by P. R. Frost
“I think that’s everything Sapa said to tell you.”
“How does Sapa communicate with you, Cynthia?”
Gollum asked the question that burned in both of us.
“In my dreams. We travel in my dreams, too. I don’t remember walking a step, but each night when I’d fall asleep curled around Sapa, I’d dream deep and long, then in the morning I woke up miles and miles and miles from where we were. And I didn’t get hungry either.”
“Cross-dimensional travel. I’ve read about it in a number of legends. Rip Van Winkle comes to mind.”
Gollum looked as if he’d embark on a lecture longer than Cynthia’s story.
Time is just another dimension. Cynthia may have matured ten years or more in five days, Scrap whispered in my ear. He didn’t appear.
Obviously, he was still hunting the cat. Why, I didn’t know.
Trust your dreams, Sister Serena had said to me yesterday.
My dreams, not Cynthia’s.
I think that’s what she said anyway.
“Why didn’t we know about this part of the blanket legend, Cynthia? We only had the part after humanity got the blanket back.” I diverted the conversation.
“Coyote made people forget the early part, so we wouldn’t get into trouble with the demons.” She finished her meal and went looking in the mini fridge for more juice. “I’ve got to get back to Sapa and study that blanket.”
Cynthia dashed out again before I could object.
“I don’t like the implication that Donovan comes from a family of demons,” I muttered into my coffee.
But that would explain a lot. Especially his potent male mojo that melted my knees and sent my logic flying in the wind.
“What makes you say that?” Gollum asked. He got up to make a new pot of coffee. The in-house machine only brewed about two cups at a time.
“He claims the blanket is an old family heirloom and he’s deathly afraid the dog will steal it. Again.”
Chapter 27
“OKAY, IF DONOVAN is a demon, why don’t I just kill him? That’s what I’m trained to do.”
And that would take away the annoying temptation to jump his bones and screw his brains out.
I might also get rid of some of my own self-disgust for succumbing to him.
“No!” Gollum leaped up in protest. The table rattled.
His plate rocked. The remnants of his coffee sloshed over the rim of his cup.
“Why not? He’s a demon.” I shouldn’t have any remorse about killing a demon. I had to forget that Donovan looked and acted like a man; that he kissed me like a man in love.
Find out about the cat. I hate cats. Cats are evil. Scrap tugged at my hair, but I ignored him. Cats weren’t important.
Waddya mean they aren’t important. They are as evil as demons!
“We don’t know for sure that Donovan is a demon, more likely a half blood, possibly only a liaison. True demons can’t shape-change into human form in this dimension.”
“Then how do they breed with humans?”
“They kidnap them and take them back to their own dimension where they appear very human and very charming.”
“And you know that how?”
“Old family tradition. We study demons.” A long pause while he bit his lip and thought long and hard.
“We also study those who can kill them.”
Meaning me and my Sisterhood. Brotherhood, too, I supposed. The Citadel ruled by Sister Gert wasn’t the only one in the world.
“If Scrap can transform into the Celestial Blade in Donovan’s presence, then he’s a demon. That would explain why he couldn’t become anything more lethal than a fireplace poker when I first encountered Sapa. Sapa isn’t a demon. But Scrap did transform fully when the dog kidnapped Cynthia.” I had to avoid mentioning that Sapa had killed Bob during that encounter.
I wouldn’t be able to continue thinking, let alone talking if I dwelled on my best friend’s death. “Donovan and his three demon children were right there.”
“Whatever Donovan Estevez is by blood, he is a legal citizen of the U.S. He owns a business. A BIG business. People will ask questions if he dies. His death will be investigated. You, my dear, will be arrested and tried for murder.”
“I am not your dear. But you have a point. So what do we do?” I paced restlessly, needing to feel the Celestial Blade or a fencing foil in my hands, needing to lash out at something. “I’m going for a run. You do what you do, like finding out how and why Donovan is involved in the casino, and the Indian movement to declare war on the U.S. Then call Leonard.” I might as well make use of Gollum while he insisted on annoying me with his presence.
“Oh, and while you are at it, figure out how you are going to explain to me why I’ve let you back into my life. I still don’t want or need a partner.”
I ripped out the comb, not wanting to lose any more hair than I had to. Let him study the magic in it.
When I came back an hour later, winded and glowing with sweat, Gollum had set up his own laptop—much more expensive and powerful than mine—on the coffee table and was studying an Internet page filled with arcane symbols. He was so intent upon his study that he didn’t acknowledge me when I came in. Nor did he turn his head as I stripped off my sweats and wandered into the bathroom wearing only my bra and panties.
A true geek if I ever saw one.
“Guilford, this is my room. How about some privacy?”
I poked my head out of the bedroom door and glared at him.
“I can go back to my room, directly below you, if you insist.” He stretched and yawned, never taking his eyes off his computer screen. The TV continued to broadcast the world news on the tall stand above him. At least he’d muted the blasted thing.
