What Tangled Webs Read online

CHAPTER 4

   

  JACOB LEFT THE pub and used the moon as his compass. As if by luck, he hitchhiked on a south-bound coach and arrived home late the next morning. He needed badly to bathe, shave and change his clothes which left no time for sleep. Caitlin was on the forefront of his mind. Winning her back. Telling her he was wrong, he was determined, and he would not give up.

  He pressed on toward town disregarding his aching legs and blistered feet, disregarding the burning in his guts and the throbbing in his head. There was no sign of Miss Delaney in any usual places. He looked inside every business, every stall in the marketplace, turned every corner and doubled back. She was nowhere to be found. He would have to go to her home and deal with her father.

  Her father be damned. If she loves me, she loves me.

  He walked to the front door of the Delaney home and was intent on stating his case if for no other reason than to hear truth from her mouth…to hear the truth from his own mouth. As he approached, he caught movement through a sidelight window.

  Caitlin stood with a young man he didn’t recognize.

  That must be the lucky Thomas. That is what money looks like, Jacob. My God, he’s a child.

  As he watched, the two embraced and Jacob felt a bubbling wrath in his belly. When they kissed, fury overcame his better judgment. Their hands explored each other. Their mouths tasted each other, and as Thomas kissed her neck, then the exposed portion of her chest, Jacob snapped. He pounded his fist on the door in frustration, ready to kick it through.

  Through the window, he saw the young couple jolted from their momentary bliss, laughing at the start before Thomas headed to the door. He approached, and his smile became a concerned frown as Jacob’s violent banging continued. Thomas opened the door cautiously positioning his slight frame to look as menacing as possible.

  “What the devil is your problem, man?” Thomas asked, glaring sternly at Jacob.

  Jacob saw a boy of nineteen, perhaps twenty, of slight build and even weaker constitution. Sweat broke out on young Thomas’s forehead and he quaked like a leave in a stiff breeze. While Jacob wanted to tear the boy’s heart out through his mouth, he leveled himself before he spoke.

  “I need to speak with Caitlin, sir. Please stand aside,” he said; his words coming cold and sharp like the blade of a well forged sword.

  Jacob had no knowledge that he was speaking; his world was awash in blood-red. His actions were instinctive and his mind replayed the kiss he just witnessed. It gnawed at his gut with ferocity.

  “I assure you that there is nothing a stranger needs of my fiancé that can’t first be explained to me.”

  Thomas parked himself in the doorway and steadied his feet. Jacob saw his hand trembling and heard a falter in the young man’s voice but was impressed with his resolve.

  “I am no stranger to her company, but certainly not so familiar with her body…and you would be wise not to challenge me, child. Now move aside!”

  His fist was ready to strike. He saw the young man preparing for the blow but then she spoke and the fire was doused.

  “Thomas? What is going on?”

  It was that voice that Jacob dreamed about. Caitlin appeared at the front door, cheeks still reddened from the lustful moment shared with her future husband. She straightened her clothes and hair as she came into view.

  “Jacob!” she said, “Where have you been?”

  “What does that matter? I left here yesterday thinking you loved me. Your father…”

  “Yesterday? Jacob you’ve been gone for weeks,” she said. “I thought the worst.”

  The word was like a hard slap to the face. Weeks.

  “Weeks? I was gone …”

  His anger disappeared and it was as if Thomas was no longer standing there. Weeks? It didn’t matter. He said the only thing he could.

  “I am here now.”

  Caitlin brought a hand to her chest in astonishment.

  “Jacob… I thought you’d left me. I hated you when you didn’t challenge my father.” 

  “Hate?”

  His confusion made him light-headed and he stepped back from the door allowing Thomas to relax. She had said hate.

  “I don’t hate you now. But you were gone so long.”

  “I believe he was here to steal you away,” Thomas said.

  It brought a gloating smile to the young man’s face. Caitlin cut her eyes at him, showing disapproval.

  “You arrogant bastard,” Jacob said, completely deflated.

