Midnight Ruling (15 page)

Cooper made a move to reach for it, and I pulled it from his reach, glaring.

“How’d it get in here?” Claire asked, alarmed. “It wasn’t in here this morning. I know it wasn’t. You did this!”

I didn’t look up, ignoring the accusation.

Why would Damien leave a warning message for them to see? Unless…

Was Claire nervous because she received some warped warning from the Demon’s Grave while we were in the shop?

“Drive me home, please?”

She hesitated but started the car.

It took me a long time to put Cody Lewis in the same box as Phoebe’s doll. I had to close the lid to make my nerves calm down.

I had them all now. Everyone who didn’t come back with Aidan and me. They’d be lining my dresser tonight like dominos.

When we reached my street, I said, “And you guys?”

Claire’s eyes locked with mine in the rearview mirror while Cooper twisted in his seat.

“Don’t come back tomorrow or any other day. Just leave me alone from now on.”

“I want to know…”

“You don’t need to know anything,” I snapped, shutting Cooper up. “Stay away from me. I’m not asking. Don’t call or text. I don’t want to see either of you except in the hallway. You got it?”

Claire’s eyes were narrowing, growing darker. “You don’t understand…”

“No, I’m sure I do,” I interrupted. “You two want to play Nancy Drew with someone who just went through a traumatic event. Stop fucking with my life, you hypocritical psychos!”

Cooper’s eyes drifted to the box in my lap. “We’re not leaving this alone.”

“Yes,” I said. “You are.”

Claire stopped the car in front of my house. “Get out, bitch.”

Hot breath brushed my face, and I wrinkled my nose, still half asleep.

“Wake up,” a voice hissed above me.

The wonderfully numbing place was snatched away so abruptly it was like being thrown naked into a snow pile.

The realization that I wasn’t alone but in my bedroom exploded in my head. My eyes snapped open in the same instant to see faces hovering over me in the dark.

I opened my mouth to scream, and a moist, beefy hand that tasted like salt muffled the sound.

Fear shot through every muscle. I could see the outline of the closely shaved head, square jaw, and broad shoulders.

My hands tried to shove him away only to hit a stone chest that didn’t seem to feel my punches. And I was really trying.

“Let her up, Joel,” a second whisper demanded.

“She’s going to scream,” Joel hissed, looking back.

Rolling my eyes, I could see Claire, her long hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her stance familiar. Hips jutting to one side, Claire’s shoulders were almost touching her ears.

I shook my head beneath the hand.

“See,” Claire whispered, pointing at me. “She won’t scream. Right, Nora?”

How the hell did they get in here? I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to concentrate on slowing my heart. I had to think rationally. Fear wasn’t going to help me right now.

The suctioned pressure on my face popped, and I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand vigorously. At the same time, I kicked away from him until I could sit up.

Biting my lips together so I wouldn’t lick them, I held up my hands in a truce so he wouldn’t launch himself again.

Looking around, I saw Cooper sitting at my computer chair, watching with wide, excited eyes.

“What is going on?” I snapped in a hushed tone.

“We saw it, Nora,” Cooper accused.

“Yeah, you can stop pretending,” Joel said. “Real good acting there.”

I blinked away the surprise and decided to ignore him. He wasn’t making any sense. “Saw what?” I asked Cooper. He at least seemed somewhat level headed, despite the fact he broke into my house!

Cooper glanced at Joel before his hardened gaze shifted back to me. “We saw a flash of light inside your room.”

My window was closed, the curtains drawn. Well I guess they didn’t crawl through there. The rain still poured outside, and I realized each of them was wearing rain coats, which were dripping all over the carpet. I could only imagine the flood warnings tomorrow morning.

Pointing to the window, I tried to control the anger that was bubbling, teasing. “There’s lightning outside. Couldn’t a bolt reflect off of my window? And you guys all decided to come into my house in the middle of the night and what? Kidnap me? Are you all fucking crazy? Were you just sitting out there watching all night?”

“It wasn’t a bolt of lightning,” Joel said sternly. “It looked like there was an explosion in here.”

Kicking the covers off my bare legs, I stood up on the other side of the bed from Joel wearing my penguin pajamas. At least I wasn’t like Robin and slept in the barest, if anything. “This is breaking and entering,” I warned. “You broke into this house and woke me up to…”

Joel snorted.

