Insatiable Desire (27 page)

By dawn he woke and dressed in running clothes, then jogged into the woods. The forest seemed unusually quiet this morning, almost too quiet, but maybe the creatures inside could rest because the demon haunting the land had been caught.

A ten-mile run, then a shower, and he had breakfast in the lodge. He checked his watch. Time to get the hell out of town.

He headed outside, yet the ground rumbled slightly and a vile scent rose from the woods beyond.

Feeling uneasy but not certain why, he checked over his shoulder and scanned the road as he drove toward the highway leading out of town.

One day until the rising

Tormented cries from the dead girls drove Clarissa from her hospital bed. She struggled to get dressed. She had to leave. Talk to her grandmother. Find out if the danger was over.

And if so, why the girls couldn’t move on.

They should have crossed over by now.

The fact that they hadn’t, that she’d seen their terrorized, skeletal faces all night, warned her that the danger might not be over.

She punched the call button and asked for the nurse, then relayed that she wanted to be released.

A few minutes later, the doctor appeared and examined her. “Your vital signs are good,” the doctor said. “I’ll get the paperwork for you.”

“Thank you.”

A knock sounded at the door, and Tim Bluster poked his head in. “Hey, Clarissa, how are you feeling?”

Clarissa sighed. “All right, but I’m ready to go home. Vincent came by and explained about Hadley and Sadie Sue. He’s probably already left town.”

Tim smiled. “Yeah, no reason for him to stay now.”

Right.

The doctor rolled in with her release papers, and she hurriedly signed them.

“I thought you might need a ride home,” Tim said.

She nodded. “Thanks, that would be great.”

He jangled the keys and went to retrieve the car while the nurse wheeled her down to the exit.

She settled in his car, aware of his smile as he helped her with the seat belt. She didn’t want to give him false hope, not when her heart ached from loving Vincent. “What happened with Hadley?”

“The psychiatrist said Crane is schizophrenic and needs to be hospitalized.” Tim cursed. “He’ll probably plead insanity.”

So had the voices he’d heard been due to his mental condition, or the evil source’s possession?

Silence stretched between them as she contemplated the question.

He parked in front of her house, rushed around, and helped her from the car and up the walkway to her house.

“Thanks, Tim,” Clarissa said as she unlocked the door.

“Do you want me to come in?”

She shook her head. “Not now. I’m still pretty tired.”

Disappointment lined his face, but he nodded. He lingered for a moment as if he wanted to say more, but refrained. “All right, call me if you need anything.”

She thanked him again, then let herself inside. Wulf raced to her and she bent to hug him. “It’s you and me again, buddy.” He nuzzled her and followed her up the stairs to the attic. The curtain flapped beneath the flow of the ceiling fan, and she set the candles in a circle and lit them. Hands trembling, she knelt.

But before she could summon her grandmother, the air in the room changed and the candles flickered out. A chill of foreboding washed over her, then a massive black darkness swept through the room.

A sinister orange light blinded her eyes, and she fought to drag her eyes away. But it was too late.

The evil creature’s hands clutched her, lifting her, carrying her through time into an ominous darkness until she could no longer see anything but a mass of black souls and orange eyes.

Until she heard nothing except the voices of death beckoning her.

Vincent’s palms began to sweat as he neared the county line. He’d come here to find a killer, and he’d found him.

He’d also discovered the truth about his past, a past he’d run from years ago. One that had traumatized him as a child but shaped his destiny.

He had to be alone.

He should feel relieved to get out of town. So why did he feel as if he needed to turn back around?

A sharp pain shot through his chest, and he pressed a hand over it, gasping for a breath. The tires squealed on his SUV as he careened sideways and screeched to a stop on the embankment. Heaving for air, he unfastened his seat belt and clutched his chest as another pain ripped through him.

Clarissa’s face flashed into his mind, the past coming in rapid snippets. Her eyes, too big for her face as the kids had taunted her.

The day she’d stuck up for him when those bullies had taunted him. The day she’d sneaked up to his house, looked into the window, and seen him and his father arguing over the amulet.

