Death's Hand (14 page)

A chasm had since opened between them since then—a chasm formed of people like Betty, Stephanie, and Anthony.

For some reason, James suddenly remembered the day he found her in the wilderness surrounded by bodies. Elise claimed she couldn’t remember whether she killed them or not. He had only asked once, afraid she would tell him the truth. James didn’t want to know anymore.

“You wouldn’t have turned the Ramirezes away five years ago,” he said.

“Five years is a long time.” Elise stuffed her hands into her pockets. “I think the demon is after witches. Marisa’s a strong witch, and Lucinde’s showing signs of having a similar gift. Those fiends were also after a witch at Eloquent Blood. If what Lucinde said is right, you’re next, and you’re probably the most powerful witch in the entire country.”

“Is that why you don’t want to be involved? Because you’re concerned I’ll be hurt?”

Her eyes flashed. “Don’t say that like it’s some small thing. Of course I’m worried about you. What the hell do you expect?”

“I can take care of myself, Elise.”

“Are you sure? I don’t think they want the witch alive. Lucinde feels like the body at the hospital did.” She touched her temples. “I think she died. That’s what changed today.”

James’s fists clenched. He stared at the gray sky and the pouring rain.

When he spoke, his voice was low and tense. “You have to do it. You can’t leave them like this.”

“But it’s that death demon again. I know it.”

“I know it, too.” James reached out and took her hand. Elise’s gloves were damp. “Please. If you won’t do it for them, then do it for me.”

She glared at him. “Sometimes you’re a real bastard, James Faulkner. You know that?”

Elise went inside before he could think of a response.

They stood before Augustin and Marisa, dripping rainwater and mud onto the kitchen floor. Marisa had stopped crying. She stared at nothing, but Augustin focused on James and Elise, his eyes ringed with dark bruises.

“I’ll do it,” Elise said. “I’ll exorcise her.”

“And God help us all,” James murmured.

X

James half expected Elise to vanish completely when she left. When she returned forty-five minutes later equipped with an MP3 recorder and her golden chain of charms, relief overwhelmed him.

A grimace stretched across her lips when she walked through the door, but by the time Augustin and Marisa turned to greet the woman they viewed as their last potential savior, she blanked her expression.

“I’ve got everything I need,” she said.

“We’re almost done as well,” James said, gesturing to the paperwork he had been going over with Augustin. “We only need your signature.”

“What’s that?”

“A contract assuring that you’re relieved of liability in the event of any ritual-related accidents,” Augustin said. His face was purplish and dripping with sweat. He had discarded the pretenses of drinking from a glass and clutched a half-empty bottle of whiskey now, which Marisa had been sharing for the last fifteen minutes. “James insisted upon it. He seemed concerned the we would—we might press charges if Lucinde was accidentally hurt.”

“We wouldn’t,” Marisa added quickly.

“Where do I sign?”

James scratched an X in the blank signature box and pushed the paper to her. She didn’t read it before scrawling her signature across the bottom line. Elise dropped the pen and Augustin took the paper.

“Good,” he said. “Good. So… what now?”

“We’ll go downstairs and exorcise your daughter,” Elise said. “You might prefer to stay up here.”

Augustin nodded immediately. Just as immediately, Marisa shook her head. “I want to be with my daughter.”

“It won’t be easy,” Elise said.

“I won’t leave her. I won’t.”

“Suit yourself.” She managed to make it sound like a death sentence.

They passed through the blanket-covered doorway. James caught a glimpse of Augustin staring at the contract on the table, the whiskey bottle pressed to his forehead, and then the door closed.

The darkness in the basement was palpable, as though they waded through warm water. James felt along the wall by the landing and found a light switch. He flicked it, but nothing happened, and he swallowed a lump in his throat. “I need to speak to Elise before we do this. Can you wait up here, Marisa?”

“Yes,” she said, and she waited on the top landing as Elise and James went to the bottom.

Light shone from the cracks around the door to the room where Lucinde was held. James could barely make out the carpet underfoot, striped red and purple and stained with water or something worse. He could see that Elise’s brow was pinched in the half-light.

“If you want to emotionally blackmail me again, so help me God, you better wait until—”

“No,” he interrupted. “I was thinking—piggyback?”

