Read Evolution (Demon's Grail Book 2) Online
Authors: Amy Cross
Evolution (Demon's Grail Book 2) (23 page)
Jonathan
Three months later
It's almost midnight when the boat finally docks, bumping against the harbor wall with the lights of Manhattan towering above us. Several deckhands immediately start securing the ropes, and I feel a sense of relief as I realize that our long journey back to the human world is finally over.
In the distance, there's music pumping out of a nightclub, and the familiar roar of the city actually feels welcoming for once. I'm back, after all the insanity of Jagadoon and the journey to Gothos and the battle with the spiders, except...
Except something feels wrong this time. My sense of relief feels false, almost as if I'm trying to fool myself. New York, the human world, suddenly feels very alien and unwelcoming, as if I don't belong here.
“We're home,” I mutter, joining Abby at the front of the boat. “I mean... I guess...”
Without replying, she steps forward and starts climbing up the rusty ladder. We've spent almost a month at sea on the ferry, and in that time she's barely said two words to me. Instead she's been locked in her own thoughts, and I haven't felt as if it's my place to disturb her. I know she's thinking about Absalom and about everything we've lost now Gothos is gone, and about the spiders having won the day. The few times she's spoken, it has been about the spiders being out there somewhere, and about the need to stop them, and about a race of demons.
And Karakh.
She's thinking about the journey to Karakh, the place where she's fated to die.
When I get to the top of the ladder, I turn and look down at the boat. The silent ferryman, whose rotten face I glimpsed once or twice during the journey, has already begun to turn his vessel around. I know enough by now to not ask too many questions, but I can't help wondering who the ferryman is and how Abby was able to contact him for this journey. Still, when I turn back to my sister, I see that she's staring up at the brightly-lit buildings of the city's night-scape. I want to tell her that everything is going to be okay, but I know those words would seem so hollow.
Finally she turns to me.
“This is goodbye,” she says calmly.
I pause, shocked by those words. “Goodbye?” I ask after a few seconds. “What are you talking about?”
“I brought you home,” she continues. “That's the most I can do right now. I'm sorry. Just try to forget that you ever met me.”
“We're going to Karakh,” I reply, stepping toward her. “You said it several times since we left Gothos, we have to go to Karakh and find a way to stop the spiders and those... Whatever those
things
are that Absalom mentioned. You said it yourself, they can't be allowed to continue.”
“
I
have to go to Karakh,” she explains, with a hint of fear in her eyes, “and
I
have to face Emilia and the demons and whatever else I find there, but you don't have to come with me. I know you feel like you don't fit in with everything that's happened, Jonathan, so this is your jumping off point.” She holds a hand out for me to shake. “No bad feelings, no resentment, just...”
I stare at her hand. Before the battle at Gothos, I wouldn't have hesitated to accept this offer, but now I'm not so sure.
“We don't work very well together,” she continues. “It's no-one's fault, it's just the truth. There's a savage side of being a vampire, a side that you clearly find too shocking. I can't hide that part of myself, and if I'm going to Karakh, I can't allow myself to get distracted. I think it's better if you go back to your old life, the way you wanted. You haven't been around me very much, so maybe you can suppress certain parts of your personality. I'm not saying your life will be easy, but I think it's worth a shot.”
I pause for a moment, before realizing what I have to do. “I'm coming with you,” I tell her finally.
“Jonathan -”
“I'm coming with you,” I say again, feeling more certain now, “because after what happened at Gothos, I can feel something changing in my soul. When I fought those spiders, I experienced a hint of the savagery you mentioned, I felt for the first time that I wasn't entirely human.” I take a deep breath, shocked that these words are coming from my mouth but, at the same time, relieved that I've made a decision. “I'm coming with you because I don't belong in the human world anymore, not properly...” I pause for a moment. “And I'm coming with you because you're my sister, and because I can't let you go alone.”
“There's a prophecy,” she replies. “It says that when I go to Karakh, I'll...” Her voice trails off for a moment.
“I know,” I continue. “Maybe it doesn't have to come true, though. You can fight a prophecy, can't you?”
She shakes her head. “Our father tried, and look how that turned out. I'm going to Karakh, Jonathan, and I won't make it back. All I can hope is that before I die there, I'm able to stop whatever's happening. They've had a head-start already, I can't afford to wait any longer.”
“I'm still coming with you,” I tell her. “There's just one thing I have to do in the human world first. I have to find 411 Maple Crescent Drive. I don't even know what city it's in.”
“What are you talking about?” she asks. “Who lives at Maple Crescent Drive?”
“David and Rose Watson.” I take a deep breath, feeling a shiver in my chest. “Ash's parents. I don't know what I'm going to tell them, but I have to tell them
something
. I have to tell them that their daughter...” My voice trails off. “Well, I guess I'll think of something on the way. And then once that's done, we'll go find Karakh. You don't have to come to see the Watsons, though. I can do it alone.”
