Authors: V J Chambers
Trembling (14 page)
"What are you talking about?" I said. Because it almost sounded to me
like she was admitting that I was right. She was a Satanist. She was
controlling my destiny. "I know everything that's going on here. I can
stop what's going on."
"Well," said another voice, "not everything."
I whirled, looking for the person who owned the voice.
And I couldn't believe my eyes. Walking across the lawn to Rachel Kline's house
were my two older brothers, Noah and Gordon. I hadn't seen the two of them
since the ritual in Bramford, back in October.
"Noah?" I gasped. "Gordon?" I looked at Lilith. "Why
are they here?"
But she looked just as surprised as I did. "I don't . . ." She shook
her head.
Noah and Gordon stopped in front of us, both grinning. Noah jammed his hands
into his pockets. Gordon rubbed his chin. When I'd spoken to Chance earlier in
the week, he'd said that they'd been planning to visit me. Was this that visit?
"Hey Zaza," said Noah.
"Lil' sis," said Gordon.
Suddenly, everything clicked into place. "Oh," I murmured, covering
my mouth with my hand. "It was you two. You two stole the bell and
performed the ritual."
Noah shrugged. "Well, yeah. After what happened to Mom and Dad, you didn't
expect us to just give up, did you?"
"Gotta say, though, we're kind of disappointed in you, Zaza," said
Gordon. "You really haven't been living up to your potential. Why couldn't
you have just cooperated in October and saved us all this trouble?"
I shook my head. "So, you've been working with Michaela Weem or
something?"
"She was really shaken up when she saw the two of you in
said Noah. "The things she said she saw . . . Seriously, Zaza. Don't you
know that you should get your big brothers' approval before you start dating
someone?"
"We don't like this Jason guy at all. He's bad, bad news," said
Gordon.
"I'm never going to kill him," I said. "You two must understand
that."
They shrugged. "There's some stuff we want to show you," said Gordon.
"You might change your mind," said Noah.
"Never," I said.
"Still," said Gordon, "we'd like you to come with us."
"No way," I said. "You two helped. You two tried to set me up to
get raped by Toby. I don't trust you. I don't care if you are my
brothers."
"You're talking like you have a choice," said Noah.
Damn it. What did that mean? "So you're going to take me by force?" I
asked. Where was a gun when I needed it?
"If we have to," said Noah.
"It would be easier if we didn't have to do that," said Gordon.
"You could just come voluntarily."
"What about me?" asked Lilith.
"She'll probably just run off and tell Jason about us if we let her
go," said Noah to Gordon.
"Wait," I said. "Lilith isn't working with you?"
"Lilith?" said Noah. "Come on, Zaza. I know she's your friend
and all, but she's way too stupid to pull anything like that off."
"Screw you," Lilith said darkly.
I didn't think. I just moved. My hand darted out and grasped Lilith's. I broke
out into a sprint, dragging her along.
We ran across the lawn of Rachel Kline's house. Behind us, I heard both Noah
and Gordon cry out in surprise.
Lilith and I might have made it, even though she was slowing me down, her
breath coming in gasps.
But before we could get off the lawn and onto the sidewalk (where there were
cars to hide in, maybe one with unlocked doors and keys inside) a familiar
figure appeared in our path.
"Jude!" I cried out in recognition and relief. "We have to get
out of here. I'll explain later." I slowed as I approached him, glancing
over my shoulder to see if Noah and Gordon were in pursuit.
I didn't see them anywhere.
Confused, I stopped, pulling Lilith to a stop next to me.
Jude ambled over to us, his arms clasped behind his back. "What's going
on?" he asked.
"There are these two guys who were chasing us," I said, struggling to
catch my breath. "I don't know where they went."
"I don't see anyone," said Jude.
I just shook my head. "We have to get out of here, anyway," I said.
"They'll
—
"
Jude took his arms out from behind his back. He was holding a baseball bat.
"Jude?" I whispered.
He raised the bat over his head. "Sorry, Azazel," he said.
The bat came crashing down.
And everything winked out, like birthday candles that had just been blown out.
Part Two
Is it like this
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
-T.S. Eliot, "The Hollow Men"
Chapter Ten
To: Edgar Weem
From: Renegade Son
Subject: Big problems
Edgar,
Azazel's disappeared. Jason's gone after her. I don't know where either of them
are, and if I find out you've got anything to do with this, so help me.
I still have an email that I could send out, you know. To everyone in the Sons.
With all of your secrets, emblazoned for all of them to see.
Get me a secure, untraceable number, so that I can talk to you.
You've got twenty-four hours.
Hallam
"She's not answering her phone!"
The voice was tight with panic. I recognized the voice. I thought.
