The Others 03: The Demon You Know Read online

  The woman nodded. "Fine. Drink this." She pushed the glass into Abby's hand. "Samantha, you don't have to stay any longer. Rafe and Graham will have security outside the door all night. She's not going anywhere.”

  The Lupine nodded, said something in a low, tired voice before she slipped out of the room, pulling the door shut behind her.

  Abby swallowed the last of Tess's brew—a sweet, herbal concoction that tasted of green and cinnamon with a faint note of bitterness in the background— and frowned over the rim of the glass. "Did she get hurt in the park?”

  Tess raised an eyebrow and looked at Abby for a long moment. "No, it wasn't in the park.”

  A flush of guilt crept up Abby's face, and she frowned down into her empty cup. "I didn't mean to upset her. I just wanted to get in touch with my brother.”

  "Right. And of course, you should always get what you want. Even when what you want is immature and selfish and a serious threat to your safety and the safety of the people trying to take care of you. The world always works that way.”

  Tess snatched the glass out of Abby's hands and headed toward the door.

  "Hey, I don't think you have the right to get mad at me." Abby's voice stopped Tess just as the other woman reached for the doorknob. "In case you've forgotten, I'm being held here against my will. I never promised to be an obedient little hostage. I'm not going to let you feel all bent out of shape just because I slipped my leash. I didn't hurt anybody. I just left.”

  The look Tess shot Abby nearly singed off her eyebrows. "You didn't hurt anybody?" Tess repeated quietly. "I realize you might not remember everything that happened in the park, since Rule and Samantha said Louamides took over the instant Seth showed up, but if you think your little escapade didn't hurt anyone, let me explain to you how very wrong you are. Not only is Samantha having to deal with the disgrace of having failed to carry out orders given to her by the Alpha of her pack, but the wife of said Alpha is having one of the loudest fights in the history of interspecies relationships because she put herself and her baby at risk to save your ungrateful behind. A man who has done nothing but grab you out of harm's way since the moment he set eyes on you has a bullet wound in his side, and I just finished putting twenty-four stitches in your own brother's calf." She finished her summary on a hiss, her chin jutting out and her blue eyes crackling with anger. "So don't tell me no one got hurt because of you. I've seen the casualty list. And let's just take a peek at how many other people will be hurt because of you if you don't stop being a conceited, selfish, blind little girl.”

  Tess raised a hand, muttered something under her breath, and slapped her palm against Abby's forehead before the other woman could so much as blink, let alone duck.

  If Abby had even for a moment forgotten that Tess De Santos was a witch, what she saw in those moments while the other woman touched her mind ensured she would never forget again. Not for the rest of her life.

  It came in flashes, shorter than commercials, more real than movies. More horrifying than her worst nightmares. She saw her own body lying bloody and broken at the base of a huge stone altar in the middle of an open space. The air seemed to burn with foul, gaseous heat. All around, the world seemed cloaked in blackness while the sky above glowed with a bloodred fire that shed no light but cast shadows everywhere, thick, dense pools of black that seemed to pulse and throb with sentient evil.

  On top of the altar stood a figure so grossly misshapen and twisted in its being that it took several slow heartbeats for Abby to even recognize it as a living being. If you could call something animated with the pure spirit of malice alive. It had bent, broken legs like no beast Abby had ever seen stride upon the earth and a long, disproportionate torso that swayed back and forth like a great snake. Its arms seemed too long for its body, huge, swollen knuckles dragging on the ground like a gorilla's.

  A huge, vaguely bovine skull sat atop wide, muscular shoulders, but the skull looked nearly bare. What little flesh still clung to it looked stringy and rotten and vile. Huge horns grew from the center of its forehead, spearing up toward the dark, cursed sky.

  It was a figure Abby knew she could never have conjured even in her darkest moments, and while she watched, it threw back its head and gave a mighty bellow that sent her flesh crawling. It sounded like a thousand tortured souls screaming all at once, and its echo set the earth to trembling. As it raised its great fists, she saw that it held a ball of fire the same sullen red as the sky in one hand. In the other it clutched a child.

