The Appeal of Evil (The Road to Salvation) (25 page)

Josh turned to Katie and gestured toward her with an open palm. “Te gusta lo que ves?”

Once again, the man’s eyes drifted up and down Katie. She felt exposed, dirty. Her skin crawled as his gaze took her in. She wanted to cover herself, crawl into a ball. What was Josh doing? Why was he putting her in this situation? The man nodded.

“Cuánto?”

Josh rubbed his hands together. “Tu alma.”

The man blinked several times and stared at Josh. “My soul? Is this some kind of joke?”

Josh shook his head. “You want her, you give me your soul.”

He laughed and pointed a finger at Josh. “You Americans. Such jokesters.”

Josh set his mouth in a firm line. “I’m not kidding.”

The man held his hands out to his sides, the amusement still on his face. “Fine. Take my soul. If that’s all it takes.”

Josh stepped forward, his hand raised in front of him.

Katie shook herself out of her stupor. She grabbed Josh’s arm and spun him around. Anger coursed through her veins; heat rose to her face. She spoke between clenched jaws. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

“Don’t worry. He’s so drunk he’ll pass out as soon as I take his soul. You won’t have to do anything.” He winked at her.

“Take me home. Now.”

“In just a sec. I have something to collect first.” Josh approached the man and placed his hand on his chest.

Katie turned away as he collected the soul, only turning back around when she heard something thump onto the floor. The man lay in a heap, breathing heavily. Smiling a self-satisfied smile, Josh opened a portal on the other side of the room. Katie stomped toward it and stepped through with a huff.

THE MUSIC STILL BLARED
as Katie stepped into her room. The first thing she did was turn it down. Her ears couldn’t take any more obnoxiously loud music. Josh stepped into the room behind her. She folded her arms across her chest and faced him, her lips pursed and eyes narrowed. He plopped onto her bed and stared at her.

“What?”

Katie’s jaw threatened to fall open; her eyes wanted to grow wide, but she wouldn’t let her surprise overtake her anger. Did he really not know why she was mad at him? The half-smile on his face told her he was playing dumb, which irritated her even more.

“What would have happened if he wasn’t so drunk he passed out? What did you expect me to do?” Katie had a hard time keeping her voice under control, but she didn’t want to alert her mom that something was going on. “He could have raped me.”

Josh shrugged a shoulder. “You had nothing to worry about. I had eyes on you the whole time.” He laid back on the bed, propping himself up on one of his elbows. “Honestly, I thought Wes would show up to rescue you. I was kind of counting on it.”

Katie smashed her teeth together so hard her jaw ached. The bastard! Once again, he was just using her to get what he wanted. He didn’t care about her. He was only concerned with furthering his own needs, getting what he wanted. The scene on the beach, right before he kissed her, was another of his lies to make her feel needed and wanted. She was such a fool. She balled her hands into fists. She had obviously miscalculated her ability to draw his focus away from Wes.

Josh smirked. “You wouldn’t have had to do anything with him. I would have protected you. I did protect you.”

“You put me in that situation. You left me at the bar while you traipsed off to do God knows what. I didn’t even know where I was!”

An evil smile crossed Josh’s lips. “Not even God knows what I went off to do.” He turned his gaze to the bed and picked at a string. “Like I said, there was nothing to worry about. I had you in my sights the whole time. I knew what I was doing.”

“So you purposely left me there as bait. You knew that guy was going to do that to me.”

“Hey, you do what you gotta do to get a soul. It was worth it. One less heathen soul on planet Earth.”

Katie’s knees felt weak and she sunk to the floor. Was Josh really being that callous? Katie knew she shouldn’t dwell on the what-ifs, but she was still shaken by the experience. So many horrible things could have happened to her. Yes, Josh stopped them from happening, but she wouldn’t have been in the situation if it wasn’t for him. Her throat constricted, and breathing became difficult.

“But wasn’t it a rush?” He leaned forward on the bed. “Didn’t the excitement make you feel alive?”

Katie stared at him. Was this guy for real? How was that exciting? Perhaps as a demon there was little that got his adrenaline pumping, but being scared half to death was not Katie’s idea of a good time. She didn’t answer his question. The smile fell off his face.

“You’re going to have to get used to it, Katie. If you’re going to help me gather souls, you’re going to have to get your hands dirty.”

