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Like the ogres, this mutated imp seemed oblivious to any pain it felt from the injuries Charlotte inflicted on it with her spell. But unlike the ogres, this thing was crafty, calculating.
Eric nodded, but as he turned to leave, the old man said, “You won’t be able to save her.” The voice belonged to Mr. Hamblin, but he’d heard the words before, uttered by another old man, the drunk he dragged from the burning strip club. You won’t be able to save her. He turned and stared. The man didn’t move. His eyes remained closed. But as he watched, his lips began to move: “It has to be you. The only way.” He stepped up to the side of the bed. “What do you mean? What do I have to do?” He didn’t think Mr. Hamblin would say anything else, but he had one more word for him: “Sacrifice.”
Just like he’d answered Delphinium’s plea for help, he’d one day have to seek out the odd-eyed woman. But this was something else. And this had everything to do with this magic man business.
He wasn’t sure if they’d actually broken any laws, but they’d probably violated a number of hospital rules. And she looked like exactly the sort of humorless person who would have no tolerance for crazy stories about mutant super imps and witchcraft.
I’m sorry, he thought. I’m not able to come to the phone right now. I’m about to be eaten by monsters. Please leave a message after the screams.
“Get inside!” he shouted at Alicia. “Close the door! I’ll hold them back!” Somewhere deep inside, he wondered why the hell that was his first instinct. Was there something wrong with the part of his brain that was supposed to tell him to save his own ass? Was that why Delphinium’s spell chose him? Because he was the only one in a thousand mile radius stupid enough to say, “I’ll hold them back?”
MOST OF THEM ARE LIKE THESE IMPS AND OGRES. I CAN’T REALLY SENSE THEM. I ONLY KNOW THEY’RE THERE BECAUSE YOU SEE THEM. I COULD SENSE THOSE AGENTS, THOUGH The agents of the nameless organization. AND I CAN SENSE THE MAGIC MAN, ALTHOUGH THEY DON’T FEEL QUITE THE SAME “I’m sure there’s some sort of connection.” PROBABLY
YOU’LL DO FINE, Isabelle promised him. I KNOW YOU’LL SAVE THEM He smiled wearily. “Thanks.” JUST LIKE YOU SAVED ME “You saved me,” he reminded her. BUT YOU SAVED ME BACK. AND I KNOW YOU’LL SAVE THEM, TOO
“Desmond Weizner was Grandpa?”
Delphinium stared at him. “You think the book has something to do with why we’re being attacked now?”
“There will be sacrifices,” said Delphinium, her voice solemn.
“But did you guys see it?” asked Holly. “When Del asked how we could beat the magic man, it showed us Eric.” “It also showed us more pain and suffering,” groaned Cierra. “But there was a way,” Holly persisted. “And it has everything to do with Eric.”
As they drove, Holly told him about Marissa Lance. She was twelve when Delphinium found her in an abandoned building near St. Louis nine years ago. Crafty and brave, she’d managed to survive on her own for over a year after running away from her third foster home.
“She’s different than the rest of us,” explained Holly. “Even Del doesn’t fully understand her powers yet.”
“It’s hard to explain. She… Well, for one thing…she…knows things about dead people.” This made him raise an eyebrow. “Come again?” “She says the dead talk to her.” “She can talk to dead people?” “No. The dead talk to her. She’s not sure she can talk to them.”
“She says they never acknowledge anything she says. They don’t answer. They just…say things…and then go away. I guess.”
“Does she do anything else?” “She attracts cats.” “What?” “Feral cats,” she explained. Then she pouted. “Never ones that let you pet them… They just show up wherever she’s at, never more than two or three at a time, but they’re always there.”
Karen didn’t usually blurt out her feelings like this. She kept her emotions closely guarded, a bad habit from her troubled teenage years when she’d struggled with eating disorders and personal worth issues.
Taped to the bottom of the sign was a paper that read, “FREE KITTENS” in big, black letters.
and even a few of those strange, two-dimensional, black shadow cutouts of people leaning against trees. What the hell was with those things, anyway?
had been almost a year since his encounter with the corn creeps, but he’d found that he still couldn’t look on a cornfield without feeling a chill creep down his back. He felt the same way about wardrobes, rowboats and nudist resorts.
It was even bigger than an ogre, and didn’t really resemble any of the things he’d seen during the night. Surprisingly, it was far uglier. It had a huge, misshapen head, massive hands and grotesquely swollen lips that looked like fat sausages with cracked casings. Alternately, it had a tiny little nose, beady eyes and no visible ears. Its torso was bloated and fat, its legs like tree trunks. Long, straggly strands of dirty hair dangled from its head like dreadlocks. Like most of the creatures he’d encountered since arriving in the area, it didn’t appear to be wearing any clothes. Its dark skin
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“Okay, Butt Ugly. Let’s do this.” But then the thing did something that he didn’t expect: It spoke. “You’re one to talk,” it told him. Eric stopped and lowered the dagger, distracted. “What?” “I’m only saying. You’re not much to look at yourself.”
“Desmond Weizner’s cursed blade,” the monster observed. Eric glanced quickly down at the dagger and then met the beast’s eyes again. “You know it?” “Some say it cuts all the way to the soul.”
Eric eyed the creature. The thing’s voice was so clear, so smooth, not monstrous at all. In fact, it had a very soothing voice, in spite of its massive, Johnsonville lips.
He thought this was all about revenge, but apparently it went even deeper. The psychopath actually seemed to believe that these women had cheated their rightful deaths and were upsetting
“Delphinium asked for my help. I’m still not sure why. I still don’t see what difference I’ll make in the end, but I won’t abandon her.” She gave him a smile. “I’m pretty sure I know why.” He cocked his head, not understanding, but she only smiled at him and then looked down at her sister again as she brushed the hair from her bloodied face.
