Demon Hunt (34 page)

“
He won’t touch Katie or make her mad. He needs her to open the gate. A child is always pure of heart enough to open the gate. The ancients used kids all of the time - lying to them and threatening their families to get them to open the Gates,” she replied, focusing on the widening crack in the coffin. Her own heart lurched at the sound of wood splintering somewhere in the back of the coffin. “It’s coming!”

Pam looked horrified. “
You
aren’t thinking of using Katie to open it?”

“
Hell no, she’ll be out of here long before we get that far.”

Pam joined her and added her own wiry strength to the struggle. “And how are you going to get her out of here? We’ll be down a tunnel, you remember.”

“
Would you believe I set up a ride out for her over a hundred years ago? And
I’m
going to open the gate so I can destroy the thing.” Rhi pushed up on the coffin lid as hard as possible. One more good shove. She braced herself.

“
Let me get this straight. Everything rides on
your
purity? You do realize you’re a
divorced blackjack dealer
, right? Pure? You committed adultery last night!”

“
Was it adultery if I married him in a past life and didn’t divorce him?” Rhi asked.

The lid slid back, revealing a tiny shriveled body, dressed in rotting Victorian clothing. The long black hair still flowed down Raven’s shoulders and a huge cameo had been pinned on her shirtwaist. Behind them, Ellie Mae whimpered. A death-like chill settled in the hearts of both of the women who stood over the coffin.

“
Pam, only someone truly pure of heart would face her own dead, rotted body. Now give me the pack.” Cringing, Rhi pushed the desiccated body to the side to make room. “Let’s not totally disarm ourselves. He’ll think we’re idiots otherwise or worse, up to something.”

* * * *

They stepped out into a maelstrom of snow and ice, which had descended upon the town with ferocious speed the moment after Rhi opened the coffin. The glowing lights of the casinos in town could not seen thorough the snow.

There was no sign of the half dozen members of the Brotherhood or Bobby Wayne’s group. Only Blackthorne, Molay and Pearl stood outside, the madam having joined them by means of another large SUV parked nearby on the winding road leading through the graveyard.

Slivers of snow stung Rhi’s face as she joined the group, still shadowed by Pam and Ellie Mae. Blackthorne had remained silent upon her arrival. His gaze swept over her once and then turned towards the sky.

“
He should be here soon. Where’d everybody go? Do ya’all really think he won’t notice them hiding in the woods?” Rhi asked as she brushed the flakes out of her hair. Her hands, even in heavy-duty gloves, were freezing. They would be warm enough soon,
she told herself drearily.

“
Of course he’ll know they’re hiding nearby,” Pearl replied. The famous lavender gaze glittered above the cashmere scarf wrapped around her head and face. “But he’ll be too arrogant to ask how many or what they’re armed with, won’t he?”

“
Great,” Rhi muttered. She pulled her backpack off to dig out the Bible. “I’m going to war with a pack of ancient knights who kill people as easily as I step on cockroaches, a conspiracy nut and his buddies, a psychotic ex-marine, and a 130 year old ex-hooker.”

“
One hundred and twenty nine,” Pearl corrected absently before pointing upwards at the swirling black sky. The smell of brimstone abruptly overwhelmed the clean scent of falling snow and the roar of a descending dragon broke the silence of the storm. “They’re here.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Through his night vision goggles, Bobby Wayne Bedford couldn’t take his eyes off of the shadowy figure of Rhi Brennan. The fear and uncertainty he’d been plagued with had been purged because now Bobby Wayne knew what it was he fought and the knowledge gave him a certain peace.

He was toasty warm, parked in his pickup in the driveway of an abandoned mining shack. Beside him on the seat lay a switchboard that controlled the hundreds of pounds of explosives he had wired the graveyard with over the preceding days at the request of Houston and Pearl DeVere. The loss of the fiery little pilot hurt.

“
I’ll not lose another man,” Bobby Wayne swore out loud. He thought better of that for a moment and added a hasty caveat. “Or woman. Or dog.”

In warded houses and cars near the cemetery, he and fifteen of the more dangerous locals in his force waited for the exodus of an army. The seven knights who accompanied Molay to Cripple Creek were nowhere to be seen but he could feel their presence, powerful and ancient.

The survivalist had waited most of his life for the war he was convinced he’d been born to fight. Everything centered upon the woman in the graveyard, who stood, ramrod straight next to her husband.

“
I hope you know what you’re doing, little girl.”

A shadow appeared beside the truck and opened the door.

“
You shouldn’t leave this unlocked,” remarked the chief as he climbed in beside him. Chief Boyd appeared to be half frozen as he cradled his rifle in his arms. He peered out into the snow.

“
I knew you were coming,” replied the other man. “How was flying over in the snow with Granny?”

“
It would have been cold, but Nana decided to drive here.”

Bobby Wayne grinned. “Nana?”

“
Shut up.”

“
Here it comes,” the survivalist told him, pointing at the moving shadows on the hillside. One in particular was huge and just landing.

* * * *

A single man rode astride the dragon when the beast alighted nearby. Troy swung his leg over the creature’s back and slid to the ground. He sauntered over to the group, reaching for an elegant, nonchalant attitude he didn’t possess.

Pam confronted him as soon as he got close enough for her to shove the barrel of her gun in his face.

“
Where is Katie at?” she demanded.

Nonplused, he moved the gun aside and stepped closer. “You know, you shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition, Pam. Maybe you should have listened in school a bit more and partied a bit less. But then, if you weren’t a party girl, you wouldn’t even have the little bastard, would you?”

A hard, bony knee shot up into his groin with a thunk. The dragon watched the scene benignly, without moving. Rhi could have sworn she spotted a bit of a grin on the creature’s hideous mouth.

