Velocity (33 page)

Lainey grasped me hard, digging her nails into my arms, and forced me over towards Phillip.

“Welcome to the party,” Phillip said, clapping his hands together and smiling grotesquely. “So good to have you here.”

CHAPTER 31

I RECOGNIZED SO
many of the pale, enraptured faces around us―Lainey and Cliff Ford, Ambrose’s parents, Jenna’s mother, some of my teachers, many of my classmates. Some of them were holding weapons―blunt objects, knives. It was a small relief to see no guns.

“Should we kill her, boss?” Bruce Slaughter asked, fondling the baseball bat in his hands. Phillip held his hand up to decline.

“I talked to your son,” I spoke up. Bruce’s unfocused eyes met mine.

“What are you, a witch?”

“No, but he came to me. To help me. I told him that you missed him.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Phillip said with laughter in his voice. “Your son would never betray us, even in death.”

“How did you get so many people on your side?” I asked aloud, having wondered that since this may day started.

“Civil unrest. People were getting anxious, nervous, worried about money. We were just hometown folks helping each other out. And we brought them to our meetings and showed them our way, bit by bit.”

“You brainwashed them,” I cried out.

“Eh, same difference,” Phillip said, rolling his eyes. “You have to make change slowly, otherwise the body rejects it.”

Harlow stepped next to her father, avoiding my gaze. Standing there, staring, I felt like all hope was lost. I had to fight off the impending sense of failure.

Lainey whispered in my ear, “I’m the one who cut your wrists. I thought everyone would think you killed yourself because you’re such a loser.”

It stung and I tried to wriggle away from her. She held fast to both of the backs of my arms. I swung back my head to head-butt her but she dodged out of the way, giggling. I never knew she’d be capable of such evil.

“You’re so damaged, Lainey.”

She didn’t answer me.

“Why do you need Henry?” I shouted. “Why can’t somebody else be your vessel?”

“Because this body is giving out, and he is made of my blood and bones. If I’d known more in high school, known how much more complicated the rituals and all the seals were, I would have stuck to my original plan of just using my own body. But we don’t stay young forever. Time is an ugly demon that plunges its claws into you and refuses to let go until its ruined you. Being genetically tied to me, it’s most likely to stick. It will be good to be young again, to move fast, to get this disease out of me. Maybe I’ll even keep you around to taste you.”

“You’re just kidding right?” Lainey barked.

“Well, she is her mother’s daughter…” Phillip said with a disgusting grin.

“That’s not funny,” Lainey said, gritting her teeth.

“Relax, doll,” he said, rolling his leaky eyes. “I’m only messing around. She’ll be long dead by then and you can use her corpse as a pet. I’ve only been saving her all this time in case I need her blood to shut up Luminos.”

His words made me shiver, but I was still trying to work on Lainey. “You’re just acting like his mistress to get with Henry after all, is that it? That’s seriously sick, Lainey! He’s just using you. I can’t believe that even you would be that blind.”

She pinched me harder, digging her fingernails into my flesh as I squirmed. “Shut your mouth, Ariel, or I’ll end you right here!”

“Now, now, girls―don’t fight,” Phillip said. His right eye seemed to be leaking fluid more rapidly. His once handsome face had turned green and garish, like the monster was finally showing through the mask.

The heart beat around us seemed to grow louder, reverberating through my chest. Phillip looked up at the ceiling. “It’s time for us to begin. Harlow, take over rat duty.”

Lainey shoved me in Harlow’s direction, and she held my arms as she pulled me back. Lainey went over and kissed Phillip hard on the lips, and I had to suppress my gag reflex. He suddenly brought out the ceremonial knife, He held it out, and for one second I was sure I was going to die.

Harlow gripped my wrists and twisted them behind my back. I winced. The sides were so twisted now, I had no idea who had ever been good.

Phillip began speaking the familiar words of the ceremony. He must have practiced quite a bit in the years since his high school days, because he no longer needed a book. “Oh Dark Master, we call to thee, to bring us your power. Fill our minds and bodies with your power here in our unholy sanctum. We give you this sacrificial offering of precious blood so you may know the seriousness of our intent.”

