Dark Series, The Color of Seven and The Color of Dusk (Books We Love Special Edition) (31 page)

Sadie paced the parlor,
wringing her hands.
She wanted to moan, she wanted to scream.
She wanted to tear her hair and heap curses on the force that insisted on involving her boys in this nightmare.

Joshua lay on the couch, propped up by its pillows
.
Everett sat in one of the big wing-backed chairs.
He envied Sadie her freedom to pace.
He remain
ed
stationary by a supreme effort of will,
determined not to let himself fly into a useless rage that might precipitate a stroke or heart attack.

The knock on the door split the tension in the room, shattering Sadie’s raw and bleeding nerve endings.
Everett rose to his feet.

“Everett, you go out tonight to tend any sick folks, I’s never
goan
forgive you!
Not never!” she spat, as he crossed the floor.

“Woman, I wouldn’t leave you tonight to tend the damn
p
resident,” he
said,
and opened the door.
He stared at the entity standing on the porch
and then turned his head
quickly to stare back into the room at Sadie
. Then he looked back at
the visitor again. H
e
’
d
known
Sadie had a twin, but he’d never met her.
Sadie rushed up and
pu
lled
Tamara
into the hall.

“Wh
u
t on earth you doin’ here?”

“Doan
know.
I jest know I need to be here.”

“Oh, God!
Whatever’s happenin
’, it
goan
happen
tonight
?
!
”

“Sadie, I
doan
know.
I jest—”

“Well, why
doan
you know?
You always know!
Know for everybody else, you can’t know for yo’ own famil
y?
All you can do is lay this on my boy and not give him no help?”

“Sadie.”
Everett laid his hand on her shoulder.
“
You know i
t ain’t Tamara’s fault.”

Sadie’s face crumbled
.
She turned blindly and Everett pulled her into his arms, murmuring softly against her ear.

“Don’t, honey,” he said.
It was the first endearment he
’d
ever uttered to her in the presence of others.
“Don’t.
He’ll be home.”

* * *

Paul had Cain in his sights
, a perfect shot lined up to
hit his target
’s brain
dead center.
A
s though the nightmare creations
from beyond the door
sensed Cain’s eminent danger, they swarmed, swooping and swirling in front of him simultaneously with the gun’s roar.
One of them absorbed the bullet
flying home to its target bet
ween Cain’s eyes.
It gave a high-pitched squeal
of rage. T
he reddened hole where the bullet entered healed over almost instaneously.

Isaiah shouted in disbelief.
Paul fired the smoking gun instinctively, expending all
remaining bullets.
The
deadly swarm
intercepted every shot.

“
Spies!
” roared Cain.
“
Go, my peoples!
Bring me de spies of our enemies!”

“Run, Isaiah!
Run!”

The swarm of demons swooped in front
of them, hissing and squealing, slowing their speed, blocking their path, obscuring their vision.
Paul and Isaiah, with no words passing between them, turned at the same time to face
the mob.
There was no way out.
Frenzied hands, fueled by the extra strength of the drugs, dragged them back to the clearing.

“Well, well, well,” laughed Cain.
“White man, you walkin’ where you got
noooo
business to walk.
Know
dat?”

“You peoples done lost yo’
minds
?” Isaiah spewed forth, attempt
ing
to reach the members of
a
c
ongregation no longer his.

Cain casually lifted his hand and backhanded the Reverend so hard he spit blood.

“Nobody int
erested in whut you got to say,
ol’
man.
Not no
mo
’
.”
Cain
didn’t shift
his eyes from Paul.
“You
dat
doctor, ain’t you?
Devlin.
D
e
do-gooder.
You Joshua’s Daddy?
Anybody
wid one eye and half-sense know
dat
boy half-white.
Fact is, now
dat
I see you, you even favor some.
Notice he ain’t here tonight.”

Paul stared back at Cain.

“A
sked
you a question, white man.”

Paul
stared. Cain
laughed.
Then he backh
anded Isaiah again, so hard
Paul feared
the older man’s
neck had cracked.

“I say, I a
ske
d you a question, white man.”
Cain lifted his hand toward Isaiah again.

“He’s my brother.
”

“An’
ain’t nobody ever noticed, has
dey?
I swear, stupid as all
dese niggers be, ain’t no wonder
de
white man runnin’ all over
‘em.”
Cain stood and gazed thoughtfully at his captives.
A small smile danced on his lips.
“So Josh done gone runnin’ to his big brother, has he?
D
oan
much like
dat, white man.
D
oan
nobody run ‘way from me, not once
dey
mine.”

