Fear the Wicked (Illusions Series Book 2)(79)

Well, fuck. I hadn’t intended on taking anybody captive, so I hadn’t thought of finding a place where I could hide and wouldn’t be found. “We can go to the police,” I suggested. “We could tell them what we know and send them to that damn compound so they can raid the place.”

Joshua shook his head, still struggling to hold on to his sister. “That won’t work. The sheriff is working with Elijah now. They’ve been killing people at the compound because Elijah has them convinced that those people were possessed by demons.”

“What the fuck? Are you shitting me?”

Shaking his head again, Joshua looked grim when he answered, “I wish I was, but they’ve been crucifying people on the large crosses Elijah has at the back of the sanctuary. Two people were up there dying this morning when I left for the parish.”

My eyes closed, but I forced them open again. I didn’t have time to fall victim to my feelings while driving at high speeds over winding roads. “So where can we take her? We’re too far out into the county for me to know where the hell I am.”

“I know of a hunting cabin that’s been abandoned for years now. I don’t think Elijah knows about it or that I know about it. I’ve been sneaking off over the past few months looking for somewhere I could take my sister to escape. I figured out Elijah was a fraud a few weeks after he chased you off.”

“Well, thank God for that,” I muttered.

Joshua made me laugh when he answered, “I’ve been thanking Him for a while. Turn around and when you hit county road five, take a right. It’s a distance away, but I’m sure nobody will find us. We can hide the truck in the woods and walk the rest of the way.”

Unsure whether I could trust the guy, I turned to look him in the eye. All I found there was determination to get his sister to safety. Nodding my head in agreement, I turned my attention back to the road and followed the directions he barked out at me. Within an hour, we were pulling Sedra out of the truck even though she was still kicking and screaming.

It took both of us to drag her through the woods while trying to avoid roots that were tripping our feet and low lying branches that hadn’t been cleared away by hunters or forest animals in their search for food. The sun was beginning to climb into the center of the sky letting me know it was midday. The heat had sweat sliding down my skin, but I wouldn’t allow it to slow me down, and eventually, despite the way Sedra had struggled, the cabin came into view. Joshua and I both breathed out a sigh of relief.

The door banged open as we plodded through, the interior nothing but some broken furniture and dust covering every surface. Joshua wrestled his sister down to the floor with minimal effort. Thankfully, the small girl was running out of steam. While he knelt down softly speaking to her, I checked out the broken windows ensuring that I hadn’t just been led to a place where Elijah wouldn’t come riding up on his imaginary white horse to take back his bride. Nothing moved around the boundary of the cabin, and I relaxed a little to discover we were alone.

“We’re going to need supplies,” I said. “Food, water, toiletries. I didn’t bring anything with me because I was pretty sure it would become a gun battle as soon as my brother saw me.”

Joshua laughed softly. “If you’d gone to the compound instead of the parish, it would have. He told the sheriff about you and the order was to kill on sight. He claimed that you were just another evil entity hell bent on destroying the town.”

Curiosity filled me. “Why are you helping me out? Aren’t you part of the family?”

Peering up at me with eyes the same color as his sister’s, he smiled sadly. “I was part of the family. But then Elijah started letting me in on some of his secrets. At the same time, I’d stolen a copy of a Bible from the Farmer’s Market and was secretly reading it without him knowing. I realized quickly that all the stuff he says in his sermons isn’t what’s written in that book.”

While we spoke, Sedra sat quietly on the floor, her eyes glistening with tears and her face red and ruddy from having been crying for so long. Her energy was tapped out, however, which was a damn good thing because I couldn’t think clearly with all the screaming.

“So, when you took her outside the parish today?”

Joshua darted a glance between his sister and me. Finally turning back, he admitted, “I was planning on walking her all the way here, if need be. I couldn’t let Elijah poison her anymore. He would have killed her eventually.”

“He wasn’t poisoning me,” Sedra argued, tears still spilling from her eyes. Joshua turned to look at her with pure remorse written into the expression on his face.

“Yes, sister, he was. Those teas he was giving you weren’t to make you better. They were meant to mess up your head. He didn’t want you to remember what happened at the parish when you were with Jacob. You were beginning to understand that there were two different men that looked the same and Elijah couldn’t have that. I knew about it. I was there when Elijah gave you the herbs to make you appear dead. He did that on purpose so that Jacob would run off and think you weren’t alive. I was the one that carried you back to the compound. You have to try and remember.”

Shaking her head, she bit her bottom lip, anger spilling across her features as she tilted her head up at me. “Elijah. Please tell me what he’s talking about. Why are you letting him lie like this right in front of you?”