by Carla Rehse
Lawson exchanged another look with Janice. “While you were up here doing, uh …”
“While I was up here, exploding all over the place and sending the rampaging demons back to hell?” I asked. “Though, truthfully, I’m not exactly sure what happened to Zim and his Hellhounds.”
Lawson gave me a half grin. “Yeah. That. We checked on the Bakers. They’re dead. No doubt about it.”
“That’s just great.” So, the Bakers weren’t the culprits? This was why I never played crime-solving games. Plus, I usually sucked at figuring out mystery movies. “Let’s check on the Apothecary, then go to my house. I need something there.” I tried to make it sound more like a suggestion than an order as my leadership decisions had crashed harder than a roomful of drunk career politicians.
“Something?” Janice asked, more weary than snarky.
I rubbed my neck. “I’m not sure how to explain. I guess Sera came to me in a vision?”
“Of course, she did!” Janice snapped. “And where’s a damn umbrella when you need one?” She stalked across the street toward the Apothecary, which thankfully was in the one business section not in flames, while Lawson and I trailed after her.
“Good to see you not on fire,” Lawson said, then pushed his wet bangs off his forehead. “That must be the dumbest thing I’ve ever said.”
I snorted. “Really? I have known you all your life. Remember how you swore Green Lantern was more of a badass than Wonder Woman?”
Lawson held his hands up. “For a seven-year-old, I made a pretty good case for it.”
“A pretty good losing case.”
Janice shrieked. “Guys!”
Lawson raced to her while I hobbled behind like someone’s Great-Aunt Bertha. My skin felt too tight and binding—like the one time I suffered a corset for my first wedding anniversary—while my joints felt too loose. I knew becoming the Gatekeeper created mental changes, but these physical changes were disconcerting.
A blinding white flash of light appeared in front of me, then I smacked into Sebastian. He looked, well, worse for wear would be a kind way to describe him. A singe mark colored the left side of his face in a wide line of dark red blisters, while his clothes had various cuts and burns and liberal splotches of black ichor. The normal anti-rain spell the otherworlders used glimmered around him, then sputtered out. Within seconds, Sebastian joined our drowned rat club.
“You okay?” I asked, continuing my trend of inane questions for the day.
“NO!” Sebastian hollered, pointing at the smoking remains of The Rogue Establishment. With the heavy rain and his arm waving, he looked like he was in the middle of delivering a soliloquy in a Shakespearean play. “What fiery abomination now plagues our fair town? Curses fall upon us at such a despicable rate. This dishonorable devastation plunges deep into my very soul!”
I grimaced. He sounded like he was delivering a soliloquy as well. “So, you’re not okay. Got it.” Another whacked-out Seraph. Must be Tuesday. Should I offer him some of my borrowed Grace? Did it work like that? Though it sounded very sacrilegious to assume the Lord’s power could be passed around like a used paperback novel.
“Hey!” Lawson yelled. “Some help here? The back of the Apothecary is on fire!”
TWENTY-FOUR
Where’s a broadsword or a tank when you need one?
I blinked, then found myself inside the smoke-filled Apothecary. Sebastian slowly turned, while I swatted the air. I couldn’t spot any flames, but the astringent stench of burning herbs made my eyes water, further blurring my vision.
“Are they in there?” Janice called from the door.
“Not—” The smoke tickled my throat, and I started coughing too hard to finish my reply. I stumbled to her, and Lawson pulled me outside into the steady rain. We moved next door to Nellie’s Nail and Claw Salon, where there was little smoke.
While I attempted to hack up a lung, Lawson asked, “You okay?”
Red, blistered skin showed through the burnt remnants of his sleeve. “Lawson! What the hell?”
He grimaced at his arm, carefully shielding it from the rain under the candy-striped awning. “I tried to get to the storeroom door, but the flames …”
A bright light flashed. Sebastian appeared with DeMarcus, Grady, and Boone at his feet. DeMarcus’s eyes were opened in a death stare, but the boys appeared asleep.
Sebastian put his fists on his hips, which drew attention to his translucent wings covered in sores and weeping streams of light. “Hunter DeMarcus has passed on, but I do not know why Grady Corbin and Boone Kennedy are unable to wake.”
