Dweller on the Threshold (33 page)

“I’m sorry to hear that. You say there were struggles?”

She nodded again.

“We think the illness makes them go a little crazy. Some of them even carved up mirrors in their houses.”

“Oh, then you have to see this. It was driving Sheriff Randall crazy.” She turned on her blinker, shifted the truck back into gear, cursed when it made an ear-grating noise, then shifted again. “Follow me. It isn’t far.”

The truck rumbled and turned right down the street I’d indicated earlier. As we moved on foot to follow, Nikolos lifted an eyebrow. “Very good. Quick.”

I flashed him a quick grin. “Had a lot of practice. You learn to improvise when you need info.”

The sun raged on our heads as we walked. It really was unusually hot. It had me swiping my forearm across my forehead every few seconds. Someone was frying fish and the scent of greasy cornbread batter lingered in the air. Nikolos walked quietly beside me and I stole glances at him every few feet. The heat didn’t seem to bother him as much, or else he was just better at hiding it.

The woman parked in the driveway at the third house—a small, square place with white siding and drooping flowers lining the front porch.

“I’m Tandy, by the way, like the Jessica actress,” she called out as she climbed from the truck. The slam of her door was loud in the quiet of the late afternoon.

We came up the narrow sidewalk and followed her to the porch. I noticed Nikolos paying careful attention to the ground around us. I didn’t know if he was continuing our ‘insect’ story or trying not to step on the dying flowers with his big feet.

When Tandy pulled out keys, I lifted an eyebrow. She shrugged. “This is actually my house. I take care of my mother and she’s down now with this Somatic thing. If it’s from bugs, I’d sure like you to find out if any are in my house.” She shivered and slid the key into the lock.

I was hoping for a hit of cool air, but the air was only slightly cooler because of the noisy air-conditioning unit in the front window.

“Sorry about the mess. I spend most of my time off at the hospital. I took my mom to the one in Naples, so it’s a bit of a drive. My uncle is a doctor there.”

We stepped over piles of clothing and magazines as we followed her into a narrow, dark hallway. Fred slipped into place silently by my side, his nose wrinkling at the mess. The house smelled musty—the warm, humid air clinging to my skin, causing sweat to drip into my eyes. Flies buzzed over a piece of pizza on a paper plate on the coffee table.

“Sorry about the heat, too. Since I haven’t been here, I haven’t been running the unit much. Just got back into town this morning and turned it back on.” She led us into a room that looked as if it had suffered a battle.

The bed was a wreck of tangled sheets and since it was so close to the dresser, small bits of glass peppered the covers. A lamp beside the bed had been shattered against the wall—I could tell because of the bits of smoky white light bulb still stuck in the paneling. Just like in my sister’s room, a round symbol had been carved into the mirror.

I squeezed between the bed and dresser for a closer look. It was a circle about two feet in diameter with three parallel lines that curved together inside, never once losing their distance from each other. Three again.

“The edges of this one look really jagged. Not smooth like the others.” I looked at Nikolos, but Tandy spoke up first.

“My mother has palsy; she shakes.”

“You think she carved this?”

She wrung her hands together. “Who else would have?” She looked at the floor. “See any of those bugs?”

That’s right, we were supposed to be looking for bugs. I bit back a grin when Nikolos made a show of checking under the bed. “Do you have a flashlight?” he asked her.

“Sure.” She hurried from the room.

I squatted so I could whisper. “The palsy and jagged edges just don’t fit—not if we’re right about something coming through the mirror.” The faint scent of sweat came from Nikolos, but it wasn’t unpleasant—not in the least. This close, I could see the strands of hair that had come loose from his braid and stuck to his neck. “Blythe said
she
came through the glass and attacked.”

“Maybe the soul is somehow turning on its attacker?”

I was trying to picture such a thing when Tandy screamed. I jumped to my feet and ran ahead of Nikolos as we followed the noise. I nearly tripped over the crap piled up in her living room, but I could see her standing in her kitchen looking out a small window over the sink. “What’s wrong?”

