Chapter 7

 

On Tempter’s Mountain, Tony kept a close eye on the boy, Jordan. He had not shared Angelica’s dismayed protest over the idea that these kids could come back under the sway of the demons—could actually welcome them back. Not at all. Maybe because he wasn’t a girl. Maybe because he was more driven, more punch-happy than Angelica had ever been. But he remembered how he had felt as a young boy when the Spirit first started to draw him, when he became One and then he learned he had the gift of swordsmanship and he became a hunter and a fighter, tracking down the demons and sending them howling into the night—or losing, sometimes. He remembered how it had shaped him. How it had made him. And he knew the demons had done the same for Jordan.

He knew Jordan was lost now without them.

He chewed a wad of gum and sat on the arm of the couch in the hermit’s tiny living room, watching Jordan watch TV. They had dug the set out of a closet. It was ancient, its picture lined and crackling with static, its sound warped. Jordan had tuned out the old sitcom reruns in front of him twenty minutes ago.

He was just staring, blank-faced.

Thinking, Tony figured.

Richard had told him to keep the kids inside, especially Jordan. Stick him in front of the TV, dig out a Nintendo set if at all possible, occupy his brain and keep him from getting out from under the shield, or even out toward the periphery where the shield would be weaker.

But Tony didn’t think just letting the kid zone out like this was a good idea.

He remembered that too—restlessness. Boredom. The kind of trouble it got him into as a kid.

Heck, he still got in trouble when he got bored.

He stood up and switched off the TV, waiting for Jordan to yell in protest.

He didn’t.

Yup, this was bad.

“Come on,” Tony said, “let’s go hiking.”

“You’re not supposed to take me away from here,” Jordan said.

He didn’t know the kid had actually heard that.

“What are you talking about? It’s just a hike. Come on.”

“You’re not supposed to let me out of the house.” Jordan’s eyes gleamed. “I’m too dangerous.”

“No,” Tony corrected him, “you’re not. It’s the demons that are dangerous. I’m not supposed to get you away from the shield. But we can hike and stay under the shield. Come on, let’s go.”

Jordan folded his arms and sat back deeper in the springy, threadbare love seat that was the only place to sit in the room. “It’s too hot.”

“It’s not so bad up here. It’s cooler in the mountains, and there’s a breeze off the water.”

He slumped even farther. “I don’t want to.”

“Don’t you like to go outside?”

“No, I hate it. I want to sit here and watch TV.”

“You weren’t watching TV,” Tony pointed out in exasperation. “You were sitting there zoned out.”

Jordan looked right at him. “Does that scare you?”

Tony knelt right in front of him and said, “Stop it. Right now.”

“Stop what?”

“What you’re doing. Playing with the idea of going back. Pretending you’re still possessed and I’m supposed to be scared of you.”

“You are scared of me,” Jordan said, very quietly.

“Kid, this is not a game.”

“I know that.”

Tony looked into the boy’s eyes and tried to search them. He had never been a deep one—never been the type of Oneness that drew people and connected deeply with them, that saw destiny in others and tried to call it forth. That was the kind of thing Richard and people like him did. Not kids, sword-swinging teenagers, like Tony.

But he needed to get through to this boy.

Because he knew, as he looked into Jordan’s eyes, that either one day this child would fight alongside him, closer than a brother, or else they would battle one another to the death.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Tony insisted.

Jordan huffed and threw himself off the couch, scowling. “Fine.”

Despite Tony’s assurances that it would be cooler here than in the city, the air hit them like a furnace when they opened the front door. The hermit’s cottage was sheltered by a few old pines, and an ancient window air conditioner helped keep the interior temperature down, but outside was a yellow glare of dust and sun. Jordan’s scowl deepened.

“Come on,” Tony urged. “We’ll get up behind the cottage where you can see the water.”

Jordan followed, dragging his feet and muttering something under his breath, and Tony just led the way because he didn’t know what else to do. The kid was scaring him, and he felt like he needed to do something but didn’t have a clue what. Not leave him in front of the TV thinking, anyway. He was pretty sure Richard would have agreed with this plan.

Pretty sure.

A dirt track wound up the bluff behind the cottage and then over a rise, taking them to the sheer drop of the cliffs and the bay far below. Jordan stopped and stared, impressed despite himself. A warm breeze blew in their faces, but Tony had been right: the wind coming off the water was cooler.

“Not bad, huh?” Tony asked.

Jordan grunted in response. Below, they could see some of the house kids exploring tracks down the cliff side. It was a wild prospect, wilder than in the fishing village—Tony could see caves dotting the cliffs to the north and the tangled, rocky path of a landslide to the south. Laughter and chatter from the explorers floated up from below. He didn’t know what Dr. Smith and Susan Brown had told them about their sudden relocation, but whatever it was, most of the kids were doing a good job of embracing the adventure.