Paul stared straight back at Cain, refusing to lower his eyes.

“An’
doan
no man, ‘specially no
white man
!
” Cain spat the words out as though they were spoiled meat
.
“No
white man
goan
walk away from
dis
circle.”
He threw his head back from his mighty shoulders and laughed.
“You and
yo
’
brother, you mighty tight
wid each other, ain’t you?”

Paul
didn’t answer. C
ain lazily raised his hand
towards
again.
Isaiah could take few more of Cain’s blows.

“Yes,” Paul
said, and elaborated no further.

“’Course, I knew
dat
already, way every
body t
alk ‘bout how he always trailin’
after you.
An’ you jest com
e
a
runnin’ you find out he been keepin’ my compa
ny.
D
at
boy, he do take a little mo’ pushin’ den most
do.
Once or twice
dere, I wondered myself how he keep walkin’, much as I had to feed him.
Still, you right handy, showin’ up right now.
I be
li
eve, yeah, I do be
li
e
ve, you do real well.
Had me somethin’ special planned to kick off things in
dis
town, ain’t never tried it ‘fore, and yeah, you do real
fiiiinnnne
.”

Cain
laughed again
.
“An’ yo’ brother, I
doan
want him to miss
de
fun.
An’ I sho’ ca
n’t let him tell our
secrets and think he get away
wid it.
My peoples wo
uldn’t like
it.
Too bad.
D
at
boy real bright.
Mighta
even had a future.
Could
a taught him a lot.
Not many folkses got ‘nuff sense.
Let’s
us see, now.
You here, and he ain’t.
So I jest take a wild guess he sittin’ in
dat
fine house of yo’s on that fancy s
treet while his big brother take
care of
de
bad man.
Dat be right?”

Paul, damned if he did and equally damned if he didn’t, didn’t wait for Cain to raise his hand in Isaiah’s direction.

“No,” he said, knowing full well Cain
knew exactly where Joshua was.

“Damn, white men bad liars.
Well,
dat
doan
matter right now.
I want him here.”
He pointed to Isaiah and motioned to two of his older, and therefore, stronger, acolytes, Levi Thompson and Jake Milton.

“Take him,” he said.
“Middle of
de
circle.”

“Jake, I pulled you through scarlet fever last winter!”
Paul shouted.
“My
p
apa saved your leg when that wagon overturned on you two years ago, Levi!
Isaiah baptized both of you!”

Cain’s fist lashed out.
In the first stunned second
s
after its impact with his flesh, Paul was
sure
his jaw was
broken
.

“I say,
take him
!”

Levi and Jake grabbed Isaiah’s arms and pulled him forward.

“
N
o
!”

Isaiah turned his head and spoke over his shoulder
to be certain Paul heard him.

“Mist’ Paul, you ca
n’t do nuttin’.
You a mighty fine man, son, been proud to know you.”

“
I
saiah
!
”

“
Shii
iii
iittt,
white man!
He in better shape
den you.
Leastways his be quick.”

Chapter
Thirty-One

Shadows hung heavy in the corners of the
pa
r
lor
.
Tension thick as Janie’s stew vibrated in the air.
Suddenly the night
filled with the echoing laughter of Cain’s First Lieutenant
. A
dull thud sounded on the floor as he lobbed Cain’s calling card through the open window.
It bounced and then lay still.
Isaiah Gorley’s bloody head
.

Sadie rushed to Everett and
and bracketed
his
cheeks in her palms.

“Doan you dare!” she ordered
.
“Doan
you dare give in and start rantin’ and ravin’!
You have a fallin’ down fit now, I ain’t
never
goan
forgive you!”

Everett raised his own hands and encircled Sadie’s wrists.

“I won’t,” he promised.
“Let go, honey.
I won’t.”

Sadie wasn’t convinced but he’d reacted much better than she’d hoped. Taking him at his word, she
moved toward her sister.

“We goin’ after my boy,” she said.

“
M
ama
!”
Josh yelled behind her.
He
tore off th
e sofa and rushed to his father. Everett, on his knees in the
center of the floor near Isaiah’s head,
gripped his chest with one hand. His face poured sweat and turned blue.

“Oh, my God,” moaned Sadie,
kneeling
beside him.
“You lied to me, Everett, you said you wouldn’t!
You ain’t never lied to me before!”