The beating he’d taken to keep his father from going after her and doing God knows what.

And since he’d returned . . .

He’d been terrified of the feelings she’d evoked in him. Not just lust, but she made him want more. More of her. More of a normal life.

Someone to care about.

So he’d pushed her away, just as he had time and time again since he’d come to Eerie. Even at the pool in the sacred place when she’d confessed her love.

How could she love a man like him? A man who was part demon?

The pull to go back to her was just as intense as the pull of evil.

He straightened, sweat pouring down his body, and turned the keys, firing up the engine again.

He’d been a coward not to admit the truth, that he did care about her.

Just as he’d been a coward to run from his past.

He refused to be a coward anymore. He loved Cla-rissa and had to tell her.

His pulse pounding, he spun the SUV around and headed back to Eerie. Yet as he drew closer to the town, his senses jumped to alert. The heat was oppressive, the stench of death vile, the rustle of a demon’s breath swirling in the air warned him that there were still demons in Eerie.

A burning sensation seared his chest, the amulet pulsing against his heart. Alarmed, he removed the angel medallion and twisted it between his fingers, stunned at the way the bloodstone suddenly glowed against the darkness.

He had never seen it light up before, except as he’d pulled it from the fire where his mother had died, but now it was hot, burning his fingers, pulsing and glowing.

What was happening? Was it magical? Trying to tell him that Clarissa was in trouble? Or that he should have left it with her for protection?

His pulse racing, he punched information, got the number for the hospital, and called to check on Clarissa.

“Miss King was released,” the nurse said. “Deputy Bluster picked her up and drove her home.”

Bluster.

Dammit. The man wanted Clarissa. And now that Vincent had left her, he would move in.

Again the air stirred outside in the woods. A vile scent filtered through his closed windows. Was there still a demon in town? Had Crane simply been crazy and not the one the demon possessed?

If the demon wanted Vincent, if he’d killed these girls to draw Vincent back, was he still here now?

Would he give up without getting Clarissa?

Fear strangled him, and he gripped the steering wheel tighter, speeding up.

Something niggled at the back of his mind. Bluster had dated one of the vics. The women in town would trust him.

Vincent hadn’t heard back from McLaughlin on the background check on the deputy, so he punched his number while he steered the car toward Clarissa’s.

The phone rang three times before McLaughlin picked up. “It’s Valtrez. Listen, did you find out anything on that deputy I asked you to check on?”

“Yeah, as a matter of fact I was getting ready to call you. It took a while, because he went by his middle name, Gordon, in Nashville.”

“He changed it when he came to Eerie?”

“Guess he didn’t want his past following him.”

Vincent scrubbed a hand over his head, his heart hammering.

“He was questioned regarding a serial-killer case back in Nashville,” McLaughlin continued. “Seems he dated a couple of the vics.”

Vincent’s blood ran cold. He’d also dated at least one vic here. “They find any proof?”

“No, finally collared a mentally challenged guy in the town. He’s in jail now.”

Vincent scowled. Sounded similar to what had happened in Eerie. What if Bluster had framed that man and Crane? Bluster was a young guy, appealing to women. They’d trust him if he approached them.

He flew around the curve, adrenaline pumping. He had to get to Clarissa.

Bluster had been interested in her all along. What if his interest was because he was the killer?

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

C
larissa slowly regained consciousness as if she’d fallen into a deep sleep. Her attacker hadn’t been Hadley.

But he was a demon in a human body. One she’d trusted.

Pain and betrayal knifed through her, along with cold terror.

The screams of the dead surged to life again, more shrill and demanding.

Desperately working to block them out, she opened her eyes, but darkness cloaked her surroundings, a black so void of light that she couldn’t discern her location.

The scent of death, blood, woods suffused her.

She tried to move, but her wrists and ankles were tied to a wooden stake. Where was her abductor?

Was he going to kill her now?

Her lungs ached for air, and she tried to yell for help, but her throat was too parched and dry to scream.

A vile breath suddenly broke the eerie silence around her.

