One Book in the Grave (33 page)

Blood?
So she intended to kill Emily? “But Emily is an innocent bystander. She doesn’t deserve to be hurt.”

“Ogun decrees. I obey, honor, and serve.” Crystal refused to talk to me after that, just continued walking me briskly through the darkness. Leaves slapped at my face and thick bushes pulled at my clothes.

I knew Crystal wasn’t crazy; deep down, she was a good person. But between the zealous advocacy for her church and her obsession with Solomon, she had lost her way.

I thought about what she’d said.
An eye for an eye
. Emily for Angelica. Was she serious about the blood sacrifice? Max had stolen Angelica’s heart from Solomon, so Crystal would…what? Cut Emily’s heart out and
give it to Solomon? No, of course not. She wouldn’t really do that. My stomach turned at the very thought.

Still, the name of their church was the True Blood of Ogun. Was that what it meant—human sacrifice? True blood?

I almost laughed at the path my thoughts were taking. I didn’t believe it for a minute. No way was there a band of wacked-out churchgoers sacrificing humans in Dharma.

My imagination was running overtime. I took a deep breath and let it out, then did it again a few more times. I needed to focus my energies, clear my thoughts, and channel my mother. What would Mom do to keep from flipping out? I found my answer.

“If Solomon gets out of jail, do you think he’ll marry you?” I asked, determined to keep talking no matter what. That’s what Mom would do. Mom could talk so much and for so long, she could completely confuse the most clever kidnapper of all time—which Crystal wasn’t. “He might be afraid of you after you bonked him on the head with that frying pan.”

“He’s a man,” Crystal said calmly. “I’ll get him back.”

So she wasn’t denying the frying pan incident. And she was probably right about Solomon coming back to her, but not because he was a man. No, it was because Solomon was an idiot.

“He is weak,” she said, causing me to question whether she could read my thoughts. But we were talking about Solomon, after all. I guess even Crystal needed to keep it real.

“Yes, he’s weak,” I said in agreement.

“He’ll need a strong woman to survive the coming apocalypse,” she said matter-of-factly, then laughed softly. “Does a man really think a fragile flower of a woman can be anything more than a cipher, a worthless drag on his power? He’ll need that power when we all meet in the Battle to End All Days.”

I supposed I could see her point, although I wasn’t familiar with the battle she was talking about. It had to be some Ogunite battle.

I’d known Crystal Byers for years and I continued to hold on to the belief that she wasn’t insane. I was sure her actions sprang from a sincere desire to please her church. But I was beginning to see that what went on in Crystal’s head was far more complicated than any of us had ever guessed.

I’d seen how men had treated her—or, rather, how they
didn’t
treat her. I don’t think she’d ever had a real boyfriend. She had always been too big and bold for most men. Too strong, and maybe too shrewd. She had never had someone who treated her like she was precious and special. Was she carrying a grudge? Did she have something to prove to all the men who’d ignored her or treated her badly or betrayed her? Maybe she did. Maybe she was determined to prove to them all that she was a survivor.

Good for her. But that didn’t mean I was going to let Emily go down with her.

After another ten minutes and five Hershey’s Kisses, the woods opened up. Clouds moved on the breeze, revealing the moon and stars for the first time.

Crystal pushed me out into the small clearing and I staggered to a stop. In the moonlight I could see from her expression that Crystal was deadly serious.

A massive fallen tree split the clearing in half. Both Minka and Emily were lying on top of the trunk, strapped to it with duct tape and rope. Another strip of duct tape covered each of their mouths. They were stripped down to their underwear. Minka was twisting and grunting and doing everything to escape her bonds, but Emily didn’t stir at all.

“Father Ogun will feast tonight,” Crystal declared with joy in her voice.

I whipped around. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

She smiled coyly. “Figuratively speaking, of course.” Taking the gun from her pocket, she pointed it at me. “Now it’s your turn, Brooklyn. Take off your clothes.”

I glanced around, stalling for time, feeling myself shaking right down to my bones. And wondering,
Just how hungry is Big Daddy Ogun, anyway?

