Adelaide Upset (13 page)

I didn’t like to admit
this to myself, but in a weird way, I’d enjoyed playing up Lucas as
my boyfriend, implying that we had a kinky sex life. Okay,
imply
is a nice
word for
lie
. I’d lied, but it had been satisfying. I was not entirely
sure why.

The dog was swirling
circles around the kitchen as I finished up dinner, cleaning my
dishes before preparing for bed. I thought about Demidov’s diary,
shooting the closet under my stairs a troubled look. Nancy’s
prediction ate at me, forcing me to contemplate the thing that
scared me most. Not that I’d invite a demon through the veil, but
the circumstances that would lead to such an event. What horrible
situation could possibly induce me to call up a demon?

As if trying to escape the
diary, I hurried through the kitchen, opening the back door. I
paused only long enough to call, “I’m going to Luke’s!” Maybe Smith
was lurking around the house somewhere.

But if I’d expected to
find sanctuary at Luke’s house, then I was sadly mistaken.
Everything inside was so still, the place a dark hull with the
lights off. I moved through, flipping switches as I went, trying to
brighten it up.

I saw the blinking orange
light at once. Lucas kept a sideboard in the hall, his answering
machine resting on top. Since I didn’t have a phone, he often
called his own place to reach me when he was away. I pressed the
button down, excited to hear his voice.

Only it wasn’t
Lucas.

“
One missed call,”
announced the robotic voice.

Beep
.

“
Hey, it’s Elaine. I don’t
know if you’ve left yet, but I talked to your family. They want you
to stay with them. Call me back when you get this, if not, we’ll
talk about it when you get here.” A pause, the soft, slow breath of
a woman coming through the line. “You know you can always stay with
me.”

Click
.

I’m not quite sure what
happened after that. My mind had jumped to warp speed, spinning out
incomplete thoughts. I think I replayed the message a few times. I
know I chanted that it was a wrong number. Lucas never talked about
his family, always shying from the topic. I’d assumed he was an
orphan. Stupid. Stupid. It was a wrong number. Luke was in
Asheville, a car thing. He never
actually
said that, but his
trips were always work related. Stupid. Stupid. It had to be a
wrong number. Otherwise, who was Elaine? There was no mistaking the
implication she’d tacked on at the end, but that didn’t matter. It
was a wrong number.

I no longer wanted to sleep at Luke’s,
though I doubted I would sleep at all. I lurched down the hall, my
legs stiff like foreign sticks, not wanting to cooperate as I fled
out the back door.

Halfway back to my house,
I was scrabbling over the fence when Smith arrived. I hadn’t
thought to turn Luke’s lights off, so blocks of orange from the
windows were splashed across the yard. It was still hard to see
Smith in the near-dark, but his emotions gave him away. Alarm.
Unease. Consternation.

Had he heard the message too?

Ungainly in the dark, I flopped off the
fence, stumbling to right myself. “Well,” I whispered, squinting to
see him. “What is it?”

His coloring was muted in
the dark, but his shape was firm. He was projecting himself
clearly, but not turning solid, which, in and of itself was a
message. He wanted to communicate, but reserve his strength. His
arm cut silently through the shadows, and it took me a moment to
register that he was pointing, pointing toward my house.

I glanced past him,
surveying the property. The upstairs window in my loft was lit,
lights shining bright.

I had not left them
on.

“
Who?” I asked.

With a series of
inarticulate gestures, the only thing Smith managed to communicate
was his frustration.

“
I swear, after this we’re
both learning sign language.”

Stepping forward I meant
to creep through my yard, but Smith decided to turn solid long
enough to tug on the back of my shirt. He was worried, but not a
lot, which I took as another message. “I’m not going to go barging
in there like an idiot.” Smith was not at all assured by that. “I’m
just going to peek through the windows. Plus,” I said, giving the
bulge in my pocket a firm pat, “I’m not completely helpless.” Smith
was not assured by that either, but I ignored him as I hunched
forward, skimming through the yard.

