RAVEN'S HOLLOW (15 page)

None of that happened here. Because it didn’t, the fear that formed a spiky ball in his belly turned to ice.

He couldn’t remember the blond woman’s name all of a sudden. Instead, he pictured red-brown hair and features striking enough to make even his great-grandfather’s jaw drop.

He froze on that point. Why was Rooney in his head? Why red-brown hair?

The icy ball tightened, shot up into his throat. He saw her clearly now. Not the woman who should be here, but Sadie. She stood in front of the shattered window, staring at him through eyes as dark as the storm. A figure in a black cloak slunk through the shadows behind her.

Blood gleamed on her left shoulder. Low on her left shoulder. The figure behind her stopped when he saw that, and started to laugh. It tossed the knife it held from its right hand to its left, caught it by the blade.

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” it said with a chuckle. “You’ve made my task extremely easy.”

Muscles bunching, Eli lunged. But in the next lightning strike, Sadie was gone. Only her blood remained and the sick, sinking knowledge that he’d killed the only woman he would ever love.

The eerie chuckle seemed to be everywhere. “So sad, but that’s how it goes for men like us. We who have monsters inside us are what we are. If it will ease the pain of your loss, however, I give you this balm.”

Rearing back, he flung the knife into the center of Eli’s chest.

“Life in hell is deserved, Eli Blume.” The voice took on a weird cadence. “You’ve forgotten the conjoined legend. Nola didn’t die that night in Raven’s Hollow. It only appeared she did. Switch to the present. In this reality, I, who am Ezekiel, have killed you. You, who are Hezekiah, will leave this earth before the evil can possess you, while she, who is Nola—that would be Sadie in case you’re getting lost—will be mine. As it always should have been, Elijah Blume. Sadie will be mine!”

Chapter Eighteen

Eli woke on the bedroom floor, swearing in the unrelieved darkness.

“What?” Sadie rushed in from the hall. Her feet were bare, and she wore a pair of red pajama pants with a white tank. She held a bottle of wine in her hand like a club. “Why did you shout? What’s going on?” Her eyes scanned the room. “There’s no one here, Eli. Why is no one here if you’re shouting? Unless...” She used the base of the bottle to point while he dragged on his jeans. “You had a nightmare, didn’t you? The kind that makes you want to turn on every light in the house because it was so damn real.”

Crossing to her, he pushed the bottle aside and settled the queasy aftereffects of the dream by kissing her long and deep.

“It was real once,” he told her simply, then rested his forehead against hers and breathed in her scent. “I came home under threat after a brutal shift, saw a shadow and pulled my gun on it.”

“Except the shadow turned out to be Eve.”

“At first, yeah. In my dream it became you, and instead of blasting the window apart, the shot I fired went through your heart. Or seemed to.”

She planted the wine bottle in the middle of his chest. “Some people would call that transference, coupled with post-traumatic guilt, bound together with an unabiding sense of frustration. Then and there meets here and now.”

“With Ezekiel on a rampage thrown in for good measure.” The horror continued to swim in his belly and his brain. “I thought I’d locked the worst of those memories away.”

“The subconscious mind’s a bitch, isn’t it? I do constant battle with mine. Unlike yours, however, mine usually wins, which is why I get headaches, and am not overly fond of going to bed.” She kissed the corners of his mouth. “With one stellar exception, plus two on the floor and still plenty of night left as it’s only a little after two a.m.” Lifting a hand to his face, she softened her tone. “You didn’t kill me, Eli, and you and I both know you’re not going to. Though I do appreciate the worry.”

“The word’s panic, Sadie.” He motioned at the bottle in her free hand. “Are there glasses to go with that?”

“I dropped them in the hall when you freaked.”

“Killed you,” he reminded her. “And at worst it was a shout.”

“You weren’t halfway up the stairs, pal. Cocoa shot past me like she’d been launched from a cannon, and trust me, there’s nothing—or very little—that can drag her away from fresh food. However—” she poked his ribs “—if you want to reestablish your manhood, you could light the fireplace for me. I keep it laid and ready. Unfortunately, the chimneys in this house don’t draw like they did back in Nola’s day.”

“You want details, don’t you?” Going down on one knee, Eli checked the flue. “It’s not a particularly original story.”

“Neither was my engagement to Ty. But it was personal, so that makes it important. I’ll get the glasses and corkscrew while you ponder and light.”

He did ponder, and relive as he stared into the spreading flames. By the time Sadie returned, he had the short version mapped out.

Then tossed it and told her everything, from an interested first meeting through the final night when Eve had thrown a cast-iron skillet at his head.

Afterward, with the fire crackling beneath the sound of heavy rain, Sadie refilled their wineglasses. “I’ll give her marks for weaponry, but not for the tawdry affair. Ten bucks says her male model stud was really a wannabe Broadway actor who figured she could use her magazine connections to help him get onstage.”

