Darkest Hour (8 page)

“You mean predicting the future?”

A nod and another dab at his nose with his sleeve. Another peek to see if he’d left anything behind. “He wanted to foresee troop movements of the North. He never had much luck with that. However, his breakthrough came when one of his slaves turned out to be a sensitive.”

Lockman was having a hard time seeing how any of this could lead to a prophecy about Jessie and the end of the vampires.

Truman must have sensed Lockman’s doubts. He held up a hand. “Bear with me. The sensitive he discovered must have had a great deal of power, especially for a mortal. The only other mortals I’m aware of that come close are Gabriel Dolan and your daughter.”

“What did this guy make her do?”

“Petty things at first. Curse his enemies. Increase his wealth. Charm women.”

“All that power and she never fought back?”

“You have to understand. The woman had no idea what she was capable of. Not until this man began his experiments on her. She merely acted as a sort of conduit for his own designs.”

Lockman could just picture it. Another example of mojo’s corruption. Another reason to keep this Lab on a short leash and even shorter lease. After they took care of these vamps and got Jessie back to normal, he would send these “scientists” to opposite sides of the Earth and burn down the building with everything in it.

After a long, juicy sniff, Truman rapped his knuckles on the cover of a leather bound book on the table in front of him. “It didn’t last. She must have learned all the while he used her. The diary doesn’t go into much detail, but I gather she eventually used her magic to escape.”

“And that’s it? Where does the prophecy come in?”

Truman’s grin was worthy of a werewolf under a full moon. “The very last entry.”

Something like a firecracker going off in a frog’s mouth boomed through The Lab.

Truman started and drew up his shoulders toward his ears.

A foul odor soon roiled through the whole Quonset.

Lockman waved a hand in front of his face without much effect. From where he stood, he couldn’t see where the explosion had occurred. He did, however, hear the
woosh
of a fire extinguisher from somewhere beyond the wall of bookshelves behind Dr. Truman.

“Somebody made an oops,” Truman said.

Lockman took to breathing through his mouth to avoid inhaling any more of that nasty scent. “The last entry,” he prompted.

The doctor put his sleeve against his nose again, only this time he left it there. “According to the plantation owner, the woman actually returned after her escape. The diarist writes of her visit and how he was convinced she would kill him for what he had done. But she didn’t. She told him she
couldn’t
kill him because of a vision she’d had. She said he was to father a child with one of his mistresses, and that that child would begin a line eventually leading to the birth of a young lady destined to save the world from demons.”

It took Lockman a second to parse the last part of the story, mostly because it sounded so farfetched. He narrowed his eyes. “You mean this prick is one of Jessie’s ancestors?”

“Seeing as it was supposed to be a mistress that starts the birth line, I doubt we could research the genealogy. However, the prediction of a young woman responsible for saving the world from so-called demons sounds similar enough to the ogres’ predictions about Jessie.”

Lockman huffed. “So what? That’s all there is? One line in a diary? How does that help us one bit?”

“I don’t know that it does.”

“Nice. Thank you very much for wasting my time, Doctor.”

Truman dropped his sleeve from his nose. “Knowledge is never a waste, Mr. Lockman. And for the record, there was more to it than one line.”

“That’s nice. How about we focus on researching what I asked about in the first place? Finding a way to get rid of Gabriel.”

“That’s just it. I’m not sure we should.”

“Why not?”

“If she is somehow destined to bring an end to this vampire uprising, she must possess great power.”

Lockman thought about the things she had done to the wolves last night while hardly trying. “She’s got plenty of power, Doc. Trust me.”

“It’s quite possible that this merger with Gabriel’s consciousness, soul, whatever you like to call it, could be the source of that power.”

“What are you trying to say? That if we get rid of Gabriel, we lose our chance to win this war?”

Truman tossed up his hands. “I can’t say anything definitively. The nature of prophecy is so tenuous. But one that goes back at least as far as the American Civil War certainly shows veracity. I’d hate to be the one to meddle with such a thing and end up negating it.”

Lockman reached over the table and grabbed the doctor by the collar. He pulled until the doc’s face came within an inch Lockman’s. “My daughter is not some experiment. I’ll be damned if I let some mojo bullshit have me stand by and let a monster like Gabriel corrupt her.”

Truman sniffled. “I understand your personal feelings, Mr. Lockman. But you must acknowledge that Jessie is more than just your daughter. She very well could be the only thing standing in the way of Armageddon.”

Chapter Eleven

They fear you.

Jessie squeezed her eyes shut. Even with the basement in total blackness, she could still see. She wanted to close out all of her senses. If she could, she would have preferred the oblivion of sleep. But she had slept too much already. Drifting off would be impossible. Besides, she had learned that even vampires dream. The nightmares she was having since mutilating those werewolves were unbearable.

“Leave me alone,” she said aloud, as if Gabriel sat in the dark with her instead of speaking only in her head. She closed the part of her mind that let his voice in. Whatever her dad thought, she never mistook Gabriel as her friend. He was a tool, a source of knowledge, no more significant to her than a paranormal search engine.

Is that so?

She started, opening her eyes. The shape of the water heater stood before her, her vision as clear as it would have been on a moonlit night. How had he…? She set her jaw and focused on snapping shut that pocket of her mind holding Gabriel again. She hadn’t had to really
try
locking him in for months. It had become second nature.

You’re not the only one learning
.

