Silencing Eve

it.”
    She laughed. “Who? His al-Qaeda buddies evidently weren’t able to find those bombs in the last five years. Why should they be able to tell you now? Maybe no one knows where they are.”
    “Someone knows,” he said curtly. “Kevin knew. And Kevin wanted me to know. He told me he put it all in his journal. But the message was so well hidden that I couldn’t understand it. I went through the journal a dozen times, but I still couldn’t see what Kevin wanted me to see. So I hid it away until I could spend more time on it.” He added harshly, “Last week, I told Blick to go back to the house to get it and bring it to me when I was afraid things weren’t going so well. But the fool had the journal taken away from him by your friend, Kendra Michaels.”
    “Good for Kendra,” Eve said. “And now no journal and no nukes. You’d better take me to Vancouver and go back to plan one, Doane. Two deaths instead of millions.”
    “The bombs are still where Kevin put them. Your Kendra won’t be able to figure out their location from the journal any more than I could.” He added sourly, “But there’s another way I can find out where they are.”
    “How? By communing with Kevin? I don’t think so.”
    “There’s another way,” he repeated.
    “I think Kevin lied to you and just wanted to soothe your ego. He didn’t trust you, and he didn’t want to give up the chance to go down in demonic history if you failed him.”
    “I haven’t failed him. Everyone else has failed him, but I’ve stood strong and steady.” He looked at the skull on the table. “Even Blick failed you, Kevin. But we took care that he didn’t get a second chance.” He reached in his pocket. “And I’m not going to give you a second chance either, Eve.” He pulled out a hypodermic. “I have to be gone a few hours, and I’m not going to have you becoming troublesome. I think you need a nice long sleep after our trip.” He rolled up her sleeve. “And there will be no opportunity of throwing my Kevin into the fire even if you managed to get free.”
    “You appear to like to use drugs.” Eve felt the prick of the needle on her arm. “You must have become used to them to lure Kevin’s victims into his web.”
    He shook his head. “He didn’t like them drugged. That’s why I had to use all my skill and persuasion to get them to come with me. I told you, I can be very persuasive.”
    And Eve knew that to be true. At first, his kind, trustworthy face and gentle manner had made even Eve believe they mirrored an equally trustworthy soul. “I still find it hard to understand how you could do that just because Kevin—” She broke off. “You must not have any conscience at all, Doane.”
    “Kevin says conscience is overrated. He needed release. I gave it to him. Everyone who knew Kevin ended up giving him whatever he wanted. He was special. That’s how it should be.” He bent to look into her eyes. “You’re getting drowsy, aren’t you? I’ll be able to leave you soon.”
    She was getting drowsy. The room was swimming around her. “Leave me now. I don’t want to—have to look at you any—longer.”
    “Not yet. I want to be quite sure.” He leaned back against the table. “You’ll give Kevin what he wants, too, Eve.” He reached out and touched her cheek. “Your blood, your life … your Bonnie.”
    “He can have two—out of three. He’ll never have … Bonnie.”
    “You say that, but it means nothing. He already has her, all that’s left is to break her connection with this world. That’s you, Eve. When you die, he takes you both.”
    “Then he can’t have me either.” The darkness was weaving in and out around her. “Go away, Doane. Or if you want to stick pins … in me, use the real thing. Your words … are useless. You and Kevin … bluff … only bluff.”
    “Are we?” He was suddenly snarling. He jerked her closer to the table and set Kevin’s skull directly in front of her. “Then why are you afraid to look at him? You may not be afraid of me, but you’re afraid of Kevin. And soon you’ll fear both of us.”
    He meant when they merged, she thought hazily. When Kevin crossed back and became—
    Blue eyes staring at her from the skull only inches away from her.
    Cold.
    Nausea.
    And then the panic.
    They were only glass eyeballs, nothing else.
    No.
    Kevin’s eyes, reaching out for her.
    And for Bonnie.
    Her chest was tight. She couldn’t breathe. She could feel the