Bound by Time (16 page)

I
sobel. I have a present for you,”
Xapar whispered through her mind.
“A gift to remind you of the consequences the next time you think of running.”

Isobel tightened her hold on Damien and closed her eyes trying to shut it out. Damien rubbed the back of her neck with his fingers. “He’s speaking to you again.”

She nodded.

“What is he saying?” Xapar was doing his best to influence her even without her touching the window. He was getting far too strong.

Isobel pulled away and dug her hands into her hair. “Usually he calls my name and says that I’m his.”

Damien’s jaw tightened. Like hell she was Xapar’s. “Usually?”

“This time he’s claiming he has a present for me.” Isobel dropped her hands. “I wish he would just shut up. I can feel his evil in my mind when he speaks to me. It feels like he’s leaving bits of darkness each time he does it.”

“You could block him out easier if you would embrace your power,” Damien said, trying to gently steer her in the direction she needed to go.

Isobel shook her head and took a step back from him. “I can’t. I know I’m going to have to, but I just can’t. I’m so conditioned to blocking it and the fear is so strong when I think about it… I don’t have any idea how to even reach it.”

Damien watched the fear flicker over her face. Maybe it was time to bring another channel. Someone who could help her get past the fear and learn to embrace it. Someone who could teach her to use it.

The wail of sirens cut through the silence that hung between them. Isobel walked into the living room, curious. In the years she had lived there, she’d never heard sirens in her neighborhood. Through the screen of shrubs and trees, flashes of red and blue light flickered across the front windows. Her stomach started to churn, and a horrible feeling crept over her.

Isobel crossed the foyer and walked out onto the front porch with Damien behind her. The sirens had quieted, but the lights still flashed bright against the dark day and the misty rain that still drizzled down.

Several police cars and two ambulances were parked on the curve in the road and in the driveway across from Damien’s house. They were at the Marshall’s, a couple in their fifties. Had one of them had a heart attack? Why the police cars then? Isobel ran into the rain compelled forward. Sinister whispers in her mind told her it wasn’t a heart attack.

Isobel jogged down the long driveway in her bare feet. The road was blocked by emergency vehicles. Within minutes news vans clogged the street. More neighbors wandered down the road, drawn by the enigma of the sirens in their neighborhood and the yellow crime scene tape going up.

Isobel tried to push through the milling reporters and cameramen only to be stopped by an officer. “I’m sorry, ma’am. You can’t come any closer.”

Damien’s hand closed around her wrist as he leaned down to whisper in her ear, “We might as well go back.”

Reluctantly she followed him back to the house; the rain picked back up soaking her hair and clothes. As soon as they were inside a heavy knock at the door drew their attention. Isobel opened the door, and a reporter immediately began asking if she had heard gunshots earlier.

Damien drew her back from the door and fixed the reporter with a stony look. “We heard nothing. Leave.” He swung the door shut in the reporter’s face.

Isobel massaged her temples. “The early news will be on soon. I want to see what happened.”

Damien rubbed her arms as they stood dripping in the foyer. “You have time to change into something dry. It won’t do anybody any good to stand around until you get ill.”

Isobel rolled her eyes even as dread coiled like a snake in her heart. “People don’t get sick from being in the rain. And if they could, I suppose I could say the same of you.”

Damien shook his head. “Angels don’t get ill. It won’t take you that long.” Isobel changed quickly into dry clothes before making her way to the living room where Damien already had the TV on.

The top story on the news was the murder/suicide on the affluent island. Fifty-six year old Robert Marshall had bludgeoned his wife Maria to death before shooting himself in the head. Isobel hit the mute button and looked away from the images of her own neighborhood on the screen.

“My present, sweet Isobel,”
Xapar whispered in her mind.
“I will take them all out one by one. You cannot find the vial—it is long gone. The longer you resist me the more people I will take from you. My reach is much stronger than your precious dark angel could imagine.”

A wave of nausea rolled over her. Xapar had killed them because of her.

Damien watched her face pale and her hands start to shake. “Isobel?”

“He killed them because of me. That was his present.” A tear rolled down her cheek. She hadn’t known the Marshall’s, only their names. It didn’t matter. She was responsible for the violent deaths of two people. Grief for the senseless loss of life filled her.

“This isn’t your fault, Isobel.” Damien shifted closer to her and pulled her into his arms, a small thread of worry working its way into his heart. Negative emotions would only give Xapar more leverage. The demon fed on her fear and remorse then turned the emotions back on her in a vicious cycle. The last time Isobel had faced Xapar the demon had been held securely in the window with no chance of reaching out. This was the first time she’d been exposed to this level of evil. If the demon could reach across the street to people who had never touched the window, how much more damage could he do before the blood was found?

Isobel said nothing.

That night, Xapar whispered to her constantly. Finally, somewhere in the early morning, Isobel gave up on sleep and slid quietly out of the bed. She started for the bathroom then slowed to a stop. Dark red footprints smeared across the pale carpet in the semi-darkness and disappeared under the bathroom door.

