The Dark Gate (17 page)

“What's going on, Jack?” Henry raised his hands even as Jack lowered his gun.

“It's Baleris. Hank, are any other cops with you?”

His dark brows pulled together. “No. We split up back at the house.” His dark skin positively paled. “We…you…you were all in there?”

“Not when you were shooting. We ran when we heard the sirens.”

“We riddled that place, man.”

“I know. That's why I want you to keep your distance from your kids until I'm sure you're safe.”

Henry's shoulders sagged, his expression melting. “What's he done to me?”

Jack let out a heavy breath. “It's a long story, but the bottom line is, he's controlling the minds of the entire M.P.D. You're his own private hit squad.”

“Damn.”

“We've got to get out of here before any more cops come after us.”

“How?” Henry winced and shook the holly branch out of his pant legs. “Do you have a plan?”

“Yeah. Come in and shut the door.”

“Wait,” Larsen said. “The holly.”

Henry's hand shot out toward her. “My gun.” As the big man's gaze swung up to meet hers, she saw the hard calculation in his eyes.

The enchantment.

“Jack…” As Henry lunged for her, Larsen leaped backward, slamming her back into one of the wood studs that held up the wall.

Jack brought the butt of his gun down hard on the back of his friend's head. With a heavy thud, Henry collapsed at her feet.

“Daddy!” Sabrina cried, and ran for her father.

Jack shoved his gun into his waistband. “The holly didn't work.”

“It worked while it touched him. But it only dampened the effects of the enchantment. It didn't break it.”

Sabrina knelt beside the prone man and turned horrified eyes on Jack. “You killed him.”

“No, baby.” He knelt beside her and pressed his fingertips to Henry's neck. “Feel his pulse, Sabrina. It's good and strong.”

But the girl stared at him as if she hadn't heard. “I hate you!”

Jack sighed. “Sweetheart, if I'd meant to kill him, I wouldn't have used the
handle
of the gun, now would I?”

Sabrina threw herself on her dad.

Jack picked up the holly sprig and shoved it back up Henry's pant leg. “This is scratching the hell out of his leg.”

“I know,” Larsen said. “But I don't know if it's the branch or the leaves that do the trick, and something worked. We can experiment later.”

“I agree.”

Larsen looked around. “We need a length of rope or something to keep it from falling out again.”

Jack pulled a small pocketknife out of his pocket and tossed it to her. “There's a sled back there with a cord.”

Larsen retrieved the cord and retraced her steps carefully over the piles of lumber and junk. She handed it to Jack and watched as he tied it carefully around Henry's leg at the ankle.

“Nice work with the shovel,” he said without inflection.

“I was afraid he was going to shoot you.”

“Me, too.” He glanced at her, then away, a hint of self-loathing in his eyes. “I hesitated. I could have gotten us all killed.”

“But you didn't.” Compassion eased through her, a need to comfort and to reassure. She laid her hand on his arm. “You've spent years protecting your partner. I'd be more worried about you if you hadn't had any qualms about killing him. He wasn't attacking you on purpose. And, good grief, his kids were watching. How
could
you have pulled that trigger?”

“That doesn't help a lot.” He met her gaze and made a rueful twist with his mouth. “But it does help.”

He held out his hand. “Give me the gun and I'll show you how to use it.”

“How do you know I'm not a crack shot?”

“Because you're holding it like it's going to explode.”

“Yeah, well, maybe you're right.” She laid the gun carefully onto his outstretched palm. “Are you sure you want me handling this thing?”

“Positive. You're my backup if anything goes wrong.”

The thought was at once reassuring, that he still trusted her, and infinitely depressing. If she was the backup against a dozen cops, they were in deep trouble.

Jack showed her the basics, then handed the gun back to her. With trembling fingers, she set the safety and shoved the gun into the waistband of her pants.

“What do you think?” she asked, holding her arms out at her sides. “Do I look like a cop now?”

His gaze slid slowly down her body as something warm and carnal moved in his eyes.

“You want to play cop for real?”

She dropped her hands. “What do you mean?”

“We need a getaway car. And I can't leave Henry.”

