The Devil's Daughter (30 page)

“Reverend Conroy?”

His head jerked up, his eyes widened, and his knuckles whitened around the edge of the pulpit.

“You--” His grainy voice was a mere whisper.

Lucy moved closer, but stopped when he recoiled. Reverend Conroy’s mouth twisted around each word he spoke.

“Away from me, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”

“Reverend, please.” Lucy took another step toward him.

“You dare set foot in the House of the Lord.” His eyes rolled upward for a moment, as though expecting God to send a bolt of lightening down upon her. To both of their surprise, nothing happened.

“I need your help.”

“You are beyond any help I can give.” He held a well-worn Bible at arms length and stepped down from the pulpit. But instead of moving away from Lucy, he advanced toward her, forcing her to back up toward the door.

“Well, it’s not actually for me,” she hurried to explain. She bumped into the pew behind her, righted herself, and continued to back up. “It’s Maggie Caine. She needs your protection.”

“From what?”

A sudden lump in Lucy’s throat made her stop, swallow hard, and blink back fresh tears.

“From me. From my brother. And from my. . .my father.”

Reverend Conroy stopped walking, but continued to hold the Bible at chest level. “Your. . .f-father?”

Lucy nodded. “There’s no time to talk about this now. Maggie is in grave danger and if you don’t come with me, she’s going to lose her baby.”

Reverend Conroy hesitated, uncertainty making him balk. “Maggie has been ill for quite some time. How do I know this isn’t some kind of trick? How do I know you’re not here for me?”

 “Reverend.” Lucy inhaled a long slow breath. “If I was here for myself, or for anything my father wanted, do you honestly believe I would have made it through that door?”

He shot a glance toward the door, then back at Lucy. She watched as realization fell over him. It was the truth. The God he served would have struck her down before she made it to the top step.

“Please, Reverend. They’re after Maggie’s baby.”

The man’s thin face paled, then flushed. He closed his eyes, steepled his fingers in front of his face and murmured, “Strengthen me, Father. Fill me with your Spirit.” With a short nod at Lucy, he added quietly, “Take me to her.”

“Do you ride?” Lucy asked, leading him outside. The black horse stood where she’d left it, nibbling the dry weeds at its feet.

“No,” Reverend Conroy answered, not bothering to close the door behind him. “I have a carriage.”

“Today you ride.” She led the horse over to the church stairs and nodded. “Climb on.”

Without a second glance, he handed Lucy his Bible and scrambled up on the animal’s back. The book felt odd in Lucy’s hands; warm and smooth, almost comforting. Yet at the same time, the weight of it terrified her.

He took the Bible from her, wrapped his hand around her forearm and helped pull her up behind him.

“Go.”

o0o

Jed couldn’t move. Not because that sonuvabitch had done his freezing thing on him, but because he barely had the strength to remain upright, never mind anything else.

Deacon scanned the ground around him, then took a hesitant step. “Lucille and I are both children of the devil, but her mother is this human woman. So unlike myself, Lucille is half mortal, half demon. So much strength and so much weakness in one being.”

Jed wanted to fall to the ground; to cover his ears and refuse to listen. But Deacon went on as calmly as if he were discussing the color of the sky.

“We were raised in Hell alongside the rest of the damned, and considering her obvious shortcomings, I think Lucille managed fairly well.” His evil gaze flicked between Jed and the two women on the ground. “But, being who she is, being
what
she is, she’s always held on to the unfortunate hope that she would somehow get out. Of course, she knew she’d never be able to live a completely mortal life, but as long as she thought she could get out of Hell, she was going to try.

Maggie’s cries brought Jed around. She needed his help, but what the hell could he do? He searched around frantically for something – anything – he could use to protect her.

Nothing.

Deacon’s voice rattled in Jed’s brain.

“Our father offered her a deal: Bring him a newborn soul, or be cast down to the darkest corner of Hell where she would never again have a chance at freedom.” He shook his head slowly, almost as though he couldn’t believe what he was saying. “It couldn’t have been an easier job. I already had a deal in the works with Sam, and Sam’s wife had a baby on the way, so it was simply a matter of securing its soul.”

Jed fought the urge to wretch. If this were true, if Lucy were the devil’s daughter and after the baby’s soul, that meant Maggie wasn’t crazy – she knew what had been going on all the time, but Jed had been too stupid to believe her.

He’d been so distracted by his lust that he didn’t give Maggie the attention she deserved. The attention Sam would have wanted her to have.

Sam
.

Jed forced himself to look at Deacon. “What did you do with Sam?”

Deacon frowned in confusion, but only for a second. “Oh, yes, Sam.” He tipped his head to the side a little, and smiled. “It’s because of him that you’re all here.”

“No,” Maggie sobbed. “Sam loves me. He’d never do anything to hurt our baby.”“Shhh.” Berta’s worried face gazed down at Maggie who struggled to sit up. “You mustn’t get up.”

Jed spied a mound of hay in the corner of the stable and moved toward it. “Please, Maggie, listen to Berta.”

“Don’t talk to me, Jed,” Maggie screamed. “You brought that devil-woman here! You did this! Sam would never have done anything to--”

“Sam is dead.” Deacon’s emotionless words hung in the air for what felt like an eternity before they settled in Jed’s heart. 

“No!” Maggie’s cry echoed across the sky as she curled her arms over her belly, and turned her back on Deacon. “No.”

Jed scrambled to arrange the pile of hay in some kind of cushion. Then he ripped his shirt off and laid it on top.

While Deacon continued to talk and circle them, Jed and Berta moved Lucy over to the hay and tried to make her comfortable.

