At the end of hall, Gabriel unlocked the deadbolts on another metal door. This one led down a narrow, wooden staircase. At the bottom, Jared and Lukas had to duck under a low archway that led into a claustrophobic tunnel. Portable construction lights hanging from nails illuminated wet stone walls.
Elle stepped closer to Lukas. “This place looks like a dungeon,” she whispered.
Lukas grabbed her hand, his eyes fixed on the barred door a few yards ahead of us. “I think it is.”
Elle stopped at the threshold of the cell, unwilling to go any further, and I understood why.
Aside from the stainless steel toilet, the cell looked like something out of the middle Ages—two hundred square feet at the most, with rough, aggregate walls and a dirty mattress in the corner. A Devil’s Trap was painted on the floor, and the Eye of Ever covered the ceiling. A huge, silver crucifix was bolted to the wall like a relic in a museum.
“I thought we were taking him to a sanctuary,” Alara said. Bear’s ears perked at the sound of her voice.
Dimitri dumped Andras on the ground beneath two sets of shackles. “This is a sanctuary. It was blessed by a Priest, and that cross,” he pointed to the silver monstrosity, “Hung behind the altar of Our Lady of Saints, apparently.”
“The clock is ticking, so you might want to step outside,” Gabriel unchained Andras’ wrists and ankles and replaced the chains with shackles. “I don’t want to offend anyone’s fragile sense of morality while we try to save the world.”
“You’re gonna kill him right now?” Priest asked.
Gabriel looked disgusted. “No. I thought I’d wait until he finds a way to open the Gates and invite all his friends over.”
“The children of the Labyrinth do not need an invitation,” the demon said, his head still bowed. “They will find a way, with or without me.”
When he heard the demon’s voice, Bear shot to his feet, a low growl building in his throat. Alara ran her hand along his back. “It’s okay, boy.”
Andras growled, sounding feral.
Bear snapped at Andras, baring his teeth.
Alara reached down and grabbed his collar, just as the Doberman lunged. She didn’t have time to pull her hand away, and the momentum hurled her body forward. Andras strained against the shackles, reaching for her.
“Alara!” Priest shouted.
Jared hurled himself at Andras, creating a wall between the demon and Alara. Jared slammed into Andras’ chest, and his protective sunglasses clattered to the floor.
Andras raised his head, holy water running down his face.
“Don’t look at him!” Gabriel yelled.
The demon’s ebony eyes locked on Jared’s pale blue ones.
“No!” The words tore from my throat, but it was already too late.
Jared hit the ground and fell forward onto his knees in front of Andras. With his arms bound in chains and Jared kneeling at his feet, Andras resembled a martyr from a Renaissance painting, staring down at one of his disciples. The demon tilted his head, and Jared mirrored his every movement, never once taking his eyes off the monster controlling him.
The criminal’s body jerked forward, his arms straining against the chains, and an invisible force slammed into Jared’s chest. The criminal’s body went slack, and Jared’s back straightened slowly, as if his spine was stretching one vertebra at a time.
We had witnessed the same scenario on the Boston streets, but this was different. It was happening to Jared. He was only a few feet away, but I couldn’t get to him fast enough. I scrambled in front of him, blocking his view.
Maybe there’s still time.
I grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “Jared, look at me.”
The blank expression on his face didn’t change. He stared straight ahead like a zombie, as if I wasn’t even there.
I held his face in my hands. “Jared, you can fight this. You’re stronger than he is.”
Sounds filtered through the haze of fear wrapping itself around me. Bear barking. Someone crying. Voices shouting.
I’m losing him. If I haven’t lost him already.
I took off my protective glasses and tossed them across the floor. “Look at me.”
“Kennedy, no!” Gabriel yelled.
Jared’s lashes fluttered, and his sleepy blue eyes focused on me. My heart leapt.
He’s going to be all right.
Alara’s hand closed around my arm. “Get away from him.”
“Wait,” Lukas said. “He’s okay.”
Jared reached up and curled his hands around my wrists, the first effort he’d made to connect. His icy touch sent goose bumps up my arms.
“I thought I’d lost you,” I whispered, choking back tears.
Jared’s pupils dilated, and the inky darkness spread, eclipsing his irises. “You did.”
It took a moment for the truth to register.
“Move!” Dimitri shouted from somewhere behind me.
A hand grabbed the back of my jacket and dragged me across the floor. “Close your eyes, and put your glasses on.” It was Gabriel.