Larsen swallowed. “What are you saying?”

He handed her Henry's badge. Larsen's eyes widened. “You want me to impersonate a police officer?”

“We need a car. You can either appropriate it with the badge, or the gun. Your choice.”

She stared at him in disbelief. “You're serious.”

He nodded once, sharply. “Dead serious. If we don't stop Baleris, we could be facing a much larger threat than one lone Esri. We're the only ones who can stop him. He's shoved us outside of the law by sending the police after us. We're going to have to work out of here for now.”

The thought of resorting to car-jacking sickened and terrified her. What if something went wrong? What if someone got hurt?

“Jack, I don't think I can do this.”

He grabbed her shoulders. “You can do it, angel. If there's anyone I trust to get the job done—any job done—it's you.”

She searched his eyes. “I don't know how you trust me after what I did to you.”

Something cool and guarded moved through those blue depths. He dropped his hands. “I don't seem to have a choice.”

Larsen sighed. “When you put it that way…” Still, she'd give anything if she could give the job to someone else. But there wasn't anyone. She could either get the car, or try to keep Henry from killing them all. “One car, coming up.”

He reached for her again, then dropped his hand, his expression turning cool and guarded. “Be careful out there.” For a moment something warm passed like a shadow through his eyes. “I need you.”

Larsen swallowed and nodded. “Here goes nothing.” She eased out of the shed and into the drizzle, the safety of the world riding squarely on her shoulders.

“D
ad, it was so cool.” David leaned over the armrest of the car seat. “Sabrina says there were lights and everything.”

“Lights?” Henry's expression was one of classic disbelief. The two men sat in the far back of the minivan; Henry was bound, hand and foot, the ropes then tied around the bench seat. If he tried to go anywhere, he'd be taking the car with him.

“It's true, Dad,” Sabrina said from the second captain's chair. “David was glowing, then the light rose out of him and turned colorful and sparkly.”

Henry's disbelieving gaze swiveled to Jack.

Jack nodded slowly. Quick movements just made the pain in his head worse. “Hank, if you're looking for logical, forget it. We left that station about a hundred miles back.”

Rain fell lightly outside, the soft swish of the windshield wipers a whisper against the riot going on in his head. They were on I-66 heading east toward D.C. Larsen was driving, her grip on the wheel white-knuckled and rigid. Beside her, Myrtle talked animatedly as if they were returning home from a family vacation instead of attempting to elude capture and death in a stolen vehicle.

Larsen's dyed hair swung around her chin as she turned at something Myrtle said, her expression preoccupied. Her gaze swiveled toward him, and for a single heartbeat their gazes met before she turned back to the road. He felt the touch of her gaze like a kick to his solar plexis. She was so damned beautiful. Even after what she'd done to him, he wanted her with an ache that was a living, pulsing thing inside him. An ache that would never be eased.

His dream of a future with her was gone. Whatever she'd done to him had accelerated the course of his madness by months, probably years. And her touch no longer gave him the respite he needed to ever hope to stay sane. No, his days were numbered. He just had to hang on to his sanity long enough to catch the Esri. And save the world.

“They said I was going to die, Dad,” David said as if talking about nothing more than a cut on his knee. “I heard them. Uncle Jack rescued me and Aunt Myrtle healed me.”

Henry's gaze went from Jack to his son and back again. His eyes narrowed as if turning inward, digging for memory. “You kidnapped him out of the hospital?” His eyes cleared as memory apparently returned. “Mei was frantic.”

“Yeah. I'm sorry for putting her through that, but the docs had given David up for dead. I had to try to save him.”

“And you did.” Henry's eyes narrowed with wonder and gratitude. “You risked everything for my son.”

“I'm glad it worked.” An understatement if there ever was one.

“I owe you, man.”

“You've already paid.” Jack pressed his palm to his forehead as if he could push the pressure down. “Do you remember calling me the night you shot up my house?”

Henry blanched. “Shot it up?”

“Yeah. You've been busy, Hank. Anyway, you called me and woke me up. You saved my life. You told me you had to kill me and that you were sorry.” Jack felt his mouth twitch. “I was the white brother you'd never had.”

