It was the pause—the slight, struggling gasp for breath—that made me realize who spoke to me.
“Eli? Eli, where are you?”
Now my pacing became urgent. If Eli was here, maybe I could find him, maybe I could get him to take me to my father and Gaby when the netherworld opened, before it was too late.
But my heart sank before he could even reply. Just as that little hitch in breath told me that the voice belonged to Eli, it also told me that Eli wasn’t here in the living world. Worse, he wasn’t any place where he could help himself, much less me.
“You’re projecting, aren’t you?” I said, answering my own question on his behalf.
“Yes.”
He hissed the word, but I could tell that he made the sound more from exertion than ferocity. Afterward he panted, as though that one word, projected from his dimension to this one, might break him.
“Eli, I can’t leave.” I grimaced and glanced around the empty bridge. “I have to stay here and do this, or they’re going to start—”
Eli’s interrupting scream was so piercing that I reflexively hunched my shoulders and clenched my hands into fists. The shriek ended almost as quickly as it began, fading with a strangled gargle. Like he’d actually been strangled.
“Eli?” I yelled, spinning around frantically. “Eli?”
“Eli is now otherwise engaged,” another voice re-sponded. I searched for this new speaker, but of course, the bridge remained empty.
For a petrified minute, nothing else happened. Then tendrils of black smoke appeared a few feet from me. They began swirling around one another, writhing like a den of snakes until they coalesced and started to form a human figure. Initially, the person’s features were indistinct, as shifting and difficult to determine as shapes in dark water. When they finally solidified, a young man in a well-cut gray suit and wire-rimmed glasses faced me. His smile seemed benign, even gracious. But I clutched the hilt of my knife more tightly.
Alexander Etienne, or Kade LaLaurie, depending on the situation. As if anyone in their right mind would want to meet this thing, in any situation.
“Hello, Amelia sweetheart,” he purred, like we were old friends.
“Go to hell, Kade.”
I spat the words without forethought, and instantly regretted them when Kade started laughing as if I’d just told the most hilarious joke. Which, considering his new home, I probably had.
Kade raised both eyebrows, just above the rims of his wire-frame glasses.
“So, Amelia, how’s life?” he asked. Then he affected a bashful frown. “Oops, I forgot: how’s half-life?”
“Where is she, you insane piece of trash?” I demanded, completely ignoring his taunts.
Kade’s frown grew even more exaggerated, until he resembled an innocent little boy who didn’t understand the question. “Where’s who, Amelia? To whom could you possibly be referring?”
“You know exactly who I’m talking about.”
“Your good friend?”
“Yes,” I growled. “My good friend.”
Kade chuckled. “Well, why didn’t you say so right away? That’s an easy question to answer.”
He slipped his hands into his pockets, rocked onto the balls of his feet, and let loose one low whistle. A second writhing set of smoke-snakes appeared, roiling together beside Kade. Slowly, another person materialized . . . just not the one I expected.
Now Serena Taylor stood next to Kade, wearing the same wrinkled suit and corpse grin that she had in our cemetery. She didn’t say anything but instead released a small, delicate sigh. Instantly, the rotten-egg smell of sulfur washed over me. It curdled my stomach, as did the sight of her grin.
Yet the longer I stared at her, the more I realized that she really was an empty shell. A puppet, just like I’d thought.
“Is this who you were talking about?” Kade asked, wrapping his arm around Serena’s shoulder.
Although it pained me to do so—made me feel like I was writing Serena off—I gulped thickly and replied, “No, not that friend. You know the one I’m talking about.”
“My mistake.” Kade dropped his arm from Serena’s shoulder and grinned again, looking as though he’d been caught playing a practical joke. As soon as Kade stopped touching her, Serena vanished. It made me suspect that she’d never really been there at all.
“You mean Gabrielle Callioux,” Kade said. “Gaby.”
He said her nickname with such obvious contempt that I couldn’t help but make a guttural sound—one that bordered on a snarl.
“Bring her here, Kade. Now.”
To my surprise, he answered, “Gladly, Amelia! Gladly.”