Katie swallowed thickly. “Help you gather souls?” The words barely left her mouth.

Josh slid off the bed and sat next to her on the floor. He draped his arm across her lap and laid his head on her shoulder. “It’s pretty obvious which one of us you’ve chosen. There are duties involved with picking a side.” His voice was barely over a whisper, his breath tickled her earlobe.

Katie’s stomach lurched. Inadvertently, she had chosen a side. She hadn’t realized that was what was happening at the time. She thought she was gathering information, figuring out what was going on, but it was more than that. She’d gotten into a huge fight with Wes, and left him to go with Josh. His words were so convincing, and he seemed so sincere. Katie was able to overlook his evil tendencies because of his truthfulness. He made her feel important, like she mattered. Had Katie known this was something she was going to have to do, she would have avoided Josh all together. She would have told him to stay in Hell. Or would she?

At the reservoir, she knew Josh was going to take Paul’s soul. Same thing in the club. And she did nothing to stop him either time. She could have intervened, told them to run away, told Josh to find someone else, but she stood back, shocked at first and then so angry she couldn’t bear to watch. In both cases, she’d done nothing to stop it, as if the act of taking a soul was an everyday occurrence, normal.

Katie probably should have felt bad for the two guys, but she didn’t. Yeah, Paul may have been able to get some help and kick his pill habit, turned into a decent human being, but maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he would turn into a junkie and start robbing and killing people for money to get drugs. Katie didn’t know what his future held. The same thing could be said about the guy in the club. Katie had been afraid for her life; she had no idea what the man’s intentions were. She could probably guess that he wouldn’t relent until he got what he wanted. Her attempts to get away had been futile and he hadn’t minded putting her in pain to get what he wanted. That was obvious in how tightly he’d held onto Katie’s wrist. Perhaps he was also destined for something far worse. Maybe he had already done something horrible. For all she knew, Josh did the world a favor by harvesting their souls. Although she wasn’t really sure what happened to them after he swallowed them. Both men obviously weren’t dead. Did they continue to live their lives doing evil deeds until they died? That was something Katie was going to have to find out.

If Katie picked Wes’s side—if he had given her a reason to pick his side—there was no doubt in her mind she would have to help him defeat Josh. From the story Randy told her, she would be expected to kill. Sure, it would have been demons that she destroyed, but murder was still murder. Maybe Wes and his dad justified it as self-defense, but how would Katie sleep at night knowing she had taken a life? Both sides had their unsavory aspects. As much as she wanted to be a neutral party, she no longer was. That had been taken away from her when she walked out of the warehouse alive.

“Now, I can’t promise you every time will go as smoothly as tonight did,” Josh whispered into her ear. “There may be times you need to take things a little further, push the person deeper into sin. But I can promise you I won’t let them harm you.”

Katie huffed and placed her hand on the bandage on her arm.

He wrapped his arm tighter around her waist and pulled her into his body. His lips brushed gently against her neck. “I’ll train you. Show you ways to make sure you stay safe. But there is another alternative. A way to ensure that no harm will ever come to you.”

Katie craned her head to look at him. “How?”

“You become a demon.”

The breath left her body for a brief second. “What?”

His lips touched her neck again, moving slowly toward her earlobe. “It’s really simple. You just have to give me your soul, then be reborn into darkness.”

Katie’s heart fluttered in her chest, her hands became clammy. Had this been Josh’s plan all along? Once he figured out he couldn’t—or wouldn’t—kill her, he was going to change her into what he was? She didn’t want to die, she knew that. She was only seventeen; she had her entire life ahead of her. Her head spun, and black dots appeared in front of her eyes. She forced herself to take deep breaths to keep from passing out.

Josh straightened up beside her. “It’s a lot to take in. I understand your hesitation. I’ll give you some time to think about it.”

Katie didn’t know what to say. Everything seemed to be spinning out of control. Nothing made sense. Why couldn’t she tell him she didn’t want to be a demon? She didn’t, did she? No, that wasn’t who she was, was it? Her head ached. Squeezing her eyes shut, she attempted to clear her mind.

“I will tell you this, though.” Josh moved some hair behind her ear. “The next time Wes comes around to interfere with our plans, we’re going to take him down.”

