“Son of a bitch! Fuck!” Zane released Delphine’s hand and shot out of his chair. He bolted to the table loaded with water bottles and then grabbed the open pocket knife. All the while, he cursed the air blue.
Not entirely out of anger. More from fear that Delphine’s knee-jerk plan wouldn’t work.
She had no idea the enormous danger she’d put herself in, especially if Luciana managed to gain complete control. Which she could, if Delphine showed even the smallest weakness.
How long could an untrained Hell Runner withstand torture? Probably seconds.
Then she’d be lost to him.
Forever.
She twitched in the chair, no longer clinging to her mother’s hand.
“Delphine.” Bottle in hand, he rushed to her and kneeled beside the chair. He leaned in close and stroked her silky hair aside before speaking. Not so long ago, he’d whispered words of affection into that delicate shell-shaped ear. Now he couldn’t afford the luxury of tenderness. “Delphine,” he said in his most authoritative voice. “You’ve got to push her out. Force her out. Now.”
When she didn’t respond, he swore profusely and cracked the seal on the bottle of holy water. Prudence couldn’t be the only Hell Runner that converted holy water into demon-burning sweat. He poured it against her lips only to have the fluid dribble down the front of her shirt.
“Won’t work.” Though feeble and hoarse, Gabrielle spoke, her French accent pronounced. She struggled to roll onto her side, facing Zane, and then she grasped Delphine’s hand and held it to her wet face. “I’ve consumed gallons of holy water. I’ve prayed like a saint. I’ve been pumped full of sedatives and anti-depressants. I’ve endured round after round of shock therapy. I’ve tried everything to kill that crazy bitch. She’s just too powerful.” More tears spilled down her cheeks. “Now, she has my baby.”
Like the tears streaming uncontrollably down her face, the bile of fear welled up inside him until it burned the back of his throat. With a shaky hand, he lifted the open bottle to his lips and slugged back the entire contents in one desperate gulp. All the while, his mind reeled at breakneck speed.
What could he possibly do to eradicate the demon that Gabrielle had not already tried?
He’d never experienced an engulfing sense of terror, of complete helplessness, before. Not even when they’d entered the Ninth Ring two months ago. The day they faced down Baalberith and lost Swift in the process.
A growl from Delphine rocked the silence. From the wolf spirit she’d embodied? Or from the demon taking over?
His gut clenched so tight, pain radiated from his center all the way into his limbs.
The logical next step would be to call Jack and Vipond. Have Delphine committed to lockdown until they could figure out what to do. But that would mean everyone agreeing on a plan, prolonging the time she coexisted with the demon.
Giving the demon more dominion over her new home.
Unacceptable. He’d lose Delphine.
Forever.
The thought broke his heart, and he pushed it out.
No fucking way he’d allow a piece of shit from Hell steal someone he loved.
Yes, he loved Delphine. Completely.
And so did her mother. He glanced over at Gabrielle. She appeared fragile, but he’d seen her in the soul tap. Tenacious to the hundredth power.
“Gabrielle.” He tossed the empty water bottle and knife onto his empty chair seat and kneeled at her bedside. “You must stop crying. She needs us. I know Delphine. Your daughter is strong. Like you. She can take whatever Luciana dishes out until I free her—”
“You’re not capable of freeing her. No one is.” She sobbed and wiped her face with the back of Delphine’s hand.
“Everyone has a weakness.” He kept his voice calm, but commanding. “Even demons. I’m sure Luciana’s been talking a lot of shit, told you a bunch of lies. But—”
“No lies.” Gabrielle swallowed back a sob. “She’s a blunt talker. And the daughter of Baalberith.” Her voice strengthened with anger. “He’s a wicked demon cursed with—”
“Always. Telling. The truth.” He stood in slow motion and cursed. “Sorry, ma’am. But we’ve crossed paths with him. Recently.” The pit of dread in his gut shot out roots. His head spun with the new information.
“Then you understand what I’ve been up against.”
“Yeah,” he said on a resigned sigh.
“Somehow, I kept her at bay. For years,” she continued. “I thought I’d learned to live with her, manage her. But once Luciana saw the drawings Delphine did in her sleep, she realized I wasn’t the oracle. And it’s an oracle she wants, a human with Heavenly powers. She fought harder against my will to contain her. My strength weakened every day. In time, she’d have escaped. Made the jump from me to Delphine. Unless I left. It’s why I chose the hospital. Why I demanded Delphine be kept away. If I didn’t get close enough to touch my girl, neither could Luciana.”
He kneeled again in front of Delphine’s still form and stroked Gabrielle’s cheek. His heart broke for this woman. “But Delphine wouldn’t have it that way, would she? She took a job at the hospital to be close to you.”