There was no way on this green earth I was going to strip in front of this obsessed woman. I didn’t believe in denigrating other religions, but as far as I was concerned, this Ogun dude was a pervert and a creep. And as for his faithful follower Crystal, at this point I was willing to accept that she might be a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

But I was also convinced that Solomon had manipulated Crystal into killing Angelica and taking Emily. He might not have said the words, but he would have made it clear that doing so would make him happy. And Crystal lived to make Solomon happy.

The only thing I could do right now was keep on blathering until Derek found us. I prayed it would be soon. I couldn’t tell if Emily was conscious, but if she was, she had to be scared to death. I was getting there, too.
So start talking,
I told myself.

“So you killed Angelica,” I said.

“OMG, Brooklyn,” she said, smiling as she shook her head at me. “We already talked about that. Yes, I did it. I admit it. Out of duty to my deacon and my church.”

“And because you’re in love with Solomon and wanted him for yourself.”

She sighed, mildly irritated with me. “I do love Solomon but it was more than that. Angelica’s presence was
harming our church. Anyway, you already know all this. Just take off your clothes and let’s get on with it.”

I held up both hands to delay the inevitable. “I just need to know: did you kill Joe Taylor, the bookstore owner?”

She frowned. “Who?”

“Joseph Taylor, the bookseller on Clement Street.”

“In San Francisco?”

“Yes.”

She tilted her head in confusion. “Why would I kill him? I didn’t even know him. It was probably Angelica.”

Yeah, I figured it was Angelica, too. But how would Crystal know? “Why do you think Angelica—”

“What day was this man killed?” she asked suddenly, as her frown deepened.

I was taken aback by the question but went ahead and figured out the day. “It was two weeks ago last Friday.”

She thought for another moment. “Yes. That’s right. After I realized that Angelica was meant to die, I followed her around for a few days, trying to learn her routines. On that Friday you’re talking about, I followed her all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. She crossed over into the city. I turned around and drove home.”

“Why didn’t you follow her into the city?”

Her lip curled in distaste. “Everybody knows San Francisco has been embraced by Satan.”

“Ah. Good point.”

What sounded like a dog or a wolf howling in the distance made me flinch. Great. All this and wild animals, too.

“Now, we’ve talked enough,” Crystal said, waving the gun at me. “I’m afraid the Great Ogun is growing impatient. You’ve got to strip.”

“One more thing. Why did you send Angelica’s body to my house?”

She smiled. “That was for Max. A gift and a warning.”

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

“I can see you were shocked,” she said. “But she looked pretty, I thought. I didn’t want her to suffer, so I
suffocated her in her sleep. And I embalmed her myself, so she should’ve been well preserved.”

“You…embalmed her.”

She shrugged. “It’s a skill we all need to learn if we’re going to survive the coming wars.”

“Right.”

“I didn’t want you to be too grossed out, but I did need Max Adams to realize she was dead.”

“Oh, he got the message. He saw her.”

“Good. Angelica had been keeping tabs on Max Adams, and I had been keeping tabs on Angelica, so I was able to tell Solomon where Max was hiding every time you moved him.”

Crystal had been watching us? She knew where we were each time? So her instincts had worked better than any GPS bugging device. I had completely underestimated the woman. Big mistake.

“At first,” she continued, “Solomon was really surprised to hear Max was alive. Surprised and very, very hurt. He couldn’t get over it. It started affecting his work, and I knew I had to take care of this for him. Poor man.”

I had a hard time believing Solomon was “hurt.” But Crystal had bought his act completely. So she had killed Angelica and sent her body in a box to my home through a delivery service. Oh yes, I had most certainly underestimated Crystal Byers.

“What about that delivery guy?” I asked. “You killed him, too?”

“Oh, I hated to do that, but he was a loose end,” she explained. “Melody helped me. I didn’t want to drive into the Pit of Satan all by myself.”

I assumed the Pit of Satan was the city of San Francisco. “Your sister helped you kill that man?”

She bit her lip. “I probably shouldn’t have involved her, but she insisted on helping.”

I gaped at her. “Melody insisted?”

“She distracted him while I came from behind and slipped the plastic bag over his head.” She smiled again. “We’re very close, Melody and me.”

The sisters are going to be even closer,
I thought. Maybe they could share a jail cell. “You’re right. You really shouldn’t have dragged Melody into this.”

