Closing the safe, Brie spun the dial, reset the lasers, closed the panel, and shifted the shelving unit back into place.
Tomorrow, once daylight came, they would go after the eighth stone.
CHAPTERNINE
Hands reachedout from the ground, clawing, tearing at the dirt, and scraping against rocks as they ripped at the earth. Seeking to break free, those hands pushed their way further out as they broke through the dirt walls surrounding her.
Brie couldn’t breathe as those hands, with their gut-ripping claws, pawed at the air, seeking to destroy anyone in their way. And it washerthey were after.
Running blindly ahead, Brie dodged the hands groping at the air, catching her hair, and tearing at her clothes. When they sliced into her flesh, cries echoed from behind the walls as her blood excited the owners of those hands.
As she ran, the demons broke through the walls and worked to pull themselves out. And the more she ran, the more they emerged until the monsters hung half in and half out of the dirt while swiping at her.
The demon’s hideous faces blurred as she sprinted past them. Their gaping mouths blended with the black of the tunnel until they became yawning, insidious maws that would suck her in. And like a black hole, once she was inside, she would disappear.
Her heart raced, sweat coated her body, and her lungs labored for air, but she raced onward. She had no other choice; if she stopped, she would die.
Blood spilled down her arms and face as the hands dug into her flesh and tore out chunks of hair until the demons succeeded in pulling themselves free of the earth. Brie turned a corner and skidded to a halt when she spotted the monsters blocking her escape.
No!She inwardly screamed as they closed in on her.No!
Spinning, she thought to go back the way she’d come, but there was no escape behind her. They were closing in, and once they reached her, they would devour her.
* * *
Brie sat straight upin bed, gasping for air as she tried to drown out the lingering horror of her dream. Her heart raced so loudly she was sure they could hear it in Florida. She bit her lip and waited for someone to come, but no one arrived to check on her.
Drenched in sweat, Brie tossed aside her blanket and rose. Her knees shook as she walked over to the window and pulled the curtain aside. Moonlight was the only thing illuminating the yard and road beyond.
Nothing moved out there, and silence ruled the night, but she couldn’t help feeling like something was out there, watching… waiting. She tried to tell herself that the lingering horror from her dream was making her imagination run wild, but she couldn’t shake her sense of impending doom.
She always woke feeling this way after this nightmare. It would take some time, but eventually she would calm down. She wouldn’t sleep again tonight. That was okay, though; she was used to functioning on little sleep.
It was not her first time with this nightmare, and it wouldn’t be her last. And just like every other time, she was left wondering if it was only a product of her overactive imagination… or a premonition of horrors yet to come.
Horrors she hoped to help prevent from happening.
* * *
“What do we do with him?”Cabo asked the next morning.
Brie glanced over to where Asher slept on the couch. She wasn’t sure he was still asleep. His chest rose and fell, he had yet to show any sign of waking, but she sensed it was an act.
It didn’t matter if he was faking it; she didn’t plan to say anything the man couldn’t hear.
“He could stay here,” Zina suggested. “We have the security system, and we could tie him to something.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Cabo replied.
“Neither do I,” Brie agreed. “If he does somehow get free, he’ll know exactly where we are, and we’ll be too far away to catch him.”
Plus, he couldn’t be here alone with the stones. That wasnota chance she was willing to take. They had a three-hour drive ahead of them and no guarantee she would locate the stones fast or easily.
She’d hunted the other seven stones across the world. The next one, and maybe all three of the remaining stones, was in the northeast United States, but she’d found one in Greece, another in London, one in Russia, one in Africa, one in South America, and one in China.
She really wished she’d had some insight into the final stone already, so she could at least be prepared if she had a lot of traveling ahead of her or not. The eighth stone was in Connecticut; she’d seen most of its location, right down to the street it was on and the woods around it. The ninth remained mostly an enigma, but she’d glimpsed a sign for Ohio, so she suspected it was there.
She hoped the final one was close by; she wasn’t in the mood to hop on a plane and do a lot of traveling again. She would, of course, but it would be so much easier if she didn’t have to.
