Sorrow's Turn Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Reviews

  Works by DeVor

  Copyright

  Author Notes

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  After The End

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  About the Publisher

  Additional Titles

  PRAISE FOR THE WORKS OF DANIELLE DEVOR

  Named Examiner’s 2014 Women in Horror: 93 Horror Authors You Need to Read Right Now

  “Defrocked priest Jimmy Holiday's narrative voice is a strong blend of insightful, self-deprecating, and sincere.”

  - PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

  “SORROW’S POINT was probably one of the most terrifying books I’ve ever read. The book is a page-turner, but definitely not for the faint of heart. There were a few chilling scenes that will leave me with nightmares for weeks.”

  - HEATHER WOOD, BOOK CHATTER

  “DeVor weaves a clever plot and brings the reader a huge mixture of emotions such as fear, anxiety, wonderment and complete shock.”

  - Romance Thriller Author, LILIAN ROBERTS

  “SORROW’S POINT is a great horror story read. For me, this harkens back to the books of my youth, where the mystery and the horror were the main characters.”

  - Paranormal Mystery Author, REBECCA TROGNER

  “Move over, Stephen King. Danielle DeVor is on her way!”

  - YA Paranormal Romance Author, KATIE O’SULLIVAN

  “SORROW’S POINT by Danielle DeVor is a new take on The Exorcist and for me a much better read. The author has invoked pure spine-tingling flesh-crawling terror from every chilling page.”

  - Fantasy and Horror Author, SIMON OKILL

  “The thing I love most about Danielle DeVor’s work is that she never takes the easy road. Her imagination seems boundless. Sure, there’s horror, demons, ghosts, and a myriad of other spooky goings-on. But I’ve noticed that she likes to mess with her characters. A lot. And the reader is better for it. And speaking of roads, the entourage is now headed for Tombstone, Arizona, in SORROW’S EDGE, where more ungodly things are brewing. Good luck, Jimmy!”

  - Horror Thriller Author, STEVEN RAMIREZ

  By Danielle DeVor

  SORROW’S POINT

  SORROW’S EDGE

  SORROW’S TURN

  TAIL OF THE DEVIL

  THE DEVIL'S LIEGE

  CONSTRUCTING MARCUS

  DANCING WITH A DEAD HORSE

  STRANGE DARKNESS

  Short Stories

  THE CASE

  CRABS

  REFLECTION

  THE DARKEST DREAM

  LOVE ME TO DEATH

  EMMY'S PUPPY

  DAWN

  THE SHROUD

  PAPAP'S TEETH

  DUST

  Anthologies

  THE DARK DOZEN

  LOVE POTION #9

  SORROW’S TURN

  Book Three of the Marker Chronicles

  By

  Danielle DeVor

  ***

  Copyright 2017 Danielle DeVor

  Cover Design by Tina Moss. All stock photos licensed appropriately.

  Published in the United States by City Owl Press.

  www.cityowlpress.com

  For information on subsidiary rights, please contact the publisher at [email protected]

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior consent and permission of the publisher.

  Don’t miss The Marker Chronicles with book 1, SORROW’S POINT.

  Not All Exorcists are Equal....One is Marked

  When defrocked ex-priest, Jimmy Holiday, agrees to help an old friend with his sick daughter, he doesn’t expect the horrors that await him. Blackmoor, his friend’s new residence, rests on the outskirts of the town of Sorrow’s Point. The mansion’s history of magic, mayhem, and death makes it almost a living thing—a haunted mansion straight out of a Stephen King novel. Jimmy must decide if the young girl, Lucy, is only ill or if the haunting of the house and her apparent possession are real.

  After the house appears to affect him as well with colors of magic dancing before his eyes, rooms warded by a witch, and a ring of power in his voice, Jimmy is met by a transient who tells him he has “the Mark.” Whatever being “marked” means Jimmy doesn’t care. All he wants to do is help Lucy. But helping Lucy means performing an exorcism.

  BUY NOW!

  For Tabitha Barber—

  Thanks for letting me torture your alter ego.

  —Danielle

  Chapter One

  EVERY LITTLE THING SHE DOES IS MAGIC

  IF EVER I thought stuff couldn’t get any weirder in my life, boy was I wrong. Getting out of Arizona was—well, interesting to say the least. No way could we take Lucy on a plane—not without documentation or permission from her parents, which wasn’t going to happen. Poor kid had it rough learning how to walk on real feet again. Then there was the airplane itself. She’d been through enough having been possessed, separated from her body, and ultimately left with me to take care of her. Now this.

  How did you call up someone to ask if you could take their daughter’s spirit that had just developed its own body on an airplane while they still had her real body in Virginia? It was enough to make my brain bleed.

  And of course, I didn’t have their new phone number, but that was beside the point.

  Like I said, things had gotten a whole heap weirder.

  “Are you going to help me or not?” Tabby stood behind the car, fiddling with the suitcase.

