Dweller on the Threshold (10 page)

My stomach roiled as I looked at Nikolos, who stood quietly to my right next to Blythe, watching me. “I can’t believe they come through the bodies.”

He nodded slowly, loose strands of silky midnight hair falling over his eyes. Something in that penetrating stare told me to get used to the knowledge—that I could do nothing to stop it. That unless I figured this out pretty damned quickly, Elsa would suffer the same fate.

 
“No fucking demon is coming through my sister.” I snarled the words, fury forming a solid knot in my throat as I dropped my hands from the pole.

“Then we have to move fast. Find the host.”

“The host?”

 
Another newspaper van swept past and screeched to a stop behind me. I glanced back to find the photographer already jumping out and clicking away at the panicked crowd milling outside the hospital.

“Great. More vultures.”

Nikolos touched my shoulder. “We need to leave.”

I pulled out my cell phone and called Jed as we ran toward my Jeep. It rang only once before he barked into the phone.

“What the hell happened and why did you leave before I got here?”

I spotted yet another news vehicle and ducked between a couple of big Excursions. I hated trying to see around the things while driving, but they made a decent enough hiding place. Cradling the phone close, I held my palm up to keep Nikolos and Blythe from moving. “I’m trying to find out what’s going on and I can’t afford to get tied up with reporters. Or worse, cops. Sorry. But I need you to do something for me. Watch her, Jed.”

“Why?”

 
I could hear a cacophony of angry and panicked voices in the background. Somewhere in that noise, a child sobbed. The backs of my eyes burned. “I don’t have all the answers myself either.” I met Nikolos’s gaze. “But I’ll have them soon.”

“There are some pretty wild stories circulating in here, Beri. Monsters and super-strong warriors—that kind of ridiculous shit.”

Nikolos turned to look around the back of the Excursion. He nodded and I moved ahead again. “You’re a cop, Jed. You know that monsters really do exist.” We reached the Jeep and Blythe tapped on my arm. “Hold on a sec.”

 
I put my hand over the phone and lifted an eyebrow.

Blythe wore the hospital slaughter on her face like a neon banner. Mascara-tinged tear-tracks stood out on her too-pale cheeks and she kept blinking and staring into space, shock turning her big, blue eyes into pools of shimmering grief. She hadn’t taken the news of the female doctor’s death well. For that matter, neither had I. But I had more experience in pushing aside emotion for later. I’d pay when I was finally alone.

I always do
.

She scratched her nose. “Nikolos has his own car.”

“And your point is…”

“I just don’t think we should separate, that’s all. Can we stay with him?”

My mouth fell open. “You’d feel safer with him?”

She stared at me for a couple of seconds, indecision creeping over her expression. Then her forehead smoothed and she tried to smile. With sadness tugging so hard on her features, it came off more as a pathetic little grimace. “I’m not saying that. Not at all. It’s just that he obviously has information we need and what if we run into another one of those things? Those demons? I think we should stick together until we figure out what’s going on.”

 
“Hold on, Blythe.” I uncovered the phone. “Jed? Still there?”

“Of course.” He had to yell over the crash of what sounded like glass.

 
“I’ll call you as soon as I know something. I have to go.”

His long silence said a lot. He didn’t like it.
Well, too freaking bad.
He had no other option. “Just tell me this,” he finally said. “Is Elsa still in danger even though you wiped the hall with monster ass?”

I snorted. I knew the man well enough to know he was doing what he could to cope with the situation. “Very funny. I never said I did anything.”

“You are the only over six-foot, stripy-haired muscle-freak woman I know. One witness said you fought some sort of red bear, another said a werewolf. Most of them are saying tall men in demon costumes. All I saw were piles of things I don’t want to know too much about. I hope you can give me a better idea of what I’m dealing with here.”

Frowning, I went to rub my forehead—with the bad arm of course—which sent pain screaming through it and up into my shoulder. “Muscle freak? Did someone actually say that?”

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat loudly. “Sorry.”

