deep breath and threw all my body weight against the door. The chain broke, and Erin stumbled back with a scream.
“Erin!” Billy said, scrambling down to help his wife up.
I tossed him the doll. “It’s not the doll. I was wrong,” I said, as I shot past him and up the stairs.
“Janey!” Erin screamed. She hurried up the stairs behind me, but I soon lost track of her movements. The minute I crossed the threshold into her daughter’s room, I stopped short.
Delbert was there, and he had Novalee by the throat, his meaty hands choking her. She slowly sank to the floor. Could he really hurt her? She was already dead.
She looked over at me. At least I thought she did. With no irises, it was hard to tell.
Yep, she was definitely looking at me, and she appeared none too happy with me. Then I realized why. She was keeping him distracted, and I was rubbernecking.
“Billy, get your daughter out of the house,” I ordered.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Erin asked, demanding an explanation. Unfortunately, Delbert had lost interest in choking his wife to death and had whirled around to face me.
Billy – God bless him – didn’t hesitate. He ran for Hannah and scooped her up. “Where do I take her?”
Erin stood appalled and more than a little confused. “What is going on?” she asked him, alarm raising her voice an octave. She rushed to join Billy as he grabbed Hannah’s diaper bag.
I honestly had no clue where he should take her, but surely a place with holy ground would keep evil away.
“To a church,” I said. “Or a cemetery. Anywhere with consecrated ground.”
He nodded and bounced Hannah as she began to cry.
Her cries caught the undivided attention of The Mayor. His eyes glittered with appetite.
“Now!” I yelled at him, then to Billy. “Get them out!”
Again, he didn’t hesitate. He latched onto Erin’s hand and bolted down the stairs with both of them.
Anger flared to life around Delbert like electricity when they left. I took it. Siphoned it off him. Absorbed it and molded it to my will. He was strong, though. And I’d forgotten my flashlight. I wondered if any light would do.
I searched for a light switch and realized Erin had come back. “Erin, what the hell? Get out.”
She shook her head. “No. Billy is taking Hannah to safety. I need to see the end of this.” She knew. Somehow she knew that there was something supernatural upsetting her life.
I didn’t know what she could see, but I was pretty certain the earthquake that shook the house would leave an impression.
Novalee found her footing and stepped back, arms crossed and a satisfied expression on her face. I wanted to tell her about the flashlight, but Delbert was growing both angrier and weaker by the moment.
His energy, evil or not, felt wonderful. I blinked in surprise. He was like a drug. Like heroin or extacy or 3 AM coffee. I stepped closer, unable to get enough as though suddenly parched. I drank him in. Reveled at the high it gave me. Inhaled him until he was completely drained of energy.
Novalee placed hopeful hands over her chest. Delbert groaned. And the house shook to its foundation.
Pretty soon, Delbert was holding his arms over his eyes. He squinted as though blocking light.
“I’ll kill your daughter, too,” he said in a desperate attempt to stop whatever was happening to him.
I curled a hand into the lapel of his dusty jacket and pulled him closer. “I don’t have a daughter.”
“I’ll be sure and tell her that when I steal the breath from her lungs.”
Though I knew his threats were hollow, the walls shook even harder. Pictures fell and crashed to the floor. Erin screamed but held her ground. I couldn’t say I would have done the same in her position.
Delbert began convulsing. His skin cracked and bled darkness. His head shot back and his spine bowed.
“Down, boy,” I said, giving an order I didn’t quite understand.
But a shadow appeared beneath him. It grew, spreading in all directions under his bodyless soul, until he melted into it, his eyes like saucers, and the darkness took him. He wanted to be evil. He could do it down there.
The moment the shadowy portal closed, everything stopped and a silence settled around us. Novalee fell to her knees and cried. Erin stood in shock.
She found her phone and called her husband. We heard sirens in the distance. She didn’t tell him what had happened.