Eli smiled into the excellent burgundy. “I already owe you twenty plus dinner.”

“I like Italian, by the way.”

“Do what I can.”

His eyes strayed from her navel to the swell of her breasts. He knew she was fully aware of his thoughts when she set her glass down and stretched like the cat she’d just fed downstairs. Maybe she was a witch at that. How else could he be rock hard in the time it took to swallow a mouthful of wine?

On her feet and mesmerizing him with every sinuous movement, she reached out to him with both hands. “Don’t sweat the—well, I’d say the small stuff, but that’s so not true in your case. Leave the past in the past, Eli. This is now.” She tugged. “This is us.” He stood. “This is hot.”

She took the last step between them. Then brought him with her into the fire.

* * *

M
AYBE
THE
RAIN
would never end. Maybe the thunder would keep him awake. Maybe the monster would develop a conscience and go away. Stay away. Forever.

But he doubted it.

So he was down to pills. Amphetamines. Because he didn’t dare fall asleep feeling the way he did.

Sadie didn’t want him, would never love him. He understood that now, and the knowledge burned like acid. Not merely in his heart, but in his stomach, in his brain. In the fists he could no longer keep unclenched.

Why did she want Eli, love Eli? Why couldn’t she see what was right in front of her eyes?

Because she wasn’t looking, that’s why. No one ever did, although that was probably for the best. If no one looked, no one saw, and no one would guess the ugly truth.

Anger and jealousy might be the only things saving him from exposure at this point. People bought in to the obvious, shook their heads and felt for the poor rejected soul. Ah, well, they clucked, he’d get over it. Meanwhile, on with life....

He swallowed another pair of pills, rubbed his eyes and tried not to feel bitter. Bitterness was a hot prod in the monster’s side.

Why, though, why couldn’t he make his fists unclench? Or his teeth? He breathed through them and told himself to let it go. To let her go.

To, please, please, not kill her.

The sound of the rain grew louder. His heart beat faster, his knuckles turned white.

Then, just when he thought his head might explode, someone knocked on the door....

* * *

S
ADIE
FIGURED
SHE
squeezed in two hours of sleep, tops. But she could live with that, because awake, she’d squeezed in, and just plain squeezed, much better things than her sleeping mind could have offered.

Eli was RoboCop, with a cool and sexy twist. He didn’t short out in the shower. They’d gotten wet, had two more bouts of wild sex, then suddenly—morning.

With it had come a grim reality check. What had really happened during last night’s séance? Who’d brought the shinola?

Eli wanted answers and after a quick cup of coffee, he rushed her out the door.

Sadie appreciated that he cared so strongly about keeping her alive, but a second cup of coffee and something more substantial than a cereal bar would have been nice. On the upside, the early rush got her to the Hollow just as Molly was stepping out of the pharmacy.

“Eight oh three and all’s well. Apparently.” She aimed a warning eye at Eli. “Do not destroy my Land Rover.”

“Nag, nag, nag.” He kissed her twice, then a third time. “Got it. Six months left on the lease. A few more bets like the half dozen you won last night, and it’ll be my money covering those payments.”

“Never gamble more than you can afford to lose, Lieutenant. Jerk’s coming by to stick more duct tape on the printing presses this morning.”

“Know it.”

“Know you know it. And while we could go back and forth with that one all day, I want to talk to Molly before the eight-fifteen downpour. Vehicle in pristine condition, Eli, or you might find yourself climbing the walls tonight. Literally.”

Molly waited for her on the sidewalk. “How can you possibly look so happy after that séance, Sadie? It was horrible.”

“I’m picturing a lizard in a black leather jacket—and that séance was staged.”

Molly straightened quickly from her slouch. “I didn’t set it up. I’m not... Is that what Eli thinks? And Ty?”

“About you, no. About the staging, yes. Eli does anyway. I haven’t talked to Ty.”

“He came over to my apartment for a few minutes afterward. He was very upset.”

“I think we all were.”

“All except the person who wants you dead.”

“Monster,” she corrected. “And I imagine he’s beyond upset at this point.”

“Ty says it was never actually proven that Cal didn’t murder Laura. It was more that the authorities couldn’t find sufficient evidence to arrest him.”

“I’ve done the reading, and gone over it with Eli. I know Cal’s still a question mark in many people’s minds, but why would he want me alive or dead? I’m not sure I even met him as a kid, and as an adult—well, suffice to say, our one and only face-to-face wasn’t exactly amiable.”

Molly stuffed her hands into the pockets of her smock. “If he’s crazy, does it matter why he wants you? For all you know, he might see you as Laura.”

“How? There’s no physical resemblance between us. Get right down to it, you look more like Laura than I do.”