Lainey grasped the carved handle of the dagger. She didn’t look happy about it.

“Now, you need to cut your friend,” said Phillip softly. “Shallow, long cuts, to make the blood flow on the seal.”

Madison struggled against her bonds, her tears starting anew, as she screeched in fear. She twisted her wrists, but couldn’t free them. The gag in her mouth cut off most of the sounds she was making.

I struggled against Harlow, but she was holding me even tighter than Lainey had. It seemed like they were all in an unbreakable trance.

Lainey stared down at Madison, the dagger clenched in her hand. Her gaze went to Phillip, and I could tell that she was having second thoughts.

“You need to do it, Lainey,” he coaxed in a soft, hypnotic voice. His voice could have been Henry’s, and it made my stomach twist. “When this is over, you’ll have everything you ever wanted.”

She nodded at him, visibly bolstered. Her hand wrapped tighter around the dagger’s handle. As she approached Madison, the girl on the ground began twisting and struggling furiously. She screamed against her gag, but Lainey kept approaching. Her horribly scared eyes pleaded up at Lainey as she knelt beside her.

“Lainey, come on! You can’t do this! Mr. Ford, don’t you think this is wrong?” I shouted.

Mr. Ford was drooling quite a bit and he looked far gone. “Good, good,” he muttered, then dropped his head again.

“You’re not doing what you think you’re doing, you can’t just control Dark . Luminos will come in too, and all of you will be destroyed,” I said to the rest of them.

“We can control it,” Phillip said. “We have you now if we need to close it up.”

He glared in my direction, then raised his hand. He muttered some words and a blue light shot out. Suddenly I felt as though my lips were zipped together. I couldn’t part my mouth.

“Shallow cuts, remember? Shallow cuts all over,” Phillip coached. Lainey nodded, her eyes wide and scared like a deer.

She raised the blade to Madison’s flesh, and drew a straight line across her arm. Madison screamed in pain and terror, scrunching her eyes up. I tried pulling away from Harlow again, but I couldn’t budge, and I couldn’t make a sound.

Lainey didn’t seem to want to go on. Cliff Ford seemed to snap out of it for a second. With a petulant glare, he stomped up beside her. “Cut her, Lainey. She’s your something precious. Don’t disappoint me!”

Whimpering, Lainey began slicing at her friend, flinching away so that she wasn’t looking at where the blade was going. Madison cried out. I squeezed my eyes shut. When next I knew, all sounds had stopped except for the orphanage’s heartbeat. I looked at the seal. A bright, glowing green light was emanating from beneath the girls on the seal. Thornhill’s members appeared to be in awe. Phillip had a smug smile of satisfaction twisted onto his sweaty face.

Henry had swum to awareness, and I could see him staring fearfully at me. His cracked lips formed my name.
“Ariel…”

Green veins of light glowed in the ground as more blood fell on the seal. Three thicker ropes of light connected to the seal and ran all the way across the ground. Those must have been from the other seals, making a connection.

I locked eyes with Theo. I could see by the way the knife passed to her father, she was next.

I couldn’t let it end this way.

Not without trying.

“If you’re going to do something, now is the time,” Harlow whispered into my ear. I felt a sudden, impossible surge of hope. Her grasp on my arms suddenly went slack, and I freed my one hand to slide into my pocket. The others’ attention was fixed on the scene playing out on the seal. Without much hesitation, Theo’s father raised the blade in the air.

I pulled the stone up and pressed it to my heart. I didn’t even have to try, I just let myself fall through space. My eyes were still open, and I watched time slow to a crawl as I tumbled down into blackness.

Then colors dimly swirled around me. The world was spinning, and then I was staring at the same seal I’d just left, only it was many years in the past. John Dexter stood right where I’d left him in the last vision, poised over Ruby. It reminded me of Madison.

The others were waiting for Dexter to begin. And they were not patient.

“What are you waiting for, sire?” Rhodes hissed. “Finish the task!”

