A Rose by Any Other Name (Haunted Series Book 18)

by Alexie Aaron

  “Where is your mother now?” Baxter asked.

  “She and my father did not survive the massacre. I brought their souls to the light. I’m an orphan.”

  Baxter sensed the teen didn’t want to speak further of his past, so he changed the subject. “I’m worried about the charm.”

  “Will it not work? Will it not bring them back from this world?” Dieter questioned.

  “It will work, but how it will work is the question. I did not have enough time. I had to add to an existing charm. Normally, I would forge one with the enchantment already in the molten metal. Since I am here and not at the mansion, the charm will bring them here. But where here, I don’t know.”

  “Do not worry, sir. I am sure everything will work out.”

  “I wish I had your confidence,” Baxter said, placing his hand on the youth’s shoulder.

  “I wish I had your wizard skills.”

  “Shhhhh, wizards aren’t supposed to exist outside of fiction.”

  “Your secret is safe with me, sir.”

  Ted walked over to the attic, where Burt had chosen to monitor. He found him running his hand over the gouge in the wood where Murphy’s axe had landed.

  “He would have killed me if not for your wife,” Burt said.

  “I know he regrets his actions,” Ted replied.

  “We have been at this for years, yet we still know so little. In the beginning, it was wisps of smoke in graveyards. Now it’s sending a Nephilim into a pocket dimension. How have we gone from ghost hunting to fantasy and science fiction?”

  “Life takes us on journeys. I think that all of us were brought together for this purpose. Even before Mia came into our lives, we had been drawn together. A virgin, geeky tech, and two ghost hunters who happened to meet on the internet. Cid and I were friends from school. Mia and Murphy friends since her school days. Beth was a surprise, but I have to take responsibility for that one.”

  “No, Ted, most women are strong enough to move on from an unrequited situation. They don’t embrace the dark side to take revenge upon the object of the man’s desire.”

  “Do you know what happened to her?” Ted asked.

  “Father Santos would be the one to ask. I think it’s best that we leave that one in his hands.”

  “Stay on com. I’m going to check on the others. If all goes as planned, we should have them back and then, minutes later, have a light show do deal with.”

  “What happens after that?” Burt asked.

  “We seal the breaches, perhaps by cycling the house.”

  “You don’t mean?”

  “I’m prepared to start Thorn’s machine and have it do what he designed it to do.”

  “You could wreck the place,” Burt cautioned.

  “Mike’s given me permission. He says that the property without the house is worth more than with the house. To science, the house is priceless. To the reality market, it isn’t worth the weight of its bricks.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  “Murph, I’m going to have to pull my wings in soon if I’m going to have enough energy to fight.”

  “I’m ready when you are.”

  Mia unwrapped and extended her wings, pushing away anyone who loitered too close to them, before bringing them in. Murphy moved behind her, placing his back to hers. Mia looked out into the blackness and could faintly see forms milling about. They were mostly bipeds. Some still maintained a human form. She looked upwards and could see the lighter charcoal sky. She determined that they were about fifty feet from the surface of Dr. Rose’s world.

  “How do you reach the summit?” Mia asked the approaching form. As the form moved closer, she could see that he was a large naked male.

  He grunted and wheezed until he was able to make his vocal chords work. “Why would you want to leave when I am here?”

  Mia did her best to keep her voice steady as the creature came nearer. “Why would you be satisfied in a pit when there are houses and bedrooms for you to enjoy up there?” she challenged.

  “Renee is up there.”

  “Renee is gone,” Mia told the creature.

  “Come, I’ll show you how to reach the summit. Do you know that you have a man attached to your back?”

  “It’s how I roll,” Mia said. “Do you have a problem with that?”

  “No, no, more to enjoy. Follow me,” he instructed.

  Mia climbed behind what she determined was an incubus. Technically, he was a man who thought he was this legendary creature. Giving someone a label sometimes transforms them. They morph mentally until they no longer regard themselves as human. Mia had, herself, turned into what her classmates had labeled as a freak. It took the love of her husband to see that her kind of freak was a very desirable freak to be.