“You’re outgoing like she was. You—what’s the expression—shoot from the hip.”

“Oh, well, now you’re talking Orley. She’s the straightest shot in the Hollow.”

“Maybe Cal’s taste in women has changed.”

Sadie glanced at the threatening sky. “I really think you’re wrong about Cal, but I’m not...”

“He conveniently came into town yesterday, to pick up a prescription for a relative.”

“His uncle?”

“If his uncle’s Phineas Kilgore, yes.”

“So why did he take off when he saw me—us?”

“Sadie, your new beau wears a badge and carries a big gun.”

“So does—did Ty.”

“You broke off your engagement to Ty. That might have given Cal hope.”

“I broke up with Ty in April. It’s October now. Cal’s had six months to make his move—and don’t say he could be a slow mover. Ben Leamer’s shown more interest in me since I broke up with Ty than Cal Kilgore has.”

“Then Cal has that you know of.” Molly emphasized the last four words. “You’re perceptive in a lot of ways, Sadie, but not necessarily in the ones that matter, at least not the ones that might make you feel uncomfortable.”

The answer stung enough to kindle Sadie’s temper, but it was also valid enough that she didn’t lose it. Ignoring the first drops of rain, she narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean uncomfortable?”

“You were never going to marry Ty, but you said yes to him anyway. You didn’t really love him. Deep inside you knew that, but it took meeting Eli in Boston to pound the truth home.”

Guilt coiled in her stomach. “I never meant to hurt Ty.”

“I know that, and so does he. It doesn’t change the fact that you weren’t self-aware enough to know what you wanted or tuned in enough to see that he was totally gone on you.”

What Sadie wanted right then was to tell Molly she was wrong, and walk away believing that. But the guilt had a slimy quality to it now, and some of it crawled up into her heart.

She stole another glance at the clouds, then relented. “I’m not saying you’re right about all of that, but I did talk to Eli about my—well, choices. Problem is, I didn’t go past the words and think about how Ty must have felt when I told him we shouldn’t get married.”

Molly relaxed her rigid stance. “If it helps, Ty might have been under the same delusion as you. He loved you, and when he thought the future was sealed, he built a fantasy of your life together in his head.”

“Then I came back from Boston and blew that fantasy to hell.” Which had hurt and disappointed him, Sadie realized, but hadn’t resulted in any overt displays of anger until Eli had appeared in the Hollow.

“You look confused.” Molly’s tone was shrewd, her expression assessing. “I’ve done my morning prescription check. I came in earlier than usual after no sleep last night. If you want to talk, we can have breakfast at the café.”

Because it was unlike Molly to do anything disruptive to her routine, Sadie accepted the offer without thinking.

Maybe she’d been making excuses all her life, she reflected, buying in to a convenient lie. Maybe it wasn’t so much that Nola’s descendants couldn’t commit, but rather that those who chose not to, or failed to do so for the long term, used their heritage as an excuse to walk away. To take the easy and ready-made out rather than deal with life’s more difficult problems. And wasn’t that an unpleasant conclusion to come to first thing in the morning?

“Sadie?” Molly’s voice broke in. “Are you all right?”

“What? Yes...no. I don’t know. What time is it?”

“Eight-twelve.”

“Okay. We’ve got three minutes to get to the café, and forty-five after that for you to tell me everything you’ve noticed about everyone you can think of since Eli came to town. Before that, as well, if it applies.”

“I don’t know anything about what’s happening to you. Or any more than I’ve already said.”

Sadie pulled her down the street toward the café. “We’ll talk about Laura, then. You and Orley hung out with her.”

“Orley hung out with her.” Molly’s shoulders hunched. “I was jealous of her.” Her eyes rose. “Like I was of you.”

“Me? Why?” Frowning, Sadie searched her mind. “When?”

“Well, recently, obviously.”

With an absent wave for the counterman, Sadie nudged her cousin out of the incoming flow. “Okay, jealous of me because of Ty, I get. But why jealous of Laura?”

Molly’s mouth moved into a tight little smile. “Everyone thinks she was so sweet, but really, Laura was worse than you.”

“Me again?”

“Worse than you relationship-wise,” Molly clarified.

Completely baffled now, Sadie backed off, hands raised. “All right, I give up. What are you talking about?”

Molly regarded the downpour that had people on the sidewalks running for cover. “Laura wasn’t as decent as you were. She didn’t break up with Cal until after she found someone else.”

“How do you know Laura found someone else?”

“I saw them. Together. In her mother’s car. They were making out.”

Intrigued, Sadie nudged her farther into the corner. “Did you tell the police?”

“No.”

Uh-oh.
“Who was she making out with, Molly?”

Her cousin looked her straight in the eye. “You know the answer. You know
because
I didn’t say anything.” Her lower lip trembled slightly before she firmed it up. “It was Ty.”