by Alexie Aaron
“Horrible how? Ugly, volcanic…”
“Evil. The locals call it Lanfè which translates to Hell.”
“Go on,” Mia encouraged.
“As we arrived, all I could hear was screaming.”
“Residual or active?”
“Residual events, but not just a few, dozens of terrifying encounters with the island which mostly ended up in death. Our instruments started to go haywire, so the captain took us further out to sea. But, still, the negativity rolls out over the waves. It’s as if someone is purposely jamming my sensitivity with horror.”
“I suggest staying off the island. Maybe get a drone and do some flyovers to see if there are any structures that could hold a treasure.”
“Too late. The boys are on the island right now. They have an experienced crew member with them. And Kevin and Fergus,” Sabine added.
Mia rolled her eyes. Kevin Murphy and Fergus O’Connor may be smart to have on hand for a bar fight, but investigating Caribbean islands? Patrick was a shrewd operator. He wouldn’t have had them along unless he thought that they would be useful. Sabine wouldn’t have called Mia unless she was in distress. Mia sobered up and asked, “What’s your immediate concern?”
“I need to block the negative so I can read the rest of the island. This way, I can warn or direct them when needed. How do you block or separate the negative from the other information?”
“Some clairvoyants use white crystals, white candles, and white flowers to absorb the darkness. You can encircle yourself with these items, and they may act as a filter. You don’t want to block everything, otherwise salt…”
“Mia, I’m on saltwater, and it’s not stopping anything,” Sabine snapped.
Mia was surprised. Sabine never raised her voice or complained. The negativity was getting to her cousin.
“OOB straight up out of your body and take a look in the spectral wind. See if it’s a direct assault, or perhaps, the yacht is anchored in a natural spectral wind pattern. If so, have them move the boat until you’re out of the path of the wind. If it is a direct assault, then you should get the boys off the island. Only an extremely powerful entity can push over saltwater. Wait. Give me the GPS, and I’ll have Jake look for ley lines. You could just be parked over one,” Mia said, thinking aloud.
Sabine gave her the information. “I’ll OOB upwards and check the wind in the meantime. I’ll call you back,” Sabine promised.
Mia got up and dusted the dirt off her jeans. She walked quickly to the office after she kicked off her muddy boots.
Ted looked over from the computer and asked, “What brings you here? As if I didn’t know it already.” He patted his lap.
“Down boy, I have a request for Jake.”
The large monitor popped on. A large eye stared at Mia.
“I need you to check these coordinates for ley lines, spectral wind systems, or anything that would explain why Sabine is being assaulted with negative vibes,” Mia stopped a moment and then added, “Please.”
Ted typed in the GPS.
“On it,” was all Jake said.
Mia explained the phone call while they waited for Jake to work on the problem.
“Where’s Cid?”
“He’s working on his house,” Ted said. “I’m up to my neck in theory, so I suggested that, until I can unravel this problem, he may as well find something else to do. He stomped off.”
“Maybe you could have said it nicer,” Mia offered.
“Nah, niceness will just confuse the boy.”
“He’s barely younger than you. How can you call him a boy?”
“Very easy, it just pops off my lips.”
“You better be careful that that boy doesn’t pop you one on the lips,” Mia said, immediately regretting her words. “I mean, he doesn’t punch you in the mouth.”
“Gee, either way, it would be a surprise,” Ted said. “How about you pop me one right here.” Ted puckered up.
Mia leaned down and kissed him.
Ted wrapped his arms around her and drew her onto his lap.
“AHEM!” Jake said as he started to post the information he found. “Did you know that island, although in French territory, isn’t listed? I can find it with the satellite, so it is real. But officially, it doesn’t exist.”
Mia looked at the various maps Jake displayed. “No ley lines. The nearest is hours away. Spectral wind?”
“I have someone working on it from the dark web,” Jake said.
“You have someone working for you?” Mia asked, amazed.
