“Some things are more important than old grudges, Balthazar.”
“And some things are not. The items you have brought me are not of enough worth for me to pierce the veil for you and acquire the information you seek. If the request was for something else, perhaps this would be enough” He opened his hands palms up and spread them apart indicating that there wasn’t anything he could do about the price of my request.
Still, Balthazar hadn’t flat out rejected me, which meant we were still negotiating. I’d been hoping to get out of this without having to give up the last item that I brought with me, but that wasn’t an option now.
I pulled out the jar containing the silken bundle and set it on the table. Balthazar’s eyes widened in greed as he looked at the jar containing the silk wrapped bones. He reached for it, but I knocked his hand away.
“First, I need your word that you will do as I have asked.”
He looked shocked that I had dared to touch him, and he was holding his hand gingerly again as if he had to cradle it after being injured. Still, he reached out for the package again, this time his eyes locked on mine.
“You have my word, Bozley Green. I will do as you ask.”
I moved my hand away from the jar, and Balthazar grabbed for it eagerly. He quickly unwrapped the silken bundle, and his eyes danced with glee.
Those bones are an abomination. I can feel the taint of the man’s soul as it clings to them. We should remove it from this world.
Simmer down, I’m about to get what I came here for, I thought to myself.
Jesus, I was really losing it. I’d gone right past the point of being shocked someone else was speaking into my mind, straight into accepting and answering that voice.
You and I are one now, the voice said.
Whatever the fuck that meant. Balthazar snapped his fingers, and a man dressed in black moved from the shadows and set a few items on the table before fading towards the back of the room again. I hadn’t seen that man or sensed him. It seemed Balthazar was better protected than I thought. This is exactly why they had that old saying about never attacking a witch in their home. On their own land, everything favored them.
Balthazar placed the knuckle bone into a mortar and then grabbed the pestle off the table and started to grind. I didn’t bother to tell him that the knuckle bone was the hardest bone in the human body, and you just couldn’t grind it up, at least not by hand. Balthazar had a look of determination on his face, and I knew he wouldn’t be stopped from trying.
To my surprise, I heard the bone breaking as he worked the pestle around in the mortar. It shouldn’t have been possible, but I learned more about the impossible every day I remained six feet up.
He finished grinding the bone down and then overturned the contents onto a mirror. He set the mortar and pestle down and picked up a razor blade. I watched with fascination as he moved the blade through the pile of bone dust.
First, he separated it into four equal sized piles, and then he spread out the dust so it was in four lines across the surface. Setting the razor down he picked up a solid gold tube and placed it to his nose.
Balthazar leaned over the table and snorted the first line of Tyler Moore’s knuckle bone. He looked up and let out a hiss as if the dust burned the inside of his nose. Then his whole body went as rigid as a lawman in Texas. His movements became quick and jerky as he looked at me.
Balthazar held out the mirror. “Care to take a ride on the wild side?”
I had no idea what to make of this. I’d never seen anyone snort human bone before, and I sure as fuck didn’t want that evil prick anywhere inside of me. It took a lot of effort to keep the disgust off my face as I waved the tray away. “I’m good, thanks.”
Balthazar let out another of those deep throaty laughs. “Indeed, you are. Maybe too good to be in a place such as this.”
“Cut the crap, Balthazar. We had a bargain stuck, and I expect you to honor it.”
He laughed as he leaned over the glass tray. The golden tube held in his other nostril this time as he took in the second line of Tyler Moore’s bone. Balthazar’s entire body shook this time. He jumped to his feet as if he had all the energy needed to run a marathon right there on the spot.
“Damn, that shit is good, man!” He spun round in a circle. “All these years we’ve been working together, and you’ve been holding out on me.”
Fuck if I knew what to say to that. “The timing just seemed to be right,” I mumbled.
“No time like the present. I can dig that philosophy, Bozley. Now, let’s get this nasty business out of the way so I can kick you the fuck out of here and enjoy the rest of my night.”
“I’m all for that.”
“Now, don’t be rude.” He smiled down at me. “I just might have to rip your head off.”
His eyes blazed red as he said it. I could feel the power radiating off of him in waves. It was dark, the kind of evil that inspired true terror in the middle of the night. The feeling reminded me of the video I watched of people suffering from sleep paralysis. Balthazar was giving me that same kind of vibe right now.
I felt my stomach clench, and my chest tightened restricting the oxygen I needed to live. I didn’t know what he had done to himself with that bone, but I knew that I didn’t want to be here for much longer if he had any more of it.
Balthazar moved towards the side of the room and stopped in front of a giant purple and black rug. He ripped the giant rug off the ground with a flourish, revealing the pentagram underneath. He stepped into the center of the circle and picked up a silver chalice that couldn’t have been there before.
He took a long drink from the glass, his lips tinged with a deep red. Balthazar sat down, the chalice somehow gone from his hands, and started speaking in a language I’d never heard before. Finally, his eyes rolled into the back of his head so only the whites stared back at me. His lips continued to move soundlessly, and I knew he was communicating with the other side of the veil.
