Band of Demons (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book Two) (32 page)

“Really? At this stage, what I see happening is that Sawyer is going to roll over the two of them like they aren’t even there. It’s time to face facts, Sanny-boy—you bet on the wrong horses. Those two nearly died the other night. I’m not sure Quinn will be able to fight at all by the time Halloween rolls around.”

“He’ll be ready,” Sanheim said. “And don’t call me that name again.”

“Sorry, your worshipfulness,” Kieran added sarcastically. How he hated bowing down to anyone. “I want a better name for you, though. Maybe something with ‘Darth’ in it. Darth Sanheim. I like that. It’s very intimidating.”

“As always, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sanheim replied. “My name is fine the way it is.”

“Have it your way,” Kieran shrugged.

“I think you will find Kate and Quinn have been underestimated,” Sanheim said. “You have to be ready to help them, ready to make your move.”

 “I understand what I have to do. The question is, do they?” Kieran said. “Kate’s lying in the hospital, Quinn is burnt to a crisp. If they have a strategy, I’m at a loss for what it is.”

“Then help them find one,” Sanheim said.

“They don’t even know I’m on their side,” Kieran replied.

“I don’t doubt they have their suspicions,” Sanheim replied. “Besides, it should be easy to convince them. You know more about Sawyer and Elyssa than any living person.”

Kieran noted that the category presumably did not include Sanheim himself.

“True,” Kieran said. “But that just makes me more pessimistic. You say I’m underestimating Quinn. I think you’ve underestimated Sawyer. He wants his revenge and he’s going to get it.”

“I don’t think so,” Sanheim replied. “And you better hope you’re wrong. You know the price of failure.”

“I remember,” Kieran said. He had, after all, already failed once.

“So think of this as a second chance,” Sanheim said. “Do what I ask and you’ll be rewarded.”

“You know what I want,” Kieran said.

“And you’ll get it,” Sanheim said. “I always honor my bargains.”

“No, you lie, cheat and steal,” Kieran said. “You do everything you can to ensure a bargain is a bad deal for the other side.”

Sanheim just smiled at him. Kieran wished he could wipe it off his face.

“Maybe,” he said. “But complete your task and I promise you it will all be worth it.”

Kieran looked at his face, searching for any sign of lying. For some time, he had feared that Sanheim was playing him false. He saw no confirmation in Sanheim’s eyes, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that when he had made this deal, he had sealed his own fate. But what choice did he have? One way or another, he was fully committed now.

“All right,” Kieran said. “We’re agreed. I’ll leave soon. Just make sure you protect me if something goes wrong.”

“You know I can’t interfere,” Sanheim said.

“Convenient, that,” Kieran replied.

Sanheim gave him one last look.

“Don’t fail me,” he said. “Don’t fail her. This is not a game you can afford to lose.”

Kieran woke up in a cold sweat.

Chapter 29

October 25, 2007

Kate sat holding Quinn’s hand, watching him sleep. Since the other night, he had woken up only twice and then been quickly sedated.

The doctors talked to her nonstop in the meantime, discussing skin grafts, physical therapy—a range of options Quinn would never need or want. They were about to witness a genuine miracle.

As it grew closer to Halloween, she could feel herself—and Quinn—growing steadily stronger. She knew he was healing. Whether it would be in enough time to help them was an open question—he was in no condition to face Sawyer yet. But Kate thought she was beginning to see pink, whole flesh where just a day before there was nothing but charred ruin.

“How’s he doing?” a voice behind her asked.

Kate turned to see Tim enter the room. He had called twice, but not talked long. She had actually been eager to talk to him. She had spent every waking moment beside Quinn—she hadn’t seen the news in days.

 “I don’t know,” Kate said. “He’s getting better, I think, but we don’t have a lot of time.”

“Can you tell me what happened?”

“What do the police think?” she asked. “I keep waiting for someone to arrest Quinn or me.”

Tim laughed out loud.

“They haven’t told you, have they?” he said.

He sat down in a small plastic chair in the corner of the room.

“The official story? Quinn’s a goddamned hero,” Tim said. “I had Helen write up the article—figured Quinn would appreciate the irony. When the boys from one of the houses woke up, they said they dreamed a man came in and carried them out of the fire. The authorities, not unreasonably, concluded it was Quinn. He was found lying next to them in the grass.”

Kate’s ghosts had done their jobs better than she could have imagined. Although some Ashburn residents had been admitted to the hospital with burns, none were severe. Most had no idea what had happened to them. They had woken in their yards to find their homes burning down. The ghosts had moved Quinn safely away.

