by A J Brahms
"So you say. But…what did you get from the cross?"
I looked at the offensive baggie holding the cross. "That Tonya was forced to swallow it. There were several men, all holding her down and forcing her to do it."
"Why the fuck for?"
I shrugged. "I dunno. But there was a voice. It had an odd accent. Not southern or northern US…I just can't put my finger on it."
"What did it say?"
"It said she had to swallow it or he'd kill her boyfriend and her family. That…he wasn't going to allow her to ruin everything," I sighed. "I'll have to ask Aberdeen if he knows anything about swallowing tiny crosses."
"Yeah, where is he?"
I decided telling Luke about the whispers and other ghosts in those pictures wasn't exactly a good idea. And I didn't want him taking a closer look at Cimitir Hall either. At least not yet. "He's doing some work for me. Which I should get back to."
"Okay. We can drive you home."
"No, no." I held out my hands. "I'm good. I can take a taxi. Or walk. It's not far."
"You sure you're okay?"
No, I wasn't okay. I hated having those kinds of visions. I'd always hated it. I had my photos and my photos were what kept me apart from that kind of crap. I wanted to go home and take a long, hot shower now. But first I needed to check on Carson's locker. "Yeah…I'll just run to the bathroom real quick and be on my way."
Luke joined Sheila and Julie as I slipped out of the room, then made my way quietly into the locker room. I found Carson's locker pretty easy and opening it wouldn't be difficult. It wasn't that I had some supernatural unlocking power…I was just good with a hairpin. After all, a good Chevalier should never let any door deter them.
The moment I got the lock opened I heard voices down the hall. Loud voices. Cop voices. I checked the door and spotted two uniformed APD officers with a dude in a gray jumpsuit. Shit! I thought they were coming tomorrow for Carson's locker! I went back to the locker and grabbed everything that looked like it shouldn't be in Carson's locker, out of Carson's locker.
Then I put the lock back on and shoved the bag under one of the sinks in a cabinet full of toilet paper, then made sure the stack hid the bag. There was a chance I could walk out of there with a bag and no one would say anything. But I couldn't risk the cops wanting to have a look at it. So, I nodded to them as I stepped out and headed to the front. I guessed it would take them an hour to open and itemize, if Carson was legitimately missing. I figured I could run home, get that shower I so desperately needed, another bottle of water, and then back here to retrieve Carson's things and go through them.
I headed out into the late afternoon to the corner to hail a taxi.
Imagine my surprise when a familiar white van pulled up. The door opened. I was slow to react when I was hit with something sharp and then lost all control of my body as a butt-ton of electricity shot into my nervous system. I fell forward into the van, and for the first time in several years, closed my eyes as I fell into unconsciousness.
Seven
The smell of something rotting assailed my senses as I woke. I was blindfolded and I was tied to a chair with my wrists behind my back. And my feet…were bare. And in ice water.
What the hell?
Something hit me from the left and I made a noise. Son of a bitch that hurt! What were they using? A baseball bat?
"He's awake."
Awake could be a relative term. And what was with the water?
"He doesn't seem to be in pain from the water," some kid with a low Southern drawl said. "You sure you got enough ice in it?"
Hell yeah I was in pain. My feet were burning from the cold.
"Of course I do!" This voice was deeper with a harsher twang to it. "Good book says water weakens the wicked. That way he can't use his magic powers to make us do his bidding."
Oh Jesus…what fools these mortals be. What book were they talking about? And what magic powers? Did I miss a memo?
"You know, Jeff…I think the legends say it has to be running water."
"Don't use my name, Teddy! And I know what I read…." There was a pause and I could sort of imagine Jeff doing some seriously deep thinking on that one. "What kind of water we got that runs?"
There was the sound of a door opening and I sat quietly. I heard footsteps. Heavy. Boots from what I could make out. And they were moving fast.
Geez…I was parched! All I could think about was sticking my head in the bucket of water around my feet and drinking, as uncool as that sounds.
