“He’s right.” I said. “You don’t want my Illuminati blood tainting your execution.”
“He didn’t mean it like that, Kennedy.” Jared’s hand slid underneath my tangled hair, and he rubbed the back of my neck with his thumb.
How long before he turned his back on me, too?
Priest stared down at the cracked concrete floor, silent.
“Priest?” Jared sounded confused.
Lukas’ shoulders stiffened. “Priest, what’s your malfunction? It’s Kennedy we’re talking about.”
Priest shoved his hands into the front pocket of his hoodie. “I’m not saying she’s Illuminati, but she’s not part of the Legion. That’s all.”
Jared’s hand slipped from my neck. In the space of three strides, he stood towering over Priest. “You weren’t worried about whether or not she was one of us when she saved your life.” He turned to Alara. “What about you?”
She had been unusually quiet, and I braced myself for the inevitable rejection headed my way.
Alara picked at the loose strings on her cargo pants. “My grandmother didn’t trust the Illuminati.”
I choked back the acid burning my throat.
“But I’m not one of them.” Anger tore through me. It dulled the pain and the questions, the fear and the doubt. “I didn’t know about any of this. My mom lied to me, and I can’t even ask her why because she’s dead.”
Jared reached for me, but I twisted out of reach.
Gabriel’s cell phone chimed. He scanned the message and nodded to Dimitri. “The sanctuary’s ready, and you owe me ten bucks.”
“We weren’t betting.” Dimitri swept past us.
“I’m always betting.” Gabriel walked over to Priest and snatched the syringe. “Playtime’s over kids. It’s time to move him.”
“Move him where?” Alara followed Gabriel. “You said we had to kill him.”
“We do, but not here,” Gabriel said, with his back to Alara. “Andras can only be destroyed within the walls of a sanctuary, in the presence of a cross from a church altar.”
She grabbed his arm jerked him around to face her. “Then what the hell was that crap you fed us about sticking a syringe in that guy and honoring our vow to the Legion?”
“A test.” Gabriel looked down at her hand and brushed his off his arm. “In case you’re wondering, you all failed.”
22. GATES OF HELL
Dimitri slid his arms around the criminal’s body, and Gabriel grabbed his legs.
Lukas stood between the shipping containers that led to the warehouse exit. “You’re not taking Andras anywhere without us.”
Dimitri shouldered his way past Lukas without much effort. “We assumed as much.”
“How about you make yourself useful and get the door,” Gabriel said, nodding toward the end of the metal aisle.
Lukas rushed ahead of Dimitri and Gabriel without a word, and Priest and Alara stayed right behind them.
“Come on, Elle,” Jared said, taking my hand. He held it just as tight as he had before I told him the truth about my mom.
You should be relieved.
But I wasn’t. I felt empty, like someone had punched a hole in me, and all of my emotions had spilled out.
Elle trailed after us, still dazed.
Outside, Lukas was unlocking the trunk of a silver SUV, while Dimitri and Gabriel waited. Priest and Alara must’ve grabbed the duffel bags on the way out, and Priest was digging through one of them.
Every inch of the trunk’s interior was lined with cold-iron grating.
The two men dumped the demon inside, and Dimitri ran around the SUV and climbed into the driver’s seat.
Bear ran back and forth behind the car, barking and growling.
“Get in if you’re coming,” Gabriel said. “Holy water isn’t enough. Without other pre-emptive measures, those chains won’t hold Andras much longer.”
We piled in the back, before Gabriel could change his mind. It took Alara a few attempts to coax Bear into the car.
Andras banged against the grating.
Elle scooted forward to the edge of her seat. “He sounds really pissed off.”
“The Illuminati has safe house down by the stockyards. We’ll be there soon.” Dimitri turned on the radio and scanned through the stations, settling on the news.
I leaned my head against the window, watching traffic lights blur in the darkness. Everything looked different, and it took me a moment to realize why.
The rain and snow had stopped.
For the first time since the night I freed the demon, the sky was clear. But my thoughts were darker than the sky had ever been.
Why didn’t Mom tell me the truth about her past? Was she ashamed? Maybe she thought I wouldn’t forgive her… or maybe she didn’t trust me with her secrets.