Still flashing that bright smile, he snapped his fingers twice, the way a jerk might order a waitress over to his table. Immediately something began to shimmer above the concrete near his feet. Just a faint, swirling mist at first. Then it took a human, if transparent, shape. But it didn’t take the same upright stance that Kade and Serena had. Instead, this form stayed crouched, huddled close to the ground like a dog afraid of a sharp kick.
Which was exactly what Kade delivered into the translucent figure’s side. It whimpered softly, and Kade turned a satisfied smile back on me.
“Amelia, meet the new Gaby,” he said pleasantly. “Gaby, show some respect to your old friend.”
The form on the ground glanced up at me with wide, unnaturally blue eyes—the same kind of burning, neon eyes that Eli had, the night he projected his body here to warn me about the demons. But even though this creature’s eyes were blue, I saw nothing of Gaby in them—no spark to let me know that the creature knew me, or that it even was Gaby.
“I don’t believe you,” I said, my voice shaking. “That’s not her. It can’t be.”
Kade cocked his head to one side and delivered another brutal kick to the creature’s side. This time it screamed, and I almost crumpled to my knees. There was no question that the voice behind the scream belonged to Gaby.
I cried out her name, just once, and she looked away. In terror, or in shame, I don’t know. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I shook my head wildly, as if that could stop them.
“Let her go,” I shrieked at Kade. “Let her go now.”
Kade pretended to consider it, but after a moment, he scrunched up his face and shook his head.
“Nah. Don’t think I will.”
Once more, he snapped his fingers. Like Serena had done only minutes ago, Gaby vanished like a puff of smoke, leaving nothing behind but the cracked road. I stared at the empty spot she’d just occupied, tempor-arily stunned. Then something hot and acidic began to burn inside me.
It built so quickly and fiercely, I almost didn’t realize that my glow had finally erupted—not until I caught its bright orange reflection in Kade’s eyes, which had suddenly lost an ounce of their maniacal gleam. Faced with my glow again, he didn’t look quite so confident; in fact, he now looked a little scared.
At that moment, I didn’t think. I just flashed him a smile—one that bared as many of my teeth as possible—and lunged for his throat.
I’d almost reached him when the bridge began to sway violently. My foot caught on a ridge of churned-up asphalt, and I dropped to the road with a hard smack. The second I hit the pavement, my glow extinguished and my shoulder made a sickening pop. The sound was so loud, I almost mistook it for the powerful crack that rang throughout the river valley.
But the echo from my fall couldn’t possibly reverberate like that off the metal girders of the bridge.
“What the—,” I began, but a chorus of frenzied screeches interrupted me.
At first I thought that the cries came from the riverbank, where the Seers were still gathered. But when I looked up, I saw the swooping black shapes, diving like enormous birds toward the shoreline.
Wraiths or demons, I couldn’t yet tell.
I didn’t spare a single glance for Kade, to see whether he was cowering or rejoicing—I pushed myself up off the road and ran for the railing. The s
econd I reached it, I gripped the metal edge and leaned over so that I could get a better view of what was happening on the bank.
Below me, the Seers had broken their circles and were running in all directions. Probably because the diving shapes had landed and were now worming their way throughout the crowd, inciting them to frenzy. They were wraiths, then—a fact that was simultaneously relieving and disturbing. Especially since I couldn’t find Joshua in the stampede.
I was still gripping the guardrail, debating whether or not to abandon my post and try to find Joshua, when my fingers suddenly began to ache. I looked down and saw that a thick layer of ice had formed upon the rail, which had shifted in color from muted gray to a mottled mess of red, purple, and black.
Those changes could only mean one thing: the netherworld was descending.
Biting my lip so that I wouldn’t scream, I yanked my hands off the frozen guardrail and tried not to think about how much skin I’d left stuck to the ice. I rubbed my palms against my jeans to warm them and then started to run toward the entrance of the bridge. But before I could reach the edge, another black shape swooped down and landed in front of me.
