He shook his head, crayon still moving. “In my head. I see it when I close my eyes sometimes.” He finally looked up at me, hisexpression impossibly innocent. “It’s in the dark place. Where the knocking man waits.”
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move.
“What knocking man, baby?”
“He knocks and knocks. He’s mad.” Timmy’s lower lip trembled. “He wants to come through the door and take the girl away.”
Allie.
I met Eric’s eyes, then Stuart’s, who leaned forward, then tossed his head violently back. “The seed of she who closed the gate.” His voice was a low rumble. “The child of he who called me forth. Used, then hid. She who bore the key. From the blood of an innocent, I come, and all three shall feel the pain of my vengeance and the hell-traitor shall be mine.”
The words stopped and Stuart slumped forward, landing on the carpet in a heap.
“Daddy!” Timmy ran to his father. “Mommy! Mommy!”
I was there in a second, holding Timmy, looking to Allie and Eric for help, but they were already moving. Allie to take and comfort Timmy, Eric to help me get Stuart back in his chair as he woke up, confused and disoriented.
“Another one?”
“I’ll tell you about it later. Just rest now.”
“I’ll take him upstairs,” Marcus said. “You should sleep,” he added to Stuart. “Keep talking. I’ll catch up.”
Then he was walking Stuart away and I had to fight the urge to go with him. Not only because I had a job to do here and knew perfectly well Marcus could handle this. But also because I feared that Stuart wouldn’t want me there at all.
For a moment, no one spoke. Then Mindy said, “The seed of she who closed the gate.That’s got to be. Allie, right?”
I looked at Allie, who nodded. “Yeah, got there on my own.”
Mindy consulted her ever-present tablet. “Right. And then he said,The child of he who called me forth. Used, then hid. She who bore the key.”
“Well, Allie must be the key,” Laura said. “Because keys make things lock.”
I looked at the others, and everyone nodded.
“And I’m the one who bore her,” I said, meeting Allie’s eyes. “So he’s looking for vengeance against the three of us.”
“How?” Allie asked.
For a moment we all just looked at each other. “I guess we won’t know until we know,” Eric finally said. “We need to be ready for anything.”
I almost smiled. “So what else is new?”
“He must be building a portal somewhere here,” Eric said. “Somehow, he’s got help on this side, and he’s trying his damnedest to get through.”
“Then we need to find that thing pronto,” Eddie said. “Because if he comes through, we’ll all end up in hell with him.”
“The dark place,” Allie murmured. Then her head snapped up. “Wait. Mindy, what was that prophecy? The one Stuart made at orientation. The binding enchantment thing.”
“Hang on...got it. The door opens below that which binds enchantment,” Mindy recited. “The vessel of light that is shadowed. Blood calls to blood. The ruby bleeds.”
“Below that which binds enchantment,” Eric repeated. “Something that binds. Contains. Holds magic in check.”
“The whole mansion was demonic once,” I said slowly. “Monroe’s experiments. But we cleansed it. Father Corletti blessed every room.”
“Every room, including the one that was already holy,” Eddie said, sitting up straighter in his chair. “The Safe Room.”
That had to be it. The Safe Room was exactly what it sounded like, only it was designed to protect its inhabitants from badguys both human and demonic, which was why the walls were reinforced not just with steel but with relics. Actual saints’ bones, sealed into the foundation and mixed into the mortar.
