The Shadows Trilogy (Box Set: Edge of Shadows, Shadows Deep, Veiled Shadows) (63 page)

“Put me down,” Lucy choked.

“No, Lucy, we have to hide,” Ellie said.

She felt Lucy kick and was so surprised that she released her grip. Lucy slid down her body and Ellie found herself facing Lucy’s tortured frame.  “We’re going to kick those demons’ asses,” Lucy said.

“Your magic is back?”

“Yes. I can feel it. I can piggyback off your energy, just like the house does. It should be enough to break whatever is holding them here and send them straight back to Hell,” Lucy’s voice was strained and her eyes were wild.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Ellie said. She could hear the thumps of footsteps on the steps below.

Lucy didn’t say answer Ellie’s question other than glancing in Jake’s direction. “Unless you want to be fried with your friends, I suggest you disappear somewhere else.”

Jake’s mouth gaped, but he didn’t argue.

Lucy grasped one of Ellie’s hands in her own. “I’m not going to lie, El. This is going to hurt.”

Ellie reached down and picked up the shears that Jake had left on the floor. She put them in Lucy’s other hand. “I trust you.”

“You think you can escape me? No one escapes from me!” Christopher’s voice boomed from the staircase and Ellie saw shadowy movement out of the corner of her eye. Her head whipped toward it, and crawling across the wall toward them, Ellie saw a creature that looked exactly like the one she had seen in Mikel’s cell in Hell.

Then she saw Lucy’s arm come up and then in a hard arc, plunge the shears into Ellie’s upper chest. Ellie screamed as Lucy’s other hand locked down on top of the blood pouring from her. Lucy’s eyes were bloodshot red, and although her mouth was moving, Ellie was in too much pain to hear the words.

She felt the looming presence of dark shadows looming all around them, but it was as if a protective bubble enveloped them. The shadows got closer, and now Ellie could see the faces morphing between child and monster.

“Give it to me, El. Give it all to me,” Lucy’s voice rose.

Ellie had no idea how to do what Lucy asked, but she felt something inside of her respond. A kaleidoscope of red, orange, and black flames exploded all around them, but they were protected inside their bubble. The monster’s howls of outrage turned into shrieks of pain. Ellie felt as if she was about to burst into a thousand pieces.

Then the light was gone, and it was just her and Lucy on the stairs. She smelled burned flesh and then she saw the streaks of blood all over the walls. “What did you do?”

“I blew those damn demons back to Hell,” Lucy said. Then with a sheepish grin she continued, “They may be immune to magic, but I guarantee that trip back was painful. With quite a bit of your blood of course. You okay?”

Ellie yanked the shears out of her chest. The wound immediately closed. “I really hate it when you do that. But yes, I’m fine.”

“Good.” Lucy wobbled, and then fainted.

Ellie cried out and caught her just before she hit the floor. As Ellie gently set her down, she heard a tired voice from below.

“Can someone please come down here and cut me loose now?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Lillian escorted David from Alain’s office. David was surprised that they didn’t re-enter the elevator, but instead the air seemed to shift at the back corner of the room revealing a door. As they stepped through, David found they had entered another long dark hallway.

“This way, David,” she said cocking her head toward the left.

As they walked, David felt the bristles of tension emanating from Lillian’s composed form. “Where are we going? I thought that I was going to take my vow.”

“You are,” Lillian said stiffly. As they rounded the corner of the darkened hallway and the door to Alain’s office was out of sight, she whirled on David, and he found himself slammed against the wall.  Lillian’s hand caught him by the neck, and the air in his throat was almost entirely cinched off as she easily raised his body a few inches off the ground.

“What kind of game are you playing, my dear, sweet, little boy?” Her voice was deadly calm.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” David said. He should have known that Lillian would be searching every word he had said thus far, turning them over and weighing them for their ring of truth. He knew that several times he slipped in Alain’s office. He had to turn in the performance of his life. “Don’t you trust me?” He tried to keep his voice light and casual as if Lillian tried to strangle him every day.

“You may be able to fool everyone else, but I’ve known you since the day you were born,” Lillian said. The skin around her eyes tightened, and for just a moment, David saw the decrepit soul hiding beneath Lillian’s carefully made up exterior. “You don’t have a deceptive bone in your body. You’ve always been generous, curious, and empathetic. This turn isn’t in your make-up. There is no way you could be professing your love for that twit Coulter girl, and turning your back on her hours later. What’s your end game, David?”

“Maybe Mikel’s possession rubbed off on me,” David said. “Can you let me go? I’ll try to explain it to you.” He wanted more time to gather his thoughts, but he knew that it was time to play the clincher card.

