I crouched lower, raised my right shoulder and squinted into the sun.
POW-POW-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK.
Okay, so sometimes a Taurus PT 92 only carries fifteen rounds. As Ursula would say, `tis a shame, too, because I was sure those last three were dead on.
I threw the gun at the windshield and jumped aside just as the Escalade screamed past me. He fishtailed to a stop, swinging the back end of the vehicle completely around so that the car was again facing me.
“Shit!” I yelled. “This cat’s got nine lives.”
I started backing up, slowly at first, but then very quickly. The Escalade wasted no time. The driver floored it, smoking the tires again and choking the bystanders in a cloud of burnt rubber and tarmac.
I ran for the only cover I could find, under the fuel truck. I knew the driver of the Escalade was ruthless, heartless and determined, but I didn’t imagine he was stupid.
Goes to show you what I knew.
I slid under the truck as if stealing home plate, barely getting my head below the tank before the chrome battering ram slammed into the side, wedging itself on the delivery pipes below.
I couldn’t believe my luck, first that the fuel truck hadn’t exploded, and second that the front of the Escalade had gotten stuck on the pipes and was unable to free itself.
The driver dropped the car into reverse and gunned it, but the wheels only spun. The battering ram that had been his weapon was now his Achilles heel.
My heart pounded, my breath fell short, yet I couldn’t help laughing. I could smell fuel oil leaking from the truck and all I could think of was how could I ignite it?
One zip ball would do it, I thought. I could back away and let one rip. He wouldn’t have a chance. That would show him. Unfortunately, it would show a dozen or two other stupid bastards that had gathered in close to the truck for a better look.
I was still flat on my ass, leaning on my elbows when I heard Ursula’s voice.
“Run!” she cried, calling to me from between two of the apartment buildings. I have to tell you, it seemed like a damn fine idea. I was about to call back to tell her that she should run, too, when I saw that she had made other plans.
“Yeah! Do it!” I yelled.
Ursula broke the glass panel on a fire hose box and rolled out twenty feet of hose across the parking lot. Paige Turner, the fragile old witch I thought incapable of stepping into her own shadow, appeared out of thin air, reached up with her gnarly hands and cranked open the valve.
The sudden surge of water gave life to the hose, turning it from a flat ribbon into a squirming snake impossible to tame. I slid out from under the truck and ran to Ursula. Together, we trained the jet stream of water through the busted back window of the Escalade.
The truck quickly filled with water and began to overflow. I realized then I’d detected no movement from the driver behind the wheel. I imagined we either forced him out of the car or drowned him where he sat. Frankly, I hoped for the latter, but that’s just me.
When we turned the water off and approached the vehicle to investigate, we learned that the driver had indeed escaped.
With the call of distant sirens announcing the cavalry’s imminent arrival, we knew we’d better melt back into the crowd. Things were still incredibly hectic. People were running about, some screaming that the fuel truck might explode. Others, convinced that the Escalade had terrorists onboard, began pelting the car with stones and anything else they could find.
Paige Turner hurried back to her apartment amid all the commotion and waved us in behind her. Once inside, she quickly shut the door and ushered us into the parlor.
“That was awesome. Did you see that?” I asked. My hands were trembling. My breath was short. I was aware that I was grinning like a fool, yet couldn’t explain why.
“Apparently you have an enemy, Lilith Adams,” said Paige.
“I see that. That’s the third time that guy tried to kill me. Who is he?”
“`Tis your nemesis.”
“The I.R.S.?”
Ursula laughed.
Paige didn’t. “Will you not take this seriously now? What more proof do you need that the wrath of the prophecy is upon thee?”
“That’s part of the prophecy? I don’t think so.”
“Of course! Have you paid no attention at all to what I have said?”
“I have,” said Ursula. “Be thee warned thy Guardians of Four, lest her cunning ways shalt reap what essences thou doth squander. Alas, ye art blind to thy wicked deeds, for evil be thy name.”
Paige Turner straightened her crooked back and pointed at Ursula. “Do you hear this child? Art thou listening? She understands.”
“No,” I said. “I’m pretty sure she doesn’t. She’s just really good at memorizing shit.”
“Well then, Lilith of New Castle, I shall spell it out for thee. Four witches are gone. Another witch has killed them and reaped the essence they did squander.”
“I get that,” I said. “I know how the story goes. These guardians possess the essences of the prime essentials, yadda-yadda. Someone kills them, takes their powers. Yet there’s only so much the law of contagion can support. You know I remember another case where—”
“THIS,” said Paige Turner, “is not about the law of contagion.”
“It’s not? Well then please explain to me how one reaps something as intangible as magick from another without employing the law of contagion?”
The old women looked at me queerly. “You have no idea, do you?”
“No idea about what?”
“Vapor resonance.”
A wave of stone cold shock washed over me then. “Vapor resonance? You mean that shit is for real?”
“It is.”
“I thought it was just theory.”
“Oh, no. It is quite real.”
“If that’s true, then it’s the darkest of dark magick. There’s not a witch on earth that would try it, least of all on another witch.”
Paige nodded, but her silence spoke volumes.
