Elegy (13 page)

“It’s lovely to see you again, Amelia,” he said, proving that he remembered me, too. But of course he did—none of us would be here, otherwise.

I didn’t respond, partly because Kade gripped me so tightly and partly because I didn’t want to give any of them the satisfaction of hearing my voice waver.

“Master Belial,” Kade greeted this lead demon slavishly, “this is the girl you’ve sought. I’ve captured her for you.”

The lead demon—Belial, apparently—ignored Kade’s toadying. Instead, a light smile creased the demon’s bloodless skin.

“You’re looking well,” Belial continued, addressing me. “Much prettier than when my colleagues met you in New Orleans.”

At the mention of New Orleans, I began to struggle—however ineffectively—to free myself from Kade’s grasp. I’d wounded a huge number of demons in New Orleans . . . maybe even destroyed them, judging by the fact that a legion had come to attack me and only a few were left to retreat. Suddenly, I could see the demons’ true intentions: they’d created this little game to lure me into turning myself over to them, so that they could punish me for what I’d done. They didn’t want a new servant—they wanted revenge.

Even as I struggled, Belial continued talking. “However pretty you look tonight,” he said, sighing grimly, “the fact remains that we require blood. From either you, or one of your compatriots. Someone goes with us tonight. I’m afraid those are the rules we’ve set out . . . and God forbid we break them.”

His reference to God elicited a chilling round of laughter from the other demons. Belial bowed his head to each side of their formation, acknowledging that they’d picked up on his joke. Then he turned back to me.

“So, Amelia, what’s it to be?”

“I can’t . . . with his arms . . . so tight.”

I cringed and stretched, as if to emphasize the fact that I couldn’t fully answer them under such constraints. Seeing this, Belial jerked his head at Kade, and immediately, my bonds loosened. Even without seeing his face, I could tell Kade didn’t want to release me. But like the well-trained dog he was, he obeyed his master and let me go.

I made a show of rubbing my arms, as if their comfort was the thing that would help me make my decision.

“Okay,” I said, more to myself than the demons. “You need a life, right? That’s what you’re taking tonight, no matter what?”

Belial didn’t speak, but he bowed his head in mock civility.

“Any life?” I pressed.

The demon smiled, flashing his sharp, glistening teeth—far more than any human mouth contained. “Well, I’m sure that will suffice. Of course, we’d prefer
your
life. But if you feel like turning over one of your friends as this week’s offering . . . maybe you
are
the girl we’d like you to be.”

I smiled back demurely, batting my eyes at him. “I guess I am that girl, since I think you should take someone else in my place.”

“Consider it done,” Belial crowed, clapping his hands together. “We’ll even let you
pick
!”

My smile widened into something dark and twisted. “I was hoping you’d say that,” I hissed. Then, before the demons could react, I yanked the serrated knife from my belt, spun around, and plunged the blade deep into Kade LaLaurie’s heart.

Chapter
SEVENTEEN

I
’d stabbed Kade without thinking about the consequences. To be honest, I didn’t even think it would work. Like Ruth had said, I could blood-let, but I didn’t think I would actually be able to use a solid, living-world weapon against Kade.

Apparently, I was wrong.

After I sank the knife into him, Kade sputtered for a few, stunned seconds. Then a trail of bright, arterial-red blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. Nowhere else, though—the knife wound in his chest never bled.

He reached up, digging his fingers painfully into my upper arm. They loosened when his entire body began to stiffen. His back went rigid, his fingers drew up into claws, and his face froze into a permanent, ghastly scream; it was exactly what I imagined rigor mortis would look like. When his cold gray eyes whitened over, he let out a final, gargled sound and then fell backward.

By the time he hit the surface of the bridge, Kade LaLaurie was nothing but a months-old corpse with my knife in its chest; a ghost ended once and for all. And I didn’t feel the least bit sorry about it.

With grim resolve, I turned to face the demon horde. But to my surprise, they weren’t preparing to attack me. They didn’t even look angry . . . not exactly, anyway. Their solidly black eyes had widened to even more inhuman proportions, and their smiles had grown ravenous. Lustful, in fact.

Finally, after a few more seconds of slavering, the demon named Belial made a small noise that sounded an awful lot like laughter.

“That was unexpected, Amelia. And—I have to say—absolutely delightful.” The demons behind him murmured in agreement, each of them moving a fraction closer to me.

“You’ll have to forgive us,” Belial went on. “Violent deaths always make us a little . . . tipsy, let’s call it.” He chuckled lightly, as if their sudden bloodlust was charming. Then his smile turned pensive. “You know, Amelia, with instincts like yours, it’s no wonder that the light has given you such unique . . .
gifts
.”