Crouched beneath the large
kitchen window, hugging the wood siding, I slowly craned my neck,
using one eye to peer through the glass. The kitchen was dark, but
a light from the living room filtered down the hall, feebly
declaring that as far as I could see, nothing was amiss. I ducked
down, crawling around the corner.

There was a hedgerow along
the front of my house, so getting close to the living room window
was a challenge. The branches clacked and the leaves rustled as I
pushed my way forward, stretching over the stack of
vegetation.

It was easy to see in with
the light on, but there was no sign of an intruder in the living
room either. Whoever it was, they were upstairs in my room. A
lingering glance assured that nothing was out of place, the
downstairs empty. I backed out of the bushes, moving for the front
door. Smith, who’d been trailing me like a persistent fog at my
feet, plucked at my clothing, both nervous and agitated. That made
two of us.

I paused to explain, but
my motivations were selfish and stupid. So I shrugged and kept
walking. Up the steps I went, my hand closing firmly over the knob,
giving it a slow twist. I opened the door halfway, scanning the
room carefully before slipping through the gap and easing it shut
behind me.

An overhead noise made me
jolt in place. It wasn’t particularly ominous, no scream or
gunshots, just the sound of shifting, maybe heavy tread across the
wooden floorboards. I crept across the carpet on my way to the
stairwell, prepared to investigate. But there was a slight tap
followed by a creak, the top stair groaning under new weight. No
need to go up, whoever it was, they were on their way
down.

And I was about to lose
the element of surprise!

I rushed across the living
room, around the couch, and dropped down. I felt sure I’d made a
conspicuous amount of noise; even my breathing was loud and
erratic. My adrenaline was coursing, ratcheting up reactions in
response to this game of cat and mouse.

The clipped sound of their
descent was measured and easy, no rushing, they hadn’t heard me. I
lost their position as they stepped onto the carpet, and I stared
up at the ceiling, thinking they would round the couch any second
and see me.

But the intruder didn’t do
that. I saw the trim figure of a woman disappear down the hall,
moving for the kitchen. Stiff skirt, high collar, and gloves—it was
that shark Raina Thompson. The nerve!

And she was heading towards Demidov’s
diary!

Not wanting her to see me
cowered behind the couch I jerked upright, storming after her as I
yelled, “What the hell are you doing in my house!”

She pivoted neatly,
unsurprised by my sudden appearance. “Ah. So there you are,” she
said, inspecting me, eyes skimming over my outline. “I could sense
you lurking about.”

“One doesn’t lurk in one’s own home,” I
said, thinking it best to match her cool attitude. “You, on the
other hand, seem quite the proficient.”

We stared at each other
for an extended time, the air fully charged between us.

Raina was a rail-thin
woman, slightly past her prime, with the prim dress of a school
teacher. She proved that looks could be deceiving. This was not her
first time breaking into my house, though the last time she’d
knocked me out. History would not be repeating itself. She was an
ice queen, I knew that now, capable of terrible things. She had
sanctioned my murder once, encouraging the muscle not to make a
mess as he killed me. She would do anything for her one true love:
Power. Everything else she held in contempt, including me,
especially me.

“I suggest you run,” I finally said.

“
Nonsense,” she responded,
dripping her disdain upon me. “I have a job to complete, and I
refuse to leave until I’ve glanced over every inch of this poor
excuse for a house.”

“
You must be hiding a set
of balls under that skirt,” I said, shocked by her gall. “Are you
honestly suggesting that I stand around and let you tear apart my
house for a second time?”

She shrugged one bony
shoulder. “It
is
your best option.”

“
I beg to differ,” I
replied, taking one menacing step forward.

“
Of course,” she said,
raising her voice to stop me in my tracks, “I wouldn’t be foolish
enough to think a young twit like you would follow the wisest
course. I came prepared, you see.” From her pocket she withdrew a
syringe, the needle capped in clear plastic.