Ursula echoed, “For evil be thy name.”
I looked behind me before plopping my butt down on the sofa, stunned. “You know I never believed that was even possible. The Grimoire barely touches on it.”
“The Grimoire is a book of good,” said Paige Turner. “Not one word of evil does it spread.”
I looked up at Ursula. “Did you understand what this was about?”
She shook her head. “Like thee, I thought it only make believe.”
“Wow.” I stood again, suddenly feeling too agitated to sit. “If what you say is true, then this witch now possesses the powers of all four prime essentials.”
“Aye,” said Paige, wagging her crooked little finger at me. “And acquiring the fifth, the quintessential, will fulfill the prophecy.”
“But I told you I don’t have it.”
“You might have it and not know. `Tis a simple thing, the quintessential. It’s powers lay in wait.”
Ursula said, “She hath seen things one could not see in dreams alone.”
“Ursula!”
“Is this true?” Paige asked. “Doth thou know things ye should not?”
“All right, look. Maybe I’ve done some bilocating or astral projecting lately, or whatever you want to call it, but that doesn’t mean I’m some super witch or anything. I don’t—”
A loud knock on the door pushed my words back.
“Uh-oh,” said Ursula.
“Uh-oh, what?”
A voice outside hollered, “Ursula!”
She bit her nails and uttered, “`Tis My Dominic. Please tell him I am not here.”
“URSULA! I know you’re in there. I see my car smashed up against a tree out here in the parking lot!”
“Yeah, Urs, I don’t think he’ll fall for that. You might want to see if there’s a back door.”
“This Dominic. Be he thy husband?” Paige asked.
“Aye, and a policeman, too.”
“We do
not need the police here.”
Again, Dominic. “Ursula!”
“You need to let him in,” I said. “He has a gun.”
Paige Turner waved her hand and the door opened. “Enter. We are in the parlor.”
Dominic rushed in, ran straight over to Ursula and wrapped her in embrace. “Are you all right?” He cupped her shoulders and held her at arm’s length for inspection. “You hurt? Anything broken?”
“She’s fine,” I said. “We’re both fine. Thanks for asking.”
Carlos, who had strolled in behind Dominic, appeared less concerned. I caught him looking around Paige’s apartment as if it were an open museum. He seemed especially interested in the witch’s circle up on the ceiling. “Nice,” he said, bobbing his head like a dashboard chihuahua. He looked at me. I nodded back.
“I know. Right. The old girl’s got game.”
Dominic, apparently satisfied that Ursula was unhurt, turned his charm on me. “Lilith, what did you do to my car?”
“Me? I didn’t do anything.”
“It’s a mangled wreck!”
I put my hands up to calm the situation. “Please. Both of you sit down. I’ll explain everything.”
Carlos hiked his thumb up over his shoulder. “Wait. Let me get Brittany. She’s just outside.”
“Why’s Brittany here?”
Dominic said, “We’ll explain that in a minute. First you tell us what’s going on.”
“I will. Go ahead. Get her in here. It’s just as well she hears this, too. It involves all of us.”
Carlos left and returned with Brittany a minute later. When Dominic asked her what was going on outside, she shook her head and said, “The cops are getting a hundred different versions of what happened out there. Two things are clear, though. The Escalade’s been reported stolen from a Salem car lot and the driver of the vehicle is long gone.”
“Any word about the crazy chick with a gun?” I asked.
She smiled at that. “You mean with the Uzi?”
“What?”
“Yeah, I think one witness even states you had a rocket launcher.”
“Ha! I wish.”
Dominic said, “Enough with what people think happened out there. Lilith, tell us what really went down, and what happened to my car.”
“I’ll tell you, but first let me introduce you all to Paige.”
Paige Turner said little during introductions and offered everybody a seat once I was through. Carlos, Brittany, Dominic and Ursula took theirs on the sofa. Paige sat in her Porter’s chair. I stood.
“Okay, this is going to sound crazy.” I looked at Brittany. “Yet, something tells me that even you won’t have any trouble believing it.”
Brittany nodded. I looked at Paige Turner, who was looking at Brit with a curious eye, no doubt sensing something about her that defied the obvious.
Outside, the low rumbling of fire trucks rolling through the parking lot rattled the windows and spooked all of Paige Turner’s cats into hiding.
Carlos checked his watch. “They’ll be knocking on the door soon. Gonna wanna make sure everyone’s all right.”
“Good. Let `em knock. The longer they’re here the better. He’s not likely to come back with the authorities mulling about outside.”
“Who’s not?”
“The stranger in the Escalade,” said Ursula, “born of wicked deeds and mal intent.”
“The guy that ran you off the road last night?” asked Dominic. “He did that?”
“Yes. He’s the one that wrecked your car, but we’ll get to that in a minute. First I want to tell you about a witch that’s out there killing other witches and stealing their essence.”
“What do you mean their essence?”
“I mean just that. Look, remember the other day you asked me about the quintessential? I told you then about the four elements of nature and magick, otherwise known as the prime essentials.”
“Yes.”
“Well, the four missing women of Essex County were the guardians of those essentials. The thing is they’re not actually missing.”