If my mom had lied about who she really was, she could’ve lied about anything.
Like the way she felt about my dad.
A radio newscaster’s voice interrupted my thoughts. “In breaking news, the story of the seventeen missing girls ended has in tragedy. Seventeen bodies were found in the woods outside of Topsfield, Massachusetts, earlier today. Initial reports from the coroner’s office estimate the victims died between three o’clock and five o’clock this morning. The FBI has yet to make an official statement, but local law enforcement officers believe the bodies will be identified as the teenage girls who disappeared over the last seventeen days.”
Topsfield. The location of the museum—thirty minutes from Faith’s house and less than an hour from here.
Andras probably killed them before Faith.
Alara leaned over the front seat, gripping Gabriel’s headrest. “Turn it up.”
“Alexa Sears, Lauren Richman, Kelly Emerson, Rebecca Turner, Cameron Anders, Mary Williams, Sarah Edelman, Julia Smith—”
I didn’t listen to the rest of the names. I already knew them by heart.
Shannon O’Malley, Christine Redding, Karen York, Marie Dennings, Rachel Eames, Roxanne North, Catherine Nichols, Hailey Edwards, Lucy Klein—they’re all dead. And it’s my fault.
Dimitri guided the SUV through a wasteland of condemned buildings and rusted machinery, before he pulled up to an unmarked warehouse with a HAZMAT sign on the door. Gabriel jumped out of the car before it stopped and bolted to the door. He sorted through a ring of keys chained to his belt, and systematically unlocked close to a dozen dead bolts.
Dimitri threw the SUV into park and dug through the glove box, unearthing a handful of ugly plastic sunglasses. “Put these on.” He handed them to Priest and waited for us to follow orders before he climbed out. “Stay here.”
“Nice try.” Alara opened her door, and followed him around to the back of the car ahead of everyone else.
Bear stalked in front of her, flashing his canines.
Gabriel emerged from the warehouse carrying a wide-barreled rifle and a fire hose. “Heads up.” He tossed Dimitri the gun, and he caught it with one hand.
“Get back.” Dimitri a
imed the rifle at the trunk.
Priest examined it and dropped a duffel bag full of weapons on the asphalt. “It’s a tranquilizer gun like the ones they use at zoos,” he whispered to Jared, as the Legion members grabbed their own weapons.
I hung back with Elle, afraid of how Priest and Alara might react if I tried to help.
Gabriel reached for the handle and glanced back at Dimitri. He nodded and Gabriel opened the trunk, pivoting to the side.
The criminal’s muscular body lay crammed inside, motionless.
“He’s still out. That should make it easier to move him.” Dimitri lowered the rifle.
As he did, Andras lunged from the trunk, knocking the rifle out of Dimitri’s hands in the process. The demon was still bound in chains, but they didn’t slow him down. He pounced on Dimitri, snarling like an animal.
Jared, Lukas, and Priest opened fire, but the salt rounds had no effect. Alara dropped her paintball gun and dove for Dimitri’s rifle. She scrambled onto her knees, aiming carefully.
A flurry of tranquilizer darts punctured Andras’ back. He whipped around with his black eyes focused on Alara, his legs still pinning Dimitri to the ground.
Bear sprang and clamped his jaws around Andras’ arm.
Gabriel turned on the hose, and a deluge of water hit Andras. The force sent Bear rolling and threw the demon’s body against the fender. Steam rose from his exposed skin, and he let out a piercing scream, as he dropped to his knees on the asphalt.
Alara hit him with another dart.
Andras swayed for a moment, then collapsed.
Gabriel hauled the demon up by the chains around his wrists. A web of vicious burns marred his damp skin.
“That was enough Ketamine to take down a grizzly,” Dimitri said, trying to catch his breath.
Alara walked by and shoved the tranquilizer gun into his hands. “You’re welcome.”
Gabriel hoisted Andras over his shoulder and rushed toward the door. “We need to get him inside fast, before it wears off.”
The warehouse was nothing like the one at the wharf. Instead of rusted paint and oil-stained floors, we followed Gabriel and Dimitri through a maze of hallways with shiny metal walls and fluorescent overhead lights. I looked for signs of whoever had been prepping the sanctuary, but the place seemed empty.