“We think it’s a mono grande. Nobody has ever been able to prove their existence, but someone wanted that picture taken down fast and knew enough to erase its presence completely from the Net. We noticed a pattern of this happening and started saving any strange news clips that came up. The good ones all started disappearing.”
“So that’s how you found the ones of me? A couple of those were from before the SS.”
“Actually, a friend of mine in Florida sent those. He was the one who accidentally found that picture of you fighting a demon. Is that in a hospital?”
“It was.”
“Anyway, he sent that and we got curious, so we started digging. There isn’t much out there about you.”
“There shouldn’t be anything about me. I’m just an investigator.”
“Who fights demons,” Brock cut in. “It’s wicked.”
“What did you mean by good clips disappearing?” I asked Rory.
He showed me a picture of a part-woman, part-beast with wings and fangs. “We think this is an aswang.” He pulled up another image of a news story. “No picture here, but a group of people were found in the woods outside a town and they were all sick. None of the doctors could figure out why. One of them said they saw a weird thing that walked and talked but it had a beard made of vines.”
“A leshy,” I whispered. I’d hunted one of them down before. It got away from me because it could grow tall or shrink, and it had made itself so small I couldn’t find it.
“There have always been crazy stories, but someone or something out there is trying to minimize the recent surge in them. We think there was some kind of dimensional shift, that something happened.”
“So, you closed down this cafe so you guys can do what? Look for this stuff on the Internet?”
“Pretty much. We don’t have the skills to go out and hunt these things down, but we found two things around here and my uncles do have those skills. My family owns a bunch of land that’s set apart from everything. My uncles built a couple of enclosures out there and Uncle Gale started calling it the Preserve. But all this started out as a game, and then turned into more.”
“How do you pay for all this?”
“We have different jobs, but my uncle owns this building. He gets more than enough rent from all the other shops, so he doesn’t charge us. We pool our money to take care of the utilities.”
“What about school?”
“Brock, Sarah, Tea Bag and Skyler”—he pointed to the girl with black hair—“they all go to high school. I graduated last year.”
“No college plans?”
“Oh he has them,” Sarah broke in. “He just hasn’t decided which one. He can pretty much pick whichever one he wants.”
Rory shrugged. “No I can’t.” Something in his expression clued me in that this wasn’t a subject he wanted to talk about. “I’m not ready to move yet. I like it here.” He pulled up a couple more images. I noticed he carefully didn’t look at Sarah, who was still scowling at him.
“So what do you plan to do with all this information you’re gathering?” I asked.
They were quiet for a long time, then Phro started laughing. I jerked because I hadn’t even noticed her appear. “Don’t you see, Beri? You swept in, fought a Kuru whatever and turned into their warrior. They’re hoping you’ll be the person who takes care of these problems. I bet they had that file on you before they ever spotted you at the car wash.”
“She has a point, Beri.” Blythe, who’d obviously forgotten the kids couldn’t hear Phro, came over to look at the image Rory had left up on the screen. “Oh, I know what that is. It’s a medusa.”
Rory, after eyeing Blythe with a confused expression, shook his head. “Medusa was the name of a real creature who was killed. This is a gorgon, which is what Medusa was.”
Goose bumps came up on my arms as I stared at the tall creature with a hood very similar to the Scottish widow’s hood I’d be wearing to the next concert. Small eyes glowed from under it—too many pairs to count. But the face in the middle of them had been caught perfectly. Square jaw, thin lips. “It’s a male. I thought gorgons were all female, and I thought there were just three.”
“Sarah is researching this one now. We think maybe one of them had a kid, but why is he here? Now?” Rory folded his arms, leaned back in the chair. “This one is really bothering us because if the rumors are true, who knows what kind of damage he can do? There aren’t any stories of people being turned to stone in that area, but there is another new illness—one that makes the skin harden.”
