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

by Peter Glenn

  Oh yes, I would, Allie. Yes, I would.

  Under any other circumstances, I’m sure Steamboat Springs would have been a charming little mountain town. It certainly had the look of one. There was a certain timeless quality to the whole place, almost like it had been frozen in time since the 1920s or something like that. It was a little bit surreal driving through it and looking around at the older architecture.

  It was late evening of the next day. Almost dark already, but there was some light to see by. We’d gotten another fitful night of sleep and caught the first flight out of Canada we could. It had been coach seats this time. Whether that was because Isaiah was now buying four tickets or his money was starting to run dry, I wasn’t completely sure. I’d never really known just how much money he’d had, anyway, or how much he had set aside for finding the Jade Jaguar.

  That felt like one of those conversations I probably should have had with him at some point, but at this stage, it would just be awkward, so I let the matter drop.

  At any rate, he probably hadn’t expected to be buying so many last-minute flights to different places. Those tickets could really ratchet up in price when you bought them that way. I was starting to feel a little bad for the guy.

  But we had bigger problems to contend with. Money wouldn’t be an issue if the Death’s Head cult succeeded in their end of the world ritual.

  Priorities, Damian. Priorities.

  I peered out the window of our SUV. It was an all-black number with large all-weather tires and four-wheel drive. Isaiah had specifically requested something that was good for mountain trails, and this was what the rental place had suggested. I had to admit, it was a nice vehicle.

  The buildings we were passing were all made out of older brick with flat-style roofs. Some of them had been painted over with gray paint, while others retained the red brick look and feel that had been so popular back in the old days when the town had been formed. It really was idyllic.

  No sign of the Church of the Lost Child yet, though. If Allie was right, the place would be on the outskirts, and seeing as we were going down the main road at the moment, that wasn’t shocking.

  “Ooh, a chocolate shop!” Sheila exclaimed, breaking my concentration. She was sitting in the back seat next to Allie. Had insisted on it, actually.

  I thought their little budding relationship was cute and coming along nicely. They’d been inseparable over the past day, sitting next to each other at mealtimes and on the plane, and holding hands while walking. Allie had even cut down on the obnoxious behaviors quite a bit. Well, at least with Sheila. She was still annoying to me…

  Were LaLuna and I cute like that? I sure hoped we were. But I didn’t have an outsider’s eyes to judge our relationship like I did for Sheila and Allie. Maybe I’d have to ask Isaiah about it when all of this was over…

  Sheila tugged on Allie’s shirt sleeve. She was looking a little despondent at the moment. “Did you see that, Allie?” she said in a perky tone. “A chocolate shop. Isn’t that delightful?”

  Allie turned her head to see where Sheila was pointing. Her eyes lit up a little. “Ooh, chocolate does sound good about now. It’s been a while since the last meal.”

  She had a point. The last real meal had been breakfast. I’d hesitate to call what the plane had provided—a bag of peanuts, kettle-cooked chips, dried apple slices, and a half a can of soda—a “meal”. At best, it was a snack. So it had been a while.

  My stomach grumbled at the thought of food, but I pushed that thought downward. We could worry about food after we found the cultists’ church. No point in eating if the world ended tomorrow.

  “Can we stop for chocolate, Isaiah?” Sheila asked, poking him on the back of his shoulder with one bony finger.

  “No can do,” Isaiah called back. “No stopping until we find the church. Damian’s orders.”

  Pfft. Just like him to put the blame on me for that one. I was destined to get glares from the girls now. Of course, I had actually said that, even if I was second-guessing it now.

  Sure enough, Sheila glowered at me, though Allie’s look was more pleading than hate-filled. I felt my resolve start to soften.

  “Well, maybe we can make a quick stop for food. It has been a while since–”

  “Ooh, an antique shop!” Sheila exclaimed. She tugged on Allie’s shirt sleeve again. “Look, Allie! They have a vintage record collection!”

  “Really?”