  Murphy moved backward, watching behind Mia as they climbed upwards. He initially thought she was foolhardy to engage in conversation with the monster who displayed himself so prominently, but the monster did know the way out of the pit. If Mia had chosen to kill him, then they would probably still be in the pit fighting for their virtues and lives.

  Quentin looked around him. He knew from the young Dieter’s report what he would find. He transformed immediately and dispatched the three creatures that brought him there. They fell to ash with the mere slice of his claws. He saw the light of the replaced soul move upwards. He took flight and followed it to where it oozed into a tiny rip in the pocket.

  Dieter opened the jar and smiled as the soul returned. He looked over at Baxter and said, “Quentin has arrived in the pocket.”

  A sudden burst of astral fire shot out of the ceiling. The paint blistered and smoked before sealing the rift.

  Dieter looked through the glasses and no longer saw the disruption in the ether. He tapped his earcom. “Quentin has sealed the third floor entrance. Over.”

  “Let’s hope he wasn’t too hasty,” Baxter worried.

  Baxter walked over and knocked on the wall that had originally held the portal. It was solid. He put his ear to it and heard the howling wind of the blizzard that had descended on Chicago. High winds combined with the dry snow had made driving impossible. All residents were instructed to stay inside. Only emergency vehicles were permitted to move down the slippery snow-drifting streets.

  “The portal is gone,” he announced.

  “Say over,” Dieter reminded him.

  “Over.”

  Quentin was surprised at how big the dimensional pocket was. How much energy had it taken to build and maintain it? He kept the highest altitude he could, gliding over the houses, and finally arrived over the pit where he slowly sank down. He smelled feathers. Mia must have had to deploy her wings. He didn’t see her flying, so he assumed it was for protection. He scanned the pit with his owl eyes and bat sonar. She wasn’t in the pit, but she had been. He saw the outline of a spot that had held human heat for a time. She could not have been gone long. He started to rise when he felt the first bite. He shook off the cannibalistic creature, but it was replaced with a dozen more. He let out a screech as loud and angry as Godzilla.

  Mia turned around. “That’s Quentin. He’s in trouble.” Mia moved quickly back to the side of the pit.

  The incubus clamped his hands on her shoulders, pulling her away from the edge.

  “Let me go,” Mia warned.

  The man pulled back so hard, Mia fell backwards on the ground. Murph swung his axe at the incubus. The man jumped back.

  “Leave her,” Murphy ordered. “Leave her and live.”

  The incubus walked into the darkness.

  Mia got to her feet. She drew her sword and shotgun. “Thanks, Murph.”

  Quentin screeched again.

  “I’m going down there,” Mia said.

  “No. Give Quentin time. He is a mighty creature. We don’t want to be in the pit when he lets loose.”

  Quentin felt he had given the creatures enough warning. He extended his astral claws and started to slash at anything that moved. One swipe brought the cannib
als to ash. Quentin worked until the pit was clear. Only then did he rise out of it.

  Mia saw her mighty uncle leave the pit.

  “Quentin! she called. “I’m here!”

  The mighty creature of darkness retracted his claws and landed. Mia moved cautiously to the winged blue-black creature. Murphy shadowed her movements.

  Mia allowed herself to be picked up. She placed her forehead against the Nephilim’s. “We are kin. You are mine, and I am yours,” she sent into the mind of the creature.

  Murphy watched as the monster became a man. He held on to Mia a moment, their foreheads and eyes connected. “Mia,” he said softly. He set her down at his side and turned to Murphy. “Step into Mia. We have to leave.”

  “How dare you come into my world and kill my babies!” Dr. Rose shouted from the porch of the closest house.

  Quentin turned.