He looked at Jordan and saw, alarmed, that the boy’s face had gone blank again. Was he hearing something? Seeing something?

Nothing good, if he was.

Tony smacked him in the arm, a friendly gesture but meant to jar him out of whatever head space he was in, and pointed to a steep trail winding down. “Let’s go,” he said. “Looks like fun.”

“You’re not supposed to take me out from under the shield,” Jordan said.

Why did that sound like a challenge?

“I’m not,” Tony said, growing irritated. “The shield extends down there. Now come on. You need to get some exercise.”

Jordan looked like he was about to retort, but he didn’t. Instead, he picked his way forward, and with a scowl over his shoulder at Tony, started down the steep path.

Tony followed, pleased. About time the kid just went for it. He still wasn’t sure what he hoped to accomplish out here, other than distracting the boy.

The path wasn’t easy to follow. It was steep, and interrupted with roots and nettles and the low, sweeping branches of tangled pines growing out of the cliff side. The air grew cooler as they descended, but the exertion of keeping their feet drew a sweat from them both, and neither spoke. Tony got the distinct impression that Jordan was mad at him anyway, or at least highly irritated, and tried not to feel completely irritated back. He was supposed to be the older, more mature one, right? So he should have some patience?

Something like that, yeah.

The bay stretching out before them was blazingly blue, glaring up at them under the sun. A haze farther out on the water softened it, and Tony thought over all the plans they’d discussed in the fishing village and wondered whether Chris was out on the water with Mary and April and David.

He swallowed a lump in his throat.

They had never been close, but David had been the closest thing to a father he’d had for most of his life. It wasn’t easy, the betrayal. He kept his mind mostly focused on chasing demons and fighting and helping Reese, and didn’t think too much about the personal impact of David’s turning his back on all of them. Actually hating them. Trying to kill them.

It sucked.

Jordan had stopped. Tony almost walked right into him, pulled forward by the sharp downward slope. “What?” he asked.

Jordan pointed to the left, south. Another path followed a level ridge, twisting a bit, and looked like it eventually led to a cave.

“Yeah, that’s cool,” Tony said. “You want to explore?”

Jordan just rolled his eyes and headed up the path, leaving Tony to follow, grumbling to himself. The kid’s bad attitude was rubbing off.

The air outside the cave was foul, like something had died inside. Jordan looked like he was going to go inside anyway, but just before he ducked through the opening, a raven overhead cawed.

They both stopped and looked up. The bird was huge, sitting on a gnarled branch of pine about four feet up. It stared right at them for a moment and then spread its black wings and lifted off, hovering on an ocean breeze before flapping away.

Jordan seemed frozen in his tracks.

Tony watched the bird fly away, wondering why he felt so unnerved by the encounter.

Jordan turned on his heel and started back the way they had come, pushing past Tony.

“Hey!” Tony called. “Don’t you want to explore the cave?” He knew it stank, but still ... he wouldn’t have let that stop him as a boy.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I just don’t okay?” Jordan was climbing back up the path toward the cottage, moving faster than he had on the downslope. Tony hurried after him. What was ...

He stopped.

The bird.

He hadn’t thought to look closely, to see if it could have been possessed.

That wasn’t uncommon. The demons wanted bodies, needed them for a lot of things. Animals were less useful than humans, but still animate, and easier to possess. Birds, with their good eyesight and ability to get close to humans without alarming anyone, were especially common hosts.

And the way Jordan was high-tailing it back to the cottage ...

“Hey!” Tony called, unhappy with how much distance the boy was putting between them. “Wait up!”

Jordan didn’t. If anything, he sped up even more. But Tony increased his own speed and closed the gap between them, his lungs burning from the fast jog straight uphill.

“Was that a demon?”

No answer. Jordan was still climbing.

“Kid, come on! I need to know. Was that a demon?”

Jordan swivelled his head and looked at him, his eyes wide and his face pale. Still no answer. He looked away and kept going.

But Tony had seen what he needed to know. He clambered up after Jordan, keeping the space between them tight, so he could hear the boy’s laboured breathing and see how spooked he still looked.

“Did it talk to you?” Tony asked.

Still no answer.

Tony stopped and put out his hand, grabbing Jordan’s shoulder and pulling him to a halt. “I need to know,” he said. “I’m trying to take care of you. All of you.”

“You shouldn’t have brought me down here,” Jordan said, and he pulled away and kept going.

When they got to the cottage, they were greeted by bad static and tinny laughter. This time Alicia was watching TV, and Angelica was hanging out in the stamp-sized kitchen next to it, looking through cupboards full of glass bottles stopped with corks. A few sported nearly unintelligible labels. Most weren’t labeled at all. She threw Tony a look when he entered, pointing to the bottles. “How old was that hermit? I think maybe I found the elixir of life.”

