Have Artifact, Will Travel (The Immortality Curse Book 5)

by Peter Glenn

  “Alejandra Martinez,” Allie said, smiling big at Sheila. “But please, call me Allie.”

  She held her hand out to Sheila, and Sheila took it in her own, planting a small kiss on top of it, which seemed to make Allie giggle.

  “Allie, you say?” Sheila’s eyes were as wide as saucers. “It is very nice to meet you.”

  I stood staring at the two of them staring at each other for a few seconds. There was something going on there. Sheila was a lesbian. Was Allie one, too? Were they… attracted to each other?

  Gosh, that would explain so many things if Allie batted for Sheila’s team. Like her horrible attempts at flirting with me. She obviously had no experience flirting with guys, if she was on Sheila’s team.

  But that was a topic for another day. I cleared my throat loudly. “Um, I’m really sorry, Sheila, but I forgot your payment this time, and–”

  She waved me off. “Oh, nonsense! Don’t worry about a thing. It’s on me this time.” Her eyes never left Allie’s as she spoke.

  “Great. Awesome. So, shall we…”

  Sheila sucked in a sudden breath. “Oh, right.” She let out a short laugh and threw her hands up like she was flustered. “Yes, where were we? You had asked me to find something or someone, eh?”

  I nodded. “Yep. That’s right.”

  “So what’ll it be this time, deary?” She sat back down in her chair and beckoned for all of us to sit down as well. We did as we were bade, with me taking the seat across from Sheila, and Isaiah and Allie sitting across from each other.

  Allie scooted her chair a little so she was sitting just a tad closer to Sheila than to Isaiah, but said nothing.

  “Need to find another dragon? Or a lost love, perhaps?” Her eyes trailed over to Allie for a half second, and there was a glint of something in them, then she returned her gaze to me.

  I was right! There was totally something going on there!

  “Umm, yeah.” I cleared my throat. “We need to uh… find a cultist. Or rather, several cultists.”

  “Oh, now where’s the fun in that, dearies?” Sheila said with a smirk.

  “It’s not fun, it’s very serious,” Isaiah broke in. He had a stern expression on his face.

  Sheila giggled. “I know that, dear. Don’t you worry none. I’ll get this all sorted out. Now what do we know about these cultists of yours? Anything you can tell me might help.”

  “They’re known as the Death’s Head cult,” Allie blurted out.

  It was the first time I’d heard her actually say the name of the cult, and given what it was, I couldn’t blame her for keeping that part to herself. Who would trust anyone from the Death’s Head cult?

  “Death’s Head, eh?”

  Allie nodded.

  “Very well,” Sheila continued. “What else do we know about them? Remember, even the slightest detail might make all the difference.”

  Allie chewed on her bottom lip for a second. “Well…” She took a deep breath, then went into her story about how she’d met up with Kedron and fallen into the cult in the first place. Sheila was riveted for the whole thing. When speaking of her parents’ deaths, Sheila even put a hand over her heart and swooned a little.

  It was actually really cute to watch.

  “That’s a moving tale, deary,” Sheila said when Allie stopped speaking. “She reached forward and squeezed the girl’s hand. “Thank you for sharing it with me.”

  Allie lowered her head. “Y-you’re welcome,” she uttered.

  “Now,” Sheila said, rubbing her hands together and turning her attention back to me, “what did you bring me to aid in the search?”

  “Right.” I reached for Grax’thor and started to bring her around. “About that. I got some blood on–”

  Sheila put out her hand and gingerly forced my blade back down out of the air and below the table. “Now, now, deary. No need to go showin’ your stick around like that in front of the lady folk.”

  I heard Isaiah chuckle, and my cheeks flared a bright crimson. “Right. Sorry.”

  Allie and Sheila exchanged another look, and Sheila whispered something to her, though I didn’t catch it.

  I rummaged around in my pocket for a handkerchief I’d stuffed in there earlier. “Maybe this will work better.” I showed Sheila the bit of cloth. It was normally white, but at the moment, it was almost completely coated in dark red blood. Dried blood, but blood all the same. “I used it to clean the cultists’ blood off my sword after the fight. Thought it might come in handy to keep some of their blood around for this type of occasion.”