  Helpless, Abby watched as the perspective of the image shifted, pulling back like a camera to show a wider shot. Around the altar, Abby began to see the city, now smoldering and ruined beneath the crimson darkness. Bodies lay strewn in the streets, creatures ghastly and cruel hunted the living, and small groups of fighters waged doomed battles against the hordes of fiendish creatures that seemed to pour like an infinite flood through a portal near the altar.

  Saint John the Divine had never envisioned an Apocalypse so complete and so terrible.

  "Tess, that's enough!”

  The shout was accompanied by firm hands grasping Abby by the shoulders and yanking her out of the reach of the burning hand on her forehead. Blinking through a veil of tears, she saw Samantha standing between her and the witch and snarling. Not at Abby but at Tess.

  "Leave her be! She doesn't understand what you're talking about! You can't just rip her illusions away and leave her with nothing familiar in her entire reality! It's not right!”

  Tess wiped a hand across her own eyes and shot the Lupine a red-rimmed glare. "Someone had to show her the truth. If she keeps thinking what happens to her doesn't matter, she's going to doom us all. I'm not going to let that happen.”

  "And you think showing her the worst-case scenario is going to help? Come on, Tess. She's not Ebenezer Scrooge and you're not the Ghost of Christmas Future.”

  "Someone has to be.”

  "Is that really what will happen?" Abby croaked, feeling as if her throat had been singed by the flames she'd seen in her vision. "Did you show me the future?”

  "No.”

  "Yes.”

  "Tess …" Samantha spoke a warning.

  Tess sighed. "One of them.”

  "One of what?" Abby wondered if she felt as confused as she looked.

  "One of the futures." Tess's anger seemed to be dissipating, leaving behind a fatigue Abby found it easy to sympathize with. "The future changes all the time. Every time we make a decision, we're turning off one path and onto another. Every time we take a new path, the ones we didn't take and the futures they led to cease to exist. Life is like a great big Choose Your Own Adventure novel.”

  "You're psychic?”

  Tess tucked a stray curl behind her ear and sat down on the edge of Abby's bed. "Only in the loosest sense of the word. Really it's like I have déjà vu a lot, only the things I see didn't already happen. They're things that might happen in the future. I've spent a lot of time over the last few years trying to develop it into something like precognition, but what I showed you is as close as I've gotten.”

  "Which isn't very close," Samantha pointed out. She shut the door she must have left open when she reentered the bedroom and sat on the bed corner opposite Tess. "What she comes up with tend to be like fantasies or nightmares. Either the best-case scenario or the worst. I don't think I need to ask which one you got.”

  "Hey, what I showed her is a very real possibility," Tess said, crossing her arms over her chest. "If Uzkiel and his goons get ahold of Louamides and force him to give up the solus spell, the future we're looking at wouldn't necessarily be so different from what she saw.”

  Abby leaned forward over her knees and braced her temples on her palms, burying her fingers in her hair. Then she fisted them as if she would yank the stuff out by the handful.

  "I just can't make this make sense," she said, staring at the embroidered coverlet in her lap. "What I do or didn't do has never been important to anyone but me. And maybe my family.�
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  "Well there's been a major change there.”

  She looked up into Tess's expression, which had settled back into its normal expression of mild amusement.

  "I'm sure this is a job for one of you. For an Other, I mean. Someone with special powers or supernatural strength or speed. I'm sure you could handle this all a lot better without me getting in the way.”

  "It's not a matter of you being in the way. It's a matter of Louamides being in you." Samantha reached out and patted Abby's knee. "Trust me. It'll get less weird once we get Lou out of you.”

  Abby sighed and finally managed to look straight at Samantha. "I'm sorry if I got you in trouble before," she said. "That wasn't my intention.”

  Samantha gave her a half smile. "It's not the first time I've been in trouble. And I somehow doubt it will be the last. Besides, the Luna stepped in and deflected the worst of it. Alpha was too busy worrying about her to keep yelling at me." She pursed her lips. "But if I were you, I'd probably try to avoid running into him for the next few days. Or, you know, decades.”

  "Right. Real easy, given he happens to own the place where I'm being—where I'm staying.”