“I’m connected. The name of the island is different from what the locals call it. It comes up as Lucifer’s Lip or that’s what the translation from Spanish is.”
“Lucifer’s Lip,” Mia repeated. “Maybe an open portal into Hell?”
“Portal, huh? That reminds me,” Ted said, unlocking his desk drawer. “Look what I confiscated from Brian’s suitcase before he left.”
Mia watched as Ted drew out a thick, lethal piece of green chalk.
“How did he get that? I tossed all mine after the Mbengar incident.”
Ted handed her the piece of chalk and watched as Mia took off her glove and closed her eyes.
The room disappeared, and she saw Brian. She followed him backwards until she found herself at Target with Lazar. Brian pointed to a box of sidewalk chalk and pleaded with Lazar, “I will wash down the cement after I’m finished.”
“No dirty words?”
“No dirty words,” Brian promised, opening the box and fingering one ominous green piece.
“Lazar bought him the sidewalk chalk. He wouldn’t have known what you could do with the green pieces,” Mia explained. “This is only one piece. There are four more toddler-fist-sized pieces somewhere. I’m going to have Murphy search his room. If we don’t find them, we’ll have to notify Ralph.” Mia stuck the piece in her pocket for temporary safekeeping.
Sabine lifted up out of her body. She wove a tether with the positive energy that flowed from her. She was taking no chances of losing the bilocation over saltwater. She studied the spectral air patterns and saw that the whole island radiated outwards with negative energy. It wasn’t just directed at her, which was somewhat of a relief. She felt an absence of activity in the realm which she had OOBed into. No ghosts aside from two, whom she assumed were Kevin and Fergus. She heard their deep voices, but they were too far away to discern what was being said. Sabine looked away from the island and searched the horizon. She saw something she would have a hard time explaining.
Sailing just above the water, but close enough to slice through a few waves, was a large dark ship. Its masts held tattered cloth that still seemed to be able to catch the spectral wind. It was moving away from Sabine and soon had disappeared over the horizon heading into the Atlantic. “Ghost ship,” she thought. Sabine lengthened her tether and moved upwards quickly, but not quickly enough to catch sight of the boat. She turned and looked down and saw only what looked to her to be an island devoid of all but the two Callen brothers, carefully working their way along the rocks towards one of the two waterfalls, and the boat tender, who had anchored just off the rocky coast. Kevin and Fergus weren’t visible, but it didn’t mean that they weren’t there. There was too much to obstruct Sabine’s sight, even from this altitude.
Sabine returned to her body. As she woke, she felt her stomach turn. She barely had reached the bathroom before she lost her breakfast.
Mia resisted the urge to call Sabine. Sabine said she would call Mia, and Mia would wait impatiently for her to return the call. Plus, calling a satellite phone number wasn’t exactly in the Martin budget.
Her phone rang. Mia picked up quickly. “Sabine, are you alright?”
“I just lost my breakfast.”
“What happened?”
Mia listened while Sabine told her all about what she had seen, including the sighting of the ghost ship. Mia filed the information away for after the phone call. “Jake is still searching the dark web, but t
he island’s real name translates to Lucifer’s Lip. There isn’t a ley line within miles of the island, and officially, it doesn’t exist, even though I suspect the French would consider it one of their own.”
“I guess, if you’re going to hide a treasure, what better place to hide it?”
“How certain are you the treasure is on the island?” Mia asked.
“It’s more of a hunch. We were here, so we decided to take a look.”
“I’ll have Jake search the net for any mention of the America. Maybe it stopped somewhere else. Does Mason know where its final destination was?”
“I’m not sure,” Sabine admitted.
“I’ve thought about how you could ease your discomfort. You need to enter your mind house and put up a barrier. Dig a moat if you have a castle. Close the shutters if it’s a house. You get the idea?”
“Yes. But wont it interfere with being able to hear Patrick and Mason?”