  “Very nice,” Sheila said, admiring the cloth. She took it in her hands and turned it about a bit. “How many victims?”

  I shrugged. “A half a dozen? But only two of them are still alive.”

  Sheila nodded. “A good thing my magic only works on the living then, eh?”

  “For sure.” I gave her a slight smile.

  “Well, this is a good start.” She fingered the cloth for another few seconds, then dunked it into the cauldron in front of her. “But I need the fresh stuff, too. Any volunteers?”

  “Of course.” I stuck my hand out. “Here, feel free to take all that you need.”

  “No, wait!” Allie thrust her arm onto the table on top of mine. “Take mine instead.”

  Sheila looked taken aback by Allie’s suddenness. “Are you sure, deary?”

  Slowly, Allie nodded. “I’m sure. I’m more closely related to the cultists, so my blood might work better for the tracking spell.”

  “Very well.”

  Sheila produced a lancet device from within her dress. It was a small one, like the kind of thing a diabetic would use to poke their finger. She lightly caressed Allie’s fingers, massaging the tips of them. “Now, this will only hurt a tiny bit, deary.”

  Humph. She’d never taken this kind of care when drawing my blood before. I was starting to feel just a tiny bit jealous.

  Allie nodded again. “Okay. Just get it over with.”

  Sheila pressed her lancet to Allie’s pointer finger, and I heard a tiny “ouch” come out of Allie’s mouth, then it was over. A small dot of blood formed on top of Allie’s finger.

  “Bring it over here, eh?” Sheila commanded.

  “Like this?” Allie lifted her hand and placed it over the cauldron.

  “Exactly. Now just hang on one second.” Sheila massaged Allie’s fingertip again, and three droplets of fresh blood fell into the water. Then she produced a Band-Aid and placed it on Allie’s finger. “See? That wasn’t so bad, eh?”

  Allie smiled at her. “I guess not.”

  “Now, let’s see what the waters have to say for us today about these cultists of yours, shall we?”

  Sheila waved her hands over the cauldron, and it began to bubble a little as the blood and the water swirled, combining into one viscous liquid. After a moment, she took out the handkerchief, which was now back to its original stark white, all the blood having been absorbed into the water.

  “Hmm,” Sheila said as she stared into the waters. “Interesting. Very interesting.”

  “What is it?” Isaiah asked. He was sitting on the edge of his seat, peering into the cauldron as well.

  “See that?” Sheila said, pointing to a particular swirl.

  “No, I don’t see anything.”

  “That’s ‘cause there’s nothing to see, deary.” Sheila grinned at him. “I haven’t actually started the spell yet. I was just teasin’ ya.”

  Isaiah groaned and fell back against his chair. He did not look very happy. That was another of my compatriots he wasn’t overly fond of. At least the two of us got along.

  Sheila whispered a few unintelligible words, and the water and blood hissed and bubbled some more, swirling around and making strange patterns. I watched as one of them resolved into the face of Kedron, and another into the face of Hobart.

  Allie gasped and clapped her hand over her mouth, then settled back into her chair. I wondered what was the matter with her, th
en I saw it for myself, too. A dark shroud hung over both of them. The shroud of death.

  Well, that was all well and good for me, because I was totally killing them the next time I saw them. But I had the strangest feeling that my own desires for their deaths wasn’t connected to the dark shroud that surrounded them.

  “That is very interesting,” Sheila muttered. “Strange crowd you got tangled up with, eh, dear?” She shot a worried look at Allie.

  Allie regained her composure and nodded slowly. “Yeah, I suppose so.”

  “Didn’t know they were trying to bring about the end of the world, did you?”

  Allie shook her head and looked despondent. “Look, I always thought the name was kind of odd, but I never thought they… I just, I didn’t think…”

  Sheila put a hand on Allie’s shoulder. “It’s okay, deary. We often don’t know the people we grow up with as well as we think we do, eh?”

