by John Corwin
I followed her gaze and saw a silhouette in the first room on the right. The room with the rocking chair. My night vision flickered on.
Jeremiah Conroy sat inside.
Chapter 35
My bowels and bladder attempted mutiny. It was all I could do to keep my wobbly knees from dropping me to the floor. I felt Elyssa's arm on my chest, pushing me gently backward. We backed up to the edge of the door, hidden from sight.
The Arcane sat in a rocking chair with his profile to us. A candle flickered on the small round table next to him. I remembered how creepy this setup had seemed to me upon entering the house. Seeing the old man there alone multiplied the creep factor by about a zillion. His gaze rested on something in his hands. I peered at the object, and realized it looked like the statuette of a woman carved from rock. The paint looked faded, though it was impossible to judge the age based on such a thing since a preservation spell might protect it.
Jeremiah produced a clay flagon from his right, took a long draw from it. A trickle of red liquid down the corner of his mouth looked like red wine. Surely it wasn't blood. I was wondering why a man with such wealth would use a clay container for his wine when I noticed his clothing. He wore the rugged robes I might picture on someone from the Middle East. His goatee was no longer gray, but black, and his skin looked olive by the dim candlelight.
I rubbed my eyes. The man looked just like Jeremiah Conroy, but much younger and of a different nationality. I felt a pinch on my arm, and looked to Elyssa. She mouthed, "Who is that?" to me.
"Jeremiah," I mouthed back.
She shook her head slowly with disbelief.
I texted Shelton, and told him to open the portal in the hallway. A second later, it blinked into existence. I was immensely grateful it didn't put off more light than the sconces on the walls. Shelton peered in from the other side of the portal. I put a finger to my lip, eyes wide with urgency.
He nodded and remained still.
Before we made a run for the gateway, temporary insanity gripped me. I took out my phone and set it to a low light option, praying I had the flash set to off. Then I snapped several pictures of Jeremiah and his strange statue. There was something very odd about this man, and I intended to get to the bottom of it.
Just as we took a step, the man moaned, and said something in a foreign language. He pressed the statuette to his lips, and murmured, "Thesha."
Elyssa pinched me again, probably because we'd frozen in plain view of the doorway. I suppressed a gasp and quickly stepped out of sight. I heard the scrape of the rocking chair against the hardwood floors and wondered if Jeremiah was standing. Elyssa and I ran for the portal. My entire body felt weak, as if I were trying to scramble out of a swimming pool while being chased by a shark.
We leapt through the portal. I looked at Shelton, and slashed a hand across my neck. The portal winked off.
Elyssa and I let out long gasps at the same time. Her face looked as white as mine felt. That had been a close one. Then we burst out laughing.
"Oh my god, I thought I was gonna crap my pants," I said.
"You should have seen your face," Elyssa said, tears of mirth gathering in the corners of her eyes. "I can't believe you didn't faint."
"I wanted to," I said. "But we made it!" I held up a hand, and Elyssa gave me a high-five.
"Hell yeah, we did," she said.
"Whoa, people," Shelton interrupted. "What happened?"
"I'd like to hear as well," Bella said, looking up from a Scrabble board on a table.
I told them about our close and very bizarre encounter with Jeremiah.
"No wonder you two looked so scared," he said, chuckling. "I knew something had to be in that room the way you were looking at it."
"We also contacted Ivy." I recounted the conversation.
"Nice," he said. "Now we're on easy street, right? Just gotta sit back and wait for the sister to deliver?"
"This is good news, Justin," Bella said.
I felt my light mood fade into heavy sobriety. "No, there's the chance she won't see Kassus for a while."
"She gave me the impression she doesn't see him often," Elyssa said. "Which means we need to plan for Option B."
"Giving a baby to Lornicus?" Shelton said.
"I already know how to take one baby," I said, feeling my lip curl in disgust at the idea. "Just snag it with the portal. But the leyworms would never trust me again."
"I don't want that to happen," Elyssa said. "You'd be compromising what you believe in. You might never forgive yourself."
"It would be hard to make myself do it," I said.
"Well, it's a good thing you have me." She grinned. "Because I know another way."
Hope lifted my spirits. "Really?"
"Remember what we heard those guards talking about? Kassus isn't done. He's going back to steal an angel even against Jeremiah's orders."
"Do you think he'll put in a personal appearance?"
"I would almost guarantee it," Elyssa said. "If he ordered his men to disobey Jeremiah and didn't show up himself to oversee it, they'd think he was a spineless coward."
"That moron is really gonna try for another baby?" Shelton said with a snort. "Oh, man. If Jeremiah finds out, he's dog food."
Elyssa tapped something on her phone. "I told Hutchins to be on guard. We can have the special ops squad deployed in minutes if need be."
"Then all we gotta do is wait," Shelton said. "Easy money."
I had the feeling it wouldn't be that easy. A yawn nailed me out of the blue. I checked the time and saw it was past four in the morning. It was hard to believe our sojourn into enemy territory had taken only a couple of hours. "I need some sleep," I said, as another yawn attacked my jaw.
"I agree," Elyssa said.