Janice and I knelt next to the boys, while Lawson stared at DeMarcus—another dead friend.
I asked, “What about Alana and Delilah? They should be in there as well.”
Sebastian shook his head. “No other souls remain in the building, nor do I sense them nearby.”
They were missing? Maybe kidnapped? But that made no sense. Alana and Delilah belonged to minor Marked branches, so why take them? And since Linc was missing, it couldn’t be just some Creepy McCreeper stealing females. Just when I thought I had a handle on the mystery, another curveball got hurled at us.
“We need to get out of the rain,” Lawson said.
I nodded. “We need to find transportation to my mother’s house. And maybe a way to get Luna and Chase, too? I’d feel better if we were all together.”
Lawson turned slowly. “Getting to your mom’s is one thing, but finding a way to get Luna and Chase there is gonna be a tall order. And unsafe with who knows what still roaming around.”
“Gatekeeper.” Sebastian bowed, and I realized the skin on his forehead had peeled away from his hairline. Unlike blood and tissue on a human, there was a dark void showing through his cut. “Your safety is my most paramount duty.”
Another flash of light and we were dry, if not a bit frizzy, in Mama’s living room. Everyone except for Sebastian and DeMarcus. Two blinks later, and Sebastian returned with Luna and Chase. He gently lowered them next to Grady and Boone. None of the four kids so much as twitched. If not for their shallow breathing, I would’ve assumed them dead. A wave of fatigue washed over me, as if my body just couldn’t grieve any longer.
Sebastian swiped at his ruined shirt. The movement caused the rip on his forehead to widen. “I brought Hunter DeMarcus to the sanctuary as it felt appropriate.”
“Thank you,” I said, too tired to move.
Janice stood up. “Where’s your first aid kit?”
I pointed to the closet to her left. “The boxes are in there. Should be labeled.”
Like most small towns, Crossing Shadows had an annual town get-together. Instead of greased pig contests, kids’ face-painting, and the best pie competition, we had refresher courses.
Self-Defense Against Rampaging Vampires was always popular, as was Poltergeist vs. Spellwork: What Knocked the Books off the Shelf?
But First Aid: From Tourniquets to Chest Tubes, How Mostly Not to Die was mandatory for all those with a shorter life persuasion, like humans and pixies. I always got stuck paired up with a pixie during the CPR sessions. It took weeks to get the taste of glitter dust out of my mouth.
With the coursework also came mandatory supplies. Mama might’ve brought food bug-out boxes to the sanctuary, but our house, among several others, was designated a first aid zone. We always had an overabundance of medical supplies on hand, which came in quite handy when I first learned swordplay.
Janice pulled down the wooden box with the bright yellow Burn Box sticker. “Lawson, let’s get that arm taken care of before an infection sets in.”
Lawson grunted a response but obediently sat at the pretty but uncomfortable wingback chair my grandmother received as a wedding gift. A twinge of stupid jealousy hit as Janice tsked over his injury. He would’ve argued with me for five minutes before acquiescing to my patching him up.
“I must shower and change clothes,” Sebastian announced. “These pitiful remnants, once beloved, are painful
reminders of my failure against the wretched Bleakness Wraith.”
“It’s still alive?” I groaned. “That’s wonderful.”
Sebastian held up his hand. “Worry not, Gatekeeper. I will soon rejoin my compatriots to take down the Wraith. Thankfully, your mother has ample supply of my favorite bodywash, and I should have several appropriate garments hanging in her closet.”
While I picked up my eyeballs and jaw off the floor, he strutted toward the staircase. I turned to Janice and Lawson, who were looking everywhere but at me.
“What the absolute hell?” I asked.
Janice paused in cutting off Lawson’s sleeve. “Didn’t you need something? That’s why we’re here?”
“Besides the Crossing Shadows Cliff Notes to Hook-ups and Romantic Assignations? Yeah, I need to check on a book.” I pushed myself to my feet, then staggered to Mama’s office. Did she have sex with Sebastian? Could the Seraphs even have sex? I always thought of them like Barbie dolls—lumpy enough to fill out clothes but with non-working parts. I wasn’t sure if I should roll my eyes at myself and demand I stop blushing like a twelve-year-old or bleach out my brain.
