Nameless: The Darkness Comes (8 page)

Chapter Fifteen

I had my helmet in hand by the time Reed Taylor squealed into the driveway.
I climbed onto the bike behind him, wrapped my arms around his waist, and rested my head against his back.

“St. Marks,” I said.

“Hold on, baby,” he answered and took off. I closed my eyes. I tried not to think about Seth. Instead, I tried to figure out where Lydia could be.

Seth wouldn’t do anything to hurt her
, so obviously she wouldn’t be in the house when he tried to…do what he did. Is she at the babysitter’s? Except I
am
the babysitter. Who could she be staying with?

It
didn’t make sense, not any of it. My brother would never do this.

Except that he did.

Did something happen to Lydia, and that’s why Seth didn’t think he could go on?

My eyes snapped open
, and I flinched.

“What’s going on?” Reed Taylor yelled back to me.

“Just thinking,” I yelled back. He nodded and kept up his breakneck speed.

No, if something had happened to Lydia, Seth would have called me.
No matter how bad it was, we would have figured something out. It has to be something else.

I remembered the atmosphere in the house, the dark depression and loathing that hung in the air.
I felt like I’d be combing despair out of my hair tonight. The ambiance felt greasy and that could only be one thing:

The demonic.

We reached the hospital. Reed Taylor pulled up to the doors, and I hopped off.

He reached out and took my helmet.
“I’ll park the bike and meet you inside.”

I nodded and ran through the doors.
The signs pointed toward the empty registration desk and I slapped my hand on the table until somebody peeked out from behind a partition.

“My brother.
Seth Masterson. Attempted suicide, pills and drowning. The ambulance just brought him in.”

The girl looked at me with wide cow eyes. I wanted to poke them out with my thumbs.

“I’m sorry,” she began.

I slapped the desk again.
“Tell me where he is. Can I go in? Do I have to wait outside?”

She shook her head.
“I don’t know. The woman who works at the desk just ran to the bathroom. She’ll be back in just a minute, so if you can wait until then…”

I leaned over the desk, and I’m sure that every demonic visage I have ever seen had nothing
on my expression then. I could feel the hatred and anger in it.

“Listen, lady.
Tell me where my brother is, or I will run all around this hospital and find him myself. I will call upon the powers of Hell to help me. And believe me, you don’t want to know what that will be like.”

I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Hello, ma’am. My name is Reed, and this is Luna. She’s a little upset right now. Will you let Seth Masterson’s doctors know we’re available in the waiting room, please? Thank you so much.”

He steered me over to a seat and sat me down.
“Coke?” he asked.

“I’m not thirsty.
I can’t sit here in a waiting room. I need to see Seth. I need his help to figure out where Lydia is. The demons…”

Reed Taylor walked to the vending machine and got two sodas.
He set one in my hand and opened the other one.

“Luna,” he said after a swallow.
“I’m sorry about Seth, but they’re not going to let you in there while they pump his stomach. You know I’m right.”

He
was
right. I scowled and sucked down my soda.

“Ms. Masterson?”

I turned to face a short policeman with a jolly face.

“Yes?
Oh, good. You’re here to look for Lydia. Look, I have a picture of her here in my wallet.”

“Lydia is with her mother,
ma’am. She’s safe.”

I felt my whole body jerk.

“She’s with Sparkles? And you call that safe? Where are they? I need to get her back.”

The officer held out a warning hand.
“Sit down, Ms. Masterson. You’re getting excited. There is no reason to—”

I didn’t sit down.
Instead, I put my fists on my hips. Reed Taylor whistled and took a step back from us.

“Listen here,
officer.
Sparkles is a terrible woman who walked out on her family with some pretty young thang. She has no love in her cold, black soul. She only wants Lydia because she doesn’t want Seth to ever be happy.”

“Now
, miss—” he began.

“What?
You think I’m lying?” I felt like my eyes were sparking, I was so angry. A demon slid along the floor on its many legs like a centipede. It flowed over the policeman’s shoes, but I ignored it. “She’s a nasty woman. She’s a demonic presence. I don’t know how she even got into the house because she is so utterly wicked that she shouldn’t have been allowed in.”

“Now I understand you don’t like her, but you don’t have to be so harsh.
It’s unbecoming.” The officer looked perturbed at my rudeness.

I snorted.
“Unbecoming? She is the most evil person I have ever met, and believe me, I have seen a lot of yuuuuuck in my time.”

“Now
, miss…”

I was ready to really lay into him
when the doctor poked his head out of the door. “Family for Seth Masterson?”

My
head whipped to the doctor, back to the officer, and to the doctor again.

“Talk to the doc.
I got the cop,” Reed Taylor told me. He winked at me with his fantastic green eye.

I nodded, flashed the officer a “You’re so lucky I have to leave right now” look, and strode over to the doctor.

“So what’s going on? How is my brother?”

The doctor smiled.
It looked fake, but he had a hard day, too, so I was prepared to let it go. “He’s alive. We pumped his stomach. He had some water in his lungs, but not very much. He’s a lucky man.”

“Can I see him?”

He nodded. “Just for a minute. He’s pretty groggy.”

I followed him through the door into the triage unit.
A little boy was getting his head bandaged. Weak cries came from behind a curtain. I could see something leggy winding around the hospital bed. That thing from earlier.

“Here he is.
Like I said, you only have a few moments.”