She pauses, before shaking her head. “I'll come,” she tells me. “I don't know what I'll say to them, but I'll come.” She turns and looks toward the city. “It's cold. We should go to my apartment. Hopefully the power's still running.”
With that we set off on foot, making our way into the bright lights and deep, swooping shadows of the city. Even at 3am, there are people everywhere, but we pass among them without drawing any attention. They have no idea who we are or, more importantly,
what
we are. If they notice us at all, they probably just think that we're like them, that we're humans. They can't even begin to understand the truth, and perhaps it's better that way. If they knew what we'd been though, and if they knew about the spiders and demons massing at Karakh, waiting to launch an assault against all the other worlds, including the human world we're in right now, there'd be mass panic. It's better to let them stay happy for now, unaware of the darkness that's coming this way, and of the truth about Abby. And about me.
We're vampires. Both of us.
NEXT
The 13
th
Demon
(Demon's Grail book 3)
With the war over, a race of ancient demons has finally taken control of Karakh. Determined to cast aside all other species that have risen during their absence, the demons – led by a ruler who has spent thousands of years trapped in the void beyond worlds – implements a plan that will lead to the extinction of not only vampires, but all living creatures.
For Abby Hart, the moment of destiny arrived. With only her brother to help, she sets out on the journey to Karakh, despite knowing of a prophecy that states she will die in the palace of the spiders. Along the way, she strikes up an unlikely alliance and gains an even more unlikely follower, before finally entering the one place in all the eight worlds where she should never set foot. Like her father before her, Abby must face the unbending will of the fates themselves.
The 13
th
Demon is the third book in the Demon's Grail trilogy, continuing the story that began in Ascension and Evolution.
OTHER BOOKS
BY AMY CROSS INCLUDE
Horror
The Farm
Annie's Room
The Priest Hole
Eli's Town
3AM
Asylum
Meds (Asylum 2)
Tenderling
The Girl Clay
The Prison
American Coven
The Night Girl
Devil's Briar
Ward Z
Ward Z: Revelation
The Devil's Photographer
Take Me to Church
Fantasy / Horror
Dark Season series 1, 2 & 3
Ascension (Demon's Grail book 1)
Dead Souls Volumes 1 to 4
Lupine Howl series 1 to 4
Grave Girl
Graver Girl (Grave Girl 2)
Ghosts
The Library
Journey to the Library (The Library Saga 2)
The Ghosts of London
The Vampire's Grave
The Werewolf's Curse
Thriller
Ophelia
The Dead City (Ophelia 2)
Fallen Heroes (Ophelia 3)
The Girl Who Never Came Back
The Dead and the Dying (Joanna Mason 1)
The House of Broken Backs (Joanna Mason 2)
The Pornographer's Wife
Other People's Bodies
Dystopia / Science Fiction
The Shades
Finality series 1
Mass Extinction Event series 1 to 4
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
The Fall of the House of Gothos I
Part Seven
The Fall of the House of Gothos II
Also by Amy Cross
THE FARM
No-one ever remembers what happens to them when they go into the barn at Bondalen farm. Some never come out again, and the rest... Something about them is different.
In 1979, the farm is home to three young girls. As winter fades to spring, Elizabeth, Kari and Sara each come to face the secrets of the barn, and they each emerge with their own injuries. But someone else is lurking nearby, a man who claims to be Death incarnate, and for these three girls the spring of 1979 is set to end in tragedy.
In the modern day, meanwhile, Bondalen farm has finally been sold to a new family. Dragged from London by her widowed father, Paula Ridley hates the idea of rural life. Soon, however, she starts to realize that her new home retains hints of its horrific past, while the darkness of the barn still awaits anyone who dares venture inside.
Set over the course of several decades,
The Farm
is a horror novel about people who live with no idea of the terror in their midst, and about a girl who finally has a chance to confront a source of great evil that has been feeding on the farm for generations.
Also by Amy Cross
ALICE ISN'T WELL
(DEATH HERSELF BOOK 1)
“There are lots of demons in the sky above London. The problem is, this one came crashing down to earth.”
Ten years ago, Alice Warner was attacked and disfigured by an attacker in her own home. She remembers nothing of the attack, and she has been in a psychiatric hospital ever since. When she's finally released, however, she starts working as a security guard at an abandoned shopping mall. And that's when she starts to realize that something is haunting her, keeping just one step out of sight at all times...
Meanwhile, seventy years earlier, a little girl named Wendy is left orphaned after a World War 2 fighter plane crashes onto her house. Taken to a monastery, Wendy is quickly singled out by the nuns for special attention. They say she has been possessed by a demon, and that there's only one way to save her soul. Fortunately for Wendy, however, there's someone else who seems to know far more about the situation.
What is the shocking connection between Alice and Wendy, reaching out across the years? Does a demon really lurk in the girl's soul? And who is Hannah, the mysterious figure who tries to help Wendy, and who seventy years later begins to make her influence felt in Alice's life too?
Alice Isn't Well
is the first book in the
Death Herself
series, about a dark figure who arrives in the night, promising to help deal with the forces of evil whenever they appear.