  He looked at his shoes, worn and old as were the rest of his clothes, and felt the dagger twist in his heart. How could he compete with such grandeur? Her home was immaculate, built by craftsmen and artists. His clothes were the finest and tailored to fit him. Jacob felt like a fool.

  “Jacob, I…I love Thomas,” she said, stumbling over her words.

  Her eyes were wide with confusion and empathy.

  “I think we are done here, sir,” Thomas announced.

  This drew another disapproving look from Caitlin as he tried to close the door, laughing just to salt the wound. The world went black. Before anyone knew which way was up, Jacob kicked the door inward, breaking it from its hinges and had Thomas by the throat, pressed to the wall in the entry, his feet six inches off the floor. Thomas gagged and grabbed wildly at Jacob’s arms and hands.

  He wasn’t going to be satisfied by merely choking the boy. He wanted to punish him. Dropping him back to his feet, Jacob landed one crushing blow across the young man’s face which sent him sprawling. Caitlin screamed and put herself between the men, her dazzling green eyes alive and infuriated.

  “Stop it, Jacob. You’re acting like a monster!”

  She hissed the words in disgust and turned and knelt by Thomas’ side.

  His cheek already showed bruising. His nose was destroyed and blood poured across his lips and rolled from his chin. Jacob backed down, feeling her love for Thomas and her contempt for him. Then he heard Harry’s voice.

  Take what is rightfully yours, or you shall always regret it.

  “Advice from the devil,” Jacob said and lowered his shoulders.

  He couldn’t look at her face any longer. She loved another. Somehow he had lost time, lost love...

  I have lost my mind. I should’ve stayed at that pub and drank until my organs failed. I never should’ve come back here.

  He couldn’t even apologize; he couldn’t even look back at her. Jacob turned to leave.

  An invisible barrier stopped him in the doorway. Old Harry punched through him like a cannonball and shoved Jacob to the side. His face was again that of a familiar stranger as he grabbed the girl with one hand and jerked her to her feet. Thomas looked on in fear.

  Caitlin shrieked at the touch and her shock turned to horror, but within seconds, her motions changed from demure and proper to sultry and inappropriate. She moaned with pleasure. Jacob instantly recalled the young prostitute at the pub.

  Caitlin rubbed her hand across the demon’s chest and kissed its neck without regard to Thomas who stood two feet away. Harry never blinked. He stared directly at Jacob and flashed a wicked saw-toothed grin. Sweet young Caitlin’s dress was undone with the swipe of the demon’s razor-sharp claw up the back and it fell in a heap around her feet. She tugged at her undergarments, exposing herself, fondling herself and then writhing against the beast’s body.

  “Take me,” she begged. “I want you deep inside me. I want you to taste me…to tear me apart!”

  The demon, Harry, laughed.

  “You have failed, Jacob Kane,” it growled.

  Jacob’s heart sank and felt as small and as cold as a single cube of ice. Thomas, however, was oblivious to Harry’s true nature and once he’d gathered his thoughts, he stepped towards the beast in ignorant protest.

  Harry gripped the boy’s forehead with one taloned hand. This time, the victim did not simply babble about the face of darkness. Thomas Hynes screamed as ge burned to cinder and fell in a pile of ash o
n the floor. Jacob could do nothing but stare. Caitlin hugged her bare chest to the beast and tickled its throat with her tongue.

  Jacob remembered the wager. His life for her love.

  “Let her go, demon!” he shouted, “She was never part of the bargain.”

  His plea was honest. He would give his life in exchange for hers and was ready to do so. Harry pursed his lower lip out in a gesture of compassion, the way a sad child would.

  “You disappoint me,” Harry thundered. “You professed true love for this woman…said that you would do whatever it took.” The beast looked down at the pile of ash on the floor. “You had this weak child in your clutches. You should have destroyed him and claimed her.”

  Caitlin massaged the demon, her skin glistening with light perspiration. She masturbated, tasted her fingers, and then plunged them back inside herself.

  “Ahh,” said the monster. “Now that is heavenly.”