"Damned straight," Shelton said. "Besides, Bella was kicking my ass at Scrabble again."
We woke up late the next morning around ten. I leapt from bed, as if by hurrying, I could somehow make Kassus show his ugly face. Unfortunately, the world didn't work that way.
"Hutchins told me his men are in position and will notify us the second anyone shows up in the nursery," Elyssa said.
"And Ivy will tell me if anything happens on her end," I said. I sighed. "I hope this isn't all for nothing. I just keep thinking…"
"About what, baby?" Elyssa kissed me on the cheek.
"I realized that if it comes down to choosing between a cupid and my mom, I'll choose her every time." I looked into my girlfriend's eyes. "Does that make me a bad person?"
A sad smile graced her face. "No. It makes you normal. For what it's worth, I'd do the same thing even if I had trouble living with it afterward."
"Would you?" I asked. "Could you live with it?"
Her eyes seemed to focus inward. She nodded. "Yeah, I think I could. These Seraphim, they invaded our world. They killed our people. Just because they're reborn doesn't mean they're not the same people who committed atrocities in the first place."
"Some of them are Darklings, though," I said. "Some of them were on our side."
"You can't tell the difference though, can you?" she said.
"At this age, it's hard." I'd looked at the cupid's wings when they manifested. I knew from experience Nightliss's were ultraviolet since she was a darkling, and Daelissa's were white. But the babies' wings looked shades of gray. "I don't think the Darkling or Brightling aspects emerge until the angels are a little older."
"Somehow, I would convince myself the baby I was taking was a Brightling," she said. "Deluding yourself is the easiest way to rationalize an impossible situation."
"This doesn't even come close to an impossible situation," I said. "I mean, it hurts and disgusts me to have to make the choice, but I realize if I knew Mom was close to death, I'd do it in a heartbeat. In fact, if Kassus doesn't show tonight, I'll do it."
She touched my shoulder. "You sure?"
"Yeah." I patted her hand. "I'll feel worse about the leyworms hating me than I will the baby."
"Even if I kick a puppy?"
She laughed. "Shut up." Her hand gripped mine. "Let's eat breakfast. You've done all you can do right now. Ivy said she'd call if she got anything, and Hutchins will notify us when it's go time. And if neither one pans out, we'll resort to baby snatching."
Elyssa's summary made me realize I really didn't have anything else to do until Kassus showed his face somewhere. We made breakfast—pancakes, bacon, and eggs—and sat on the upstairs deck, enjoying the cool morning weather. Even though it was almost Christmas in the normal world, the weather in the pocket dimensions didn't always match up. It suddenly reminded me of my original mission before all this mess had started.
"I wonder if everyone got the invitations to our Christmas party," I said.
Elyssa giggled. "What made you think of that?"
I shrugged. "The weather, I guess."
"We haven't even bought party favors or planned what we're going to cook."
"Wouldn't it be absolutely amazing if I had Ivy and Mom here for Christmas?" I felt moisture building behind my eyes just at the thought of it, and choked up.
"I think you will," she said, hugging me tight. "We're going to make it happen."
"Let's do turkey and dressing," I said. "Oh, and deviled eggs."
Elyssa made a face. "Deviled eggs are gross."
"You know us demon spawn, we like our eggs filled with yellow stuff."
She laughed. "My mom makes really good asparagus casserole. I'll ask her to bring some."
I raised my eyebrows. "You think your parents would really come?"
She cracked her knuckles. "Oh, they'll come all right."
"Bella said she could make arepas and empanadas," I said.
"Never would have thought to have those for Christmas dinner," Elyssa said. "But she is a pretty good cook."
We talked about the dinner, about possible gifts to buy people, and had a few good laughs imagining ridiculous gifts we could buy for Shelton. I wanted to get him a pair of buttless chaps but make out the card so it appeared to be a gift from Bella. Elyssa wanted to buy him a pair of fluffy bunny slippers to wear around the mansion. We were laughing so hard as we one-upped each other with ridiculous gift ideas, I almost didn't hear my phone ring.
I answered when I saw who it was. "Hey, Stacey."
"Hello, my lamb," she said. "Are you in the house somewhere?"
"On the upper porch."
"Ah. Perhaps you would like to see what my friends have accomplished."
I stood up. "Definitely. We'll be right down."
"I'm in the large storage room in the west wing," she said. "I assumed you wouldn't want a mess in the living quarters." She ended the call.
I gobbled down my remaining bacon and wiped my mouth. "Stacey wants to show us something," I told Elyssa.
She picked up her mug of tea and followed. When we reached the storage room, I felt my mouth drop open. A hundred or more cats prowled the room, meowing, stretching, napping, and rubbing against each other. Countless golem rat corpses lay in a pile in the center. Stacey stood near the pile stroking the head of a white cat who curled around her shoulders.
"Ah, there you are," she said, slinking over to us with the grace and sexuality of a panther. "My friends say the house is now clean of vermin." She spat the last word. "I have asked them to remain and keep watch should more of these false creatures attempt subterfuge. Many have agreed. There are plenty of real vermin to eat on the premises, especially in the dungeons."
