Harvester Read online

  Pain blossomed behind Benny’s eyes as he rolled to his side. He had no memory of how he’d ended up on the ground. He lifted an exploratory hand and felt the massive knot forming on the side of his head, groaning at the dull ache touching the bump caused.

  Wind shrieked and howled around him as though he’d awaked in the eye of a tornado. Papers, books, and magazines flew around the edges of the room, borne aloft by the maddened wind.

  Eddie was pressed against the wall near the foot of the stairs. The man’s gaze was locked on the demon, who lay in the middle of the room, frozen as if in flight. Sean stood in the little balcony at the top of the stairs, holding one hand above his head like an evangelical preacher calling on God to heal someone. In his other hand, he held his phone.

  The front door slammed open. After a breath, the two ifrits and the djinn from the parking lot battle charged into the room.

  Naamah stabbed her finger up at Sean. “Do not finish that incantation!” she yelled. “I forbid it!”

  Post the incantation! Benny sent at him. Then finish it! They can only kill us once.

  Sean glanced his way but kept his lips firmly closed.

  Naamah turned in a slow semicircle, following Sean’s gaze. “Ah,” she said and grinned. She advanced into the room, her eyes skewering Benny.

  Mike! Run! Mike, get out of here! Get the lamp!

  11

  Benny’s voice rang inside Mike’s head like a klaxon, and he slapped his hands over his ears as if it would help. He rolled to his knees and darted a look through the shattered French doors, jerking back as Lamia turned to look out.

  He thrust himself up and bolted for the corner of the house, lunging around it and pressing his shoulders to the wall.

  “Mike? Is that you? What’s the matter, hon? Are you hung over again?” Her voice sounded closer and closer with each question.

  It’s well and good to tell me to run, Benny, but…

  Don’t come in. Naamah, Abyzou, and Lamia are here. You’ve got to keep the lamp from them.

  He peeked around the corner of the house. Lamia stood on her tail a few steps from the house, her scales rasping against the pavers with each and every movement, no matter how small.

  One small problem, Mike thought.

  On it.

  After a moment, Lamia charged to the opposite side of the house and raced around the corner.

  Go! Go, Mike!

  He bolted around the corner and sprinted for the steep stairs that led down the cliff face to the dock.

  12

  Benny kept part of his mind focused on Lamia, creating one noise after the other for her to chase, while Naamah advanced on him. She came at a languorous pace, hips made of cherry red flame swaying back and forth.

  “Ah, Benny,” she crooned.

  He turned his gaze on her and dimpled. “Hi, Brigitta. Or should I call you ‘Naamah?’”

  “It won’t matter in a few minutes, so call me whatever your heart desires,” she said, keeping the pleasant expression on her face, but unable to keep the edge out of her voice. “My father should have split your skull and dined on your brain.”

  “We all lament on missed opportunities from time to time,” he said. Shannon, get away if you can.

  13

  “We have to get out there, Kristy! They can’t handle all those demons at once.”

  Kristy glanced over her shoulder as though she could see through the door and walls, then turned her gaze back on Shannon.

  “What good is any of this if they all die?”

  Kristy turned her back on the room and cracked the door open. Down the hall, Sean gestured for her to stay hidden. “Sean says we should stay put,” she whispered.

  “As any husband would say to any wife. You’ve seen what a single demon can do.” She swept her hand down her left side. “And the one who did this was relatively powerless compared to the ifrit. We don’t have to fight, not overtly.”

  Kristy dithered, turning her gaze back and forth between Shannon and the door. “If we go out there, you are not to go past Sean’s position. No matter what happens.”

  “Sure. Anything you say.”

  14

  Abyzou smiled at Eddie and floated toward him, her feet hovering an inch above the carpet. With lips drawn from golden flames, she flashed a rapacious smile and showed her black-toothed grin to him once more. “Hello, Eddie. Do you like this body?”

  Her smile grew broader, and dark shadows coalesced around her. “Or would you prefer something more familiar?” Dusky flesh encapsulated the flames and long blue-black hair sprouted from her head.

  “I don’t care what you look like!” he snapped.