  Tess must have noticed that catch, but she just grinned. "Oh, did I happen to mention earlier that he and Missy live right next door?”

  Abby collapsed back against the pillow. "Yeah, but thanks for reminding me.”

  "Don't worry about it. If you want my opinion, I think your brother looked almost as pissed off as Graham. Didn't you tell him what was going on when you sent your little bat signal?”

  "How? It's not like I sent him a blueprint of the joint and a schedule of shift changes in the guardhouse by carrier pigeon. I had a cell phone for seventeen seconds. Not even a thirteen-year-old can text that fast. I just let him know I was in trouble.”

  Tess tilted her head. "You may be in even bigger trouble now.”

  Abby just sighed and continued staring at the ceiling.

  "I don't think the brother is anything to worry about," Samantha said dismissively. "The demon, though…now he's another story.”

  "Ugh. Stop. You'll give me nightmares.”

  "Fair's fair," Tess snickered.

  "Says you." Abby turned a pleading expression on the blonde. "But there's no reason I have to see him again, right?" Her mind rushed back to the kiss she'd almost managed to forget and she contemplated pulling the covers over her head. "I'm safe and sound back at the club. There are plenty of people here to look out for me. If I promise not to try to leave until this is all sorted out, can't you send him out to hunt down that Uz-whoever guy? The sooner he does that, the sooner I can get out of everyone's hair.”

  Tess and Samantha exchanged a speaking glance over Abby's head. She didn't think she wanted to hear what it had to say.

  "He's a multitalented fellow," Tess said. "I'm pretty sure he can manage to fit in hunting the fiend and reading you the riot act. In fact, when I left to come upstairs, he was rehearsing in the library.”

  "Gee. Isn't that swell.”

  Samantha rubbed a reassuring hand over Abby's forearm. "I'm sure it won't be all that bad. I mean, he knows you're human, so he'll probably be trying really hard not to hurt you.”

  Abby glared at her. "You're such a comfort.”

  "I've found there's only one sure strategy for dealing with situations like these. You have to go on the offensive. Even if he's the one in the right, you have to throw him off balance. Make him forget that.”

  Tess's beautifully manicured hands punctuated her instructions with decisive gestures. "You'll have to seduce him.”

  "What?!" Abby sprang upright like a jack-in-the-box. "I have to what?!”

  "Seduce him. If you want him to forget about being mad at you.”

  Abby looked over and saw Samantha nodding, her expression serious, as if the idea weren't completely insane.

  "Absolutely," the Lupine agreed. "I mean, I don't have a mate myself, but the Luna swears by the tactic, and if it works on the Alpha ..." She shrugged. "It's got to be worth a try.”

  Abby's stomach felt as if someone had just installed a hamster wheel with a very energetic rodent inside. And then fed it diet pills. "That's—I... I mean…I-I can't.”

  "Sure you can. It's all in the lips." Tess wriggled her eyebrows up and down.

  "No. I can't. Really. I can't.”

  "Why not?”

  Abby just shook her head and wondered if someone had slipped her something. Her heart felt like it might beat a hole straight out of her chest. In double time.

  "I just. . .can't.”

  "Well, I know you're not gay," Tess said, sounding exasperated. "I saw that kiss, remember? If I had been wearing glasses, the things would have been fogged up. Before I opened the door.”

  Samantha looked impressed. "That good?”

  Tess fanned herself with one hand and rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Oy. You should only know like I know.”

  "That's not the point.”

  Both women turned their heads to stare at her, their expressions mirror images of polite curiosity. Neither said a word. The silence stretched on for minutes.

  "What?" Abby finally demanded.

  "Then what is the point?" Samantha asked.

  "We assumed you had one," Tess nodded.

  Members of the media had been right. There was a massive Other conspiracy, only it had nothing to do with taking over the world and enslaving humanity. It had to do with driving Abigail Miriam Baker totally and completely out of her mind.

  "I—I can't... I can't just seduce someone to distract him from being mad at me," she sputtered. "That's…just not right.”

  Samantha blinked. "It's not?”

  "Is it a personal problem? STD?”