"Wow, thanks," I said. I scratched the ears of the kitty on her shoulders. "And thank you, too."
The cat meowed, regarding me as royalty might regard a peasant.
"They also kept some alive for your study," she said, pointing to a cage where several of the golem rats wandered in circles as they encountered the cage walls.
"Good thinking," I said, wondering if we could actually glean useful information from them.
I texted Shelton and Bella. Cinder might have been good to ask, but he was still playing babysitter in the nursery.
"I can hack into one of their sparks," Shelton said, making a disgusted face when he saw the pile of fake rat corpses in the room.
Bella reached inside the cage. The rats inside didn't squeak or try to bite, though they sensed the open door and made a break for it. Cats pounced on them before they got far, and returned them to the cage. The dhampyr held up a single squirming rat, her face screwed into a grimace.
"It certainly feels real."
Shelton manned up and took the rat from his girlfriend. We followed him into the war room where he secured the golem rodent to the table with strips of diamond fiber. He took his arcphone, flicked his finger across it a few times, and grunted. "Here's the app." He put the phone next to the rat, and activated the program. "It's gonna take a while, depending on the complexity of the spark."
"As in, let's wait here, or come back in a few hours?" I asked.
He glanced at the readout. "Give me two minutes, and I'll know how complex the spark is."
"I guess it's impossible to know what the 'dead' rats know," I said, making air quotes.
"No spark, no info," Shelton said. "If Lornicus controlled these things with an arcphone like he claims to do with the gray men, then he probably got his information remotely. At least Stacey's pets purged the place."
"They are not pets," she said, eyes flaring.
Shelton waved her off. "Fine, our good and dear feline friends."
The felycan pursed her lips. "Perhaps you'd like some real rats deposited in your bed while you sleep."
Bella made a face. "Maybe I should go back to my room for a few nights."
Stacey burst into laughter.
"Got it," Shelton said a moment later. I peered over his shoulder as he scrolled through a wall of text. "These are pretty simple sparks. Doesn't look like a lot of scripted movements besides evasion and detection."
"Are they remotely controlled?" I asked.
He shook his head. "No, these look automatic. They're programmed to return to a specific location where their information is transferred to an ASE."
"So it's not a live feed?"
"Nope, record and upload." He mapped out the coordinates where they went to upload their data, displaying a location in the wooded area outside the mansion.
"I'll dispatch my friends to take a look," Stacey said, and whispered something to the cat around her neck. It meowed, promptly leapt to the floor, and dashed away.
"Looks like I can tap into the video," Shelton said, projecting an image on his phone above the table so the rest of us could see it. We watched a first-person account of the rat's journey as it ran from the woods, and through a small crack in the house foundation, letting it inside. It ran through a dark area for a while before entering a lit room that looked like the hall outside the kitchen.
Muffled voices sounded. The rat's view turned back and forth, as if searching for the source. It dashed beneath the crack between the floor and the bottom of the door, and into the kitchen.
"Maybe I should get some whipped cream," said the slightly distorted sound of Shelton's voice from the video. "I'll show you how much fun—"
Shelton's face went red. He turned off the projected image picked up the phone. "Pretend you didn't hear that."
Bella burst into laughter.
"How was the whipped cream?" Stacey asked in a sultry voice.
"Not another word," Shelton said. He sighed, put the phone on the table, and projected the image again. "Damned rats."
"I thought that was a kitchen, not a bordello," I said with a snicker.
He gave me a dirty look.
The video r
esumed, showing a rat's-eye view of the house. The golem rodent tried to enter the war room, but every time it did, it bounced back from the threshold.
"Ah, the repel wards kept it out," Bella said. "Those wards are designed to keep active all-seeing eyes and spy-bots out. I guess the rat's spells were similar enough that it repelled it as well."
"Good news," I said, feeling a profound sense of relief settle over me. "At least this room wasn't compromised."
Shelton rewound the video, showing the rat's day in reverse. When it hit the beginning, I saw a flash of what looked like a face before the video went black. "Wait a minute," I said. "What was that?"
He advanced it a frame at a time until the image of the forest bordered the black. As the rat's view shifted, it angled up for a brief instant, showing a face. I didn't recognize the man whose face it was, but I most definitely recognized his attire.
"That's not a gray man or Lornicus," I said.
"Holy crap," Shelton added.
Lornicus hadn't sent these rats. The Black Robe Brotherhood had.
Chapter 36
"They found us," Elyssa said.
A tremendous boom sounded and the floor shook. Glass rattled and the table jumped, sending ASEs scattering like marbles. Everyone exchanged shocked looks before running into the hallway and into the den. I saw three-clawed foot attached to a flaming leg slam the ground outside. Looking up through the windows in the vaulted ceiling I saw something out of nightmares open its mouth and roar. Two horns the size and shape of mammoth tusks jutted from the sides of the creature's reptilian head. Its arm swung forward and a colossal fist smashed into the window.
"Holy infernal bat crap, it's a demon!" Shelton shouted.
The window bent inward, stretched and repelled the thrust. The creature roared again and slammed the side of the house. Chandeliers clattered, and a bookshelf teetered precariously before falling over with a crash.