  She continued talking as though he hadn’t spoken. “I underestimated you, Eddie. I see that now.” She paused her inexorable advance and glared at Amanda. “Your love for the sow is strong. Perhaps I should remove that obstacle with my own hand this once.”

  “Leave her alone!” Eddie cried.

  With a smirk, Abyzou turned to face Amanda.

  15

  “Psst!” whispered Kristy.

  Sean stood transfixed at the balcony rail, one hand still held above his head, his phone in his other hand. His pallor wasn’t good.

  “Psst!”

  Sean darted a glance in their direction and gave a minute shake of the head. A grimace settled on his features, and he tossed his phone at Kristy’s feet.

  She scooped it up and looked down at the screen, then showed it to Shannon. She led Shannon into the study and closed the door behind them.

  “This might be our only chance,” whispered Kristy. “Can you tell Benny?”

  Shannon chewed her lower lip. Benny? We need the lamp! She listened with all her worth, but if Benny replied, she couldn’t hear it.

  16

  Hurry, Mike! Lamia is catching on to my little tricks. Shannon says we need the lamp to have a chance.

  Mike scrambled aboard the speedboat tethered to the floating dock. The engine fired at once, and Mike let it warm up at idle while he dealt with the mooring lines. As he pulled the last of the ropes aboard, Lamia appeared at the top of the stairs and hissed at him.

  After putting the boat in reverse, he gunned the throttle, and the boat sprang away from the dock. If you can hear me, Benny, I’m on my way.

  17

  Abyzou paced toward Amanda, her gaze locked on the woman’s face. Her smile grew as she drew closer, and hatred burned in her eyes. She flexed her hands, then folded them into tight fists. “We never got to finish getting to know one another.”

  Amanda backed away, matching Abyzou step for step. “I know you well enough,” she said.

  “So catty!” said Abyzou with a laugh. She glanced over her shoulder and winked at Eddie. “I bet she’s a wildcat in the sack, too.”

  “You’ve always wanted me,” Eddie said. “Leave her alone, and you can have me.”

  “Oh, Eddie. How little you understand me,” said Abyzou. She turned her gaze back on Amanda. “Besides, this will be fun.”

  As she sprang, an invisible force batted her away. She squawked and slammed into the wall hard enough to smash through the sheetrock.

  “You stop that,” Naamah hissed at Benny, taking two quick strides to slap him hard.

  In the moment of stunned silence that followed, Eddie sprang at Abyzou.

  18

  As Mike approached the parking area of the You Lock It Tight self-storage lot, he scoured the place with his gaze and grimaced at the demons loitering in the yard. A slow grin spread across his face as he drove past.

  You were right, Benny. Again.

  He skidded to a halt in front of a non-descript warehouse a mile up the street. The rollup door squeaked as he opened it, letting the afternoon light bathe the safe inside. But before he could pull the car inside, his phone chirped with a message from Shannon.

  19

  “You stop that,” Naamah hissed at him. She took two quick steps to Benny and slapped him hard enough to drive him to h
is knees.

  Ears ringing, Benny shook his head to clear it and focused on Naamah, sending a wave of force at her as he had back in the parking lot. She staggered back, hissing with anger. Her face contorted, and the flames that made it seemed to burn brighter.

  She set her feet and shoved back, slamming Benny into the wall. A malicious grin decorated her lips as she advanced on him, applying more and more pressure until it seemed sure that Benny’s spine would snap.

  20

  “Those foolish girls! They’re going to ruin everything!” hissed Lily under her breath as she gazed to the west. She turned her attention to Toby and snapped her fingers. “No more time, Tobes. Make your choice.”

  “I…” Sweat beaded on his upper lip, his brow wrinkled. “You said you would take me home if I‍—‍”

  “And so I shall! Now, answer me!” she snapped.

  “Take me back to my friends, so I can tell them my decision,” he said, blinking rapidly and staring at his feet.

  “Does that mean‍—‍”

  “Let me tell them in person. Help me to make them understand.”

  Lily smiled wide and snapped her fingers.