I know it seems like I wasn't worried or panicked. I was. But I'd also learned, and been trained, to listen and pay attention. Many times, life or death depended on something the enemy said, or did. Like, I was pretty sure these guys were Pathies. Whether they grabbed me on Conway's command was something I'd have to listen for.
"What in the hell are you two doing?" came a new voice, and I assumed it belonged to the one in the boots. "You do realize you just kidnapped someone."
"This here ain't a human," Jeff said. I was starting to recognize their voices. "He's one of them Talmadges. And he was talking to the Chancellor. I saw it!"
"When did you grab him?"
"'Bout six hours ago."
Six hours?!
"And that would put it around three this afternoon?"
"Yeah."
"In the daylight?"
Silence.
"Jesus," the new voice said. There was silence and then the slam of a door. I half expected this person to free me. And he did move my legs out of the ice bucket and threw a blanket over me. So, he wasn't letting me go. Time to call Occam. I needed a set of eyes. I could hear her cry from far away, which told me we were a long way from the center of Atlanta and possibly close to the Church of Paths. I made out a light in the darkness and eventually I could see through the raven's eyes. The black and white image of a young man dressed in a white t-shirt, jeans and boots, pulling up a chair and putting it in front of me appeared. He had a severe crew cut, with a long, mulish face and overly large ear lobes. From the angle, I could tell Occam was on my right shoulder, watching.
I could also see my kidnappers standing just beyond this guy. It was pretty easy to tag who was whom. Teddy was the tall one with the longish hair and Jeff was the darker-haired guy. Both of them wore the familiar white shirts and black pants of the Church of Paths Neophytes.
And apparently, they were all as human as they come because they didn't see the large black raven on my shoulder and Occam didn't think of them as a threat she needed to put on a show for.
"Mr. Grainger."
Uh oh. First bad sign. They knew my name.
"I'm sorry I can't let you go just yet, and I have to keep you blindfolded for our protection."
I cleared my parched throat. "Protection from whom?"
"Would you believe me if I said Chancellor Conway?"
I frowned behind the blindfold. "Aren't you Paths members?"
"Were Paths members. But what I need to know now is, why were you asking the Chancellor questions about Racheal?"
A light bulb went on and I suddenly knew who this was. "You mean Tonya Mulberry?"
He looked around him as if thinking. "You know her true identity."
"If you'll look in my left jacket pocket, you'll find a set of three photos."
This guy hesitated, but finally reached in and retrieved the pictures. I studied his face, relying on Occam's eyes as I watched his reaction. Honest shock. His heart rate increased in anger, then rage. He stood and stalked around the room while the two others moved back. Finally, he came back to me, holding the pictures out. "How…what the fuck happened to her?"
I tested the cuffs again. "Apparently, she was struck in the head and then drained of blood before she was left just inside the lobby of Cimitir Hall."
The young man put his hands to the sides of his head. "Those bastards killed her? They drained her?"
"She wasn't bitten, Ryan," I said, revealing I knew exactly who he was. Ryan "Thomas" Guess
, also known as Judas. "Not by Night Walkers. The ME said she was crudely drained with instruments after she was struck."
My use of his name stopped him. He narrowed his eyes at me. "How did you know my name?"
"How did you know mine? I can hear the shock in your voice. You cared for Tonya, and the Chancellor did say she'd been seeing a Thomas. That's you."
I could tell Ryan didn't know what to do, or which way to turn. He'd just learned his lover was dead, murdered, and here I was with answers. Then he seemed to come to a decision, and I thought for a split second he was going to bash my brains out with the baseball bat. Occam squawked next to me, ready to materialize and gouge the fucker's eyes out.
Occam's words, not mine.
Instead, he came to me and unfastened the blindfold. When he took off the cuffs, I quickly brought my arms around and immediately freed my ankles. Within seconds we were standing there, me barefoot and trembling because…that water had been cold. And him watching me, hands balled into fists. As for the other two? They were standing there staring at the two of us.
