Darkening Dawn (The Lockman Chronicles Book 5) (32 page)

No one.

But something had changed the game on him, had revived the unicorn, and had stirred up her magic real good.

Something had defeated him.

Or almost.

If he was lucky.

As the last shreds of consciousness fluttered away from Earl, he swung his arm with the hacksaw in hand and watched it slide out into the blood with a metallic clatter.

The instant the dusted saw hit the blood, a brilliant blue light flashed then spread outward into a dome that enclosed the entire circle.

I’ll be damned. It’s working.

He’d done it. Saved the day at the last minute.

The dome caught the girl at the pool’s edge, then began to coalesce around her. Once it surrounded her, it pulled in toward the dome’s center and dragged her along with it like a giant, glowing hand.

She threw her head back and screamed.

The chair disintegrated in the light, along with the ropes binding her. But they weren’t needed. The light drew tight to her body like a skintight suit—like those catsuits his mama used to wear that made all the men stare at her with dumb, caveman eyes—and pinned her on her back with her limbs spread-eagle.

“No,” she cried. “Not again. No.”

Right when Earl thought he’d conk out, the unicorn took her hoof off his back.

He gasped, able to breathe again, but not able to move. The bitch had snapped something and paralyzed him. He found it didn’t bother him. Gabriel was on his way, and when he arose he would use his power to fix Earl up good. They’d straighten out their differences. Then they would go on to lead the world to the Dawn.

The unicorn traipsed into the circle, splashing in the blood.

Idiot
. It was too late. The process had started. She couldn’t stop it now.

Earl closed his eyes and rested in wait for his master’s arrival.

Chapter Fifty-Four

S
HE COULDN’T MOVE, COULDN
’t see beyond the searing blue light, couldn’t escape the electric pain enveloping her body.

Jessie had lost.

She could feel the first cold touch of Gabriel’s soul, as if he were testing the water in a bath. The touch came with a single word that would have sounded friendly in any other context. But now, not from him. From him it sounded like a curse.

Hello.

Jessie screamed and struggled to move. It did no good. This ritual had conjured tremendous power, like nothing Jessie had ever experienced. Even with those pieces of Wertz still in the room, the magic overwhelmed her.

She was vaguely aware of the unicorn standing in the circle, watching all this transpire. The light had apparently gripped her by the hooves to keep her from interfering.

A loud ringing filled Jessie’s ears as if she’d spent the night at a Korn concert. The bones in her jaw and through the face of her skull buzzed like a subwoofer dropping too much bass. Another vibration ran up and down her back, her spine like a plucked guitar string.

My body’s a regular fucking jam session.

The slick feel of Gabriel’s thoughts ran over her mind. She could hear him laugh from inside her own head. Part of her, deep down, welcomed the familiar sensation after such a long absence, like a junkie craving a hit when she knows better.

There’s my girl
, his voice rang from the deep well within her where souls were kept.

It should have been
soul
, singular. And for any normal person, that’s all it ever was. But Jessie’s soul chamber, for lack of a better name, had been stretched wide, with plenty of room. After all, she had once held thousands of souls in there at once.

Gabriel moved in easily.

The blood in the circle around her turned a matching neon blue like the rest of the lights surrounding her (
them
). Then the blood pulled in from around the pool’s edges as if someone had pulled a drain in the circle’s center.

But it wasn’t draining. It was being drawn into Jessie.

She realized then that this ritual had more to do than simply force Gabriel’s soul into her. He was already in, yet an enormous amount of power remained.

Yes, Gabriel whispered. It’s not just me moving in. I brought a bunch of friends to keep us company.

As she drew the glowing blood in more and more, she began to feel those souls digging into her like maggots eating their way through a rotten chunk of meat. She even recognized some as those that had come from the artifact that had started this whole battle for real estate in Jessie’s body.

Others were nothing like her former residents. When they entered her, a black, mealy taste filled her mouth. Her stomach rolled with nausea.

Go ahead and puke on your back, she thought. You’ll choke and kill yourself.