  The demon’s face began to change. His previously immaculate look became haggard, hair shaken loose from its perfection, breathing heavy. It grew in height, with an armored chest, horns and the hind legs of a goat. A huge phallus hung limp between its thighs and Caitlin stroked it with a hungry grin. The beast’s eyes rolled over black and lifeless and the skin and pelt darkened to a gray-green. Deep lines formed in the leather of his face as he spoke.

  “Had you done as promised, I would have made her yours and she would have fulfilled your every desire…as you can see.”

  Caitlin held the monster’s penis in her hands. It took a handful of her hair, leaned down and sniffed, then ran its long fingers between her breasts. Caitlin’s chest heaved and she sighed with delight. She looked at Jacob and blew him a kiss before returning her attentions to the demon’s body. Jacob ignored them and looked away.

  “That would not be love,” he said, almost choking on the words, and then roared, “Let her go!”

  With a sneer and one swift motion, the demon punched its fist through her naked chest and pulled her heart still beating from within. It then dropped her body to the floor. Jacob lunged at the monster harboring the worst of intentions but was stopped by the darkest magic with one wave of its hand.

  “Jacob Kane, I gave you the chance at eternal love and all I asked in return was a bit of chaos. You have failed and now you must pay the price.”

  Jacob was livid, every cell in his body wanting to kill the creature in front of him but he couldn’t move. He looked toward the lifeless woman’s body and let out a cry.

  “No! Damn you…no.”

  “She is not dead, my son. No, she is very much alive. The only difference is I now hold her heart so that you never will.”

  Its snakelike tongue flicked as Jacob shook with anger, screaming curses at the beast.

  “Damn you! You can’t have her! You will never have her.” Then he calmed and said, “Whatever I wagered was my burden and my price to pay and you will collect it from me alone.”

  Ol’ Harry snorted a laugh at the sobbing puddle of a man. Then it tucked Caitlin’s beating heart into a small bloodstained satchel that he wore across his shoulders.

  Caitlin stood, oblivious to the terror that surrounded her. She was wholly entranced by the creature. Her eyes appeared hollow and cold and her expression was blank as a fresh sheet of stationery. The wound in her chest closed up while Jacob watched, healing into a jagged star-shaped scar.

  “I already have, my son. I already have,” the demon said. “I have debts to collect, murder to commit, wars to wage…and you will assist me.”

  Harry looked more devilish than ever having fully achieved its true form. It stood over nine feet in height and was nude except for the satchel. The beast made the ceiling of the vaulted entryway look small, Caitlin like a child of no more than three or four. Its teeth grinned, honed to sharp points and four tell-tale horns poked through his long black mane of hair.

  “What if I refuse?” Jacob asked.

  “Then you will suffer in hell with the rest, but that my son is something I will not allow.”

  At that, Old Harry took one last look at the girl and smiled.

  “She is lovely, isn’t she?” he said and stroked her hair.

  Jacob winced at the sight. “What happens to her?”

  “She will walk the earth as you do, eternal and with a purpose of my own design.” It clasped its hands together and waited for the obvious question.

  “What purpose is that?”

  Jacob dreaded any answer that might come. What possible use could there be for a heartless girl who would never die. He thought of the vile things a grand demon such as this would plan for a young girl. He imagined painfully that legions of such slaves walked about the world being forever raped and tortured for the monster’s pleasure and the thought made him sick to his stomach. Caitlin’s fate was, after all, his fault.

  “She will serve as a constant reminder to you of your debt to me. And she will never know you. Therefore, she will never love you.”

  Its grin widened, showing pride in the brilliant cruelty.

  “What’s the difference then? Suffer eternally in hell, or suffer eternally in hell on earth?” Jacob asked, grasping for any answers he could get.

  The demon cocked his head and considered the question.

  “Power. I think you will find that a job well done is a job well rewarded. As I said, Jacob, everyone comes around eventually. I have loads of friends.”

  With that, the beast vanished and so too did Caitlin. Jacob woke in the dark and cold, eyes and mind fuzzy from sleep. He looked about and finally realized where he was. It was the alley next to Corrigan’s pub. He smelled his freshly wretched up puddle of vomit and this time, he noticed the hoof prints in the mud.