Chastising herself, she picked up her empty bottles of pop and left the cafe. She didn’t really want to bother Margaret any further, but she had no choice.
Once she reached the road where Margaret lived, she saw a car pull up outside and a figure got out.
Stephen!
Heart pounding, she slipped into a neighbour’s front garden and hunkered down behind the hedge. What the hell was he doing here?
Tears bristled in her eyes.
Foliage rustled as she backed into the hedge, the sound amplified in the dark, and she grimaced.
As she tried to peer through the undergrowth, something niggled at her subconscious, and it took her a moment to realise she had clearly seen her boyfriend. That he hadn’t appeared blurred. That she had visibly seen him and his shadowy cohort. She blinked and looked around the garden, amazed to find that she could see perfectly well. She closed her Fuchs’ eye and the image remained clear. Then she reopened the closed eye and shut her other eye and the image blurred.
She didn’t understand how it was possible; could only assume that her transplanted cornea was now working correctly and had overcompensated for the other eye to correct her sight. It must have been such a gradual occurrence that she didn’t realise it had happened until now.
But where there should have been elation, she felt only sadness.
Down on hands and knees, she crawled forwards and peered through the leaves. Stephen stood further along the road, looking up at the house.
What was he doing here?
Was he looking for her?
She watched him walk up to the house. Apart from the shadowy corona, he looked so… normal. Looked like her boyfriend. She recalled kissing him, holding him, being close to him. Now all that was gone. Now she no longer knew who – or what – he was.
He approached the door. Joanna thought about Margaret and her baby. If Stephen got inside, there was no telling what he would do to them.
Amazed by her own bravado, she stood up on shaking legs and walked out into the road, head held high and shoulders back. Even before she opened her mouth, Stephen turned and stared at her. His lips curled into a grin.
“It’s me you want,” she said, the words tripping over her dry tongue.
“And it’s you I shall have,” he said, leaping down the drive and grabbing her before she could react.
Joanna fought to restrain the tears as he seized her arms and bundled her towards the car.
“Don’t you feel anything for me?” she asked. “What we had? Isn’t there any of the Stephen I know left?”
The creature pushed Joanna into the car.
“Talk to me. Stephen, if you can hear me, fight it.”
“You’re wasting your time,” the demon said. “Your boyfriend’s dead. And you’ll soon be joining him.”
CHAPTER 29
Lincoln felt strange, slightly buoyant, as though his brain was nestled in cotton wool. He didn’t know what was going on, but he couldn’t snap out of it.
Worse was that he couldn’t see; was surrounded by blackness as though his eyes had been seared out with a red hot poker. Also, he couldn’t hear clearly, the only sound that of distant, incomprehensible chatter.
He fought to try to make his body function, to carry out his commands, but found himself unable to even move. At least not how he wanted, because he realised that he
He concentrated hard, willed himself to wake, to open his eyes, to regain control, but nothing worked. His consciousness was like a prisoner within his own body.
Knowing that despite his missing limb, he still had a powerful physique, his inability to control his body terrified him. As if losing an arm wasn’t bad enough, losing his mind too was more than he could bear.
He felt like screaming, but couldn’t give voice to the emotion, so he withdrew into himself and strained to make sense of the garbled voices.
“So you’ve found her. Well done,” Malachi said as he glared at Joanna.
He walked across the hospital basement towards her, pleased to see that she flinched, her stony expression wavering ever so slightly as he drew close.
“I’m going to enjoy taking your life,” he said.
“Go to hell.”
Malachi narrowed his eyes. She had guts, he would give her that. Hopefully the demon that he implanted within her body wouldn’t retain her backbone. He liked his followers to be subservient. There was only room at the top for one.
“You can’t be that strong if it takes two of your henchmen to keep hold of me,” Joanna said. “Not scared of me are you?”
Malachi scowled. He sensed his followers staring at him. Now was no time to show weakness. “Release her.” He nodded to the two men who had a grip on either side of Joanna.
Once they released their hold, Joanna massaged her arms.
The demon leaned forwards and sneered in her face. “I fear nothing. Especially not a puny human.”
“So what are
“Darkness incarnate.”
“I can see that.”
He stared at her eyes. “So I believe. It’s not relevant now though. Nobody believed what you told them, and you’re about to be conscripted.”
“Why, what’s it all about?”
“Freedom.”
Joanna frowned.
“We’ve been in purgatory for too long. Now is our time. First there was the stone age, then the ice age, now cometh the dark age.”
“Using what you call puny humans?”
“You are only a shell. It’s what’s on the inside that counts.”
“So what happens to the people whose bodies you steal?”
“They die.” He laughed, and a few of his minions laughed too.
“You won’t get away with it.”
“And who is going to stop us?”
“You haven’t even got control of your own human. I’ve seen the man whose body you inhabit. I know he comes through to take back control. You’re different than the others. You’re weak.”
“Not anymore. Now I have the drugs to keep him asleep, I’m afraid he’s gone for good.”
“Mankind isn’t as helpless as you seem to think. People will work it out. And when they do, they’ll find a way to stop you.”
“Oh, now you’re scaring me.” He performed a mock shiver, deriving chuckles from his followers. “Anyway, enough chatter, I’ve got work to do.” He reached out and grabbed her around the throat. “It’s time to relinquish your body to someone more worthy.”
Lincoln strained to understand the conversation. He knew that he was speaking, but couldn’t understand the words coming out of his mouth.
