"Stop." She forced herself to let go of the wood and walked steadily toward the vehicle. "You're dead."
Did you think you had killed me? Silly girl. Some things never die. Haven't you learned that by now?
"Everything dies. You died. I killed you."
Are you sure, little girl?
The Hummer loomed in darkness, its engine idling quietly as she approached it. She steeled herself, but when she opened the driver's-side door, it was to find the vehicle empty.
Oh, did you think he was here? No, little girl. It's just us. Just you and me.
Riley hesitated, then climbed up into the driver's seat.
Are you going to run back to him and hide from the truth? Or come to me and find it?
This time, she didn't hesitate. She put the truck in gear and backed out of the driveway.
Stupid. Of course it was stupid. She was unarmed. And listening to voices in her head. What kind of sense did that make? No sense, no sense at all.
Because her thinking was fuzzy and she felt cold, and the only thing she was certain of was that this was a bad idea and she would surely regret it.
But you've always wondered, haven't you? Since that day at the river. You've always wondered whether you missed, after all.
"I never miss."
Always a first time, right? And you weren't thinking clearly, after all. He was in your head-
Ah.
"He. So you're someone else, after all."
Silence.
Riley heard a little laugh escape her and realized she knew where she was going, where she needed to be. "Don't tell me there was someone who actually cared about him? Someone who actually missed the miserable son of a bitch once he was gone?"
It's not going to work, little girl.
"You mean I can't make you mad? I'm betting I can. Sooner or later."
Want to bet your life on it?
She drove across the bridge to the mainland and into Castle, heading for the park. The veil was back in her mind, distancing her from her senses, even herself. But this time, she made no attempt to fight her way through it.
This time, she knew a better way.
Conversationally, as though to someone in the passenger seat, Riley said, "What were you, the apprentice monster? Someone he was grooming to pick up wherever he happened to leave off?"
Don't try to work it all out, Riley. You'll just waste precious energy. Don't you realize you're going to need everything you can summon to fight me?
"Done toying with me, are you? After all these weeks of playing with me like a cat with a mouse. This-today-was all very sudden. Jarring. Almost as if you felt…rushed. I wonder why."
Silence.
"You saw the truth today, and it scared you, didn't it? You hadn't bargained on Ash. Oh, you delighted in taking away my memories of falling in love with him, but you didn't truly understand the connection between us. You had no idea it wasn't dependent on memories, that knowing I had trusted him would give me the anchor I needed. And you had no idea he could replenish the energy you were taking away."
He's not here, little girl. Just you. Just us.
Riley didn't let herself think about that, beyond the fleeting understanding that Gordon had been right, that she would always charge into things alone, convinced not so much of her own invincibility as of the responsibility she owed to others.
Those one loved were not put carelessly in harm's way.
Simple, that. A rule to live by.
Or maybe die by.
She parked the Hummer near the break in the fence that was no longer guarded. The path was lit only by what moonlight could filter through the trees, but it was a full moon, and very bright, so Riley could see well enough.
Not that it mattered, really. She was being drawn here, and this time she wasn't fighting it. Beneath the clouded surface of her mind, like a fogged mirror, she waited patiently to emerge. The fog protected her; now that she understood it, she could use it, wear it as she wore so many surfaces.
She allowed confused fragments of thought, seemingly random, to skitter across that misty barrier, while underneath, her mind was working with a clarity as bright and sharp as a knife.
Assembling the pieces of the puzzle.
Riley emerged into the clearing, her gaze going to the peculiarly ancient shape of the stone altar. Nothing hanging above it this time, but the circle had been re-created. She knew that, even though she couldn't see the salt, because there were candles placed at specific points.
Black candles.
Burning.
She took no more than two steps into the clearing and, preoccupied, failed to heed the prickle of warning on the back of her neck that came just seconds before he grabbed her from behind.
Chapter 21
Riley could command a literal arsenal of hand-to-hand combat techniques, everything from exotic martial arts to down-and-dirty street fighting, and it was the latter instincts that guided her in this particular instance.
With lightning speed, she reached back and grabbed him, her hand squeezing with full strength and short nails digging into his testicles.
He howled in agony and let go of her, and as he fell she twisted expertly and ended up facing him-with his gun in her hands.
Curled on the ground clutching his bruised flesh, gagging and moaning, he was so wrapped up in his own suffering that Riley was reasonably sure he was blind and deaf to everything else around him for at least a couple of long minutes.
She waited him out, his own gun trained on him, and, when he showed signs of beginning to recover, spoke calmly.
"Nature gave you greater size, more muscle, more aggression. Your edge. She also gave you balls." Riley cocked the revolver she had taken from him. "My edge."
Jake didn't even try to get up, and wheezed a few times before he was able to say, "Jesus…you fight dirty."
"I fight to win," she told him. "Always."
He wheezed some more, finally getting out, "I figured…you'd use some…of that…martial…arts shit."
"Yeah, I could have. But this way was more fun." Even as the flippant words left her, Riley had a realization, and there was no humor in her voice when she added, "You shouldn't be here. Goddammit, Jake, what're you doing here?"
He made a halfhearted attempt to rise, then fell back with a groan. "Shit, Riley, you told me to meet you here. Said you had it all figured out, and-"
She lowered the gun but continued to hold it in a practiced two-handed grip. "Then why did you grab me?"
"For the hell of it," he replied with another groan, this one more theatrical than real. "I thought you might try to throw me over your shoulder or something, but-Jesus Christ, Riley-"
Typical macho bullshit, she thought, not sparing the energy to even be indignant or disgusted by it. He'd been curious about her self-defense skills, and he'd wanted to get his hands on her.
Figured.
Some of her energy was focused on maintaining the deceptively foggy surface of her mind, but she spared a few tendrils to reach out and probe the clearing.
Absently, she said to Jake, "Stay down, understand? Don't even try to get up. I didn't call you myself, did I? Somebody passed on a message?"
"What're you talking about?"
"Who told you I wanted to meet you, Jake? Or can I guess?" She raised her voice. "You can come out, Leah."
There was a moment of silence, and then the tall redhead stepped into the clearing on the other side. And into the circle. She was definitely out of uniform, wearing a long black robe. The hood was down, allowing her long red hair to gleam in the bright moonlight.
"When did you know?" she asked calmly.
"Slow on the uptake, I'm afraid," Riley answered, matching the other woman's calm. "Today-or yesterday, rather-just before you started yanking my mind around. I figured out there was a connection I had missed. Gordon said it. That he didn't believe in coincidence. Ash and me both here, each with a past connection to John Henry Price, that was what he was thinking. Couldn't be coincidence. And wasn't. You wanted Ash in this. That's why it had to be here. In Castle. Because this is where you found Ash. Right?"