Gabriel’s laugher echoed in her mind again. Don’t worry. I won’t let that happen. We like it here too much.

But that was just it. It didn’t matter how many souls took residence in her, her death meant instant eviction.

Self-sacrifice? Really? Don’t be such a martyr.

If it means spoiling you and your pals’ plans, I’m all for it.

Her body seized. Pressure dropped over her body as if the air had turned to rock, making her feel buried alive. Her heartbeat pumped faster and faster as her brain lost its supply of oxygen.

All at once, the pressure subsided.

Jessie almost choked on her breath as she greedily gulped air.

That was me, Gabriel said. A demonstration of my power over you. With the power of these souls I brought with me from the Inbetween, I can and will dominate you. Just as I can easily kill you, I can also keep you alive.

I am one step away from immortal.

Jessie saw a thin beam of hope. What’s keeping you from that last step, Mr. Egomaniacal?

One thing Jessie had learned from her previous adventure in sharing her body with his soul was that Gabriel had an evil laugh for every occasion. This included a laugh that he thought covered up any trepidation.

He used that laugh now.

She knew better than to mistake worry for fear. Gabriel didn’t know how to fear as far as she could tell. She knew him well enough, though. Only three minutes in her body and he had already let his ego slip him up.

By now Jessie’s body had sucked up all the blood, and with it every soul riding Gabriel’s coattails.

The dome of light expanded like a diaphragm filling with air. Then it imploded with a lightning crack that rang in the corners of the room. As quick as that crack sounded, the light disappeared, leaving Jessie on her back.

Shadows cast by the remaining candles flickered across the ceiling. With the butchery scent of the blood gone, the incense reclaimed its place as the dominant smell in the room.

Jessie tried to sit up, but she still couldn’t move.

She quickly realized why.

Her soul had become a mere passenger in her body. Gabriel had taken control. Now all she could do was watch him ruin the world.

No. She had fought him before, she would fight him again. She wouldn’t stop fighting until she won herself back, or died, taking Gabriel and his army of souls out with her.

Don’t bother, Gabriel said. You aren’t half the girl you used to be. And unlike before, all these other souls take orders from me.

Jessie tried to dive into herself, into that deep core where her soul had the most power. She had staged a battle from that spiritual place before. That’s where she would kick some soulful ass again.

She tried to go there.

But all the souls surrounded hers. Some slithered, some skittered, some stomped into position. Then they closed in. They wrapped around her, clutched her, or pressed down on her. So many of them.

Too many of them.

It became hard to tell where she began and they ended. Whispers, titters, and screams came from every direction, like an echo chamber in hell. The fight she had planned became impossible while she remained stuck in this quagmire of demons.

Jessie had not only lost control of her body.

She had lost control of her very soul.

Chapter Fifty-Five

E
LKA HAD STOPPED FIGHTING THE
light that kept her hooves stuck to the floor. No matter how hard she pulled, even with her inherent magic pulsing through her at full strength, she couldn’t break free.

This circle had become a lightning rod of magical energy. She figured it drew from whatever Dolan was bringing with him from the Inbetween. Anything beyond that, she couldn’t guess. Her people did not meddle with these kinds of powers. They were smarter than that.

Leave it to mortals to think they could handle such massive amounts of magic.

So she bided her time and watched the results of this mad ritual.

When the girl had drawn all the blood into her, Elka thought about the blood ocean from her dream. This wasn’t an ocean, but the sacrifice was still immense. She noticed the bone altar had also reacted to the ritual. More blue light shone from between the bones and out the eye sockets of the skulls. It looked like an elaborate Halloween prop lit from behind.

The blood reminded her of the dream.

All this light—this blue light—brought back the memory of watching through the glamour in the closet, and how the girl now at her feet had sent her father’s dead body to the very place they had escaped in order to survive.

She felt a scream in her throat, but she swallowed it. She didn’t want to be noticed while the ritual blazed around her. Best to stay quiet until its end. The silence in the wake of all these pyrotechnics would leave a quick opening for Elka to finish her.

