Darker Days (23 page)

“I’d bet my iPod on it.”

“How?”

“Yeah, see that’s the thing…” I leaned back and let the book slip to the ground. Grandpa was one hell of a monster masher. He had resources even Mom couldn’t muster. If he couldn’t find a way to shake this thing, it had to be heavy. And there was only one way I could think of to get rid of something like that.

“I think he made a deal.”

Chapter Thirty

The idea that Grandpa made an agreement with a demon to save Grandma knocked me through Fruit Loops. I’d never met the guy, but Mom said on more than one occasion that Grandpa had been all about the rules. She’d told me once how, after a particularly bad case involving a demon deal, he’d lectured her for hours about asking for a demon’s help. The end results were never what you hoped for and tended to leave a lasting shadow on the family.

You had to choose your words carefully. Demons couldn’t lie, but they could manipulate words like nobody’s business. If you made a deal to save your sweetie from lung cancer, you might end up with it yourself if you weren’t very specific—which the general population wasn’t.

Still… I could understand doing something drastic out of desperation.

After going through the rest of the items in Grandpa’s storage unit, we finally made it back to the office a little after five a.m. I had to keep moving. Keep doing—even if it felt like there was no hope left. The minute I stopped, I thought about Mom and Dad, and I couldn’t do that. Not if I wanted to keep my crap together.

Who could I go to for help? Another witch? The only one I knew enough to ask for that kind of help would be Kendra’s mom, and knowing what I knew now about the Belfair’s involvement with Meredith in the past, it wasn’t likely to happen. Plus, a witch couldn’t get me where I needed to go.

There was Paulson, who’d do pretty much anything for Mom. He’d been carrying a burning torch for her since the fifth grade, but there wasn’t much a necromancer could do in a situation like this, either. Plus, he’d already done me a serious solid by contacting Simon.

Simon.

“Hell in a hailstorm…”

V…

There was one possibility I’d overlooked. One I’d never even considered.

“Valefar.”

“What?”

“Valefar. Dad’s boss.” I turned to Lukas. “When Paulson summoned Simon, he said there was a way to help you. He started to give us a name. Something that started with the letter V.”

“And you think it’s this Valefar?”

“It’d make sense. Dude’s one of the oldest demons in the Shadow Realm. If anyone has a way to save you, it’d be him.” I stood and started to pace. “And if he can save you, then he can help me get Mom and Dad back.”

I had to find a way to get to the Shadow Realm.

“Why would he help us?”

I didn’t answer, and he understood.

His expression went from thoughtful to worried in a single beat of my heart. “He won’t. You’re going to do the same thing Joseph did. You’re going to make a deal with him.”

“I just have to be careful. Demons can’t lie. As long as I’m
very
specific with my request for help and the terms I agree to, there shouldn’t be an issue. Once he makes a promise to help, he’s bound to it.”

“Okay,” Lukas said, though he didn’t seem 100 percent convinced. “But you said only demons could go to the Shadow Realm. That’s where he is, right? How will you speak with him?”

“When I was a kid, Dad used to tell me stories about the Shadow Realm. He said to get there, you had to embrace your inner darkness.”

“Darkness?”

The quirk of his eyebrow and the sudden paling of his skin told me he wasn’t understanding. “Not darkness as in evil—darkness as in the thing that shadow demons are born from. He said he could feel it, stirring inside him. It was like a song calling him home. He told me all he had to do was think of home—focus on that tiny pull inside him that was always there—and boom. Instant free transportation.”

First, though, I needed to be sure I wasn’t crazy.

Half-human offspring of demonic parents were supposed to be normal. We didn’t get inducted into the superpower club. For whatever reason, though, I seemed to have gotten a free pass. Regardless of Mom’s denial, I knew what had happened in the parking lot at Michaels. It was the same thing that had been happening for days now, even if I hadn’t realized the truth. I’d shadowed.

She’d asked why it was happening now, and it was a valid question. I’d been doing what I thought was sleepwalking for years, though never thinking twice about it. At night, there was no effort involved. I was cloaked in shadow. It was possible that it’d been my body’s subconscious way of telling me to pay more attention. I’d never shadowed while awake before the incident in the lot because, well, I’d never
tried
to.

