Devil Hath Come (an FBI/Romance Thriller ~book 7) (60 page)

Then it hit him. She’d never come willingly, and with the muscle that surrounded her, it would be almost impossible to grab her.

So, he needed a way.

Then it hit him
.

If he couldn’t approach her with two large Indians
guarding her, then he would have to fix that.

Already
, the plan began germinating in his mind.

The whimpering from the woman beside him drew his attention. Before he could worry about Elizabeth, he first needed to wrap up his mission. Leaning down, he patted her on the top of the head.

“I will make this quick,” he stated. “First, I’ll prepare the ceremony, make the offering, and then call it a night.”

She stared at him with wide eyes, knowing how her other friends must have felt. Oh
, how she wished that she could scream for help and had taken what the FBI agent had said a little more serious.

That ignorance was going to cost her everything.

As he stood, he lit the incense and stood facing north.  He began asking the elements to enter his circle and give him power. Waiting to feel the energy change, he was enjoying his already building
strength.

The woman watched in horror at the perversion of her religion. He was using something beautiful and peaceful
, so completely wrong. She recognized the ritual to call their Goddess, but then the rest became dark and ugly.

There was some babbling of an incoherent language that sounded made up.

The man was obviously insane.

This was the end.

Once he was satisfied and believed that his Master was with them, he cleared a space and stared down at her. “I’m warning you now. I will make this painful on you. If you don’t want to suffer, then it’s best not to fight.”

She stared at him defiantly.

Oh, he could see her plans. She was going to make this hard and normally he wouldn’t mind in the least, but he had already left too much evidence, and he couldn’t risk it. Leaning over the woman, he wrapped his hands around her throat and squeezed. As the woman passed out, he made his move and quickly lifted her to the altar. Tethering her hands above her head, he worked quickly. After her feet had been strapped down too, he was ready to begin.

Stripping from his clothes, he pulled out the smelling salts,
and was careful to not spill any on her. When she sharply inhaled and her eyes opened, he stared down at her.

“I told you that I would hurt you.
You were warned.”

She whimpered
and began tugging at her arms as she tried to get free. When she found it useless, all hope left her.

“Your friend led me to you, and for that I’m grateful,” he said, licking one of her tears from her cheek. “Tastes like witch to me,” he stated
before laughing uproariously.

She shook
in fear.

“Shall we begin?” Picking up the sharpened
athame, he scratched the outline of the pentacle in her flesh.

When her body shook from the pain, he glanced over at her.
“Oh that was nothing,” he promised, grinning.

Calling for his dark Lord, he began to spill her blood. It was time to offer her soul up once and for all.

She screamed behind the tape and thrashed to escape the burning heat that seared through her body.

The pain was excruciating and pushed her into the darkness, only to have him yank her back once more.

It was a battle of wills. She desperately wanted to hide in the nothingness, and he wanted her to feel every single slice to her tender belly.

Her body bucked and fought as his laughter and
babbling words filled the air. She was horrified that this was how her life was meant to end. Certainly, this was some sort of horrible dream and shortly she would be waking from it.

As he woke her one last time
, she was coherent enough to see him move to stand behind her.

What more torture could he inflict on her?

Then he grabbed her hair and pulled her head back to reveal the graceful arch of her throat. Placing the blade against her jugular, he began laughing even more.

“Master, I offer you this woman. Enjoy her soul!”

With a sweep of his arm, the pain was exquisite, and she gasped at the rush of blood flowing from her. It coated her body as everything began to slow down.

When the pain slowly ebbed away, she was grateful.

Staring up into his face, she watched his eyes. They were so dead and vacant, almost soulless.

How did all this happen?

Why did it have to end this way?

There were so many questions going through her mind in those last seconds of life.

She was barely alive as he pulled the tape from her mouth violently. There was a slight feeling of pain, but nothing more.

In fact, she was beginning to feel good.

She was light and airy.

It was a
s if she was now floating above her body.

The
dying woman stared down at the wreckage and watched herself slowly dissipate into the nothingness. It was all ebbing away.

The gray came and swallowed her as it deepened to a darkness
that she had prayed for the entire time. Now it was all over and she could finally just sleep.

There were no more fears…

He stared at her grinning like an excited child. She had fought hard, and that always made it sweeter. Already, his mind was off this victim and on another woman.

He prayed that she
would fight for her life too.

If she tried to bolt and ruin his plans, he
already had a way to keep her there. Oh, he knew exactly how to grab her attention. She’d never leave, and then she’d be his.

It was time to move onto
step one.

Gently, he pulled out the note
and read it over and over again, just to relive the pleasure. Finally, he whispered the words like some twisted mantra.

Oh he couldn’t wait. The time was coming and he was giddy with anticipation. This was his destiny.

AND hers…

~ Chapter Fifteen ~

The knock at their door drew their attention. They’d been eating pizza and doing their work, and at the sound, each was praying that it would be good news and not bad.

What they needed was a break in the case.
Finding out about Harmony and the witch was a good start, but they still needed more.