  The incubus chose that moment to lunge out of the darkness and snatch Mia out from under the man’s protection. Murphy, who had already merged with Mia, pushed outward and decapitated the monster. Mia took her sword and stabbed the creature in the heart. He fell to ash. She looked down at the ashes. “It didn’t have to be this way,” she said evenly. Murphy reentered Mia’s body, convinced she was now safe. She turned to the doctor and called out, “Recall your monsters or, one by one, we will kill them.”

  “What kind of creature are you to survive the pit?” Dr. Rose asked.

  Quentin’s wings emerged, but he withheld the inner Nephilim. He watched as his niece approached the doctor.

  “I am something you don’t want to piss off. I repeat, recall your monsters or I will kill them and then you. I don’t wish to do that, because I believe, as long as they do not venture out of your world, they deserve to live. After all, it wasn’t their choice to be this way. You made them monsters. You deserve to hang from the end of my sword, but it’s not my place to judge you.”

  “Withdraw your creatures,” Quentin said, rising so he flew within an arm’s length of Mia.

  Dr. Rose looked at the duo before him. He sensed the number of his children had been vastly reduced. Most of the cannibals had become ashes, as had the strongest of the incubi. His gatherers, the shadow men, were gone, as was their portal. He would retreat, rebuild, and then enter the world. He would play the long game. What was another hundred years? “Very well,” he said and waved his hand lazily.

  Mia felt the vibrations of many creatures in the shadows as they moved back into the pit. The scratching and clawing of their descent still sent chills down her spine. The silhouette people went into their houses. All that was left on the street was Quentin, Mia, and Dr. Rose.

  Quentin landed behind Mia. He set the light bomb down. “Mia, house your weapons,” he instructed.

  She did so, and he wrapped his arms around her and touched the charm. “Take us to Baxter,” he commanded.

  Dr. Rose watched the two disappear. He didn’t see the device left lying on the ground. He recalled his creatures to take inventory of them. He was facing the bomb when it went off. The blast of light blinded him, and he staggered backwards. He lost his footing and fell into the pit.

  The cannibals that had survived jumped on him and began dining on the freshness of his soul. The incubi and succubi waited their turn to entertain themselves with the husk that would be left.

  “Help me!” the doctor screamed to the silhouettes that gazed down into the pit. They didn’t move but simply stared into the abyss.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  The PEEPs and guests ran up and down the halls and stairs looking for light. The first one shot out of the broken seal around the hatch. Another was found in the center of the attic floor. The third and final spot where the dimensions were joined was in a second-floor bedroom.

  “I bet this was Renee’s room,” Audrey told Orion as they outlined the break in the plaster in the closet.

  The front doorbell rang.

  Ted ran for the door. There stood Quentin. He stood there alone. “Mia?” Ted asked.

  “She was with me when we left. I lost her in the transition,” he said, worried.

  Mia opened her eyes and swore as she realized where she was. “I’m stuck in the bloody, freakin’ wall again!” she shouted. Murphy moved out of her and almost shrieked, himself, as he came face to face with a skull with an open maw.

  Cid heard Mia screaming. He left the console and ventured out into the house. He followed the curses past a confused Ted and Quentin and ran up the stairs. “Ted, she’s alive and in the wall!” he shouted.

  Murphy moved upwards, pulling Mia out of the pile of bones.

  Baxter followed Ted’s directions and opened the trap in the stairs.

  Dieter and Cid waited as Murphy moved out of the stairs, dragging Mia behind him.

  Ted had made the stairs in good time to lift Mia the final few feet and into his arms. She held on tightly. “Quentin?” she asked. “Did my uncle make it?”

  “I’m here,” Quentin said.

  Mia looked over Ted’s shoulder and smiled at her rescuer. “Thank you!”

  “My pleasure.”

  Burt came down from the attic, and Mike came up from the basement. Curly peeked around the corner, satisfying Jake’s need to see that the small investigator had indeed returned safe and sound.

  Audrey and Orion walked out onto the second floor landing to see the happy couple hugging. Ted refused to put Mia down, and she wasn’t complaining.