Castor and I had both seen things sneaking out of the open portal. I was going to have to track these things down. And right here, right now, my gut was telling me that I had seen Fred that first day here, that he had led me here and, more than likely, it was because of these kids. What they were doing could help me find them all—every creature who had escaped.
And where was my spirit guide now? “I don’t suppose I could talk Brock into making some coffee, could I?”
Brock stood, smiled and walked behind the counter. I got up and strode to the window. Outside, one car drove slowly past, then parked. A woman and two little kids got out and held hands as they walked into one of the other shops in the strip mall.
Blythe came to stand beside me. “We have to get to Sophie, Beri,” she whispered and, thankfully, it wasn’t her normally loud stage kind. “I need my powers back so we can go after all these things.”
I stared down at her, my mind going over how we could do this. I’d planned to take paying jobs, but nobody was going to pay us to do all this. Nikolos was loaded—none of us would ever need to work again if I used the money he’d left me. But I couldn’t. If he decided to fund this operation once I got him back, that would be a different thing. I rubbed my temples and tried to figure out the best way to handle this.
Turning, I took in the kids around the room—smart kids, ones who had something I needed. “I told you guys I investigated monsters. It used to be a side thing, but you’re right, something happened around the time of the SS and some really powerful creatures escaped into our dimension. What you’re doing here? It’s invaluable, could really help me and my group to do what we’ve already started doing. I’d like to work with you, have you send us information you find. Would you do that? I’ll find a way to pay.”
“We don’t need pay. I told you, we’re all good on computers. Besides, we’re already doing this.” Rory pointed at Blythe. “I watched her on the computer earlier. She’s pretty good too. We could give her access to our files.”
“You’d do that? All of them?”
“Well, most of them.”
Blythe nodded. “I wouldn’t give anyone access to all my files either.”
“Thing is, I’ll have Blythe with me on most of these hunts. She’s got bigger talents than the ones she has with computers.”
“Fire bombs,” Tea Bag breathed.
Blythe scowled. “That’s just a temporary problem.”
“Problem? It’s cool as shit.” He looked at Blythe like she’d invented every video game ever made. Or he was imagining her in a Wonder Woman outfit.
My phone vibrated in my pocket before the room filled with a strange voice saying, “Flaming hot sex machine.” I fumbled for the phone as a couple of the teens chuckled. Looking at the screen, I saw Dooby’s picture. I slid the bar. “When the hell did you mess with my phone?”
“Now, I can’t give away all my secrets, can I?”
There was television noise in the background.
“Did you find the binding spell I asked you to find?”
“No, I found something better. You said the creature stood behind a semicircle of witches with her hands to the sky and that tendrils of life flowed from everything to her. There was a story of a particular lilin who had power over witches. She’s like a glorified succubus and the only time she’s vulnerable is when she’s feeding.”
“I told Castor that Nikolos talked about an escaped succu
bus.”
“Hey!” Dooby suddenly yelled. “Give the phone back, I wasn’t finished telling her about this particular lilin!”
“Beri?” Elsa’s voice was so welcome. “Hey listen, we pulled up everything we could find on her and then Dooby looked in that book. There was one who terrorized the Vikings. She’d gather them into groups and make them sing. The music and her power works together to pull the life from people and from the ground. If she finds areas of magic, she can kill in huge numbers. She was banished to the lowest hell dimension. Dooby says that if she’s using witches instead of regular people, she’ll be even more powerful than she was before. Like he said, you can only hurt her when she’s feeding.”
“I couldn’t get to her. The witches have a barrier up.”
“Give me the phone.” Dooby must have been standing in Elsa’s personal space for me to hear him that clearly. “Beri, listen. You can get to the lilin through her feeding portal.”
“Yeah, that sounds really gross.”
“You said her hands were raised to the sky and that the tendrils you could see in the next dimension were going into her fingertips. You have to get her that way.”
I noticed I had a rapt audience and because I wasn’t yet ready to share all my capabilities yet, I walked outside. “What do you mean I have to get her that way? Through her fingertips? Do you mean astral project? How will I fight her? She’s not like the demons I fought before. I doubt her soul is wiggling above her physical body.”