IT ALMOST SOUNDS LIKE HE’S SCARED OF YOU Eric almost laughed at the idea. The terrifying magic man afraid of an English teacher. Right. Like his one weakness was high school grammar class. MAYBE HE KNOWS WHAT DELPHINIUM’S SPELL KNEW
We’re only nine. Four of you can cast defensive spells once. Charlotte has three. That’s seven shots, plus whatever Delphinium can throw at them. Once they’re up close, it’s a sea of claws and teeth against eight women and me.” YOU SUCK AT PEP TALKS, Isabelle told him.
“Only those who’ve been inside the house since the spell was cast can find it. Everyone else has to be shown the way. Otherwise, you’d drive around all day and never get any closer.” Eric nodded. That made sense, he guessed. Delphinium kept telling him that the magic man shouldn’t be able to find them, but she hadn’t explained why. He’d wondered what was keeping him out all this time. Then a realization occurred to him and he slapped himself on the forehead. “Paul!”
“It keeps out everybody. None of us would’ve been able to find our way back to Del on our own. We needed someone to come and get us and bring us home.” Eric nodded. “Which was why she didn’t just call you all up and have you rush home to her.” “That and the magic man would’ve come after each of us as soon as she contacted us. It would’ve been like sending up a flare.
Eric frowned at the phone. He hadn’t expected her to respond. She should’ve been able to hear him, but not reply. She was supposed to be talking to Delphinium. “I thought you were—” I AM. I GUESS I HAVE MORE THAN ONE LINE “Huh. That’s convenient.” IT IS. I’VE NEVER TRIED IT BEFORE
Eric was amazed by how fast the big guy had accepted all this.
Me too
Eric stared at the phone for a moment. Whatever else may happen, he was already a lucky man. SHE’S AWESOME, agreed Isabelle.
“What are you doing now?” asked Bernie. “We’re drawing in the blanket,” replied Delphinium. “The what now?” His mustache twitched as he asked the question.
“By the pricking of my thumbs,” breathed Eric as deep, icy fear crowded into his heart, “something wicked this way comes.”
Then something else rose out of the corn at the far end of the field, a great shadow in the swirling smoke, towering over the others. “Oh good,” said Eric. “He brought the giants. I was worried he’d forget those.”
His eyes fell on a tall shape that looked a little like those skinny aliens from the UFO programs he sometimes liked to watch, the tall ones with the long fingers and big heads. Off to the right, a large hump parted the
“They can’t force their way through the barrier,” explained Delphinium. “It’ll tear them apart at the cellular level.” “What the hell does that mean?” asked Bernie. “It’s like microwaving a hotdog for too long,” said Cierra. “But with every cell in your body.” Bernie grimaced. “Ouch.”
“Nobody told me these bastards could fly!” screamed Bernie. Eric turned, confused. “What?” But then he saw it. Soaring toward them over the barn were two creatures that looked sort of like super imps but with huge, leathery wings. “Those’re new…”
This thing was no ogre, he realized. It was a little bigger, its skin was the wrong color, a sickly, mottled gray, more like the giant’s. This thing’s hand was leaner than an ogre, its fingers longer, with short claws that curled outward in wicked-looking hooks from the pads of its finger tips. This thing was something new.
That’s when Siena rose to her feet and shouted, “Stay away from my mom!” A stiff gust of warm air rushed through the room and an invisible force passed over the chair, sweeping away the unfortunate imp, propelling it across the room and smashing it into oblivion against the wall. The ruined, smoking corpse hung there, half-embedded in the wall in the center of a perfect, four-foot circle of crumbling, indented plaster. Everyone turned and looked at Siena. She shrank back into her seat, embarrassed. “Crushing thrust,” observed Jude. “Nice.”
But Eric cut her off. “I can’t explain it now. It’s complicated. But you have to trust me. You told me that I was going to save you. You said you saw it.” “I saw that you’d save us. I also saw that there would be a sacrifice.” “You said you believed in me.” Her expression twisted suddenly into hurt. “Of course I believe in you. You’re our savior.” “Then trust me now.” She wanted to protest, but he could tell she saw the truth in his eyes. “It has to be me.”
He met Delphinium’s eyes one final time and saw the sadness in them. Sacrifice.
He’d seen a lot of terrible things, but this was particularly horrible. Its mouth consisted of oozing folds of glistening, black flesh and countless rows of jagged teeth that took up its entire face. Its bulging eyes were both crowded to one side of its head. It had no neck, and where it should have had a chin, a huge, warty growth was sprouting from between sagging folds of wobbling flesh, oozing yellow slime down its meaty chest.
The magic man wasn’t quite what Eric had expected. He was much shorter, for one thing. His black reaper’s cloak was no cloak at all but a simple, black hoodie that was several sizes too big for him. The hood was pulled down low so that it covered all but the soft curve of his chin. The sleeves covered his hands so that only the fire-dripping tips of his fingers showed. He wore blue jeans and scuffed tennis shoes. In spite of the thunder and lightning and smoke-clogged wind, the figure before him looked no more like an evil wizard than anyone else he’d ever seen.
For one thing, the magic man wasn’t even a man.
“I’ve seen you before,” he realized. At first he couldn’t quite remember where it was.
“You were at the club.” Thunder rolled over them again. “I was. I wasn’t expecting to see you there. I didn’t even know for sure that you were real until you turned around. Your face… I’ve been seeing it in my dreams for months.”
Except he had thought about her again, he realized. Once. The last time he peered into Delphinium’s water bowl. He’d seen her face for just an instant. It’d come back to him, trying to warn him, but he didn’t understand at the time. He hadn’t recognized the face.