  I was in trouble again. It was starting to become a trend. One of these days she would clobber me. I could see it coming. I got out of the car, took the monstrous suitcase from her, and loaded it into the trunk.

  “Car rental place said we can have the car, but there’s a fee,” I said, closing the back hatch.

  Of course there would be. It wasn’t like some big organization was going to be nice or anything. Hell, I had trouble with people in general. Why would a corporation be any different?

  “How much?”

  I shrugged. “I didn’t ask.”

  Thwap. My head rocked forward.

  “Did you hit me?” I stared at her. Maybe being psychic was another added bonus to this marker thing. Nah, if that were the case, I wouldn’t have screwed up in Arizona.

  Tabby stood with her hands on her hips. Her red hair framed her face like she was some sort of pissed-off goddess. Her eyes darkened, and I was reminded of that guy on TV who kept hitting his workers on the back of the head.

  “Yes, I did,” she said. “Just because you love that magic black card, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to worry about it.”

  I rubbed my head. Damn, she hit hard. “If this was my sort of normal I’d be worried. But how else are we getting this menagerie home?”

  “Good point.”

  I was glad she saw it that way because there wasn’t another option. It wasn’t like I had some amazing powers like flight or anything.

  “Was that the last of it?” I asked. The trunk was almost full. I could maybe fit a small stuffed animal in there, but that was questionable.

  “Yep.”

  “Okay. Let’s blow this popsicle stand.” I jumped behind the driver’s seat and glanced in the rearview mirror. Lucy was strapped in the car seat Tabby had bought at Wally World after the fleshing rod had done its business. Doc sat next to her, showing her card tricks. I was glad for Doc. Who knew having the sentient ghost of Doc Holliday hanging around would be so useful? His relation to me was beside the point. No way was I going to complain about his help with Lucy.

  I glanced at Tabby. “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  It took roughly three days, fourteen hours, and seventeen minutes to get back home. I knew because I counted every single minute. I probably should have let Tabby drive, but I needed something to hold, and the steering wheel served as a great source to out my frustration. My brain wouldn’t stop coming up with various worst-case scenarios.

  Every so often, Tabby would ask if I wanted her to drive. I refused. It was a shitty enough trip as it was. No sense in making it worse for her. I might as well keep my asshole behavior in check.

  Plus, I had to get used to a child’s bladder. Lucy—now that she was whole—had normal bodily functions again. Yet another thing I hadn’t counted on. The next time I saw the Devil I was going to hit him with that rod. Well, not really, but it was nice to dream about. r />
  Still, it was nice to be home. The old house with its white siding and black shutters never looked so good. It might be old, but it was mine. As soon as I stepped foot from the car, the smell of the Virginia air hit me and I smiled.

  “What?” Tabby peered at me while she brushed her long hair away from her face.

  “Glad to be home.”

  She shook her head. “We’d better get on it.”

  I blinked. “Get on what?”

  “Get the car unpacked?”

  Lucy gaped at her with wide eyes. Doc was watching the sky.

  “I don’t want to start anything, but I’m too tired. Let’s unpack tomorrow.”

  Tabby glared for a minute, and then slumped her shoulders. “Okay. We can wait until tomorrow.”

  I hugged her. Nothing in there that couldn’t wait. At least as far as I was concerned.

  “Shouldn’t you get your holy iPad?” Tabby asked as she unbuckled Lucy from her car seat.

  Even Lucy seemed tired. Her long blond hair appeared stringy and lifeless.

  “Someone probably wants to talk to you,” Lucy said.

  I peered at her through the car window. The kid saw right through me. “Okay. Fine.”

  I closed the door of the car, handed Tabby the house keys, and pulled all the crap from the trunk. I guessed it wasn’t in the cards to wait until tomorrow after all. Fine. But I wasn’t unpacking all the shit right that instant either.

  Tabby chuckled and opened the door to the house.

  As soon as I got all the crap inside, I noticed Lucy perched in her usual spot in front of the TV. Doc hovered next to her. It was kind of nice having Lucy solid. She could turn on her own TV whenever she felt like it. Eventually, I was going to have to come up with something else to entertain her. And more importantly, some sort of schooling for her.

  “If you want a chair, feel free to grab one,” I said to Doc. Just because he was a ghost didn’t mean he shouldn’t make himself comfortable. I knew he was being polite since this was the first time he’d been in my home, but I didn’t want him to feel like a guest.

  Doc nodded in his way. “Mighty obliged.”

  “I’d like you to feel at home.” Since he was going to be staying with us for the unforeseeable future, he should act like family.

  Isaac let out a loud meow as I put his pet carrier down and freed him from it. He sauntered over to the couch, hopped up, and promptly went to sleep.

  “Yes, Your Highness.” I bowed in his direction. “I swear, in my next life, I want to be a cat.”

  Lucy laughed.