She wasn’t alone. The monster who’d trapped her was here now, skulking in the dark, watching her. Enjoying her fear while he waited to kill her.

Vincent’s heart pounded as he drove up the winding drive to Clarissa’s.

The house was dark, empty, eerily silent as he let himself in. Wulf met him at the front door, then barked. Concerned, Vincent followed the dog, checking the house thoroughly, but there was no Clarissa.

Wulf pawed the floor and trotted up to the attic, and Vincent followed. He stopped in the doorway and stared at the candles on the floor in a circle—she’d been communing with the dead.

Where was she now?

He called her name, but Wulf pawed at the floor as if trying to tell him something.

Sheer terror froze Vincent to the spot.

A piece of black rock lay in the center.

Rage bolted through him. God, no. He’d left Clarissa last night thinking she was safe. Had left her to
keep
her safe.

But now she was gone . . .

Emotions crowded his chest, so painful that he nearly doubled over. Then the rock began to move.

His eyes widened in shock.

Hands fisted, he watched as the rock scrawled the words “Black Forest” onto the wood floor.

Swallowing back fear, the truth hit him, the truth he’d feared all along.

The demon had come for him and had taken Clarissa.

He intended to use her to destroy Vincent and force him to join his father’s side.

Dammit. He didn’t care about himself or his damned soul.

But he had to save her.

Downstairs, the floor creaked, and he froze, senses alert as he reached for his weapon. Slowly, he moved into the hall and down the steps, checking the shadows and corners.

Just as he made it down to the second floor, he spotted the silhouette of a man in the hall.

He inched closer, weapon poised. “Stop, or I’ll shoot.”

“Valtrez?”

Bluster’s voice. The son of a bitch.

He lurched from behind the corner, aiming his gun at the deputy’s chest. “Where’s Clarissa?”

Bluster’s eyes widened. “That’s what I came to find out. I called and she didn’t answer.”

“You took her, didn’t you?” Vincent inched closer, fury in his voice. “What did you do, Bluster? Trade your soul to the devil?”

“What in the hell are you talking about?”

“I know about Nashville,” Vincent ground out. “And the black rock, that it came from the cave in the Black Forest, that that cave was built as Satan’s palace on earth.”

Bluster shifted, blew a breath between his teeth, then held up his hand in surrender. “It’s not what you think,” he said. “You have to hear me out.”

“Just tell me where Clarissa is, dammit!”

“I don’t know,” Bluster said. “I’m not the enemy here, Valtrez. I thought you were. That you’d come to hurt Clarissa.”

For a long minute, the two men engaged in a standoff, distrust and suspicion hanging between them.

Then Bluster slowly lowered his gun. “It’s the truth. I came here because of what happened in Nashville, but not because I’m the killer. Because I thought something weird, something supernatural happened there.”

Vincent narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean?”

“Back in Nashville. I wasn’t convinced the mentally challenged guy committed those crimes of his own accord. The crimes were too sophisticated. And the things he said . . . they made me think he might be possessed. I heard about this town, about Clarissa being a medium. So I came here to get to know her because I thought she might be able to help.”

Vincent’s heart pounded. Bluster sounded convincing. But so could the devil.

“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

Bluster dug in his pocket and removed several sheets of folded paper. “Look at those. It’s a profile of her, and of you. I checked you both out.” He huffed. “There’s also notes on all the legends here in town and of other supernatural sightings across the States.”

Vincent examined them, saw the research Bluster had done. Other crimes in various areas that he’d suspected might be paranormal-related. Bluster might be on to something. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Vincent asked.

Bluster’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Because I didn’t know if you might be one of them.”

A demon?

He was. But he refrained from sharing that detail.

Instead, he turned back to his main focus. Finding Clarissa. “I think he has her,” Vincent said instead.

Bluster jerked his head up toward the attic. “How do you know?”

Vincent explained about the candles and the black rock. Bluster insisted on seeing them for himself. Vincent didn’t quite trust him yet, but he followed him, scrutinizing his every movement.