A gasp caught in Jessie’s throat. She scrambled to her feet from her seat against the brick wall. Turning, she scanned the basement as if she would find Gabriel standing somewhere nearby. She had the basement to herself. Just her bed in the corner. A dresser against one wall. An armoire for her closet against another. Mismatched furniture her dad had found at a consignment shop. The throw rug in the middle of the basement came from that same shop. A weird excuse for a bedroom, but she figured it beat a crypt or coffin.

She ground her teeth together. “You need to shut up now.”

We have so much to talk about.

Her breath hissed out between her clenched teeth. Not cool. Not one bit. If she couldn’t block him out anymore, she was looking at some seriously miserable days ahead of her. The dude liked to talk, for one thing. And when he got on a roll, some of the things he talked about gave her already cold skin the shivers.

Aw, I’m not that bad, am I? I taught you how to resist the pain from religious symbols. I explained how you could make yourself impervious to silver’s touch. If you let me, I can tell you how it’s possible to walk in the sunlight without bursting into flames.

Jessie made fists and paced. Yes. He had taught her those things—and more—but only when she had
let
him. That sense of control over when and if he could communicate with her had made her feel safe enough to allow it. If she couldn’t figure out how to shut him out again, then Dad was right. She was a walking bomb. Gabriel could drive her crazy just by nattering on non-stop.

What benefit would that bring me? Don’t worry, child. I’ll let you sleep. But you aren’t paying attention. I said I could teach you how to walk in sunlight.

“I heard you the first time.”

Well?

She stopped pacing, bounced her fists against her hips. Not for the first time, she wondered how he could know these things. She had stopped bothering to ask, though, because he refused to tell her. Still, having the ability to walk in the sun as a vampire was the last barrier to—

Immortality.

Gabriel’s voice felt like a wet snake twisting in Jessie’s brain. She shuddered. She pressed her fists against either side of her head as if she could squeeze him out of her mind. Listening to him would be a mistake. His managing to bypass her ability to silence him at will could only mean he was that much closer to using her for his own agenda.

But it was hard to resist his promise. Eliminating her weakness to the sun also eliminated the last thing that could kill her. Short of getting chopped into tiny pieces or vaporized by an explosion, she really would be immortal.

Then you wouldn’t need the others. Wouldn’t have to suffer their judgments. You could singlehandedly destroy the vampire army. Their fear would turn to respect, admiration, even loyalty.

Jessie dropped her fists and forced her fingers to relax enough to open. “You must think I’m a real douche. I’m not a power hungry psycho like you are. I don’t need all that.”

Of course not. But how about a little self-determination? Or do you prefer letting your father lock you underground in the dark until he decides it’s okay to let you out?

“I’m not falling for it, Gabe. Sorry.” The truth behind that last bit did sting a little, though. No hiding that sting from Gabriel either.

He treats you like a child.

“He treats me like a threat. And as long as you have free reign in my head, he’s right. You can teach me all you know about sun walking as soon as I figure out how to turn you off again.”

The sound of Gabriel’s laughter sent a tremor through Jessie’s body.

Oh, child, there’s no switching me off. Not anymore.

The darkness peeled away like dry tar, thick and heavy. Kate’s head pounded. Her brain felt two sizes too big for her skull. The crick in her neck and the drool on her cheek came from her sitting position. The chair under her had a pathetic excuse for a cushion on the seat, but it felt better than the bare wooden frame digging into her back. The rope around her arms and torso tying her to the chair didn’t help with comfort. At least the plastic tie around her wrists had been removed. Kate never liked to overlook even the smallest of favors. Though life over the past couple years had done much to chisel away at her natural optimism.

She sat in the center of a plain room, beige plaster walls and a white tile floor the only offered view. No other furniture besides her chair. Not pictures or paintings hanging on the walls. She couldn’t even see a door. If there was one—there had to be, right?—it had to sit directly behind her, because no matter how she twisted her head, she couldn’t find it.

Despite the austere décor, the temperature was perfect, neither too hot nor cold. A good thing considering the final insult to this whole situation—Kate was completely naked.

Mild temp or not, she shivered.

What the hell had she gotten into?

Last thing she remembered was the woman with the skunk stripe in her hair sneezing in her face. Sneezing? Yeah. And the gold dust that come out of Ms. Skunk’s nose stinging Kate’s eyes and sending her off to sleep.

Kate snorted a laugh. The woman had claimed she was a pixie. So had that been her pixie dust?

She squirmed against her restraints to test their hold. The rope burned and cut into her naked skin, offering no real give. She wasn’t leaving this chair until her captors decided she was. Craig would probably have some trick he learned from his secret life as monster slayer for the government, a way to pop loose a joint and wriggle free of the ropes. She wasn’t an ex-government agent, though. She was just a normal woman who wanted her normal life with her daughter back.

Instead, every day seemed to pull her further away from anything close to normal.

But this?

Come on. She had done nothing to deserve this. Just more fallout from once falling in love with a man keeping too many secrets.

“Let me out of here,” she shouted hard enough to hurt her throat.

The air turned cool, so quickly it seemed like a response to her shout. Gooseflesh rose on her legs and arms. Her bare shoulders reflexively hunched against the sudden cold. The drop in temp had nothing on the icy clutch in her chest from what she saw next.

A spectral green light coalesced on the wall in front of her. The light took shape as it grew. A translucent and glowing face formed, followed closely by a matching body as the apparition passed through the wall and into the room. The man standing before her looked like a green hologram. She had seen another man just like him once before.

A ghost.

One who had pushed himself into her body and possessed her.