I shut my eyes, praying that my glow would return and blast the wraith off the bridge. When I opened them, however, I found a nasty surprise waiting for me. The black shape hadn’t formed a wraith at all. Instead, a female demon stared back at me.
“Little lamb,” she whispered. “Are you here for your slaughter?”
My mind went blank with terror. I spun away from the demon, running blindly in the other direction. Which was unfortunate, really, since I barreled right into Kade.
The instant I collided with him, he wrapped his arms around me like a straitjacket, loosening them only to twist me around so that I faced the bridge again. From that vantage point, I could see a small group of demons, moving toward us at a maddeningly unhurried pace. They stopped at the same time, making a sort of flock formation a few feet from us.
The female demon stood at the center of one flank, while a male demon stood at the head of the V. Although I hadn’t seen him in a long time, I recognized him immediately. He was one of the first demons I’d met, the night his companion dragged Eli into the hellpit below the bridge. This male was also the first demon to suggest that I join them—the first demon to covet me.
“It’s lovely to see you again, Amelia,” he said, proving that he remembered me, too. But of course he did—none of us would be here, otherwise.
I didn’t respond, partly because Kade gripped me so tightly and partly because I didn’t want to give any of them the satisfaction of hearing my voice waver.
“Master Belial,” Kade greeted this lead demon slavishly, “this is the girl you’ve sought. I’ve captured her for you.”
The lead demon—Belial, apparently—ignored Kade’s toadying. Instead, a light smile creased the demon’s bloodless skin.
“You’re looking well,” Belial continued, addressing me. “Much prettier than when my colleagues met you in New Orleans.”
At the mention of New Orleans, I began to struggle—however ineffectively—to free myself from Kade’s grasp. I’d wounded a huge number of demons in New Orleans . . . maybe even destroyed them, judging by the fact that a legion had come to attack me and only a few were left to retreat. Suddenly, I could see the demons’ true intentions: they’d created this little game to lure me into turning myself over to them, so that they could punish me for what I’d done. They didn’t want a new servant—they wanted revenge.
Even as I struggled, Belial continued talking. “However pretty you look tonight,” he said, sighing grimly, “the fact remains that we require blood. From either you, or one of your compatriots. Someone goes with us tonight. I’m afraid those are the rules we’ve set out . . . and God forbid we break them.”
His reference to God elicited a chilling round of laughter from the other demons. Belial bowed his head to each side of their formation, acknowledging that they’d picked up on his joke. Then he turned back to me.
“So, Amelia, what’s it to be?”
“I can’t . . . with his arms . . . so tight.”
I cringed and stretched, as if to emphasize the fact that I couldn’t fully answer them under such constraints. Seeing this, Belial jerked his head at Kade, and immediately, my bonds loosened. Even without seeing his face, I could tell Kade didn’t want to release me. But like the well-trained dog he was, he obeyed his master and let me go.
I made a show of rubbing my arms, as if their comfort was the thing that would help me make my decision.
“Okay,” I said, more to myself than the demons. “You need a life, right? That’s what you’re taking tonight, no matter what?”
Belial didn’t speak, but he bowed his head in mock civility.
“Any life?” I pressed.
The demon smiled, flashing his sharp, glistening teeth—far more than any human mouth contained. “Well, I’m sure that will suffice. Of course, we’d prefer your life. But if you feel like turning over one of your friends as this week’s offering . . . maybe you are the girl we’d like you to be.”
I smiled back demurely, batting my eyes at him. “I guess I am that girl, since I think you should take someone else in my place.”
“Consider it done,” Belial crowed, clapping his hands together. “We’ll even let you pick!”
My smile widened into something dark and twisted. “I was hoping you’d say that,” I hissed. Then, before the demons could react, I yanked the serrated knife from my belt, spun around, and plunged the blade deep into Kade LaLaurie’s heart.
Chapter
SEVENTEEN
I’d stabbed Kade without thinking about the consequences. To be honest, I didn’t even think it would work. Like Ruth had said, I could blood-let, but I didn’t think I would actually be able to use a solid, living-world weapon against Kade.
