Big Cheese hesitated a moment, thinking it over. I mentally held my breath, praying he would go for it. And for once, something actually went my way.
“Yeah, sure,” he finally said. “It’s late, and I don’t feel like dealing with her tonight, either.” I heard him turn around, though I still couldn’t see anything except Raphael’s ass.
“Here’s a little something for you two lovebirds to think about tonight,” he said, addressing the Brewsters in a nasty voice. “Someone’s got to pay for your inability to stop the exorcist from poking her nose where it doesn’t belong. In the morning, you’re going to tell me which kid you like better, and you’ll get to keep her. You do that, and I’ll take care of the other one quick. But if you make me pick, it will be very, very slow, and you’ll get to watch every minute of it.”
Even Raphael had trouble swallowing that threat. I could feel him tense beneath me.
I started struggling again as Claudia burst into sobs and Raphael carried me out of the room.
CHAPTER 27
Raphael carried me down a long hallway, then opened a door and stepped through into a dimly lit stairwell. In my peripheral vision, I could see Big Cheese and the other demon following. No way we’d get lucky enough to be allowed into the basement without an escort.
My body jounced against Raphael’s shoulder as he carried me down the stairs. Then, instead of just setting me down on my feet, he slung me off his shoulder and let me fall to the floor. The hard, cement floor, I might add. Once again, I was glad to have Lugh blocking out the pain.
Lugh managed to wriggle around until we could see the room into which we’d been deposited.
I’d known the hope that we could just snatch the kids and run with minimal risk was very low. But even that tiny hope faded when I looked around.
An unfamiliar demon—Alex, I presumed—sat on a straight-backed chair near the stairs, holding the younger girl on his lap. She was fast asleep, and though in her disheveled state she wasn’t as cute as she’d been in the photo, her vulnerability brought out maternal instincts I hadn’t thought I had. I wanted to snatch her from that demon’s arms and make him pay for touching her.
The other girl was wrapped up in a blanket on the floor. She, too, was asleep, her thumb stuck in her mouth, her knees curled to her chest. I suppose if you’re young enough, and tired enough, you can sleep anywhere, even on a cold cement floor while being held hostage by demons.
We couldn’t make any aggressive moves while the demon had his hands on the little girl. She’d be dead or possessed as soon as we tipped our hand.
The situation went from bad to worse when I noticed the air bed and the cot set up just to the right of the stairs. Big Cheese and his crony were heading for them, and I realized they all slept down here with the kids. As if one of them couldn’t handle a three-year-old and a five-year-old with ease! Hadn’t they ever heard of overkill?
Raphael stood there for a moment, assessing the situation. His face didn’t give away much, but he had to be coming to the same grim conclusion I was: this was not going to be a piece of cake, and we were now into the “winging it” stage of our plan.
“I presume you don’t need me anymore?” Raphael asked Big Cheese, who’d sat down on the air bed and started stripping off his sneakers and socks.
Big Cheese sneered a bit, not looking up from his task. “I didn’t need you in the first place.”
Raphael shrugged. “Well then. Good night, all.”
And then he started plodding up the stairs. I wondered what the hell he was up to. My only guess was that he was going to turn around at the last moment and try to shoot the demon that was holding on to the little girl. He was our biggest, most immediate threat. But that still left two demons and two children for us to take care of. The kids would probably wake up and panic when they heard a gunshot. If the demons were smart, which I was betting they were, they’d immediately go for the kids and use them as hostages. Then what would we do?
But Raphael didn’t turn, didn’t even look over his shoulder. He just marched to the top of the stairs, opened the door, and stepped out. I held my breath, still expecting him to make a surprise attack. But he didn’t.
Big Cheese came to squat beside me so he could meet my eyes. “If I hear so much as a peep out of you, the girls are going to pay for it. Got it?”
I didn’t respond, and Big Cheese punctuated the point with a vicious kick to my rib. I heard something snap, and Lugh stifled a scream.
“That ought to give you some extra incentive to stay still and keep quiet,” Big Cheese said. Then he left me lying there and flopped onto the air bed. Cronyman had already stretched out on his back and folded his hands behind his head. Making himself nice and comfortable.
And still no Raphael. My spirits sank, and I cursed both myself and Lugh for fools.
We should never have trusted him, I said bitterly. We should have known he’d never risk his ass for a couple of kids. He just used them as an excuse to get Tommy, and now that he’s got what he wants, to hell with you and me.
Maybe he would have followed through on his promises if the rescue had looked easy enough. But when he’d seen the odds were against it, he’d decided to cut his losses and abandon us here. After all, he had what he wanted, didn’t he?
Don’t give up on him yet, Lugh said. He may well have something up his sleeve.
Yeah, the knife he’s using to stab us in the back!
I lay there stewing, wondering how the hell Lugh and I were going to get out of this without getting the children killed, for about five minutes, my rage increasing with every tick of the clock. Then I heard the sound of angry voices upstairs. I recognized one of them as Claudia’s. The other was Tommy’s, which made me hope Raphael hadn’t abandoned us after all.
The angry voices came closer, and I realized it wasn’t just anger I heard in Claudia’s voice—it was hysteria. Tommy bellowed something, but the basement was just deep enough that I couldn’t hear his words clearly. Claudia’s voice rose to a scream.
Big Cheese and Crony had both sat up and were staring at the ceiling. Crony looked amused, but Big Cheese looked pissed off. I guess the commotion was interfering with his beauty sleep. Alex still sat like a statue with the sleeping girl on his lap.
The door at the head of the stairs crashed open. Both Big Cheese and Crony leapt to their feet. Alex tightened his hold on the girl, who woke up and immediately started crying. Her sobs woke her sister, who cried in chorus, curling up into the smallest ball she could manage and pulling the blanket over her head.
Tommy, his face red with rage, eyes glowing with demonic fury, started down the stairs. Claudia followed behind him, grabbing uselessly onto his arm and screaming.
“Don’t! Please!” she begged, but she couldn’t hold him off any more than she could a speeding train. He dragged her all the way to the base of the stairs.
“What’s going on?” Big Cheese demanded.
“Bitch!” Tommy shouted, and flung Claudia away from him. She hit the wall beside the stairs with a cry of pain, then crumpled to the floor.
“What’s—” Big Cheese started to repeat, but Raphael cut him off.
“We’re not waiting until tomorrow to settle things!” he snarled, striding across the room toward the screaming little girl on Alex’s lap.
A part of me knew this had to be just an act. If Raphael were betraying us, he’d simply have left us here, and we never would have heard from him again. Certainly he’d have had no reason to pick a fight with Claudia, whom he didn’t even know. But distrust dies hard, and watching him stride across the floor toward that helpless child with murder in his eyes inspired a kind of horrified terror I hoped never to feel again.
Lugh rolled over onto his side, ostensibly to watch what was happening. But by rolling over, he made it so his cuffed hands were hidden from view. I felt him use my own fingers to jerk open one of the bracelets, the lock no match for a demon’s strength.