Carolyn had grabbed the man’s hand, preventing him from plunging the knife down between Douglas’s shoulder blades. Meanwhile, Dean had straddled the man’s back and was attempting to pull him off of Douglas. But the intruder seemed to have superhuman strength. Carolyn he shook off like a pesky fly. And with a grunt and a backward thrust, he was able to send Dean crashing into the banister.
But it gave Douglas time enough to slip out from under his attacker. He scrambled to his feet as the man growled like a wolf and retrained his eyes upon his prey.
Karen had backed up behind Paula and was frantically pressing numbers on her cell phone. But as the man flashed that enormous knife, Paula realized he wasn’t just after Douglas. He wanted to kill all of them.
It was the room.
The curse was not over.
They had to get out of there. Since the maniac blocked their way to the front door, there was only one other option available to them. Taking hold of Karen’s arm, Paula yanked her toward the parlor. Carolyn and Douglas were rushing that way as well.
But that left Dean on the stairs.
The man let out an inhuman roar. He seemed like an ape at the zoo, banging its chest in a raw display of power and aggression. The doors of the parlor opened a crack, and Linda urged them inside. Paula frantically looked around for her brother, but she was pushed along by the force of Carolyn and Douglas and Karen. They literally fell into the parlor as Linda locked the heavy oak doors behind them.
But then she realized her husband was not with them.
“Dean!” she screamed.
“Daddy!” Zac and Callie began shrieking.
“I’ve got to go back out there and get him,” Paula said. She had always protected her baby brother. She couldn’t abandon him now.
“No!” Karen said, clutching at her sweater. Her eyes were wide with shock and terror. “You can’t go back out there! He’ll kill you!”
“What’s wrong with the phones?” Douglas shouted, desperately trying to call for help on his cell phone.
“Useless,” Carolyn said, looking down at her own.
“Mine has no power either,” Karen cried. “What’s going on here?”
They heard a scream.
“Dean!” Linda shouted.
“I’m going out there,” Paula said. With sudden force she grabbed one of Desmond Young’s rifles from the wall. Uncle Howard had told her that he kept them loaded. “The rest of you take the children out through the window,” she instructed. “Run as fast as you can down the cliff path and get the sheriff.”
“Paula, don’t go out there,” Carolyn said. “You have no idea how dangerous that man is. I know him. He’s a killer.”
“Then he’s human,” Paula said. “Not some apparition from that room.”
Carolyn shuddered. “He’s human. At least, he was.”
Paula gave her a tight smile. “Then he’s not so dangerous that a bullet through his heart won’t stop him.”
“No!” Karen was crying hysterically. “Please, Paula, please don’t go out there!”
“Oh, baby.” Paula lightly touched Karen’s face. “There’s no way I can just leave my brother,” she said, before opening the door and heading back out into the foyer.
When she was a girl, Uncle Howard had taught her how to shoot, and she’d always had very good aim. She’d have to trust that she hadn’t lost the talent. Holding the rifle out in front of her, her eyes scanned the foyer for the maniac. He was nowhere to be seen. Uncle Howard was somewhere in the house. Perhaps he was in danger.
Then she spotted Dean.
Her brother lay on the floor in a pool of blood. Paula hurried over to him. The blood was gushing from his shoulder, and he was struggling to stand. Thank God he was still alive.
“I’ll get you into the parlor,” Paula said, helping him up, “and they can bind your wound.”
“Should’ve known you’d come for me,” Dean said, his voice weak. “But you shouldn’t have risked it.”
“Where is he?” Paula asked.
“He went outside.”
From the parlor now there came screams. Paula rushed forward, flinging open the door, rifle at the ready.
“We were getting ready to go out the window,” Linda said, “but he was out there, trying to get in.”
“Where is he now?” Paula barked.
“He’s gone around the house,” Douglas shouted.
The terrace, Paula thought. He’s going to come back in through the French doors on the terrace. Uncle Howard was out there. He’d kill Uncle Howard.
She hurried down the corridor to the dining room, looking furiously around. She saw no sign of anyone. But the French doors were open. He’s back inside the house…
Cautiously she moved from room to room, the rifle ready in her hands. Her breathing was labored. Everything was on high alert. Her vision, her hearing. The fine hairs on her arms stood at attention.
And yet she didn’t see him until too late.
He was behind the kitchen door, waiting. As she passed him, he lashed out. She felt the sting of the blade pierce her side, and the warmth of the blood flow down her leg. She spun, pointing the gun and firing. But he was too fast. Superhuman fast. She shot an enormous hole in the plaster of the kitchen wall. Then he was behind her again. A part of her brain knew she was about to die. The knife was positioned at the small of her back.
But then, chaos.
Paula heard a shout and then a thud. She whipped around to see her brother, bloodied but unbowed, tackling the man, sending him sprawling across the kitchen. Copper pots and pans, hanging over a counter, clattered to the tiled floor in all the commotion. Paula steadied her hands despite the pain in her side and tried to get the maniac in focus. But now he was tussling with Dean. She didn’t want to shoot her brother by mistake.
“Dean, get away from him!” she shouted.
For a second she saw the man’s face-his crazy dark eyes, the terrible scar down his left cheek. For that one fleeting second she had a chance to blow his head off. But then Dean grabbed the knife, trying to wrest it from his hands. Instead, the maniac growled like a beast and plunged the blade deep into Dean’s abdomen.
“No!” Paula screamed and fired.
The bullet blew a hole in the madman’s chest, and he fell back.
Paula rushed forward. Behind her, she realized, were Douglas and Carolyn. Dean was bleeding profusely now.
“We’ve got to get him to a hospital,” Carolyn said.
“Paula, too,” Douglas added.
“No, I’m fine,” Paula insisted.
She looked down at the man she had shot sprawled on the floor. There was no blood coming from the hole in his chest.
“Paula.”
The voice was Dean’s.
She bent down.
“You’ve always been there for me,” he managed to say.
She smiled. “You saved me this time, little brother.”
“Take care of Zac and Callie for me,” he rasped.
The tears began dropping down Paula’s cheeks. “We’re going to get you to a hospital,” she told him. “You’ll be fine.”
But even as she said the words she saw the life disappear from his eyes.
“Dean!” she cried.
Douglas lifted his body and carried it down the hall to the study. Carolyn followed, helping Paula walk. She could feel the blood still flowing steadily from the wound in her side. But all she was really aware of was the fact that her brother was dead.
Something made her turn back to see the madman who had killed him one more time.
And to her horror, he was no longer on the floor.
Chapter Twenty-nine
“Daddy?”
Chelsea peered into her father’s room.
The noise from downstairs had terrified her. She’d run to Ryan’s room, only to discover he was not there. There were screams and thuds from the foyer. What was going on? Had the terrors of that room escaped into the house?
Then she’d heard the gunshot. With mounting fear, Chelsea hurried down the corridor to her father’s room, barefoot and still in her pink nightie.