She gasped, her mouth opening and closing before she pointed. I saw a flash of mottled black skin and knew what was out there. I looked at Nikolos. “Demon.”

He nodded and pulled his knife.

Tandy screamed again when she saw the knife.

I ran to her, grabbed her arms. “Go lock yourself in your room. Don’t try to run out another door. There could be more than one out there. Stay away from any windows.”

She nodded and fled.

I pulled my own knife and moved to Nikolos who stood by the back door. I heard the demon shuffling around out there, banging into a metal trashcan. “Stay alive,” Nikolos muttered before kicking out the back door and dashing through the opening.

I followed him, but lurched right to his left. We stood on either side of the little back porch and took in the thing ransacking Tandy’s trash cans. It wasn’t a demon—it was that damned ghoul again. He’d lost the disguise, standing there in his full naked and hairy glory. He pulled a greasy-looking brown paper bag out, opened it and sniffed the contents. I was so stunned to find him there I didn’t see the demon to my right until it rushed in a blur of movement and slammed one huge hand into the side of my head.

I immediately saw stars. Nikolos cursed and shoved me behind him. I knew he was giving me time to get my bearings. I clung to his leather belt for a second, feeling nausea rush in to do battle with my senses. I swayed when Nikolos’s body moved and I heard a hiss as he did something painful to the demon.

Getting my footing didn’t take long but I was going to have a killer of a headache later. I patted Nikolos’s butt in thanks as I stepped to the side to see what he fought.

Two sets of yellow eyes. We had a pair again. Two demons and a stupid ghoul. The latter was already bouncing in excitement as he gnawed on whatever he’d pulled from the bag. His beady little eyes were barely visible behind all that hair but his head whipped from me to Nikolos to the two huge demons stalking us. They were several yards to my right and the ghoul was just a few feet to the left.

His glee pissed me off, so I quickly stepped back and took a running jump off the porch and over the trash cans. Those small eyes flared right before my foot hit him in that spot right behind one of those peepers. He went down fast and hard. I didn’t have time to gloat because one of the demons growled and rushed me.

I knew how they worked now so I dropped into a roll and smashed into its legs. It was like hitting tree trunks, but the demon did take a nosedive. My healing fingers didn’t handle the roll well. I cried out as one crunched and I scrambled back to my feet only to find the demon already up and facing me.

Nikolos had jumped off the porch to fight the other demon. As he slashed his knife through the air, he moved until our backs were together. I took a deep breath, trying to ignore the throbbing in wounds that hadn’t had time to heal. I preferred using two knives but my left hand had gone numb.

Tandy’s backyard was small—an eight-foot-tall wooden fence surrounding all but the part where the demons had obviously broken through. A small dog had run through that opening. It yapped and growled before jumping on the ghoul’s back to chew.

Grimacing, I stared into the yellow eyes of the demon. Like the creature in Nikolos’s garden, more intelligence shown from its eyes. It sniffed. “Sssmellssss like honey.” It shifted from one foot to the other, its movements creepy yet graceful. “Bergdissssss, we’ve been looking for you.”

“Hey, no fair! You know my name but I don’t know yours.” I really hated the way they grinned with those wide black lips and sharp teeth. I clenched my own teeth. “Screw this.” I lunged and slashed at its gut.

It jumped back. And stopped.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Nikolos had mirrored my movements and his demon shuffled out of the way as well. Frowning, I slowly moved to my left, circling the thing. I was trying to peer into the corners of the yard to see if they were stalling while more of their brethren joined the fight.

There was only the dog, coughing up ghoul hair.

I hadn’t taken my eyes off the demon. Its blue and black bruised outer shell looked shiny and wet in the direct sunlight. I swallowed a gag as the heavy muscles under its mottled skin shifted with its movements. “So do you have a name?”

“We are Dweller.”

“Too many episodes of TNG, eh? Trying to assimilate us?” My thigh throbbed and I glanced down to see blood darkening my jeans. I’d pulled some of Blythe’s stitches. Shit.

