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I closed the book in my lap and leaned back into the plush leather. As much as I wanted to stop the goddess, I hadn’t considered going rogue and sidestepping Luke and Gabe. They’d lock me up forever if they found out. That was, if the goddess didn’t kill me first.
“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” I started. “We don’t even know where to find her.”
“Oh, she’ll come,” he said with a grin. “She’s got a taste for your blood. Trust me, she’ll show up.”
“But…”
Adam clicked his tongue and leaned forward in his chair.
“And here I was, thinking you would do anything to save the rest of your friends in that little dump of a town. I mean, for all you know, Margaret Thatcher’s demon could be snatching another one as we speak.” He ran a hand along the armrest, looking at me through his thick brown lashes. “Or what if she attacks Gabe again? You know that we barely got away. Next time, Gabe might not be so lucky.”
I swallowed hard. Those were the exact thoughts that had been bouncing around my head all evening.
When I didn’t answer, Adam grinned as if I’d verbally agreed to his plan and pulled Ashley into his lap. She squealed and hit him on the shoulder playfully, before disengaging herself and moving to the chair next to him. I tried hard not to vomit on their laced combat boots.
“I want to do it tonight,” Adam said. He waited until I looked up in surprise before continuing. “Before anyone else has a chance to be hurt.”
“Now?” If I had butterflies before, it was nothing compared to the hailstorm that was taking place in my belly. “Isn’t that a bit rushed?”
He raised his eyebrows. “It’s now or never.”
“You’re not going anywhere without me.” Ashley abandoned the pouting. Her face settled into a fierce scowl that would’ve intimidated me weeks ago. “If you’re going against Margaret, you’re going to need help.”
I wasn’t going to deny that having another warrior around would be for the best. If only it didn’t have to be Ashley. But if Gabe was going to stay in the dark, then I had to let her in.
“Fine. Let’s go,” I said, before I could talk myself out of listening to Adam’s guilt trip.
Maybe this was the kind of plan we needed. Simple and clean. I was the bait and Ashley and Adam would take her down. Done and over.
Adam shook his head and gave me a toothy smile. “Big brother isn’t going to like this…”
An hour later, we had snuck away from the manor and into the northern forest. Adam had assured me that the patrol would’ve already changed at the Hell Gate, and that we wouldn’t be spotted. The plan was to go as far north as my favorite stream and wait for Margaret. If she showed, Adam and Ashley would take her out. If she didn’t, we’d try again tomorrow night.
The nagging feeling that I was crazy for putting my life in the hands of the man who had just tried to kill me a few weeks ago wouldn’t go away. So, I focused on the dark forest and the silver tipped dagger in my pocket. Ashley and Adam had lined themselves with weapons – swords, dagger, a crossbow, and a handgun. I didn’t feel safe using them yet, so I stuck with the dagger.
During my training, Gabe had explained the use of silver on all the weapons. He said it was the only metal that could actually kill a demon. Iron, gold, nickel – anything else, was useless. The purity of the silver was combined with a blessing ritual that the elders did on all the Nephilim weapons. Cut off a demon’s head or stab it in the heart, and it would sink back to Hell.
“End of the line, folks,” Ashley said.
I squinted my eyes past the light of my flashlight. The creek flowed twenty feet ahead of us, lit up by the brilliant full moon that shined through the needles of the pines. It was here that I’d rescued Gabe and this whole thing started. If it ended here, I’d be more than happy.
“She’s got to be here,” I whispered, clutching the dagger in my pocket.
Adam pulled his sword out of its sheath and clicked his tongue. “How about you call for her and we’ll wait in the dark? If she shows up, we’ll have the element of surprise.”
I waited until they had disappeared in the shadows of the ponderosa pine and then scanned the forest with my flashlight. Tiny eyes flashed in the light. Probably raccoons and possums scrambling in the dark. Nothing big enough to threaten me. I took a deep breath and rolled my shoulders. Now was the time.
“You want me, come get me,” I yelled into the dark. It felt a little silly to be talking to no one, but I kept going. “Come on, Margaret Thatcher. That’s right, I know your real name now. Come out and play.”
Five minutes of shouting into the dark hadn’t produced more than an agitated flurry of bats through the trees. I was beginning to lose hope when a branch broke behind me. With the beam of my flashlight, I lit up the woods and screeched. The goddess was standing on two feet in a gap between two pine trees, her eyes reflecting the flashlight like a cat. She bared her teeth and hissed.
Now that I knew who she was, I could pick up the resemblance. Her skull, which I’d first thought was bald, still had a few strands of long blonde hair clinging to the shrunken scalp. She looked stronger than the last time I’d seen her. Muscles tensed along her arms and thighs. Her cheekbones were high and dignified under the paper-thin skin. But that was where the humanity ended. Margaret Thatcher was no more.
“You’ve been attacking people I care about,” I said with a tremble. “I’ve come to stop you.”
She tilted her head like she could understand what I was saying and leered at me.
“You’re not going to take me alive.” I took the dagger out of my pocket and unsheathed it, letting the silver glint in the yellow glow of the flashlight.