The firefighters had found Kate on the grass and treated her as a potential burn victim. They assumed she passed out due to smoke inhalation, which is why she was hooked up to an IV drip when she initially awoke in the hospital. No one bothered to ask her why she was there in the first place when she lived a few miles away.

“Of course, there are holes in the story,” Tim continued. “How did Quinn save every resident on the block? How did the fires start? Why is Quinn burned but nobody else? But luckily for Quinn, this is a funny town. Brown wanted a hero, not a villain, so that’s what Quinn is now. Assuming he recovers, they’ll probably give him a civic award.”

 “So they don’t think we started the fires?” Kate asked, almost unwilling to believe it.

“I may have helped with that,” Tim said. “I suggested it was another natural gas explosion, like the one Quinn and Janus covered several years ago. Doesn’t fit the pattern, of course, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that there’s some explanation they can offer and this one fit the bill.”

“Thank you,” Kate said.

“You want to tell me what really happened?” Tim asked.

“I’m not sure you would believe me if I did,” she responded.

“Did you win?” he asked. “Is it over?”

Kate lowered her head.

“No,” she said. “We didn’t. We very nearly lost everything.”

“Are we safe?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Probably not. I hurt them, I know that. It may take a few days for them to recover. Beyond that, I don’t know.”

 “I’ve read up on the legends,” Tim said. “This can’t go on forever, can it?”

“No,” she said. “One way or another, it ends on Halloween.”

“Is Quinn going to recover by then?”

“You ask a lot of questions, you know that?”

“I’m a reporter,” Tim said. “It doesn’t turn off.”

“I don’t know,” Kate replied. “Hopefully.”

“Do you have a plan?”

Kate looked at him in exasperation.

“Does it look like I have a plan?” she asked. “I need to be doing research. The thing that attacked us—we need to know more about it. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine. He’ll strike again, but I’m not sure when or how—that depends on just how badly I hurt him.”

“What?” Tim asked.

“I’m not sure you want to hear this part,” Kate said.

Tim leaned back in his chair and gave her a thoughtful look.

“I’m sorry about last week,” he said finally. “You were right. I already had enough proof that something supernatural was going on. I just didn’t want to accept it. Your demonstration was a little too effective for my taste.”

“I didn’t know it would go that far,” Kate said. “I thought I could just be him for a moment and stop. But I understand what I am now—that shouldn’t happen again.”

“So,” Tim asked. “Do I want to know what you are?”

“Probably not,” she said. “There are some things about it I don’t get—and I’ll have to before we face the other Prince of Sanheim. The problem is, the one person I think could have helped us is already dead.”

“Madame Zora,” Tim said.

“Precisely,” she replied. “And to be honest, I’m spending all my time just sitting by Quinn’s side. I can’t risk leaving him.”

“Let me help,” Tim said.

“Do you want to help us?” she asked. “You did shoot me, you know.”

“What you’re facing seems to be a threat to this whole county.”

“Yes,” Kate said without hesitation. “Absolutely.”

“Then I want to assist you in any way I can,” he said. “I couldn’t stop Lord Halloween... and I still feel the sting of that failure. If I can help now, I want to do it. You don’t have to tell me why, but you can tell me what you need.”

“Okay,” she said. “First I’m going to need some books on Celtic myths. What I saw the other night was unique, to say the least. I’m looking for a creature with rainbow colored hair that can breathe fire.”

“That’s what we’re up against? Seriously?”

“Apparently so,” Kate replied.

He stared at her wide-eyed.

“I suppose on the bright side he should be easier to find. Can’t be too many things like that around. What else do you need?” Tim asked.

“You’re going to think it’s crazy,” she warned.

Tim gave her a wry look.

“Crazier than a man who can breathe fire?” he asked. “Just tell me what you want.”

“I need you to find me an expert on ghosts.”

*****

Sawyer sat in a chair staring at the wreck of his room.

In his anger, he had destroyed nearly every piece of furniture in the room. It was little loss to him. He had let Elyssa decorate everything because she enjoyed it and Sawyer didn’t care. He had to admit that smashing the expensive antiques she had purchased and carefully moved over the past several decades brought him some joy.

But it wasn’t enough, not nearly enough.

He sat there stewing. After one brief attempt to calm him, Elyssa had wisely abandoned Sawyer, leaving him to his impotent rage.

How had it all gone so wrong? He had finished Quinn, could have destroyed him completely had he not wanted to gloat a little more. As much as he wanted to blame the others—Elyssa, Kieran or his
moidin
—that error was his and he couldn’t deny it. If it hadn’t been for his damn vanity, this game would now be over. Kate was powerful, that was clear, but if Quinn had died, it would have driven her insane. Sawyer remembered the last Prince of Sanheim who lost his consort. He had spent weeks insisting he was the woman, his identity lost in the confusion of two minds being joined and then forever separated.