12
The edges of the pentagram started to shimmer, and blue flames erupted up from the black lines painted on the ground. I had no idea if this was standard protocol for when Balthazar pierced the veil between our worlds.
Normally, when I had a question for him, Balthazar went to another room and came back with an answer. I wasn’t sure if I should be happy or disconcerted that he felt comfortable enough to perform his rituals in front of me now. After watching him snort the ground bones of a serial killer, I was more inclined to think using Balthazar for information might not be the best idea I’d ever had.
That and the voice inside my head said he had bound a demon inside of himself. Was that even possible? Every demon I had encountered took complete control of the host unless it was removed by exorcism.
If he had found a way to harness the demon's power without it taking control, that would explain a few things, including his power to pierce the veil. Granted, the demon seemed to be able to extend some kind of influence over him. I’d never seen another person crush human bones into powder and snort them to get off. Even those of us that tended to be a little more into the darker side of magic would probably balk at the idea.
Now I could feel the heat coming off the flames from where I was sitting across the room. The flames slowly grew in size and intensity as Balthazar continued his bizarre ritual. Did Balthazar have some kind of protection in the center of the pentagram? If he didn’t, things were about to get interesting real quick, and by interesting I mean I might just get to see the first human candle.
Balthazar’s words rose in volume until he was almost screaming them out, and then he stopped his ritual all at once. The flames slowly faded back into the ground as he stood up. His eyes flashed red as he turned towards me and then he walked out of the circle.
I had questions, lots of fucking questions. I hoped he had the answers I was looking for. I surely paid him more than enough for them.
Balthazar sat down and pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket.
He wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and then set the cloth off to one side. Our eyes met for a moment, and he seemed to almost be at war with himself.
He broke the look we had been sharing and then turned to pull the glass tray towards himself. With a mighty snort he inhaled the third line off the mirrored plate. He set the mirror down and then leaned back letting out a long sigh.
“I have what you are looking for, Bozley Green, but I do not think you will be pleased with me.”
So far, I hadn’t seen anything that couldn’t be explained away with a few simple spells. If it wasn’t for the voice inside of my head, I would have suspected Balthazar was pulling one over on me.
“Well, so far all I’ve seen is you snort lines of human bone and use a little magic that might be considered a parlor trick. I don’t really think we have anywhere to go from here but up.”
Balthazar’s gaze hardened. “You dare to make jokes and heap insults at my feet. Here, in my own club. I’d think you would have more on your mind at a time like this.”
“A time like what?” I was starting to get pissed now. “I came here for information. I need to know just how deep the shit I’m being dragged into is, and how to stop it from getting worse. So far, all you’ve done is accept my gifts, and use them to get yourself high as a fucking kite.”
I still wasn’t exactly sure how that worked for him, but I’d seen enough people snorting coke to know the look of a junkie when I saw it.
“There is a war coming, Bozley Green. One in which we will most likely be standing on opposite sides of it by the end.” He shrugged his shoulders and then rolled them a few times as if he was savoring the sensation. “But a bargain was struck, so I will tell you what I must to fulfill it. Then I want you gone. Never to darken my doorstep again.”
I let out a little laugh. “That’s rich coming from you. As if I could leave anything you touched worse off than it is now. Still, we’ve always found a way to maintain a beneficial relationship based on mutual respect. I’d hate to see that come to an end now.” I really didn’t want to throw away the one contact I had that could find out what the demons were up to. I was going to need him at some point, I was sure of it.
“That ends tonight.” He gazed down at the mirror and the remaining line of bone before turning back towards me. “My contacts were not as forthcoming with the information as I would have liked. All I can tell you is something has happened to shake the world above and below. The darkness is rising, Bozley Green, and it has much to say to you. It seems as though you have not made many friends across the veil.” Balthazar laughed. “But there are already those here that would seek to do you harm.”
I stared at him. So, some of this was personal; some big nasty on the other side wanted some payback. I could handle that, I’d been handling it my whole life. Same shit, different day when it came right down to it.
Still, I had others I needed to look out for now. David, Benny, and even Rain were counting on me to keep them safe. More and more I was starting to feel like pushing Rain away had been a bad idea. It was going to be hard to keep her safe when I had pushed her out to an arm’s length.
It struck me as odd that Balthazar would tell me that the heavens would shake. Why would the heavens shake over something to do with me? I’m small time, not important enough to bring down heaven’s vengeance. It had always seemed to me like heaven preferred a hands-off approach. If the words I spoke during the exorcisms didn’t come from the church, I might not believe there even was a heaven let alone a God.
You could never trust a demon to tell you the truth, though. So, maybe he didn’t mean the heavens at all. Maybe good old Balthazar just meant that our world would shake as the demons made a bigger play for it. That had a more truthful ring to my ears than heaven and hell clashing on earth. Why couldn’t the game ever be simple? Go here, stop the big baddie, and call it a fucking day.
Balthazar continued to look from the last line of bone dust and back towards me. Finally he shouted. “Get out, our business here is done!” He stood and made an aggressive showing motion towards the door. “Bozley Green, listen to my words. I will not be able to guarantee your safety if you come here again.”
