Damnation's Door: A Cursed Book (19 page)

Anything he was going to say was cut off when I started grabbing at his shirt. He got the hint and pulled it off, pushing mine over my head. He pressed his muscular chest against mine, his skin hot with desire. Warrick’s lips trailed down from my mouth to my neck, to my chest, to the scar on my abdomen. I tensed when he touched it, but the gentle kiss he placed on it took away my unease. He pulled back and I sat up, pressing my body against his and wrapping my legs around his hips. Warrick’s hand brushed through my hair.

“You’re so beautiful,” he breathed.

“Less talk, more action,” I sighed.

Warrick grinned, as if he expected me to say that.

I didn’t have time to be surprised. Soon there was nothing between us but skin, and pleasure so intense I thought my brain would explode from it. Everything melted away, leaving only my lips on Warrick’s, his hands on my body, the two of us pressed together.

It was too soon before we were both spent, Warrick lying on top of me while I wrapped my arms around his back and clung to his warmth. I would have stayed there forever, holding the man I was falling in love with and never worrying about anything else.

But then I looked over and saw the door, and remembered all my problems would break it down sooner or later.

***

I left Warrick sleeping in the back room. He would be awake soon enough. We couldn’t stay here and endanger the makeshift doctor, Maria. We had to find the rest of the fragments to destroy them.

How we were going to do that was beyond me, but that was why I was awake, and looking for her.

I pushed aside cheap red drapes and finally figured out where I was. It wasn’t just an herbalist’s shop. It was an occult shop.

The shelves that lined the walls of the storefront were cluttered with bottles. They seemed fairly organized– there was a shelf for powders, another for herbs, and another filled with bottled liquids. Dream catchers hung from tacks on another shelf, books forming a crooked peak next to them. Under the glass of the front counter were dozens of charms and
calavera
skulls.

The woman stood behind the counter, furiously rearranging her books. She looked like she was moving for the sake of motion, though I wasn’t going to judge her. She helped save my life.

My thoughts went back to Dro, and the awful mess I’d made with her while I was half-awake. I needed to fix that soon. But first I needed to know more about the fragment.

I reached out to rap the doorframe with my knuckles.

“I know you’re there,” said Maria. “Might as well skip the knock and come in.”

I did as she said, stifling a laugh.

“Guess you found the food and clothes and cleaned yourself up?”

“Yeah,” I replied. When I left the back room to use the bathroom, there had been a collection of protein bars, a bottle of water, and a pile of clothes on top of the sink. I almost choked on the protein bars, I inhaled them so fast.

I plucked at the hem of the black, form-fitting V-neck shirt, glancing down at the skinny black pants and dark grey, lace up boots that went to my knees. I was also wearing a slate grey leather moto jacket. It looked sleeker than my tattered lucky jacket, but it was tighter in the shoulders and would have to be cut so I could fight in it. I had liked my lucky jacket because it was bigger, and gave me more flexibility and movement.

Stupid that I missed something so small, but that jacket had seen me through some wretched times. Given how most of my clothes ended up, I doubted this one would be able to withstand the damage I’d be bringing it. 

Before dressing, I’d taken a quick shower to wash off all the blood and dirt from my fights. Dro had healed me while I was asleep/unconscious, so the only mark that remained on my body was the scar on my abdomen where the fragment had gone in. My weapons had been recovered and were back on my body– four knives sheathed to a harness at my ribs, two in my boots, and my hatchet on my hip. It felt good to be clean, dressed, healed, and armed again.

“Thanks,” I added.

Maria nodded, but still didn’t look at me. “They belonged to my daughter. She was about the same size as you.”

The hint of sadness in her voice reminded me of the way she’d sounded on her doorstep, when she learned I had the fragment in my stomach. I couldn’t help but wonder if her daughter was the reason she knew so much about the fragments.

Then again, maybe her daughter was the person I tossed into a murderous crowd. I knew better than to ask.

“Pretty neat shop you have,” I said, glancing around it again. “Where did you get all this stuff?”

“My family has dealt with the supernatural since before you were born,” she told me, sliding books onto the shelf over her head. “This shop belonged to them.”

“Were they demon slayers?” Warrick and Carver’s slayer team was the only ones I knew of, but there had to be more.

“Some of my uncles were,” she said. “Most of the women in my family focused on learning and the spiritual aspects of it all.” Maria placed the last book on the shelf then turned to look at me. “But we both know you didn’t come out here to talk about my family history, so why don’t you get to the point?”

I raised my eyebrows at her, not sure what switch I flicked to make her so snarly. Maria put her hands on her hips and gave me a curt look.

“While you were passed out, your friends filled me in on what was happening. I know all about you and your situation.” Her eyes were stormy. “I know what your sister is running from.”

My blood went cold. I was going to have a serious talk with whoever spilled our secrets to this stranger.

“Fine,” I said, folding my arms over my chest. “Tell me everything you know about the fragments, and how to destroy them.”

Maria’s dark eyes held mine as if to judge how serious I was. Then she turned to the shelf and picked out a notebook from it. She flipped through the pages until she found what she was looking for, then rested it on the counter facing me.

