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When she’d been confined at the Regent Psychiatric Institute many a night she’d lain awake in her prison, dreaming of the chance to stretch her legs and run as far away as she could. Of taking in great gulps of free air and leaving Mergerone and his awful hands, smelly breath, and wet mouth behind.
“Pick up the pace,” Priest growled, inches from her back. Overhead, gray bulbous clouds blocked out the sun and a cold wind scattered bits of debris into the air. Small stones hit her face hard, like icicles against glass. She gasped as pain rifled over her cheekbones and dug deeper for more strength as she ran across the street, narrowly avoiding a large SUV.
The driver yelled an obscenity at them as they hopped the guardrail and slid down a steep embankment that led to the park.
No longer was the town of Waterford quaint. It was teeming with otherworld, with darkness and evil. Fear clutched at her insides, and Kira wove through the metal playground equipment, pausing long enough to catch her breath before Priest pointed to a house set back from the road, a few hundred feet up.
“There,” he said, nodding. “We’ll take the car.”
They reached the driveway just as the clouds overhead began to seep heavy, fat drops of rain. The car, a small, silver Honda Accord, had more rust along its panels than steel, and Kira thought it would be a miracle if the damn thing actually worked. She looked back toward where they’d come from, her eyes narrowing as she tried to see through the gloom and thick sheets of rain that now fell.
“I’ll see about the keys.”
She heard Priest but couldn’t look away from the vision that now emerged from the rain and mist. A shudder wracked her body and she pushed long, wet pieces of hair from her eyes as the fear inside her tripled. Huge, hulking beasts—seven of them—walked through the park in slow, controlled movements. They were flanked by two animals nearly as tall as them—animals that looked an awful lot like Logan’s hellhound form.
Red eyes burned into the back of her brain and a steady, low hum began to navigate its way along the slick driveway, up her legs, where it settled inside her stomach.
Hurry!
The whispered word slipped through her brain and then she yanked on the car door, eyes frantically searching for Priest as he appeared from behind the two-story, white plank house.
“Hurry!” she shouted hoarsely.
Priest jumped into the car, cursing as he adjusted the seat to fit his tall frame, and when the engine roared to life, Kira exhaled, her hot breath misting up the window as she tried to see. The rain was now heavier, and the only thing her eyes could pick out were the two sets of burning red eyes—hellhound eyes. They terrified her more than the hulking beasts who accompanied them.
Images—smells and emotions—assaulted her. She’d been dragged down to the underworld so many years ago and yet it felt like yesterday.. Kira was ashamed when she squeezed her eyes shut and whimpered at the heaviness of it all.
Would they ever truly go away?
Her heart was beating so hard it was painful and she gasped, clutching at the door handle as Priest spun out of the driveway and turned right, heading away from the danger.
They drove in silence, the old car giving all it had to keep up with the relentless pressure Priest applied to the gas pedal. The only sounds in Kira’s ears were the tires humming along asphalt, the splat of rain against the windshield, and the roar of the wind as it buffeted them mercilessly.
Her chest constricted tightly and she had a death grip on the dagger in her hands as they blew through a stop sign and continued forward. She kept glancing in the sideview mirror but for the moment couldn’t see any sign of their pursuers.
They were on a rural road and when they came to the next intersection, they were forced to stop as a large blue tractor pulled a load of pumpkins along the road in front of them. The rain had stopped and warmth seeped through the glass windows, though it did nothing to penetrate the cold inside her bones. A long, slow breath fell from between her lips as she gazed ahead at the wagon full of pumpkins.
“That’s the slowest tractor on the planet,” she muttered.
Priest remained silent, his jaw clenched, his eyes on the rearview mirror.
Her fingers gripped the dagger and her foot tapped the floor nervously as the wagon finally cleared enough room for Priest to gun the engine. They zipped across the road and barreled ahead, the silver car’s engine making a grinding noise, no doubt in protest to the relentless pressure to move. Minutes later she relaxed slightly and turned to Priest.
“I think we lost them.”
Kira didn’t see the black SUV come from out of nowhere but she sure as hell felt the hit when it crashed into the back of the Accord. The car swerved crazily and slammed into a ditch, where it bounced on impact and went airborne.
Kira was tossed around like a puppet and for a moment everything went hazy. She felt pain. Smelled blood. She heard cursing—words she didn’t understand. They came from behind her, or maybe ahead of her.
She struggled to open her eyes but everything was heavy. Chaotic.
Kira didn’t give in and as the moments ticked past, eventually her eyes slowly opened. She shivered at the sight of three dark forms solidifying in the mist. They moved toward her, and even though Kira wasn’t sure if she believed in a higher power anymore, she said a soft prayer hoping someone would hear her…
But as the demons moved closer, darkness bled into the hazy red in her mind and a painful groan escaped her lips. And she slipped into oblivion.
Chapter Four
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