For a moment, he thought that she was going to go through with strangling him, but then her fingers loosened just enough to allow air back into his throat and then she dropped his feet back onto the floor. David rubbed his neck. He had a feeling if he looked in a mirror, he would be able to see the outline of her perfectly manicured hand still pressed into his skin.

“Talk,” Lillian said. “We’re expected in the ceremonial chamber in less than ten minutes. This had better be good.”

“It started after I arrived in Purgatory,” David said. “I started to remember things that I didn’t remember before; things that if Ellie knew about me, would surely disgust her.”

Lillian’s foot started tapping the floor. “What kind of things?”

“Do you remember when the art school started using the mansion for its classrooms and student housing back in the 60s?” The line between the Other Side and the Afterlife was particularly thin in the waypoints. Over the years, Lillian had used that to her advantage to siphon energy from those infrequent residents in the mansion who tried to live in the house. Lillian had a possessive streak, and it annoyed her to think that anyone else would ever dare to live in the house she had built.

“Yes,” Lillian said.

“Then you probably remember that I was particularly infatuated with one of the students. Rosalyn.” Although David wasn’t able to interact directly with Rosalyn or any of the people on the Other Side, he could catch occasional glimpses of them when they were in a state that mimicked that of the waypoint, usually while they were asleep. David had grown into maturity in the waypoint, and so it was natural that someone like the young raven-haired art student would catch his attention. He had obsessed over finding a way to reach her on the Other Side. Now that he understood what he was capable of doing, he understood that he was the reason the Other Side was even visible to the residents of the waypoint.

“Oh, yes. I remember Rosalyn,” Lillian said. “You were like a love struck puppy dog.”

“So you remember that Joseph also took a similar interest in her,” David enjoyed the tightening of the skin around Lillian’s mouth. She didn’t like to be reminded that her late husband had a roving eye.

“Joseph was weak,” Lillian said evasively. “So?”

“After a few weeks, Rosalyn was gone. You said that when you checked into it that Rosalyn left the school and went back home. Secretly, I think you thought that Joseph had found a way around you to siphon Rosalyn’s life force. I remember that the two of you had some pretty nasty fights about it.”

“Why are you dredging up this ancient history?” Lillian crossed her arms and stared at him impatiently.

“I’m telling you this because Joseph isn’t the one who took Rosalyn’s energy. I did. And Rosalyn wasn’t the only one. Obviously when Mikel wiped my memories, those went with them, but when I was in Purgatory, they started to come back. I started to remember who I had really been before I became David Mitchell. I remembered being Jack Bradford.”

Lillian gaped at him. “There’s no way that’s true. You wouldn’t have been strong enough to do any of that. You didn’t even know a way to do that.”

“Don’t forget that Mikel inhabited my body on and off for over a century. I think that there was enough residual magic left inside me for it to be possible. That first time, with Rosalyn, I didn’t mean to do it. I was actually trying to warn her about Joseph. But once I got a taste of it…” David paused just long enough to lick his lips, “It was such a rush that it was addicting.” He took a step forward and was pleased to see that Lillian took an uncertain step back. “I had to be so careful. I couldn’t let you or Joseph find out what I was doing because I was afraid you’d make me stop. But now I understand that was silly. I know you would have been proud of me, following in your footsteps.”

“No,” Lillian said, shaking her head. “It’s not possible.”

David reached up and touched her shoulder. He braced himself just in time as the shock of the surge up his arm shook them. He forced a smug smile on his face as he stepped back. Then he looked at his hand, balled it into a fist, and then blew on it splaying his fingers wide. “Five precious years in your current state, gone. Good thing you make a habit out of regularly sucking someone else’s life force to remain young.”

Lillian’s face was incredulous. All of the color drained from her cheeks, leaving them ashen and grey. “I never suspected.”

“I was really good at lying. Almost as good as you,” David said pointing at her. “You ask why I’m doing what I’m doing. I’m doing it because I want to, because I chose another path long ago. I don’t want Ellie. I don’t want the life of a pathetic sap. I want to be strong. I
am
strong.”

“If you weren’t about to be bound to my will forever, I’d almost be worried,” Lillian said with an uncomfortable chuckle.

“Then let’s get moving,” David said. “I don’t want to be late.”

They stood there and stared at each other for a few moments, but David never wavered under her scrutiny. Finally, Lillian swept her arm out. “Of course.”

David held back a sigh of relief. He had done it. He had claimed Joseph’s crime as his own. Now there was only one more part to play, and he needed to finish it before Lillian had a chance to check up on his story. Soon, very soon, Lillian would have no idea what hit her.

They walked in silence and then they reached what appeared to be a dead end. Lillian’s hand flashed around the edges of the wall, and a door appeared. David looked at her inquisitively, but she just shrugged and swung the door open, motioning for him to step inside.

