by Tonya Nagle
Laura stared out the back door at the surreal events unfolding before her eyes.
The blood stained sand swirled into the sky. Rushing surf pulled at the tipped over 183
cauldron, while the net, stakes, bottles, and Donovan's other assorted objects for fighting evil flew into the wind. Bam! The kitchen window blasted apart. The force knocked Laura off her feet, debris and shattered glass raining on her. Adam's cowry shell bracelet rolled across the floor, and she picked it up.
Donovan pulled her into the living room. "I don't know how much longer this house will last."
The front window fell out.
"There goes the car," laughed Donovan. Sure enough, the rental rolled away in the tempest. "Nothing left to do but sit on the floor and drink blood and beer.
Personally, I'll have a beer." He opened the cooler and took a can.
The roof flew away. Walls collapsed outward, leaving them exposed. David and Laura in their large black coats huddled over Donovan, holding him so the tempest wouldn't take him. When the remaining walls of Brilla's room collapsed in, her door lay flat on the ground.
Donovan reached out and grabbed the doorknob. The door opened, sucking the three into a black void.
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Chapter 17
"What just happened?" Donovan sat on the ground, scratching his head, as he gazed up at the cloudless gray sky. The doorway was gone. A scorched, dark world devoid of fragrance, color, or movement surrounded them in an eerie silence. Laura helped her father off the cracked, gray ground. She sighed. Her mind focused hard on that page in Brilla's book about rifts between the worlds. Unfortunately, she hadn't read what to do when you fell into one.
"That door had traces of voodoo on it. Evil leaves a bitter-metallic taste in the mouth." She shook her head, as if to rid herself of its effects. "But it's more than that.
Evil pulled us into this world, an evil Brilla never imagined. Why here?"
A putrid scent filled her nostrils. Her vision blurred. Laura's eyes rolled up, and she swayed.
David caught her then pulled her against him. He kissed her on the head. "I feel it too." His strength steadied her.
"What is it?" asked Donovan.
"There's a power here, and it wants Laura."
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Laura shuddered but continued on. Tall thin, skeletal trees reached for the sky with barren black talons. Even the scrubby bushes nearby were a tangle of bare vines and thorns. Nothing green lived here.
They made their way around jagged, black stones that had erupted through the gray ground in places. Some they narrowly missed, but soon they grew too numerous, and they climbed them.
"We should fly." David paused to survey the landscape.
"What's that?" Laura pointed to the white cloud in the distance, which swooped rapidly and then changed direction.
"Keres," said David. "Quick. Get down." They hit the ground, pulling their large black coats over themselves and Donovan, huddling against the black stones. Laura didn't dare look up. Her father closed his eyes.
David, did they see us? She couldn't risk speaking.
I don't think so. You spotted them while they were too far away to discern what we are. If they had seen us, we'd be dead by now.
It seemed a long time before David tapped her on the shoulder.
"It's clear. You can get up now." He helped Laura up, and she helped her father.
"I don't understand." Donovan studied the sky. "How could they be Keres? We saw them disappear into the sand."
David smirked. "I don't think we're in Florida anymore."
"Not funny." Laura's eyes narrowed. "Let's get going and find our way home."
The three climbed to the top of a hill, but ahead the climb grew treacherous.
Grabbing Donovan by the arms, Laura and David lifted off, flying dangerously close to 186
the sharp-edged rocks. It was the only way to prevent being seen from above. When they reached the top, they crouched down and peered out.
A black, paved road led to a city in the distance.
"I have a bad feeling about this," she said, as they continued toward the road.
At first, Laura hesitated to step on its smooth black surface. Anything could happen in this world. But then she made the leap. It was solid. Taking David and her father by the arm, she began the journey.
"What is that bracelet you're wearing?" asked Donovan.
"It belonged to Adam."
"Who?" David sounded annoyed.
"Brilla meant him to replace you, and it didn't work. He was the man killed by the Keres."
Seeing that it bothered David, she put the bracelet in her pocket. Hopefully, he would just forget about it.
"Keres!" David quickly pulled them off the road into some scrub.
Laura could feel the Keres, as they flew overhead. For David, it was infinitely worse. Their blood surged through him. She was holding his hand when it changed into a claw. With her mind, she held him steady and his hand returned to normal.
Thank you, my love. His eyes gazed deeply into hers.
Laura was so relieved when the Keres finally flew off.
Cresting another hill, Laura spotted a bridge going over a dark river into the city, but more Keres appeared in the distance. She rushed down the other side of the hill.
***
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Laura disappeared. The two men stood baffled by the empty expanse of gray trees and shrubs beneath them. Donovan opened his mouth to shout for her, but David stopped him.
"Remember the Keres." He put his finger to his lips. Then his eyes narrowed as he concentrated on sensing Laura. She was moving away from them fast.
The ground collapsed beneath them. Sliding at high speed, they plummeted into the dark below. David reached out for Donovan, who kept slipping beyond his grasp.
