Despite his crippled leg, Galen thought that he was stronger than he had ever been. He played his cards right and aligned with the winning side. He had the full might of the Order of the Black Sun behind him now; that more than made up for his wobbly limp.
As Sasha looked at the smile on the Irishman's face, she realized that she somewhat regretted bringing Galen Fitzgerald into the order. Recruiting him had been a desperate move to recoup the losses they suffered looking for the Spear of the Destiny. It was just a whim that she hoped paid off after a resounding defeat. Otherwise, she would never, ever have considered Galen as a potential member of the Black Sun.
Still, there were valid reasons for her decision to bring him into the fold. He was incredibly wealthy, like many others in the order. He also had a history in their field of interests; spending all kinds of money on things that weren't his. He was a rich man digging up things that were long since forgotten or ignored; not unlike David Purdue, but Galen hadn't received nearly the acclaim or been even close to as successful.
Despite what Galen's autobiography said, he wasn't the worldly adventurer that Purdue was. Galen was really just a mouse pretending to be a lion, hiding behind money that he inherited and never earned. And there was the biggest problem with him; Galen didn't have the right mindset for being a good member of the Black Sun. He was an entitled twit. That was all.
Admittedly, Sasha thought she could use him, and it seemed like it would work at first, but Galen's insecurities made him easy for others to manipulate too, and when Julian returned, he was able to take full advantage of that weakness. Galen had wanted to send Julian back to Hell at first, but only at first. It didn't take long for Julian to alter his views with relative ease. Julian knew exactly the right buttons to push to win Galen over. He knew to play to Galen's wants and desires, and most of those involved payback against the people he felt wronged him.
Galen wasn't fit to be a member of the Black Sun because everything he did was for personal validation, and Sasha hated having to work with someone like that.
“You look pleased,” Sasha called across the trailer to him, causing a few of their fellow soldiers to turn their heads at the sudden conversation that was starting. “Like ... very pleased.”
“What's not to be pleased about?” Galen tapped his cane against the floor of the trailer. “This is a dream come true for me. Just imagine Davy's face. It will be something else, I tell ye. Something brilliant. I can't wait to see it. Maybe I'll take a picture and frame it.”
Sasha couldn't stand his smugness. He hadn't earned the respect to act that full of himself. He was still just a new recruit and knew nothing about the actual battles they fought.
“I don't know. It all seems a tad excessive. Does it really take all of us to kill one man? I've met Purdue and he really shouldn't be hard to kill. This is being turned into something far more frustrating than it needs to be.”
There were murmurs of agreement from the others standing around them. They were foot soldiers just like she was; and like Sasha, they only enjoyed getting into fights if there was something of real value on the line. If there wasn't ... then it was considered hardly worth getting killed over.
If Julian Corvus wanted to kill David Purdue so badly, he could go do it on his own. It would be easy enough to do. All he had to do was walk up to Purdue on the street with a gun and shoot him in the face.
Sasha was about to voice this argument, now that she had the crowd backing her, but Galen was quick to interrupt. He had never been the best of listeners.
“We're not going to just kill him,” Galen said defiantly. “We're going to ruin him. Tarnish him until there's nothing left. It is going to be so much more fun than just stabbing him in the heart, aye?”
That could be what was bothering her so much. If they wanted to finally take a threat off of the board, that was fine with her, but she'd prefer if they just got on with it. There was no need to drag it out any more than necessary. All of the grudges and personal agendas were just getting in the way of the actual mission at hand.
Julian and Galen were both too spiteful, using the order to settle past grievances and wasting the resources of the society just to settle a private matter.
She and the other foot soldiers shouldn't have even been involved. Hell, she had reason to not like Purdue and his friends either. She'd been beaten by them too, but didn't make it her new mission in life to destroy them. She didn't obsess over seeing them suffer.
Then again, she just might not have been able to see Julian's point. It was hard to understand it, and even relate to it. She hadn’t been impaled by Purdue's group with a spear like Julian had. If she went through what he had, it's possible she could want the same things he did.
Or, even more likely, she wouldn't.
Sasha was far too different from the Black Sun's new leader.
15
HORROR ON THE PAGE
The first words he read already frightened him. “Screams are power. Ensure that they scream. Their fear can be harnessed.”
The further into the book they turned, the more apparent it was that they were reading the works a deranged maniac. Purdue wanted to slam the book shut forever. All of those horror stories were true. This book of shadows contained horrible things; hardly the harmless magic lessons that Felicity told them would be inside.
He glanced beside him and Jean's forehead was glistening with sweat. He was biting his lip as he read the words on the page. Felicity was shaking, but not out of shock or nervousness. She looked almost giddy with excitement at what she was reading. Purdue hoped maybe she saw something that he missed and unsteadily dared to look back down at the book.
It didn't help.
Over the years, he found dozens of ancient and dangerous artifacts but none of them made him feel physically ill. He never looked at something and was disgusted by his own discovery.