The shadows in the room coalesced and the air grew thick with malice. Isobel’s heart raced and her breath came in shallow gasps as she crept toward the bathroom. She reached out and hesitated; her shaking fingers a mere inch from the wooden surface. Isobel stared at the unlatched door as she pushed it open.

Blood flooded the entire floor. Maria Marshall stood in the center; her face battered and her skull crushed on one side. Isobel’s heart jackhammered in her chest and her throat constricted until she could barely gasp. Maria’s brown eyes were wild as she pointed at Isobel. The finger was bent at the wrong angle and a piece of bone poked through the skin. “You did this to me! You killed me!” Maria cried through her broken teeth. Her shrieks filled the small space as she stalked toward Isobel. “It’s your fault.”

Terror ripped through Isobel as one of Maria’s cold hands clamped over her arm. It held her for a moment before turning dark and smoky. Then Maria’s entire form turned into a large, smoky figure that released her and suddenly disappeared like a shadow through the wall.

Xapar’s laughter echoed around Isobel, in the air, in her head.

“Isobel, breathe.” Damien’s voice was an ocean of calm in her ear. “There is nothing there. It’s Xapar playing with your mind.” His arms went around her gently as white light flooded the area around them. Isobel sucked in a hitched breath, then another and another. No matter how fast she pulled in air she couldn’t seem to get enough.

Damien let his power flow around them while he tried to calm her. “Isobel, slow down. Try to take a deep breath.” She gasped in a gulp of air. “Now, let it out as slow as you can.” It took several long minutes to get her breathing under control.

He turned her in his arms and brushed the hair away from her face with gentle hands. Damien stared directly into her wide and frightened eyes. “It wasn’t real. Whatever you saw it wasn’t real.”

Isobel shook her head. “It was real.” She dragged another gulp of air in. “She grabbed my arm.”

“Who?”

“Maria Marshall. She was in the bathroom. Her head was crushed.” Isobel’s body shook all over as fear drove more adrenaline through her veins. “She screamed that it was my fault and then she grabbed my arm.” Her voice raised as hysteria took hold of her. “I felt it! I can still feel it!”

Isobel clawed wildly at her arm. Damien captured her hands and drew her arm up. Bright red fingerprints marred the skin like a sunburn. Not the ghost of Maria, a weak demon from the lowest level. Coward hadn’t even stuck around to be banished. What the hell had it been doing here? Uneasiness settled deep in his gut.

Damien sat on the bed pulling Isobel into his lap and holding her close. She was quiet. Too quiet. Keeping one arm around her, he reached for his phone and scanned through his contact list tapping the one he wanted when he reached it.

“Damien, how are things going?” Lucian asked.

“I’m going to need some help.”

Lucian’s voice grew serious. “What’s happening?”

“Xapar is getting in Isobel’s mind even though I’m sure she never touched the window. I’m getting worried.”

“Sounds like the bastard is getting loose. The seal must be nearly gone.”

“I’ve repaired it several times, but there is only so much a dark angel can do. The more it weakens, the stronger he gets. The stronger he gets, the more it weakens.”

Lucian was silent for long moment. “You are sure she never touched it?”

“Absolutely. I would have known if she had.”

“How close has she come to it?”

“Too close. The last time he lured her there. She came so close to touching it…like I said, too close.”

“He lured her? He shouldn’t be that strong, Damien, even with the seal breaking. Not with her power.”

Damien glanced down as Isobel. Silent tears rolled down her face as she stared toward the bathroom. “She can’t embrace it yet. There is more.”

“More?”

“He’s reaching well beyond the window to people who never came near it. The couple across the road are dead because of him. And just a minute ago a low level demon showed up. But he couldn’t have made her see what she saw. He had to work with Xapar for that.”

“Damn, he’s finally strong enough and free enough to contact other demons,” Lucian said. Silence filled the line. Damien wondered if the call had been dropped and then Lucian spoke. “I can be there in a few days. There’s someone I’m going to stop and pick up. I think she’ll be able to help with both Isobel and the demon.”

Isobel pushed against him as she slowly stood up and walked back to the bathroom and turned on the light. He watched her carefully as he asked Lucian, “Who?”

“Isaac’s charge. She’s a powerful one. Not like Isobel will be once she embraces it, but strong all the same.”

Damien nodded. “She needs someone like that. I was planning on calling in another channel soon. Thank you, my friend. I’ll see you in a few days.”

“See you.” Lucian paused then said, “And Damien, watch her like a hawk. If Xapar is getting that strong and he’s putting things into her mind there’s no guessing what she’ll do.”

Damien stared at the bathroom doorway. “I know.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can, no longer than a week.”

D
amien walked toward the bathroom. Isobel stood in front of the mirror staring at it. He leaned against the doorway and appraised her. Though her eyes were still red the tears had stopped. “Do you need more time?”