The Lie Spinners (The Deception Dance) (33 page)

Even
though I’m positive that Chauncey-demon manipulated The Spider
into assigning Stephen with me; even though I know that Chauncey’s
schemes can only be bad news for me; I can’t help the relief
that rolls through me at the knowledge that I’ll have Stephen
with me.

Day
in. Day out.

Relieved…and
at the same time, terrified.

Day
Fourteen

In
the early hours of the morning, I lie awake. It’s probably two
or three a.m., but I think I might be beyond exhaustion.

After
my presentation to His Majesty Psycho-Fang-Face, I was again blinded
and made deaf (by means of magical-sunglasses) as I left. The big
difference was this time it was Stephen’s hand that guided me,
his fingers that securely wrapped around my elbow. When the glasses
were lifted from my eyes, we were in my bungalow. The bungalow was
spotlessly clean, the only difference from before my and Linnie’s
strange kidnapping was the new door and the drying paint on the
doorframe.

Also,
Linnie wasn’t there.

Polite
Goon might not have batted an eyelash as The Spider attacked and
almost
ate
me alive, but he does me the courtesy of explaining that he and
‘Nathan’ will take turns guarding me through the night.
He also apologized for my lack of privacy. I couldn’t find it
in myself to acknowledge or spit on his polite courtesy; so I just
nodded and laid down on top of my elephant patterned bedspread (that
someone must have made while I was gone) to wait out Stephen’s
first ‘watch.’

Although
Polite Goon (also known as Kasem) still wears those stupid sunglasses
and the bungalow’s lights are off, I feel his unwavering gaze
on me. It’s creepy. What does he think I’m going to do,
injure myself?

When
I just can’t bear it anymore, I ask, “Don’t goons
sleep?”

“
I
do not sleep,” he says, as seriously and politely as ever.

Interesting
…

“
Well,
then shouldn’t you be watching for, I don’t know, those
homeless-zombie-looking people with moving-tattoos…or
soul-bound?”

“
In
a couple minutes,” he says, placidly.

“
You
know what a
soul-bound
is?” I ask.

“
Yes.
The demon told us, when she told The Spider about your deal with the
greater demon and the importance of protecting you,” Polite
Goon says. “You should sleep now.”

But
I can’t sleep, the ‘couple minutes’ left of
Stephen’s ‘watch’ feel like the longest of the
night; I almost sigh in relief when I hear Polite Goon get up and
exit out the bungalow door. I don’t turn as I hear Stephen
enter; I hear his breath, I hear his footsteps walk to my bed.

“
Move
over,” he says.

I
peer over my shoulder at him, squinting like he woke me. “What?”
I ask with my voice intentionally rough.

“
Scoot
over in the bed,” he says, “Please.”

I
glance at Linnie’s empty bed once before I do as he says. I
turn to face him and scoot all the way to one side. Stephen climbs in
beside me and with no hesitation, wraps me in his arms. He holds me
tightly, firmly to him, whispering into my ear, “
I
am so sorry
.”

A
sound escapes me, half-cry, half-whimper. I press my face into his
chest, probably too hard. “How am I going to get her out of
there?” I whisper into his shirt.

“
We
will find a way,” Stephen whispers, “We’ll find
some way.”

Even
harder I press my forehead into his rib cage, I whisper, “
What
have I done
?”

“
Tell
me everything, everything you can,” he whispers back.

So
I do, I tell him everything. It’s actually exceptionally easy
when I don’t even try to mention Madeline. I tell him about
taking the jet with Cassidy, Linnie and Jones. I recite what I can
remember of the altered-quotes that were sent to Madeline (leaving
out Madeline). When I get to the part about Nicholas, I realize that
I should have started with that detail; Stephen lets out several
heavy sighs as I explain the condition that I found Nicholas in; how
Räum
tried
and failed to demon-power me into falling in love with Nicholas, the
mark I attained to keep Nicholas from fighting the Kra-Sue. I tell
him about the prophetic dream that led me to Koh Phangan.

“
Have
you had any other dreams?” He whispers, for the first time
interrupting me.

“
No”
I lie, carefully not squirming in his arms. “I, um, forgot to
tell you what
Räum
said to me.” I say to change the subject, though before, for
some reason (even knowing that he is the best person in the world to
tell) I had avoided telling him. But I force myself to say the words,
to tell him every word I can remember Räum saying. I especially
focus on the fact that Revelation was omitted from not only my Bible
studies, but the Bible I was given.

“
Do
you know why they…did that?” I ask at the end.

Stephen
doesn’t respond but his arms tighten around me.
Being
held, truly held is an incredible thing-I’m not sure that
anyone has truly held me before, tightly grasped me to them until it
just-this-side-of-hurts but I never want to be released. I know that
Stephen is an affectionate person and to him holding me is probably
no more than being a friend when I need one; but to me it’s
essential, as if only his arms are holding me together.

