A Darker Past (The Darker Agency #2)(45)

I nodded, resigned to my fate.

“Be back, ASAP.” She spoke slowly so I could read her lips.

I watched her leave, then slid to the floor and proceeded to count back from five hundred. Twice. I thought about poking around, but that idea didn’t last long. The only thing that would make this more awesome would be to set off another alarm. It was that line of thinking, plus the mental image of me spending the rest of my days cursed as a snail or an ant, that kept me rooted in the darkened corner with my hands in my lap.

I tried to dial out to let Mom and Lukas know I was alive, but there was no cell signal. I couldn’t even play games because the phone battery was dying. But it wasn’t horrible. I only ended up cooling my heels for about twenty minutes before there was movement on the other side of the mirror.

I got to my feet as Cassidy came into view, followed not by Kendra, but another woman. Two, actually. The one I didn’t know was slightly familiar. I’d seen her around the Belfairs’ house a few times. Jana, or something. Then there was the other. Long blond hair and crystalline blue eyes.

Oh man. Mom.

I waited, refusing to move from the safety of the shadows, expecting to see Kendra pop in behind them, but there was no further movement by the door. Great. She was probably locked away in witch jail for bringing me here.

They stopped short of stepping up to the mirror, and Cassidy had her back turned, so I couldn’t make out what she was saying. Jana looked upset and was shaking her head. Mom just looked bored.

The conversation went on for a few minutes, and it was killing me not to know what they were saying. I wished they’d just get me out and commence with the yelling. The waiting was worse than the actual punishment.

I was so absorbed in what they weren’t saying and doing, that I almost missed the plume of purple smoke rising from the floor by the doorway of the bathroom.

I threw myself out of the shadows and at the glass, pounding with all my strength, but it was pointless. I might as well be sending up smoke signals from the Shadow Realm for all the good it did. Like Kendra, they couldn’t hear me, but they also couldn’t seem to see me, either. Cassidy glanced toward the mirror several times. If she’d seen me, there would have been some pretty impressive fireworks.

The smoke started to shift, and thankfully, they noticed. Cassidy was the first, stumbling back as Gressil’s form solidified, and knocking Jana over in the process. Mom, more agile than either woman, dropped and rolled to the left, safely out of reach, as the demon made a grab for her.

He opened his mouth in a silent roar and dove for the nearest person. Jana. The whole thing was eerie. Her soundless thrashing and open mouth frozen in a silent scream. Gressil threw her against the wall next to the sink and leaned in close, his expression one of true excitement. Cassidy approached slowly from the right, as Mom came from the left.

The fact that she was out there facing off against this thing that had almost killed her once already made me insane. I was helpless and cold, numb to the very real possibility that at any moment, Gressil could whirl around and destroy my world and there wasn’t crap I could do to stop it.

The demon must have decided Mom and Cassidy had come close enough, because he threw his head back and laughed, semisolid purple tendrils shooting out in both directions to wrap around them like twine on a Thanksgiving turkey. They fell to the ground, squirming to be free, and Gressil turned back to Jana. She’d stopped screaming and was shaking her head. Over and over.

I kicked at the glass. “Run!” I yelled, even though I knew she wouldn’t hear me. “Don’t just stand there. Do something.” But Jana wasn’t me. I could see she wasn’t a fighter. She stood stiff against the wall, and I knew it was all over.

He spoke, his lips forming words that looked a lot like hour for hour. Hour for hour? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Not that it mattered. Nothing would help poor Jana now. Gressil took a deep breath, lips so close to hers that if I turned my head to the right a little, it might look like they were kissing. Her body lit up—a pale pink light that sort of glimmered all around as it flowed from her and into Gressil’s wide open mouth. Sucking her soul, her energy, her life force—whatever it was.

I slammed both hands against the glass. In fact, I did it repeatedly. Over and over until my fists were numb and my arms sore.

Jana grew paler by the second. As the last of the pink light dwindled, her eyes fluttered closed, and she went limp in the demon’s grip. My heart sank. He stepped away, releasing her, and her body dropped like a stone to the dirty tile floor.

Cassidy’s eyes were wide, and I didn’t think it possible, but maybe the coven leader did have a heart. The obvious pain she felt was etched in her expression. She stopped struggling against her bonds to stare at her fallen sister, horrified.

The pain was palpable, constricting my chest and making my throat thick. Tears slipped down my face. I hadn’t known Jana, but no one deserved that. To be used and thrown away like a thing. A piece of trash.

I waited, breath held, for the demon to make another move, but he didn’t. He stepped away from Jana to stand over Cassidy, saying something I couldn’t make out. Whatever it was, though, had both women’s heads whiplashing toward the mirror. He turned as well and flashed a predatory grin.

They hadn’t come to free me. They hadn’t even known I was here.

Gressil dissipated, along with the smoky bonds around Mom and Cassidy, leaving a thick cloud of purple in his wake. Cassidy climbed to her feet. One look at her expression—it’d gone from sorrow to murderous in a quarter of a second—and I was backing away from the glass as fast as my feet would carry me while she did her mojo to open the door.