“If she has one at all. But by portal, I meant the exact path from the source of her food to her. Did you see the energy arcing into the air? You have to go in that way.”
“But if I astral project onto her stage, I won’t have my body to fight her with—are you not understanding the picture here? It’s not like I have a cool superpower, not like Blythe and her fire bombs.”
“What?”
“Never mind. Any ideas?”
“The Norse used the wood of an ash to bring her down. You can use an arrow made of ash. It’s powerful.”
“How would I do that?” I knew nothing about arrows and I certainly didn’t know where I could get a bow with ash arrows by tomorrow night. I glanced inside the cafe at Tea Bag, a skinny kid with one of those ridiculous long, swoopy haircuts that made him fling his head constantly to keep the hair out of his eyes. A huge wad of pink bubblegum showed in his open mouth as he played a video game with Skyler.
“Have you ever shot an arrow, Beri?”
I slumped against the brick wall next to the window. “No. But it wouldn’t be hard to get a bow and arrow into that concert. If I found one old looking, it’ll go with the costume.”
“Costume?”
“Everyone in the audience dresses in medieval clothes. Some teens here found us some. Now I just have to find an arrow and see if I can learn to shoot it in less than twenty-four hours.”
“You can do it.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” I hung up the phone and stood there. Worry sneaked in to battle with my exhaustion. This didn’t sound like a solid plan to me. It would take someone with skill to pull this off. Or a spell. Blythe’s magic being screwed up had turned into more of a pain every day.
Tiny fluttering wings buzzed around my face as Fenris joined me. “I heard your conversation. It will take finesse to capture the lilin and the only way you can do it is by poisoning her.”
“I can’t even get close to her.”
“You won’t have to” He rolled his eyes. “The blood of an ancient is good for more than just opening portals. As long as it’s from the right ancient.”
I smirked. There he went with that tiny yet massive ego again. “Are you the right kind?”
He inclined his head, snapped his cape. “Dip the arrow into my blood and you can paralyze her.”
I shook my head. “I tried archery once. Once. And swore I’d never do it again.”
Phro appeared beside us wearing a glittery blue flapper dress with a matching feather in her upswept hair. It felt like a return to my normal, seeing her in something other than that stupid toga. Then she laughed and ruined my good mood with her words. “Beri and bows are a bad, bad thing. She shot her own instructor in the ass.”
I shushed her and looked back at the sprite. “What if I dip my knife into your blood?”
“You said you couldn’t get close.”
Sighing, I slumped against the wall. “We have to come up with something else. If we could somehow get to Blythe’s mentor and break her thrall, I’d have a bigger window.”
“Sweet woodruff would work,” Fenris said.
I stood straighter, pointed to my ring. “This stuff?”
He flew to hover over my hand, but shook his head. “No, we need the root. If it’s ground into powder and sprinkled over a place the mentor is sure to cross, you can dominate her.”
“Kinky,” Phro drawled.
The little sprite fluttered to her, his green skin yellowish in the lights coming through the window. “Goddess of warriors. Of course! Because Beri is a walking avenger.”
“I’m not. Really. All I’m trying to do is get to the man I love and catch a few things I inadvertently allowed to escape.”
Walking avenger. This made me think about Nikolos and his idea that I was some sort of cosmic police woman. His words of that day came back to me.
“There is a reason for you, Beri. For your strength and your beautiful, glowing hair. For your connection to nature and for the deep and beautiful compassion that makes you special. Maybe you are here to bring order.”
He’d thought this partly because of the bees that followed me around and were the bringers of order on his island of Crete. But his words had touched me then.
Months later, they still did.
Chapter Ten
Loud pounding on the door scared me enough to make me roll hard out of bed. My elbow smacked into the table before my knees hit the floor.
“I will shoot the handle on this door if you don’t let us in now.”
