Dark Demon Rising: Whisperings Paranormal Mystery book seven (11 page)

He
flipped Avery over, and Avery lay on his stomach pinned by an angry demon.

“Royal!”
I yelled.

Royal
came prepared. He wrenched Avery’s hands behind his back and held them there
with one hand as he unclipped cuffs from his belt with the other. Out cold,
Avery didn’t struggle.

Royal
cast a glance at Maggie as he secured Avery’s wrists. “You, on your knees,
hands behind your neck. Now!”

Maggie
scrambled to her knees and managed to get one hand behind her neck but the
other went to her head. “Ouch.”

“Get
that hand up,” Royal snarled. “Who are you?”

“Maggie
Benson,” Maggie stuttered. “Sir.”

“What
is this man to you?”

“Nothing.
I thought the cabin was unoccupied. I broke in.”

Where
was she going with this?

“Why?”

“My
friends and I like to party. I decided to check out the place.”

“Get
out.” Royal got upright, drew his Glock from the angle draw holster under his
jacket and held it on Avery. “Run, as far and as fast as you can.”

She
used her hands on the floor to push up and backed away from Royal.

“No,
Maggie, you can’t! He’ll kill Avery.”

She
ignored me and took another step to the door.

She
wasn’t fast enough for Royal. “Go!” he roared.

Maggie
twitched. Blinking, she turned to the door.

I
read Royal’s body language and what I saw frightened me. His pale-copper skin
darkened to a ruddy brown and his copper eyes roiled in their depths. Royal is
a law-abiding man with a conscience bigger than Niagara Falls, he knew shooting
Avery was murder, but he wanted to pull the trigger. His hand trembled as he tried
to master his rage.

Were
I in my body, I’d feel electricity skittering over my skin like a million ants.
Maggie rubbed her wrists through the parka; she felt the charge in the air.

Her
presence might be the one thing holding Royal back.

I
was tempted to yell at her, but she was already on edge. “Maggie, don’t go,” I said
softly. “He won’t hurt you. I promise.”

Perhaps
if Royal killed Avery, nothing changed for me. But perhaps it did. I couldn’t
take the risk, or let Royal commit murder.

“Maggie,
please,” I moaned. “He’s a good man. If he kills Avery, it’s all over for him.”
Not to mention it would be all over for Avery.

She
stopped with her hand on the doorknob, took in a deep breath and nodded.
Turning to Royal, she said shakily, “I’m not going anywhere. You can’t shoot
him. It’ll be murder.”

“Get
out,
now!
” Royal growled.

She
took a hesitant step toward him. “Your finger’s so tight on the trigger, one
twitch is all it’ll take. He’s cuffed, so why don’t you holster your gun and
we’ll talk.”

He
looked ready to explode, but his expression changed, the anger replaced by
comprehension. His finger released its death hold on the trigger and he backed
a few paces away from Avery, but kept the gun trained on him. “You did not come
looking for an empty house to party in. Who are you, Maggie Benson?”

“You’re
doing great, Maggie,” I said. “Keep talking. Keep him talking.”

But
Maggie had run out of words.

Royal
nodded grimly. “Very well. I’m turning Magnusen in and you are going with me.”

“I
didn’t want to shoot her,” Avery said in a muffled voice. “He forced me to. I
had no choice.”

Royal
stared at Maggie for another second. He holstered his gun, swung away, bent,
grabbed the neck of Avery’s jacket and yanked him to a sitting position. “What
did you say?”

Blood
trickled down Avery’s face from a contusion on his cheek. It must have tickled.
He lifted his shoulder and dipped his head to rub his face, smearing the blood
on it. “Oh, I wanted to hurt her when he told me
she
put my son in jail.
He died because of her. But I couldn’t put my family through that. When I
refused, he threatened Anne and Susan.”

“Who?
What are you talking about?” Royal asked.

Avery
went on with a faraway, horrified look in his eyes. “He tore our dog apart with
his hands! I didn’t think anyone could be as strong. With his bare hands!”

He
gulped repeatedly before going on. “He swore he’d do the same to Anne and Susan
if I didn’t do as he said. I imagined seeing my wife and daughter like . . . what
was left of Jasper.”