I should have been used to that kind of crap by now, but it still stung. “Listen, Jed. Just don’t leave Elsa alone.”

His sigh was loud through the earpiece. “Be careful, Beri.”

“I will.” I caught Phro and Fred frantically pointing past my shoulder. I looked to see a news crew running toward us, headlights from the street reflecting off their raised lenses. I yanked out my keys and unlocked the passenger side door. “Shit! Get in the Jeep, Blythe. Nikolos, do you want to ride with us for now?” I didn’t wait for an answer, just ran around to the driver’s side.

Blythe jumped into the back seat and Nikolos took the front. I quickly unlocked the door, cursing when my key scratched the paint by the lock.
So much for the nice paint job.
Climbing inside, I turned the key and whipped the Jeep out of the parking lot with one of those movie-style tire screeches. I barely missed side-swiping a blue minivan. The long squeal of my tires didn’t drown out the angry driver’s horn as I gunned the Jeep onto the street.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” I muttered, pressing harder on the gas and swerving around a station wagon. Little faces peered in open-mouth amazement at me through the windows.

I wasn’t a quarter of a mile down the road before I realized we had a problem. In the enclosed space, the combination of sweat and demon gunk smelled like… I didn’t know what. Kind of like vinegar and rotten potatoes, only worse. I gagged. “Goddess, we stink. Can you guys crack your windows?”

Both Nikolos and Blythe pushed their window buttons, thankfully letting in fresh, cool air. I glanced in the rearview mirror to see that Blythe had already tied a filmy, yellow scarf around her nose. The woman sure did like her yellows. I grinned, despite the ache growing steadily worse in my arm and leg. And because I thought of them, the burning kicked up a few notches.

“I don’t suppose you have any pain killers in that happy-faced bag of yours?”

“I have something better,” she answered.

Nikolos reached over to gently place his hand on my elbow. “Dweller Demons have poison in their claws. We need to use magic on the wounds.”

I didn’t slow for the upcoming yellow light as I took a sharp right, not really sure where we should go first, just knowing we had to be away. I’d seen the camera crew running back to their van, so anywhere away from the hospital was good. For the first time I wished I hadn’t caved to vanity and bought the shiny red Jeep since it made us a nice fat target. “You keep saying ‘Dweller Demons’ like they’re special. Are they different from regular demons?”

Before Nikolos could answer, Blythe’s blonde head popped up between us. “Yes.”

She had something in her hand, but it was too dark to see it well. It looked like a lump of coal.
“What is that?”

“It’s a lodestone. I can channel some of the pain and hopefully, some of the evil into it so you’ll heal faster.”

The bucket seat creaked as Nikolos tried to turn to see the stone. “Is it lightning struck?”

“Yes. It’s a good one. Do you guys know where we’re going? I left my car at the hospital, too.”

 
“Your Bug will be fine. Why don’t we go to Elsa’s? She has first aid stuff and I want to get Nikolos’s opinion on the bedroom mirror. I’ll take you both to get your cars afterward.”

They must have agreed because Nikolos faced front again and Blythe sat back. I glanced in the rearview mirror and met Phro’s eyes. She rolled them and nodded her head to the left. I adjusted the mirror and caught Frida’s reflection as he sat on the other side of Blythe, yet leaned forward to glare at Phro. Either Blythe’s spirit guide had anger management issues or he’d met Phro sometime in the distant past and had a bone to pick with her. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time we met up with a disgruntled spirit from Phro’s long years of travel.

Fred was once again absent. I frowned. It wasn’t like Fred to take off so much when there was something actually going on.

 
Blythe’s blonde curls filled the mirror again.

“Hey Blythe, how did you know confusing that demon would slow it down?”

“Doesn’t everyone know that demons are stupid?”

I turned the Jeep into Elsa’s neighborhood. “Uh, no, Blythe. Not everyone knows they exist.”

“Did you?”

I nodded, glancing in the rearview mirror to make sure the news van hadn’t found us. “Kind of. But that was my first time to see one.”

