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

by Alexie Aaron

  “Mia should be there soon,” Ted said. “Just hold on, and stay in that ring.”

  “I’m holding on. I’m a bit freaked out at how close this thing is. I should have poured myself a bigger ring, but I was afraid of running out of salt.”

  “Heads up, two entities climbing the stairs. I think they’re males. They are crawling up the stairs. They have a fleshy, misty form.”

  “Are you trying to tell me two naked guys are crawling up the stairs towards me?”

  “Yes.”

  “Great. Ted, I hear footsteps above me. I think something came through the attic.”

  “Murphy should be back soon.”

  “At least there’s that,” Mike said as the entity lifted her gown and wiggled her finger. “Ted, be advised, the entity in front of me is probably a succubus.”

  The crawling pair of entities had passed the second-floor-landing camera. Ted got a better look at them. Their teeth had been sharpened to points. “Cannibals,” he said under his breath.

  “I didn’t get that. Can you repeat yourself?”

  “Two cannibals are crawling up the third floor flight of stairs. Stay in that ring, Mike.”

  Murphy was surprised not to see Mike waiting for him in the kitchen. He started to search the house for him, starting on the basement level. He saw that the hatch was open. He slammed it shut and toppled several of the heavier shelves on top of it. He dropped his axe twice by the recording device.

  CRACK! CRACK!

  Ted looked at the basement feed and saw Murphy miming that the hatch was open. “Jake, can you give me some sound from that camera. A click. And if so, send Murphy a Morse code message to warn him that Mike is in trouble with four, possibly more, entities in the house.”

  Murphy heard the camera click and whirl. It took him a moment to figure out that the camera wasn’t malfunctioning. He and Cid had used Morse in the early days of their friendship. He would bounce his axe lightly in code. Jake repeated the sequence again. This time Murphy understood. He moved quickly up to where Mike had shielded himself in the salt ring, keeping a distance to not alert the ghosts of his presence. The cannibals moved like wolves, nosing up to the barrier and back again. The succubus tried to seduce Mike out of the ring. He winced each time she exposed her dead body to him. Murphy could not enter the ring himself. Salt was salt when it came to ghosts. He had seen the berserker biker ghosts cross a salt line, but Murphy knew it would deplete most of his energy.

  “Mike, I’m going to lead them away up the stairs. You get out of this house as fast as you can.”

  “They can hurt you, can’t they?” Mike said.

  “They can’t kill me, but it will hurt when one of those bites me. My soul will scream with pain.”

  “Then I’ll just wait here.”

  “More are coming. These are the bravest of the group. Do as I say. Waiting will just put your rescuers in jeopardy.” Murphy moved up the stairs and dropped his axe into the wood.

  CRACK!

  The head of the succubus turned. Murphy took off his hat and put it over his heart. She moved quickly towards him.

  He dropped his axe twice more.

  CRACK! CRACK!

  The cannibals showed their teeth before following the succubus up the stairs.

  Mike watched them move past him and up the stairs. He took a deep breath and vaulted over the railing, hitting the descending flight briefly before he repeated the action, taking him to the solid wood floor of the entrance hall. He took only an angel’s breath before he was running to and out the front door. He picked up his phone. “Ted, I’m out, but Murphy’s in trouble.”

  He heard their wings before he could see them. Mia and a creature that he had never seen before dropped down beside him.

  “Murphy’s in trouble. Three I could see on the stairs. One I couldn’t see in the attic,” he said quickly.

  Mia pulled in her wings, pulled out her shotgun, and charged through the door, followed by the blue-black creature.

  “Who’s Mia hanging around with these days?” Mike asked Ted.

  “That’s Quentin. You’ve met him.”

  “That’s her uncle? Dude, I’m so going to stop messing with your wife.”

  “About time, Dupree, about time.”

  Mia searched out with her mind. “Murphy, Quentin and I are here.”

  CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

  “He’s in trouble,” Mia said. “Ted, give me a location.”

