Bryan Smith - Soultaker

12:51.

That sense of urgency intensified. Time seemed to be moving faster. He imagined the hands of a clock moving in a fast-forward circle, minutes falling away like seconds. No. Faster. Like tiny fractions of a second. The thought roused the paranoiac within him. He’d seen things that challenged his concepts of reality. He thought again of Lamia and what these kids swore she could do. Things he no longer had any reason to doubt. And if she could do those things, was it possible that she could speed up time, or at least somehow alter the way they perceived the passage of time?

No.

He was willing to believe a lot. She was a demon. Okay. She had powers. The ability to bend people to her will by reaching into their minds. She was strong. Powerful. Almost inconceivably ancient. But even a demon would not have the power to alter the rules of time and space. He had to calm down and concentrate on the reality of the situation. Focus on what he knew and what he could do. A surrender to irrational panic would only serve to further Lamia’s goals.

He made another hairpin turn and checked the rearview mirror. The kids looked as if they were nearly as afraid of his daredevil driving as they were of the demon. Their faces were ashen, their eyes wide. Jordan sat between the boys. Her hands clutched the edge of the seat between her legs. She was holding on for dear life. And she looked not at all like a person capable of levitating a human being merely by concentrating.

“Kelsey!”

The taller of the two boys flinched at the sound of his name. He looked at Jake’s reflected eyes. “Yeah?”

“Tell me again about your idea.”

“I’m not sure it’ll work. It was just something I read in a book on ancient mythology. Could be just a lot of ancient bullshit.”

They were out of Washington Heights now and headed down a wider avenue. Traffic heading into town was thicker than he would have imagined for this time of day and so he was forced to slow down. He resisted the almost overpowering temptation to weave recklessly through the tiny gaps in traffic. With his luck, they’d sideswipe an SUV or Hummer and crash, go down in an inglorious blaze. Or worse, a cop would try to pull them over. He shuddered at the possibility. There were so many ways an encounter with the police could lead to unmitigated disaster. He had two armed fugitives in his car. He could be arrested as an accomplice or accessory. Or the cop might turn out to be loyal to Lamia. Guns would be drawn. There would be shooting. Death. Maybe even his own.

Shit.

He glanced at the rearview mirror again. “That might be true, Kelsey. But we’re gonna have to roll the dice here. We’re damn near out of time and options. So tell us again what the book said.”

Kelsey shifted in his seat and shot an uncertain glance at Will. “The book says you can’t kill a demon. They’re immortal. There’s nothing we can do about that.” He paused as he glanced at Will again. The other boy nodded and Kelsey continued: “The only way to get rid of the bitch is a banishment spell. It would expel her from the mortal realm. Maybe send her to hell or some other dimension, fuck, I don’t know. The book wasn’t real clear on that part.”

Will said, “Somewhere else anyway.”

Jake waited for a Mazda to ease past him and did a quick lane change; then his eyes went back to the mirror. “Sounds good. I don’t care where she goes, so long as she’s gone from here.”

Kelsey cleared his throat. “Um…there is a bit of a catch.”

Jake tensed. He’d figured there would be a catch. He’d hoped he was wrong about that. Hell. He was always right about things on the negative side of the scale. “Spill it.”

Kelsey’s jaw tightened. He didn’t want to say it, but forced the words out anyway: “It would require a…blood sacrifice.”

Kristen’s head snapped toward Jake. He looked at her and was startled by the change in her. She’d said nothing since leaving the house, had just sat there staring straight ahead, looking numb and zoned out. But now she looked alert and anxious. She still didn’t say anything, but her eyes conveyed a warning of some kind. A silent rebuke. But why? It was strange but he couldn’t worry about it right now.

He glanced over his shoulder at Kelsey. “A blood sacrifice? Would that be like a voodoo thing, with an animal?”

Kelsey grimaced. “No. It has to be a human sacrifice.”

Jake laughed and shook his head. “Well, of fucking course it does. We wouldn’t get off that easy. Any other insane requirements for this barbaric ancient ritual? I understand those long-ago jackasses were big on sacrificing virgins. Usually young female virgins.” He laughed again as he made another lane change, sliding in behind an old but immaculate Lincoln Continental with a single, incongruous sticker on its bumper: LET YOUR FREAK FLAG FLY! “Because I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think we’re gonna have a problem locating one of those within an hour.”

“Book didn’t say anything about virgins or the sex of the victim, just that it has to be human.”

“Great. Chalk up one for our side, I guess.” Jake drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. He was feeling more anxious by the moment. There was so much they didn’t know. So many things they were probably overlooking. The drumming rhythm intensified as he tried to kick his mind into gear. Then he thought of something. “Say…where is that book now?”

“Um…”

“Spit it out.”

“Well…” Kelsey sighed. “It’s back there.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “In the Oldsmobile. We left in such a hurry…”

Jake groaned. “Right. Of course.” He’d insisted on leaving the Olds behind. The police were looking for it, after all. See? Here was one of those overlooked things. A potentially fatal miscalculation. “And I suppose the book has info we need to do this thing up right?”

Kelsey shifted in his seat again. “The book lays out the whole ritual for performing a banishment spell. How to perform the sacrifice. With a knife, by the way. There are chants the person performing the sacrifice has to, uh, chant.”

“The chants are in the book?”

“Yeah.”

Jake ceased drumming the steering wheel and wrapped his fingers tight around the hard plastic. “We need that fucking book.”

Jordan leaned forward, poked her head between the seats. “We don’t have time to go back. We do that, the Harvest will begin without us. We’ll be too late.”

Jake glanced at the clock.

Almost 1:00.

Kelsey had risked sending a text message to one of his friends, a fellow student at Rockville High he was sure he could trust. The friend verified that a special assembly had been called for two P.M. If Will’s mother had told him the truth-and there was no reason to doubt she had-this would be when Lamia would initiate her Harvest of Souls. Jordan was right. Going back for the book at this point was out of the question.

Now Kelsey leaned forward and Jordan retreated. “She’s right. But there’s a Barnes & Noble on the way, at a strip mall right off the street. It’s a long shot, but they might have another copy there.”

Kristen said, “We are not performing any goddamned blood sacrifice.”

Jake ignored the comment. He knew she was on edge. Brittle. She might fall apart any moment. Getting into an argument with her would be counterproductive. To understate.

He looked at Kelsey. “Right. We make a pit stop at Barnes & Noble. Think. Is there anything else we need before we get to the school?”

“Just a knife.”

“I’ve got an old switchblade in the glove box. Will that do?”

“I guess it’ll have to.”

“Did you hear what I fucking said?” Kristen’s eyes flashed as she leaned toward Jake. Her nostrils flared. There was a harsher, more emphatic edge in her voice now. A tone indicating no tolerance for disagreement. “We’re not doing this. Are you stupid? Who are you thinking of sacrificing anyway?”