“Maybe, but you’re no good to them prostrate on the bunk either,” Mia reasoned. “I don’t want you setting foot on that island. No matter the pull or the need. Call others in if you feel Patrick and Mason are in trouble,” Mia counseled. “You’re a light of good and haven’t been trained for a physical fight with evil.”
“I know I’ve neglected my training. Bev is so much more advanced than I,” Sabine acknowledged. “Can you call Angelo and give him a heads-up?”
Mia winced. She did not want to call Angelo. She wondered why Sabine didn’t want to talk directly to him, but her cousin must have had her reasons, so she agreed. “I’ll call him as soon as I hang up. I suppose he’s in Chicago?”
“Last I heard,” Sabine said and ended the call.
Mia put her phone in her pocket. She decided that she would call him away from the ears of Ted. This way, if she had to get testy with Angelo, it wouldn’t further Ted’s dislike for the Italian birdman.
“Sounds like Sabine is in over her head,” Ted said.
“I believe my cousin can rise to whatever the challenge is, but she’s out of practice, so her confidence isn’t very high.”
“You should have gone with them.”
“I wasn’t invited. But I admit it would be nice to be on a yacht on the Caribbean instead of transplanting bushes. Whatever possessed April to plant lilacs so close to the house?”
“They were probably cute when they were small,” Ted said. “Just like you were when you were little. Now that you’ve grown two inches, you’ve lost your appeal,” he teased.
“Ouch. You’re not scoring any points with that kind of talk,” Mia said, feigning hurt feelings. “I’m going to go and take out my anger on the shrubs.”
Ted scooped her up so fast, Mia almost drew her wings in defense. He kissed her long and deep. Mia tingled from her lips to her toes.
“Whoa,” she said when she could put a coherent thought together. “Who needs the Caribbean? It’s very hot in here.”
Ted set his wife down. “It’s always hot when you’re around, Minnie Mouse.”
“We’ll have to further this discussion about the Caribbean later. Right now, I have bushes to beat and a call to make.”
Ted escorted her out the door and watched as she jammed her feet into her muddy boots. She smiled up at him and said, “Later, gator.”
“After a while, crocodile,” Ted responded and shut the door.
Mia scrolled through her contacts as she walked back to the farmhouse porch. She found Angelo Michaels’s phone number and called, hoping to get his voicemail.
“Hello, Mia,” he answered in his rich Italian voice. “It’s been a while.”
“I realized I haven’t called to thank you for defending me with the Brotherhood.”
“You were rather vexed. I expected you lumped me in with the morons persecuting you.”
“That was shortsighted of me,” Mia said, but she didn’t mean it. “I just got a call from Sabine…”
“Before we talk about Sabine, tell me, how are you?”
“I’m fine. I’ve been moving some of the larger plants away from the house, so I’m a bit dirty.”
“I mean, how are you feeling?”
“I… What?” she questioned.
“You have gone through another transformation. One that has moved you closer to your birdman origins. Nicholai said you’re a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. Any thoughts on coming and joining my wing?”
“Your what?”
“I have an opening for - what do you call it? Oh yes, a thug.”
Mia laughed. “Me, your thug? Angelo, you should be putting a thug between you and I, not putting me in a position to defend you,” she advised.
“You hurt me so.”
Mia stuck her finger in her mouth and mimed vomiting for no other reason but that it made her feel better. “About Sabine…”
“Mia, you should really work on your social skills. Okay, we now speak of Sabine.”
“Are you aware she’s out in the Caribbean with Patrick and Mason Callen? Not to mention Kevin Murphy and Fergus O’Connor.”
“Gerald gave me a heads-up. She’s on a treasure hunt. The excursion will do her good. She can’t always be mama; she needs to be a woman too.”
Mia fought to control her temper. Angelo just seemed to hit all the wrong buttons these days with her. “Please listen to me uninterrupted before I forget all the particulars.”
“Please, tell me.”