“Please don’t judge me, Brooklyn,” she said. “Only Ogun can judge me. And he has judged me worthy.” She held the gun with both hands and pointed it right at me. “Now stop trying to distract me. Just do what I asked you to do.”

“Fine, but I think you’re going about this all wrong.”

She sighed. “I’m not listening to you.”

“Well, you should.” I unzipped my jacket slowly, but instead of pulling it off my shoulders, I shoved my hands into the pockets, grabbed the candy kisses and flung them all at Crystal.

“What?” She cringed and held one hand in front of her face to fend off whatever she thought was attacking her.

Taking advantage of the moment, I rushed forward and knocked the gun out of her hand, but not before a deafening gunshot blast rattled the quiet air of the forest.

I had the advantage of surprise, but Crystal was even stronger than I’d always thought she was. She punched me in the face and I saw stars.

But I got a handful of her hair and yanked. She screamed and shoved me into the dirt, and we rolled around. She was slapping my face so hard, I could barely see. She got up and straddled me and started pounding. I held up my hands to protect my face from her flying fists, but they were fast and beefy.

In a surge of energy, I bucked her off me and we rolled in the dirt again. I was not strong enough to do any real damage to a crazed Ogunite built like Crystal, but I did my best. I had to hold on until Derek followed those Hershey’s Kisses.

I tried to wrap my arms around her, if only to trap those dangerous hands of hers, but her chest and back were too broad. So I settled for scraping my fingernails down her face until she howled in outrage. Really, as a fighter I was pretty pitiful.

I was losing this fight by a mile, losing steam and consciousness. My head was spiraling from too many hard smacks. I made one last swipe at her face and raked my nails deeper across her cheek, drawing blood.

“There’s your true blood, bitch,” I snapped.

She grunted and slapped me again, and I knew I was close to finished. That’s when I heard what sounded like a wolf pack stomping through the trees and into the clearing. There was snapping and growling, and Crystal was suddenly yanked off me.

Through blurry eyes I thought I saw the head wolf.
Derek?

With one tremendous, incoherent roar, he flung Crystal away from me and pulled me close.

“My God, Brooklyn,” Derek said, burying his face in my hair. “Are you all right?”

“Jus’ fine,” I muttered. “I coulda taken her.”

“Of course you could’ve,” he crooned, and swept me up into his arms.

From the corner of my rapidly puffing eye, I saw Gabriel catch Crystal. She tried to tangle with him, but he subdued her with one hand, yanking her arm and whipping her around. He clutched both of her hands behind her back, then dragged her over to the fallen tree where he found the duct tape and managed to wrap it around her wrists. Then he shoved her down to the ground.

Okay, Gabriel was back in action. Hooray!

I smiled at Derek. Everything was right in my world again.
Except for a little head spinning and vision fading,
I thought. Then everything went black.

When I woke up from my little nap, a female EMT was cleaning blood off my face.

“It’s not my blood,” I murmured, wincing when she touched a tender spot on my jaw.

“Yeah, it is,” she said, chuckling as she continued daubing antiseptic on my chin and neck. “She nailed you good.”

“Hey, I got a few jabs in.”

I tried to sit up, but she stopped me. “Easy, Sugar Ray. You barfed the last time you tried that.”

“I did?” I winced. “How pleasant for you.”

“I love my job.”

I felt dizzy again and decided to take her advice and stay right where I was. Looking around, I saw that I was lying flat out on some kind of tarp in the clearing where Crystal had almost killed three of us in the name of her beloved Ogun. Or maybe it was for her beloved Solomon. Who cared, as long as she rotted in prison for a few hundred years?

I assumed Emily and Minka were being treated by medical techs somewhere nearby. I couldn’t see them, but I did see Crystal being led away in handcuffs by two Sonoma sheriff’s deputies. She was screaming to Ogun to smite the nonbelievers. But apparently Ogun wasn’t taking her calls.

I felt better already.

“Emily!”

I recognized Max’s bellow and turned to see him rush into the clearing, glance around, and dash over to Emily. Aw, that was nice.

“Back off,” someone groused. It was Minka, of course, bitching at whoever was trying to help her. Always the charmer. “Just get me the hell out of here.”