So
Jasper didn’t run away.

“With
his bare hands
.” Dread thick as sludge turned in my
belly.
Please God, no.

I
don’t think Royal was breathing. Shivering, arms wrapped about herself, Maggie
swallowed hard.

“He
told me exactly where to shoot her.” Avery looked at Royal. “He told me to run,
stay ahead of the police. I must remain free so I could give you his message. I
planned to leave tonight and head south. He said you’d eventually find me,
wherever I went.”

Royal
came to life. He hoisted Avery by his lapels. The man’s toes hung two inches
above the floor. “Who?”

Avery
met his eyes. “I have a message for you from Dagka Shan. Only blood and magic
can bring your woman back.”

If
I could have breathed I would have stopped breathing. If my heart beat, it would
have faltered. As if I swayed on the brink of a precipice, my stomach dropped
away and I felt I’d topple into nothing.

“You
can’t imagine. . . .” Avery said.

But
I could, and already knew who Avery spoke of when he described his pet’s
horrible death. I found myself muttering,
“no, no,”
under my breath as I
desperately tried to push away visions of a massacre in Nebraska and the memory
of a room deep in the bowels of the High House. A powerful, pitiless, insane
man, torn flesh dripping from his curled fingers. Dagka Shan. Much as I wanted
to deny the possibility, how else did Avery know the name? Who else was that
powerful, that merciless?

Royal
dropped Avery who slid down the wall to sit with legs bent under him.

Dagka
Shan. It changed everything. With Shan involved, Royal needed all the help he
could get. I couldn’t keep silent.

“There’s
nothing else for it. Maggie, you have to convince him I’m alive. Say you want
to talk to him and go outside where Avery can’t hear you.”

Maggie’s
eyes tried to pop out of her head, but she nodded. “There’s something you
should know,” she told Royal. “But not here.” She made for the back door.

With
a glance at Avery, Royal followed. They stepped outside into the snow. Royal
folded his arms and turned a hard look on Maggie.

“Tell
him,” I urged. “It’ll be okay.”

“You
want to know why I’m here?” she began.

“Tell
the police.”

“You’ll
change your mind when you hear.” She took in air which made her chest shudder.
“Tiff’s not a vegetable kept alive by machines. I’m a clairvoyant. I speak to
her. She’s with me now.”

A
humorless little smile began to form on one side of Royal’s mouth, then his
lips flattened. “You have five seconds to leave before I throw you in a snowbank.
I will not be gentle.”

Oh
dear. I ought to take control. It was the only way to make him understand.

“Keep
it together, Maggie. I’m going to tell you what to say. Okay?”

I
charged ahead. “Tell him only four people know where Jack and Mel are buried.”
Saying they were in my basement would have had more impact, but Maggie didn’t
need to know that.

“She
says only four people know where Jack and Mel are buried—what happened to them?”

I
rolled my eyes. “This will work better if you repeat
only
what I say, or
you’ll confuse him.”

“But—”

I
used a warning tone. “Maggie.”

“Oh,
right. She says—”

Royal
suddenly got in her face. “How do you know that?”

Maggie
looked at him towering above her. Her tone became apologetic. “I didn’t until
she told me. I guess the four are you, Mel, Jack and Tiff?”

The
color washed from his face. He couldn’t explain this away. Nobody else knew old
Frederick Coleman buried my roommates’ bodies in the cellar. Royal knew because
I told him.

“Good.
Keep going.” And I told her what to say.

“You
know Jack and Mel recently learned how to leave Tiff’s house where they’ve been
stuck since 1986 and 1990 respectively. Carrie taught them how. Who’s Carrie?”

“Maggie!”

“Sor-ry.”

“You
are speaking to Tiff?” Royal asked, as if trying to comprehend his words.

“Yes.
Which is why I’m making a mess of it. She’s telling me things and—”

“Maggie!
Get with the program! Finish what I told you to say.”