Going to the door, Callen glanced outside through the peep hole. Seeing it was part of the team, he relaxed
and tucked his gun into the back of his pants. They were taking no chances with Elizabeth’s life from here on out.

Opening the door to them, he could tell
that they were excited. Chris had a happy look on his face, the one that he always got when he had found something in autopsy and couldn’t wait to share all the details.

Immediately, Rex ran into the room
and raced to Elizabeth’s side to lick her face.

“Rex, down boy. I get drooled on enough. Cut a girl a break
,” she stated, as the dog gave her lots of love.

Ethan laughed
and patted the big dog on his back, as Rex rested his head on her lap.

Not far behind the dog were the ME and agent. Elizabeth stared at them
and tried not to laugh. They were holding hands and it appeared cupid’s arrows had definitely struck hard and deep.

Perfect.

“Directors, we wouldn’t have bothered you, but we found something and you need to hear about it. At first, we were going to wait until morning, but this is that damn good!” Cyra blurted.

She held up her hand. “Okay, first breath
e. Secondly, in the office I’m ma’am, Director, boss and anything else, but when we’re off the clock, Elizabeth is just fine.”

Cyra
relaxed around them. “Thank you.”

“Now, tell us what you found.”

Callen returned to his spot on the bed and had to move around the Shepherd. He too began petting the behemoth.

“Okay, well
, I now have Ares real name. It’s Roger Flynt. I know you’re going to want me to run a background on him and I will, but this isn’t the huge thing that we found. It’s secondary.”

Chris
took over, “So we’re having dinner and making out,” he began, only to get slapped.

“Christopher!”

The three laughed at the look on her face.

“If you think we weren’t aware of that, you must think we’re oblivious
to the world around us,” Elizabeth stated, and then if to prove a point, “You have whisker burn, and he has a mark on his neck that is very hickey-esque.”

Chris started laughing, despite Cyra’s
horrified glare.

“Yeah, we’re really observant like that,” Callen added.

It didn't faze Chris in the least and he continued, “Anyway, we’re watching the demonic porn show, and we saw this.” He opened the laptop and hit play. Holding it, he waited for his bosses to see what they caught. His money was on Elizabeth spotting it first. She had eagle eyes for little details.

She scanned the video
as it played, and there were three men standing there with one woman restrained on the altar. She was writhing and squirming under their hands, but she looked to be enjoying it. Don’t get her wrong, she enjoyed sex, but this was super perverse even for her.

Elizabeth shifted her focus to
the woman’s face. “Holy shit!”

Chris grinned. “
Right now, you should be thinking,
‘isn’t that Harmony Wilcox’
?”

Both men star
ed at it.

Ethan reach
ed out to touch the screen and zoom in on her face. “Yeah, that’s definitely her.”

This was a game changer. They now had a witch who was dabbling in the dark arts and from the look of it, she was enjoying it.

“I want to personally do a walk-through of her place,” stated Elizabeth.

Ethan agreed. “Tomorrow we can get it in
to our schedule first thing in the morning, or do you want to start your morning with the destruction of Ares Lafay?”

Cyra and Chris were confused.

Elizabeth told them about the phone sex and Harmony’s boss sharing the store’s number.

“
Wow! Harmony is connected to the witches and Satanists too?” Cyra inquired incredulously.

“Yeah, she is. That means,
I really need that background check under his real name before I interview Ares tomorrow. Can you pull it off?”

Chris jumped in
and reassured her, “We’ll work on it until it’s done. I’m excellent with paper work.”

Elizabeth started laughing. “Yeah, that’s what she’s going to remember you for.”

He responded just as fast, “I’m pretty sure you’re beating me on gossip,” he snickered, and then went on. “Wait, you are because I spread most of it.”

Cyra looked mortified
at the teasing between them.

Chris laughed
when his boss offered him a fist bump.

“I let my guard down
on that one, and I should know better with you,” she answered, winking. “I was put in my place by your IQ and witty repartee.”

“I aim to please, ma’am,” he replied.

Elizabeth opened her mouth and Ethan once more covered it. “You two better escape. You both are still on porn patrol. If we found one woman, then we might find another.”

“We’ll let you get back to your work,” Chris said, wiggling his eyebrows at his friend.

Cyra called Rex. “Come Rex-y.”

The dog didn't budge.
In fact, it didn't even look at her.

“Rex! Heel.”

Elizabeth pushed his big head off her lap and it only made him crawl onto her more. Soon, Cyra was pulling on his leash, and he still wouldn’t come.

“I don’t know why he won’t listen. He’s never done this before.” She didn't want to carry the huge dog out
, but it was a possibility.

“Rex, do you want to stay?” Elizabeth asked, staring at the dog. He barked. “It’s okay, Cyra. He can
bunk here. He probably smells pepperoni. I’m used to men being motivated by food as a lure.”

Callen laughed. “Yeah, we’re easy
like that.”

“Speak for yourself,” Ethan scoffed.

Cyra didn't mind if he remained, as long as he was safe. Obviously, he enjoyed Elizabeth’s company. In fact, he looked like he had a case of puppy love. “Are you sure?”