The first thing he noticed was the small pool of water in the center of the room. There was a small set of steps leading down into its murky depths. The room itself was circular and tapered candles lit up the walls all the way around it. David saw a small bench off to the side with a small pile of clothes.

“You’ll find your robe there,” Lillian said pointing at the bench. “You have two minutes to get ready.”

David hurried over to the bench, his thoughts a jumble. He felt the buzzing inside of him that he knew was because of the small amount of energy that he had taken from Lillian. It had been the only way that he could prove to her that he had done the things that he said he had done. Her suspicious nature had played right into his hands.

He found a pair of black pants on the bench with a shot of silver that ran along the sides, and a heavy black robe. He slipped out of his clothes and into the pants and robe. Instantly he began to sweat. It was like the temperature of the room was rising.

He turned to find Alain and Lillian standing across the pool from him. Alain was wearing a black hooded robe, and Lillian stood in a black slip dress that accentuated the paleness of her skin. It hadn’t been his imagination. Lillian’s slight frame and bony cheeks were looking haggard, and her hair was no longer shiny and vibrant. He knew that his actions had accelerated her aging process and felt a momentary burst of glee at the idea. He had struck a blow to her vanity, by far one of her weakest points.

Alain motioned toward the water, and his booming voice filled the room. “By your own free will, you are entering into a pact with the sector of Hell. If at any time in the future you attempt to break this pact, your life will be forfeit and your soul damned forever. Do you understand and accept these terms?”

“I do,” David said, raising his chin. He knew what to do. He stepped around to the stairs and descended quickly into the water. It was near boiling, and he could see the steam rising off of it. Rivets of sweat ran down his face, and he wanted nothing more than to ditch the heavy robe, but he knew better than to disrupt what had been started.

Lillian followed behind him into the water, and when he reached the middle, he turned to find her just a foot away. Her eyes gleamed with excitement. Above them, Alain reached out his hands and started to chant words that David didn’t understand.

A silver dagger appeared in the air between David and Lillian.

“The one who does the binding will consecrate the agreement in blood,” Alain said.

David looked up and wished he hadn’t. Alain’s head was thrown back, and he appeared to be in the throes of either pleasure or pain. David wondered if it wasn’t a little bit of both. Lillian swiped the dagger out of the air.

“Now, Lillian,” Alain said.

“David Mitchel, once known as Jack Bradford, do you swear that, with this binding, you will serve the darkness of Hell?” Lillian’s eyes bore into him.

David felt the weight of her words. He feverishly hoped that Veronica had known what she was doing. “I will.”

“Do you swear that you will obey me, Lillian Bradford, as your Master for the rest of eternity?”

David’s throat clenched at the horror of the idea. “I will.”

“You openly and without issue give your soul over to the darkness, now and forever?”

“I do.”

The two small words weren’t even out of his mouth before he saw the flash of metal and then it was embedded into the side of his throat. Pain like he had never felt before exploded throughout his body. It wasn’t just physical pain, but mental as well as his body and his soul obeyed the words of the spell being cast on them. He could feel the world elongate and then snap back into focus just before Lillian advanced on him and pushed him down, submerging him into the water.

Even underneath the surface, Alain’s muffled words rippled in David’s ears. He struggled against Lillian and watched in horror as the murky water rippled and changed to red. He knew that he was strong, but Lillian was stronger. Her grip never wavered, and just as David was about to pass out, she released him and his head shot back over the surface, gasping for air.

He knew what he would find. Lillian’s slit palm grabbed his neck where she had stabbed him and pulled him close. Madness danced in her eyes, and for a moment he thought that she was going to kiss him. Instead, her lips stopped just short of his.

“You are mine now,” she whispered. “Say it.”

A hum filled his body in response to the mingling of his blood with hers, and David’s teeth chattered. A hazy kind of fog settled over his vision.

“I obey and serve,” he said. His voice was hoarse and sounded somehow different to his ears.

Lillian smiled and then removed her hand. Without her support, David slipped and fell backward. He splashed and flailed in the water for a few moments before finally regaining his footing. The water was thicker now, and he feared that, in some way, Alain had changed it to blood. As he stood there, wet, and scared, he saw that Alain waited for him at the top of the steps.

David felt different. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something within him had changed, and not for the better. But he had to put that concern aside. He had hopefully accomplished what he had set out to do. Now he just had to wait for the right opportunity to strike. If things were truly spinning out of control in the Afterlife the way everyone suspected, he didn’t think it would take long. He just had to watch and be ready.

David took the steps slowly, not trusting his feet. Finally, he reached the top. Alain reached out and opened his fist. In it sat a small silver pin. It was of a snake eating its own tail, the symbol of one who was a servant of Hell.