“So,”
she went on. “Tiff can do it. Jack and Mel went to the hospital and found her. They
taught her how to cling to a person’s aura to move with them. They came to me. Tiff’s
not dead but somehow got pushed out of her body. She can’t be a shade but she
operates by the same rules. We’ve been looking for Avery to stop you from killing
him. She doesn’t know what affect his death will have on her.”

I
looked into his dark-copper eyes and sorrow I didn’t think I could bear slid
through me. “I’m here, Royal. I’ve missed you so much.” My hands wanted to
stroke the familiar planes of his face. I wanted to hold him, so much it hurt.

“She
misses you so much,” Maggie whispered with dewy eyes.

Royal’s
face twisted, his pain a physical, visible thing.

“Repeat
what I say, Maggie.
Only
what I say.” When I spoke to Jack’s ex-lover
Dale, he heard my voice but Jack’s words. Maggie was my voice as I tried to
make Royal believe.

“Remember
when we went to Portland? We came out of the Economy Lodge and Detective Haney
was outside? He saw us but you zipped us out of sight, leaving the poor guy
wondering if he imagined us?

“And
when you disappeared and I thought I’d never find you. Cic. . . .” I hated to
say my uncle’s name. “Cicero had you all the time.”

As
she repeated my words, Maggie’s eyes bugged out with the need to question me.

“And
England? We went there looking for Paul Norton and instead found Carrie and an
elemental. And you thought you were so ha-ha-bloody-funny talking me into
eating the traditional English lunch at the Heart and Garter.”

Royal
looked away and brushed his face with his sleeve. He looked back with moist
eyes. “Tiff? I can’t believe. . . . It can’t be.”

Maggie
spoke with the feeling I put into my words. “You have to believe, Royal. I need
you to. I need
you
.”

He
put the back of his hand to his mouth and briefly shut his eyes. Looking at her
again, he dropped his hand and said, “We should continue this elsewhere, after
I take Magnusen to Clarion PD.”

“But
he’ll tell them about Shan,” I said.

“I
doubt they will believe him,” he said after Maggie echoed my words. “It is a
wild story and there is no proof. If they try to investigate, they will get
nowhere.”

“It
doesn’t seem fair, Avery taking the fall when he had no choice.” I was glad he
didn’t kill Avery. He was Shan’s tool. Shan threatened his family and Avery
already lost his son. What man chose to let his loved ones die so a stranger
might live?

“Perhaps
his lawyers will plead insanity,” Royal added.

“He
saw Maggie, he knows her name.”

Maggie
automatically repeated my words, paused with her lips parted, then gasped, “
Shit!
”

Royal
said, “You were unconscious when I asked your name. That is to your advantage. I
will talk to him. He will not tell the police you were here.”

How
did he mean to swing that?

Unconvinced,
Maggie walked in a small circle, flinging her arms all over the place. “Shit,
shit, shit!”

“Do
not worry. I will remind him how he struck you as he came out of hiding and
threatened you with a firearm, and suggest he does not want an additional
charge of battery filed against him.”

Back
in the cabin, her shoes sopping wet and feet frozen, Maggie paced and fumed. Royal
set in to interrogate Avery. This meant asking him the same questions
repeatedly, hoping the man slipped up. But Avery said what he’d already told
us, nothing more. Royal paced, boots crunching glass shards.

I
couldn’t keep still. With half an ear on Royal’s and Avery’s terse conversation,
I went to the kitchen. I pulled my braid forward over my shoulder and tugged as
I tried to think, but my brain didn’t cooperate. Shan’s message spoke of bringing
me back, so he knew what happened to me after I was shot. He forced Avery to
shoot me, told him
exactly
where the bullet should hit me. The first
shot was a deliberate miss, to make me look up.

I
thought we were safe with Shan held captive by the Cousins. Were they all in
this?

Only
blood and magic can bring your woman back.
What the
fuck
did that mean? What did he want from Royal?

Maggie
came behind me as I stood in the kitchen. “What’s going on, Tiff? Who is Dagka
Shan?”

She
needn’t have bothered to mute her voice. With his superior senses, Royal heard
her. But he concentrated on wearing down Avery so maybe what Maggie said went
over his head.

And
what if he did listen? He knew I was here and Maggie and I talked.