  “I said no stopping!” I barked at both of them. “We are most definitely not stopping to go antiquing.”

  Allie peeked her head over Sheila’s shoulder and looked out her window at the antique store. “Wow, that’s quite the assortment they have in there. Looks like everything from Elvis to The Bangles.”

  The Bangles? An 80s band? Records had started to become rare in the late 80s.

  I couldn’t help it. I craned my neck to glance at the store in question as well. I barely caught a glimpse of it as Isaiah kept driving past. Sure enough, they had a bin out in front that had the label “80s” on it.

  So they did have 80s vinyl! Okay, maybe I was being a little hasty with my earlier remarks. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to stop off and do just a little searching around in this town. Just for a few minutes. It was still several hours before the Death’s Head cult could start their ritual, right?

  What could a short stop off hurt?

  No. I sat up straighter, smoothing out the fabric of my Wham! shirt to snap me out of my thought pattern. It wasn’t Duran Duran, but my last Duran Duran shirt was still toast. And Wham! was pretty cool, too. They had a few good hits.

  I smacked myself on the forehead for good measure. Was I really going to throw the whole world away for a couple of vinyl records from the 80s? I couldn’t do that to LaLuna.

  “No stopping!” I scowled at the girls. “Not for anything. Not until we find this church and scope it out. Then we can go back if there’s time.”

  I didn’t know about the girls, but I was really hoping there would be time. I hoped they’d have a couple Duran Duran records. I’d love to add them to my collection.

  Of course, my bank account was screaming no at me in big, bold letters, but we’d have the Jade Jaguar and its endless font of money again, soon, right? Then I could easily buy some records. My mouth was practically salivating at the prospect, and I almost missed the turn off for Isaiah.

  “Turn here!” I practically shouted at him, pointing profusely with my fingers to the right.

  “Okay, okay. Got it.”

  Isaiah turned the wheel, and the car swerved as it took the turn a little faster than he’d probably intended. I felt like I was going to fall into his lap for a moment, but the seatbelt helped me stay put.

  We kept driving along for several minutes after that in relative silence. Sheila didn’t point out any more stores, though her eyes were perpetually glued to the window, and neither Allie nor Isaiah seemed up to talking much.

  Figures. Oh well, I could occupy my own time easily enough.

  Miss you, I texted to LaLuna a moment later. I added a heart emoji and an XOXO gif for extra emphasis.

  There was no need to lie about that. I really did miss her. Hopefully after this adventure was over, I’d get to spend some good quality time with her and Grace. I wouldn’t have to worry about money for a while, so maybe we’d get to spend some time just ignoring the fact that there was a crazed fae that wanted to kill her somewhere and relax a bit.

  Who knows? Maybe we’d even go on a vacation to a tropical beach somewhere. Now that would be something.

  My phone lit up with a message icon, so I clicked on it. Miss you, too, stranger. That was LaLuna’s term of endearment for me. I wasn’t quite sure why she liked it so much, but it worked for us.

  The text made me feel better, and I relaxed against the back of my car seat for a moment, lost in thought about her.

  Once again, I almost missed the next turn, but I got the information to Isaiah in time.

  Turns out, there were
two Churches of the Lost Child—Children?—in Steamboat Springs. Crazy, I know, but there you have it. And Allie couldn’t remember which one it was. Of course, she hadn’t been there in years, so there was that.

  We were headed to the first of the two right now.

  “Not much further now,” I told Isaiah. “Turn right again at that stop sign, then go up the road a way, and we should come to it.”

  “You got it, boss.” He gave me a little salute and kept driving.

  The sky got progressively darker as we made our way along the windy road, and with it, the mood in the car darkened, too. The sun was barely visible on the horizon, dipping down into the mountains by the time we pulled up to a rather large, imposing structure that loomed in front of us. I had a funny feeling we’d hit paydirt the first time around for once.

  “Wait!” I called out. “Stop here!”

  “Okay, okay.”