“Your Sam was such a worrier. Worried this child would turn out the same as the others and never draw breath, worried his wife wouldn’t survive the birth –-”

“You sonofabitch.” Jed rose to his feet and lunged toward Deacon who once again vanished and appeared a few feet away.

“So when I made him an offer,” Deacon went on, as carefree as the wind, “he took it.”

“What offer?” Jed’s teeth clenched tight, his fists tighter.

“Nothing difficult,” Deacon answered. “His soul would be mine in exchange for a healthy baby.”

Jed started. “His soul. . .but. . .” He stopped and inhaled until his lungs threatened to burst. This was too much. Too crazy.

Too real.

He watched Deacon move stealthily in circles, calm as could be, while the rage inside Jed grew hotter and deeper.

“If you already have Sam, you have no claim to this child.”

“Humans.” Deacon chuckled softly. “You’re so gullible.” He pulled the ferret out of his pocket and stroked it gently. “Remember who you’re dealing with here, Jedidiah. Integrity is not something we’re known for.”

Jed blinked hard. This whole thing was just wrong.

“It’s not that difficult to understand.” Deacon rolled his eyes impatiently. “The newborn soul is the purest soul, unaffected by the trials and tribulations of life, and ripe for us to take. When our father sets his sights on one, he does whatever it takes to get it.”

Jed choked back bile. “But why Maggie? Why Sam?””

Deacon shrugged. “The opportunity presented itself.” He stopped to watch Maggie fight through an increasingly painful contraction. “Sam started it all with the deal he made. He may have done it with good intentions, but we all know where that road leads.”

He chuckled at his own joke, then continued. “With his soul at our disposal, we had access to his child and the child’s mother. Lucille assumed the child was hers to take, but, of course, our father saw things differently.”

Jed fought to make sense of this. “You killed Sam.”

“I’m many things,” Deacon said, outraged. “But not a murderer. Sam did that himself. I just took his soul.”

“
Just
,” Jed choked. “And then you used his disappearance to make Maggie crazy.”

“Yes.”

“And Lucy came here thinking she could get the baby’s soul to trade for her own.”

“Very good, Jedidiah.”

Jed swallowed hard. “But that’s not what’s happening here.”

“No.” A patronizing smile lifted Deacon’s lips. “I knew you’d catch on sooner or later.”

“So--” Jed tried to steady his breathing. “What do you want with us?”

Deacon cocked his brow slightly and smirked. “You are all simply a means to an end,” he said. “The baby is what’s important.”

A strange darkness began to build inside Jed. He frowned against the pounding in his head. It was as though someone had stuffed his brain full of dirt and no matter how hard he dug, he couldn’t find his way out.

Deacon nuzzled his ferret for another moment before tucking it back in his pocket. Maggie fought her way through another pain; her teeth ground hard together, her right hand fisted around Berta’s skirt.

“But to get to the baby, Lucy first needed to get to the man protecting it. She needed to make you love her so much you’d be willing to give her anything – including your own soul.” He stopped, hands clasped behind his back. “Of course that meant you would be condemned to Hell in her stead, but that’s a small price to pay to keep herself out.”

Deacon might as well have reached in and ripped Jed’s heart straight out of his chest. He would have given Lucy his soul if she’d asked him for it. He’d have done anything for her.

Now. . .

Reacting on impulse alone, Jed dove at Deacon, but he’d vanished again.

“You think you can hurt me, human?” Deacon snorted from a few feet away. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with, do you?” He shook his head pitifully. “Think, Jedidiah – she gave you enough clues.”

The darkness inside Jed grew deeper. What clues? Her name, of course, but what else? He started to walk, then crashed against the tree trunk.

“Reverend Conroy.”

“Very good, human,” Deacon sneered. “No being with Satan’s blood would dare stand before a man of the cloth.”

 “Jed.” Berta’s worried voice pulled him back. “We don’t have much time.”

Maggie’s whole body heaved with uncontrollable sobs and an almost constant pain – the pain that would soon push the baby from her womb. What could he do? How could he possibly protect Maggie from something like Deacon?

“It’ll be over soon,” Deacon said. “Nothing to do now but wait.”

“No.” Berta pushed to her feet and stormed toward both men. They each started, found their balance, and stepped out of reach of her jabbing finger.

“You,” she barked at Deacon, “are nothing but a spineless coward. There is no hope for someone like you.”

He simply cocked his brow at her and flicked his hand as though to wave away her words.

“But you.” She turned on Jed and jabbed her finger into the middle of his chest. “You are better than this, Jed. You know what needs to be done.”

“Berta--”

“No.” She stopped him with her raised hand. Deacon snickered, but Jed and Berta ignored him. “I’ve listened to you and him-” she indicated Deacon with a nod of her head –“go on about things that can no longer be helped. God bless him, but Sam is dead. We can’t do anything about that.”

“But--”

“Lucy came here to win her freedom, and she was bent on doing whatever it took to get it.” Berta stepped closer and jabbed him in the chest with her finger. “But even you can’t be stupid enough not to notice she’s changed.”

Jed didn’t answer, just stood there, staring down at this half-crazed woman who kept poking him.

“She could have taken you down long before today.” Her voice rose with each word until she was on tiptoe, yelling in his face. “She could have been done with all of this, and she could have been the one sitting here waiting on that baby.”

Maggie cried out as another pain ripped through her. Jed and Berta both cast anxious glances back to the stable, even as Berta continued yelling.

“But she didn’t, did she?”

“She’s always been weak,” Deacon interjected.

Berta ignored him, and pushed her glasses up her nose. “It has nothing to do with weakness, Jed. It has to do with strength.”

He shook his head and made to move away from her, but she gripped his arm with the strength of a woman possessed.

“She loves you, Jed.” When he shook his head, she nodded harder. “Yes she does. She loves you. And you love her.”