  “Y-yeah,” Allie said. She put her own hand on top of Sheila’s, and they sat there staring into each other’s eyes for probably a good few seconds.

  “Now.” Sheila pulled her hand away. It looked like she regretted it, but she did it. “I believe you were looking for the location of these cultists, if I remember right?”

  I cleared my throat. “Uh, that’s right. Yep. Need to know where they’re planning to end the world from.”

  Sheila gave me a bright smile. “I can see it clearly, but I can’t quite place it. It’s somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, near a popular destination town. All I can make out is a hot spring and some sort of steamboat.”

  “A steamboat?” I scrunched my nose. “What’s a steamboat doing in the middle of the Rocky Mountains?”

  Allie chewed her bottom lip. “I should have known.”

  “Should have known what, deary?”

  Allie opened her mouth, then closed it again a moment later. Her eyes took on a distant look. Finally, she spoke. “It all makes so much sense now. It’s not far from where I grew up, really. I should have known it from the start. He’d always gone there for their festivals in the spring and winter.”

  “Gone where, Allie?” Isaiah pressed. “Where is Kedron?”

  “It’s a large church in the woods. The Church of the Lost Child. My parents’ funeral was held there, even though they supposedly weren’t members. It has to be the place.”

  “Where is the church, Allie?” Isaiah leaned forward in his seat until he was practically on top of her.

  “It’s no use,” I told him. “She’s still too shaken to fully admit it. We’ll just have to find it on our own.”

  “Steamboat Springs,” Allie said a moment later. “That’s where the church is. Well, where it’s near, at any rate. It’s near Steamboat Springs in the mountains of Colorado.”

  “That’s a good girl, dear,” Sheila said, giving her a warm smile and putting her hand on her shoulder again. She also pushed Isaiah back at the same time. “Thank you.”

  Allie’s eyes still had that distant look. I wondered what admitting that had cost her mentally. She knew full well what we had planned for Kedron and the rest of the cult.

  Right then, my phone buzzed, so I took it out of my pocket and looked at the screen. It was good old Rick, calling me again.

  I slid up on the phone to answer it and put it up to my ear, flicking on the speakerphone at the same time. “Rick! Buddy! What’s going on, my main man?”

  “Damian! Oh good, you’re still awake.”

  “Pssh! The day’s barely started, if you ask me.” It was true. I did like to sleep in when I could. I’d always been more of a night owl.

  “Listen, I just found out some more information on that cult of yours. They’re called the Death’s Head cult, and I think they might be serious about trying to end the world.”

  “Uh huh.” I nodded slightly even though he couldn’t see it. “Great work, Rick. As always.”

  “Wait.” The line went dead for a second. “You… you already knew all that, didn’t you? You’re one step ahead of me. Again.”

  “I never could put one past you, could I, Rick?” I practically beamed at the phone.

  “Ugh, you’re the worst, Damian. But get this. You may not have very long to stop them. The ritual they’re using, it needs to be completed under a full moon.”

  Great. Another full moon ritual. What was it with full moons and magic power that made them always go together, anyway?

  “Sounds good, Rick.”

  “You’re not getting it, Damian. The next full moon is the day after tomorrow. You’ve only got about a day and a half to stop them at best.”

  13

  My blood went cold. Kedron and his cronies were half a continent away from us and time was running out. Why did it always work out like that? Why was it never, “Hey, we’ve got like a month of prep work to do this thing. Stop by any time, ‘kay?”

  Nope. That never happened. It was always the last-minute saves. Which made it all that much harder to mount a decent opposition.

  “Got it, Rick,” I said. My mouth suddenly felt dry, like cotton, and the words were hard to get out. “Appreciate the heads up.”

  “Of course, buddy. Hey listen. The good news is, I’ve zeroed in on their location for you. It’s–”

  “A church outside of the small town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado?”

  I heard a low growl on the other side of the line. “How do you do that? It’s uncanny.”

  “Don’t know, Rick. It just happens.” I gave the phone another smile.