“
Good luck getting that
into me a second time.”

“As I said, I don’t rely on luck.” She
reached around behind her, unclipping something from the belt at
her waist.

Shit
. It was a Taser, and Taser
trumps pepper spray.

Seeing my expression Raina
offered up a biting smile, her hands running along the gun-shaped
stunner. “It has a range of twenty-one feet.”

“
Okay,” I said, steeping
my voice with total submission. “What do you want me to
do?”

She took a bold step in my
direction, tossing the syringe at me. I didn’t move to catch it,
letting it lightly hit my chest where it rolled off to land by my
feet. “What is it?” Bending down, I took the opportunity to glance
through my lashes, furtively watching how she handled the stun
gun.

“
Don’t worry,” she said,
though her emotions conveyed no assurance or comfort. “It’s
non-lethal.”

I remained in my crouched
position, legs poised beneath me as I rolled the syringe through my
fingers. I did this for so long that Raina grew impatient. “Inject
yourself,” she commanded crisply.

I removed the plastic cap,
letting it drop to the floor. Then slowly, drawing out each moment,
I extended my arm. With the other hand I raised the syringe,
bringing it to hover over the bend in my arm where the skin seemed
thinnest.

It was that moment before,
the moment when you’re sure you’ve won, that you are at your
weakest. I launched myself down the hall at Raina, staying low as I
moved. The Taser erupted, little wires shooting over my shoulder,
embedding the wall with crackling blue sparks. I tackled her, both
of us crashing into the kitchen, a jumble of limbs.

Her strength surprised me.
Those thin arms became wiry as they grappled mine, and her fingers
bit into my skin. I struggled to keep her away from the hallway,
away from the Taser and syringe. Her struggle was more violent, and
it wasn’t long before I caught an elbow to the face. I scrambled to
my knees while she turned to grab the centerpiece off my table.
Apples dropped to the floor with a bruising thud, rolling slowly as
Raina swung the ceramic dish down on my head. I threw up an arm,
catching the bowl with it instead. It hurt, pain flashing down my
spine and to my toes. But the bowl didn’t break, not until Raina
dropped it, then shards shot across the kitchen floor like a
fireworks display. She was off, running past me, rigid in her
desire for weapons and protection.

I gripped her skirt, but
it slipped through my fingers so I dove after her ankle, using my
neck and curled arm to trap it. Raina cried out for the first time,
a sharp sound of surprise as she struck the floor. I didn’t give
her time to think, crawling up her body until I straddled her
waist. I pulled the bottle from my pocket, and if I do say so
myself, handled it quite well.

“
Stop squirming or I’ll
unleash my pepper spray.” She lashed out, trying to hit the bottle
from my fingers and nearly succeeded. “
Fine!”

I sprayed the bitch.

The liquid streamed out,
surprising me. I’d expected a fine mist for some reason. So it took
a little aiming on my part to get her right in the eyeballs, but I
shouldn’t have made the effort. The stink of it seemed to permeate
the air, mingling with Raina’s shrieks. She flailed around,
scrubbing her eyes, but I had a feeling she was only making things
worse.

Her eyes watered
profusely, the tears blending with snot strings that clung about
her mouth. Raina’s face was a soupy mess, most undignified, but I
didn’t have a chance to enjoy my victory because I could feel my
control quickly slipping.

In her desperation and
discomfort, which I felt acutely, she fought like a madwoman,
bucking, scratching and biting. I struggled to keep her in place
even as I began to succumb to the pepper spray’s effects. It was as
though I’d walked into a room full of chopped onions, and I
sniffed, trying to keep the snot in place even as my eyes grew
glassy and wet. Raina took advantage of the moment, latching on to
some of my hair and giving it a yank. She didn’t let go either,
frantically pulling, hoping she could dump me off.