Katie stared down at her lap. “Wes won’t be an issue any more. You don’t have to worry about him.”

Josh cocked his head to the right. “What do you mean?”

Katie’s shoulders slouched and she looked Josh in the eye. “We had a falling out. A fight. I’m fairly certain he doesn’t like me anymore. I doubt he’ll come to my rescue again.”

Josh cocked his right eyebrow upward. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see about that, won’t we?”

Katie shrugged. “I guess.”

There was no sense trying to convince Josh what had happened. He had to see for himself and she was too tired.

Josh cupped her cheek in his hand and smiled. He pulled her face close to his and kissed her lips gently. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Perhaps we can find another soul to take.”

Katie forced a smile. “Perhaps.”

She said it so he would leave. The thought of finding another soul turned her stomach. She didn’t want to be used like that again.

Josh kissed her quickly one last time before standing from the floor. He opened a portal and stepped through, keeping his gaze on Katie until he disappeared.

Katie leapt from the floor and headed for the bathroom, jumping in the shower, hoping the hot water would wash away all of the ickiness that clung to her. Visions of the day’s events ran through her mind, causing her to gag. Why hadn’t she done more? Was there more she could have done? Surely she could have handled the situation with Wes better. She didn’t need to get so angry with him and push him so far away. Her thoughts drifted to the numerous times he had left her hanging after promising to be there. The images of crying herself to sleep or staring longingly out the window awaiting his approach flooded her mind. She admitted she probably hadn’t handled the situation with Wes the best she could have, but cutting ties with him was the best possible outcome. She couldn’t stand the heartache anymore. Was taking Josh’s side a better alternative? Probably not. It had its share of heartaches and headaches, but at least Josh was right next to her. Sure he put her in danger and could have gotten her killed, but it hadn’t happened. He had saved her before it happened. He was there.

That thought wasn’t comforting. Nothing about what had just transpired made her feel good. She wanted to have a relationship with a boy that didn’t result in her being abandoned or used as bait to lure in sinners. Was there middle ground? She didn’t think so. Even Deb had relationships that were hard work and inevitably ended in hard feelings. And Deb was liked by pretty much everyone. There seemed to be good times, moments when nothing else mattered but being with the other person, looking into their eyes and feeling comfort in their arms. At least Katie thought—hoped—those moments existed. With Deb, they usually occurred at the beginning of the relationship. Katie had never experienced them for herself. Well, she thought she’d experienced a version of them with Josh, but there was the underlying issue of him being a demon. Still, she couldn’t get the look he gave her on the beach out of her mind. For a brief moment, she’d thought she had seen real emotion, real caring in his face. Maybe she was trying to justify things in her mind, but if he didn’t care, would he really have saved her from that guy at the club? Probably, since he was after the guy’s soul. He shouldn’t have put her in that situation in the first place.

It wasn’t too late. There was still a chance she could tell Josh where to go. She didn’t have to be on a side. If both Josh and Wes were out of the picture, she could truly be on neutral ground again. That’s where she really wanted to be. But if that happened, she’d never be able to see if Josh could be saved. There was a chance, she knew it. She had seen it in his eyes on the beach. Yeah, he had put her in danger, but he’d also saved her. He was a demon, but he could be so much more, and maybe Katie was the one to save him.

She stamped her foot on the floor of the tub and shoved her face under the water. She was so tired of thinking about these things and trying to figure out what was going on. She needed someone to talk to, someone who had experience with this kind of stuff. Mentally she crossed her fingers that Deb’s grandmother would be willing to talk to her. If not, she’d have to go with Plan B, and that was talking to a priest. She hadn’t been to church since she was little, before her dad died. Afterward, Mom had said it made her too sad to walk through the doors and had stopped going.

Katie wasn’t opposed to talking to a priest; she just wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted to say. She didn’t want to be judged for straying and taking the side of evil. Oh, God! What if Deb’s grandmother refused to talk to her because of her indiscretions? Katie felt bad for the things that had happened, but she didn’t feel horrible. Did that make her a bad person? Would no one help her because of her choices? She leaned her head against the tiles in the shower. There was one person who would be able to help her with this issue, one person who, when he was around was a great listener, but Wes was out of the picture. The emptiness in her chest felt larger.