“
Where’s Katie at, asshole? If this is a double cross to get us to bring the skull out in the open, you’re going to catch the worst of it, you know,” Pam hissed at him through clenched teeth. “Looks like your dragon doesn’t care what I do to you, so this might get nasty.”

Rhi smirked at the man rolling on the snow-covered ground. She leaned over to examine Troy, noting the front of his pants were wet. “Wow - I think you might have burst something on the poor guy. Whoops, never mind - he tinkled on himself.”

“
Would you ladies stop entertaining yourselves long enough for me to ask this idiot where my brother’s hiding?” Blackthorne bent down to lift the smaller man up by the back of his parka.

Rhi placed a restraining hand on his arm. “Wait.” She pointed at the wrought iron gates of the cemetery, half visible across the vast space of tombstone filled tundra. The approaching headlights belonged to a sleek black luxury version of the SUV’s that inhabited every driveway in town. The new arrival made its way through the gate and up the hill towards them. The snow fell around the huge vehicle, avoiding the metal. The tires and wheels were spotless, even though the gravel road through the cemetery was marked every foot or so with slush and mud filled potholes.

“
How does
he do that? I can never keep a vehicle clean up here,” Pearl muttered.

“
I should have known he wouldn’t ride here on a dragon, the trip might muss his hair.” Blackthorne still dangled Troy from one hand, held straight out from his side. His brother’s sidekick struggled, trying to take a swing at Blackthorne or anyone he could get near. The next second he unceremoniously dumped the other man onto the ground where Pam stood over him, one of her boots holding him face down in the snow.

“
This position seems to have become a habit for us, Troy,” she noted cheerfully.

After parking near the foot of the hill, Manius got out from behind the wheel and waved to the group before stepping back to the rear door of the vehicle to remove Katie from, of all things, a car seat. The little girl was dressed in a tiny mink parka and the smallest sheepskin boots Rhi had ever seen. She looked like an ad for designer baby clothes.

“
Hi, Mommy!” Katie called sleepily as her captor carried her up the hill. Behind them an ominous dark presence rose up from the ground to follow the pair, their forms obscured by the falling snow. Large and small, an army of perhaps a hundred demons in varying shapes and sizes darted in and out of the crowded tombstones, advancing up the hill. They stopped short as Manius Black approached with Katie Douglas balanced on his hip.

He had dressed as if he were going to an afternoon football game in Denver, in a turtleneck, wool slacks and a sheepskin coat. Manius’ pulled together appearance ended with the sword buckled across his back. His handsome face was haggard and wasted from the effort of controlling the army behind him and the dragon parked on the hill above. Rhi shuddered at the thought of what he would do when he had a legion of demons to do his bidding and the skull with which to control them. Blackthorne’s younger brother would be as stupidly ambitious as his predecessors.

“
Really, Troy, you should try to keep your mouth shut when you’re near these women,” he noted with a weary grin as he approached.

“
We thought you’d changed your mind.” Rhi eyed the arm with which he held Katie. His hand held an ornate dagger, curved against the little girl’s stomach. The child was perfectly positioned for a deadly drop onto the wicked-looking blade. “Is that a knife in your hand?”

“
Shush!” As Manius spoke, he nuzzled Katie’s golden hair. The obviously drugged child sleepily smiled back at him and rested her head on his shoulder. “You’ll upset the baby! I gave her something to calm her down, but we wouldn’t want her to squirm too much, would we?”

Pam kicked Troy out of the way and lunged towards him, only to be caught around the waist by Blackthorne.

“
Hold up, soldier,” he commanded in a whisper.

Manius examined the shadowy twilight expanses of the graveyard, made even more obscure by the falling snow. “I know your buddies are out there and you can take your shot in a few minutes. The young ladies, my assistant and I will be going down to the gate unescorted. You can try to deal with whatever comes back up - of course after I allow Miss Douglas to leave with her daughter following the opening of the gate.”

“
I have to open the first door to the tunnel,” replied Blackthorne dryly. “Rhi can’t open it.”

“
Yes, I can,” Rhi corrected him, interrupting a staring contest between the brothers threatening to go on for way too long. “I took the words from your mind in the night. And I’m freezing my rear off out here, so let’s go.”

Incredulous, he turned. “You speak of trust and then steal the words of opening from my mind as I sleep? What’s happened to you, Rhi? Is there nothing left of Raven in your soul but her power?”

She couldn’t let him go with her, her mind wailed. She would never be able to do what she had to do if Blackthorne was nearby.

Blackthorne stalked away. The tenuous thread that reattached them the night before broke. He turned again to speak as the women and his brother made their way towards the crypt. “Why does she get to go?” He pointed at Pearl, who joined the little group.

“
It’s always good to have someone along who possesses a decent sense of style,” his brother told him blandly. He addressed the women standing at the doorway. “All weapons will be left here, please. Don’t forget your tacky sword, Pearl.”

Rhi removed a buck knife from a sheath around her waist and a gun from the holster under her arm to place it in the growing pile beside the open door. She suppressed a nervous giggle as Pearl and Pam each relieved themselves of weapon after weapon. After a sizable pile of armaments had appeared, both women nodded at each other in appreciation and turned to face the door.

Manius stood waiting with the sleeping child on his hip. Nearby stood Rhi, a limping Troy and Ellie Mae. The dog had ambled along, unnoticed, beside them. On the rise beyond the doors, Blackthorne stood like a menacing thundercloud, his huge broadsword drawn.

“
This isn’t over, Manius,” he growled.

“
Not by far, brother,” Manius replied. Rhi jumped in terror when he shifted Katie on his hip, rubbing the dagger against her little body.

“
Would you please watch it?” She took the Bible from beneath her coat.