Darker Days

Well, more like stones. Quartz, onyx, chalcedony—the boxes were full. Some stones were loose, others hanging from delicate chains of silver or leather cords. Some were polished, shiny, and as perfect as anything you’d see in a new ager’s jewelry display. Others were in their natural form. Seemingly pulled right from the earth. Hell, some were still covered in dirt.

The next box I opened was full of papers. Old receipts, bills, I even found a Sears advertisement. There had been a big sale on refrigerators that week. Box after box, there was nothing that could be considered helpful to our current predicament.

“I think I found something.”

Lukas was sitting on the floor against the door with piles of open books spread around him, and I couldn’t help thinking how comfortable he looked. This was his element. Researching and fact-finding. He was like a kid in a candy store, face lit up and eyes hungry. I sank to the ground. “Okay…”

He pushed the nearest book across the floor. “What do you see?”

The page was spider webbed with names, all connected. “Looks like a family tree.”

“Look further than that,” he huffed, thumping the page. “Look at the details.”

I picked up the book and eyed the open page. It started with Simon and ended with my mom, but other than that, I didn’t get it. “They’re all…Darkers?”

Lukas pulled the book back. “Male. All the Darker offspring are men—until Klaire.”

I still didn’t get it. “Um, okay. So?”

He set the book down. “You don’t find that odd?”

“Well, sure it’s a little funky, but no cause to alert the papers.”

Pointing to the top of the page, he sighed. “And this? Is this simply funky?”

His finger was on Sarah, Simon’s wife. I shrugged.

“Look at the dates. Specifically the date of death.”

“1868. So?”

Lukas rolled his eyes. “Simon and Sarah’s son Andrew was born in 1868. The same year she died.”

I still didn’t see what he was getting at. “Medicine wasn’t what it is now. A lot of women died in childbirth back then.”

“You’re correct. But don’t you find it odd that the same thing happened to all of them?”

As I skimmed the left side of the crudely drawn tree, I saw he was right. Every woman before Mom died in childbirth. How had I not seen that? “Holy craps.”

“So the question is, why was Klaire different? Not only was she the first female offspring to the Darker line, but she was the first mother not to die in childbirth.”

“That’s the question? I’d think it’d be why was it happening in the first place!”

Lukas frowned. “Well, of course. But why did your mother live when you were born? What broke the cycle?”

Broke the cycle.

I didn’t answer. Instead, I started digging through the pile of books in front of us. There was a knot forming in my stomach. A big one. When I didn’t find anything, I jumped to my feet and dove into the pile still against the far wall. Something. There had to be something here. Something that contradicted the itching fear building in the back of my head.

Lukas was oblivious. “It couldn’t have been because you were a girl,” he continued. “I imagine if that were true, Klaire’s mother would have lived.”

There were a million possibilities bouncing in my brain as to why the Darker wives always died in childbirth. It all started with Simon’s wife. Simon, who had pissed off Meredith by accusing her of Lukas’ murder, then later, trapping her with the help of a Belfair witch. His accusations caused her to flee town, never getting her skanky little happily ever after with Lukas’ dad. She could have easily laid the nasty mojo down. Cursed the Darkers.

But why wasn’t my concern anymore. Lukas was right. There was an obvious pattern. One that was broken with Mom.

With my Grandfather and Grandmother.

After about ten minutes, I got to the bottom of the pile and found what I was looking for. A journal.

Flipping through, I followed the dates leading to Mom’s birth. He’d known. Grandpa had seen the same pattern Lukas had—and he’d tried to stop it.

“Listen to this,” I said. “‘Shelly is about to give birth. It will be any day now, and I’ve still found no alternative. I have no choice. I won’t let her die.’”

“He knew it would happen,” Lukas said.

“Not only that, sounds like he had a plan.”

“You believe it was Joseph who stopped the cycle?”

“I’d bet my iPod on it.”

“How?”

“Yeah, see that’s the thing…” I leaned back and let the book slip to the ground. Grandpa was one hell of a monster masher. He had resources even Mom couldn’t muster. If he couldn’t find a way to shake this thing, it had to be heavy. And there was only one way I could think of to get rid of something like that.

“I think he made a deal.”

Chapter Thirty

The idea that Grandpa made an agreement with a demon to save Grandma knocked me through Fruit Loops. I’d never met the guy, but Mom said on more than one occasion that Grandpa had been all about the rules. She’d told me once how, after a particularly bad case involving a demon deal, he’d lectured her for hours about asking for a demon’s help. The end results were never what you hoped for and tended to leave a lasting shadow on the family.

You had to choose your words carefully. Demons couldn’t lie, but they could manipulate words like nobody’s business. If you made a deal to save your sweetie from lung cancer, you might end up with it yourself if you weren’t very specific—which the general population wasn’t.

Still… I could understand doing something drastic out of desperation.

After going through the rest of the items in Grandpa’s storage unit, we finally made it back to the office a little after five a.m. I had to keep moving. Keep doing—even if it felt like there was no hope left. The minute I stopped, I thought about Mom and Dad, and I couldn’t do that. Not if I wanted to keep my crap together.

Who could I go to for help? Another witch? The only one I knew enough to ask for that kind of help would be Kendra’s mom, and knowing what I knew now about the Belfair’s involvement with Meredith in the past, it wasn’t likely to happen. Plus, a witch couldn’t get me where I needed to go.

There was Paulson, who’d do pretty much anything for Mom. He’d been carrying a burning torch for her since the fifth grade, but there wasn’t much a necromancer could do in a situation like this, either. Plus, he’d already done me a serious solid by contacting Simon.

Simon.

“Hell in a hailstorm…”

V…

There was one possibility I’d overlooked. One I’d never even considered.

“Valefar.”

“What?”

“Valefar. Dad’s boss.” I turned to Lukas. “When Paulson summoned Simon, he said there was a way to help you. He started to give us a name. Something that started with the letter V.”

“And you think it’s this Valefar?”

“It’d make sense. Dude’s one of the oldest demons in the Shadow Realm. If anyone has a way to save you, it’d be him.” I stood and started to pace. “And if he can save you, then he can help me get Mom and Dad back.”