Propelling himself slightly off the ground, he finally grabbed his father-in-law's arm.
David swung him wide to avoid hitting a tree and took the brunt himself.
Donovan landed in a mound of muck, shaken but all right. Crumpled under the tree, David moaned and turned his head to find Donovan crawling over to him.
David tried to sit up. His right arm was pushed back in an odd angle.
"I think you broke your arm."
"Oh, I'm sure of that." David groaned, as he sat up against the trunk. He closed his eyes and focused. Laura, where are you?
Minutes later, Laura emerged from the gloom and the muck. She knelt beside her husband and examined his arm.
He gazed up at her. "I was worried about you. What happened to you?" Even covered with mud, you're beautiful.
Laura smiled. "I sort of slipped."
"I know the feeling." He laughed and then winced.
"Let's see that arm." She touched it in several places. "Brace yourself." She pulled it, and they heard a distinctive click.
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"I didn't think a vampire would need to have his arm set." Donovan tilted his head to watch.
"Normally, we wouldn't. There's something weird about this world." Even after the setting, David sat against the tree, and Laura turned her attention to her father.
"Papa, are you all right?"
"Just a few bumps and bruises. That's all."
She turned back to her husband. He got to his feet and flexed his arm.
"Time to go." David led them through the gloom.
"Ick. Ick. Ick. Why is this mud sticking to us? This shouldn't be happening,"
Laura complained.
"This world has different rules for our kind." Mud swarmed around their feet, and David pulled them both out to float above the oozing mire with Donovan between them. "It's better that we fly."
Trees stuck out at unexpected angles, but the forest protected them from being seen by any Keres in the sky, so they kept close to the covering branches.
Mist turned to cold rain and soaked them.
David held out his hands. "Rain isn't supposed to touch us."
Laura took
off her coat and put it on her father, who was shivering. When the rain subsided, they found themselves standing on a riverbank. A milky fog hung suspended over the black water.
"Stay here. I'm going to fly and find out where we are." David pushed off.
Before Laura could stop him, he was gone. The fog harbored squealing echoes, and she stood near her father ready to defend them against whatever emerged. Laura 189
peered into the fog trying to get a glimpse of David. This was nothing like the fog back home.
Huge, sharp teeth flew at her face.
Donovan screamed.
Strong arms suddenly lifted and placed them at the entrance to the bridge.
Laura's mind struggled to define what she'd seen. She leaned back into the familiar arms and felt fangs nuzzle her cheek. She trembled from head to toe. David turned her quickly and kissed her, deep without any inhibition or restraint. Looking up into her husband's eyes, she smiled.
I'm so glad you're back. She caressed his hair.
I need you to be on top of your game, darling. There's a strange evil in this world. He had taught her to fight but she hardly needed to use it in their world. Here things would be different.
"What was that thing?" asked Donovan.
"A really big eel."
"Living in the river?"
"No. Living in the fog with a bunch of other monsters you'd never want to see."
"Good to know." Donovan nodded. "Fog is very bad."
Laura hugged David and taking her father's hand pulled him close. "Let's get to the city. Maybe someone there knows the way home."
The silver single span walking bridge hung empty in the sky. The wind made no noise, and the fog lingered perilously suspended beneath it. Only a bleached wood tollhouse interrupted the path midway, and no one seemed to occupy it. It looked unused for a long time, so Laura led the way past the gate.
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"Where do you think you're going?" A sludge rapidly closed around her like undulating gray ooze. It rushed around her feet and upward, engulfing her to the waist.
David rushed to her defense, but Laura thought to him, W ait!
"I was just going to the city." She smiled coyly at this unusual tollgate keeper.
The sludge didn't seem to want to hurt her and rolled down his grasp until she stepped out of the ooze. Still he surrounded, not touching. "You can't go to the city unless you pay the toll."
Laura could feel David's apprehension. Wait! She insisted.
"What's the toll for three?"
He quivered and squirmed. "Hmm, for three, two hearts and a spleen."
"Oh, darn," she said, with girl-like innocence. "I just had them in hand but threw them away. If only I had known. Surely there must be some way to get into the city."
The sludge grew tall over her. Laura felt David's growing agitation.
"Now behave yourself." She giggled. "I'm a married woman. There must be some other way to pay."
"No. No other way. Just go back the way you came."
"That's just it. We can't go back," she lamented, putting her hand gently on where she imagined the sludge's face was. "We have to get into the city to find the way back. Please, help us. Please."
"What's worth going back for?"
"I'm going to try to save a city."
He asked, "You're going to save people?"
"I'm going to try."
"Why would you want to save them?"
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"Does there have to be a reason?" Laura waited patiently for his response.
The sludge was silent for a few minutes and then sighed. He opened an area in his massive pulsating body and allowed her to rejoin David and Donovan. "For passage of a live one, a vampire, and a very wonderful vampiress, the toll is one kiss from her."
David frowned. "I don't think that's a good idea."
