When the Shadows Fall by Elise Noble
CHAPTER 41 - SKY
“HAVE YOU GOT your seat belt on?” Asher asked.
No, but I did it up pretty damned quickly as he accelerated after Saul. The Mustang was fitted with six-point belts—the kind you got in racing cars—and it went like a rocket. What the hell did it have under the bonnet?
“How fast does this thing go?”
“It’s not about the top speed, Chem. I’ll never reach that. It’s about the acceleration.”
“So how fast does it accelerate?”
“My best eighth-mile pass is four point eight seconds at a hundred and fifty-three miles per hour. She’s got a thousand and forty-five horsepower from the engine alone, but another seven hundred when you add the nitrous.”
“What does that even mean?”
“It means she’s high-maintenance. Now do you see where most of my money went?”
Until that point, we’d been keeping Saul’s Mercedes in sight, but now Asher flipped a switch on the dash and the car shot forward as if a giant foot had kicked it. In an instant, my head was jammed back against the seat and we were kissing Saul’s rear bumper. Asher flashed the headlights.
“Just saying hi. You wanted to catch him? Well, we’ve caught him.”
“Okay, so I’m not sure I totally thought this through.” I didn’t have a phone and neither did Asher. We couldn’t call for help. “The last chase I was in was a lot slower.”
At least I had gas money this time. I’d started carrying fifty bucks in my back pocket, just in case.
“The last chase?” Asher shook his head. “I really don’t know you at all, do I?”
No, but at least this time when he said it, he didn’t sound quite so pissed.
“We can do a Q and A session later if you like, but for the moment, do you have any ideas?”
“Yeah.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“When we were in that cellar, before the gas came, Saul gave me a choice. He said it was time to decide between my family and my stupid infatuation. ‘Think with your head,’” Asher mimicked. “‘Not your dick. If you’re not with us, you’re against us.’”
“And I was the stupid infatuation?”
“So Saul thought.” What did that mean? “Then he told me he’d given my mother the same ultimatum, and she’d made the wrong decision. He pushed her away. Made her life hell. And he thought he’d do the same to me.”
“I’d give you a hug if you didn’t hate my guts and if we weren’t going at…” I leaned over to see the speedometer. “At a hundred and freaking ten miles an hour.”
“You want to slow down?”
“I wouldn’t mind.”
Smoothly, so smoothly, Asher inched forward and gave Saul’s bumper the tiniest nudge, and we shot past as the Mercedes began to fishtail wildly. I twisted in time to see it careen into a tree and disappear into the darkness.
“Now we can slow down.”
My breath came in pants as the car drew to a halt. Did that just happen? Did Asher really just run his uncle off the road?
“That? That was your plan?”
“I might regret it in the morning, but right now…” He shrugged. “I’m good. Prison won’t be any worse than that fucking school.”
“Prison?” I fumbled to undo my seat belt. “No way.”
“What are you doing, Sky?” he shouted as I slammed the car door. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to check he’s definitely dead.”
Dead men told no tales. And if Saul was still breathing? I’d finish the fucking job.
Saul, it turned out, hadn’t bothered to buckle up. The way his brain had splattered across the crazed windscreen reminded me of a Jackson Pollock painting. An expensive mess. But hopefully one that could be written off as an accident rather than the artist’s intention. The storm… A wet road…
Twigs cracked as Asher scrambled down the slope behind me.
“Don’t look,” I told him. “You don’t need to see this.”
“Is he…?”
“Yup. Does your car have much damage?”
Had he looked?
“Barely a scratch. It’ll polish out.”
Of course he’d looked. I backtracked to the rear of the Mercedes, and there were so many dings and dents from its trip through the trees that I wasn’t sure an extra one would matter. The road was quiet. No witnesses. Was there anything else we needed to consider? Something niggled me about this picture, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.
Then it hit me.
Why was the passenger door open?
For the second time that night, the snick of a gun being cocked made my stomach clench.
Oh, fuck.
Who was left? Ezra? Dr. Merritt? I turned slowly, catching sight of the expression on Asher’s face as I did so. The Mustang’s headlights were shining down on us, and he’d gone absolutely white.
“Grandma?” he whispered.
A grey-haired lady came into view, and the pistol she gripped with both hands was almost as big as she was. But it didn’t waver.
“Stay where you are, both of you. Hands in the air.” She tutted as we complied. “I’m disappointed in you, Asher. I thought you were different.”
“D-different?”
“You’ve taken after your mother. Let the devil bewitch you.”
Bloody hell, this whole family was nuts.
“What are you talking about?” Asher asked.
“I had plans. Without Mina’s influence hanging over you, I’d hoped that in time you’d join us in the family business.”
“You…wanted me to become a teacher?”
