Demon Hunt (19 page)

Rhi forced herself to look down at a sepia toned wedding photo of - herself. The original of the painting in the hall, the bride was dressed in full Victorian wedding finery, her dark hair gathered on her head in a precise imitation of the Gibson girls of the era. She stood proudly, one thin hand on the shoulder of the man sitting in the ornate chair beside her - a smiling and ever handsome Blackthorne in an era appropriate suit. Rhi felt the sudden urge to vomit.
Darned sticky buns.

Pearl sighed and turned to face the portrait of a young girl hanging over the fireplace. “All auguries said that you and Manius would have something to do with the destruction of the gate. I shudder to think of how many pieces of chicken guts, bowls of water, piles of bones and tarot cards were looked into to come up with that brilliant idea. We stuck Manius in the Mt. Pisgah graveyard and all settled down to await Raven’s return, in one form or another. Somewhere in your mind, you know how to find the skull and erase
this
Gate of Hell from the Earth. The skull will turn up like a bad penny at any time. Fate is having its way with us.”

“
Having its way with us, hell. Fate has risen up and bitten us on the ass,” Pam noted from the depths of her chair between dainty sips of hot chocolate.

Blackthorne stood to his full height, bones popping. “Perhaps you’ll trust me enough this time to at least let me know when the skull pops up before my brother takes you,” he told Rhi before stalking out of the room.

Pam came to Rhi’s rescue. “So all we have to do is live long enough to find the skull first and get Rhi to remember how to destroy it and the gate. Great. I hope whoever they get to play me in the movie has big boobs.”

The others gaped. She grinned. “I’ve always wanted big boobs - but I’m too chicken to get a boob job. I don’t get the whole ‘beauty is pain’ thing.”

As Pearl moved about the room, refilling coffee and cocoa mugs, Rhi realized with a start the drinks could be tainted.
Too late now.

“
I’d like you all to stay here tonight,” Pearl said. “This place is protected and Manius seems to be in a mood.”

“
I have to get home to Ellie Mae. She’ll worry.”

Pam added, “I have my menagerie to feed. No one’s bothered us at home so far.”

Their hostess nodded. “That’s because as soon as I realized who Rhi was, I took measures. The parts of the mountain and your homes are warded, but getting there might be a problem.”

Rhi stood to stretch, trying to make herself look as tall as possible. “I’m going home to my dog and sleep in my own bed. Period.”

Silent up to this point, Houston finally spoke up. “Miss Pearl, I think these ladies have dealt with enough for the evening.
I
have had enough for one evening myself and I’m the one who used to fly over the Iraqi Guard and flip them off for kicks on a regular basis. We’re going home.”

Pearl nodded. “I’ll take you back to your cars, but don’t stop for
anything
on the way home. If something throws itself out into the middle of the road, run over it.” She addressed Rhi. “You have a role to play in this whether you want to or not … we will need to talk again.”

“
If you talk to her, you talk to us all –
Pearl
.” Pam avoided any kind of title for the changeling as she loped over to stand beside her small friend. Rhi wondered how she ever could have thought of Pam as wishy-washy. “We can talk after the funeral we have to attend tomorrow. A funeral that wouldn’t be happening if you bothered to warn someone this was coming.”

“
After several decades of fighting for Right, I’ve come to the realization I cannot save everyone. What was I supposed to do - run through the streets screaming out that an ancient knight has come to destroy us all with his minions? And by the way, I’m an undead madam from the gold rush who pops into town every fifty years or so to live for few years until people notice that I don’t get older? But, just so you know, there are folks in this town who’ve been warned and are preparing.”

“
No one’s ever recognized you or realized what you are?” Houston asked in amazement as he helped Rhi on with her coat.

“
Of course people have recognized me, Houston. But the locals I have been in contact with are nothing if not discreet or stark raving mad so no one takes them seriously anyway,” Pearl broke off as Blackthorne reentered the room, pulling on a fresh sheepskin coat, the other having been left on the floor of the bar after the fight. Rhi felt a stab of jealousy as she realized that he was staying at the madam’s house and considered it home.

“
Are we ready for a road trip, people?” Blackthorne asked, his composure regained and the cold mask back in place over his well-cut features.

He didn’t bother to try to get us to stay,
Rhi thought bitterly. Pearl
was
exquisite and appealing in spite of her checkered past.

“
I think the girls and I can handle it, Mr. Blackthorne.” Houston had made his way into the hall, his cowboy hat in hand. His reverence for Pearl was on the verge of making Rhi sick. “I’m going to bunk on Pam’s couch and I’m going to try to get Miss Rhi to go fetch her dog and come back to Pam’s for the night.”

“
No, Houston,” Rhi protested. “Whatever is going on, it’s after me, not you guys. You’ll be safer if I’m at my house and you’re as far away from me as you can get. Pam should be going to her mother’s to stay with Katie and not risking herself over me.”

Pam heaved her purse over her shoulder and pulled out her pistol to casually check the chamber. The colorful bag had never been far from her side for the entire conversation. “Rhi, if there’s a battle over the fate of the world - I want to be there to fight instead of sitting back on my rear waiting for the end. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it right, plus who else will believe enough of this to back you up? Fate is the true goddess of this town and she picked me to play a part.” Pam’s face turned hard for a moment. “And the next time a boogie man tries to climb in a window and take a swipe at me, I’ll be ready.”

Houston nodded. “Well said, Marine.”

Blackthorne again towered over Rhi, who tried to slide past him. “Rhi can go to her house and care for her pet, Pam. Because I’m going go with her. And I am going to
stay
with her.” His tone brooked no argument, although Rhi spent several moments imitating a beached carp, opening and shutting her mouth to protest, but no words could squeak their way out. She squashed down the impulse to flip him off.

