Soultaker

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

The first thing Jordan thought as she began to wake up was that she was hungover. Her mouth was dry. She felt thickheaded, engulfed in a mental fuzz obscuring memories of the night before. An ache throbbed somewhere behind her eyes. Her stomach fluttered. A taste of bile at the back of her throat hinted at a big meal her digestive system wanted no part of, probably something fried and drowned in grease.

Must have really tied one on.

She’d probably gone out to the Grill again. Their whole menu was chock-full of things the food nazis would scream about. Loaded with fat and deep fried to hell and back. She had to stop eating there. Had to change her habits while she was still young and thin. And…

Wait.

She still wasn’t fully awake. But she was close enough now to find certain things curious, verging on alarming. She became aware of various aches throughout her body. Then she felt the hardness beneath her. She wasn’t in a bed. She stretched and groaned. Her foot kicked something hard that skittered away. Maybe she’d crashed for the night on the floor for some reason. Too drunk to make it the bed or sofa, maybe. She rolled onto her back and groaned again. A frown twitched at the corners of her mouth.

Something about the hardness beneath her felt…wrong.

It was too…lumpy.

And now she felt something else. A sweet, mellow warmth on her face. It felt nice. Familiar. She knew what it felt like, but it wasn’t something she should feel crashed out on the floor of her apartment. And yet the warmth on her face felt like sunshine. Couldn’t be. Like many people her age, she liked to have a few drinks, maybe even get pretty tipsy, but she’d never been the type to get completely hammered and pass out outdoors.

Then she felt something wet and rough on her face.

She flinched away from it.

What the hell?

She felt it again. What could that possibly be?

Then it hit her.

Something’s licking me!

Her eyes snapped open.

The big dog’s lolling tongue lapped at her face again.

Jordan screamed.

She sat up and scooted away from the golden retriever. It sat on its haunches and grinned at her in its simple doggy way. The dog had company. A loose circle of animals surrounded her, all of them staring at her. A German shepherd sniffed at her feet. A squirrel sat on its hind legs and chittered at her. A big gray tomcat approached her from the right and nuzzled her hand. And there were more of them. Cats and dogs. A rabbit. A skunk. A row of gleaming blackbirds peered down at her from a telephone wire. Jordan scanned their faces and tried to tell herself this was just coincidence, all these creatures gathered around her like this. Christ, it was like being surrounded by Lamia’s minions again.

Jordan’s eyes went wide.

Fuck.

It all came back then, all the madness of the night before. The tortures she’d been forced to endure. The depravity. The cannibalism. She’d eaten bits of her next-door neighbor. Her stomach fluttered again and she thought she would be sick. But then she remembered how it had all changed, how the tables had turned. How powerful she’d felt while killing Angela. That unnatural energy thrumming within her as she ripped the bigger girl apart with the knife. And then there was the matter of Bridget’s crazy claims about her true nature. About her true mother.

Lamia.

She shook her head as the memories unspooled like a forgotten reel from a long-lost film. “No. No way. Nonononononono. A lie. A big fucking lie. All of it.”

But it wasn’t.

In her heart, she knew it was all true.

And now she remembered the rest of it. How she’d left Todd’s apartment in search of her mother, with no destination in mind. On foot. Hunting by instinct. She had walked the streets of Rockville for hours, that unnatural energy awake and alive within her the whole time, steering her relentlessly toward Lamia. She’d felt the connection between them, a sort of spiritual tether that was as real and palpable to her as any physical object. A connection so intense she couldn’t understand how she’d gone her whole life without being aware of it. She walked for miles and miles, the minions accompanying her the whole way, reverted as they were now to an animal form so as not to unduly alarm the clueless citizenry. Her winding path took her out of the upwardly mobile part of town surrounding the Rockville Community College campus to the farthest outskirts of the community until she’d arrived here.

The Zone.

And she remembered how the power had swelled within her as she’d entered the streets of the sprawling old neighborhood. Her flesh tingled. Her whole body felt like a live wire. But it wasn’t a wild energy. She sensed she could focus and control it. Direct it. Shoot bolts of electricity from her fingertips if she wanted. It sounded particularly fanciful, but she’d really believed she could do it. And even now she believed it.

But something had stopped her.

Some…presence.

She shivered as she recalled how it had invaded her mind. She’d felt it initially as a darkness stealing into her mind. A malign tendril slithering into her psyche. This was followed by an overwhelming sensation of cold. Freezing cold in the near-summer heat. And within moments that incredible power had deserted her, and the connection she’d felt with Lamia began to wane. But she soldiered on, continuing for a time in what she felt was the right direction.

Until an implacable voice spoke in her mind: STOP.

She obeyed immediately and without question. Whatever this presence was, it was many times more powerful than she. Defiance was not an option.

The voice spoke one more time: IT IS NOT YET TIME. NOW YOU WILL SLEEP.

The minions took over then, guiding her to the backyard of an uninhabited house, where she had spent the night. Jordan looked beyond the circle of animals and surveyed her surroundings. She saw the back of a small, one-story house. Some of its windows were boarded over. The barren backyard would need to be reseeded should the next owner wish to have a proper lawn. A sagging chain-link fence surrounded the rear of the property. The gate through which she and the minions had entered stood open. Another German shepherd crouched near it like a guard. No. Not like a guard. It actually was a guard. Jordan felt certain it would have ripped to shreds any intruder during the night. She wondered about this. Lamia didn’t want to see her, not yet, but she wanted her to be safe.