"No, it's fine." Laura leaned forward to kiss the gray sludge. A pair of large lips protruded from the mass and completely overwhelmed her face. If she had been human it would have been awful, as she couldn't breathe. Still the sludge appeared satisfied with her effort and let them pass. "The Shining One will know the way back. Seek him out."
As Donovan passed the sludge, he asked, "Why did you want a kiss from my daughter?"
The sludge whispered, "I've never known anyone that wanted to save people without having a reason, just to save them. What's the name of her city?"
"New Orleans."
"I used to play horn in New Orleans." The sludge sighed, then slithered back into the tollhouse and shut the door. They raced into the gloom of the city.
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Chapter 18
Darkness held the city; its buildings strangely angular and stark white like bone dust, its streets narrow and empty. Nothing distinguished one building from the next or one street from another. There were no signs anywhere. Laura clutched David and Donovan, as each took turns trying doors. The buildings had no windows. Most doors were locked. Some opened to empty rooms. One opened to a room filled with dead bodies. The stench threw them back into the street.
Donovan leaned against another door and fell in taking Laura and David with him.
The tuxedoed man that looked down at them was bald, his smile supported by a huge handlebar mustache. "Ah, guests. Welcome to the Hotel D'Orte. How may I help you today?"
The three got to their feet. Lush red carpet covered every inch of floor. The walls were papered in a burnished gold and crystal chandeliers hung from a ceiling rich with intricate gargoyle carvings. Faint strains of classical music drifted through the large entryway, as they followed him to the front desk.
"Do you take credit cards?" David asked, not wanting to consider how weird that sounded under the circumstances. "Two adjoining rooms, please."
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"Certainly, sir." The man took David's card, processed it, and handed it back with two antique keys. "Your rooms are 12 and 13 on the second floor. Dinner is at 7. You can take the elevator," he said, indicating the steel cage to his right, "or the stairs,"
indicating a beautifully, red carpeted grand staircase. They headed for the stairs.
David opened the door to number 12 and found a pleasant if standard looking, hotel room decorated in silver and colonial blue. With all the paintings and garlands, Laura almost didn't notice the lack of windows.
Donovan casually walked over to the TV and turned it on. Nothing came on the screen except wavy lines and static. "I expected as much." He went in and sat on the bed. "I hope you don't mind, but I really can't stay in a room numbered 13."
"That's no problem." David opened the adjoining door to room 13, a huge room richly decorated in red and gold.
They were about to leave Donovan to get some rest, when the door of number 12
opened. A diminutive woman in a maid's apron and cap stood there open-mouthed.
She was four feet tall and delicate, pretty features like a porcelain doll. Her large, brown eyes matched the fringe of hair sticking out from her cap. "Oh, so sorry. Didn't know this room was occupied."
"Oh, please, come in," said Laura. "Perhaps you can help us."
The small woman blinked and stepped inside the room. "Yes, ma'am, I'll try."
"We're visiting here, and I wonder if you could tell us the best way to leave...when we're ready to go, of course."
Puzzled, the woman said, "Leave? No one ever leaves."
Donovan frowned. "Not ever?"
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She shook her head and turned to exit then stopped. "Well," she said, closing the door. "There was that one time."
"Tell us about it."
Nervously as if she might be saying something she shouldn't, the maid whispered,
"There was this man out in the street. Suddenly there was a blinding light in the sky.
When I looked back he was gone. It was that quick."
"Where did he go?" asked Donovan.
"No one knows. They just said he left."
David asked, "Where did the light come from?"
"No one knows, sir."
"Thank you," said Laura.
The woman stood a moment waiting with her small hand outstretched. Laura realized they owed a gratuity. David handed the woman two dollars, but the woman only looked confused. Then Laura took the cowry shell bracelet from her pocket and gave it to the woman.
Her small, dark eyes brightened. Her mouth curled into a smile. "Oh, thank you, Ma'am. Thank you." She hurried out of the room and closed the door.
"Well, you didn't like me keeping it anyway," Laura said to David.
"Okay, you two out. Let your old man get some sleep. You know the old saying,
‘When one door closes, another opens.' I just want a nap before it does." He handed his daughter her coat back.
Laura and David walked through the doorway into room 13 and closed the door.
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Running her fingers through her hair, Laura came up with twigs and muck. Oh, how she dreaded what she probably looked like. A shower would feel so good right now. She opened the door to the bathroom and stood transfixed.
David came up behind her. "What's wrong?" Then he saw it--their reflections in the bathroom mirror.
"What does it mean?" she asked. "We're not supposed to see ourselves."
"I don't know," David said with concern etched on his face. "Well, we can't do anything about it, and we do look a mess." He turned on the water and undressed.
Laura shook out their clothes the best she could and joined David in the shower. It was so good to feel the dirt washing away.
The perfectly warm water rained over them, and Laura closed her eyes. David poured shampoo on her hair and rubbed it in, then working his way down lingered at her neck and then her breasts.