Part 60 (1/2)

They both gave her a stare. ”Shanna,” Jack said gently, ”the police would just lock us up for being crackpots, and you know it.”

Shanna tripped over a tree root. She steadied herself on the stone of a tomb. A night owl shrieked.

Clouds drifted over the moon. The cemetery was darker than ever.

Renate had run ahead of them. They followed.

They reached the de Bras tomb.

A mist seemed to emanate from it.

A red mist. Illuminated by a strange glow of crimson light deep from the bowels of the earth.

Or the bowels of h.e.l.l.

The iron gate gaped open.

In the strange, shadowed moonlight, it seemed to beckon.

Jade winced with pain. She was cramped, cold, her bones aching.

Her tongue felt like sandpaper. She felt...

Wounded.

A sharpness .. .

A weakness.

Darian kept smiling at Jade. ”I've enjoyed every slightest touch. So tempting. But tonight Sophia awakes, and we seize the moment together.

”Hey, me beauty!” he called to the harem girl. ”Come over here. I'll scare you. I promise-I'll scare you.”

The girl was coming closer and closer. Jade wrenched very hard on her wrist To her amazement, the ancient shackle cracked open. She reached for the old knight's sword.

”No, no, no, my lady!” Darian cried. He slipped his arm around her, pulling her out with such force that she wondered which would snap first-her other wrist, or the shackle.

The shackle broke. She was thrown down. She landed hard against a coffin.

Sophia's coffin.

The kids were laughing and shrieking. Darian was stroking the harem girl. Jade was dazed, and still aching from what they had done to her. ”Don't you understand!” she cried desperately, trying to rise. ”This is real. They're real....”

”She's good; she's really good!” the boy in the Freddy Krueger costume said. ”Better than you, buddy.”

Behind the Freddy were a candy striper, a guy dressed up as a nurse with big b.o.o.bs and very red lips, and two monks. There was also a Grim Reaper.

”Go, get out of here!” she cried.

”They'll never leave here alive. Not unless Lucian wants to show himself,” Darian said. He came at her, catching a handful of her hair before she could begin to move away. ”Call him. Call to him now. Tell him you're about to die. I will not taste and sample and savor your blood-I'll savage your veins until every last drop of your blood is gone- and your head is severed from your shoulders. Do it! Call him.

Tell him you're dying now.”

He practically had her hair ripped from her scalp. She gritted her teeth against the pain, but stared up at Darian. ”Call him-so that you can destroy him and then us?”

He tightened his grip on her hair. ”Do it! You can die slowly as well.”

”Jade!”

She was amazed to hear her name called. One of the monks threw back his cowl. To her absolute astonishment, she saw that it was Matt Durante. From beneath his brown wool garment, he pulled out a long stake.

”Matt, no, what are you doing here?”

”She's behind you! Sophia is behind you,” Matt called. ”Get up.

You've got to get away from Darian, and come to us. Quickly!”

Get away from Darian? They couldn't begin to imagine the power of his hands.

Jade twisted beneath Darian's merciless hold. Matt was right: Sophia had opened her eyes, and now sat up.

Dark, exotic, as astonis.h.i.+ngly beautiful as ever, she rose, smiling at Jade. ”This time you're mine!” she said softly. She looked with amus.e.m.e.nt at the others in the tomb. ”Darian, how droll. The silly fellow thinks she can just get away from you. I think I'll just kill her.

Now.”

”No!” Matt made a flying leap across the room with his stake.

He didn't make it.

Darian caught him with one hand, plucked the stake from him, and snapped it between his fingers.

The second monk let out a cry, racing forward. It was Danny, Jade realized with sinking horror. Of course. Danny would have never let Matt come alone on such a mission.

But Danny fared no better than Matt. Darian simply lifted his hand, striking Danny with such force that he screamed with pain and was slammed back against the dank stone walls. Sophia stepped gracefully out of her coffin and walked toward Jade.

Jade scrambled up, gripping her hair to try to prevent some of the pain as Darian dragged her to her feet to face Sophia.

He no longer held her.

But she wasn't free.

Now she was trapped.

Darian remained behind her. Sophia was before her.

It was then that she saw Jack Delaney hurrying, stumbling, into the tomb. He was followed by her sister and Renate. He waved a vial of holy water in front of him.

”Let her go. Now. Or I splash it all over your face. Your head. If your whole head evaporates, you're dead, right?”