Henry grinned, the slash of white across his dark face familiar and welcome. “The white brother I never had, huh? Not to be confused with my blue or green brothers.” His eyes turned sober. “I saved you? Really?”

“You did. I was so tired, I'd never have heard the cars in time if you hadn't woken me. I'm just saying…you're the brother
I
never had. And your family's mine.”

Henry nodded, then turned to look out the window, blinking a little too fast. “Tell me what's going on, Jack. All of it.”

As the wipers rubbed lazily against the windshield, Jack told him. About the Esri, the enchantment, the Stone of Ezrie, and the deadline of the full moon. The traffic began to slow as they neared the D.C. suburbs, though they were still a good twenty miles from the city. The car's air conditioner blew steadily, ruffling the edges of his hair.

“Hank, what do you know? What is Baleris doing in the police station?”

Henry shook his head. “I don't…” Suddenly he grimaced, his expression turning pained.

“What's the matter, Hank? What's hurting.”

“Nothing. Everything. I just remembered.”

“Tell me.”

Henry tipped his head back, his mouth grim. “He's turned the interrogation room into his private quarters. Pillows everywhere like a sultan's palace. He's got us bringing him food and wine at all hours of the day and night. And every morning a…”

He squeezed his eyes closed, his face a mask of grief. Finally he turned toward Jack and mouthed, “A virgin. A college kid.” He said the last, his voice filled with pain. “And we're helping him.”

“You don't have a choice, Hank. You don't even know what you're doing. I'm amazed you remember. No one else has been able to.”

“It must be the holly,” Larsen called back. Obviously the entire car was eavesdropping on their conversation.

Henry lowered his voice to barely a whisper and leaned toward Jack. “He feeds off the taking of them. The blood strengthens his magic.”

“How do you know they're…” Jack grimaced. He really didn't want to know the details.

“He can tell just by looking at them. Says they glow.”

“So you…what? Bring him several girls to choose from?”

“No.” He made a pained sound deep in his throat. “We're rounding them up. We've got more than a dozen in the holding cells. We bring them in and he says which stay and which go.”

“If they go…”

“We release them.”

“And if they stay he assaults them.”

“One a day.”

Jack considered that. “Then he's planning to stay awhile.”

“No. He's planning to take them with him when he returns to his world.”

“Like hell.”

Henry closed his eyes with a grimace. “I'm not sure about any of this, Jack. He's messed with my mind. Maybe I'm right. Maybe not.”

“Unfortunately it sounds all too likely.” The bastard needed virgins for strength. Why not take a dozen for the road?

“We've got to stop him.”

“How?”

“I was hoping
you
could tell
me.
”

Henry's eyes narrowed in concentration.

“Do you know how to hurt him, Hank? Or how to break the enchantment. With the M.P.D. guarding him, he's untouchable.”

“No, man. Nothing like that. But you've got the holly.”

Jack snorted. “Damned near useless against an armed fighting force. I can't very well jump every man out there and shove a sprig of holly down his shirt.”

“Do you have any other ideas?”

“Not yet. I'll think of something.”

Henry dropped his head against the headrest. “I can't go home like this. God knows what I could do to Mei or the kids.” He lifted his head and met Jack's gaze. “If you need a guinea pig, I'm volunteering.”

Jack smiled. “I was hoping you'd say that.”

“Dad…” Sabrina complained. “You can't stay with
him.
” She turned hard, angry eyes on Jack.

“Sabrina Mei Jefferson!” Henry scowled at his firstborn. “What in the world has gotten into you?”

Sabrina's eyes sprouted with tears, but the look she turned on Jack was more mortification than real venom. Beneath the tears was a plea not to tell her father the real trouble between them—that her feelings for her uncle Jack had grown beyond the familial.

Jack rested his hand on his friend's shoulder. “Take it easy, Hank. She's just being protective of you. She thought I'd killed you in that shed. It's been a real tough couple of days…for all of us.”