“Where are they?”
“Give me a second. I’ll tell you. Did the lab have a chance to check out those chalk samples I gave you yesterday?”
“Not yet.” He reached into his pocket and handed me four little evidence baggies, each containing about half the chalk I had originally given him. “They took what they needed and promised me they’d look at it today.”
“I’ll save them the trouble. They’re going to find that the chalk is organic. It’s cremation ash, basically.” I held the baggies out in my open hand. “The women are right here…what’s left of them.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because that’s how it works. The witch vaporized these women where they stood, inhaled their essence and absorbed their powers of magick.”
“I don’t understand,” said Carlos. “How would that work?”
“It’s called vapor resonance. Vibration amplitude produced by smaller vibrations near the same frequency assists—”
Dominic interrupted, “Assists the acceleration of electric particles, thus saturating the surrounding electric and magnetic fields with radiant energy equal to the rate of modulation.” He looked up at me and grinned. “I read that in the Grimoire.”
“You read the Grimoire?”
“Well, no, not the hard cover.” He leaned around me to look at Paige Turner. “I read an excerpt from it as transcribed on Paige’s website.”
I looked at Paige. “You’re publishing the Grimoire online now?”
“Not all of it,” she replied, gathering the folds of her collar in indignation. “Only that which need be told to warn of the prophecy.”
I shook my head in dismay. “Okay, Dominic, so you read about it. Then you know that the disturbance it produces results in the spontaneous vaporization of organic bone and tissue, leaving behind nothing more than vapor and ash. The thing is, by inhaling the fleeting vapors, one can virtually absorb the victim’s life essence.”
“And that’s what happened to those women?” Carlos asked.
“I’m afraid so. See, those women were masters over their respective elements. It’s anyone’s guess now as to what degree the witch that killed them has acquired their powers.”
“Wouldn’t she acquire all of it?”
“No. It’s unlikely anyone could absorb all of it. The assimilation effort is fleeting at best and limited to a single breath.”
Dominic said, “What a tragic waste, like killing a rhino for its horn and leaving the entire carcass.”
“No, Dominic. It’s nothing at all like killing a rhino. It’s killing four human beings for a sample of their essence.”
“That’s what I meant. I was just saying that whoever did this might not be so powerful?”
Paige answered, “Not now, perhaps, but the quintessential could change all that.”
“In what way?”
“In every way,” I answered. “It’s never happened before, but in theory, once a witch acquires all five essentials, the elements then begin to feed and strengthen one another, allowing the witch’s powers to grow exponentially.”
“Do we know who this witch is?”
“No, but just the fact that she employed such a diabolical spell, tells me we’re dealing with a most determined adversary.”
“Do you think the stranger in the Escalade is our witch?”
I thought about it for all of two seconds before shaking my head no. “I don’t think so. It’s like cracking an egg with a sledgehammer. A witch with such great powers would use more finesse to bring me down, like she did with the guardians. She wouldn’t need a six-thousand pound vehicle to do her dirty work.”
Brittany said, “You keep saying she. How do you know this other witch isn’t a he?”
“He?” I looked at Paige Turner. A slight uptick in her brow told me Brittany was right. “I don’t know. I suppose it could be a man.”
“A
nd the driver of the Escalade could be a she,” Carlos added.
“What?”
“Unless you’ve made a visual, you’re making an assumption in both cases. One thing Tony always used to say was, make assumptions but assume they’re wrong until proven otherwise.”
“Tony used to say that?”
“Yup.”
“That’s stupid.”
Dominic said, “Well, I have another stupid assumption. If this witch is so unnaturally powerful, who’s to say it’s not Doctor Lowell?”
“It’s not Doctor Lowell,” I said, shaking my head faintly, remembering how I stuck around long enough to watch the evil doctor melt into a bubbling blob of green slime. “That much I’m sure of.”
“Then who?” asked Carlos. “Who else would know that you’d been to the Eighth Sphere and suspect you of returning with the quintessential?”
“I don’t know, but I have an idea how I might use these ash samples to find out. I just have to go home and—”
“Not so fast,” said Brittany. “You can’t go home.”
“Why not?”
Carlos said, “Things have gotten complicated. That’s why Brittany’s here with us today. Ipswich P.D. put a warrant out for your arrest.”
“Oh, so now she’s going to arrest me?”
“No. She’s not going to arrest you. For your information, Brittany’s captain excused her from the case the minute he learned of your close relations with the N.C.P.D. On the contrary, she’s here to warn you, at great risk to her own career I might add. Someone from her department may be waiting for you at your home when you get there.”
“Why?”
Brittany said, “Because you’re now officially a person of interest in April Raines’ disappearance.”
“Oh, because I went to her house and got into a shouting match with her neighbor?”
“Yes, and because they now have you on video.”
I shook my head. “I know about the video. The guys already told me about that. April’s neighbor has a grainy security cam video of someone that looks like me coming out of the fog and—”
“Not that one,” said Dominic. “There’s another.”
“Another video?” I immediately began worrying that another security camera in April’s house might have caught Ursula and me wandering the halls there the day before.
09 - Return Of The Witch Page 13