by Ann Charles
“Where are you?” I asked, easing along the wall next to the hallway opening, careful of what might be waiting in the dark.
“In the back room.”
“Is Doc with you?” I needed to know who was where before I started down the hall with my war hammer poised to land a blow.
“Yes. I’ve sealed us within a grouping of defensive wards, but I don’t know how long they’ll hold it off.”
I peeked around the edge of the wall. It was thick with shadows. There were too many places for the lidérc to hide between me and them.
Something touched my shoulder.
I ducked and spun around, my war hammer at the ready when I shot up to face off with my opponent.
“Sparky!”
“Damn it, Reid!” I blew out a breath in relief. “You really need to stop scaring me in dark buildings.”
“Did I hear Reid’s voice?” Aunt Zoe called out.
“I’m not talking to you, Zo!” Reid answered.
“Get him out of here, Violet! It’s too dangerous.”
“What’s going on?” he asked me.
“The lidérc is somewhere up here.”
He leaned over and took a look down the darkened hallway. His shoulders stiffened. “Something’s on fire back there.”
I nudged him back a step and peeked for myself. Sure enough, the smoky devil hovered at the end of the hall, dripping flames.
“Killer,” Doc called out, warning me.
“I see it.” I heard a shuffling sound behind me but didn’t want to take my eyes off the slippery bastard.
While I tried to figure out the best plan of attack, it morphed into a middle-aged man I hadn’t seen before. I squinted in the shadows. A man who looked a lot like Reid.
“Dad?” I heard Reid say from behind me. I looked around and found him leaning forward as if invisible strings were pulling on him.
“Reid!” Aunt Zoe yelled. “Close your eyes, dammit!”
“What are you doing here, Dad?” Reid’s voice was higher than normal, full of awe. He took a step toward the lidérc.
I reached for him but then pulled back. I had an idea.
Peeking around the wall again, I looked at Reid’s father’s gaze. It was focused entirely on Reid as it billowed nearer, focused on its prey.
If I could get it to come a little closer, I could land a solid blow. I grabbed Reid by the belt, locking my fingers around the leather while wedging my boot against the wall. I held tight when he tried to step toward his father. He struggled against me, but I held him in place, dangling at the end of the hallway. My bait.
“Violet!” Aunt Zoe’s voice was edged with panic. “Don’t you let it near him!”
Reid tried to pull free again, reaching out toward his father as it billowed even nearer.
I risked a glance down the hall while fighting to hold Reid in place. “That’s close enough,” I whispered. Angling my war hammer down, I hooked one of Reid’s ankles and yanked.
He fell sideways into the wall, which dragged me into the hall to face off with his father. I tugged my hand free of his belt and leapt over his legs, the war hammer raised and ready.
His father shrieked and sank back into the smoke, fleeing the other way. Burning embers swirled through the air around me as I raced after him, but I was too slow. He headed straight for the wall at the end of the hallway, the escape plan clear.
I stopped, pulled back, and threw the war hammer after it. In what seemed like slow motion, the hammer flew end over end through the air. It reached the lidérc at the same time a blast of flame exploded against the wall.
In a blink, it was gone, leaving yet another black smear on the wall in its wake.
I strode over to where it had disappeared along with my damned war hammer.
“What the fuck?” I said, slamming my hand against the black spot where both had disappeared. The wall was cool under my palm. “Where did it go?”
“Violet.” Doc raced out of the darkness. He hauled me around to face him, touching my cheeks, then my shoulders and arms. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay. I’m freaking pissed, and I think I’m getting a blister from swinging my hammer like John Henry.” When Doc remained silent, staring down at me, I added. “You know, the steel-driver?” He continued to stare. “This relationship isn’t going to work very well, Doc, if you don’t get my similes and metaphors.”
He let out a scoff that ended as more of a laugh full of disbelief. “I know who John Henry is.”
“And his race against the—”
“Steam-powered hammer. I got it, Killer, but you’re missing your hammer.”