"Chill out. Maybe she's away from the phone or has it turned off or
something."
That was Noah. Noah, my brother. If I could hear Noah talking, everything must
be fine.
"She wouldn't be away from her phone right now. There's no way. Something's
not right," said the panicky voice. The familiar voice. Who did that voice
belong to?
It was dark. It was dark, and my head hurt.
"Noah's right. You've got to calm down. I'm sure she's okay. She's been
taking care of herself for quite some time. And she's not a weak woman. She's
got spunk, you know?"
Gordon. Both Gordon and Noah? Was it Christmas or something? Had they come
home? Was I in my bed, early in the morning, listening to them talk to Mom and
Da
—
No. Mom and Dad were dead.
And it was dark because my eyes were closed.
My eyes snapped open as it all came back to me. The party. Jude advancing on me
with a baseball bat over his head. The pain. The pain in my head had to be
because of that.
I wanted to thrash about and scream, but I forced myself not to move so that I
could assess my situation.
I was lying on my side in the back of a speeding vehicle. It looked like the
interior of a mini-van of some kind. The carpet was gray and mussed. The back
seat had been removed. My hands were tied behind my back. My feet were
similarly bound. Lilith was lying next to me, also tied up. Her eyes were
closed. Maybe she was still out.
I forced my breathing to stay steady and closed my eyes again. I didn't want
them to know that I was awake. Maybe if I just listened, I could find out
something useful.
"Spunk?" the familiar voice was repeating. It was Jude, of course.
"She could still be vulnerable. I'm worried."
"We'll be at her house in fifteen minutes," said Gordon. "Sit
tight. We'll check on her."
Her house? Who was this woman they were talking about? Where were we going? I
wished I had an idea of how long we'd been travelling. I'd been knocked out.
How long did someone stay knocked out, usually? I didn't know. And for all I
knew they'd drugged me in some way too. Had I had anything to drink at the
party? I couldn't remember, but I did feel very groggy and disoriented.
Similar to the way I'd felt the morning after the party on the beach actually.
"She should have answered the phone a long time ago," Jude insisted.
"Look, what is it you're worried has happened to her anyway?" Noah
asked.
"You said that Azazel was accusing Lilith of setting her up when you found
her, didn't you?" Jude asked.
"So?" said Noah.
"On behalf of our coven, right?" said Jude.
Coven. So Jude was a Satanist, was he? And I'd never suspected him. How stupid
could I get really? Of all the people I could pick to trust, I had to pick the
one working for the Satanists, didn't I? God.
"Yeah, but big deal. Why does that matter?" asked Noah.
"What if she told that theory to Jason?" asked Jude.
"What if she did?" asked Gordon.
"If she did, it would take Jason two seconds to connect the dots once
Azazel disappeared," said Jude. "He'd know exactly where we were
headed."
He would? Then I should be able to figure it out, too, shouldn't I? Where would
the Satanists take me?
Bramford?
Had I really slept through a fourteen-hour car drive? No, I didn't think we
were headed to Bramford. That wasn't the center of Satanist activity, anyway.
There was one person who'd be at the center of that.
Michaela Weem.
We were going to
the woman that they were trying to reach on the phone. I just knew it.
"So what if Jason did figure it out?" asked Gordon. "We've got a
head start on him. And what could he have possibly done, anyway?"
"You really don't know anything about Jason, do you?" said Jude.
"I'll never forget the night I saw him beat up this guy for saying
something suggestive about Azazel. The look on his face. And the way he took
that guy down. It was so precise. So deadly."
Jude was right. Jason would be trying to protect me. He might already be with
Michaela Weem. He was looking for me, even as I listened to them speak in the
front of the van. I could count on Jason. He wouldn't let anyone hurt me. Just
the thought of someone trying to molest me would throw him into a rage.
Wait. I groped for thoughts, putting pieces together. I felt groggy. Jude was a
Satanist.
Oh, God. Jason had been right all along. Jude had put the damned bell in my
purse. Jude had completed the ritual, along with Gordon and Noah. He must have
drugged me the night of the party on the beach. Maybe he'd drugged me now.
"I'm calling her again," said Jude.
"You've called her like fifteen times," said Noah.
"You need to calm down," said Gordon.
If Michaela wasn't answering her phone, then maybe it did mean that Jason had
found her. Jason would make Michaela tell him where Jude, Noah, and Gordon were
holding me. Jason would swoop in and save me. Everything would be okay.
"It's ringing," said Jude. "It's not just going to voicemail. I
think that's a good sign."
Jason would come after me, wouldn't he? I remembered the last time I'd seen
Jason. His last words to me had been, "You're paranoid, and you need to
get over it." He'd been really, really angry with me. What if he didn't
come after me? What if he thought that I ran off with Jude? What if he simply
didn't care anymore? All of this stuff with the Satanists was my fault, anyway.