He
doesn’t answer for so long... I don’t think he’s
going to (I kind of don’t want him to); but then he speaks,
“The organization I work for and my family believe something
about you that I do not believe.” He says, as if the words had
thorns and they hurt on the way out. He repeats, “I do not
believe it.”

“
Believe
what?” I whisper.

“
I
am not sure that it will help you to know,” He whispers and
again pauses so long I don’t think he will continue.

“
But
you’ll tell me anyway?”

He
sighs. “They believe you are Babylon the Great from the book of
Revelation, there are signs,
similarities
…that
they cite.” Against my cheek, I feel his throat move as he
swallows heavily.

I
remember, “Tobias called me Babylon the Great, he said
something about me being the mother of harlots and riding on a beast,
I just thought he was nutter-butters.”

“
Nutter-butters
?”
Stephen asks.

“
Crazy.”

“
Oh,
yes, he likely is that,” Stephen whispers. Then he stays,
again, silent.

He’s
giving me an out, a chance not to ask. And I suddenly know that I
shouldn’t ask. I shouldn’t know. I should just stay
silent and forget about Babylon the Great, forget about the book of
Revelation, forget about everything
Räum
told me. Forget the questions. Put down the stick and not poke the
hornet’s nest.

But
I do ask. “Who is Babylon the Great?”

Stephen
pulls away from me, instantly filling me with regret. He scoots down,
moving his face close to mine; the room is too dark to see him, but I
know he’s there from his breath, his warmth, the way his head
presses into my pillow.

“
Most
Bible scholars
and
I
believe that Babylon the Great is an allegory for either pagan Rome
or the Catholic church.” He pauses to inhale an audible breath.
“But some, including my brothers and the
Leijonskjöld,
believe Babylon the Great is a real woman, who was prophesized. They
believe that Babylon the Great is the foretold… Antichrist.”

“
Anti…”
I can’t finish the word. The room spins around me and
everything fits together so neatly that I’m probably going to
vomit all over Stephen’s face. I sit up. A human child of Hell,
a bringer of Hell on Earth, I walked through hellfire and was not
burnt... “The hellfire…” I say, too loudly.

Stephen’s
hand fumbles around for mine, grabs it, and he clutches it to his
chest, from the angle I know that he has sat up beside me. Stephen’s
whisper lowers to especially quiet when he responds, “There
could have been any number of explanations for why the hellfire
didn’t burn you—”

“
Including
this one.”

“
No,
Raven—”

“
You
don’t get it.
Räum
was right; I do have a blackness, a chasm of darkness inside of me—”

“
Raven.”
His hand releases mine and he presses both his palms to my cheeks.
“That darkness is not
you
;
that darkness is what
they
have done to you
.”
His hands drop as he continues. “Everyone who has faced true
evil has
that
darkness—it is the echo of their evil, not yours.
I
have that darkness—what I have witnessed—the murders and
evil that I almost prevented, but couldn’t, it has ripped into
my soul.”

I
hear him shift back into a lying position; suddenly overwhelmed by my
exhaustion, I slump beside him.

He
continues in a low whisper, “I used to be much more naïve
than my brothers, almost reckless; but it was especially bad because
I had a talent for talking myself into situations I wasn’t
ready for. And I was
so
conceited
,
I was
the
best
,
highest ranking demon hunter, in generations. I thought I could not
fail, that it was impossible. When the Leijonskjöld detected
that Andras had taken a body for the first time in years I thought it
would be easy…
easy
to destroy his new body and send him back to Hell. Andras was new,
vulnerable, so I told myself. He let me into his nest;
let
me into his mansion in southern France. He laughed with me, invited
me to dinner, bantered with me for hours—then had two demon
puppeteers restrain me as he carved my face with a demon-knife that
instantly cauterized, but could never heal-not by medicine or magic.
Andras was still smiling as he had his demons carry me to the door,
told me farewell and that if I ever got in his way again, it’d
be more than my face he would destroy; and then had me thrown out of
his mansion.

“
I
left Leijonskjöld Slot a celebrated hero and came back a
hideously-deformed wretch. For a long time I lived within that dark
chasm. I would not talk to my brothers—all I did was hunt and
kill demons, out of anger, out of hate. I did not laugh, I could not
cry; there was nothing but the chasm, a lightless, endless cave.

“
Then
one day someone made a joke, I don’t even remember who it was
or what the joke was, but I had laughed at it. And then I
just…started laughing again. I started talking to my family
and found that the deformity did not repulse them, they didn’t
care. Almost every member of the Leijonskjöld told me that they
respected me more because of what happened to me. And for all the
other people…I found the ones who cared were not important
anyway.

“
And
soon, I found I was happier than I had ever been before Andras
destroyed my face. When you’ve crawled through the darkness,
the light is so much more glorious.” He wraps me in his embrace
again. “Don’t believe what Räum wants you to
believe; it only seems so true because he is a master at making it
seem that way. If you believe what he tried so hard to make you
believe then he’ll just be that much closer to getting what he
wants from you.”