Aunt Zoe stepped out of the dark room, holding her lighter up in front of the wall, frowning at the spot. “Why did you throw your war hammer at it?”
“Why did I … “ I jammed my hands on my hips. “I don’t know, maybe to kill it.”
Something rumbled low and deep, shaking the building enough to raise the dust around our feet.
“What was that?” Reid said from the other end of the hallway where I’d left him.
“We need to get out of here.” Aunt Zoe pulled on my arm.
“But what about my war hammer?”
“It’s gone, Violet. Come on. The lidérc will come back and now we’re weaponless.”
“Don’t you have anything else in your bag of tricks?”
“Sure, more protection wards but nothing to kill it. That was supposed to be your job.”
I followed her. “I didn’t expect it to be so dodgy.”
“You think it’s lived this long by being slow and clumsy?”
Doc held out his hand to Reid, pulling him to his feet. The fire captain had a definite limp as he headed for the door. I watched him ease down the stairs, grimacing after him. That was my fault. Between Aunt Zoe’s punch and my hammer trip, the Parker women had left him battle bruised.
Aunt Zoe yanked the door shut behind us. She slid the padlock back into place and clicked it closed before blowing out a breath of relief. “That was close.”
Something thumped against the other side of the door, making us both jerk back. Several more thumps followed, but the door held.
“Let’s get the hell out of here.” I led the way down the stairs.
“The downstairs doors need to be locked,” Aunt Zoe said.
I ran around to the front, but Doc was already there, padlocking the chains.
“What happened here?” He pointed at the hole I’d made.
I stared at the hole, remembering the surge of panic at that moment. “I was testing out my war hammer.”
He grabbed me by my coat collar and pulled me close. “You scared the shit out of me when you disappeared in the dark.”
I frowned up at him. “Trust me, that wasn’t the plan.”
“It never is. Where did you go?”
“Hurry up!” Aunt Zoe called from her open window.
“I’ll explain after we’re away from that thing upstairs.” I jogged over to Reid’s pickup. As I opened the back door on the driver’s side, I looked at the upstairs windows. In the darkness behind the glass, I thought I saw a lone ember drifting down.
I shuddered and then climbed inside the pickup.
Reid lit out, sending gravel flying. I leaned back against the headrest, closing my eyes in the safety of the cab. I tried to make sense of what I’d seen, but my brain was too wiped from the adrenaline hangover to do more than sputter.
I reached out and found Doc’s hand, lacing my fingers with his. He held the back of my hand against his heart for a moment, then let it rest on his thigh.
None of us said a word all of the way back to Aunt Zoe’s.
When Reid pulled into her drive, he cut the engine and killed the headlights, but left the dashboard lit up. He looked across at Aunt Zoe. In the glow, I could see the lines on his brow. “That was my dad back there. He died twenty years ago. Lung cancer ate him up.”
“No, Reid,” Aunt Zoe’s voice was low and comforting. “That wasn’
t your dad. It was a lidérc taking on the shape of someone you loved and lost, trying to lure you in close enough to latch onto you like it did Ottó.”
Reid turned further in his seat, looking back at me. “Sparky, did you use me as bait?”
I squirmed under his and Aunt Zoe’s stares.
She made a growling sound in her throat. “That was too risky, Violet Lynn. If it had gotten a hold of Reid …”
“A hold of me?” Reid interrupted her. “What if it had gotten through whatever barrier you’d set up around Doc and you?” He shook his head. “I shouldn’t have let you talk me into taking you there tonight.”
“We had to know what Violet was going to deal with while filming in there.” She touched his shoulder. “Can you put a sign on the upstairs door in the morning before anyone else gets there? Something that says nobody can enter the upper rooms?”
“I’ll put one upstairs and down, woman. That place is a slice of hell.”
“The downstairs is safe. It can’t leave the second floor.”