She let out a breath, shoulders sagging. “Piggyback. Good idea. I haven’t done an exorcism in awhile, and... well, I’m not sure I’m strong enough anymore. I could hurt her.”

“Or yourself.”

“I’m not worried about that,” she said.

“And that worries
me
.”

Elise almost smiled. “Just do it.”

He reached within himself, searching for the wellspring of power that flowed from the earth beneath his feet. He caught it and wove it within himself, tighter and tighter until it felt like it might burst out his skin.

James brushed his fingers down her cheek as he released his power. It cascaded through both of them, warming him from the inside out. At the same time, he could feel it warm Elise. He felt the churning sickness in her stomach from being so close to the demonic power of the possessed child, and the ache in her muscles from the earlier struggle.

And then the power coalesced around James’s midsection, like a chain tying him to Elise. It was a secure, comforting feeling. Elise’s sickness abated, and James’s nerves settled.

For one instant, he shared in her emotions as clearly as though they were his own. She was angry, but some part of her did want to save the child—very badly, in fact. She regretted snapping at James. But her fear trumped all. She was terrified of fighting that thing again.

James’s stomach dropped out, and it was as though they both free-fell from a great height. Her eyes shocked open, and she staggered backward, breaking the physical connection between them. But the chain didn’t break. They were connected.

Neither of them was willing to look at the other. “I’m sorry,” James said. “I don’t want to fight that demon again, either.”

“I’m sorry, too.” And he knew she meant it, because he could feel it. “You can come down now,” Elise called, her voice resonating with power. Marisa joined them.

“What now?” she asked.

“Now we perform an exorcism.” Elise pushed the door open, and they filed in, one after another.

Lucinde huddled in the corner, her entire body trembling. Scratching echoed through the basement, and there were fingernail fragments lodged in the plaster. Marisa whimpered.

Elise turned on the MP3 recorder.

“My name is Elise Kavanagh. I am exorcising a demon from Lucinde Ramirez at the behest of her parents, Augustin and Marisa Ramirez. It’s the ninth of May, two-thousand nine, at twenty-one hundred hours.” Elise set the recorder by the door.

Lucinde glared at them over her shoulder, revealing a face that had only grown less human with the passing time. Swollen blood vessels rimmed the edges of her red-tinged eyes.

The girl’s upper lip curled, baring even white teeth. Her gaze flicked from Elise to Marisa, resting briefly on James before focusing on the kopis once more.

Her pupils dilated, and her irises were completely devoured. A low, soft breath escaped her mouth, almost like a snake’s hiss. The note carried demonic power and the stink of sulfur, and the mark on her forehead flared with power.

James felt Elise gather their joined strength around herself, and he fed into it. It built until the air trembled and her very skin seemed to be trying to shiver off her body, and still they kept gathering it, clashing against the energy of the demon. James felt their strength press against Lucinde, and she pushed back. Elise shuddered under the pressure.

Lucinde shifted forward, digging her bloody hands into the floor. Too late, he realized that the ropes Elise had used to bind the girl earlier were piled in the corner. She was free.

“Watch out!” he called.

Lucinde launched from the corner of the room. What was left of her fingernails slashed through the air.

Elise jumped to the side, throwing out an arm to block her. She brushed Elise aside and kept going, striking Marisa instead.

The mother screamed, and down they went.

Blood splattered to the floor. Lucinde growled. Her teeth sunk deep into the flesh of Marisa’s arm, and she worried at it as a dog might gnaw on a bone. Marisa collapsed to her knees, trying to wrench her arm free of her daughter’s mouth. “No,
bambina
!”

Elise clamped her hand around the girl’s jaw and dug her fingernails into her skin, but Lucinde’s bite only tightened. James leapt in, wrapping his arms around Marisa’s waist. He tried to drag her away, but even with the strength of two sets of adult legs, they couldn’t separate mother from daughter. Elise clutched a fistful of Lucinde’s hair and yanked.

“Let go.” Lucinde growled, and Elise jerked harder. “I said, let go!”

Lucinde released the arm. Marisa collapsed into James, cradling her bloody arm to her stomach.