I held out my hand. "If you know my name, then you know I do photography work, and sometimes I help the APD. Which is what I'm doing on this case. We were at the Church earlier to question Chancellor Conway and learn this young woman's identity."
"And he answered you truthfully?"
"You seem surprised."
Ryan slowly moved out a fighting stance. "I'm always shocked when he talks truth. It's not one of his greater qualities."
I see. I grabbed the blanket that had fallen from my lap and started drying off my feet. This place had a concrete floor, couple that with November temperatures and wet feet and…ouch.
"Ryan, tell me what happened. With you and Tonya?"
Ryan shrugged. "I…we met when she came in with a friend. I'd already been initiated and was working directly with Conway. There was something there…" He smiled as his eyes unfocused as if recalling a memory. "Between her and me. So we started seeing each other, outside of the Church. Conway didn't like it. Told me he was going to make her his Sovereign and I was never to touch her again."
"Sovereign?"
"It's like a wife," Jeff said from where he stood. "But Conway has lots of them."
"Oh, get off it, Jeff," said Teddy. "He only has two."
"And that's two too many. Bible says one wife, not multiples."
I held up my hand. "Thanks. So what happened?" I looked back to Ryan.
"We kept seeing each other, communicating through a mutual friend. Only I didn't know the friend was a…" He snapped his fingers. "Them winged things."
"You communicated through a Fairy?"
"Yeah. Didn't look like a Fairy. Her name was Duchess. But the Church has strict rules about communicating with the Demonic Forces."
Interesting name. "Go on."
"I don't know how Conway found out, but he did. I was called a Judas and cast out. My buddies here, they're still in the Church, but they supported me and helped Duchess get messages to Tonya 'cause Conway started making her live in the Church."
"She lived in that warehouse?"
"Yeah. And then three nights ago…the messages stopped. Duchess disappeared. And no one's seen Tonya till…" He looked at the pictures crumpled in his hand. "Oh dear God, why…"
"Ryan…" I stepped forward on aching feet, Occam still on my shoulder, though I wasn't seeing through her eyes any longer. "Conway insinuated you were working with the Night Walkers and might have something to do with her death."
"That's a lie!" Ryan's rage and indignation hit me with an invisible wall of force. I knew the truth when I heard it. And this guy wasn't who killed his lover. He was destroyed by this. Utterly destroyed.
His friends came to him and I rubbed at my chin. "Ryan…the coroner found a silver cross in Tonya's stomach."
Ryan looked at me, and his eyes were red and raw. "Conway gave her a silver cross. He said he got it to match the Church's ring. He gives them to his Sovereigns. She wore it around her neck."
I didn't tell him it looked as if she'd been forced to swallow it, because at that moment Occam's squawk preceded a loud noise that echoed around the ceiling. Everyone looked up and Occam moved through the wood to the top and showed me several shadows moving along the roof, as well as coming up the fire escape.
"It's the Church!" Teddy shouted. "He's brought the Church!"
"You brought me here!" I protested. I couldn't tell them what I'd seen because…how would I know standing here with them? I doubted Pathies could move in shadow like that. I didn't recognize who they were, or what they were, but they were fast…
And they could see Occam. One of them fired off what looked like an arrow from a crossbow at Occam. She vanished as I dismissed her. So whatever they were, they could see magic. And I had the overwhelming sense they were magic. Of some kind. It was like identifying film, but not really being able to know the film's maker.
And they were coming to where we were. I ran toward Ryan, Jeff and Teddy. "You've got to get out of here."
"I'm not afraid of the Church," Ryan said and I could see he had resolved to fight what he believed were his fellow peers.
I hated to break it to him, but this shit coming wasn't human. "And if they end you the way they might have ended Tonya? What then? You've got to get out of here—"
Too late. Whatever they were, there were a lot of them and it was obvious they were after the three humans. One of them fired off an arrow at Ryan's head and I managed to use my speed to catch it. And the moment I did, the thing dissolved into smoke.