“Cut the girl!” Doctor Slaughter barked from beside Dexter, who was clutching the same dagger they were using back in my time. Dexter’s head whipped around, his long hair spinning, and he slapped Slaughter across the face.

“Hold your tongue, dog! You do not speak to me that way!”

Chastened, holding his reddened face that had split cleanly from the force of Dexter’s blow, Slaughter retreated. But he wasn’t the only one impatient. Mr. Rhodes was practically hopping from foot to foot. I got closer, right by where Ruby was sitting on the floor. The white dress was puddled around her feet, and I remembered the weight of it.

Dexter slowly drew the blade across Ruby’s pale cheek. She didn’t even wince, staring up at him with angry, hateful eyes, as blood began to trickle down her face. Rhodes was practically breathing down his neck, his eyes gleaming.

Sissy, the irritated young woman with the high-pitched voice and the ugly pinched face, came over and started giggling. “Look at how she’s bleeding! Not so tough now, cherie!” She danced around, still laughing, and pointed at Ruby. I got a sudden sense of apprehension.

In one swift movement, Dexter grabbed Sissy and slit her throat. Her eyes registered shock as she dropped to her knees, the life flooding out of her with the blood down her chest. Gasps of horror resonated through the room. Sissy fell down on the seal and it began to glow neon green, illuminating the entire cave.

“That won’t do! She’s going to die too fast!” The widow Ford suddenly shouted. Her wrinkled face was twisted in desperation, framed by a hideous mauve bonnet. She shook her arms, raising her small body up to its full height. “You idiot, you pig! After all our planning!”

Dexter ignored her. He yanked the back of Ruby’s arms up and sawed through the rope. He whispered to her, but I was close enough to hear. “
Run.
”

Then he turned and began to cut the other girls, slashing them with careless strokes. I couldn’t look. I couldn’t see anymore blood. Ruby got up to her feet, shrugging off the ropes, and began to run swiftly out of the room. The others were shocked for a moment, then reached out and tried to catch her. Dr. Slaughter tried to wrap his arms around her, but she slid easily out of his grasp.

I followed her, feeling like I could run faster than I ever had in my life. Moving my legs took no effort at all.

She ran up and out of the stairs, through the fireplace, and then expertly found her way to the front hall. As she moved, she reached down and ripped the dress into strips to free her legs. She knew the house better than I would have imagined―obviously from living there for so long. I expected the front door to be locked, but she burst through it like nothing and out into the night.

I could hear the others gaining speed behind us. They wouldn’t let her get away. But with her hair trailing behind her, tearing the dress into more strips as she went, Ruby ran for her life.

She pushed through the iron gate and across the dirt road to the trees. The branches reached out to ensnare her, but she didn’t stop or slow down. I could feel the hope emanating from her. The trees passed around her. I got the strongest sense of deja vu in my life as I chased her, of the first dream that had started this―me running through the woods, chasing a girl who was leading me to the truth.

Then, suddenly, I sensed the others right behind me. I peered over my shoulder. Rhodes was holding a shotgun. The sight of it spiked fear in my blood. Dexter was trailing behind the group of men, his arm outstretched, shouting.

Ruby didn’t even seem to hear them, caught in the freedom of her swift legs.

The shot rang out, and hit her right in the back. She continued to move for a moment, but then she froze on her bare feet. A bright red circle started to spread in the center of her body around the bullet.

“No!” I screamed.

Ruby fell to her knees, her dress soaking red, her graceful limbs swooshing down like a dancer. She dropped into the dirt, bloody spittle running out of her mouth, her eyes open in shocked surprise.

“You should have let her go!” Dexter screamed, clawing for Rhodes. But Dr. Slaughter held him back.

Rhodes came up casually and scooped Ruby up on his shoulder, not even paying attention to the blood, resting the shotgun on his other shoulder. He and the others marched back to the house. Dexter, his wrist now tied together with a piece of rope, just looked shocked and upset, and followed them. It was weird to see him express any emotion other than evilness. His anguished expression was the most human I’d seen him.