“Oh, my Goddess!” I stared at the TV. Without regard to my dishabille, I moved to stand directly in front of it.
“What?” Gollum stood up beside me. The TV was about eye level to his tall frame. I had to crane my neck a little.
“That shot of the abandoned military facility Donovan’s ‘Indians’ took over.” I pointed at the latest account of the story.
“What about it?”
“In the background, caught in the sidelight of the setting sun.”
“A lot of desert.”
“And a casino under construction. The military base is right next door to Donovan’s casino. Just outside the city of Half Moon Lake. I’ve got to check this out.” I hastened toward the door.
Gollum grabbed me by the shoulders. “After you shower and you get dressed, we’ll both go up to the casino and check it out.” He pushed me back toward the bedroom.
I followed orders, my mind spinning with thoughts and possibilities.
“By the way, I like that you color coordinate your underwear,” Gollum called after me.
I half laughed. I’d clung to the tradition of the Sisterhood.
Bloodred bra and panties to remind me of the demon blood I was commissioned to spill.
“But I don’t like that wound on your upper arm.” Gollum stopped me just before I stepped into the bathroom. He peered at the raw flesh that oozed a little blood, left over from the bullet ricochet. “How did this happen?”
“It doesn’t hurt anymore, and it will heal by tomorrow,” I replied defensively. “Nothing to concern you.”
“But it does concern me.”
“It’s none of your business until you tell me why you are still here getting in my way. You find a way to tell me when I get out of the shower, or you are out of here, along with the cat that Scrap hates.” Anger heated my face and pulsed through my entire being. The wound throbbed anew.
I slammed the door in his face.
“I’m waiting for an explanation,” I said, freshly showered and dressed in jeans, sweater, and boots. Cloud cover had moved in and turned the high desert into a cold place hunkering down toward winter.
Ask him about the cat.
“This isn’t easy for me, Tess.”
; “Fine. Then grab your computer and the other detritus of your sojourn in my room and get out of here. I don’t want to see you again.” I grabbed my purse and fished out the keys to my rental car. The big honking white SUV. I hated driving the gas hog, but it was all the rental agency had left.
Don’t be so harsh on him, Scrap admonished me as he blew a particularly odiferous smoke ring into my face.
Then he farted.
I had to lean away and fan the air in front of my face.
I like him, Scrap explained. Except that he has a cat. If he stays, the cat has to go. He fluttered near Gollum’s shoulder but didn’t alight. Maybe he couldn’t sit on anyone’s shoulder but mine.
“Okay, best I blurt it out before I lose my courage.”
Gollum fidgeted, shifting from foot to foot. “Secrecy is a hard habit to break.”
Meanwhile, the news coverage showed a flurry of shots exchanged between Donovan’s “Indians” and the SWAT team. Three military helicopters and a squad of Marines had been added to the chaos.
“Then blurt and stop hedging. I need to get out to the casino and see what is really going on.” I juggled the car keys between my two hands.
“My family has monitored the Orders of the Celestial Blade for over four hundred years. We do the research for them.”
“But you never fight the demons yourselves?” Why hadn’t anyone told me about this?
“Upon occasion. My dad lost an arm to a demon. He claimed he lost it in Viet Nam when I was two. Mom never quite forgave him for that. He didn’t even admit it to me until last week.”
I raised both eyebrows at that.
“My grandfather told me about the family trust—the trust to seek out and aid your Sisterhood any way we can. Mom insisted they were all just tall tales born of Gramps’ overfertile imagination. But I knew he told the truth.”
I stared at him for several long moments, not certain I wanted to believe so simple explanation.
“Have you ever fought a demon?”
I bet he lets his cat do it for him. Cats are mean.
“No.”
“Have you ever seen one?”
“Just the kids at the con. By the way, they are halfblood Kajiri demons, according to my research.”
I shuddered at that. Paige, Mary, and Electra, the arms mistresses at the Citadel, particularly feared Kajiri demons.
“Why didn’t you just come out and tell me this when we first met?”
“I had to be sure you are what you are.”
“You seemed more certain of it than I did.”
I looked at my keys, wondering what to do next. What to ask next. “Are you officially attached to any of the Orders of the Celestial Blade?”
“No.”
“So why are you here?”
“We… my grandfather and I had been led to believe that all of the initiates had died out. There haven’t been any authenticated demon sightings in over thirty-five years, not since the battle that took Dad’s arm.”
“Of course not. They all hang out at SF cons and win prizes for their costumes that aren’t really costumes at all.”
Donovan had won a prize for his bat costume. Was it truly a costume?
We both sighed at our ignorance at the last con. We could have taken out three demon children if we’d only known.
“So why did you seek me out? Why didn’t you just take a teaching position at some obscure college and forget about the Sisterhood of the Celestial Blade.”
“I read your book.”
“Crap.”