Fresh tears soaked his fingers, and she nodded. “Sometimes I couldn’t resist watching her through a window. After all, she’s my wonderful, talented, devoted daughter. She never gave up on me. Abandoned her art career to be close. I love her so much.”
The sobs started again, but Zane couldn’t let her regret kick in. He needed more information to devise some sort of counter-attack on the demon.
“What does Luciana want that only Delphine can supply?”
Gabrielle sniffled. “The gift of sight. Luciana wants to usurp her father as Lord of the Covenant. Then imprison him and punish him for the shitty way he treated her. If she can use the gift to spy on him, she can lay a trap.”
He shook his head. “Not possible. Even planning two steps ahead, Baalberith’s far too powerful.”
“Not without these.”
Gabrielle reached into the collar of her nightgown and tugged her necklace over her head. She propped up on an elbow and held it up. From a chain dangled what had to be two dozen small skeleton keys. And a giant ring, gold with a flat black stone. “Or more specifically this.” She fingered the ring sized for a monster finger, turning it so he could see the top of the stone.
The initials LOC stood out in thick, raised gold.
“His power isn’t tied to this ring. Like I said, we faced him recently.”
“And yet here you stand, telling me about it.” She raised both of her eyebrows. “I’m not saying you couldn’t have escaped Baalberith if he had his ring, but I know for a fact, if he still wore it, you’d have had a much harder time.”
“Then why doesn’t it help Luciana? If she wants to be Lord of the Covenant, she has the one—”
“There’s more to it than wearing the ring because the power didn’t transfer to her. Otherwise she wouldn’t have needed a human body. Though she doesn’t lie, I think in this case she didn’t explain everything. She would tell me the truth if I asked the right questions, but I don’t know what to ask. Once, for a punishment, she forced me to heat the ring, then brand the initials into my skin.”
Gabrielle slipped the sleeve of her gown over her shoulder and exposed the old wound burned into her right triceps. An oval of scars, nothing more. “For years, I worried the branding meant I belonged to Baalberith, so I burned over it with a hot spoon until the LOC wasn’t distinguishable. At least they’re both weaker without the ring. And the keys I know are valuable to you. They open the hidden doors between Hell and Heaven.”
“Judas Priest. The motherlode.”
“Here.” She fumbled to turn his hand up. The pile of metal dropped into his palm with a clink. “Wear it. Don’t let her have it. No matter what.” Her eyes, filled with concern, cut to her daughter, and Zane’s gaze followed.
Delphine’s brows had drawn together, and her beautiful lips pursed into a line. Muted sounds vibrated from her throat.
“What if I woke her up right now?” he asked.
“You can’t. She’s striking a deal, and they won’t wake until it is done. Be ready.”
Ready? In what way? He bowed his head to say a prayer that wouldn’t come, couldn’t penetrate his sorrow.
Fuck prayers. Fuck faith. Fuck the rules.
He stood to pace and think. Much as he hated hospital rooms, the sterile plainness and antiseptic stench uncluttered his thoughts.
Point one: No doubt Gabrielle was right. Any child of that demon would possess immense power.
Point two: That included Swift. He may not be able to put his sister down, but he’d be a powerful weapon in their efforts to oust her. If they could find him, Delphine stood a better chance.
He stopped pacing at the foot of Gabrielle’s bed. “Did Luciana ever mention having met a brother?”
“Oh. Yes.” She rolled her deep brown eyes. “Over and over. She hates him, but that’s only because her father favors the boy. Even though he’d been raised by his human mother.”
He sighed heavily through his nose. Not good. He squeezed between the bed and his chair and then sat on the edge of its seat. Leaning close to Gabrielle, he took one of her hands in his and asked a question she’d failed to address before.
“Why didn’t you return to Hell Runners? Why didn’t you let them help you? You could have been rid of Luciana long ago.”
She averted her gaze, but he noticed the instant tears well in her eyes. Miraculously, the tears didn’t fall. “I couldn’t.”
“Why? Why torture yourself?”
“Because Delphine’s father didn’t know I’d become pregnant, and I needed to keep it that way. At least after Luciana. If he learned about Delphine, if anyone learned about Delphine, it would have ruined him.”
“Ruined him?” he exclaimed, incredulous at her explanation. “What about ruining your life? What about your child?”
“I had an affair with a married man. An important married man.”
“Important in Hell Runners?”
“Yes. We’d ended it, but too late.”
“Married or not, he of all people would have and could have helped you.”
With a wan smile, she looked up at him with eyes so like her daughter’s. “I wanted to tell him. I tried. The day I’d confirmed my pregnancy, I followed him through the Gate. We’d have more privacy on the other side to discuss…options.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “He’d gone on a rescue mission. Even in his position, he insisted on soul-saving when he could have left it for the rank and file.”
