the porch railing blocked what Silas had been doing to my arm.
“Good girl.” Silas beams like a proud papa. “You
do
please me, my girl. You please me more than you’ll ever know.”
“I don’t care if I please you or not,” I snap back. “What did you do to Dan?”
“I had to test the new design on someone before I tried it on you.” Silas shrugged. “Dan’s apartment isn’t demon-proofed so I tied the boy to his bed and imprinted the design upon him first. He survived it, so I came here.”
“The blood on your hands from before, was that Dan’s?” Fear
takes root in my stomach and everything in me wants to run to find Dan, but the demon sitting next to me keeps me still. If I push, he could go back and kill Dan.
“No, not his. I had to collect a debt, and was already irritated because I had to call in
two
markers to get the souls I needed for the designs. When my mark ran away, I took my frustration out on him. I do so love a good gouging.” His fingers flex, as if sinking them into someone and I cringe away from him.
“So Dan’s okay?” I ask, cautious.
“He was still breathing when I left him.” Silas shrugs and stands up. “Now, you and I are going to need to chat more about your father, but I have some business to attend to first. There is a very talented young actor who is in need of my services. One has to adore Hollywood. Do try to stay out of trouble until I return.”
I blink and he’s gone. Then I’m up and running for my phone on the kitchen table. Dan doesn’t answer. I didn’t really expect him to, but
I needed to try. Next call. Eli picks up on the first ring.
“What’s wrong and why the hell haven’t you been answering your phone?”
“We need to get to Dan’s.” I can hear my voice crack and fight back the sob that’s threatening. I don’t have time to break down right now. “Silas did something to him and he’s not answering his phone.”
“Caleb and I are in Boone,” Eli says, frustrated. “Call Dad. He’s still in Charlotte. I put Dad’s number in your phone.”
I don’t even say ’bye, just disconnect and dig through my contacts for J. Malone. He answers on the third ring. “Hello?”
“Mr. Malone, it’s Mattie
. Silas did something to Dan!”
“Where are the two of you?” he asks, voice rough but calm.
“I’m home and Dan is at his apartment, I think.”
“Can you meet me there?”
“No! I don’t have a ride. Can you pick me up? I have a key to Dan’s place. Please hurry, Mr. Malone. Silas said he was still breathing, but…”
“I’ll be there in
twenty minutes.”
The phone goes dead and I shove it in my pocket.
Please, please let Dan be okay.
By the time Mr. Malone picks me up and we reach Dan’s apartment, an hour has passed. I know
logically, if he’s tied up he can’t answer the phone, but that doesn’t stop this insane fear in my gut. I’m so scared I can’t stop shaking. I can’t lose Dan, I just can’t.
I’m out of the
SUV and running even before Mr. Malone can stop. His apartment is on the third floor. That elevator ride feels like a slow crawl. All I can think about is finding Dan cold and dead, tied to his bed because a demon decided to use him as guinea pig. This is on
me
.
When I get the door open, I shout his name, but can’t hear anything. Did Silas gag him? The bedroom door is firmly closed. When I open it, I freeze. Dan is lying face down on his bed, tied spread eagle with a piece of duct tape over his mouth. Mr. Malone pushes me aside and rushes to check his pulse. Then he’s on his phone, calling 911. All I can do is stare, frozen, like a statue
.
Dan has always been my rock, the one person who never let me down. To see him lying there helpless opens a deep
, dark rift inside of me. Rage and anger bubble out, and it has to go somewhere. All I can feel is the burn of the rage running rampant through me. Silas will pay for this!
“Mattie?”
I glance to where Mr. Malone is eying me warily.
“Mattie, your eyes…”
“What about my eyes?” I ask.
“They’re turning black.”
Black? Black is the color of a demon’s eyes. I can’t think about that right now. “Will he be okay?” I ask instead.
Mr. Malone sighs while cutting the bindings. “I don’t know. There are no physical wounds, so I’m not sure what happened. Do you know what Silas did to him?”
I nod. I wish I didn’t. “He used him to test a design to make me immune to my father’s truth trick. When Dan survived it, Silas did the same thing to me.”
“I don’t see anything like that.” Mr. Malone leans closer and turns Dan over. Dan’s head rolls to one side. There’s a vicious cut near his right temple. Silas must have knocked him out. The rage burns hotter. Silas is going to suffer.
“The design disappears once Silas forces a soul into the wounds. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what that glowing stuff was in the vial,” I say against the rage.
Mr. Malone’s face pales. “He soul-locked it?”
I resist touching Dan, since that wouldn’t help him. “I don’t know what that means.”
“Mattie, what are you doing here?”
It can’t be…
My eyes jerk to the open bedroom door. Dan is standing there, looking at me oddly. I glance back to the bed. His body
’s there, but his soul is out. Fudgepops. This means he’s close to death. Where is the freaking ambulance?
“Dan…” I try to speak, but choke on the words. He can’t die. I won’t let him die. No matter what I have to do, I won’t let him die. He’s all I have. Panic swirls, mixing with the barely-controlled rage within.
“He’s going to be okay, Mattie,” Mr. Malone says and wraps an arm around me.
“You don’t see him, but I do,” I whisper, while staring at his soul standing across from me.
“Mattie, what do you see?”
Dan asks.
“Is there something here?”
I step away from Mr. Malone and Dan’s eyes land on his own body.
“What the…that’s me.”
Dan’s face pales.
“I’m…dead?”
“Not yet,” I tell him, ignoring Mr. Malone. “I won’t let you die, Dan, I promise. No matter what I have to do, I
won’t
let you die.”
The EMTs rush into the room and Mr. Malone pulls me to the side while they work on Dan’s body. In a blur, I hear random facts thrown out about a weak and thready pulse and shallow breathing. I pay it no mind. Instead, I watch Ghost-Dan as he
stares, horrified, at the EMTs working to stabilize his body.
I hear one of the EMTs curse and glance over just long enough to see Dan’s heartbeat flat-line on the monitor they’d hooked to him. Mr. Malone rushes over, terrified, but I stay put…for another reason. The doorway to the afterlife has opened. I see the beautiful white light appear, and Dan gazes into it. His face lights up. But as a Reaper, I’ve never looked into the light. Whatever Dan sees, it makes him happy.