Standing, I picked up my bag and headed for the large double doors. I was tempted to look back, but what else was there to be said? If I came back, he’d have his goons put the hurt on me.
I was just as susceptible to bullets as the next man. This magic thing didn’t come with a Matrix-like ability to stop bullets. Well, at least not forever. This wasn’t something he was tossing out there casually. I wouldn’t be coming back here again. I liked my jacket bullet hole free, if you know what I’m saying.
The doors opened almost automatically as I approached. That was a cool trick. I’d have to learn it for when I needed to impress someone. The man that had led me through the club was waiting for me again at the top of the stairs. He followed me as I made my way out of the club.
I looked for Katerina, but she was nowhere to be found. It was probably better for her that way. Being seen talking to me in this club was probably bad for your health.
The doors opened, and I almost expected there to be a van waiting for me instead of a nervous looking David. He stepped out of the car and opened the back door for me. I hopped in, and we were moving before I even had time to get settled.
“What in the hell happened in there?” David asked sounding frazzled.
“Relax David, I was only in there for half an hour. What could have possibly happened that would be so bad?”
David turned in his seat to look at me. His eyes searched my face and finding no deception there, he said, “Bozley, it’s five in the fucking morning.”
It wasn’t like David to swear, so I knew he wasn’t pulling my leg. Still, it was hard for me to believe the entire night had passed by. Not only that, but I had never sensed the magic Balthazar would have called on to make something like that happen. I’d always been able to sense powerful magic when it was being used.
Magic left a trace on this world, and some of us knew how to follow it. Balthazar had some tricks up his sleeves that I didn’t even know fucking existed.
It was his spell of communion.
That would explain why I hadn’t felt the magic. The power had been coming from the other side of the veil. The thought that I was standing that close to hell disturbed me almost as much as the voice speaking inside of my head. At least now the damn thing was being helpful, though. I guess if I was going to start hearing voices, I’d prefer those of a more helpful variety.
“I’m sorry, David, I had no idea.” It was still hard for me to believe that it happened, but it certainly had. “Let’s get back to the house so I can take a look at your chest before bed.”
David kept his eyes on the road this time, but I could still feel them on me. “Oh, hell no. If you think you are getting off that easy after damned near giving me a heart attack then you are out of your mind.” He looked in the rearview mirror. “Tell me what the crazy bastard said.”
Two in one night, David was trying to set a record. Technically it was morning now. If I could get three more out of him today, I could update the date and time on the chalkboard by my desk. I knew it was my fault when he started swearing like this. I was a bad influence on the kid, but hey, what are mentors for, right?
David deserved the truth, whatever that was. It was no real surprise demons talked in circles, add in a game of telephone on top of that and the results varied. “He didn’t tell me much. He said to watch my back, and that there was a war coming.”
“A war, huh? Sounds like it will be good for business.”
“It’s not exactly like we get paid, David.”
“Well, maybe we should.” He grinned. “I mean it’s not like just anyone can do what you do.”
That was true, but getting paid for what I did also meant revealing our world to the masses. That wasn’t something that was going to be good for anybody. I’d find a way to get by, I alwa
ys did.
“I’ll take the key to the city while I’m at it.” Shit, I’d probably just settle for a free slice at Giovanni’s.
“And rightfully so. How many people did you save last year?”
Ugh, I hated this game. “I don’t know, maybe seventeen.”
“Sure, if you only count the straight up exorcisms and negate the fact you were drunk off your ass for the last six months.”
Now he was just pushing my buttons. “I think I deserved a little time to come to grips with the fact that I condemned twelve souls to eternal damnation.”
“Well, there is that,” David said. “So, maybe you don’t need the key to the city, but it wouldn’t hurt to pad out your bank account a little bit. You know, in case you go off the rails again.”
The kid knew me so well, but I was done with this conversation. “Do you get paid for killing people now? Cause if so, I’ve earned twelve shares of the fucking pie.”
David shook his head. “Why do you do that to yourself? What you do is important; it helps people.”
“Not everyone.” Which was why it was never enough to help me sleep at night.
“Well, there is one person you can scratch off your list,” David said with a grin.
“Well, it can’t be Rain; we still owe her a new car.” Now, I was a little confused.
David was still smiling. “Oh, her insurance will take care of most of that, and the five grand I sent her today should cover the rest.”
“So, Madam Figueroa came through for us again, huh?” I asked, amused by the old psychic and her ability to never be wrong about the score of a game.
“Damn straight she did.”
We faded into silence after that. There were two things on my mind, Rain and a slice of pizza from Giovanni’s. One of those itches I’d be able to scratch at eleven in the morning. The other, unfortunately, was an eternity away. That didn’t stop me from thinking about her.
Would it be too much to ask if I could just run into her again, and have it not be super awkward? I didn’t think so. The missing hours were starting to catch up with me now, and I silently willed David to drive faster.
Possessed (Bozley Green Chronicles Book 1) Page 11