Zane couldn’t drum up sympathy for the mystery man. He didn’t give a shit if the guy acted like a saint. He’d cheated on his wife and left Gabrielle saddled with a baby and a demon to boot.
“Didn’t he have a partner? He wouldn’t have crossed over alone.”
“Yes. His partner was the only person that knew about our ended affair. But his partner wouldn’t dream of exposing us.” Anger tinged her voice. “He’d rather use the secret to blackmail…” She paused, and Zane could tell she caught herself from exposing the mystery man’s identity. “Delphine’s father.” Again she averted her gaze, down and to the right, remembering aloud as if talking to herself and justifying her actions. “I followed and waited for them to save the soul and head back. But I wasn’t the only one watching them.”
“Luciana?”
She nodded.
“Why?”
Now she shook her head. Vehemently.
Zane didn’t buy it. She knew.
“Tell me, Gabrielle.” He didn’t bother to curb his annoyance.
“She’ll hurt Delphine.”
“More than she already has?”
“Yes,” she eked out on a shallow breath. A second passed, and then she relented to an extent. “All I can tell you is, one of them promised her a way out of Hell. Then I came along. Weak and vulnerable and pregnant with an oracle. I turned and saw sorrowful eyes, begging for help. I’d never carried a soul before, but I’d signed the oath to protect the tormented. Like a fool, I invited her in.”
“No need to wait on a deceitful man’s promise.” He tapped the toe of his boot on the floor.
“All men are deceitful.” Delphine rotated her head to glare at him. Her sultry brown eyes met his, but he didn’t see any vestige of the woman he’d fallen in love with. “Except for you. An anomaly that took Cutoffs by surprise.” Her gaze dropped to the mass of metal in his hand. She frowned, and then replaced it with a sly grin. Gracefully, she slunk out of the chair and approached the bed. “She loves you so much, you scared her. But you don’t scare me, Cowboy.”
He flinched and hated himself for showing any emotion. The momentary lapse fortified his determination. He stood and met her cheeky gaze.
“I should scare you.”
She laughed, full and throaty. “I like a challenge. And as soon as Delphine makes good on her promise, I’ll be back for you.” She reached up and placed a hand on his shoulder, dragging it slowly down his arm toward the fist holding the necklace.
That touch activated his Inner Empath. Instantly, he connected to Delphine. He couldn’t speak to her or read her mind, but he felt every nuance of her emotions.
No fear. No doubt. Only strength and determination. Miles from the woman who’d decried the existence of Hell Runners in that little French café. Her powerful will vibrated and entwined with his.
“The necklace!” Gabrielle shouted. “Don’t let her get it.”
Instinctively, he clenched his fist and let go of Delphine, confident of one thing.
Together they could defeat the demon.
“Tell you what.” He pushed Luciana hard enough to evoke a look of shock. He slipped the chain over his neck and held up the ring. “We’ll start with my challenge. Delphine’s no good to you without this ring, and you’ll have to catch me, torture me, and tear it from my dead hand before I’ll let you have it or her.”
“Not a problem, Cowboy.” She spat his name with venom, sounding nothing at all like Delphine.
Perfect. He’d be able to do what needed to be done as long as he didn’t look at her and see Cutoffs.
Zane turned on his booted heel and crashed through the door, using his gift of speed to gain a healthy head start. Down the hall in seconds, he burst into the nearest stairwell and leaped from one landing to the next. By the time he reached the bottom, he had a fully formed plan.
He shouldered the emergency door open and hit the sidewalk at a full run. The alarm wailed shrilly behind him. He rounded the corner without hesitation or guilt for setting it off.
Hours before dawn, traffic consisted of a handful of commercial vehicles taking advantage of the empty streets. Zane crossed without looking in either direction at a speed usually reserved for demon ditching. But wasn’t that what he was doing?
Except he didn’t want to ditch her.
He wanted to lure her. All the way to Paris.
In less time than it took to drive, he ran the few blocks to his final destination.
The humid air weighed heavy in his lungs, and sweat spotted his shirt. Hell would feel like a relief compared to Philly in August.
He stared at the magnificent Gates, so painstakingly crafted by Rodin.
Delphine hated it to the point of panic attacks. That might work to his advantage if she crippled Luciana.
But he doubted that. He felt her determination.
Zane dug into his pocket and withdrew his cell phone. One group text to Jesse and Prudence. They didn’t have to catch up, only join him when they could.
A feral bark sounded from behind him.
He glanced over his shoulder.
The demon stood on the other side of the parkway, her image overlaying Delphine’s body.
Worry that she obliterated Delphine wanted to eat away his insides, but he didn’t have time for that.
“Sorry, Cutoffs,” he said, hoping somehow she felt his regret. “But I’m breaking a promise. Oracles go into Hell after all.”