The door to Mama’s office opened easily, and I no longer had any guilt about disturbing her personal space. Whether it was due to her death or I was just completely out of shits to give, I couldn’t say.
The room appeared as I remembered it the few times I’d ventured in here. With one exception. Enough dust had settled on the bookcases and desk to plant potatoes in, and the place had that sad, nose-tickling aroma of neglect. Guess Mama had been too busy in … um, other parts of the house to keep up with the dusting in here.
Bleach. I really needed to find some bleach.
I ignored everything and went to the beat-up wooden file cabinet that had always appeared one good sneeze away from becoming a box of toothpicks. I tugged on the top drawer. It refused to open, and I realized two things: when Sebastian angel-ported us here, the robe that Sera had handed me didn’t come with, so I no longer had the file cabinet key. I also didn’t have the super special and super freaky box the Bwbach had given me.
Cursing a blue streak, I stomped to the kitchen for the toolkit. That file cabinet was opening if I had to take a blowtorch to it. Which, uh, I wouldn’t since flames and burny things didn’t mix well.
Janice raised a silent eyebrow as I marched past her, brandishing a claw hammer, a flat-head screwdriver, and a wrench.
I screeched to a halt at the office doorway. In the thirty seconds I was gone, someone opened all five file cabinets drawers. The book I assumed to be the birth journal sat in the middle of the desk in a settling cloud of dust, next to the freaking Bwbach box.
“Seb—” I stopped as I caught a whiff of familiar honeysuckle perfume. “Mama?” I whispered.
The lights flickered, making the back of my neck crawl. The pages of the journal rapidly flipped from the beginning to the end, then the book slammed shut.
“What in the world?” Janice said from behind me.
I yelped and dropped the hammer, which barely missed my foot. “Don’t do that!” I hissed.
The lights flashed, causing spots to spark in front of my eyes. The journal floated in the air and wobbled into the top file cabinet drawer. All five drawers clanged shut.
I cleared my throat. “I believe that’s Mama’s way of telling us the journal doesn’t show anyone in town with witch blood.” Why in the world did she give me that key?
“There are none. Witchbloods in town, I should say,” Sebastian said from the staircase. “I would have directed you to them if there were.”
“Now you tell me,” I grumble.
“Outstanding. Another dead end.” Lawson shook his head. “Got any clothes here that aren’t your mother’s or like that?”
The three of us took a hard gander at Sebastian’s get-up. With his long hair curling past his shoulders, tight black leather pants and billowy white linen shirt unlaced to the middle of his surprisingly ripped chest, he looked like a model ready to take photos for a bodice-ripper romance book. If you ignored the forehead peeling like a grape thing.
I shrugged. “I’ve no clue.”
Sebastian shot us a confused look. “What is wrong—” He stopped and tilted his head. He let out a roar in Enochian, literally flew from the staircase to the front door, then ran outside.
Janice clutched her iron cross necklace. “Saints help us, but that can’t be good.”
“The Bleakness Wraith must’ve found us,” I said. Because of course it had.
“Weapons still in the coat closet?” Lawson asked, then headed to it without waiting for my reply. He flung open the door as several Enochian screams sounded outside. “Just rapiers? Where’s the broadswords?”
“Like I’ve been back longer than five seconds and magically know where everything is.” I elbowed him out of the way. “Huh. Where the hell are the broadswords?”
“Efra! No!” A voice I didn’t recognize screamed.
Lawson grabbed the closest rapier and ran outside, with me dogging his heels. Running into a battle with an unfamiliar sword wasn’t exactly recommended by any of the sword masters, but needs must.
Crossing Shadows had directed the rain over the fires downtown, so it was dry here. Or at least dry from rain. Swirls of glowing red blood colored the sky, while sulfur stunk up the air.
Sebastian and another Seraph—Avelino, I guessed—flew attack patterns in the sky, holding flaming angelic swords of iridescent light. It wasn’t clear if they were searching for what had to be the invisible Wraith or trying to corral it away.