Stepping into the darkness of the hall, I stopped at the bottom of the stairs and closed my eyes. The shadows on the wall were dark, inviting things that called to me. Cool blackness washed over my body, and a small tickle formed in my stomach. The same feeling I’d gotten in the parking lot before I ended up behind the guy trying to rob us. A pounding in my head and an itching in my limbs.

Then, just like that, I was at the top of the stairs.

“Jessie?” Lukas’ frantic screams rose from the first floor.

I opened my mouth to answer, but no words came. The reality of what I’d done—what I’d
really
done—hit home. It was like a trip to the dentist on Christmas day. Exciting and terrifying all at once. On one hand, this was the coolest thing to ever happen. I’d just done something amazing—something they all said I
couldn’t
do. No more normal for me! On the other hand, it was
wrong
. Other than the fact that hybrid kids didn’t inherit demon genetics, the feeling that came with shadowing left me itchy inside. Itchy and cold.

“I’m up here,” I finally managed. “Top of the stairs.”

He skidded to a stop at the bottom, eyes wide. “Did you just—”

I nodded. “I did it. Like,
consciously
did it. I shadowed.”

…

“I don’t like this.”

“Honestly? Neither do I.” Climbing onto the bed, I shook my head and took a deep breath. We’d spent the last twenty minutes arguing over what I was about to do. “I don’t know who else to go to. This is over my head.”

“Meredith’s not going to just release your parents, Jessie. You know that, right?”

“Hence the search for help.”

“This is foolish.”

“I’d gladly take an alternative plan, if you’ve got one.”

He glared. “You’ve never been to this place. This Shadow Realm? How do you know it’s not dangerous?”

“Only one way to find out.”

He didn’t let up. “Why can you do this now? You said you were normal.”

That was the million dollar question, wasn’t it? “I’m supposed to be.”

“But you’re not?”

“I don’t know anymore.” I shook my head.

Even though a part of me had always wanted this—to be something more than
normal
—I couldn’t deny that it scared me a little. My stomach felt queasy, my ears rang, and every muscle ached. There was a feeling deep in my gut that told me this was a bad idea, and that once I crossed the line, there’d be no turning back.

Normally, Mom would be there to sit down with me and beat this thing to death by overanalyzing it, but not this time. This time, it was all me. And wasn’t that what I’d wanted? To prove myself?

Suddenly, I wasn’t so eager.

If Mom were here, she’d glare at me and say something like
Be careful what you wish for
. I was getting the word
irony
tattooed on my ass—right next to the words
Live with free will or die
.

“I understand why you’re against this, but does it even matter? We have to stop Meredith or those people are going to be dragged back to the box, and they’re going to take my parents with them. I have to do whatever I can. I won’t let that happen.”

“Please,” he said, and a part of me just about died. The look on his face, the concern I saw there, caused an aching deep in my chest. Settling on the bed beside me, he shook his head. “Let me think for a bit. I’ll find another way. All right?”

He wasn’t going to let it go. In a way, I didn’t blame him. For some crazy reason, he cared about me. We had no idea what I’d be walking into—
if
I could even pull this off. Still though, my parents’ lives were at stake. Kendra’s life was at stake. I had to try.

“I’ll give you a little time. But think fast.”

He nodded, thankful, and brushed the lightest of kisses across my forehead.

“Could you grab me a glass of water from the kitchen?”

I almost felt bad for tricking him. Without question, he hopped from the bed and disappeared into the hall. Poor Lukas had a lot to learn. I vowed to make it through this—and find a way to keep him here—so I could be the one to teach him.

Eyes closed, I cleared my mind and focused on the intricate picture Dad had painted of the Shadow Realm all those years ago. Dark, starless skies that never changed. Shimmering trees with branches sharper than a new blade’s edge. The buildings, he’d said, were alive. Living, breathing organisms. There were no inanimate objects in the Shadow Realm. Everything had a life force. Everything had a purpose.

Everything was dangerous.

Like with the top of the stairs, I focused on wanting to be there.
Be in the Shadow Realm
. I took a breath, letting myself feel the spark of darkness I’d known deep down was always there. The room blurred, the edges growing watery and vague. Something moved, and a noise, loud and panicked, broke the air around me. Lukas.

“Jessie! No!”