“The family trust fund supports us when we are assisting members of your order. Gramps reopened it as soon as I told him about you. It hasn’t been touched in decades. I can access the money for all our expenses until this matter is settled.”
“Thanks, but I can pay my own expenses.”
“I’ve already paid the hotel for our two rooms for two weeks in advance. This place is cheap.”
I brushed past him.
“You need me, Tess. Not many members of your Sisterhood venture outside the Citadel once they are initiated. You are alone in this fight. You can’t contact them for help. You can’t go back there until you have done their dirty work for them.”
No phones, no computers, no running water, or electricity in the Citadel. I had only an occasional and spotty mind contact with Sister Serena. And no true control over that.
“The Sisterhood is fully occupied in guarding the portal. They don’t have time to help me.”
We are challenged often. Beseiged. Many wounded and dead, Sister S had said.
Or had I imagined it.
No, the contact had been real. And clear. Demons on the move meant trouble everywhere.
“In the year you spent in the Citadel, did you even once engage in battle at the portal? Did you even hear about a battle while you were there?”
“One. But I wasn’t allowed to participate. And they showed me the portal.”
“But you never saw a demon or fought one. They’ve abandoned you, Tess. You sink or swim on your own.”
A fitting metaphor since we bordered on a lake. A lake that might very well be its own portal to a land of demons. The one I crossed into when I first contracted the fever.
“You can scout with me today if you want. But I’m driving.”
Chapter 28
WE FOUND AN UNPAVED road that wound up the hill on the west side of Half Moon Lake to the ridge where the partially built casino sat like a squashed spider. All of the regular roads were blocked off by state police and the military. Heavy trucks carrying construction materials had churned this rutted dirt trail into a mess. I had to engage the four wheel drive to get up the steep road. For the first time ever I was glad to have the SUV.
“I brought your comb. I think you should wear it,” Gollum said, peering through the dusty windshield.
“Why don’t you wear it?” I had trouble concentrating on getting through the next pothole that looked big enough to swallow a tank.Thankfully, the SUV was bigger.
“Because it is your comb. However you came by it, it was meant for you. The rightful owner is probably the only one who can access the magic.”
He’s right.
“Okay, okay. But not right now. I need both hands to get us up this hill.”
The main casino building in the center rose two full stories with framing for another two atop it. A number of satellite buildings sprawled around it with only the skeleton of connections among them. Construction trailers, heavy machinery, stacks of wood, and other construction supplies lay scattered about as if a tornado had hit the area. I couldn’t see a sign of activity or people anywhere near the place.
I stepped out of the car. Even the ever present wind had stilled, waiting in ambush for the unwary. I could have written this scene. And I didn’t like what I did to my characters when I did.
I don’t like this, Tess. No sarcasm, no cigar, no “babe.”
Scrap was worried.
“Let’s do this when there are people around to ask questions of,” Gollum said quietly. He stood with the door open, ready to duck back into the car at the first portent of trouble.
I’m made of sterner stuff. Or maybe I’m just stupid.
I stepped away from the car and walked around the first pile of construction debris. It smoked. The crew burned the scraps as they went. I hadn’t been around construction projects much, but that seemed wasteful.
At least in textile projects you never knew when a small leftover piece would correct a mistake or fill an unexpected gap, or highlight a finishing touch.
I kicked at the smoldering mess. It wasn’t all wood pieces. Something metallic caught my eye, and something else…
“Tess?” Gollum called.
I whirled to face him.
“Can we go now?”
“No. Something is wrong. It’s the middle of the day, not yet lunchtime. It’s not raining. Where is everyone?”
“Maybe they are with the ‘Indians’ taking over the a
bandoned army fort.”
I could see the ten-foot-high chain-link fence topped with rolls of razor wire a mile or more behind the casino.
The horizon was a long way away up on this plateau, distorting my sense of distance.
I looked across to the back side of the abandoned—and now reoccupied—buildings. Even they seemed stagnant, waiting for someone to move, or fire the next shot.
“Do you have any binoculars in the car?” Gollum asked very quietly.
“Emergency travel bag behind the driver’s seat,” I replied in a whisper. I didn’t need the binoculars. Scrap fluttered before my eyes, beet red, ready to transform.
We’d all spotted movement along the back of the buildings. Hunched-over forms that moved with a stiff gait and heavy fisted hands that brushed their knees.
Thick fur, both dark and light, covered their bodies.
Sasquatch.
Demons.
My skin prickled, and tension built along my spine.
The otherworldly figures opened a door by scratching at a keypad near a seemingly blank space of wall. They slipped through the opening, then closed the door. It blended into the gunmetal gray walls so well, I doubted I could find it if I stood directly in front of it.
Scrap faded a little. But he still retained a battleready attitude and redness.
The air thickened. Then I heard the distinctive whopp, whopp of a helicopter flying low and close. The stealthblack vehicle was above me before I saw it.
The wind from its blades tried to push me flat against the ground.