The Sugarloaf’s management representative hadn’t wanted us to film upstairs tomorrow. Was it because of the lidérc? If so, that was a doozy of a secret someone was trying to keep locked away up there.
“How do you know it can’t leave the second floor?”
“The exits were all guarded with wards. Whoever shut that thing upstairs knew what they were doing.”
I hadn’t noticed anything that looked like a ward, but then again, I hadn’t been looking for those, only the smoky devil. “But what about when it goes through the walls?”
“It may be able to travel into different realms, but when it’s here, it’s stuck in that building on the second floor.”
Doc unfastened his seat belt. “Do you think that was Ottó’s handiwork, Zoe?”
Aunt Zoe shook her head. “I think it latched onto Ottó while he was alive, but after he died, someone else stepped in and trapped it.”
“Why?” Reid asked.
“It’s believed that whoever has control of a lidérc will be capable of extraordinary feats and will become extremely rich. Some even mistakenly believe it can offer immortality, but in truth it’d be like handing over your soul to a hell of its own making. I suspect what Ottó dealt with during his tortured life was something along those lines.”
“I’m with Reid. I don’t think anyone should go back in that building,” Doc said. “Especially Violet.”
Reid nodded. “It should be burned to the ground.”
“No!” Aunt Zoe said looking from one man to the other. “That would set it free of its wards. Fire is not its enemy.”
“Why doesn’t it burn down the building itself?” Reid asked.
“The fire you see coming off of it is a visual effect only. It doesn’t really burn things.”
“I can attest to that.” I told them what had happened in the attic after I’d disappeared, and then about being downstairs when I’d returned. I explained how the lidérc had dripped embers on me repeatedly without any effect.
“So, somebody is keeping that thing as a pet?” Doc asked.
“Maybe,” Aunt Zoe said.
He looked at me. “Who owns that building?”
“Dominic Masterson.”
“And nobody has seen him since he broke through the Opera House wall, right?”
“Right.”
Aunt Zoe yawned again. “How about we finish this discussion inside?”
“I’m going home.” Reid glared across at Aunt Zoe. “I need to ice my throbbing jaw.”
I saw Aunt Zoe wince. “I’m sorry about that.”
He pointed at her. “You owe me, Zo.”
“For what? I already thanked you for taking us up there tonight.”
She must have done that while Doc and I were chaining the front doors.
“For that punch. You lined me up and everything.”
“I said I’m sorry. I didn’t want you going up there. You were our weakest link. You saw what happened as soon as it locked onto you.”
“Sorry is not going to cut it this time, Zo.”
“Fine. I owe you.” She pushed open her door, letting a blast of cold air inside. “What do you want in return?”
He stared at her for several seconds. “I think you know.”
“No way. That’s out of the question.”
“I’m not asking. I’ll call you when it’s time to collect.”
“I won’t do it, Reid.” She slammed the door on him and headed up the walk.
I thanked Reid, throwing out a quick apology for using him as bait, and then raced after her, catching her at the porch steps. “What does he want? Inquiring minds need to know. Sex?”
“If only it was just sex.”
Just sex? Instead of analyzing that, I pressed, “What then?”
“He wants to take me on a date—dinner and dancing down in Rapid.”
“How is that worse than sex?”
She watched him back out of the drive, deep lines emphasizing her irritation. “I’m afraid the son of a bitch is going to charm the hell out of me and sweep me off my feet again.”
* * *
Monday, November 19th
I woke stiff and sore from swinging that damned war hammer. The rusted tin man would have made it out of bed and to the bathroom faster than I did. I crawled under the hot shower jets and let my brain replay last night’s ending.
Doc, Harvey, Aunt Zoe, and I had stayed up until the wee hours, rehashing what had happened in the Sugarloaf Building, throwing out ideas on how to eradicate the troublemaker.