  Abby grabbed a pillow and covered her face with it. How long would it take, she wondered, to smother herself this way? "I do not have a sexually transmitted disease.”

  "What did she say?”

  "I think she said 'no.' It's hard to hear through all that goose down.”

  Lowering the pillow just enough to glare at the women over its edge, Abby decided the time investment might be worth it.

  "Because it wouldn't be anything to be ashamed of if you did," Tess continued. "One in five humans in the country has one. Besides, it's not like you could give it to Rule. Others are immune to human diseases.”

  Twenty-three seconds and counting.

  Samantha tilted her head and eyed Abby consideringly. "I don't think that's it. Female sexual dysfunction? Up to forty percent of human women suffer at some point in their lives.”

  Abby slammed the pillow down onto the bed. "Do you people work for the National Center for Health Statistics or something?”

  "We're well informed." Tess studied Abby for a moment, her eyes traveling over what was probably the rat's nest of her hair and the face that probably looked as if it had been dragged backward through a gravel pit and coming to rest on a spot just beneath her collarbone. "Is it a religious thing? You're not a nun, are you? I mean, don't they still wear habits and everything?”

  "Just because I don't sleep around doesn't make me a nun.”

  "Are you a virgin?”

  "What is the sudden fascination with my sex life?" Abby crossed her arms over her chest and scowled.

  "I'm not asking for details; I just want to know if you have one," Tess said. "It's a purely academic question. If you're a virgin, the seduction thing gets a little…trickier.”

  "I'm not a virgin," Abby snapped. "There are days I wish I was, because trust me, that wasn't my finest moment, but I'm not. Not that it matters. There isn't going to be a seduction.”

  Samantha and Tess gave each other another one of those looks.

  The Lupine cleared her throat. "Um, what exactly do you mean, 'finest moment'?”

  "I thought you guys didn't want details.”

  "You can answer in general terms.”

  "It was just a bad idea." One Abby preferred not to dwell on. It only made her feel inept. "I w
as young, stupid, and drunk, and I thought I was in love; he was young, horny, and male, and he thought I was easy.”

  Tess raised her eyebrows. "Had he ever spoken to you?”

  "Har-har.”

  "Okay, this might require some strategizing." Samantha drummed her fingertips on the bedspread. "The Luna must have a negligee you can borrow....”

  Abby squeaked. The idea of appearing before Rule in anything short of full body armor sent chills up her spine.

  She told herself they were bad chills.

  But not even she bought that one.

  "I'm not borrowing anything, and I'm not seducing a demon.”

  "You're not going to go to hell, you know." Tess smiled.

  "How would you know? Are you the Pope? Are you even Catholic?”

  "I don't need to be. Think about it for a second. God is supposed to be loving and forgiving, right? So why would he send a good person to perpetual torment for doing something as natural as having sex? I mean, if it wasn't for God, it wouldn't feel so good, right?”

  Abby grumbled. "What makes you think it feels so good?”

  Tess laughed. Loudly. "My husband. But I'm afraid he's not going to be able to prove it to you. You'll have to go to Rule for that.”

  "I am not going to sleep with Rule!”

  "Look, I'm not here to talk you into it," Tess said, standing. "Frankly, it's no skin off my nose either way. But judging by what I saw in the library yesterday, it's going to happen sooner or later. Anything that produces that much steam produces an equal amount of pressure. I just thought that if it were me, I'd want to be the one deciding when and where to let it off."

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The tension in the library made Rule doubly thankful Graham's security had disarmed Abby's brother before allowing him into the club. Hostility exuded from his every pore.

  In fact, he bore a striking resemblance to his sister.

  It wasn't just attitude that the siblings shared. Her brother might be nearly twice Abby's size, but there was no mistaking their relationship. His features were decidedly more masculine, but Rule recognized the stubborn set of the jaw, the same wide, thickly lashed eyes. Unlike his sister's, the man's eyes were both the same color, a dark, mossy hazel, but their stubborn, suspicious expression was nearly identical to Abby's. His hair was a little darker, a little curlier, and his skin had the look of being habitually tanned, but the two humans obviously shared more than a couple of genes.