  Isaiah slammed on the brakes, and we all looked up at the giant structure that stood before us. It wasn’t so much a church as it was a mini fortress. A large brick wall rose up all around the structure, broken only by a thick, wrought-iron gate that blocked the path forward. A singular tall spire rose from the grounds of the building beyond, reaching high into the sky. There was a cross on the top of the spire, though it looked to be unadorned.

  The building itself was built of the same bricks as everything else in Steamboat Springs, painted a dark gray that did not stick out well in the darkened sky. Thick, stained-glass windows had been inlaid into the walls in several spots, depicting various scenes from what I assumed was some kind of Lost Child Bible. Somehow, the scenes looked darker and more sinister than I’m sure were intended.

  The only other thing of note about the building was a large, black, metal door that undoubtedly marked the front entrance. A small sign hung from the door stating the times of the next church session in bold white letters. It was a bit of modern surrealness sticking out against a structure that looked to have been teleported here straight out of the Renaissance time period.

  “I think we found it, guys,” I said slowly.

  “How so?” It was Isaiah who spoke.

  I pointed a slightly shaky finger toward the parking lot. “That’s an awful lot of cars here for a Thursday night. I mean, I know some pretty heavily religious people, but that takes the cake, don’t you think?”

  Isaiah squinted a little to make out the vehicles. They were all black sedans, not wholly unlike the one we were driving in right now. It was uncanny just how similar they all looked. Just how I’d expect a cult parking lot to look.

  “Valid point,” Isaiah admitted, rubbing his chin. “And that’s not all. Look!”

  His hand pointed toward something on the roof of the structure. I followed the trail of his hand and couldn’t make out anything other than an overly decorative roof at first, but then I saw it. The tiny tip of a rifle point sticking out in between the grooves of the roof’s metal decorations.

  There were guards up there. And more than one, if I was seeing things correctly.

  My hands started to shake even more. “We got the right place, all right,” I said through parched lips.

  “Oh yeah,” Isaiah agreed. “There must be twenty of them up there.”

  I gave a mental count of the rifle tips that I could see peeking out in the dark and had to agree. It was around twenty or so armed guards sitting on the roof. Not only was the Death’s Head cult holed up in there, but they were preparing for a siege.

  Had they known we were coming for them? But how?

  More likely, they were just an overly paranoid group of cultists. I mean, the two did kind of go hand in hand…

  “So, anyone got any ideas for how we get in there without getting shot by a dozen bullets?” Isaiah asked.

  I glanced back at Sheila and Allie, but neither of them looked to be very talkative at the moment. In fact, Allie had grown more and more pale the entire trip up here and was now whiter than Sheila.

  And let me tell you, that was no small feat.

  I shrugged. “I don’t suppose you can do that same trick from before where you disable all their guns from afar?”

  Isaiah shook his head. “No can do, sorry. Not with that many of them. I can do one or two here and there, but trying to spread my magic across a wide net like that? There’s no way I’d get them all. We’d be sitting ducks.”

  “Huh.” I frowned. “Well, I’m not sure, then.” I turned around to face the girls again. “Sheila, I don’t suppose you have any ideas back there for how to get past all those guns?”

  Sheila looked thoughtful for a moment, then shook her head as well. “Sorry, sweetie, but we Canadians aren’t as fond of guns as you Americans. I don’t have a lot of practice with them.”

  “Ugh. But valid point.”

  Not that it was super easy to get a gun in America these days, either. At least not for an illegal Chinese immigrant. I supposed an actual citizen would have an easier go of it, but I wasn’t ready to make that kind of commitment. Maybe next century, if I still lived here.

  “Well, what should we do, then? We have to get in there somehow if we’re going to have any hope of stopping them.”

  I bit my lip, thinking hard on the problem. If only there was some kind of way we could hide ourselves or something. Make it so they couldn’t see us.

  That gave me an idea. “Don’t suppose you can make us all invisible?” I asked Isaiah. “Hide us from view until we get to the door or something?

