Alara read them, too. “That’s not crazy or anything.”
“It’s a verse from the Bible.” Jared studied the wall. “But it should say, ‘the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.’ It’s a reference to the devil. He’s the spirit at work.”
Demons were bad enough. I didn’t want to know who the sons of disobedience were.
“There was something else in the article about Shears.” Lukas hesitated. “When he confessed, he told the warden he was just a soldier following orders.”
“You think the devil was giving him orders?” I couldn’t hide the shock in my voice.
“I was thinking more along the lines of a demon,” Lukas answered. “One that doesn’t want us to find the Shift.”
The hinges creaked again, and the heavy door slammed shut behind us.
A tall man stared wide-eyed like he caught us breaking and entering. His hair was buzzed down to nothing, pale eyes lost in the gaunt shadows of his face. A dark band of scarred skin cut across the man’s forehead, circling his skull.
Every muscle in my body urged me to run, but there was nowhere to go. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him.
“I’ve been fighting this war too long to lose now.” Darien Shears was still in the orange jumpsuit he was probably wearing when he died.
“There’s no war.” Lukas kept his voice even. “Nothing to lose.”
We all knew it was a lie. The spirit stepped away from the door. It was covered with more writing: YOU DO NOT KNOW THE DAY WHEN YOUR MASTER IS COMING.
The spirit pointed at Lukas. “I sacrificed my life to protect it. Don’t tell me there’s nothing to lose.”
It’s still here.
My eyes darted around the room. There was nowhere to hide a cylinder the size of a coffee can.
Shears straightened. “I’m a good soldier. Stopped everyone who tried to take it. The same way I’m gonna stop you.”
Priest raised the paintball gun. He fired off round after round, but the balls burst against the vengeance spirit’s chest—holy water, salt, and cloves spraying onto the walls. I waited for the spirit to explode, but he only flickered for a second and vanished.
I stared at the paintball casings lying on the floor. “Why didn’t they destroy him?”
“He’s stronger than the average vengeance spirit.” Lukas ran his hands along the walls checking for cracks. “They weakened him, but I’m not sure how much. We need to find the last piece of the Shift before he comes back.”
“It’s not here,” Jared said. “The walls are solid concrete.”
“Then where is it?” I asked.
Alara stood in the doorway, staring at the view from Darien Shears’ cell. “I think I know.”
CHAPTER 30
Death House
Priest opened the white door at the end of the hall. A crude wooden chair with heavy armrests was bolted onto a raised platform in the center of the room like a dead man’s throne. Padded leather wrist and ankle cuffs were buckled below the thick straps that secured the prisoner’s chest to the chair. A coiled black wire snaked up the back and attached to a medieval-looking headpiece, with a metal band that matched the scarred skin around Darien Shears’ head.
Alara kept her distance. “Do you think any of them were innocent?”
Lukas stopped in front of a row of numbered switches under the words CAUTION—HIGH VOLTAGE. “I don’t know, but it looks like they all suffered.”
Rows of hatch marks extended across the wall beside the panel. Someone must’ve been keeping a tally of the men who died here.
“Maybe they deserved to suffer.” Jared sounded like the guy who burst into my house the first night I met him, not the boy I kissed inside the wall.
Echoes of murmuring voices bombarded us, too faint to decipher, and the unmistakable sound of frantic scratching coming from behind the walls.
“Well done, Jared.” Lukas sprinkled salt around the base of the chair. “Good to know you can piss off the living and the dead.”
The scratching grew louder. Then all at once it stopped, plunging the room into an eerie silence.
Priest took a step back and bumped into the panel of switches.
“You’re all monsters.” A disembodied voice slithered through the room. “That’s what they said right before they threw the switch.”
Alara’s body lurched back violently, thrown by a force none of us could see.
She fell into the electric chair. The padded cuffs unbuckled themselves and closed around her wrists and ankles. The leather chest strap snaked around her torso and tightened, completely immobilizing her.
“Stop it!” she shrieked.
Jared and Lukas struggled to unfasten the cuffs, but the leather straps held tight.
“Leave her alone, Darien,” Priest shouted.
The voice laughed. “It’s not Darien.”