  “Third floor stairwell. He’s trapped between the cannibals, the succubus, and something I can’t see above him.”

  Mia started climbing. Quentin, who stayed in Nephilim form, picked her up and flew up the stairs.

  “Salt!” Mia cried as they spotted Murphy. He dropped to the ground, and she shot off both barrels, injuring the cannibals. They crawled off and huddled in a corner. The succubus turned and screamed. The sound coming out of her mouth was meant to incapacitate Mia. Mia tossed a handful of rocksalt stars into her chest. The sound stopped, and the woman looked down at what was causing her all this pain.

  Above them on the stairs was Dr. Rose or what was left of him. He had taken quite a beating. Not even in his spectral form did he look remotely like the same entity they had dealt with before.

  “Recall your monsters,” Mia demanded. “Or we’ll kill them.”

  “They are already dead,” he said, trying to remain distinguished in his tattered suit and bite-ridden body.

  “They will cease to be,” Quentin told him. To make his point, he scooped up the succubus and squeezed her in his mighty fist until she was nothing more than ash.

  Dr. Rose shook his head. “I can’t control them anymore. They are hungry. They need to feed.”

  “Recall them,” Mia said again. “This is your last opportunity to save your monsters. Surely you can find a way to make them happy with all that energy you’ve been given.”

  He shook his head. “It’s time I set them free. There were a hundred. The creature behind you took out thirty, thirty-one. That leaves sixty-nine insatiable beings.”

  The cannibals took that moment to lunge at Mia’s back. Murphy sliced through the first before his teeth could sink into her. Quentin dispatched the second, and then when it became apparent Murphy could not deliver a death blow, he ground the remains of the first under his clawed foot until it too became ash.

  “Sixty-seven,” Dr. Rose said dryly. “You won’t be able to stop them all. One or two will be enough to bring terror into the hearts of this city.”

  Mia drew her sword. “I’m asking you to return to your dimension and close the portals to this world.”

  “No.”

  “Dr. Samuel Rose, I sentence you to walk an eternity in the Dark World. You will never have contact with another being.”

  “How dare you! Who are you to pronounce judgment on me? Are you going to enforce it with that puny sword?”

  Mia unfurled her wings. “This sword is not for you.” She extended her wings to protect Murphy and Quentin for what was coming.

  Dr. Rose lifted his hand, preparing to strike Mia.

  A sound not unlike screaming gulls filled the house. A very large hand appeared behind the doctor. As the fingers closed around him, another hand appeared. Mia said, “Just Dr. Rose.”

  “What about the Nephilim?” a disembodied voice asked.

  “He is a friend. He stays,” Mia said with authority.

  “Very well.”

  “You can’t do this. I am a god!” Dr. Rose screamed. “Defend your master!” he called out.

  A flood of shadow men moved out of the walls towards them.

  The empty hand moved towards the shadows and scooped them up as if they were jacks. Dr. Rose and his henchmen disappeared.

  Quentin was about to speak when Mia stepped back, still protecting him and Murphy as another hand moved up the stairs. Mia nodded to it, and it too disappeared.

  Mia retracted her wings. She wiped her forehead of the accumulated sweat.

  “How d
id you know there was another one?” Quentin asked.

  “If I were sent to collect souls, I would bring two friends with me,” Mia said.

  “Mia, we need to stake out the portals,” Murphy reminded her.

  “Ted, has there been any activity?” Mia asked.

  “No. But we can’t see the attic.”

  “On it,” Mia said.

  The three climbed the stairs.

  “Gentlemen, am I doing the right thing here?” Mia asked.

  “Explain,” Quentin requested.

  “If we succeed, we will trap those things in that pocket dimension forever.”

  “They will harm the innocents if they get out,” Murphy pointed out.

  “That’s what scares me,” Mia said.

  “I could go inside and take care of them forever,” Quentin offered.

  “But that seems a little harsh as they have yet to come over here to do harm,” Mia said. “They were mentally ill people at one time. Thorn and Dr. Rose turned them into these nightmares. That is the reason those two were sentenced to the Dark World.”