  Isaiah rubbed his chin. “Maybe. For a minute or two. But only if it was really dark out, and only one of us. I don’t think I could hide everyone.” He let out a sigh. “Sorry, but illusion magic isn’t really my specialty. I’m more into the combat-related stuff like fireballs and lightning.”

  “Fair enough.” I clapped him on the shoulder. “We all have our limitations. Still, it’s an option to keep in mind. Maybe if one of us can get in there unseen, we can clear the way for everyone else. We’ll keep it as an option.”

  Sheila perked up a bit. “What about… no, that wouldn’t work.”

  “What about what?” I pressed. “It couldn’t be any worse than any of my ideas.”

  Sheila put a finger to her lips. “I don’t know, Damian. It’s nothing, really.”

  “Come on, out with it. If it’s a Sheila idea, it’s bound to work.” I flashed her a toothy grin for extra emphasis.

  “Well, okay. If you insist.”

  I motioned for her to continue.

  “Well, what if instead of going invisible, we tried to look like one of them instead? Maybe if they thought we were cultists just like them, we could get in without getting shot at.”

  “You know what, Sheila?” Isaiah said. “That’s actually a pretty good idea. I could probably alter our appearances without too much trouble. It’d be easier than going invisible, at least. It wouldn’t last more than a few minutes, but it’s worth a shot.”

  “See?” I said. “Told you your ideas were better than mine.”

  Sheila’s cheeks turned red. Even in the dim light of the stars it was clear as day. “Aww, you’re too nice to me, dearies.”

  “Nonsense!” I waved at her dismissively. “Now all we have to do is wait for it to get fully dark, and then we’ll try your idea out.”

  “Well, if you insist, eh?”

  It had to work. Otherwise we were all going to die with bullets in our faces. Not a good way to go out. It had no flair to it. At the very least, it was the best idea we’d had so far, and we needed something.

  A pit grew in my stomach as I thought about all those rifles trained down on us. Would we really fool them all with just a glimmer of magic? I wasn’t so sure. But what other choice did we have, really?

  “I’ll go!” Allie said all of a sudden, breaking my train of thought.

  I stared at her like she’d grown a second head. “You’ll what now?”

  Allie straightened up, and her face took on the most serious expression I’d ever seen on h
er. “I said I’ll go. They recognize me. I can go in there without causing a ruckus. Maybe I can get up there and take out some of the guards. Even up the odds a little bit.”

  “No!” I practically yelled. “Not going to happen.”

  “Why not?” Allie put her hands on her hips. “Because I’m a delicate little girl?”

  “Pfft! That has nothing to do with it.” I twisted in the seat until I could see her more fully. “It’s simply too dangerous to attempt.”

  “Look, it’s a real option. You need to give me more credit.”

  I pulled on my face. This conversation was not going well. “I get that you’re trying to be helpful, I really do, but think about this logically. Kedron has already discarded you twice. He doesn’t care about you. Likely never did. At least not any further than he could use you. If you go in there alone, you might as well be throwing your life away.”

  Allie was quiet for several seconds. She took in a deep breath. “You’re right. Everything you say is a hundred percent right. But still, I can’t give up on him. If there’s any chance of saving Kedron or the rest of the cultists without armed combat, I have to take it. I don’t know why I can’t let it go, but I can’t. I just… I have to give them one last shot.”

  The entire car went deathly silent after that speech. Even I didn’t know quite what to say.

  “Look, I… I understand where you’re coming from, but…”

  “Do you have a better idea? Well, do you?” Allie stared down each of us in turn, and we all averted our gazes.

  She was right. We really didn’t have any other options. It was the best one we had. Even if Kedron had abandoned her, some of the other cultists would recognize her. Some of them might even still be friendly with her. Might let her pass by the front gate without instantly killing her.

  I hated to admit it, but Allie had the best shot of infiltrating the place out of any of us and evening up those odds.

  I gave her a flat look. “I still think this is a terrible idea, for the record.”