  “Well, good luck, buddy,” Rick told me. “I’d love to come along for this one, but I don’t think I’m going to be much help against a bunch of Death’s Head cultists.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

  “Hey, if you get out of this one alive, come stop by again when you’re not on a case. We can grab a drink at Mei’s or something.”

  “Sounds great, Rick. See you soon.”

  I clicked the end call button and put my phone back into my pocket. Ah, good old Rick. He could always make me feel better. He was kind of like LaLuna that way.

  That reminded me. I hadn’t texted her in a bit. She was probably getting worried about me. I’d have to text her tomorrow morning and let her know what was going on. Even if she can’t come with me, she’d want to know the danger I was heading into. She was crazy like that.

  Most girls liked to pretend that dangers like this didn’t exist and their men would always come home safe. But I supposed after the life LaLuna had led, she knew better than to accept tricks of the mind like that. She really was amazing.

  “Well, we’d best get going,” Isaiah said. He gave Sheila a slight salute as he got up from his chair. The motion broke me out of my inner thoughts and brought me back to the matter at hand.

  “Right,” I said. “We have a cult to stop, and not a lot of time to do it, apparently.”

  It was the funny thing with full moon magic. The moon didn’t actually have to be out or even visible for it to work. It just had to be there in general. I had never been sure why, but there you have it, and the moon technically turned full at about one in the morning the day after tomorrow, which meant they could start the ritual shortly after midnight if they wanted.

  Rick was right. We really didn’t have a lot of time.

  “Well, it was a pleasure seeing you again,” I told Sheila. I got up from my chair as well. “But we really do have to go. Flights to Colorado won’t find themselves.”

  “What’re you saying goodbye for, dearies?” Sheila asked, her head cocked to the side. “I’m bloody well coming with you.”

  I balked. “What? No, we couldn’t ask that of you, Sheila. You’ve been plenty of help already.”

  Sheila’s smile contorted into a deep frown. “I don’t remember asking anyone, dearies. Now, I’m coming with ya to stop this Death’s Head cult, and that’s final.” The way she said it left no doubt that it was happening. “It just so happens I’m kinda fond of the world, and if th
ere’s any way I can keep it turning for a little while longer, then that’s how it’s gonna be.”

  Well it was hard to argue with logic like that, and it would be nice to have another mage on our side. I’d fought with Sheila by my side once. She was a very valuable asset.

  Still, I couldn’t put her in danger again. I owed her too much.

  “No, I can’t allow it,” I said firmly. “This is my mission, with Isaiah.”

  “And what about me?” Allie interjected. She flew out of her seat and put her hands on her hips. “You thinking of leaving little old me behind too, are you? Have some burning need to protect us defenseless women folk?”

  “Now that’s not what I meant at all. I–”

  “I’ll have none of that! I helped cause this mess, and I’m going with you to help end it!” Allie insisted. “Besides, if there’s any chance of finding a way to stop Kedron without resorting to violence, I have to take it.”

  Poor girl. She still believed in him, even after everything she’d endured. That must be really hard to go through.

  I glanced over at Isaiah. “Surely, you agree with me, right?”

  Isaiah threw up his hands and shrugged. “I… Maybe they have a point, Damian.”

  “Ugh!” I rolled my eyes. “Is everyone against me? The smaller the team, the easier it is to maneuver, you know!”

  Plus, I still wasn’t completely sure how I felt about Allie. Would she turn on us at the last moment? I mean, she had betrayed us just a few days ago, and she obviously still thought there was hope for Kedron somehow.

  But was that it? Or was there more to it? Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure.

  “Oh, you’ll barely even notice we’re with you, dear,” Sheila said, flashing me a toothy grin. “Promise.”

  I gave Isaiah one last furtive look, but there would be no help there. I was outnumbered.

  “Fine,” I said at last, sighing heavily. “We can all go. But remember, we’re on a tight timeline, and if I tell you to do something, you do it. No arguing, got it?”

  Sheila and Allie both nodded.

  “Don’t worry, big boy,” Allie said. She came over to me and patted me on the cheek. “We’ll stick to you like shadows. You won’t regret this.”