She just laughed. “The other family business.”
“The paintings?” he whispered.
The laugh turned into a cackle. “See? You’re not as dim as Ezra thought. Ezra…” She shook her head. “What a disappointment he turned out to be.”
“You’re criminals. Why the hell would you think I wanted to get involved?”
“Because this is your chance to do lasting good. Do you have any idea how many works of art were looted during the Second World War? Over half a million, and a hundred thousand of those are still missing. Scores were killed for their faith and for their treasures. And the people who hold those artifacts now, who hang them on their walls and show them off to their friends, they know where they came from. And still they won’t give them up. Somebody needs to right the wrongs of the past.”
“By…creating more wrongs?”
“In San Diego, you didn’t mind breaking the rules. The car races on the freeway. All those women you serviced for money.”
“You… You…”
“Of course I knew,” she snapped. “I’ve had a private investigator keeping tabs on you from the moment you could walk.”
This was bad. Really bad. The old bat was clearly psycho, but also smart. And then I got it. She was the original Master. And she’d still been behind the scenes, pulling the strings the entire time.
“So now what? What’s going to happen to us?”
“The girl’s got to go, of course.”
She gestured to me with the gun in an offhand manner. If I’d been ten feet closer, maybe I could have made a grab for it, but I was just too far away.
“When she came to Shadow Falls, you changed,” Grandma continued. “Stopped coming to dinner, neglected your family. She’s got a demon living inside her, the same as your father did, and demons need to be exorcised. But you, Asher… I haven’t quite made up my mind. You’re weak, but perhaps your soul can still be salvaged. Saul wasn’t perfect—that boy was too greedy for his own good—but with the proper guidance, he achieved great things. And family is family.”
“So you want me to come with you? To help you?”
“To serve me. No matter what Saul called himself, I’m still the Master.”
Yup, absolutely batshit crazy. And also still pointing a gun at me.
Asher inched closer. “We’d move away?”
“Thanks to your little whore, we don’t have much choice. I have money. We can start again.”
He glanced at me, and I saw the distress in his eyes. The sorrow. And something else… An apology? Why? He wouldn’t seriously go with the insane bitch, would he? Sure, he’d had a few transgressions, but the idea of him embarking on a life of crime was laughable.
But then his gaze flicked towards the gun, and I realised. I realised what he planned to do.
“Asher, no,” I choked out.
“I’m sorry, Chem.” He looked away. “Grandma, we should go. The cops will be coming.”
He closed the gap as she levelled the gun at me, and everything moved in slow motion. Her finger tightened on the trigger. Asher sprang forward. An almighty bang tore through the air, and blood sprayed far enough to splash my face.
“No!”
I barely recognised my own scream. Asher and his grandma had landed in a heap, and I clawed at him. If she’d missed his head, missed his vital organs… Fuck, I couldn’t even call an ambulance. Was he still alive? He groaned as I rolled him over, and I desperately tried to remember facts from the introductory first aid course Emmy had sent me on at Blackwood’s headquarters. I needed to stop the bleeding. Where was the wound? Asher was covered in blood, red and sticky with its distinctive coppery smell.
“Don’t leave me. Life won’t be the same without you driving me crazy, you asshole. Don’t you dare fucking leave me!”
Then hands pulled me away, and I struggled and slapped because I needed to help Asher. I had a belt. I could make a tourniquet. Drag him to the car, drive him to the hospital.
“Let me go!”
“Sky!” Someone slapped me hard, and my mind cleared enough to think.
“Rafael?”
“Focus. He’ll live. She won’t.”
He turned me back to face Asher, just in time for me to see him sit up. He was okay? I blinked and realised half of his grandma’s head was gone. Little pieces of cauliflower-brain were dotted all through the grass. Holy fuck. Rafael had gone for the apricot, and he hadn’t missed.
The sound of car doors slamming on the road above jarred me closer to reality. Who was it? Rafael didn’t seem concerned by the new arrivals, and I took that as a good sign.
“Fuck me. You made one hell of a mess tonight, Malone.”
Emmy was there. I almost cried with relief.
“Somebody bring blankets,” she shouted. “Either of you injured?”
“I’m not sure. I’m okay, but Asher…” He tried to get to his feet, and I grabbed his hand. “Are you hurt?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Your eyes?” Emmy asked. “Your throats? Lungs?”
“We had scuba gear.”
“Bet that was a sight. C’mon, get your arses in the car. We’ve got a hell of a lot of clean-up to do on this one.”
“In Asher’s car? Where should we go?”
“In Dan’s car. We’ll sort out the rest.”
A blanket was wrapped around my shoulders, and somebody nudged me towards the road. I grabbed Asher’s hand, now minus the dangling cuffs, and he came along too.