“Angelica, something’s up,” Tony said, closing the cupboard in front of her. She protested, but he ignored her. Jordan had gone straight to the TV, sitting next to his sister and hugging his knees to his chest.

“We saw a demon,” Tony said. “Jordan and me. In a bird.”

“Why were you out?” Angelica asked. “You were supposed to keep him here.”

“I know. Look, I just took him down the cliff a little ways. He was sitting here thinking too much and it wasn’t good for him.”

“Richard told you to keep him in the house.”

“Richard isn’t here,” Tony said, frustrated and annoyed that she was fixating on his actions instead of listening to his news. “He would have understood why I took him out. But there was a demon down there. I thought the shield was supposed to keep them out.”

“Not necessarily out. Just powerless.”

“How powerless?” Tony asked.

“I don’t know. Relatively. April said the man who came into the village house was in his own right mind ... well, sort of. But the demon couldn’t control him there. Or empower him.”

“Well, something freaked Jordan out, and I don’t think it was the sight of a bird. I think it talked to him.”

She lowered her voice. “Is he okay?”

“No. Richard was right. He’s being pulled back. I’m glad the bird scared him so much—maybe the scare will throw him back our way for a little while. But it’s not going to last. He needs to join us, or he is going to go back to them.”

Tears filled her eyes. “I hate that.’

“Me too. But it’s true.” He glanced around the cottage, but there was no sign of anyone except the children and Angelica. “Where is everyone else?”

“Miss Brown took them on a nature walk.”

“And she left you two here?”

Angelica shrugged. “We’re being punished, I think.”

“What did she tell the other kids, anyway?”

“Some song and dance about going on a retreat.”

He frowned. “I’d rather they knew the truth. I think it would be easier to keep them safe.”

“Maybe.” She wrinkled her brow. “You think we’re going to have to keep them safe? I mean, besides just keeping them here under the shield?”

“I don’t think that raven was just a freak appearance,” Tony said.

“Could Jordan have called it here?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know, exactly. But if he wants them back ... if he’s getting restless and wants to be possessed again ... do they know that? Can they feel it? Maybe he’s creating a crack in the shield.”

Tony considered the possibility and didn’t like how plausible it felt. “I don’t know what to do about him. He’s scared of the demons, but he’s playing with the idea of still being on their side. He won’t talk to me. I don’t think he even likes me.”

“Just keep trying,” Angelica said. “You can’t do anything else.”

“I wish we were out on a boat,” Tony said, glancing glumly at the four walls of the cottage. “Like Chris and Mary. Not stuck here.”

“Birds can get out on the water too.”

“Yeah,” Tony said. “I hope they’ve thought of that.”

“They’re prepared,” Angelica said. Then added, “As much as anybody.”

“I wish I felt like we were.” Tony heaved a sigh and sat down at the table, a square barely big enough for two people that sat on rickety legs and was covered with dusty dishes, half-empty bottles of who-knew-what, and dog-eared paperback books. He picked up one of the books and riffled through it. “This book is so old it’s crumbling in my hand.”

Angelica shoved aside a few dishes and sat across from him. Her chair creaked loudly under her. It seemed amazing the whole place hadn’t fallen apart long ago—like even though the hermit had lived here, he hadn’t really used anything or bothered to keep it up. “Do you think we should call everyone up here?” she asked. “Is an attack going to happen?”

“I don’t . . . ” he tried to think the question through. “I don’t think so. I just saw one raven. And I think it came for Jordan—because he was calling it somehow or because it was just coming to call him. I don’t think they can get through the shield in a major way.”

“Okay then,” Angelica said. “So don’t stress. We’ll just keep keeping an eye on everyone, and especially on those two in there”—she pointed toward the living room, with its obnoxious racket from the TV, which they had turned up too loud—“and we’ll trust that everybody else is getting their jobs done and this battle is going to end well.”

“Do you really think that’s going to happen?”

“What else would happen?”

“We could lose.”

She regarded him seriously. “It’s true.”

“But not likely.”

She smiled. “Since when does the Oneness really lose?”

“Since when does the Oneness betray itself?”

The smile faltered. “Nothing has really changed. We’re still out here watching out for each other and giving the demons hell. Nothing to worry about.”

He grinned. “I like that. Just wish I didn’t feel like I was sticking my fingers in my ears and singing la la la.”

“My ears are open,” Angelica said. “Yours too. Just because we’ve seen and heard some nasty things doesn’t mean the whole world has changed. Have a little faith.”

He nodded. She held up a bottle of something brown, corked and opaque behind thick glass. “And if you need a little extra help, you could try some of this stuff. Seems like it kept the hermit alive for a hundred years or something like that.”

In the living room, someone on the TV shot someone else, and the sound, compounded by static, made Tony jump. Angelica laughed at him and shoved the bottle in his direction. “Yeah, you definitely need to take some of this.”