Nightraven

by Skye Knizley

  Levac opened the door and leaned in, weapon ready. “What the hell was that?”

  “That, was the clown. I forgot to tell you, he can come out of any mirror he wants.”

  Levac looked at the white paint and drops of blood where the clown had been standing. “Marvelous.”

  *

  Raven could hear the distant bells of Heart of Mary ringing when Levac turned his FBI Charger down the driveway that led to the Eavenston estate where Rocco lived. It was just gone midnight and the bells were letting everyone in the city know. The Charger pulled to a stop and Raven was out almost before. She reached the door seconds before Levac and pressed the bell. The door opened a few moments later. Standing in the gap was Joshua, still wearing his yellow cardigan and Mr. Rogers sweater.

  “Agents Storm and Levac, this is a surprise. You do know what time it is?”

  Raven handed him the warrant. “Yes. And I have a warrant for your boss’s computer, his files and, while I’m at it, his body.”

  She pushed past him and took the opportunity to look around. The house wasn’t enormous, less than five thousand square feet which was small by the standards of this neighborhood, yet the ceiling looked like it belonged in some ancient chapel. It climbed three stories up with a cupola at the top where the stars were, just, visible in the sky beyond.

  “May I know the evidence presented against my client?” Joshua asked.

  “It’s all there in the warrant. I have motive, I have a witness, I have a money trail and I have an attempt on my life and the witness,” Raven said.

  “You have a witness who saw Mr. Riscassi attack you? I find that unlikely,” Joshua said.

  “I didn’t ask your opinion. My job is to gather the evidence, yours is to wake your client and get what I asked for before I call a bunch of Chicago’s finest to do it for you,” Raven said.

  “I will be having words with Judge Crater in the morning, this is a shaky case,” Joshua said.

  “You do that. In the meantime, we’re doing our jobs,” Levac said. “Where is Mr. Riscassi and where is his laptop?”

  “Mr. Riscassi is, of course, asleep. His office is this way, his bedroom is upstairs, first on the left.”

  “I’ll get Riscassi and bring him down,” Levac said.

  Joshua turned away and led Raven down a hallway and up a short flight of steps into a large room that was more library than office, which seemed to be the fashion for scumbags this year. Shelves lined with books that didn’t look as if they’d even been read lined antique shelves, a deep recliner sat in the middle of the room beside a table that held only a bottle of scotch, and a desk was set in the corner. It was the only piece of furniture that looked as if it had ever been used. Where everything else had a patina of dust, the desk was clean and uncluttered. A state of the art laptop sat in the middle beside a notebook and stack of papers.

  In the opposite corner was an easel and what looked like a piece of art beneath a dust-cover.

  “I never thought Rocky was the artist type,” Raven said.

  She crossed to the laptop and began sorting it for evidence. Aspen would make short work of it in the morning.

  Joshua smiled. “Perhaps not, though people can surprise you.”

  Raven put the laptop and all the memory cards and flash-drives into evidence bags. She was initialing them when Levac returned at a run. “Riscassi is gone.”

  Joshua smiled. “Of course he is. Rocco was gone within moments of you ringing the bell. You should have brought more people, Agent Storm.”

  Raven looked at him. “Why? Rocco was never the one behind this, not really.”

  Joshua’s smile faltered. “I’m no one, Agent Storm.”

  Raven held up the laptop. “Except this has a label on the bottom that says Joshua Jacob Riscassi. You’re his older brother and scion of the Riscassi family, now your cousin is in prison. I didn’t catch it, I thought you were his bodyguard until Lino called you an accountant. When did you get out of Tamms?”

  Joshua slammed the door shut and drew a pistol from beneath his sweater. “You’re smarter than you look, Agent Storm. I thought Levac was the brains of your little duo.”

  Raven didn’t move. “Oh, he is, believe me. But you can’t ride around with a guy, work with him, and not have any of his habits rub off on you.”

