Page 128 of Deliver us from Evil

Ambulance.

Police siren.

And that’s not the only thing I notice. Apollo is picking himself up off the floor.

When the Guardian looks back at me, I show him my teeth. “Think you can get out of here in time?” I ask him.

His eyes narrow. He straightens the gun. His lips part, a particularly malicious gleam in his eyes as he starts to speak.

And then Apollo hits him over the head with the chair he quietly took out from under the door handle. When Keith Malone crumples to the ground, my body sags as if it wants to follow.

But I grit my teeth, gather saliva, and spit it on his slack face. “That was rhetorical, you sick fuck.”

Chapter Forty-Four

Zach

At the top of the stairs, the hallway splits east to west. Rube and Cass head west, so Apollo and I take the east wing.

“Stay close,” I murmur to Apollo. “And be quiet.”

“You’re the one talking,” he whispers back.

I open the first door and we peek inside.

Crib.

Mobile with stuffed animals.

Gender-neutral geese dancing over the walls.

I start opening the closet doors to make sure no one’s hiding inside one waiting to leap out at us. But the closets are empty. As in, there’s not even a single diaper in sight.

This place creeps me the fuck out. It feels staged, like the owners moved out ages ago and the real estate agent set it up for an open house.

Who lived here? Where are they now?

“Next room,” I murmur, backing up with my weapon still pointed, just in case someone appears out of thin air.

A gunshot sounds.

I spin around and face a locked door.

Apollo’s not inside with me. Then I hear a key turning in the lock and my hair stands on end.

What the fuck?

“Apollo?” I run up and try the door handle.

Locked.

Christ. “Apollo!”

I know it wasn’t him that locked me inside, but now I’m shitting myself wondering what happened to him. I bang on the door a few times, but that’s not helping. I could shoot at the lock, but what are the chances of the bullet ricocheting and hitting me somewhere vital?

I start kicking the door, but it’s sturdy as fuck.

“Apollo! What’s the address?”

---