Revenge while saving the world. Thank you, Craig Lockman, for such a beautiful opportunity.

The blinding show winked out as quickly as it had started.

It took a moment for Elka’s eyes to adjust to the meager candlelight and what little came through the open door.

Her hooves were free. She felt the strength of her magic return. The gnome stones barely registered. They created the equivalent of a blind spot, but not coming near to blacking out her power altogether.

The girl stared at the ceiling for a moment. Her chest rose and fell with quick breaths as if she had finished a stint of heavy physical labor.

Elka took the opportunity to strike.

She directed all of her energy into her horn and shaped the magic to her will. In this case, she pulled the stray molecules in the air from dust, smoke, and moisture, drew it all together to form a thick cloud. She tilted her head to one side and the debris whirled in a circle faster and faster until it became a small tornado between her and the girl.

The tornado gave off a reedy whirr and it smelled like hot sand.

Like the beach at the family cottage in the middle of August.

A prickly chill ran down Elka’s back. But instead of tamping down the memory, she fed on it. The more she could stress her system, the stronger her power grew and the longer it would last. Unicorns didn’t need sacrifices for their magic. They needed massive amounts of adrenaline.

Too much, however, could ramp up her blood pressure enough to risk cardiac arrest.

She didn’t care. Dying here would earn her plenty of honor and guarantee her a high place in the Great Beyond. Killing hunters was a sacred act. Saving billions of lives in the process was an unfathomable feat.

I’m coming, Daddy.

She shoved the tornado forward to engulf the girl. It lifted her from the floor and spun her around like a floating top. But she didn’t scream like Elka had expected.

She laughed.

“Wee,” she said and giggled like a little girl riding a carousel.

Elka clenched her teeth and made the swirling dust spin faster. The wind blew Elka’s mane flat against her back. Stray particles stung her eyes. All of the candles flickered out, drawing the shadows in around them. Only the light coming through the open door cut through the dark enough to allow Elka to see.

“Oh, this is too good,” the girl shouted and held out her arms like propeller blades.

Elka’s heart pumped harder and harder as her anger flared. How could the bitch mortal stand the abuse?

The girl laughed with a full-throated glee. It sounded both wicked and insane. Exaggerated. She was making fun of Elka even while she spun at a sickening speed. “Feeling a little queasy now. Fun’s over.”

Her arms still extended to either side, the girl clenched her fists. The tornado around her burst apart in a spray, each speck of dust glowing like an ember.

Elka scampered back as the enflamed dust scoured her face.

All of the glowing particles dropped to the floor and the light winked out of them, leaving no evidence that they had been disturbed in the first place.

The girl stood at the circle’s center, arms outstretched, hands in fists, wearing a smile that clashed with her dead, dark eyes. She slowly opened her fists and lowered her arms.

“Aren’t you a beautiful creature,” she said. Her voice sounded all wrong. The cadence different. The tone askew.

The ritual had worked.

The girl was no longer the Chosen One. She was Gabriel Dolan.

An oily vibe radiated from her (or him). Her eyes traced Elka’s body with the leer of a child molester. It looked unnatural coming from a teen girl.

“Too bad about that nick in your horn, though.” She looked past Elka to where Earl lay motionless. “It’s so hard to find good help.”

A shiver rattled Elka from horn to tail. Gabriel’s ugly demeanor, projected through the girl, disturbed her. But the ease with which he had countered her magic was what
frightened
her. Without any goading from herself, Elka’s stress level cranked up several notches. The adrenaline coursing through her system made her feel light-headed. Too much oxygen pumped to her brain from her overcharged heartbeat.

But as her body began to suffer from the stress, her magic devoured it and grew all the stronger.

She aimed the tip of her horn at Gabriel and concentrated on manipulating every heat source in the room, no matter how small. From the candles’ smoking wicks, to the glowing ends of the incense sticks, and the body heat from the three of them in the room. Any of it by itself amounted to nothing. Drawn on and concentrated, however, and Elka could ignite it with her will.