“…to tell me that you saw a flash of light?”

“We didn’t break in,” Cooper pointed out and held up a key.

I stared at him in horror. “You
stole
my key?”

Claire’s appealing features scrunched in distaste. “No, you sent it to him in that note.” She gestured to Joel. “And no, I don’t think you’re his type, honey.”

I stared at her, flabbergasted, before it hit me. Damien lured them here; he must have. Did he need more players for his precious Challenge?

“Get out.”

Joel crossed his arms over his bulky chest and glared at me. “Listen, just tell us what the fuck is going on. Claire says that you’ve been calling her every hour harassing her. I get a friggin’ note and Cooper got this today.” He held up a
shabtis
.

Swallowing a gasp, I stared at a tiny replica. Wild reddish-brown hair and piercing blue eyes.

“Get out,” I said again, this time using a normal voice, hoping the abrupt sound in the silence would scare them.

Joel leaned forward, his dark, hateful eyes staring me down. “I don’t think so.”

“I’ll scream,” I threatened.

Joel’s eyes widened. In a leap, he was on and over the bed. One arm swung out to catch me around the waist, spinning me like a top. My back collided with his chest as one hand clamped over my mouth. “Scream now,” he mocked. In the scuffle, he dropped the Aidan-doll to the floor.

I did, though. I screamed and writhed in the vice grip that hurt my ribs. It was hard to breathe for another scream as he tightened like an anaconda.

“Joel!” Claire protested, her arms dropping to her sides, eyes wide. “You said…”

“Shut up, Claire. We’re taking this girl outside to talk. I don’t want to risk her screaming her head off when we’re so close.” Joel started to drag me towards the bedroom door.

I kicked out my feet to hit something. If it was loud enough, it might wake someone up.

“Cooper, get her feet,” Joel said behind me.

Cooper was standing, arms akimbo, staring in shock. “Joel, let her go,” he said. “Nora, we’re going to leave. Please don’t scream. We’re going to leave now. This was the stupidest idea anyway. It probably wasn’t her that sent the note,” he reasoned.

“Or sent me the phone calls,” Claire chimed in a harsh whisper, not sounding the least bit believable.

Joel growled in response. “I came all this way to get answers, and I’m not letting her go. Get her damn feet or she’ll…” He stopped in mid-sentence.

In his distraction, one of his fingers drew close enough to bite.

Sinking my teeth into his middle finger hard, I thought I tasted blood before his arm finally snaked away from my waist. Releasing his hand and stumbling back toward my bed, I screamed as loud as I could.

Cooper flung himself at me while Claire swung open my bedroom door and darted out.

Cooper collided with me, cutting my scream off short, and we toppled onto the bed in a tangle. “Please stop,” he pleaded over Joel’s shout and Claire’s thundering footsteps down the stairs in the dead of the night.

Considering he’d landed on top of me, I lost my breath and couldn’t scream if I wanted to. There was a fleeting moment where everything went white, when the air suddenly wasn’t there and terror knotted my insides. I wriggled until the air came in pitiful mouthfuls. The weight on me made it nearly impossible, and I flailed to get him off of me.

I half expected to hear running toward my bedroom, but instead I just heard Claire pounding her way down the stairs.

Joel ducked out the bedroom after her.

Cooper started to get off of me. His weight lifting from my chest was a wonderful relief as I took the first deep breath.

Still nothing.

I sat up, and dots danced before my eyes. I grabbed my night table to steady myself.

Was no one coming?

Like a light bulb bursting, I bolted for my bedroom door, past Cooper before he could react. I skidded out into the hallway, my head swimming in a blood rush, and I stumbled into my parents’ bedroom door.

I turned the knob, my shoulder pressed to the cool surface, and flung the door open, letting it hit the opposite wall with a bang.

I half expected to hear Caitlin’s shrill scream from her crib. However, she remained fearfully silent.

The two lumps in the bed indicated that there were people there, at least.

Hurrying to the edge, I could make out their faces. Both sleeping, my mom faced my dad, calm and serene.

“Mom?” I asked the woman, loud enough to sound harsh even to my own ears.