We came up with a few theories about why the lidérc kept choosing its various identities during my adventures with it in the attic. The one Aunt Zoe figured was most likely came from Doc. It had to do with my having an innate defense from such tricks due to my bloodline. It couldn’t read my mind as clearly as others, grasping at straws when it came to me. Whatever the reason, I was proof that it was stoppable. It was merely a matter of figuring out how to snag it long enough for me to kill it.
Eventually, Doc had headed home to sleep in his own bed since Harvey had dibs on the couch and my bed appeared to still be on the outs with Doc. He didn’t actually say that, but he had known there was a vacancy with his name on it and yet had chosen to drive home and crash in his own sheets. When he’d kissed me goodnight, he’d explained that he had a couple of appointments in Spearfish come morning and needed some sleep. I hadn’t pressed him any further, wishing I’d felt as cool and collected on the inside as I’d sounded on the out when I’d wished him happy dreams and turned my back on him.
Surprisingly, I slept hard. Not a single nightmare had haunted my dreamland. However, that was probably why I was so stiff this morning. Ten minutes of hot water therapy on my shoulders and back made only a small difference. I was going to need to pop some ibuprofen to get up to speed today. I wrapped the towel around me, dragging my achy ass back to my bedroom and the white dress covered with red cherries that awaited me.
It took several more minutes to finally convince my legs to walk over and stand in front of the mirror. When I did, I cursed. I should have let the lidérc get me.
Old man Harvey had a heyday about my getup. “Howdy-doody, tooty-fruity! That fancy dress makes ya look built like a brick outhouse.”
I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or bad. My knowledge of outhouses was limited, containing only tidbits about black widows living under the seats and slivers getting lodged in all the wrong places. I took the coffee he offered and slurped it down.
“I need your help getting the kids to school, Harvey. Jerry texted me this morning and wants me to come in early.”
“No need for Harvey to drive them in,” Aunt Zoe joined us in her robe. “Natalie called while you were in the shower. She’s going to swing by and take them to school this morning.”
“Why’s that?”
“She said she has something for you.”
“I won’t be here.”
“I’ll s
end her down to your office. Unless that will cause you problems.”
I shook my head. “We’ll be going over lines before heading up to Lead.”
“You’re wearing your charms?” she asked.
“Every single one.”
“Ya sure you don’t want to take Bessie with ya?”
Actually, I did, but I’d probably end up shooting the real Ray instead of the lidérc version. “I’m sure, but thanks for offering.”
Fifteen minutes later, the kids raced past me into the kitchen as I was heading for the door. After giving them kisses and warnings to keep out of trouble and have a good day at school, I saluted Harvey and then hugged Aunt Zoe goodbye.
“Be careful up there, Violet. If it figures out a way to escape its cage, it might come for you and the others.”
“If it does, I’ll introduce it to Ray.”
She chuckled and ushered me out the door.
When I arrived at the office, everyone but the orange-faced baboon was there. I asked Jerry about Ray’s whereabouts and learned that he’d called in sick. Damn it, there went my plans to infest Ray with a Hungarian devil.
I was standing outside the back door, practicing my lines in the cold morning air—which was an excuse to escape from Jerry’s constant adjustments to my outfit—when Natalie came walking up to me, a brown paper sack in hand.
“That’s some killer red lipstick, hot stuff,” she said. “You been out sucking blood from the local population again?”
I grinned. “Thanks for taking the kids to school.”
“My pleasure.”
“Aunt Zoe said you have something for me.”
She nodded. “I do.”
“Is it another piece of Rex’s car?”
“Nope, not this time.” She looked around, acting suspicious, reminding me of when she was about to stir up some trouble back when we were kids. “It’s this.”
She lifted the sack and held it out to me to take.
I looked at the sack but didn’t touch it. “Did you bring me some tequila to help me get through the day?”
“No.”
“It’s not a dead rat, is it?”
She snorted. “Why would I give you a dead rat?”
“I don’t know. Because you’re weird.”
“No, you’re the weird one, especially now.” Her smile took any sting out of her words. “But I still love your crazy ass.” She shook the sack. “Come on, take it.”