Pam lit up like the neon billboard on a new casino property and gave Rhi a thumbs-up sign. Rhi sighed. Trust Pam to be thrilled about the possibility of sex even though Rhi’s potential partner could see her as a midnight snack. It hadn’t occurred to her friend they might not make it home through the black-veiled back roads to their homes alive and uneaten. The feeding on
aura
story might be a load of fertilizer.

Chapter Twenty

The trip back to their parked vehicles almost disappointed the passengers of Pearl De Vere’s shiny black SUV. Nothing burst out of the bushes at the vehicle that trundled through the streets, and no hideous, slug-white beings peeped over the snowy hedges that lined the brick paved sidewalks of Cripple Creek.

The dark expression on Blackthorne’s face kept Rhi from protesting about his presence. As much as she hated to admit it, the thought of him in her house overnight made her bones melt.

Pam called to Rhi to follow her and Huston in the battered green pickup closely. Weary to the bone, Rhi nodded in reply as she broke her way through the crusted snow to the SUV, Blackthorne following behind. She glared at him when he veered off towards the driver’s side door. For a spilt second she glimpsed a twinkle of amusement on his face before he veered back to the passenger side and waited patiently for her to unlock the door.

They sat in silence in the truck, giving it a few moments to warm up. She took a second to worry about Ellie Mae and to wonder if the protections Pearl placed on the mountain included the dog’s kennel.

The wail of sirens startled her as she guided the truck over the washboard gravel of a side road to gain access to Teller 1. Pam slid her truck to a stop in front of them to allow every fire truck and emergency vehicle in Cripple Creek fly by at top speed. They were going in the opposite direction, leading out the other end of town, towards Gillette Flats.

“
I would’ve thought they would have left some people at the disaster we snuck out of at the restaurant,” she mused. “What could be bad enough for them to drop that mess and run off?”

Blackthorne lounged in the passenger seat, sans seatbelt, taking in the details of her clean but cluttered vehicle. The fading sirens did not change his expression. “I’m not sure we
want
to know at this point. Let’s get you home. Pearl will find out what else Manius has been up to.”

Rhi noticed he had brought his sword with him. The weapon lay in the floor of the backseat, the hilt within hand’s reach. “Why aren’t you out beating the bushes for the skull? Why such patience?”

Still scanning the road, he frowned. “The spell I suspect Raven used to hide the skull is the spell of Speldin’s Tower. A Bible holding the original spell Raven used to force the spirit of the skull to remain in bondage has been concealed somewhere. I suspected several times my baby brother figured out a way to break the spell in the last few years, but Pearl kept telling me he was screwing with us. It’s one of her favorite expressions. But she was right - you’ve been bound to it. For a hundred years we have waited for the skull to pop back up, but it will come to you and no other.”

“
Then why hasn’t your brother taken me and waited for the skull to show?”

“
It doesn’t work that way – fate will bring the thing to you. If you’re in a cell, chance could be cut out of the equation. Manius will move to take it and you after he knows you have the skull in hand. He wasn’t trying to kill you, you know. He likes to mess with me – it’s all a game to him. How long were you married?”

Rhi almost slid the vehicle off the road upon the sudden drastic change of subject. She took a gulp, knowing she discussed her marriage with a man who loved her in another life. She answered with as little emotion as possible. “Seven years. I was young and stupid. I stayed with him long enough for him to spend most of the money my parents left me. It seems I have a knack for marrying the wrong man.”

“
I’ll say,” he replied, with enough grace to sound rueful.

They drove along in silence for a few moments until Rhi glanced upward and flinched. A shadow obscured the moon, a monstrous ebony wing outlined in the silver orb. The wing ended in a reptilian head the size of a snowplow. Red, glowing garbage-can-lid sized eyes could be made out as the creature raced through the air.

Reacting more to the appearance of Pam’s brake lights than to the horror in the sky, Rhi slammed on her brakes to avoid running into her friend’s truck. Her SUV skidded sideways on the slick road and Rhi compensated by cranking the steering wheel in the other direction and pumping the brake pedal. They slid to a stop, inches from Pam’s bumper.

Houston, already out of the passenger side of the pickup, held one of the rifles from the window rack.

Rhi began to open her door but Blackthorne grabbed her arm at the last moment. She was getting thoroughly sick of being grabbed by the arm.

“
Stay in the truck!” he commanded and jumped out with his sword in hand.

Pam got out of her truck and scanned the sky with her gun aimed upwards. Rhi wondered if Pam was aware of how many people died in Cripple Creek’s heyday as a result of being hit by falling bullets during celebrations. Then she realized that she was being ordered around again and alighted from the truck. The others had gathered in the trail of light put out by her headlights as Blackthorne spoke. He sounded disgusted.

“
Now
that’s
just silly. What a jackass.” He waved off Houston and the rifle. “Don’t shoot at it - I don’t know if that’ll make it explode or what. They’re volatile creatures. I haven’t seen one in a few hundred years.”

“
I have news for you, oh ancient one. I live in Cripple Creek, Colorado, and I know my jackasses.
That
is
not
a donkey - shouldn’t we be running right about now?” Houston broke off as Rhi approached, her face pale but determined.

“
What do you mean, showing off?” she asked as she neared, staring at the sky. Her angry gaze forestalled any arguments. The distinct smell of sulfur had replaced the fresh scent of snow filled forest.

Blackthorne looked up at the sky as he answered. “A dragon. He called up a dragon. What an idiot. To think that I trained him. He knows better.”

Rhi’s mouth hung open for a moment as Pam excitedly scanned the skies.