Seth looked like death.
His color was bad and his eyes were tiny slits. His body looked small and horrifyingly frail in the hospital bed. I checked his heart rate and blood pressure on the machines. Weak, but better than I expected. I pulled out the single chair and straddled it.

“Hi, big brother.
How are you?”

I saw the shine of his eyes flick in my direction.

“Luna.”

“Yeah, it’s me.
Good to see you. You scared me to death, you know.”

“Sorry.”

“Yeah, I bet you are. Do you know Sparkles has Lydia? What were you thinking? Did you go crazy?”

He flinched at the word
‘crazy,’ and it only served to anger me.

“That’s right.
I said The Forbidden Word.
Crazy.
You hear that? Killing yourself, Seth? You, of all people. What about your daughter? What about me? You said you’d never forgive Dad—”

A nurse swung the curtain open with an irritated scowl. I hadn’t realized that my voice had gotten quite so loud.
Or hysterical.

“Now that is quite enough, young lady
. This man needs to rest, not be badgered. Out. Scoot.”

“But—
”

“
Now.”

I was pretty mad.
I hate being told what to do, and Attila the Hun here was getting on my last nerve. I jumped to my feet and opened my mouth to tell her exactly what I thought. Then I took another glance at Seth, and he looked awful. The anger quickly drained out of me, and I was left with gratitude and worry.

“I’m sorry,” I said to Seth.
Then to the nurse, “I’m sorry. Give me just a second, will you?”

The nurse
hmphed
and looked away to give me some semblance of privacy. I noticed she didn’t budge, though.

I leaned over the bed and smoothed Seth’s hair with my hand.

“I love you, Seth. You and Lydia are the only family I have. I never want to go through life without you.” I patted his cheek. “Now get better or I’ll have to amputate your toes for you. With a hunting knife. And no anesthesia.”

The nurse looked alarmed.
Seth’s lips twitched in a brief smile, and then he was asleep again.

“He likes it,” I assured the nurse.
“If I didn’t threaten him daily with bodily harm, nothing would get done around the house. That’s just how it is.”

I blew past her into the waiting room.
Reed Taylor was sprawled across the chair, staring at nothing. He stood up as soon as he caught sight of me. There was no sign of the policeman.

“How is he
?” he asked.

I tapped my foot rapidly
. Suddenly I was full of nervous energy. “He’s all right. He’s alive. The nurse is a real tyrant, I tell you. Wouldn’t let me talk. I didn’t get a chance to ask him anything.”

Reed Taylor’s smile almost made me forget everything.
For just a second, anyway. “Yeah, I heard you. You were pretty upset, and your voice really carries, love.” His smile faded. “Listen, about Lydia—”

“Right.
Let’s go get her.” I started for the door but Reed Taylor stopped me.

“It isn’t that simple.
I was just talking with the policeman there, and he was saying that…well, it doesn’t look likely you’ll be able to get her back right now.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.
Shooting the messenger, sure, but curse it all, somebody was going to be shot around here! “Why not?”

Reed Taylor sighed.
“There’s no easy way to say it, Luna. Lydia’s father just tried to commit suicide. There’s history of mental illness in the family. You’re also suspected of being mentally unstable. So here comes Luna’s mom, who basically looks pretty clean right now, riding in on a white horse to save her little girl.”

“What?” I shouted.
Every head in the hospital snapped my way, and Reed Taylor put his arm around me.

“Luna.
Calm down. I know how you feel about Sparkles. But let’s face it. You don’t really have a leg to stand on right now.” He looked grim. I wanted to run my hands through his hair of fire to assure myself he was really there, or maybe just belt him in the stomach, but I was too wooden to move. “Besides, there’s more than that. Notice who’s missing?”

“The angel.
I told you things were going down.”

I spun toward the voice.
Mouthy demon was standing behind me. He looked angry and possibly even a little defeated, but it flashed across his dark face so quickly I couldn’t be sure.

“Mouth,” I sai
d. I nearly wanted to hug him, which only proved how out of sorts I was. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

He snorted
. “You are?”

“I am.
Reed Taylor and I need to talk to you.”

Mouth turned away.
“You know I want nothing to do with this guy. Talk to me when you’re alone.” He started to flow away, but I grabbed for his arm. A faint resistance, but that was it. My fingers went right through. Mouth stopped, though, and looked at his arm. He looked at me.

“Mouth, Lydia is gone. I…” I was no good at this. I didn’t even know what words to say. “I could use his help. And yours. Just get over it and let’s go figure some stuff out, all right?”

Mouth muttered some very angry, crass words
a lady never chooses to repeat but I’ve never had a problem with, and then he sighed.

“Okay.
All right. Not here; you’re causing a scene. Your house.” His eyes flicked to Reed Taylor. “I’m telling you it’s best if he doesn’t come, but you’re not going to listen to me anyway.”

He dissipated into dark
ness.

I turned to Reed Taylor.
“Man, he really does not like you. Have you had a run-in with him before? Killed his mama?”

Reed Taylor laughed.
“Not that I know of.” He took my hand. I closed my eyes for just a second, taking the chance to collect myself. His hand was warm, callused, and very reassuring.

My father’s hands used to feel the same way.
I slid my fingers out of his grip and stepped away.

“We’re meeting him at my place,” I said. I couldn’t look him in his beautiful eyes, couldn’t take a chance of what he might see. “He’s willing to talk to us. Maybe he knows what’s up with Seth and Sparkles and the absence of your Demon Patrol.”