This was different. He wished he'd never even heard about the book. He regretted looking for it, and even more importantly, finding it. It should have stayed hidden, away from mortal eyes where its contents remained separated and could never be read again. He'd helped unearth an evil that should have stayed buried in the dirt, lost forever.
That book of shadows shouldn't be in his collection. He knew that now, and part of him really didn't want it to be anywhere near his house. However, it was too late to give it away now. It was better for it to be held in his vault than it was for it and the knowledge it contained to be let out into the unsuspecting world.
As sick as it made him, he needed to keep the book.
“We shouldn't look at any more of this.”
Felicity snapped her attention to Purdue and he flinched at the hard stare she gave him. She struggled to find words to say, but he knew when she did, they wouldn't be good. She looked baffled ... but very insulted. “What are you talking about? That was the whole point of finding it. Learning from what Mona Greer wrote inside.”
“Oh, I've already done that,” Purdue said defiantly. “One peek inside and I've learned everything I need to from this book. And you know what I learned? It was a mistake putting this journal back together.”
“You're being stupid,” Felicity said, grinding her teeth. “It's no different than most old books like this. They can be filled with all sorts of things we shake our heads at now. It was a different time. But it's just a book. Creepy or not, a personal journal is just words. Thoughts of some old mind. Strange thoughts like the ones written in here are common with grimoires like this. It's just like every other old diary in Jean's little occult shop.”
“I do not know about that,” Jean said, still reading over some of the lines. “The ones I sell do not look like this. This ... this is different.”
“Fine,” Felicity grumbled. “But that's why all of your books are so cheap. They're just knock-offs of the real books of magic. Books like this. Given that you ... only dabble in magic ... you may not know much about real witchcraft, but witchcraft can be unusual. It can be up
setting. But that's just because we're conditioned to be afraid of the unexplained. Not everyone has the stomach for real magic. Clearly!”
It all sounded like excuses to Purdue and he made sure to call her out on that. “This isn't just unusual or unexplained. She's talking about human sacrifice. Using people to perform experiments. Open your eyes and just look at this!” Purdue turned to a hand-drawn sketch of body parts in gruesome, impossible positions. “This isn't unexplained. This is crazy. Miss Greer hardly seems like the misunderstood apothecary you've been spinning that story about, aye?” He flipped through the pages, practically slamming them down in a dramatic display to make his point. “I don't see a damn thing about remedies or medicines in here! Do you? Or maybe a sick ritual to pull my spine out is supposed to help me if I have an aching back! Maybe that's it!”
Felicity glowered at him, unimpressed by his display, but also was noticeably quiet in defending herself. When she did speak up to retort, she avoided his demanding questions. “You're just afraid. That's all. Just like her coven was. Learning can't be filtered through fear. You can't be too scared to explore the unknown. So what, if she wasn't the best person? Some of the most visionary minds in history were terrible human beings!”
Purdue and Jean glanced in each other's direction, both well aware of how irrational Felicity sounded. She wasn't trying to paint Mona Greer in such a positive picture anymore, but was still passionately defending the author of such a disturbed journal.
“So, what now, then?” Felicity was nearly snarling at them. “You going to tear the pages out? Ship them all over the world? Scatter them again?”
“Will you relax?” Purdue said, raising his hands to try and calm her. “The book will be staying right here, where I can keep an eye on it. Seeing what's inside now ... it may be best to lock it far back in the vault and never touch the damn thing again.”
Felicity's face was flush and her brow furrowed. She opened her mouth wide, ready to start shouting but Purdue raised a finger for her to pause.
“It would be the smartest decision we could make. When the pages were apart, at least no one could read most of it. But when we put it together ... when we put it together, we made it possible to be read. In a sense, we just opened the gates for any of this filth to escape out into the world again. We put it together. It's up to us to keep Mona Greer's vile imagination out of the public eye.” Purdue turned to Jean. “We keep it behind locked doors where no one can get to it. Any objections?”
“None,” Jean said. “This is far worse than I imagined. If this book could burn, I would burn it.”
Felicity shook her head. “You are both just cowards. Scared little kids who are just afraid of what they don't understand.”
Purdue shrugged. “Maybe. But I've always been more inclined to follow the philosophy of better safe than sorry ... and I'm already sorry that we found this. You've been outvoted, Felicity. Majority wants this book of shadows locked away.”
Felicity didn't care and she wasn't going to let their decision stand without a fight. “Majority? You want to talk about majority ... well then, the vast majority of the pages in this journal were found by me! I put in the most effort! The most time! This has been my life's work! It's nothing for you but another whim. A bored rich man's hobby! You'll forget about the book of shadows in a week and look for the next relic to entertain you!” She got in Purdue's face, almost spitting on him as she spoke. “No. No, I will decide what to do with Mona Greer's work. Not you!”