She didn’t move. She was lost in the same numbing world I’d been torn out of. I checked to make sure she was breathing.

Touching her shoulder, I shook her, hard.

Her head flopped against the pillow as I pushed her; it was almost grotesque as her muscles didn’t react, didn’t stiffen. She just flopped, as if boneless. “Wake up!” I shouted, feeling the urgency pounding.

In response, she fell back against my dad’s chest.

“Dad?” I tried the other sleeping figure as I rounded the bed and shoved his back, but he just flopped into my mom, mouth open as a snore escaped.

A voice from the doorway startled me. “Nora?” It was Cooper. “Listen, we…” he started to whisper when a bloodcurdling scream broke out on the main floor.

The high pitch could only mean that it was Claire.

Startled, I glanced back at Cooper to see both him and Joel in the doorway. They were half turned, bodies rigid.

Joel reacted first, disappearing in a flash.

I heard his footsteps thumping down the stairs.

After a second’s hesitation, Cooper followed his friend.

I glanced back to my sleeping parents. Their breaths were slow and rhythmic, and they were completely oblivious.

“Claire!” I could hear Joel shouting from downstairs.

Standing up, I nearly collided with the crib. Caitlin was fast asleep on her back, arms bent on either side of her head, unmoving. If it weren’t for the rise and fall of her chest, I would have checked for a pulse.

“Claire!” Joel bellowed from below again.

Taking that as my cue, I burst out into the hallway and down the steps. I rushed into the living room where Joel was looking out the patio window. Upon my arrival, he stalked toward me, his body tense and eyes blazing. I shrank back, certain that he was about to hit me.

“Where’d she go?” he demanded instead.

“How should I know?” I cried, lifting my hands defensively. “I was upstairs!”

“She ran down here, and now she’s gone. What were you telling her on the phone?”

Cooper intervened, stepping between us, his tall frame blocking Joel’s face from my view. “Maybe she ran outside,” he suggested.

“The patio and back door are locked.” Joel’s eyes never wavered from me.

Claire is gone,
I thought frantically.
She’s been captured.
It was too late for her, but what about for these two? I could almost let Joel walk right into the Demon’s Grave out of spite, but I knew I couldn’t do that.

Stepping out from behind Cooper, I said, “Get out of here. I bet she’s outside. She could have run out the front door when she got scared. You weren’t fast enough. Go, go!”

Joel eyed me, unbelieving.

Eager to go along with whatever got him out of the house, Cooper swatted Joel’s tensed arm. “She’s not going anywhere. Let’s go outside and check.”

I nodded, and peeked furtively around the living room for the
wandering shadow
. Was it coming for me now? I wanted to run outside with them, but I held still.

Joel started shaking his head and glaring at Cooper, pushing past both of us and into the entry. He was heading back up the stairs. “Where is your family, Nora?” he called back, no longer afraid of keeping quiet. “Why isn’t anyone up?”

I held my tongue, trying to think up a believable lie. The truth was too far fetched despite what they’d seen.

Cooper blurted, “They’re home. They won’t wake up. I saw them upstairs.”

Joel glanced between us before bolting for the stairs. I saw him move to Mona’s room.

“What the hell, Cooper?” I shouted and started to run for the stairs. “Leave her alone, Joel!”

Cooper was close behind me. We didn’t make it two steps when a string of curses caused us both to freeze.

“Joel?” Cooper called, no longer afraid of keeping his voice low. At this point, we all were hoping someone would come storming out into the hallway and demand to know what was going on.

Joel never replied. In fact, he was very, very quiet.

Cooper looked to me, wide-eyed and uncertain. “What’s happening?” he asked.

I shook my head at him. “Please, leave,” I said. “Just go outside. Find Claire and I’ll go get Joel.”

“No,” Cooper said, suspicion thick in his voice. “I’ll get Joel. You get Claire.”

I swallowed but again didn’t move. Cooper paused before he started running up the stairs, his gaze flickering back over his shoulder several times at me.

Alone in the entrance, I looked around me. Understanding turned in a panoramic view. Claire was alone when she disappeared. Joel was alone when he started to shout.

If I followed Cooper, I would delay the inevitable, and I needed to get back to the Grave. This would be the fastest way, with or without them. Why couldn’t they have just left well enough alone?