The tug was small at first, then slowly, as it ramped, became a pull. Violent and painful. I tried to open my eyes, suddenly freaked and sure I was making one of the biggest mistakes of my life, but I couldn’t. Or maybe I did. I had no clue because everything turned black. I felt like someone had jerked me to my feet and tossed me into the air. I was soaring up—then plummeting down. A scream spilt my lips and the sound echoed in my ears, bouncing off the walls of my brain and making the hair on the back of my neck and arms stand up. It was wrong. Primal.

Demonic
.

When I hit the ground, the air was knocked from my lungs, and I felt like I’d been run over by a speeding semi. Beside me, someone groaned.

Heel of my hand crammed into my eyes to clear away the fog, I saw Lukas pushing himself off the ground a few feet from me. “What the hell?”

“I grabbed your hand at the last minute.”

“That worked?”

He frowned. “Apparently.” Eyes narrow and accusing, he added, “You lied to me.”

Wow. He was almost as good at the guilt trip game as Mom. “As sorry as I am for lying, I’m not going to apologize. This is my parents we’re talking about, Lukas. And my best friend. And a handful of innocent people. I can’t let them down.”

For a second, I thought he’d call bullshit for sure, but instead, he smiled. “You are truly amazing, Jessie Darker.”

I returned the smile and held out my hand to help him up.

And that’s when the snarling started.

“Don’t move,” I whispered. While I’d never expected to vacation here, I suddenly regretted not doing a bit of research. A few vague bedtime stories from Dad did not prepare one for a place like the Shadow Realm.

Slowly, I started to turn, but the thing growling at our backs charged and hit me like a linebacker.

And just like the last time it knocked me to the ground, it drooled all over me.

“Bad demon!” I shoved the corgi away and struggled to my feet. “Bad Smokey!”

Lukas fought back a grin. “He followed us here?”

“He’s a demon. He lives here, I guess.” When he wasn’t spewing toxic slime on my clothes or acid pee in my shoes, anyway. I looked down at my self-appointed new BFF. “Valefar?”

With a short woof and an erratic swish of his tail, Smokey bounded off.

“I guess we should follow him.”

Chapter Thirty-one

Dad was right about the beautiful. I’d never seen—or imagined—anything quite like the Shadow Realm before. Dark sky with no moon or stars, and air as thick as the bathroom after Mom—the hot water hog—got done showering. Everything had a slight sheen to it. A small sparkle. We’re not talking
vampire in the sun
kind of glow, but an occasional twinkle.

On either side of us, tall buildings that seemed to hum with a life of their own lined the street. Bathed in an assortment of dark colors—blues, purples, and deep reds—they towered into the sky, some stretching so high that they disappeared from sight.

We’d landed on a sidewalk beside the narrow roadway. It seemed normal. Pale concrete, complete with sidewalk cracks and spots of dead, yellowing grass peeked through. The road was a little different. One lane of oddly shimmering blacktop that, every once in awhile, seemed to emit small puffs of white smoke.

We started walking, careful to stay on the path. The grass beyond looked innocent enough, but Dad’s words from childhood bedtime stories echoed in my head.
Everything in the Shadow Realm can and will kill you if given the proper chance
.

Every now and then, I’d hear something—almost like a whisper. About three blocks in, I realized the sounds seemed to be coming from the middle of the road. Stopping, I stooped low and extended a hand to examine the blacktop. Smokey was in my face in an instant, teeth bared and growling.

“Okay, okay. I get it.” I rocked back on my heels and withdrew my hand. Standing, I pulled a piece of paper from my pocket. An old receipt from Starbucks. I let go and the paper fluttered to the ground, landing on the blacktop. It hit the surface, and I was surprised when it sent ripples out in every direction.

“I think it’s liquid or something.” No sooner had I leaned back in for a closer look did the paper dissolve in a puff of smoke and flame, fizzling into extinction.

“Huh. I guess that’s where the
hotter than hell
stuff started.” I looked down at the corgi circling happily at my feet. He barked twice and licked my shoe, leaving a trail of yellow slime behind. “I guess I owe ya.”

Smokey waggled his butt in response and trotted ahead.

The trees overhead were a serious contradiction to the lava-like roadway. Like a winter wonderland, the branches and leaves were encased in what looked like ice. Stunning, they were the only thing here that wasn’t dark and creepy. They reminded me of the branches that used to overhang the sledding trail in Penance Park until they’d crashed through the power lines a few years ago during an ice storm and had to be hacked back into oblivion.

Lukas, equally amazed by the foliage, reached for a low hanging branch before I could stop him.