The girl shot between Elise’s legs. Elise turned, but Lucinde was too fast. She clambered up a half-complete shelf toward the narrow window at the ground level. She wiggled through the opening, bare feet kicking behind her.

Elise grabbed for an ankle, but missed.

“Shit!” she swore when the feet disappeared, jumping up to grab the ledge herself.

James was only just behind Marisa in running out the door, up the stairs, and into the kitchen. Augustin blinked wetly at them as they passed. “What…?”

Marisa hit the back door without opening it, stumbling over her own feet. She sagged, favoring her bleeding arm, and the skin began to boil. James caught her, lowering her slowly to the ground. Outside, Elise struggled with the girl in the muddy back yard.

James tried to block out the sensations Elise felt and concentrated on Marisa’s bite, pressing his hand to the wound. “Does it sting?” he asked.

“It feels like acid!”

He reached into his pocket and withdrew a scrap of paper. His connection to Elise made summoning his magic easy, but all too quickly it began to draw off his partner. She wavered, and Lucinde took the opportunity to squirm out from under Elise and bolt for the fence.

James concentrated on healing Marisa’s arm, flicking the healing magic into the air around her. She whimpered. The skin twitched and writhed, but it was no longer bubbling. It settled, red and raw but clean.

“Wait here!”

He joined Elise in the back yard as she tackled Lucinde, smashing both of them into the fence. It shuddered with the force of the impact.

Elise was completely covered in mud, from her knees to her gloves and jacket. Her hands slipped on Lucinde, and the girl darted for a pile of landscaping boulders at the opposite corner.

James moved to cut her off. She froze, then tried to dart in the other direction.

Elise was already there, uncoiling the extra rope in her fists. She was flushed, panting, and exhilarated, her excitement washing through James. Her chain of charms jingled at her belt, and the crosses seemed to glow. Lucinde glanced between Elise, and then to James again, and back. The rain struck her skin and sizzled, evaporating instantly. Her entire body steamed.

“We should get her inside before the neighbors call the police,” he said, and Elise nodded.

Blood-caked fingernails flashed at Elise’s face. She threw herself out of the way, grabbing the girl’s wrist. Lucinde snatched the charms at Elise’s belt. The belt loops popped, and she flung them aside. The charms sank into a puddle of mud.

James dove for Lucinde. She darted aside, but he managed to catch her arm. Her flesh was so hot it nearly burned his hand. He jerked her around, and she kicked him—hard—in the shin.

He growled, hefting Lucinde under his arm. She snapped at his arms with her teeth. He clamped a hand over her mouth.

Elise knelt in the mud, searching for her charms.

“I can’t find them!”

“Forget it. Door,” he grunted. Elise threw it open, and he rushed through.

Marisa and Augustin waited on the other side. The stuffed rabbit had reappeared, and she gave a ragged sob when she saw James and Elise come back inside with her daughter in tow.

“Out of the way!” she ordered. Lucinde kicked hard, nearly squirming out from under James’s arms.

“Get her feet,” he said.

Elise took her by the ankles, bracing them as James dragged her down the stairs.

Marisa squeezed around them and shut the basement window before they dropped Lucinde again. The girl scrabbled over to the corner, curled into a tight ball, and screeched pathetically at James.

Fumbling at the back of her neck, Elise took off her cross necklace and pressed it to Lucinde’s cheek. Her voice hardened, deepening with power as she summoned up the memory of the oft-recited rituals from ancient books to do her first exorcism in years.

“I exorcise you, impious demon,” she recited, and James could envision the same old pages Elise was remembering with perfect clarity. Lucinde’s face screwed up with pain. “In vain do you boast of this deed. I command you to restore her as proof you no longer have any rule over her soul. I abjure—”

Lucinde swung. “Elise!” James yelled.

Her fist connected. Elise’s back smacked into a wall, and Lucinde lunged.

Elise braced herself and took the impact, translating the momentum into a throw. Lucinde slid, but regained her footing immediately.

Elise scooped her rope from the floor, holding it in the joint of her elbow to keep her hands free. She grabbed the girl by her collar and slammed her into the wall. The drywall cracked.

“No—!” Marisa cried, throwing out a hand.