Jack felt the tension go out of Henry's shoulder. A slow, sad smile formed on the man's mouth. “So my kitten's grown claws. That's all right, I guess. If we're in a battle, it's better that way.” He pinned his daughter with his gaze. “But you got to know your friends from your enemies, girl. Jack isn't controlled by this…thing. I am. You trust him over me for now, you hear me? Until
he
says otherwise, not me. If he tells you I'm safe, then I'm safe. If
I
tell you I'm safe, you run.”

“But, Daddy…” Tears rolled down Sabrina's cheeks.

“Honey, I'm not trying to scare you, but you got to know. I trust Jack with my life, and have since you were a tiny little girl. More than that, I trust him with yours and Davy's lives. And your momma's. Now I don't want to hear you talking to him like that again.”

The girl bit her bottom lip and wiped the tears from her cheeks as she nodded.

“Apologize, Sabrina.”

She lifted dark sad eyes that about broke Jack's heart. “I'm sorry, Uncle Jack.”

He leaned forward and put his hand on her arm. “You've always been the daughter of my heart, Sabrina. I'd hate to lose that, sprite.”

She looked down at the floor between them, her mouth twisting this way and that. Finally she met his gaze. “I don't want to lose it, either, Uncle Jack.”

He grinned at her. “Good.”

She gave him a tremulous smile, then turned in her seat, away from him.

When he glanced up, he caught Larsen's wink in the rearview mirror. He felt her approval and it warmed him to his toes. How was he ever going to live without her? The only saving grace was, he'd soon be so lost in the mess of his mind, he wouldn't even know she was missing.

They drove in silence for several miles until his phone rang. Jack snapped it open and lifted it to his ear.

“Hallihan.”

“Jack, it's Harrison Rand. I'm back in D.C. What's your estimated time of arrival?”

“About half an hour, give or take. Depends on the traffic. How's your daughter?”

The brief silence that met his question wasn't reassuring. “The same,” Harrison said tightly. “She hasn't said a word since the Kennedy Center. She barely responds to anything.” Anger vibrated through his voice. Anger and helplessness.

“I'm sorry. We're going to catch him, Rand. We're going to get him.”

“Yes. We are.”

“Do you have time to get something for me before we get there?”

“Sure. I'm still in the car.”

“I need a rug.” Silence met Jack's request.

“A
rug?
”

“A nine-by-twelve should do the trick, or whatever comes close.”

“O-kay,” Harrison said. “Anything else?”

“Look for a holly bush we can prune.”

“A rug and a holly bush.” His tone was almost amused.

“Is that it?”

“That should do it. Holly dampens the effects of the enchantment.”

“Enchantment?”

“We've got a lot to fill you in on. Were you able to get in touch with your brother?”

“No. I left a message for Charlie yesterday, but it's unlikely I'll hear from him. He's a busy man. I'll see what I can do about your holly bush and rug.”

“Can you meet us in the parking garage in half an hour? We'll need the rug to transfer our guinea pig.”

“I don't even want to know,” Harrison said dryly. “See you in thirty.”

Jack hung up and looked out the window at the passing cars.

Damn, but he hated this.
All
of it. He'd gone into this business to catch the crooks, to clean up the streets. To make up for the mess his dad had made of his own life and career, and to restore the Hallihan name within the M.P.D.

Now he found himself fighting a villain he couldn't beat, with the entire police force trying to kill him, and suffering from the same madness that had pulled his dad under. He squeezed his eyes closed against the searing pain that felt twice the size of his head. Time was running out and he didn't have a clue how to beat the white bastard. He had twelve hours to find a cure for this damned enchantment. Twelve hours to catch the Esri and steal back that amulet.

Twelve hours to save the world.

 

“The kids can walk from here, Larsen.”

Jack pulled out his phone as David and Sabrina unfastened their seat belts. They were back in D.C., the sun finally starting to break through the dreary clouds.

Sabrina met his gaze with sad eyes. “'Bye, Uncle Jack,” then she threw her arms around Henry's neck and gave her dad a kiss.

“Be careful, little girl,” Henry told his daughter.

David gave them each a quick wave. “'Bye, Dad! 'Bye, Uncle Jack, Miss Vale! Bye, Aunt Myrtle!” Then he hopped out of the van after his sister.