  21

  Mike flung open the safe. The lamp glowed and pulsed, its shade flickering from blue-black to red and back again. He didn’t want to touch it, didn’t even want to look at it.

  He ran to the metal table in the rear of the warehouse bay and grabbed the welder’s insulated gloves and his goggles, then put on the gloves and grabbed the lamp, carrying it back to the table. He wanted to smash the thing to bits—but Shannon had been specific. He needed to do things in the right order, or it wouldn’t matter.

  He lit the acetylene torch and fed it oxygen, then dipped the bright blue flame to cut the lamp in half. As the bronze body of the lamp grew soft and started to run, Mike read the words from the glowing screen of his phone.

  “Ereshkigal, anīna!” he chanted.

  He felt foolish speaking the gibberish aloud, but he did it anyway. The blue flame from the torch danced on the surface of the bronze, as if hungry to devour the lamp.

  “Ereshkigal, aiālu mar mazzikim!”

  The air in the storage bay grew oppressive, burdensome, and smelled of flint and sage. He opened his mouth to speak the next line, and the thick, flint-flavored air rushed down his throat as if to choke him.

  “Ereshkigal, aššunu ina irkalla naḫāsu!”

  He fought to get the words out, struggling against a wave of pressure as though he were speaking underwater. As the blue tongue of flame cut through the body of the lamp, the ground rumbled as if warning of an impending earthquake.

  22

  They appeared on the terrace of his house on the shore of Lake Erie, and the humidity in the air jarred him after his time in the desert. Toby raised his eyebrows at the smashed French doors. “I guess they started the party without us,” he said.

  Lily said nothing, only squinted into the house. She stepped closer, cocking her head as if to eavesdrop.

  “Mistress!” said Lamia, coming up from the steps leading to the dock. “You have returned.” Lamia’s cold gaze settled on Toby. “It worked, then?”

  “Yes,” said Toby, returning his gaze to the house.

  23

  Benny groaned, sinking deeper and deeper into the wall while Naamah glared at him. “You killed my father,” she hissed, her expression crumpling with murderous rage. She lifted him by the front of his shirt as if he weighed nothing, smashing more sheetrock with his head.

  Eddie jumped on Abyzou’s back, wrapping his legs around her middle. She screamed in rage and spun in ever-tightening circles, trying to dislodge him. She swatted at him over her shoulder.

  Dan Delo lay on the floor in front of the Juliet balcony, his muscles twitching and jerking as though seizures wracked him. The ground rumbled, and he sat up straight, shrieking as if on fire.

  Humans and demons alike froze in the middle of whatever they were doing, then turned to stare at the purple beast.

  Delo sprang to his feet, but his legs didn’t hold him, and he collapsed forward on his face, screaming. He thrashed on the ground, his hands and feet flopping uselessly.

  When he disappeared with a pop, Naamah turned on Benny once more and growled. “What have you done?” she demanded.

  24

  Mike pointed the torch at the lead holding the pieces of glass into the shade. The lead melted much faster than the bronze, and colored glass rained to the floor. Mike squinted at his phone, then nodded to himself.

  “Lamia, anāku kāšim qirītu pašāṭu!”

  More glass fell to the floor, shattering on impact. I hope this hurts, McBride. I hope it hurts a lot, you meddlesome bitch!

  “Lamia, anāku atta ašāpu!”

  Again, the ground rumbled as if in warning of things to come, but Mike forged on. The air seemed oppressive, though it was neither hot nor cold.

  “Lamia, ina irkalla naḫāsu!”

  With the shade cut apart, he turned the flame on the chunks of glass, heating them until their color was lost to the glowing gold of liquid crystal.

  “Lamia, anāku atta ašāpu!”

  25

  Lamia shrieked and grabbed her head as if it were about to explode. Her wide eyes stared at Lily as the djinn began to froth at the mouth. She tried to speak, but Toby couldn’t make anything out of the hodge-podge of nonsense syllables.

  “No!” hissed Lily.

  With her black-scaled tail twitching, Lamia fell to her side with a crash and began to convulse.

  Lily dropped to her knees next to her but stayed well back. “I won’t abandon you, Lamia. I won’t rest until you are back at my side.”

