Frank nodded, shouting his reply over the vehicle’s blaring engine. “This thing is going to kill your daughter and harness her life energy—her considerably abundant life energy—to permanently bond itself with Kale Kane.”
“After bringing him back from the dead? You can’t be—”
“I am serious, Mr. Wiess,” Frank interrupted. “And everything I’ve said will be nothing compared to what will happen if we don’t save your daughter.”
Paul shook his head, his eyes shimmering in the street lights. “But it doesn’t make sense. Mallory doesn’t hear voices or see visions or anything like that. She worries about what boys will think of her hair style, or how many friends she has on her Facebook page. She’s a normal teenage girl.”
“Her power isn’t something you can see,” Frank replied. “She may never realize how gifted she is, but the entity knows it, and that’s all that matters right now.”
He reached into his jacket and pulled out an automatic pistol. “Have you ever used one of these before?”
Paul gazed at the gun as if it were a poisonous snake. “No.”
“There’s a double safety,” Frank said. He tapped a small button near the trigger and depressed it with a click. “The other you press with the thumb of your firing hand, got it?”
Paul nodded.
Frank passed the weapon over, and Paul accepted it with a hesitant hand.
“Keep a firm grip,” Frank said. “It’s loaded and chambered. You’re ready to shoot.”
“Fantastic,” Paul replied.
“I know how much this is for you to have to accept on such short notice, but believe me, it’s all true. If we don’t stop this beast from getting possession of Kane’s body and killing your girl, we won’t just be up against one of these things but an entire legion of them.”
“A legion of what… Demons?”
“Spirits, demons, monsters—it doesn’t matter what you call them. It simply boils down to Good and Evil. The problem with humanity is that we divide ourselves on the definition of what is Good and end up killing each other over whose beliefs are right.”
Ahead, Frank saw the Lexus that had rammed his Blazer sitting unattended on the roadside, along with an unoccupied squad car. Beyond them waited the turnoff to the cemetery.
“On the other hand,” he added, “Evil remains constant.”
Melissa looked around, searching for what could be done next.
In the last several minutes she had coordinated with other police and several civilians to gain control of the situation along Highway 55 and mold order out of the chaos.
Two backup squad cars arrived seconds after Frank had left the scene, one responding from the prowler call at the Weiss residence, and another from the Damerow farm investigation. With the combined assistance, they attended to several problems at once and treated the situation.
Dangerous debris had been cleared from the street.
Flares were set up around Hale’s cruiser while his injuries were seen to.
An ambulance was on its way.
In addition, while the workers completed those tasks, Jimmy Gibbs backed his battered but operational eighteen-wheeler onto the roadway’s shoulder, allowing the backed-up traffic to pass.
With a majority of the mess sorted out, Melissa removed herself from the scene to go after Frank. Hurrying down the road, she went to where Rebecca Fleming waited near her friend’s overturned Ford.
“How are you doing now?” Melissa asked.
Rebecca glanced up and her teary expression answered the question.
Melissa knelt next to her. “Look, I have to go after Frank, but I need you to stay here and do something for me, all right?”
She straightened up. “If it’ll help get our kids back, then yes, anything.”
“Good. Now, I don’t have a whole lot of time to explain, so you’ll just have to trust me. Once the police are done here, send them to this location—it’s an old cemetery off 19.” Melissa handed Rebecca a crude map she’d penned onto a page from her notepad, leaving out the details of what awaited them there. “Tell them that’s where I went, and where your children have been taken. That’s all I can really say without sounding insane.”
Rebecca studied the directions and nodded her understanding, though the expression of fear never departed her features.
Over the black fields on the other side of the road, arcing bolts of red lightning streaked across the sky.
They looked at each other, speechless.
With no other way to clarify the situation, Melissa turned and raced across the road. She hurried to where Jimmy Gibbs paced beside his truck, speaking on a cell phone.
“I need a ride,” Melissa ordered.
“Huh—what?”
She grabbed the phone out of his hand and snapped it shut, handing it back.
“Christ, officer, what in the hell has gotten into you?” Jimmy asked.
She opened the cab’s door and pushed him toward the step, urging him upward. “I said I need a ride. Now get behind the wheel or you’re under arrest.”
When he finally complied she rounded the semi and climbed in the passenger side.
“I need you to turn around, go west,” she ordered.
“What for?”
“I don’t have time to spell it out for you, so just do as I say.”
“Can’t you take a cop car?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“They’re too small,” she said. “It’ll be able to control them easier. But not this sucker. This beast is way too big to maneuver in all those trees. Going forward and backing out along the driveway is about all it’ll be able to do. Now, let’s move—we don’t have much time.”
Jimmy gawked at her with puzzled, frightened eyes. Deciding to use his uneasiness to her advantage, she drew her Smith & Wesson and checked the breach. “We’re not moving.”
Jimmy glanced from her to the pistol.
Staring back at him, she let the slide snap into place.
Without another word, he put the rig in gear, and they rumbled on their way.
CHAPTER 54
Grunting, lifting, pushing upward, drudging beneath a bestial sky that flashed and boomed with clamorous activity, Tim raised the forward end of Kane’s coffin over his head and, working in unison with Mallory’s friends, they helped free the killer from his earthen tomb.
Another barrage of thunder crossed the heavens, extolling their efforts.
It had taken them several grueling minutes, but his plan had succeeded. The box and its rotting contents now rested above ground, leaving Tim alone in the grave.
Becky came to the grave’s edge and helped him up. She brushed away moist clods of dirt that had broken loose from the casket and tumbled over his head and shoulders.
“I can’t believe we did it,” she said, gasping. “What now? What do you think it wants us to do with him?”
Catching his breath, wiping sweat from his eyes, Tim had little time to answer before Lisa shouted, “What’s that?”
Tim pivoted. He looked to where the others had directed their attention, and saw that a halo of bright amber light now encompassed the Mercedes, beaming outward from its interior.