I came here to stop her.

Maybe to kill her.

So why not just kill me?

Maybe the answer was as simple as maternal love. Maybe Lamia did care for her in some twisted way. She supposed it was possible the creature did not relish the prospect of a confrontation with its daughter, one in which it might be forced to harm or possibly kill her. Jordan wasn’t at all certain this was true. It didn’t feel quite right. Whatever the truth was, she was left now with the matter of what to do next. And where to go.

She looked at the big golden retriever. Its grin widened and its tongue slopped out the side of its mouth. She sensed a genuine joy from the creature at her attention. A strong intuition told her this was the animal form of the beach ball creature from last night. She sighed at the thought. This whole situation was miles beyond fucked up. She couldn’t imagine a possible future beyond this day. Couldn’t imagine how she might slip back into her old life, the one devoid of strange creatures and grounded in everyday reality, a world that now seemed as distant and unreachable as the gates of heaven. But there was an odd comfort in knowing that this creature felt this simple, stupid love for her. That she was being looked after, guarded and kept safe.

She held out a hand and the dog came to her eagerly, smiling broadly as she patted its head and scratched its neck. “You’re a good boy. Christ, what am I saying, you’re not…look, could you do me a favor and stay in dog mode full-time? No offense or anything, but I really like you better this way.”

The creature’s only answer was to lick the back of her hand.

“Good enough.”

Time to get rolling.

Jordan still didn’t know what her next move should be, but she did know she couldn’t stay here all day. So she got to her feet and brushed herself off. She started toward the open gate and her new entourage followed her. The German shepherd guarding the gate greeted her with a friendly bark. She paused a moment to scratch the animal behind its ears, then continued through the gate.

A moment later she was standing in the middle of a narrow residential street. She saw a few cars parked in driveways and at the side of the street, but other than the distant buzz of a lawn mower there was little evidence of human activity. Of course. The kids were in school and the adults were at work. The emptiness creeped her out a bit. Knowing the reason for it didn’t help at all. After the shrieking madness of the night before, she craved the company of normal human beings. Stranger or friend, it didn’t matter. She’d be happy to encounter absolutely anyone unconnected with Lamia and her sick schemes.

She caught a flicker of movement in one of the parked cars. The Oldsmobile was parked a house down on the other side of the street. She moved a few steps toward it and was able to make out a human shape behind the wheel. It was hard to tell more about it because of the glare of the sun on the windshield. She couldn’t swear to it, but she was almost certain there’d been no one there a moment ago. This was a little strange, she supposed, but she wasn’t too worried. Nothing too bad could happen in broad daylight. Besides, she was tired and not up for another long walk back across town. Maybe she could hitch a ride. As she continued slowly toward the car, another shape popped up in the backseat and leaned through the gap between the seats. She still couldn’t make out much, but the person in the backseat seemed to be speaking in an animated fashion, gesticulating wildly for a moment before pointing a finger straight at Jordan.

Jordan began to feel a little afraid. She stopped moving toward the car. The golden retriever and one of the German shepherds sensed her fear and moved into position in front of her. Jordan’s heart hammered as her head filled with lurid visions of abduction and rape. How stupid she’d been to think nothing like that could happen in daylight. It happened all the time. Newspapers and A &E true crime shows were filled with such stories. She was suddenly very happy to have the minions arrayed around her. Then she remembered how she’d dealt with Angela and the sound of her own laughter startled her. She felt the power stirring within her again and knew she had nothing to fear from mundane human predators.

The Oldsmobile’s engine started and the black car rolled slowly toward her.

Jordan stood stock-still with her hands splayed before her, feeling that strange, potentially deadly energy crackle in her fingertips.

“Bring it on,” she whispered.

By now she almost hoped these guys really were would-be rapists. She was kind of curious to see what exactly she could do with this power.

The car rolled to a stop next to her. The driver side window slid down and she saw two skinny teenage boys staring at her with wide, frightened eyes. The boy in the backseat pointed a gun at her. The dogs snarled and leaned toward the car, readying to leap through the open window. Jordan touched the backs of their necks to calm them.

She looked at the boy with the gun and said, “Put that away, child. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

The boy gulped. His hands started to shake, but he kept the gun aimed at her. “No. You’re one of them, aren’t you?”

The word “them” was invested with such contempt that Jordan knew at once what he meant. “I’m not one of Lamia’s followers, if that’s what you’re asking me.”

The driver frowned as he scanned the faces of the agitated animals. “We saw them follow you. All those animals. Like they were escorting you. You must be one of them.”

Jordan sighed. “Who the fuck are you guys?”

The boy in back laughed, but there was no real mirth in the sound. “We’re dangerous outlaws.”

“Right. Look, can you guys give me a ride?” She forced a smile. “I promise you have nothing to fear from me. I’m not one of them. I want to stop them.”

The teenagers conferred in whispers for a few moments. Then the driver cleared his throat and said, “We’ll give you a ride, but those animals are staying behind.”

Jordan considered this for a long moment before nodding. Then she went to a knee and whispered in the golden retriever’s ear. “I’m going away for a while. I’ll be okay. And I have a feeling you can find me again if I need you. Am I right?”

The dog answered with a single, emphatic bark.

“Good boy.”

Jordan stood and got in the car.