  Cid listened to the relayed data Jake sent him. “I hate to break this up, but we have three dimensional leaks between here and the pocket dimension.”

  Mia looked at her husband to explain. He set her down and told her about the success of Quentin setting off the light bomb. Once again, Mia looked over at her uncle with pride. She then caught the same look form on Baxter’s face. Quentin’s face gave nothing away.

  “What about the one in the ceiling of the third floor?” Mia asked.

  “I sealed it from the other side after the soul showed me the way,” Quentin said. “I used a little astral fire. I fear, however, that using it on this side of the portal will only result in burning this house down. Maybe that’s what was tried in 1871?”

  “Had it started here and not in that barn, I would be the first to agree with you,” Cid said, walking past Quentin on his way to resume his post at the console.

  “I’m going to try and cycle the house,” Ted told Mia.

  “Now that’s going right over my head,” Mia admitted.

  “Come to the basement, and I’ll show you what we’ve found, Minnie Mouse.”

  “You wouldn’t be keeping your etchings there too?” Mia teased.

  “None of that. You’re all full of cobwebs and spiders, ew.”

  Mia jumped around, running her gloved hands over her body. Quentin looked her over. “Mia, there are no spiders on you. I think your husband was teasing you.”

  “You mean my ex-husband. Damn, I shouldn’t have gotten rid of my spare,” Mia mumbled, walking right past Ted on the way down.

  Quentin saw the mischief in her eyes as she passed him. “Come, Uncle, let’s see if there is any food around. I’m hungry.”

  “I’m always hungry,” Quentin admitted.

  Ted watched his wife round the corner. He looked up at Baxter. “What do you think?”

  “Quentin is presently stable, but I’ll try to get him home soon.”

  “There’s a blizzard going on out there,” Dieter pointed out. “I’m not leaving anytime soon.”

  “How did you get here?” Mike asked.

  “Bus.”

  “Where do you live?” Mike inquired.

  “In one of the Promise House shelters.”

  “You can stay with me,” Mike offered. “I have my mother there at the moment, but you can have my room, and I’ll take the couch.”

  “That’s very kind of you, sir. It’s the second offer I’ve had today. You PEEPs are generous people.”

  “I expect Mia made the other offer
?” Mike said.

  “Yes, sir, she did. She said something about me missing out on my childhood.”

  “Mia had a crappy childhood,” Burt said. “She’s determined that no one else should go through what she did.” He navigated around the open steps and headed down the stairs. “I have an extra room too, but I think the farm would be worth considering,” he advised. “Ted and Mia have a young son, and Cid lives over the PEEPs office there on the property. The place is haunted though.”

  Murphy whistled.

  Dieter looked at the ghost and laughed. “He’s haunting the place, I bet.”

  Murphy nodded.

  Dieter bumped fists with the ghost.

  Orion and Audrey joined Mia and Quentin in the kitchen. Audrey took time to reexamine Mia’s hair for bugs, which Mia appreciated. Audrey leaned over and brushed up against Mia as she was looking. Mia picked up some information and looked pointedly at her grandfather. He opened his mind. “What are you going to do about this situation?”

  “What situation?” he asked, puzzled.

  “Nevermind,” Mia said, locking her mind so Orion could not discern what she’d just found out. Audrey was pregnant with Orion’s child.

  Ted came in. “As soon as you’re done eating, I’d like to show you what we found in the basement.”

  “Oh, so there really is something down there?” Mia asked, putting her hand to her forehead. “Sorry, Teddy Bear.”

  Mia excused herself before leaving the table and invited Quentin to come too.

  He smiled indulgently at his niece. “Mia, I have to get Baxter home before he gets cranky,” he said. “We are still going to have dinner with Brian?”

  “Soon, after all this is cleared up,” Mia promised.

  “Good.”

  “Be nice,” Mia sent to Orion before she left. She was well aware that Orion did not like nor trust Quentin.

  “I will be a gentleman if he is one,” Orion said before he took the information from Mia that she’d been hiding. “I’m what?”