Apparently, I was wrong.
After I sank the knife into him, Kade sputtered for a few, stunned seconds. Then a trail of bright, arterial-red blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. Nowhere else, though—the knife wound in his chest never bled.
He reached up, digging his fingers painfully into my upper arm. They loosened when his entire body began to stiffen. His back went rigid, his fingers drew up into claws, and his face froze into a permanent, ghastly scream; it was exactly what I imagined rigor mortis would look like. When his cold gray eyes whitened over, he let out a final, gargled sound and then fell backward.
By the time he hit the surface of the bridge, Kade LaLaurie was nothing but a months-old corpse with my knife in its chest; a ghost ended once and for all. And I didn’t feel the least bit sorry about it.
With grim resolve, I turned to face the demon horde. But to my surprise, they weren’t preparing to attack me. They didn’t even look angry . . . not exactly, anyway. Their solidly black eyes had widened to even more inhuman proportions, and their smiles had grown ravenous. Lustful, in fact.
Finally, after a few more seconds of slavering, the demon named Belial made a small noise that sounded an awful lot like laughter.
“That was unexpected, Amelia. And—I have to say—absolutely delightful.” The demons behind him murmured in agreement, each of them moving a fraction closer to me.
“You’ll have to forgive us,” Belial went on. “Violent deaths always make us a little . . . tipsy, let’s call it.” He chuckled lightly, as if their sudden bloodlust was charming. Then his smile turned pensive. “You know, Amelia, with instincts like yours, it’s no wonder that the light has given you such unique . . . gifts.”
“What are you talking about?” I spat. “The light hasn’t done anything for me.”
Once more the demon assessed me, but this time I saw a glint of doubt in his black eyes.
“Oh, it’s clear that the light chose you as a vessel for the task,” he mused, not really answering me. “But poor Kade aside, I’m still not entirely certain why. Eli and Kade were strong, wild, and hungry; both were willing to k
ill, and to die. You, however . . .” He paused and then passed another questioning glance over me. “I just don’t think your heart is in this fight.”
Serena’s taunts in the graveyard rose, unbidden, in my mind. So it was true, then: the demons had never wanted to acquire me. At best, they wanted to end me; at worst, imprison me for an eternity of torment in the darkness.
“I’m not weak,” I said firmly, taking a small step toward Belial. “You may think that, but you’re wrong. The reluctance to kill people isn’t weakness. Neither is love.”
“In our world,” Belial whispered, “love is most certainly a weakness.”
As if on a cue, a chorus of whooping howls filled the air. Belial smiled again, but he could no longer mask what he truly was: pure darkness; pure evil. When I heard a familiar voice, calling to me from the entrance of the bridge, I knew why Belial had smiled, and a cold ball of dread settled into my stomach.
“Amelia?” Joshua shouted from the entrance of High Bridge. “Amelia, Ruth and I can’t cross onto the bridge to get you—you have to run!”
I wanted to run to him, wanted us both to escape. But I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off the demon’s taunting smile.
“I told you,” Belial continued to whisper to me, “we will have a life tonight. One of our own certainly doesn’t count. So I’m afraid the person you love most will just have to take your place.”
All of a sudden, a mass of wraiths swarmed up over the edge of the bridge and began to fly toward the entrance. Whatever power Belial had over my gaze, it broke at that moment. I whirled away from him and screamed.
“Joshua, run!”
I only had time to catch his horrified gaze when the wraiths converged upon him like a wave. They would kill him in seconds, I knew it. I whipped back around to the demons, my heart hammering so hard that I could hardly gasp, “Me. Take me inst—”
“No,” Ruth’s commanding shout interrupted my surrender. “You’ll take neither of them.”
Belial, who had been watching me intently this entire time, allowed his head to swivel leisurely toward Ruth. I could see something register in his eyes, and a slow, disquieting smile spread across his face. He raised one hand and, with a simple flick of his wrist, the swarm of wraiths fell away from Joshua, who fell gasping to his knees. Then Belial gestured grandly to Ruth.