With a hiss, he jerked back his hand, tilting it upward. An oozing red line leaked from the tip of his pointer finger down to the joint. The leaf fell from the branch and fluttered to the ground, but instead of landing gracefully on the sidewalk, it embedded itself in the concrete with an audible
thwap
. A moment later, it crumbled into nothingness, leaving behind a powdery green pile.

“Oookay, so local plant life—
off limits
.” I stepped back and pulled Lukas with me. “Let’s get moving.”

As if agreeing, Smokey barked once and started forward, his body almost waddling on short legs.

Both sides of the road were lined with buildings and stretched as far as my eyes could see in every direction. Some were dark with no signs or numbers on the front and appeared abandoned, while others seemed occupied. Occasionally, I’d catch a glimpse of something peering out from one of the windows. A human-like figure here, a stooped, fanged thing there, shadowed in a strange illumination. Thankfully, they were all inside while we stayed—arguably safe—on the outside.

After a while, Smokey stopped and turned with a snort. Across the street was an impressive onyx building with tinted glass and an opulent revolving door. It was bigger than most of the others, its twinkle just a bit brighter and more pronounced. It stretched into the cloudless sky, thousands of small illuminated windows covering its front. From the street, you could see people—or what passed for them here—moving around inside.

“Value Far Corporation,” I said out loud. The
company
my dad worked for. Valefar’s company.

“This is the place?”

“It is,” I answered in a grim tone. The black, tar-like river stretched out in front of us. “No idea how we’re going to get across, though.”

Lukas scanned the area and sighed. “Nothing to use as a bridge.”

“Too wide to jump.”

“Can you shadow across? It’s nighttime. That’s just one big shadow, right?”

I closed my eyes and focused on the other side of the road. After a few minutes, I was sure nothing had happened, and opened them. “Apparently not.”

“Now what?”

“Do you wish to cross?” A deep, velvety voice—James Earl Jones with an otherworldly twang—filled the air.

We whirled around. A man in his late twenties in worn jeans and a brown bomber jacket, stood with his arms folded. He wore a disturbing smile and reminded me of the creepy janitor at school. The one that watched the students in the hallway a little too closely.

“The river. Are you looking to cross?”

“We are,” I answered simply.

“Then it’s your lucky day, little demon. I can help you across.”

I ignored the
little demon
comment. It shouldn’t be insulting, right? That’s what I was. “How?”

He flashed a wicked smile and snapped his fingers twice. To our right, the tar began to churn and spit. Something began to rise from the muck. Something pale and long. A concrete path. Wide enough for a single person, it went from our end all the way to the other. “It’s my job. Think of me as the Ferryman…” He twirled around, then bowed. “Only with a bit more style.”

Lukas started forward. He made it to the edge of the sidewalk when the man grabbed his arm.

“Of course, you’ll need to pay the piper.”

“Pay?” Lukas pulled his arm free. “Money?”

The man shook his head and laughed. “Unnecessary. A small token will do.”

“A small token,” I repeated carefully.

“A strand of your hair.”

“That sounds—innocent,” Lukas said with a shrug. “Strange, but innocent.”

“Anything but.” I narrowed my eyes. “A strand of hair can do a lot of damage in the wrong hands.”

The man shrugged and took a step closer. “I
could
take it from you. At least if you give it willingly, you get to cross the road.”

“Why do you want it?”

He waggled an unnaturally long finger and clucked his tongue. “Would you believe I like the way it smells?”

Without hesitation, I pulled a strand free. I knew this was a bad idea. Epically stupid, even. But I needed to get my parents away from Meredith. And to do that, I needed to get across that road to Valefar. And apparently, to get across the road, I had to give in to this guy’s freaky Pantene fetish.

Smiling, he took the hair and waved us ahead. “Carry on.”

Without looking back, I stepped onto the concrete bridge and started across. The road was longer than it looked.
Much
longer. It took us close to ten minutes to walk across. Each time it seemed we were coming to the middle, the path ahead shimmered and stretched.

The further we got from the edge, the noise I’d heard earlier, the faint whispering, grew louder. Suddenly, they didn’t sound so much like whispers, but screams.

“What’s that?” Lukas stopped and pointed.

In the road—water—the stuff I’d thought was white smoke rising from the surface was something else.

“Are those—” He sounded sick.