  Red and blue lights flashed and reflected off the windows. “I know Rupert, I know how he thinks. For example I knew he called for backup to search the grounds as soon as he discovered Rocco was missing. That’s them now, cops are never far away in Eavenston. Put the weapon down, Joshua. You can still come out of this alive.”

  Joshua shook his head. “If you’re dead, I can say whatever I like, say Rocco killed you and ran.”

  “That will never work, sir,” Levac said. “The building is surrounded and they will hear the shots.”

  Joshua turned his gun on Levac and Raven raised her voice. “Before you kill us, how did you get Muldoon’s Mirror? You were in prison when it was sold.”

  Joshua turned back to her. “I didn’t, my idiot brother did. He has a passion for antiques, the more horrible the better. He read the legend and bought it the very next day. It hung in the main hallway for years, he never knew what he had.”

  “But you did?” Levac asked.

  “Of course! It was in Uncle Antonio’s journal. The man spent a lifetime collecting and researching artifacts. He never understood what real power was, he was obsessed with the occult and believed the Tempeste family was hording occult power, can you believe it?” Joshua said.

  “That’s why your cousin sent Frost after my family? He thinks we have some sort of power?”

  Joshua raised his weapon again. “I had nothing to do with that, that was all Antonio’s doing! You can’t pin those murders on me!”

  Raven kept her eyes on his weapon. “No, but I can place the deaths of Domino Carmichael, Duncan Arel, Brandon Mackenzie and Francis Vanhoose squarely at your feet. You sent whatever was in the mirror after them.”

  Joshua’s face darkened. “Lino and Brandon were shutting it down, cutting us out. They had to be taught a lesson. I didn’t think it would go this far, I didn’t know what he was!”

  Rupe, do you have an angle on him?

  Levac’s nod was so slight only Raven would notice. I can make a grab for the gun.

  I’m going to move. When I do, disarm him. Try not to kill him, we still don’t know how the mirror works.

  Raven started around the desk. “What is he, Joshua? Where does he come from?”

  “Stop moving!”

  Levac moved, Raven had never seen him move so fast. He stepped up, grabbed Joshua’s weapon and pointed it at the ceiling. Joshua put two holes in the plaster and fought like a demon, but Levac was stronger.

  Raven vaulted the corner of the desk and joined Levac. Together this disarmed Joshua and got cuffs around his wrists. When it was over, Raven dragged him into the chair. Joshua raised his head and shouted something Raven didn’t understand, but sounded like “Ie Ta, Mesh Mesh Crietae!”

  “I don’t speak gibberish,” Raven said. “You have the right to remain silent, use it.”

  There was a rustling noise, like a breeze blowing curtains. It began to swirl around them, dragging papers off the desk and spilling books to the floor.

  Joshua looked at Raven and his eyes were wild, manic. “I’m not going back to prison.”

  Raven stepped back. “What did you do, Joshua?”

  The wind continued to rise and Levac started pulling on the door. It wouldn’t budge, in spite of his enhanced strength.

  “I think we’re in trouble, Ray!”

  Before Raven could move, the cover on the easel blew off and swirled around her legs. Beneath the canvas was an antique mirror, beautiful in design, wretched in content. Roses, angels and demons were carved in the frame amidst fi
re, brimstone and the pillars of hell. The mirror itself was open, like some kind of window or portal. The wind was blowing, swirling, from somewhere within.

  Raven picked up the desk chair and slammed it into the window. The glass cracked, but didn’t break. She tried again, and again, eliciting mocking laughter from Joshua.

  “It’s no use, Storm. The old witch, she told me how to unlock the mirror, to open the space between spaces. If I’m going to hell, we’re all going!”

  Raven turned with every intention of smashing him with the chair in hopes it would close the portal, but the wind ripped the chair from her hands. She watched in horror as it was drawn into the portal, followed by Levac. Raven reached for him and felt his fingers brush hers, then he was gone.