“What are you talking about?” I spat. “The light hasn’t done
anything
for me.”

Once more the demon assessed me, but this time I saw a glint of doubt in his black eyes.

“Oh, it’s clear that the light chose you as a vessel for the task,” he mused, not really answering me. “But poor Kade aside, I’m still not entirely certain
why
. Eli and Kade were strong, wild, and hungry; both were willing to kill, and to die. You, however . . .” He paused and then passed another questioning glance over me. “I just don’t think your heart is in this fight.”

Serena’s taunts in the graveyard rose, unbidden, in my mind. So it was true, then: the demons had never wanted to acquire me. At best, they wanted to end me; at worst, imprison me for an eternity of torment in the darkness.

“I’m not weak,” I said firmly, taking a small step toward Belial. “You may think that, but you’re wrong. The reluctance to kill people isn’t weakness. Neither is love.”

“In our world,” Belial whispered, “love is most certainly a weakness.”

As if on a cue, a chorus of whooping howls filled the air. Belial smiled again, but he could no longer mask what he truly was: pure darkness; pure evil. When I heard a familiar voice, calling to me from the entrance of the bridge, I knew why Belial had smiled, and a cold ball of dread settled into my stomach.

“Amelia?” Joshua shouted from the entrance of High Bridge. “Amelia, Ruth and I can’t cross onto the bridge to get you—you have to run!”

I wanted to run to him, wanted us both to escape. But I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off the demon’s taunting smile.

“I told you,” Belial continued to whisper to me, “we
will
have a life tonight. One of our own certainly doesn’t count. So I’m afraid the person you love most will just have to take your place.”

All of a sudden, a mass of wraiths swarmed up over the edge of the bridge and began to fly toward the entrance. Whatever power Belial had over my gaze, it broke at that moment. I whirled away from him and screamed.

“Joshua, run!”

I only had time to catch his horrified gaze when the wraiths converged upon him like a wave. They would kill him in seconds, I knew it. I whipped back around to the demons, my heart hammering so hard that I could hardly gasp, “Me. Take me inst—”

“No,” Ruth’s commanding shout interrupted my surrender. “You’ll take neither of them.”

Belial, who had been watching me intently this entire time, allowed his head to swivel leisurely toward Ruth. I could see something register in his eyes, and a slow, disquieting smile spread across his face. He raised one hand and, with a simple flick of his wrist, the swarm of wraiths fell away from Joshua, who fell gasping to his knees. Then Belial gestured grandly to Ruth.

“By all means,” he called out loudly, “join us.”

Whatever had prevented Ruth and Joshua from entering the bridge earlier must have fallen away, because she now moved decisively across its length, to where the demons and I stood. As she came toward us, I could see something shimmer back into place at the entrance of the bridge, like a transparent mirage.

By then, Joshua had regained his strength and stood. But no matter how much he screamed, I couldn’t actually hear him—I could just see his mouth opening and closing as he shouted soundlessly. No matter how hard he threw himself at the entrance, he couldn’t cross onto the bridge.

If Ruth noticed this new development, she didn’t show it as she stopped several feet away from the demons’ formation. Once he was sure she wouldn’t come any closer, Belial flashed his most congenial smile.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, madam. What can we do for you on this fine evening?”

The other demons snickered at his fake, ingratiating tone. But Ruth kept her face impassive. She tossed back her gleaming white hair and met his gaze squarely.

“You can make a trade with me. For me, actually. I offer myself, so that you will end the war that you’re waging on this girl.”

My mouth dropped open in shock, but the demons seemed vaguely amused by Ruth’s proposal. For the first time since they’d arrived, the female demon stepped out of rank and approached Ruth, smirking.

“What makes you think
you’re
a sufficient replacement for the girl?”

Ruth returned the smirk and then caught my gaze. I saw something flicker in Ruth’s eyes—apology, I think—before I suddenly couldn’t see
anything
anymore. A blazing pain tore its way through my head, and I felt my knees buckle. Images blurred through my mind, like a reel of old-fashioned film spinning too fast for me to discern any individual panel. I clutched at my pounding temples and gasped, “Stop. Please!”

And just like that, the images vanished and the pain dissipated.

“A Seer witch,” the female demon whispered, giving Ruth a wary, almost respectful look. The other demons hissed in agreement, clustering closer together in their pack. Obviously, they recognized an act of near exorcism when they saw one.

Ruth didn’t confirm or deny the label. She simply folded her hands in front of her and released an impatient sigh.

“Well?”

Belial studied Ruth harder now, taking in her regal stance, her annoyed frown. “I assume that you’re someone of importance in your coven?” he asked.

