Meghan sat in the car while Shane went to make his purchase. Embry walked Jericho on the grassy shoulder of the road. It was only the second stop that they had made on their journey through the winding back roads of the country as they made their way toward the ocean. The first had been at an old timey gas station where each of them had taken a bathroom break and bought bottles of water.
Embry returned first, surprising Meghan that it took longer for Shane to buy boiled peanuts than it did for a Yorkie to pee and sniff around in the grass. She glanced up and noticed the reason why. Shane was leaning against the wooden counter, flirting with the brunette woman. The woman seemed to be enjoying the attention that she was receiving. Meghan watched as the woman flipped her hair over her shoulder and laughed at something Shane had said. It made Meghan smile. It was good to see that even though Shane was in the worst possible danger he wasn’t letting it bring him down, that he was remaining in high spirits and staying positive. By then, another woman, this one a blonde, had come from somewhere behind the stand and had joined in on the banter.
“There’s something I don’t understand,” Meghan started as soon as Embry sat down beside her. “How are we even going to know where to start looking once we get there? I mean, all you really know is where the book was supposedly used after Truesdale, but who knows if its still there. It could be anywhere and just not put into use yet.”
“I’ve been thinking about it and I have a hunch,” Embry said as he was unclasping the leash from Jericho’s collar.
“A hunch?” Meghan smiled at him. “We’ve come all this way on a hunch?”
Embry chuckled. “There’s a small, craft beer brewery that is located in a quaint, little town near there.”
Meghan glanced up and saw that Shane was on his way back to the car. He was holding a large cup that was overfilled with peanuts. Behind him, the women were giggling and checking him out. One of them, the brunette, was fanning herself, obviously happy with what she was seeing.
Shane swung the car’s back door open and sat down.
“How did you find out about this brewery?” Meghan asked Embry, returning to their conversation.
“What? Did I just hear something about a brewery?” Shane seemed genuinely interested. He slammed the car door. “Now that you mention it, I could use a beer,” he nodded and popped a peanut into his mouth, shell and all. He looked at his watch just to reassure himself that it was a reasonable time in the day for alcohol. He nodded his head.
Jericho was stretching his neck as far as it would go toward the backseat to get a whiff of the just arrived food. The small dog finally gave in to his cravings and plunged himself onto Shane’s lap.
Meghan, Embry, and Shane all laughed.
“Anyway, there was an ad for it in a magazine that I was looking at,” Embry continued.
Meghan knew that it must’ve been one of the culinary magazines that he read, the ones that she had seen stacks of lying around his apartment.
“So what do you think that it has to do with any of this?” Meghan asked.
“That’s the interesting part. The brewery is owned by a married couple. The wife is an artist and paints all of the bottle designs. She’s into all of this small town folklore stuff. Anyway, one of her paintings is of a cookbook that is buried under water.”
“OK,” Meghan stated, going along with Embry’s line of reasoning, but not fully seeing where it was heading just yet.
“I looked into it and she says that it is based on the legend of The Witch of Emecheta.” Embry held up his finger, stopping Meghan before she even had the chance to question him. “I know,” he said. “I’d never heard of it either, but apparently Emecheta is a small, Gullah community near the coast. Cooking is very important among the Gullah people. You could even say that it is sacred. It is a way of showing their love for others. They say that love is the most important ingredient in every dish that they make. Anyway, a long time ago there was this woman that couldn’t cook anything. She was so distraught over her inability to show her love for others that she was willing to go to any lengths to prove her self, and so she turned to dark magic. The story goes that one day she came across this magical cookbook that would give her the ability and solve her problems. With it she would be able to cook anything. They say that several members of the community discovered what she was planning on doing, and one night they went after her. They were so afraid of the thought of dark magic being within their community that they killed her, burned down her house, and threw the book into the waters where legend has it that it has remained ever since.”
“And you think that it is our book,” Meghan nodded. “I think I’m beginning to understand your hunch, Embry Abbott. It wasn’t a cook book at all.” She shook her head. “It was The Book of Demon Lore. They stopped her before she was able to open the portal and make a deal with the Durori, just before she spoke the final word.”
“Yep,” Embry said.
“It could be anything,” Shane spoke up. “And also, let me get this straight, I did hear you say that we’re driving all this way on a hunch, right?” He placed another peanut in his mouth and bit into the shell.
“It could be nothing,” Embry turned to look at Shane, agreeing with what he was saying, “but it is a lead, and at this point, it’s the only lead we’ve got. What else do we have to go off of?”
Meghan started the car. The engine rumbled before coming to life. “I agree,” she said and put the car in reverse. She looked over toward Embry. “Now where exactly is it that I’m going?”
“Take a left,” Embry answered. “Shane, hand some over,” he motioned with his hand toward the peanuts.
Shane passed the large, white cup to the front seat and Embry retrieved it from him. Jericho jumped from Shane to Embry, following the scent of the salty goodness.
DUSK WAS already falling. The sky was a deep purple. Bats flittered across the dropping, orange sun. They were about midway between their last stop at the produce stand and their destination, Emecheta.