I couldn’t blame him. Closer now, we could see the shape of the white puffs rising from the black surface. Faces. People. And those whispers? Not so much whispers as screams for help.

“Souls, I’d guess.” A white puff rose from the blackness a few feet from the bridge. A woman’s face, her mouth open in a scream that sent the tiny hairs on the back of my neck twitching, floated up to knee level, then dissipated in a soft
pop
. I shuddered and tugged at Lukas’ sleeve. The less time we spent here, the better it would be for my sanity. “Let’s keep moving.”

When we finally made it to the other end, my feet were starting to hurt.

“This is it.” We stood in front of the tinted glass revolving door. Something inside me stirred. Dual voices in the back of my head fought each other. One screaming for me to push forward—that this was where I’d been
destined
to end up. The other telling me to turn around. That once I stepped over that threshold, there was no turning back.

If it’d been anyone other than Mom, I would have gone with voice number two. She’d kept me away from Dad’s side of the family for a reason—and I trusted her. But her involvement trumped everything. The prize went to voice number one as I stepped up to the spinning glass door and tucked myself inside.

The lobby wasn’t what one would expect to see in hell—on first glance. Bustling and bright, the walls were bathed in a crisp coat of white paint and the soft, beige carpet was in pristine condition.

A bubbly blond woman sat behind a massive semicircle desk on the other side of the room, armed with a smile and teeth so white they almost sparkled. She was chatting with a tall man in a black pinstriped suit and a leather briefcase.

That was all on first glance.

We stepped up to the desk and the room flickered. It was like someone had flipped a switch. Suddenly, the white walls were blackened and stained with something that looked suspiciously like dried blood. There were things stuck to the wall in places—chunks of something. I couldn’t make out what, and I didn’t really want to. The beige carpet was thread bare and burned, still smoking in some places. The receptionist was no longer a blonde with a cheerful smile, but a stooped, hairless thing with black skin and squinty blood-red eyes. When it smiled, it bared several rows of sharp, decaying teeth that dripped slimy black liquid. The stuff pooled at its pointed chin for several seconds before falling with an audible
plop
to the desk below.

The desk itself was a thing of horror. Made of bone and skin and oozing blood. The goo trickled down the sides, collecting on the floor by the base of each leg. To the left of the receptionist sat a large pinkish, purple glob. It gave a wet squishing sound as the creature picked it up and took a large bite, bits slipping down its chin and mingling with the black slime.

I bit down on the inside of my cheek to keep from crying out in surprise—and terror. Cool. I had to play it cool. Demons were a lot like dogs. They could smell fear. Squaring my shoulders, I took a deep breath and hoped my voice didn’t shake too bad. “I’m here to see Valefar.”

Like a mega rubber band, the nightmare snapped back to the previously pristine room. There was no way Lukas had seen what I had. He’d be freaking. Hell,
I
was freaking. Acid churned in my stomach, and I was having a hard time not screaming out loud.

“And do you have an appointment?” Her voice was deceptively sweet, and even though the illusion was back in place, I could still hear the wrongness. The off-pitch canter and the slight, nearly unnoticeable warble.

Craps. “I don’t, actually.”

The creature shook its head. Blond curls bounced back and forth as ruby lips turned downward. “I’m sorry, then. He’s a very busy guy. I can take your name and see if he has time to squeeze you in?”

Wasn’t she a helpful little monster? “Darker. My name is Jessie Darker.”

The room flashed again. White. Black. White again.

The receptionist grinned. “Well, then. There’s always time for a
Darker
.” She pointed to the doorway behind her desk. “Through that door. His office is on the top floor.”

Lukas took my arm and started to lead me around the desk. The blonde’s hand shot out. “Afraid not, hunny bun. She goes up. You stay down.”

“No way,” I said. “He comes with me.”

She rolled her eyes. “If you want up, then you’re going alone.” She turned to Lukas and winked. “He’ll be fine here with me. Stained mortals are just too yummy for words.”

Oh. Yeah. Because that made me feel better. “He’ll be safe?” Because if she gave me her word, then Lukas would be fine. She wouldn’t be
able
to hurt him.

The receptionist nodded with a little too much enthusiasm.

“From you and
anything
else that might come across him, right?”

She flashed a mock frown. “You know your stuff. You have my word. He’ll be safe.”

I pushed open the door and stepped through. As it closed behind me, I heard her mumble, “Spoilsport.”