Mia caught him up on the situation and ended with, “I don’t think this is a harmless treasure hunt. Sabine is all but paralyzed with fear. I think, if you have any people out there, maybe consult with them before something horrible happens.”
“Why don’t you fly down there?” Angelo asked. “It would only take you a few hours with those wings.”
“I’m working here, I haven’t been invited, and I couldn’t find the Caribbean Sea, let alone a hidden island, in said ocean.”
“But you can find your way to Hell and back.”
“I had help. What are you insinuating?” Mia asked.
“Just that you drop everything for Michael, but when I ask you for your help, you make jokes.”
“Excuse me a moment,” Mia said and dropped her phone. She picked up the largest of the lilac bushes, shook it until all the dirt fell from its roots, and tossed it half across the yard. She picked up her phone and said meekly, “Sabine asked me to call you. I have. She didn’t ask me to come down. Goodbye, Angelo.” Mia ended the call and took out more anger on the next bush.
Murphy watched Mia from a safe distance. She really didn’t hurt the plants or he would have stepped in. They would go through some shock, much like the shock he was going through at seeing her behave so violently without being in battle.
“Can I help you?” he asked, moving cautiously towards her.
Mia spat out the dirt she had breathed in during her fit. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and silently stared at the ghost for a moment. “Actually, there is something.” Mia pulled a stick of green chalk out of her pocket.
“You’re not sending me to Hell are you?” Murphy asked.
This caused Mia’s anger to trickle away as the humor of the situation filled her. “I wouldn’t send you to Hell. You can eat in Hell, not that you’d find anything good in the Pit of Despair but…”
“You liar, you don’t know anything about the Pit of Despair.”
“You’re right. K. The chalk. Ted found this in Brian’s suitcase. I think there are four other pieces somewhere in his room. Would you mind playing detective and finding them for me? It would ease my mind knowing that he isn’t opening portals in Wyoming.”
Murphy nodded. “After I help you replant these bushes. Which should be easy now you’ve shaken all the dirt away from their roots.”
“You saw that?”
“Yes. I’m still shaking in my boots.”
Mia’s face twisted in a half smile. “Sabine asked me to call Angelo. He can be so…” Mia’s jaw clenched. She stopped herself
and continued, “irritating.”
“He and I don’t always see eye to eye either,” Murphy said.
“He had the audacity to say that I’m all one-sided when it comes to all things feathers.”
“Mia, I’m a little slow… What are you talking about?” Murphy asked.
“I mean, he said that I drop everything when Michael calls and that I don’t take his requests seriously.”
“You’re bonded to Michael. Angelo is just jealous. Remember, he wants you to adore him, like you do me.”
Mia’s mouth dropped open. She saw the twinkle in Murphy’s eyes and she shook her head. “One of these days, Murph, I’m going to…”
“To what?” Murphy asked.
“Nevermind,” Mia said. “Phew, let’s get these planted. I’m sensing I’m going to need a nap. That was some tantrum I threw.”
“I haven’t seen anything like it,” Murphy admitted.
“You’re lucky.”
“You’re a lot stronger now. I don’t need to tell you to be careful,” Murphy said seriously.
“That’s good advice. Now let’s get these bushes relocated. Any ideas?”
“The south wall of the aerie may be a good place. Three stories of nothing, no windows to interfere with.”
“That’s an excellent idea. Come on, give me a hand. I can’t carry this up the hill by myself.”
“Why not fly it up?”
Mia’s face brightened. She looked around her to determine if anyone other than a PEEP was around before she unleashed her mighty wings, picked up the plant, and flew up the hill.
Cid, who was coming back from his property, stopped to watch Mia and Murphy. It looked like they were having fun. He wasn’t sure if the bushes would recover from Mia’s previous shaking. He had heard the phone call and really didn’t blame her for her reaction. He was, however, worried about how quickly Angelo could upset her.
Ted was staring out the window when Cid walked inside the office.
“I think my wife is having a bad day,” Ted said.