“Not mine.” She leaned forward. “It wasn’t like any demon I’ve ever seen. We have a witches’ summit every solstice and several years ago, the focus was on demon banishing. The elders hired a necromancer who called a dozen demons and they appeared in different forms, but they didn’t come through anyone and they weren’t that big. These seemed smarter and way scarier. Mixing the two languages worked on the demons at the summit, but to be honest I’m surprised it worked at all on that thing in the hall.”

“Well it did. Thanks.” I gave her a quick smile.

She beamed. “You’re so welcome. It’s not often I get to be of help. I’m usually the cause of distress—or so Sophie says.”

Took me a minute to remember that Sophie was Blythe’s mentor.

“Dweller Demons aren’t anything like common demons.” Nikolos turned his big body as best he could to face us. “Regular demons don’t need a human body and they are much easier to kill. These demons aren’t even up to full strength yet. The more souls gathered for the Dweller, the more his minions grow in number and strength—”

My chest went cold. “Wait. Hold on a sec.” I pulled into Elsa’s driveway and turned off the Jeep. I shifted toward Nikolos. Moonlight barely penetrated the small confines of the vehicle, but there was enough to reflect off his dark eyes. “Are you saying the demons aren’t the problem? There’s something worse?”

“The demons are a big problem. They’ll keep being a big problem—but yes, they’re only the prelude to a much larger fight.” He reached out and lightly touched the arm I had cradled to my chest. “It’s a long story, so why don’t we go inside and take care of the wounds while I tell you.”

I nodded. “We should be okay here for a while. At least until the reporters figure out my connection to Elsa.” I swung the door open and headed toward the porch. Thoughts of the clean clothes I had stashed in the room Elsa kept for me quickened my steps. I seriously wanted out of the gunk-covered ones. The sour demon-blood odor kept making me gag. A shower, too. I really, really wanted a shower.

The little house was quiet as I let them in. If Elsa had been home, music would have been playing or the television would be set on some noisy, shoot-em-up movie channel. Elsa liked the noise—said it made her feel less lonely.

Damn, I hated leaving her in that hospital.

Elsa hadn’t dealt well with being alone since her parents were killed in an automobile accident the year before. She’d never forgiven them for sending me back to the children’s home, but she’d always loved them.

Blythe scurried past me toward the kitchen. I heard a light crash, followed by the rattle of her dumping that bag out on the table again. The kitchen would be best for first aid anyway. Nikolos was too freaking big to maneuver around in Elsa’s bathroom.

Watching him walk into the house, I couldn’t help but wonder if the wound in his back hurt as much as the ones on my arm and leg. He didn’t say, didn’t show it with expression—he was as cool as a politician at a news conference. He didn’t look like any politician I’d ever seen, which—come to think of it—was too bad. He’d have had the feminine vote down. Not that I was saying women were flighty enough to vote on looks—just that his kind of looks would have attracted them long enough to find out what he was about.

Man, I was tired. When I thought-rambled about stupid crap, I’d reached critical exhaustion.

He moved past me to the Victorian table under the mirror, running his hand over it as a slight smile pulled up one corner of his mouth. “It looks beautiful here.”

It was then something clicked in my head. “Nikolos. Labyrinth Antiques. That’s where I’d heard your name before.” Elsa had gushed over the man repeatedly for a couple of months. When I’d asked her why she didn’t just ask him out, she’d said he wasn’t interested in her that way. That he never once looked at her as a possibility—that he could be gay.

His black gaze glittered at me from behind fallen strands of equally dark, silky-looking hair. He stared with an intensity that said he was pretty damned straight. At least where I was concerned. Tilting my head, I stared back. I wasn’t used to this reaction in a man. It tied my stomach in knots. Made me feel young and flushed.

And weird.

Shaking my head, I pointed toward Elsa’s room. “The first aid supplies are in the bathroom. I’ll get them. Do you want to take a quick look at that mirror?” Without waiting for an answer, I started down the hall.