Avelino let out a battle cry that caused all the hair on my arms to stand up. He dove and slashed with his blade. He stopped as if he’d slammed into an invisible brick wall. Blood sprayed from his neck as his head tumbled to the ground.
Sebastian roared again but was thankfully too smart to attack while enraged.
“What do we do?” Janice choked out in between sobs.
Lawson scoffed. “Can’t see the bastard. What can we do?”
“Die,” Red Hat moaned from behind me.
I turned to him, stunned that he and his kin were outside in the daylight. “Red Hat? What are y’all doing here?”
“Our fault,” he moaned while swaying. The four Bwbach behind him covered their faces with super hairy hands and wept. “We, the sanctified Guardians of Knowledge, failed to keep it contained! Failed! Failed!”
“It? The Wraith?” I asked. “You were guarding a Wraith? Why?”
“Went to get manuscripts on poison to help your little ones. Found the cage open. Wedi methu!” Tears of blood dripped down Red Hat’s cheeks as he ripped tufts of hair from his head.
“We’ll figure this out.” I nudged Lawson and Janice to back away.
Occasionally, Bwbachs turned into Bogarts—nasty, evil brownies. I couldn’t recall the lore on what turned them but crying blood couldn’t be a benevolent sign.
Janice took several steps back, then screamed. She flailed into the sky upside down, as if the Wraith had grabbed one of her legs.
“Janice!” Lawson sprinted toward her with his sword raised.
Sebastian flew under Janice as she was now several stories high. He raised his sword, then tumbled through the air like a badminton birdie.
“Stay here,” I ordered Red Hat, rushing to get under Janice though no plan to save her came to me at the moment.
“Die, die, die. Die!” he moaned. His kin picked up the macabre song.
I tried to ignore them by focusing on Lawson. He was dancing around, slashing at the air, but there was no indication that he was hitting the Wraith.
Janice shrieked as her leg bent at a forty-five-degree angle. Sebastian circled around her but was swatted away again.
Lawson’s sword sailed in the air, then he was lifted toward the still-shrieking Janice.
A flashback hit me from the last time we faced the Wraith. This time we didn’t have Nevaeh to help. But I had her Grace. If I could figure ou
t how to use it properly.
“STOP!” I screamed.
White-hot power raced through my veins. My eyesight sharpened, and for the first time I really saw the Wraith. The demon once had a humanoid body, but the extreme torture and transformation it had suffered left it deformed. Lumps and scars covered its misshapen, rotting face in a patchwork of horror. As it opened its mouth, slimy green drool oozed out.
The Wraith snatched Sebastian by one of his wings, then bit his throat.
“NO!” I released a whirlwind of power.
The Wraith dropped Lawson, Janice, and Sebastian to bat away the energy I threw at it.
Biting my lip hard, I directed power to slow my friends’ fall.
“You can do this,” whispered in my mind.
“Now what?” I asked.
The Wraith contorted its back like a hot yoga class gone wrong, then expanded in size. My friends dropped to the rocky ground hard enough to send up a cloud of dust. None of them were moving—not even Sebastian. Shit! Am I helping or hurting them? I pushed power into my hands to shoot at the Wraith. Maybe if I distracted him long enough—
Something hard smashed into my head, and I collapsed.
TWENTY-FIVE
Puzzling puzzle pieces
Sharp pain jackhammered my head as I forced my eyes open. Everything had a weird greenish tint to it as my stomach completed a couple of gold medal-worthy backflips with a triple pike at the end. My eyes fluttered closed, while my brain tried to piece together what had happened.
A fight.
That was it. We were fighting the Bleakness Wraith, and something hit my head. I opened my hand but couldn’t feel my rapier.
“Mama?”
I sat up too quickly and had to swallow hard to keep from vomiting. “Sadie?”
My vision cleared enough to explain why everything appeared green. Spellstones—volcanic rock spelled to emanate light—were attached to dry, bedrock walls of a deep cave or tunnel. The eerie, green glow emitted just enough illumination for me to understand what was going on.