Within the Demon's Grip: Part One

Chapter 20

"You'll drive," Gayle said, forcing Natalia into the driver's seat of a compact, green car and slamming the door. Eli was already in the back, gun aimed and ready should anything go down.

"Shit," Natalia breathed. She still couldn't believe this was happening.

Gayle rounded the car, sliding into the passenger's-side seat and slamming the door just as loudly as she'd slammed Natalia's. "Start the car," she said, leaning over Natalia and stabbing the key into the ignition. Natalia caught a faint hint of perfume as Gayle moved back: something bright and flowery. For some reason ... that felt like a contradiction to her.

Tentatively, Natalia turned the key and the motor roared to life. She felt her hands shaking as she placed them on the wheel.

"Drive," Gayle said. "To the manor. Try anything and you know what will happen."

Natalia took a deep breath and said, "I know you're angry about what happened with Candice, I get it, believe me, I do, but I swear to you ... it was an accident--"

"My sister is dead," Gayle snapped, turning her too-blue eyes on Natalia. Her gaze was so heavy, so accusing, it felt like it might scorch a hole through her face. "I don't care how it happened, it happened, and it happened because of you."

"How do you even know?" Natalia cried. "Were you even there?"

Gayle leaned back against her seat in a proud sort of way. Almost haughty. "We're not the only ones involved in this little ... operation. If you must know. There's many of us. We keep in close contact with each other."

"Was Candice ... involved?" Natalia asked.

"Yes," Gayle answered.

"So," Natalia said, taking a moment to catch her breath. "Was she, like, undercover, or something?"

"She volunteered to try and infiltrate his group of disciples. Said we should learn of their ways before killing him." Gayle snorted in disgust. "I should have known. Should have tried to change her mind--"

"Gayle." Eli's voice floated up from the backseat.

"She ... wanted him to change her," Natalia said. When neither Gayle nor Eli responded, she added, "Candice wanted to become like him."

"I know, okay!" Gayle snapped, her top lip pulling over her perfect teeth in a sneer. "I just ... I thought I could get to her. Shake some sense into that stubborn head of hers--"

"You know just as well as I do," Eli said, voice coming in strong. "Nothing in this world could change that girl's mind when it was made up."

A faint smile touched Gayle's lips. She nodded. "Don't I know it," she said, sighing. "Don't I fucking know it."

"I'm sorry," Natalia offered. "About her death and about your loss. I-I know what it's like to lose a sister. I lost mine at a very young age."

"I think that's enough talk for now," Gayle snapped. "Drive."

Natalia pulled out of the parking-lot and turned onto the road. She struggled with words, to try and rectify what had happened to Candice, to make Gayle believe that it had truly been an accident, but she kept coming up empty. All the while, Gayle fiddled with the radio, changing stations rapidly, until she eventually turned it off in a huff.

Gayle glanced at Natalia intermittently, fidgeting in her seat, but saying nothing. The silence between them was thick. The tension thicker, but lurking just beneath it all lay curiosity.

Slowly, carefully, Natalia approached the subject of what had happened on the rooftop and how Candice and she had ended up there. Gayle and Eli remained quiet, allowing her to delve deeper into it, adding in more and more detail until everything was finally out in the open.