That sounded like my sister. Frowning, I scrambled to my feet and ran to open the door. Elsa, Castor and Dooby stood outside. Elsa lowered her sunglasses and snarled. Dooby leaned against the wall with his eyes closed and Castor merely smiled at me.
“You guys drove here,” I said stupidly, sleep still clinging to me like static. “All night.”
“I still look good. Unlike you.” Elsa shrugged tiredly, grabbed my chin and stared at my face. “You weren’t completely honest about what’s going on here, were you?”
“That why you came?” I pulled my chin from her fingers. I knew I was looking rough. Last night, I’d been surprised by the pallor of my skin and the purple circles under my eyes. Even my hair was looking a little flat and lanky. One good look at my leg before getting into the shower and I knew it wasn’t just exhaustion bringing me down. The demon wounds were making me sick. The black spiderwebs had inched out even more. At some point, my whole leg would be a mass of strangely pretty infection. “You didn’t need to come,” I mumbled, though I was glad to see them.
Elsa pushed past me into the motel room, then sprawled face-down on the bed, her hand, with gun, sliding under the pillow.
Castor laughed and came inside. He pulled me into a tight hug. “You sounded tired and overwhelmed last night. We came to help with the lilin and the vamp.” He stepped back, his light-amber eyes staring at me, narrowing.
I looked away from that penetrating gaze. For all I knew, our twin thing would make him feel what I was feeling. That could be bad. “We don’t have to worry about the vamp. He is so upset by what the lilin is doing to the forest he seems willing to stick around. Plus, you know, Blythe burned up his home.” I grinned at her when she came out of the bathroom, yawning so widely, I could see her throat. She didn’t react so she probably hadn’t heard me.
“Hi!” She smiled in complete delight and jumped into Castor’s arms. He made an oomph sound but held her easily and hugged her back.
S
he let go of him and started to go to Dooby, then stopped and eyed him a moment. The tension between the two felt thick enough to slice with my dagger. Blythe turned back to Castor and fluttered her hands about. “Beri isn’t sleeping. And I think she might be sick. Last night, she tripped on nothing and her wounds aren’t smelling right.”
I gave her my best “traitor” stare and considered poking her with my knife. The very one she’d made with her mother.
“I’m sorry, Beri,” she said, not meeting my eyes. “But I’m worried.”
Elsa had turned her head on the bed so she could watch me. I’d hidden pain from her most of my life. When she’d come to visit me in the children’s home after her parents had kicked me out, I’d always met her with smiles, not once letting on that things hadn’t always been ideal.
Blythe, the tattletale, wasn’t going to make that easy. I avoided Elsa and looked at my brother, expecting him to throw a fit, but instead found him staring at Blythe in complete slack-jawed fascination. That’s when I realized she was wearing a skimpy yellow nightie. I was so used to her ridiculous outfits I didn’t see them anymore.
Chuckling, I poked him with my elbow.
He blinked at me. “I can help.”
“With which part? Sleep or the arrow?”
His gaze was pulled back to Blythe, then he looked at me. I could actually see him fighting to face me. And to think.
“Goddess, Blythe, put on a robe or something so my brother can function. Your huge boobs are spilling out all over the place.”
Castor’s head whipped back toward her.
Elsa lifted her head and laughed. “Leave it off. It’s funny.” She dropped her head back onto the comforter. “This bed smells weird.”
“I’ll get my robe.” Blythe turned, her butt completely visible in the shear bottom half of the nightgown. She did have a matching yellow thong on.
Shaking my head, I turned to see what Dooby was up to. He watched Blythe, a frown on his face. So far, the two of them had been circling each other, but neither had caused any issues. They had a past, one I had to admit intrigued the hell out of me. They didn’t fit. Dooby was too… I searched my mind for the right word. Metrosexual maybe? Like I even knew what that meant. But their personalities were so different it amazed me they ever got together, but then their sexual tension was off the charts—they just didn’t seem to like each other outside of bed.
Blood of an Ancient: A Beri O'Dell Book, Book 2 Page 14