  “The reapers wanted me,” Quentin said as he resumed his human persona.

  “Unjustly, they are trained to collect any entity that seems to be a threat to peace.”

  “Mia, I would never hurt anyone that didn’t attack me first.”

  “I know, Quentin.”

  “I think you are being judged by the Nephilim who came before you,” Murphy said.

  “That is sad.”

  “We’ve all been judged wrongly one time or another,” Mia said as they reached the attic door.

  Murphy ducked his head through the door, and when he returned, he opened the door to an empty room.

  Mia picked up the tripod, examined the camera, and reseated it. “How’s that, Ted?” she asked.

  “Fine. Maybe back it up. Yes, that’s good. Cid and Baxter are a block away. Cid’s going to stay with you Mia. In the morning, I’m going to take Brian over to Susan’s. Burt and I will pack up the robot arms and bring them to the house.”

  “But, Ted, they aren’t ready yet,” Mia said, worried.

  “They’re programed. And aside from one or two problems, they have functioned well. This house is not stable. Better to lose the whole thing than have you or Murphy be put in that position again.”

  “I understand. We’ll apply some ghost countermeasures. It won’t stop them from coming, but it will trap them just outside of the portals.”

  Mia’s phone beeped. “Ted, I’m losing my phone.”

  “Cid’s bringing supplies. Talk to me when you’re recharged. Be safe. I love you.”

  “I love you too,” Mia said. She looked at the others. “I’m going to stay here until Cid arrives with the salt. Quentin, if you could watch the second floor portal, and, Murphy, you’ve got the basement.”

  Murphy disappeared, and Quentin turned to go.

  “Quentin,” Mia said, getting his attention. “You’re an amazing person. I’m proud to be not only related to you but to have you as my friend. We’ve had, as the British say, the dog’s bollocks for childhoods, but to meet now and to bring together our talents, for me, has been worth all the pain of not fitting in.”

  Quentin looked down at his niece and took in the honesty of her words. “I could not search for you earlier. My father’s control over me was extreme.”

  “I’m glad you broke free of it.”

  “Me too,” he said and left her.

  Mia allowed the fatigue she was feeling to hit her. She slumped down against the wall and stared at the portal, praying nothing would venture through. She wasn’t sure she had any fight left in her.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Mike and Cid started with the basement. Murphy helped them by pulling the heavy wine racks up and off the hatch. They poured a double ring of salt. Mike’s thinking was, if the ghosts broke through the first ring, their energy would be depleted and the second would hold them.

  Quentin watched them as they repeated the maneuver, in the closet of the second floor bedroom, in a semicircle connecting it to the wall.

  Mike repeatedly glanced back at the handsome older man nervously. Quentin knew it was because of seeing him in the guise of a Nephilim. He became irritable. Baxter sensed this and suggested they leave for home soon.

  Cid nudged Mike. “What are you doing?” he asked.

  “Watching my back. Quentin gets along too well with Murphy.”

  Quentin and Baxter looked over at the two.

  Baxter spoke up, “Would you mind explaining that?”

  “Long story short, I ruffled Mia’s feathers which put off Murphy when we first met. He has since played jokes on me. I figured that because you, Quentin, and he were friends you’d be following suit.”

  “So it’s not that I’m a Nephilim that has put you off.”

  “Intimidated me, but that’s all. Cid, you have to see his eyes. I’d give my left nut to have those eyes.”

  Cid, embarrassed by his fellow investigator, didn’t know what to say. “Mind if I see them?”

  Quentin looked at Baxter who said, “It’s up to you.”

  Quentin transformed into the Nephilim.

  Cid was so amazed, his mouth hung open. “Dude, you’re nothing short of amazing.”

  Quentin morphed back before the aggressive Nephilim took control. “My mother’s genes keep me from the total madness that comes with the curse of being an angel/human offspring,” he explained.