“Bergdissssss…the protector.”
 

The little dog puked noisily behind me. I frowned. “The protector?”

“Don’t question the thing, Beri.” Nikolos moved around so our backs were together again. “It knows only lies.”

“No liessssss. One born to light. One born to protect.”

My heart jumped into my throat. It pounded so loud I could hear the
thump thump thump
beating in my skull. Sweat dripped into my eye and I rapidly blinked to dispel it. I didn’t want to risk covering my eyes. I also didn’t want to kill it yet. It was talking. It knew my name. “Do you know what I am?” I whispered.

It chuckled, and the sound scraped up my back.

“What?” I yelled. “Dammit, what?”

The other one spoke, its voice nearly identical. “You are meat. Nothing but meat.” I heard Nikolos grunt and knew the thing had run out of patience and leapt. But I dared not take my eyes off the one facing me.

“No!” I held up a hand as the first one moved. “Tell me.”

“Beri.” Fred appeared beside me. “Something’s wrong in the house.”

A crash sounded inside and I curled my lip at the demon. “You’re stalling us. You’re fucking stalling us.” Anger rushed out of my throat in a growling yell and I jumped into the air, swinging the knife fast. I aimed at its ear. The knife glanced off that hard, bony skull.

I cursed and twisted around, bringing up the knife again. My left side hit the fence as my dagger sank into the thing’s arm, sending the demon’s aim off. The claws that would have probably gashed out my throat stuck in the fence next to my head.

I could hear scrambling inside the house. Fury sent black around the edges of my vision and I slammed my foot into the middle of the demon’s back. Its claws were wedged in the fence hard. It thrashed and turned its sharp teeth my way. I jumped back and kicked it again. My grip on the knife was tight since I worried it would slip in my sweat. The sun was a vicious monster overhead, beating down on my skin.

Tandy screamed.

“That’s it,” I snapped, blindly stabbing at the thing’s head because the sun and my own sweat were in my eyes. I must have hit the right area because I felt it slump before I saw it. I wiped the stinging perspiration blurring my sight and leaned over to stab at the prone body’s head again—just to make sure.

Without hesitation, I joined Nikolos’s fight. His breaths were labored and fear struck my heart at the waxen color of his face. From the blood on his shirt, I guess his wound had reopened. Gritting my teeth, I tried to leave my body to fight the demon in its own dimension as I had at Nikolos’s home.

Nothing happened.

Worry over Tandy was messing with my concentration. “Hit me!” I yelled at Nikolos, praying he was smart enough to pick up on why. I only had time to catch the flash of instant understanding in his eyes before he grimaced but swung his fist into the side of my head.

My body went down as my spirit soared into the air. I held onto the cord with both hands and didn’t give the spirit demon time to know what hit him. I was on him and wrapping the hard silver rope around his neck, crossing in the front and using all my might to yank the sides. I snapped the spirit head right off.

I didn’t even go back into my body, just sailed through the open back door and into the house to search out Tandy. Nikolos was right behind me and he ran ahead to kick open the last door in the hall. I floated into the bedroom, finding the brown carpet covered in glass and a huge man-sized hole in the yellow wall next to the bed. I hovered over Tandy’s body before looking at the carved circle in the mirror. This one hadn’t been made by a woman with palsy. It had smooth curling edges. Failure hit me hard even before I met Nikolos’s sad gaze. The weight of it made me want to sink to the floor and cry. I didn’t even know if this spirit-me had real tears.

I was pretty sure our time had run out.

Three hours later I lay on the bed across from my sister, staring at her. I’d showered and let Blythe work a spell over my reopened wounds. She and Dooby had gone out to find the mullein leaves I hadn’t found earlier. At least we’d scored two ‘visited’ mirrors.

Exhaustion pulled at every muscle in my body, but my mind burned to get back out there. I wanted to find this Castor—wanted to see if he looked like me, wanted to know what that demon had meant by ‘one born to light and one born to protect.’