She gave him a withering glare. “I’m the
leader
of two major covens, including the one in New Orleans—the young members of which defeated your kind this winter, I believe.”

I could see Belial bristling, but he didn’t immediately retaliate. Instead, he continued to evaluate Ruth—probably weighing their intended revenge upon me against her worth as a possible addition to his army. If he accepted Ruth’s trade, I didn’t doubt that he would give her a position of some power; a woman with Ruth’s abilities didn’t end up as a mere wraith.

“You do understand,” he said, “that once you join us, you will be unable to work against us; your mind will not be your own.”

Ruth’s answering smile was close-lipped and caustic. “I assumed as much.”

Neither side said anything further until, after some considerable time, Belial nodded decisively. He didn’t consult his fellow demons, which made me wonder whether he had the final say, or they just shared a hive mind. Judging by the similarly determined looks on their faces, I guessed the latter.

“It’s settled then: you die tonight, and the girl goes free.”

Ruth shook her head vehemently. “Not just her. All the people around her, too. Anyone that you might hunt, in order to get to her.”

He considered this additional demand for a moment, and then nodded a second time. “It is agreed upon. The death shall be administered by the wraiths, and then your new form will join us in the netherworld, forever.”

His voice deepened with this pronouncement, booming off the icy girders of the bridge. In response, the temperature seemed to drop, as if the air itself understood that a dark bargain had just been made. The wraiths understood, too: they began to swarm again, writhing and churning about twenty feet above our heads. They were gathering for an attack. A final one.

A shiver crawled its way across my skin, and I turned to Ruth. “You can’t do this,” I pleaded desperately with her. “There’s got to be another way.”

For the first time Ruth offered me a sad, genuine smile. “I don’t think there is.”

She turned slightly and eyed the entrance of the bridge, where Joshua was still clawing at the invisible barrier and screaming his silent screams. When Ruth looked back at me, her eyes shimmered with the only tears I’d ever seen her shed.

“Please,” she begged quietly. “Please watch over them. And when the time is right . . . please
leave
them and don’t come back.”

“I . . . I’ll try,” I stuttered, unsure of how else to answer her.

Above us, the wraiths began writhing faster and screeching. Any minute now, they would dive. For a wild second, I thought about shielding her with my own body.

But Ruth was no longer looking at me. Staring up at the black swarm, she fumbled frantically with something in her pocket. Finally, as the wraiths began their dive, she yanked her hand out of her pocket. Through the cracks in her bulging fist, I could just make out a few tiny, white discs—
pills
.

I screamed, “No!” But the shrieking wraiths drowned out the sound of my voice.

It took Ruth several quick swallows, but she’d gulped down all the pills by the time the black mass crashed into her. Just before the wraiths fully engulfed her, she clutched one hand to her chest and fell to her knees with an unexpectedly peaceful smile.

When the wraiths disbanded several minutes later, Ruth lay prone and motionless on the road. Her arms had fallen into a T shape, and her head had lolled to one side so that she faced me. She still wore that enigmatic smile, and her eyes were wide open. But I knew she couldn’t see me. Not anymore.

Suddenly I couldn’t breathe. I began gasping for air as the demons laughed and cheered. I hardly even noticed when the colors of the netherworld began to seep away, returning the bridge to a plain, ordinary gray.

Before the darkness disappeared entirely, Belial pointed one finger at me.

“The witch died before we could take her soul. Whether or not she intended this outcome, her soul is already gone, and we cannot claim her,” he hissed as he began to fade from sight. “Therefore her bargain is void, and our mandate still stands: give yourself to us, or in one week, another person dies. And this time, we’ll take
him
.”

Belial’s arm swung toward Joshua, who’d finally pushed through the vanishing barrier and was now running toward me. Then, with a last malevolent smile, the demon vanished too.

Ruth Mayhew was dead. By her own hand, no less.

No one could seem to accept that fact. Not Joshua, even though he’d witnessed the event, nor Jillian, who’d heard about it immediately after. Not Jeremiah and Rebecca, who arrived at the bridge an hour later. And especially not the officers from the Wilburton police department.

As a few of them mentioned just after the ambulance arrived, most of the officers had known Ruth Mayhew their entire lives. They’d eaten her apple cobbler at Easter picnics; they’d tried not to squirm through a church service, lest she catch them from the choir loft and tell their parents; and they’d suffered through the Sunday-school classes that she’d ruled with an iron fist. The Ruth Mayhew
they
knew was not the type of woman who would take her own life with an overdose of heart medication; the Ruth Mayhew they knew would never have been that careless.