If Jason had never met me, he'd never have had to deal with them. The Sons were
out of the picture, but the Satanists weren't. What if Jason just figured he
was better off now?
"Dammit," said Jude from the front of the van. "No answer."
"I'm telling you, we're almost there," said Gordon. "Give it a
few minutes. We'll see her."
"I'd just feel better if I could talk to her first," said Jude.
"I'm really starting to get worried."
"Starting to?" Noah muttered.
I opened my eyes again. What if Jason wasn't coming to save me? What was I
going to do then? What did Jude, Noah, and Gordon want with me anyway? The last
time I'd seen a group of Satanists, they'd wanted me to have sex with Toby and
kill Jason. The last time I'd seen Michaela Weem, she wanted me to kill Jason.
All things considered, they probably wanted me to kill Jason. But if that were
the case, why were they taking me away from Jason? And please God, tell me that
they weren't planning some kind of ritual sex with me. Please, God.
They couldn't be, could they? Jude was gay. And Gordon and Noah were my
brothers. Okay, we weren't actually blood related, but we'd grown up together.
So, they wouldn't. I knew my brothers. I remembered all kinds of things that
we'd done together as children, like the time that Noah had gotten a flat tire
on Gordon's bike and enlisted my help to try to hide the bike from Gordon. When
Gordon had found out, we'd played innocent, like we didn't know how the bike
had gotten a flat tire, Gordon had
—
My thoughts were interrupted by the shrill ring of a cell phone.
The ringtone cut off abruptly. "Mom?" said Jude's voice.
Mom? Jude was getting calls from his mom? That was weird, wasn't it? I realized
that in
I'd never met Jude's parents. Was his mom calling him from
Satanist?
"You," Jude's voice said, but it was angry and menacing now. Was he
still talking to his mom? "What have you done with her? Let me talk to
her."
Wait. Did someone have Jude's mom?
"Sure," said Jude. "I know where she is. I have her, in
fact."
He had her? He had his mom? I was really, really confused.
"No," said Jude. "No, absolutely not. No deal."
"Who are you talking to?" asked Noah.
My sentiments exactly. Who
was
Jude
talking to?
Jude ignored Noah. "If you hurt her . . ." He paused. "Well, of
course I'm not going to hurt Azazel."
Me? He was talking about me? Who was he talking to? What was going on?
"Who is it, Jude?" Gordon demanded.
Jude ignored him. "Listen, there's no way I'm going to trade her for
Azazel, you idiot. If you don't let my mother go, I'm going to hunt you down
and
—
" Jude stopped
talking, as if he'd been interrupted. He paused for a long time. Finally, he
just breathed, "Fuck you," in a gravelly voice.
"Who was that?" Gordon asked.
Jude didn't answer.
"Who was that?" Gordon asked again.
"Turn around," said Jude.
"Turn around?" asked Noah.
"Yeah," said Jude. "We can't go there. He's there."
They couldn't go there? Had Jude gotten a call from their destination? But I
thought they were going to Michaela Weem's house.
"Who's there?" asked Noah. "Who were you talking to on the
phone?"
"He's got my mother. He's threatening to hurt her if we don't give him
Azazel," said Jude.
Who had Jude's mother? And who would want me? And what was Jude's mother doing
in
Were they taking me to Michaela Weem or not?
"Who's got your mother?" asked Gordon.
"Jason," said Jude. "Jason's got my mother."
Jason had Jude's mother? So Jason was trying to save me! He'd picked a kind of
screwed-up way to do it, but he didn't hate me. That was good. Suddenly, I
remembered that just hours before I'd argued with drunk Jason, he'd told Lilith
that he couldn’t exist without me. I couldn't believe that I'd doubted him.
"Big deal," said Noah. "Don't we want Jason dead anyway? We'll
just go in, grab him, tie him up and wait until Azazel's ready to do him
in."
"You don't understand," said Jude. "Jason was trained by the
Sons of the Rising Sun. We'd be no match for him. Not like this."
"He's a kid," said Gordon. "How tough could he really be?"
"He's killed before," said Jude. "A guy named Sutherland owed
Mom a favor, and was keeping an eye on Azazel for us. He got fresh, and no
one's heard from him since."
Sutherland? Jesus, he was in on it too? He was working with the Satanists?
Well, I guess it made sense that he knew about the invocation, then, didn't it?
And why did Sutherland owe Jude's mom a favor? Who was Jude's mom, anyway?
"Yeah," said Noah, "but Jason wouldn't hurt Michaela. She's his
mother too, isn't she?"
What?!
Oh God.
