Free This Blackened Night by L.K. Below Page B

on the vial had disappeared. She tossed it into his face.
    Pierre howled. He stumbled back, clawing at his cheek. Lori couldn’t smell during the vision, only see and hear, but given the blackening flesh peeking through Pierre’s outspread fingers, she imagined it couldn’t smell pretty. His skin curled as if kissed by fire.
    Farmer-Lori didn’t budge. Her expression was as stony as pavement. “You will leave me and my family in peace. If you don’t, Devil, you will meet your end at the hands of my descendant.”
    * * * *
    Lori refocused on the present as Pierre thrust her to the ground. The gravel scratched her cheek, but she pushed away the pain. Her ancestor had had a vision. Could Lori be the descendent she’d spoken of?
    She glanced at the Spenta Michos. Bound and gagged, he couldn’t speak, but his eyes had turned wild.
    Lori glanced over her shoulder.
    Terrence approached with a silver stake in hand.
     

 
    Chapter 12
     
    “Cousin,” Pierre greeted. “Are you here to kill me like your pretty girlfriend threatens to?”
    Terrence might as well have been carved from marble. His face gave off as much expression as a statue. He didn’t answer. Instead, he leaped into action.
    His form was a blur. One minute behind her, the next–as she saw when she turned–in front of Pierre. Pierre suspended the stake between them easily, though his face betrayed some shock.
    “You’re no longer the cousin I knew,” Terrence spat. “You haven’t been for a long, long time.”
    Pierre grinned, completely unperturbed by Terrence’s barb. “Do you think that will make you sleep better during the day, knowing how I’ve changed? But I haven’t, Terrence. I’m the same boy you used to sneak off to the quarry with to go swimming. The same man you caroused with as a young man. The same man you joined in death, rather than see suffer alone. At the end of the night, I’m still the only family you have left.”
    Terrence’s shoulders slumped. He wasn’t going to do it.
    Lori tackled the knot, frantic to break free before Pierre killed the man she loved. Because while Terrence didn’t have the heart to kill a blood relative, Lori knew Pierre had no such qualms.
    Her fingers grasped the knot. Nails digging into a crevice. Loosen, damn you! She picked at it, unable to take her eyes off the scene in front of her. Any minute now, Terrence would release his hold on the stake. It would be the last thing he did. Tears stung her eyes. She refused to let that happen.
    The groove widened enough for her to wedge her pinky inside. She nearly wept with relief. It took all her self-control not to try to tear the knot apart and undo all her hard work.
    Pierre continued, “If she was any other woman, I’d even let you have her. But you know what that woman did to me.”
    Yes, Lori certainly did. She wondered if Pierre suspected that she had clairvoyant abilities, too. The knot now had a hole as big as her thumb. Soon she would be able to break free.
    Terrence’s hand tightened on the stake. “I won’t let you hurt her. I love her.”
    “More than your own flesh and blood?”
    “More than anything.”
    Lori’s chest tightened with emotion. She’d known Terrence felt something for her, of course, but something this strong? She was turning into a sissy. Carefully, she pulled one end of the rope free. Only one maneuver left.
    Terrence’s shoulders tensed. He growled. “You’ll have to kill me to get to her.”
    No. Her stomach wound itself into a knot a thousand times more complex than the one she’d just undone.
    “Why didn’t you say so sooner?” Pierre abandoned his good-guy routine. He hauled the stake from Terrence’s grip.
    Terrence stumbled, righting his balance just in time to dodge to the side.
    Lori lurched to her feet. The gritty pavement bit into her tender soles, but she clenched her teeth and tried her best to ignore it.
    How could they defeat Pierre when he held the stake? Lori didn’t know, but she refused