Sawyer privately doubted Elyssa’s death would have the same effect on him. He knew he was stronger for pushing her away. She was a good tool, a useful second-in-command who had never wavered in her loyalty to him. But she wasn’t his soul mate. No, that title belonged to another—one he had betrayed and failed, the one he would still avenge. Whenever his resolve wavered or he felt beaten, he thought of her. Sweet Anne, who never asked for any of this insanity, but had paid the ultimate price for it.

Sawyer pushed himself out of the chair and paced the room. This wouldn’t do. It was just six days to Halloween and he was cutting it too close as it was. If he didn’t kill Quinn and his annoying girlfriend by then, he would have to wait another whole year to assault Sanheim. Another year of waiting, of watching those simpering
moidin
wandering around him, of Elyssa’s pained expression every time he shut her out of his thoughts. He wouldn’t do it, couldn’t do it.

Elyssa
, he called in his mind.
Come to me. Now
.

She obeyed at once and he felt how
grateful
she was for the summoning. He sensed her relief that his furious rage had passed. It was pathetic. She had no idea. He was just getting started.

Elyssa entered looking as stunning as ever. Sawyer had only slept with her twice after Anne died—once on the night they killed Jackson and then when they defeated Collins. He hadn’t been able to help it then. The power they took from each defeat of their fellow Princes was overwhelming, a drug that was impossible to resist. She had taken full advantage of his situation, even knowing his pledge on his dead wife’s grave. He had enjoyed himself, but regretted it immediately afterward. He knew what she hoped—that each time, he would forget Anne and just be with her. But he’d never do it. Every time he looked at Elyssa, he saw Anne’s blood on the wall.

It was her fault.

Not just hers, though. His, too. But most of all the man who had started all of this madness. Sanheim.

So help me God, I will end you
, he thought.

He knew Elyssa could hear these musings but didn’t care. Let her share in his guilt. It was only fitting.

“What do you want, Sawyer?” she asked. She had seemed so bright when she came in, but his thoughts had dampened her mood. He didn’t care.

“Where’s Quinn?” he asked.

“Still at the hospital,” Elyssa replied.

He hadn’t told her to check up on him, but he knew she would anyway. He could hate and despise her all he wanted, but she was a damn efficient lieutenant.

“I assume the woman is still guarding him,” he said.

He couldn’t bring himself to say her name. She was all that stood between him and his final victory.

“Night and day,” Elyssa said. “We could still take her, Sawyer. A full frontal assault and…”

“With what
moidin
?” he asked. “I may not be able to hear their thoughts, but even I know they’re in terrible shape. They can’t fight.”

“They’ll try if you ask them to,” Elyssa said. “They’ll do anything for you.”

Sawyer waved his hand in disgust.

“It would be pointless,” he said. “And wasteful. We need to come up with a way around her ability if we’re going to defeat her.”

“I’ve been having them research the situation night and day,” Elyssa said, with a touch of pride in her voice. “Kieran has some interesting ideas…”

“Kieran,” Sawyer said and his mouth tightened as he said the name. “He betrayed us.”

“No,” Elyssa said, though her voice sounded uncertain. “Why would you think that?”

“Quinn and the girl showed up awfully quickly, don’t you think?” Sawyer asked. “I had hoped to wreak havoc in that town, but they were there just as we showed up.”

“You think he warned them?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Why? What possible motivation would he have?”

Sawyer stared at her like she was stupid.

“Revenge,” he said simply. “What other motivation does a man need?”

“I thought we were past that,” she replied. “He’s always…”

“Been surly, abrasive and a touch uncooperative,” Sawyer finished. “He was a useful tool. But if he’s helping them, his usefulness is at an end.”

“He’s here now,” Elyssa said. “Do you want to question him?”

Sawyer thought for a moment. And then he smiled.

“He’s too slippery for that,” he said. “But there is another way. Let’s test him.”

“How?”

“He wants to play the rat, let him,” Sawyer said. “Let him know we are gathering the
moidin
for another attack. Tell him we’ll make our move in a couple days.”

“Against Quinn?” Elyssa asked, looking confused.

“No,” he replied. “Tell him we’re planning to attack the town you originally found them in. What was it called?”

“Waterford,” Elyssa replied.

“Yes, there,” Sawyer said. “Tell him we’re going to burn it to the ground.”

And just like that, Sawyer was starting to feel a lot better.

*****

October 26, 2007

Quinn woke up feeling somewhat refreshed. The pain, which had been his constant companion for several days, was starting to ebb.