  “Now don’t laugh,” Cid prefaced, “but when Mia described you as beautiful, I had a fluffy anime in mind.”

  “I thought you’d have scales,” Mike admitted.

  Baxter looked at the two investigators as they lavished Quentin with appreciation.

  Quentin actually blushed. “They wouldn’t be aerodynamic. That’s why dragons are so slow in the air.”

  “You’ve been around dragons? Cool,” Cid said. “Mia had to fight an elemental dragon.”

  “They aren’t real dragons, Cid.”

  “Sometime, I’d like to sit and discuss the differences with you,” Cid said.

  “I would enjoy it. Right now my energy is fading, and I must leave. I wish you luck on your project here. Watch over my niece.”

  “I will,” Cid promised.

  Baxter and Quentin left the room and walked down the hall to the stairs.

  “I’ll be right back,” Quentin said. “I’ll meet you at the car.”

  Quentin climbed up the stairs to the fourth floor and over to the attic. There he found Mia sitting on the floor staring at the center of the room. He extended his hand, and she took it and rose to her feet.

  “I must leave you now. The Nephilim is causing too much anger inside,” he explained.

  “I understand. Thank you for your help. I couldn’t have done this without you.”

  “Mia, you’re so fatigued. You need to get some sleep and some sunlight soon.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Quentin smiled. “I’d like to visit your family again. Maybe have you over my house.”

  “We’d like that,” Mia said honestly. “If we can get this house behind us, we plan on having a party for Brian and the upcoming holidays. Most of our friends will be there. I’d like you to come if you feel like it, but they can be overwhelming at times.”

  “I’ll think on it. Thank you for the invitation.”

  Mia put her hand on her heart. “You’re part of me now. Don’t stay away.”

  Quentin nodded and left her. His eyes were brimming with tears. He managed to hold it together until he was sitting in the back of the sedan.

  Baxter looked at him in the rearview mirror and didn’t comment. His charge had come so far. The differences in Mia’s and Quentin’s ideologies would soon become a problem, but for this day, they were forgotten, and the two became family.

  ~

  Susan cuddled Brian who was understandably upset that he woke up to find both his parents gone. The front door banged open and closed. />
  “Mia, Ted? I’m home,” a young voice echoed through the house.

  “Son, I’m Susan Braverman, Brian’s big-boy sitter,” Susan said from the top of the stairs. “The Martins and Cid had an emergency in Chicago.”

  Dieter looked up at the woman dressed in Bears fan clothing. “I’m Dieter.”

  “He’s my new baby brother,” Brian said.

  Susan and Dieter were so surprised, they were struck silent for a moment.

  “I think Brian means…” Dieter started.

  “Oh!” Brian put his hand on his face. “He’s my big brother.”

  “That makes more sense,” Susan said, walking down the stairs holding Brian. “Dieter, would you like some breakfast? I was going to make some French toast.”

  “What’s that?” Dieter asked, setting his battered duffle bag in the front room closet.

  Susan, who suspected incorrectly that it contained hockey gear, explained, “Pieces of bread soaked in egg and milk and fried. You can put maple syrup on it.”

  “French toast,” Dieter said again. “I would love some. Can I take Brian from you? I imagine it takes two hands.”

  Susan handed the tot over. Maggie came in from outside and greeted Dieter. The teen was careful to turn so Brian wouldn’t get wet with the big dog’s paws.

  “Susan, did they say what the problem was in Chicago?”

  “Ted was a bit preoccupied, but something about plugging leaks?”

  Dieter didn’t know how much Susan knew about the Martins’ occupations so he just nodded instead of pumping her for more information.

  “How long have you been with the Martins?” Susan asked, pulling out the big cast-iron pan.

  “Not long. They asked if I would like to try living with them. They were worried that the farm was too rural for me. I’ve made a friend on the internet called Mark, and my work keeps me busy.”

  “You work? You’re very young to be working.”

  “Maybe I should call it volunteering. I don’t get paid.”

  “A hobby?”