What the hell was this?
I counted about eight of these shadow things as they appeared and disappeared around us. One of them managed to get an arrow into Jeff's shoulder, and to my horror, the man's body started rotting away from the point of impact.
WTF?!
I dodged the arrows as I could, snatched them away from Ryan and Teddy, but there were too many. When one of the shadows appeared beside me, I brought my fist up and nailed the thing in the jaw. Whatever it was—when it was solid, it was 'effing solid. I heard my knuckles crunch and break against this immoveable object. I couldn't see a face—no eyes or ears or even a mouth. Just the image of a shadow.
But I felt it when he shoved one of those arrows into my chest. I heard Teddy and Ryan scream as this hit team of spooks got to them, and I managed to turn to see the two of them rotting away. After a few seconds, there was nothing there.
Horrified this was going to happen to me, I grabbed at the arrow and pulled it free. Again, it dissolved into smoke in my hand as each of the shadow assassins vanished, leaving me alone in the room. I went down on my knees as I looked down at my chest and saw my own flesh crumbling and breaking…only to be mended and reformed. It was the Vampire blood inside of me, trying to heal as fast as my flesh was being torn down. The pain became excruciating, as if someone were constantly dousing my chest in acid and then it healed…and let me be honest, healing wasn't always a walk in the park. Sometimes healing was just as painful as the wound itself.
Something I noticed, as my mouth grew dryer, was that each time my flesh healed, it wasn't as complete as the second before. Whatever this was, it was winning against the Vampire blood, and if I didn't get an infusion of fresh blood ASAP…my own body would succumb to whatever fiendish hell had just been sent to kill three members of the Church of Paths.
Eight
It turns out I wasn't as far from Atlanta as I first assumed. I staggered out of the building and inhaled the oil- and gas-infused air of the city. Anything smelled better than the rotting odor from inside… I turned and looked at where I was. And I still couldn't figure it out, but then I was getting light headed and the sound of my heart beating was becoming a cacophony in my head. I kept a hand on my chest, trying to staunch the rotting and bleeding as I made my way down the sidewalk to a streetlight.
Ryan and company had taken my phone, and my bag was stuffed under the sink at the morgue. I didn't even have a q
uarter in my pocket for a payphone… Wait…did they still take quarters? Seemed to me that would have gone up to like fifty cents. Or maybe even a dollar.
Uhm...did they even make payphones anymore?
I heard Occam's call and looked up in time to see her land on the top of the streetlight. Oh damn… Never look up when you're about to pass out. The thundering of my heart pounding between my ears blocked out the sound of a car. My car. I heard Aberdeen's voice and I knew he was partially lifting me up by my shoulder. I stepped on something sharp in the road as I fell into the passenger's side and halfway collapsed for a while.
I opened my eyes to see Aberdeen leaning over me. We were still in my car and he was talking. But he sounded like an old fashioned long distance call. The kind I remembered from the eighties.
"…blink if you can hear me. Come on, Renwick. You've got to get some blood in you. Did you get your shipment from Carson?"
I did blink, several times, and grabbed ahold of his shoulder so I could sort of sit up in the seat. My hands were covered in blood, as was the passenger seat. Shit…how was I going to explain this to a car wash? That is…if I didn't fall into a stupor first.
"Yeah…" I croaked. Oh geez. My throat was dry and raw now. "Sink…"
"Sink?" Aberdeen looked away from me for a second. "I'm assuming you mean in the morgue."
"Yes."
"We're already here. Do you know where it is?"
My brain went a little fuzzy. "The morgue?"
"Saint's balls," the Gargoyle said under his breath. He got out of the car and then helped me out. We were in the morgue parking lot, heading to the front door. Luckily it remained opened twenty-four-seven because dead bodies in this town never stopped coming. I had a passkey I used to access the back, but that was in my wallet, which Ryan and company had also appropriated.
That meant front door.
I almost ran my fingers through my hair to straighten it, but Aberdeen stopped me. "You're going to smear blood."