“We need to stop soon,” Meghan said. “We can’t do this in the dark.”
There hadn’t been any sign of a motel or any where else that they could stay in miles. The road that they had been traveling was a long stretch of backcountry. They had only passed a few cars since leaving the produce stand. There had been the occasional house set way back from the road, but even those didn’t have a neighbor anywhere nearby.
“I’m just afraid that once we get there we may not be able do our best if it’s not daylight,” she said.
A shadow passed over the car. It was just a quick zip by before disappearing and then returned a second later. This time it seemed to hover above the moving vehicle.
“What the hell?” Shane said from the backseat and was leaning toward the window to look out.
Meghan turned her attention to Embry and saw that he was already looking at her. The expression on his face told her all that she needed to know. He thought that it was one of the soldiers.
Embry leaned over to the window and looked up, into the sky. “Floor it, Meghan!” he shouted.
“What?” Meghan began to panic. She felt her heart rate shoot sky high. “What is it?” But deep down, she already knew.
“Floor it!” He said again. The interior of the car was filled with a luminous, blue light. Even without looking at him, Meghan knew that Embry was changing into his Durori form. The blue glow was coming from his eyes that had already erupted into color. She glanced over at him and saw that the horns had emerged through the spiky, black hair on top of his head.
Without any more instruction, Meghan pressed onto the gas petal with all her might. The car jerked, roared, and shot down the road. The shadow disappeared, but returned again a second later.
“Go Meghan!” Shane yelled from behind her.
“I’m going! I can’t make it go any faster!” She yelled back, glancing back at him. He had removed his cap and like Embry, his own horns were jutting out from his hair line.
>
There was a scrape on the top of the car. It sounded like fingernails or claws. Meghan remembered the description that Embry had given her and knew that it was the sharp talons of the soldier. The scraping was horrific. It was akin to the sound of fingernails on a chalk board. The screeching of talon on metal went on for several seconds and then there was nothing, only quiet. Relieved that there was a hiatus in the nightmare, Meghan began to ease off the gas.
“Don’t slow down,” Embry said. His voice had changed. It had gone from one of deep, southern masculinity to a rough growl.
Meghan pressed her foot down again, and the car shot forward just as it had done before. Out of nowhere, the creature dropped down in front of them. It was almost like a cheap, haunted house prop that had been wired onto a time release switch. It hovered in the air in front of them, lit by the car’s headlights. Its wide wings were flapping vehemently. Its talon feet were curved into a dangerous looking posture of predatory intent, and Meghan knew that she and the Durori were its prey. The car’s headlights shone on the dark, roughed up feathers of the soldier. Its face was a horrid color of red. A jagged yellow beak jutted out several inches from its face.
Meghan screamed. By then, both Embry and Shane were full blown Durori with short horns standing on each of their foreheads and mouthfuls of jagged, shark-like teeth. Each of their eyes had erupted into luminescence, giving the source of the colorful light within the car, blue and amber. Their fingernails had turned into claws. Since they were each wearing t-shirts, their wings weren’t able to spread all the way from their backs, but Meghan knew that the demanding bulge that she was seeing from each of their shoulders and sides were the muscular wings pressing against the thin fabric, trying to be free.
The soldier flew up and then came back down again, this time landing on the hood of the car. The weight jostled the vehicle, bouncing the frame on the axels. It would have left a massive dent if the hood hadn’t already been damaged beyond repair. The wings unfurled to the sides and must’ve been a span of ten feet. From within the folds of the feathers there came an unexpected, outstretched, human-like arm. The hand pointed with a crooked, deathly pale finger that was one step away from being skeletal. It was pointing straight through the windshield, past Meghan and Embry, at Shane.
There was a voice from the soldier, neither male nor female. It was more of a rumble that shook to the core.
“YOU,” it said, “IT IS TIME. YOU HAVE BROKEN THE RULES OF THE PRIMORDIAL AND MUST PAY.”
“What do I do?” Meghan whispered to Embry, trying to remain calm in the face of such threatening danger. The gas petal was still floored, but she could barely see past the bulk of the creature. “I can’t see where I’m going,” she said. “What if I wreck?” She tilted her head and leaned this way and that, trying to see the road on the other side of the winged monstrosity.
There was sudden movement to her left. When she looked, she saw that there was another one of the vulture-like soldiers hovering just outside of her window. Her eyes met those of that particular soldier and she could see that the eyes of the creature were astonishingly human-like. Meghan could see emotion in them. The one that was looking at her didn’t radiate the same vehemence that the one on the hood had. This one seemed to be telling her that it would be OK. If she just let it take her, everything would be OK.
After breaking their stare, Meghan looked toward Embry and saw that there was a third creature. This one was on the other side of his window.
Flashing blue lights and sirens came from behind the car. If it wouldn’t have been for the flash and the sound, it would have been impossible to differentiate the color of the light from that of Embry’s eyes. Meghan looked in the rearview mirror and saw the source of the new problem. As if the three vulture-like soldiers that were attacking them wasn’t already enough drama, a cop car was now pulling out of a dense area of trees. She realized that she had just flown through a speed trap. The cop car was flying up behind her. All of a sudden, all three of the soldiers jutted upward, out of sight, again like they had been jerked by an invisible wire.
