A Darker Past (The Darker Agency #2)(64)

“He’s my end? So I guess that means you aren’t going to kill me?”

“Kill you? No. To kill you would be to anger forces far greater than I. Your companions, on the other hand…”

“Jessie?”

“Ma?” I whirled away from the Sarah impersonator as Mom and Dad burst into the room. I started forward but pulled up short when the fake Mrs. Scott, no longer behind me, popped up behind Dad.

The scream built in my throat, but never came. Dad’s eyes widened, and he convulsed a half second before the red stain spread across the front of his shirt. He looked down at it, confused, then back up, meeting my gaze with a look of terror. He sank to his knees, and Mom went with him, screaming.

Sarah stepped aside, a blood-covered hand stretched out in front of her. She turned it over several times, examining it. When she finally looked up, her lips were set in a grim line. “Your father is not an inhabitant of this cave. While inside these walls, Damien of the House of Pride is nothing more than human. Give up the search for the prison and get him beyond the cave entrance, and he will recover. If you do not, he will die.”

There was a horrible creaking sound, and the door to the room fell away. It crumbled and turned to dust, drifting to the ground as the walls of the cave rumbled back into existence. Several yards ahead was the entrance.

“You will not be warned again.” In a puff of thick, black smoke, the demon with Mrs. Scott’s face was gone.

I rushed to where Dad was. Mom had his arm pulled across her shoulders and was trying in vain to lift him to his feet. I got on the other side, but it was no use. He was just too heavy. “Lukas,” I called, hoping to God he’d snapped out of it. “I need your help.”

He didn’t say anything, but was off the ground and in my place in a matter of seconds.

Mom was pale. “Damien? Damien, can you hear me?”

Dad’s eyes fluttered open, and he gave a weak smile. “I’ll always hear you, Klaire.” He pulled away and propped himself up against the nearest wall. “Go with the kids. Get the prison. I can make it out on my own.”

He took a single step away from the wall and went down like a sack of quartz powder. Mom and Lukas dropped to help him back up. We had to get him out. But we needed the prison. Kendra’s life depended on it, and I wasn’t willing to walk away from that.

“I can do it,” I said. Of course I knew damn well Mom would object, but in the end, it’d be pointless. We were there for a reason. She couldn’t argue that.

“The hell you can,” Mom cried. She almost let go of Dad’s arm in the process.

A knot twisted in my stomach. “I don’t wanna freak you out because, well, we’ve obviously got enough dust kicked up at the moment, but I can do this. In fact, I think I’m the only one who can.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The demon said something to her before you and Damien arrived,” Lukas said. He didn’t look happy about it, but it seemed he was on my side. “It said it wasn’t allowed to hurt her. The rest of us are fair targets, but not Jessie. For all intents, she is off-limits.”

Mom’s face, if possible, grew even paler. “Why? Did it say why?”

“Ma, we don’t have time to talk this out right now. Dad needs out of this cave, and Kendra needs away from that bastard before he changes his mind and sucks out her soul.”

I had to give my mom credit. She was a tough lady used to making tougher choices. Until recently, she’d done her damndest to persuade me away from agency business. A normal life, free of bloodshed and demon doggie drool was all she’d ever wanted for me. After I made the deal with Valefar to save her life, her vision for me went out the window. Although she would always try to protect me, I could tell by the look on her face that this time she knew there was nothing to be done.

“Lukas goes with you,” she said through clenched teeth.

“No way. I’m the only—”

“That goes without saying, Klaire,” Lukas responded, taking my hand. I opened my mouth to argue again, but he clamped his hand over it. “I will protect her.”

Mom nodded and helped Dad toward the entrance. I turned to Lukas. He was watching me with an odd expression.

“Protecting me, huh? Well, who’s gonna protect you?”





Chapter Twenty-Six


I only looked back once—and it’d been a mistake. As Mom helped Dad to the exit, the walls shifted again and closed around us. They were gone. And we were on our own.

Lukas’s tightened his fingers around mine. “What if we can’t find the prison?”

“You should know by now that the word can’t doesn’t have a place in my dictionary.”

He looked like he wanted to argue, but simply nodded, and we started walking.

The farther in we went, the narrower the tunnel became. Patches of Vile Root Blood, along with a green and sticky substance, dotted the corridor. The ceiling seemed to get lower, too. If I were claustrophobic, it might have been a serious problem. By the time we got to a point where Lukas and I had to walk single file, his head was nearly touching the roof.

There were torches on the wall, their flames flickering to cast eerie shadows on the path in front of us. Every six or so feet, a crude wooden stake, wrapped in some kind of cloth, burned bright. They had to be like the flames in the Archway. I’d bet a year’s worth of hot chocolate that Lucifer didn’t hire someone to come down here and keep them from going out.