I took a step closer and looked at a picture sketched on the lined paper. A quick spike of fear went down my spine as I stared at the drawing. The text on the page was scratchy and hard to read, but I was too focused on the drawing anyway. It was all of the fragments, each spread out along the page. Even though they were separated from each other, I could make out the image of them fitting together to become a skeleton key. Each piece was the same pitch-black stone with bright red veins scattered around it like lightning.

I recognized the one that had been shoved inside my belly to burn me alive.

Even now I could feel the blistering pain pulsing through me like an electric shock, and I was just looking at a fucking sketch. I kept my face blank and looked at the other shards. The other five pieces were different– three were the curves from the top of the key, two were splinters of the blade and the cuts, and the final one was a sharp, triangular tip.

There are five more of these things out there, each one inside of a person. How the hell are we supposed to find them all?

“I take it you know what the fragments make a person do,” Maria said.

Images flashed through my mind. Mind-numbing agony, sharp stares, blood flying in every direction. Three people dying because of me.

“It kind of possesses you,” I said. “It acts like a trigger for your darkest emotions and desires. The worse the desire, the more likely you are to do it. You want to, and it draws other people to do the same.”

Maria nodded. “The fragments taint your soul. Human eyes can’t see it, but it draws people in like a drug. The closer they are to you, the more corrupted their minds become until the smallest trigger sets them off. Think of it like a poison gas with a sweet scent. You love the smell and wander toward it, only realizing too late that it’s killing you.”

“Yeah. That sounds about right.” I tore my eyes away from the page. “So how do we destroy them?”

“I don’t know.”

I blinked, confused. “But the one Dro took from me turned to ash,” I reminded her. “I saw it. What happened to the ash?”

Maria pulled a key from the chain around her neck and used it to open the drawer beside her. She lifted up a hidden compartment, took out a clear vial no bigger than my pinky finger and placed it on the counter. It was filled with mostly black ash, though there were a few specks that glowed bright red behind the glass.

“That was all I could recover,” she said. “I don’t know how it was destroyed. If you’re going after the fragments like your friend Max said you planned to, then you’re going to have to find another way to get them out of the carriers.”

Damn it, Max.
“Finding them might not be too hard since they’re so interested in causing trouble,” I grumbled. “But why would we need to find another way? You got this one out of me easy enough.” Though it was excruciatingly painful.

“Because the fragment was still intact. Most people would refuse to resist the fragment’s influence, whether they couldn’t tolerate the pain, or because they didn’t want to. You’re the only exception I’ve ever heard of, and so when the fragment was inside you, it was taking its revenge by brutalizing you. For people who embrace the fragment’s influence, they feel nothing when it splits apart. Once it breaks down into their bloodstream, you have no hope of getting it out. The only way to destroy the fragment is to destroy the person.”

“Then how does it move around? These attacks have never been in one place.”

“I seriously doubt the fragments are moving from person to person. Whoever is holding them is probably keeping them, and escaping the chaos while everyone else kills each other.” Maria’s face was disturbingly serious. “The carriers are probably sided with the demons.”

No matter how many times I heard that, it still hit me like a punch to the gut. Drake and Mateo were unquestionably allied with Lucifer and obviously had a couple of fragments, but what about the slayers? Had they become carriers by accident? I didn’t think Carver would go that far into deception, but the man was a fanatic hell-bent on stopping the demons, no matter what he had to do to himself or his colleagues. The thought of Jackson having a fragment in him made me sick. He didn’t deserve that kind of pain.

We had to find them again and get our answers more aggressively.

“You’re thinking about trying to save someone,” Maria said. “Don’t. You can’t. If someone wants the fragment inside of them, they’ll keep it there, and there is nothing you can do to help them.”

I listened to her voice rise in pitch, watched the tears grow in her eyes. When her rant was finally over, I saw how deep her sorrow was. I looked down at my clothes guiltily. Did I look like her daughter?

Maria took a deep breath. “The people with the fragments can’t be saved. Your best bet is to survive.”

“And let Lucifer and his minions ruin everyone in the world? I don’t think so. He’s hunting us, and we need to find a way to stop him.”

Her pain turned into anger. “I bet you’ve told that to yourself before, haven’t you? How many more times are you going to say it before you realize you can’t stop Lucifer? He’s going to take whatever he wants from you in a way you’ll never know about. He’s the Lord of Deception and Lies. He can take any shape he wants, whenever he wants.”

She looked away, weariness wrapping around her like a smothering blanket. “I’ve been here since the beginning, since the fragments started doing their worst damage. I watched my daughter succumb to their influence and be torn apart by it before I could save her. I scoured every inch of this damned city looking for a way to stop him, and do you know what I found?”

Maria’s eyes were as sharp as knives.

“Nothing.”

I didn’t dare speak. Had I ever thought that stopping Lucifer was impossible? Yes. Did that mean I was going to give up? No. Not with Dro’s life in the balance. As long as Lucifer thought he was King of the Universe, he was going to try and bring her under his wing. I refused to let that happen.