  Lamia disappeared with a loud, wet ripping sound, and Lily turned an enraged expression on Toby. “What have your friends done?”

  Toby could only shrug.

  26

  Naamah stood close to Benny—close enough that each breath he took smelled of her. She held him by the neck, his feet kicking uselessly in midair. She stared into his eyes, anger brimming in hers. “And Lamia?” she asked. “Mother will be cross with you, and I, for one, can’t wait to see what she does to you.”

  Summoning what saliva he could, Benny spat in her eye, smiling as she jerked her face away. “Your mother might be next!” he shouted. “Or maybe you, yourself, you insufferable cow!”

  “Maybe so,” she said in a reasonable voice. “But I’m not gone yet.” With that, she flung Benny into the corner across the room, then lurched after him to grab him again. “Which bones should I break first?”

  “Good God, demon. You and your lot are as bad as a bunch of James Bond supervillains!”

  “What? What did you say?”

  “With all your talk, talk, talk. Always explaining what you are going to do before you do it.” Benny scoffed with a bravado he didn’t actually feel.

  “Of course!” she said with a chuckle. “We don’t feed on your pain, Benjamin. We feed on your emotions—fear being one of them.” She shook him like a ragdoll, and his teeth snapped together on his tongue. She lifted him high over her head and threw him as hard as she could.

  27

  With most of the glass melted into incongruous puddles, Mike turned back to the bronze, this time attacking the upper body of the lamp with the torch’s blue tongue.

  “Abyzou, anāku kāšim qirītu pašāṭu!”

  The lump of bronze writhed between shapes, at one moment looking like the body of a snake, then the trunk of a tree.

  “Abyzou, anāku atta ašāpu!”

  The ground rumbled, and thunder pealed overhead. A hard grin spread across Mike’s face.

  “Abyzou, ina irkalla naḫāsu!”

  He had no idea what the words meant, or even if he were pronouncing them correctly, but maybe it didn’t matter. Perhaps his intent was what mattered.

  Not that he really cared. If the shaking ground meant what he thought it did, he would dance naked in the mall to keep it happening until all the d
emons in the world were roasting in the pits of hell.

  “Abyzou, anāku atta ašāpu!”

  28

  What had begun as an attack to distract Abby from Amanda had turned into a bronco ride. No longer even thinking of trying to hurt the demon, Eddie hung on for dear life. Amanda tried to help, tried to stop her from spinning, but Abby brushed her aside.

  Then the ground rumbled for the third time, this time accompanied by a harsh, ugly peal of thunder, and Eddie fell to the ground. Amanda rushed to his side.

  “NO!” roared a basso voice on the terrace.

  He snapped his gaze to the hole where the French doors once stood and thought he saw a flash of red.

  29

  Mike played the torch across the bottom half of the lamp, melting it even as it tried to shift from snake’s tail to tree stump and back again.

  “Naamah, anāku kāšim qirītu pašāṭu! Naamah, anāku atta ašāpu! Naamah, ina irkalla naḫāsu!” He chanted the incantation as quickly as he could.

  The ground thrummed with the power of the incantation, and when thunder sounded again, Mike thought he heard a scream along with it.

  “Naamah, anāku atta ašāpu!”

  30

  Naamah stalked across the room, staring daggers at Benny. A visceral hatred pounded within her, coloring everything she saw, every noise that reached her ears, every breath she took.

  Lilitu rushed into the room and grabbed her. “Not you! They can’t send you‍—‍”

  The ground began to shake, and Naamah threw back her head and wailed.

  “No!” screamed Lilitu. “I FORBID IT!” The volume of her cry rattled the windows of the house.

  Behind her, Toby stepped through the broken doorway in time to watch Naamah fade away into nothingness.

  31

  This last part is the most important, Mike thought. He flipped the mass of melted bronze over to expose the maker’s mark. She said there can be nothing left of this.

  “Lilitu, anāku kāšim qirītu pašāṭu!”

  He drew the tip of the flame across the line of cuneiform, heating the metal until it glowed.

  “Lilitu, anāku atta ašāpu!”