“Shan
is an old enemy. A really, really bad dude. He was incarcerated, locked away
forever. Apparently not anymore.”

I
decided not to tell her about Gelpha, the Dark Cousins and Bel-Athaer. As it
was I had pulled her in deep enough, she should not have to carry that burden
of knowledge.

“It
seems he made Avery shoot you.”

“Yeah,
poor guy. I should hate him, but he didn’t have a choice. Shan didn’t give him
one.”

“But
what does he want?”

I
folded my arms and looked through the back window. “No idea, and I don’t think
Royal is getting anywhere with Avery.”

Royal
came behind Maggie, brushed past and swiveled to face her. “You will wait here
until I return.”

“Tell
him yes.”

Her
chin pumped up and down.

Royal
hoisted Avery over his shoulder and left through the back door. I watched him
stride down the driveway. “His pickup must be farther down.”

Maggie
folded her arms around herself. She felt the cold now adrenalin no longer
pumped through her. The cabin was chilly when we came in, now icy air flooding
through the broken window made it frigid. “I’m not staying here. I’ll freeze.”

“You
must. You leave, he’ll come looking for you and he won’t be happy. And he’ll
find you, don’t doubt it for a second.”

She
made for the back door. “If he can find me so easily, why stay? And I don’t
care about his mood, not when I’m about to die of hypothermia.”

Agh!
I sunk my hands into her aura before she left me behind.

Maggie
plowed around the cabin and down the driveway. She slowed when her feet almost
went out from under her. But we got to her car without an accident.

She
delved in her hip pocket, frowned, plunged her hand in her other pocket and her
back pockets. “Where are my keys?”

“Did
they fall out when the wall hit you? You went down pretty hard.”

Hefting
a huge, irritable sigh, Maggie about-turned.

Halfway
to the cabin, I harked back to Royal brushing past Maggie. No! He didn’t!

Bet
he did.

I
didn’t voice my suspicion till Maggie had searched the cabin and remained
keyless.

“He
what
?”

“I
think he snuck them from your pocket when he pushed past you.”

She
muttered and mumbled and compared Royal to one animal after another. I didn’t
defend him.

When
she lost steam, I went to the closet under the stairs. “I’m taking a look. Coming?
Maybe it’s warmer down there.”

I
peered over the edge at a homemade wooden ladder, down a brick chimney into
darkness. “I’ll go first.”

I
stepped on the ladder and started down. What would happen if I let go? Would I drift
downward or stay in thin air? I didn’t experiment, but moved my feet as if I
felt the wooden rungs.

Light
from upstairs gave a little illumination so I didn’t descend into utter
darkness, but it wasn’t much better. Being a ghost didn’t enhance my vision and
I couldn’t fumble for a switch at the bottom. “Can’t see a dratted thing,” I
called to Maggie. “Avery has to have lights down here, or a flashlight.”

She
perched on the ladder above me. “Or a bomb. This place might be rigged to
explode.” She descended the last two steps and pointed to the right of the
ladder. “I see a switch.”

“If
you’re waiting for me to flick it, think again.” I wiggled my fingers at her.

“I
meant what I said about a bomb.”

“Jesus.”
I rolled my eyes. Then I got close to the switch and saw a wire ran along the
wall from it. The wire went to a lightbulb in the ceiling.

“It’s
a light switch. I can see the bulb.”

“If
you say so.” Maggie gingerly pushed the switch up.

Light
blossomed. The switch activated more than the bulb I’d spotted, it flicked on
half a dozen more in the small room, plus a standard lamp and a desk lamp.

We
stood in a bunker almost the size of the cabin’s first floor, with the crude ladder
landing in the center. Metal shelves and closets hid most of three cinderblock
walls. Cork boards covered in sticky notes and maps filled the gaps, except
where two bunk sets, side by side, occupied the remaining space. Tin cans,
canisters, packets and boxes of dry goods and five-gallon water bottles crammed
the shelves. A long sofa, a dinette set and a desk occupied the middle of the
bunker.

On
the other side of the ladder, against the fourth wall, we found what I recognized
as a portable camping shower and a latrine unit. More shelves and cabinets, and
another desk with an office chair.