  “Jesus, Jimmy. That’s just what we need,” Tabby said.

  I snorted. Part of me thought it would have been great to have her wait on me hand and foot, but the lack of sex would suck. I didn’t even want to think about her threatening to neuter me.

  “You hungry? I’m going to throw something together,” Tabby said from the kitchen.

  “Good luck.”

  ***

  I couldn’t lie and say I wasn’t happy to be in my own bed. Lucy stayed downstairs like she had before. Oddly, even though she seemed to have normal metabolic processes, she still didn’t appear to be able to sleep. How this worked? I didn’t know. It made me uneasy. A kid needed to sleep, and if her body didn’t change to adjust, I didn’t even want to think about the health problems. I needed to figure out a way to spread the worry a bit; otherwise, I was going to get high blood pressure.

  “What has you so,” Tabby said as she turned to me, “odd?”

  I rolled over in the bed. “I’m worried about Lucy. Nothing about this seems right.”

  She nodded. “Did you check your email?”

  “No.”

  Tabby rolled her eyes at me. “Didn’t Lucy say that you should?”

  I could have kicked myself. If I didn’t get my shit together, everything was going to end up completely craptastic. “I’ll be back.”

  I headed downstairs. Lucy was watching some documentary on the effects of uric acid on the brains of chickens. I raised an eyebrow at Doc. He shrugged. At least she was getting an education about something.

  “Everything okay down here?” I asked.

  Lucy glanced up from the TV. “Uh-huh.”

  I snatched the iPad off the table where someone had put it. I hadn’t even unpacked it before I went to bed. I jogged back upstairs. Might as well leave Lucy to her chickens.

  “Everything okay?” Tabby asked once I got back into bed.

  “So far.” I fired up the tablet. Sure enough, there was an email waiting for me. I took a deep breath and tapped it.

  Mr. Holiday,

  It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been accepted into the next class of Exorcism at the Vatican— Exorcismo E Preghieri Di Liberazione. We will be sending you your requirements shortly.

  Fr. Martin

  “Fuck me.” Granted I’d been whining about wanting help, but this wasn’t exactly what I had expected. Looked like the church did want me in some capacity after all.

  “What?” Tabby asked.

  “They are sending me to school to become an exorcist.”

  Tabby guffawed. Literally, guffawed. In fact she laughed so hard she fell out of bed. No joke.

  “What’s so funny?” I asked. Granted, I already was an exorcist, but it wasn’t like I knew what the hell I was doing.

  “Do you even speak Italian?”

  “Well, no.” Damn. She was right. The school for exorcism was at the Vatican. I was so screwed.

  “Oh, God. This is going to be interesting.”

  I glared at her. “Okay. Yeah. But this does nothing to help with Lucy, now does it?”

  I didn’t mean to be a bastard, but Lucy was a hell of a lot more important than making fun of me going to exorcism school. We needed information to help the kid. The sooner the better.

  Tabby got quiet. “No, it doesn’t. Question is—do you want to let them know about her?”

  I thought about it for a minute. I’d been Lucy’s protector for so long now it would feel wrong to hand her over to someone else. And not to be mean, but she was likely to end up as some Vatican experiment. I wouldn’t put anything past any of them. The Order of Markers was connected to the Vatican—not run by them. I had to be damn careful. Periodically, I found myself looking in corners of the rooms for micro-cameras or something, but I never found any. Still, since the Order had broken into my house before (when they set up the holy iPad), I knew they were watching. The question always was...how much?

  “No, we aren’t telling them about her.” It was better that way. Maybe. If they had footage of her entering the house, they would think Lucy was a relative.

  “All right then, what are we going to do?” Tabby asked.

  I sighed. Sometimes, I wished she wouldn’t expect me to have all the answers. I needed more of a give-and-take. “Get some sleep.”

  #

  The next morning I got up to nothing. There was no sound. No weird events. It almost had me worried. Kind of sad I was getting so used to the unusual that when something normal happened it felt suspect.

  I got up out of bed, went downstairs and found Tabby, Doc, and Lucy sitting on the sofa. They all looked like their pet rocks had died.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  “Something’s wrong,” Lucy said. She glanced at the floor. The TV wasn’t even on. Bad sign where Lucy was concerned.

  Nothing like those two words to scare the shit out of me.

  “Wrong how?” I asked. It could be anything: a new demon, bad luck about to befall me. I began to sweat.

  “I don’t feel very good,” she said.

  Her skin had a sort of waxy appearance to it. Okay. I could work with sick. Lots of over-the-counter remedies to try. I waved at Tabby.

  “Is she running a fever?” I asked.

  Tabby shook her head. Doc’s lips pursed together. If she was normal-sick, Doc wouldn’t be acting so strangely.

  “Make it stop,” Lucy said suddenly. She held her head with both hands.

  I patted her arm. “If I can, honey, I will.”

  “Any ideas, Doc?” Tabby asked.