“Yes!” Embry spun in his seat to look behind him. “Yes!” He exclaimed again. “This is our lucky day.”
“What?” Meghan whipped her head around to look at him. His facial features were returning back to their human form. “What do you mean lucky? I was going ninety five in a thirty, Embry. I’ll probably be going to jail.” She put on her signal and pulled the car over to the bumpy, uneven side of the road. The cop car followed and turned off the siren but left the lights flashing on top of the car.
“Just calm down,” Embry said. “They won’t come anywhere near us as long as that police officer is nearby.”
“I’ve got it,” Shane said and snapped his fingers and pointed at Meghan. “Tell him you’ve got to get to the hospital. You’re in labor.” He too was no longer in his Durori form.
“What? Shane-,” Embry started but didn’t even finish how ridiculous and unbelievable he thought the statement was.
The cop got out of his car and approached Meghan’s driver’s side. She rolled down the window and could immediately hear the crackle from the CB radio that was clipped to his belt. From Meghan’s right, Jericho looked at the officer through the open window, barked, and then growled. It almost made her laugh.
“Was I doing something wrong?” She said and regretted the question as soon as it had come out of her mouth.
“I would say so,” he said. “ID please.”
Meghan reached into her purse and got her driver’s license out of her wallet. She passed the rectangular piece of plastic through the open window.
“Thanks,” the officer said as he took the ID from her. He removed the flashlight from his belt and shined it onto the ID, studying it. He then turned the flashlight toward the interior of the car. “Have you been drinking, Miss, um, Langley?”
“Certainly not,” she said and again regretted her choice of words.
“Well, let me step to my car and check on a few things. I’ll be right back.” The police officer walked away.
“I am so screwed.” Meghan whispered to both of her passengers.
“Why, officer, I don’t know whatever came over me,” Shane mocked from the back seat in his best womanly voice and placed the back of his hand against his forehead. He then asked with his voice back to its normal, deep southern drawl. “What the hell was that about?”
From Meghan’s right, Embry chuckled.
“I don’t know. I do it sometimes when I get nervous, OK?” Meghan defended herself.
Both men were still laughing when the cop returned.
“I tell you what. I don’t see anything else on your record, ma’am, so this is just a warning.” He was holding a blue slip of paper. “I’m really letting you off the hook big time tonight,” he handed her the paper. “Just slow your roll, OK?”
“Yes sir,” she said and rolled up the window as the officer was walking back to his car. She leaned back against the seat, breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and half expected any moment for the soldiers to fall back to the car.
She pulled back onto the road, and to her dismay, the cop car followed, staying close behind. She was already so badly shaken up that the fact of the police being behind her was sending her nerves racing. It made her paranoid, extra sure to do everything just right, just the way they taught in driving class.
“This is good,” Embry said.
Meghan looked at him, confused.
“With him behind us like this, the soldiers aren’t likely to attack again.”
“They’re afraid of cops?” Meghan asked.
“Na, it’s just the presence of another person. It’s the three of us they want. Primordial law says that they can’t allow themselves to be spotted among humans. They will have to kill any human that sees them, and that’s another big no-no. They can’t kill anybody without specifically being ordered to do so. We need to get to some sort of civilization as soon as possible, before they get a chance to
come back.”
“What’s going to keep them from finding us?”
Embry shook his head. “They won’t stop until they do, but we’ll be in higher danger whenever we are around portals. That’s how they travel. It’s easier for them to be more inconspicuous that way.”
It wasn’t long until the cop car turned off onto a smaller side road. After driving another forty five minutes, a neon sign came into view. It was far down the road, but among the surrounding darkness and solidarity it was a welcomed beckoning. As the car got closer to the sign, the letters became decipherable. It was a motel that was displaying VACANCY in bright, pink neon.
Meghan turned off the main road and into the parking lot that didn’t hold a single car. There was only one streetlight illuminating the entire area, creating an additional layer of sketchiness to the backcountry motel. The office was located near the road. A neon sign in the window said FRONT DESK. The pink neon illuminated the brick flower bed below the window that held several dead plants. The motel itself followed behind the office in an L-shape. It was only one floor. It was the type of motel that had walk up rooms. Meghan assumed that they still used keys instead of cards to unlock the doors. Next to the motel, practically in the same parking lot, there was a bar. Neon beer signs illuminated the two, front facing windows and the door that was in between them was standing open. Even though there were not any cars at the motel, there were several parked in front of the bar.
Meghan pulled up in front of the office. Embry got out of the car to pay for the room. When he opened the door, Meghan could hear laughter and music coming from the nearby bar. The checking in process didn’t take long, and Embry returned just minutes later. Meghan’s assumption had been correct. He had a jangling key and oversized key ring with the room number printed on it held within his hand.
Indescribable: Book Two of the Primordial Page 5