She held out her hand waiting for Purdue to give her the book, but he kept it close. The two of them stared into each other's eyes and Purdue wondered if she would strike him if he continued to resist. She certainly seemed upset enough. She wasn't wrong that she had found most of the pages and they would have never completed the book without all of her work, but he couldn't allow something so dangerous out of his sight. It was better to upset one person than to potentially unleash something that disturbing on the rest of the planet.
He couldn't relent. He wouldn't.
“Maybe you're right.” Purdue grabbed hold of one of the pages, like he was preparing to rip it out of the book in one swift movement. “So, let's just tear it apart then, aye? Give you back what's yours. Jean will have what's his. Maybe I'll bury the last page we found again. We should have never dug it up to begin with. Of course, when the pages are apart again, the words on them will probably hide themselves again, I imagine. We'll be right back where we started.”
16
HOMECOMING REUNIONS
The silverware at the table was rattling. Purdue turned to Charles and the old butler was looking back at him with growing concern, glancing around at the walls.
Purdue hoped it was an earthquake. A minor tremor that would soon pass, and they'd hear about its magnitude on the news in a few hours. Unfortunately, it wasn't like any other earthquake he'd felt before.
The shaking was getting worse, like something was getting closer. Louder.
The wall exploded. Purdue grabbed Charles and dove out of the way of the rubble flying through the air. Jean and Felicia found cover behind some of the nearby furniture, both of them screaming out in panic.
A massive trailer truck barreled into the mansion backward, its trailer impaling the building like a lance. When it came to a stop and the parts of the wall had settled onto the floor, the truck's exhausts quieted to a low hum.
“Stay down,” Purdue said to Charles. The old butler didn't even attempt to argue as Purdue slowly climbed to his feet, staring at the truck that had literally crashed his dinner.
To be backing up fast enough to break through a house like that ... it would have had to be going very fast ... deliberately fast. This wasn't an accident. This wasn't a drunk driver losing sight of the road or swerving out of the way of someone else. This was calculated.
Vibrations surged under him again and Purdue felt his whole body tense. The room started to shake just like before. About ten seconds later, there was another explosion that rocked the house, but it was out of sight, in another wing of his home—the sound of another truck smashing its way in, no doubt.
Then there was another. Another after that. Each one shook the entire household.
Once things finally grew still and quiet, Purdue looked across the room at Jean and Felicia, who were keeping low and looking around nervously. Charles was on the floor, his hands over his ears. “You two alright?”
“The hell is going on?!” Felicia yelled back.
“We're breathing!” Jean called.
Purdue stared at the trailer that was piercing his house.
It was becoming very clear what was going on. His home was under siege ... and if they didn't move quickly ... it would be a very brief siege.
The trailer's door rose, revealing numerous armed men inside. A truck filled with death.
Purdue grabbed Charles by the arm and heaved him up. He turned to Jean and Felicia. “Come on!”
He pulled his butler away from the new arrivals, and his new colleagues followed close behind as they ran from the dining room and into the corridor outside.
Purdue knew his house better than anyone. It didn't matter how many invaders swarmed inside. He moved through the west corridor with Charles in tow. All they could do was hope that there weren’t more intruders up ahead or another truck crashing through the hall in front of them. If there was, it didn't matter how well he knew the blueprints. They would be easily captured, maybe even killed.
Thankfully, there wasn't.
Purdue kicked open the basement door. He hurried down the spiral staircase, down into the basement. Ever since the last time someone had come into his home hoping to assassinate him and take his collection, Purdue had moved all of his relics and valuables down into the basement, and turned the cellar into a bunker. He knew better than to ever let that happen again.
His collection had to be one of the most secure places in the world. They had no choice but to turn the basement into a vault of all of his various
treasures with the most sophisticated security that he could buy.
A small room beside the trophy room housed a number of computer monitors, a microphone, and a control panel of all of the cameras and doors in the house.
That part of the basement was essentially his own personal panic room. One that would make you feel safe enough to never panic, even when enormous trucks were being thrown through your house.
Charles flicked on the screens and took a seat at the control panel. Purdue made sure his butler was well versed with their upgraded security. If someone made a move for his relics while Purdue was away, across the world, then Charles needed to be able to defend the collection. Charles booted up the rest of the system, and they got a clear view across six screens of how much damage had been done to the house.
Five trailers were parked in various parts of the house, each sitting in the mess of debris they had made. Armed foot-soldiers spilled out of the vehicles and were spreading about the house, checking for anything of value, no doubt. They could find plenty of expensive things inside, but Purdue knew that all of those items could be replaced.
These home invaders could burn his house to the ground, but Purdue and his allies would be safe below, with all of the possessions Purdue really cared about; safe and sound.
He looked closely at each of the screens. It was clear that these men were well trained. They moved to each room purposefully and cleared each one as they progressed through the house.
“You know them, sir?” Charles kept his gaze on the screens, probably trying to hide the nervousness on his face.
Purdue didn't answer at first. He was watching every move the intruders made. They stormed each room quickly, their machine guns sweeping around, ready to open fire on anyone they came across. They clearly weren't there to threaten or take prisoners. They were obviously there to kill.
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