Jared lost interest in me and turned toward the voice.
I put my sunglasses back on and followed his gaze to Dimitri, who stood just inside the cell, pointing the tranquilizer rifle at Jared.
“If you kill me, you kill the boy, too,” Jared said, in a voice that wasn’t his own. Gabriel appeared in the doorway with a hose. Andras’ eyes flickered with amusement. “What will you do now, Champion of God?”
Gabriel unleashed the holy water and Dimitri fired.
Jared charged them, pushing through the flood of water. His body jerked each time a tranquilizer dart hit him.
I watched in horror, praying for the assault to end.
By the time the third dart hit, Jared was soaked and his steps became sluggish. How much longer could he hold out?
Fall. Please. Just fall.
Jared staggered toward Gabriel, but he couldn’t push past the pressure of the water. He dropped to his knees, coughing and sputtering. In one last effort to reach his attackers, Jared dragged his body across the wet concrete.
The fourth dart caught him in the shoulder, and Jared’s cheek hit the floor. Even as he lay there with a demon inside him, I wanted to lift his head off the ground and cradle it in my lap.
Deep down, he was still the boy who made my stomach flutter every time he kissed me. The boy who fought for me, even when I didn’t fight for myself.
He was still the boy who meant more to me than I could ever tell him.
Wasn’t he?
23. COLLATERAL DAMAGE
Gabriel jammed his knee into Jared’s back and wound a chain around his wrists.
“Stop. You’re hurting him.” I struggled to slip out of Lukas’ grasp, but he tightened his hold on me, pinning my arms against my sides.
“It’s okay,” he said in a soothing voice.
There was nothing okay about this.
Jared lay motionless on the cell floor. With his lips parted and curls of dark hair stuck to his neck, he almost looked asleep.
Almost.
The burns marring his skin reminded me he wasn’t.
Gabriel noticed me staring and threw me a pitying glance. “This isn’t your boyfriend, kid. You’d better get that through your head.”
“You don’t know anything about him,” I snapped. “Jared is stronger than you think, and he’ll put up a fight.”
Dimitri looked away and lit a cigarette, crushing the empty pack in his hand.
Gabriel secured the chains with a padlock, yanking harder than necessary to test them. He was probably doing it to make a point, which only made me hate him more. He looked up at me from where he knelt next to Jared. “He’d slit your throat without thinking twice about it if he the chance.”
“Don’t try to scare me so you can justify what you’re doing,” I said.
Gabriel stood, his dark eyes drilling into me. He pulled down the collar of his shirt. A jagged scar ran across the fro
nt of his neck. “You should be scared.”
Alara, who had barely moved since the attack, gasped.
“That’s enough.” Dimitri adopted an authoritative tone, as if he wanted to remind Gabriel who was in charge.
Gabriel shrugged his shoulder and the fabric slid back in place, covering the gruesome scar. “She needs to understand what we’re dealing with, before she gets herself killed.”
Dimitri moved closer, until the two men were standing shoulder to shoulder. “I know how you felt about Elizabeth. “But this is not helping.”
Elizabeth. He was talking about my mom.
The thought of Gabriel having some kind of disturbing crush on my mother made my stomach turn.
“What are you gonna do with him?” Priest stared down at Jared.
My heart pounded in my chest, anticipating the answer.
Dimitri passed Jared and walked toward the wall, where the Russian was shackled. He flicked his cigarette on the ground and dug a heavy key out of his pocket. He unlocked the first cuff. The criminal’s arm dropped and his body lurched forward, his other wrist still chained to the wall. Dimitri slid the key into the other cuff—the one keeping the criminal on his feet.
“Someone needs to catch him,” Priest said, pacing.
“No need for that.” Dimitri turned the key, and the Russian’s body crashed to the floor in a heap. His lifeless eyes stared back at us, open and unblinking.
Lukas loosened his grip on me. “He’s dead? But we saw Andras jump from body to body a half dozen times. The people he possessed were fine after afterward.”
Dimitri shrugged, his demeanor too casual for someone who had just handled a dead body. “Jumping from one body to another takes a lot of energy. He probably wasn’t strong enough to jump and kill the hosts. Every case is different, but the longer a demon possess someone, the less likely it is for the victim to survive. Unless the demon chooses to stay.”
Alara chucked the plastic bottle of holy water from her tool belt across the room, and let out a piercing scream. It sounded like rage and frustration and a hundred feelings I couldn’t name, even though I was feeling them, too.