  She turned on Joshua, murder in her eyes. “Where is he? Where did it take him?”

  Joshua cackled with glee. “One down, two to go!”

  Raven reached for his throat and the tornado ripped her off her feet. She spun head over heels through the mirror and landed on her back so hard the breath wooshed out of her. She rolled as Joshua followed and landed where she’d fallen seconds before. Almost the moment he hit ground, the wind stopped, leaving deafening silence in its absence.

  Raven jumped to her feet and spotted Levac not far away. He sat up and rubbed a knot growing on his head. “Anyone get the name of that bus?”

  Raven helped him up. “Not a bus. It feels like concrete.”

  Levac shook his head as if it was still foggy. “Where the hell are we?”

  Raven turned. They were in an oblong room or very wide hallway made of grey stone. Light filtered in between cracks in the stone, and the silence was so pronounced Raven could hear her own heartbeat. All around them were mirrors, a hundred or more, all smeared with blood and white makeup.

  “I’m going to guess it’s not Kansas.”

  Joshua fought to his knees. “It worked! The magik is real!”

  Raven glared at him. “Of course it worked! What did you think would happen when you activated a magik mirror? Where are we?”

  Joshua turned his gaze on her. “His domain.”

  That didn’t sound good. He’d said it in the same way villains in horror films say “In hell” or “Here’s Johnny.”

  “Whose domain?”

  Joshua’s mocking laugh echoed in the chamber. “The clown’s!” He laughed again and stepped closer. His eyes were bright with madness and drool was forming at the corner of his mouth. “Did you ever wonder why so many people are afraid of clowns? It’s him! It’s all him! He found this place, trapped himself inside the mirrors. For decades he passed through, taking the lives of those he felt were undeserving. Then she found him.”

  “Who found him?” Levac asked.

  “The witch! She calls herself Morgan. She cast a spell around him, made him docile.”

  “And you freed him, didn’t you? That’s what those words were!” Raven yelled.

  Joshua cackled again. “I did, and he will be so angry. I just hope he kills you first.”

  Without warning, mirrors began to explode around them, showering them and covering the floor in pieces of glass and silver.

  “Ray, I think we better get out of here!” Levac cried.

  Raven looked behind Joshua and saw Riscassi’s office in the glint of a nearby mirror. She pointed to it and took Joshua’s arm. “There, that mirror! Go, Rupe, I’ll be right behind you!”

  Levac didn’t have to be told twice. He ran forward and was almost to the mirror when Joshua pulled free and tripped him. “No! We all die here!”

  Levac fell headlong and slid to a stop inches from the mirror. He picked himself up and looked back. He had scratches on his face and chin, and he looked dazed.

  “Go, Rupert! I’ve got this!”

  Levac struggled to his feet and stumbled through the mirror. There was a strange popping sound, like a child with bubblegum, and he appeared on the other side dazed but unhurt.

  Raven squeezed Joshua’s arm tighter. “Okay bub, our turn!”

  Joshua smiled and there was blood on his lips. “Too late, bitch!”

  Raven stepped back and saw the shadow forming behind him. It coalesced into a clown, but not the one she’d seen before. He was bigger and far more menacing, with lips painted in blood and a prison suit circa 1942. He’d stabbed Joshua with such force that the handle of his carving knife was embedded in Joshua’s flesh.

  Joshua cackled, blood spraying from his lips. “See you in hell, Storm!”

  Raven ran. There was no point in trying to take Joshua, he was dead. If she could get to the other side, she could break the mirror and trap the clown on this side. She hoped.

  She could see Levac on the other side. He was calling her name and telling her to hurry up, she could tell by his lips and demeanor. His sense of urgency made Raven run faster, but she was too late. The mirrors exploded in front of her, showering her with shrapnel that dug at her skin and opened wide cuts that ran freely with crimson. When she opened her eyes, there were only two mirrors left.

  “Now, my bidding is my own,” the clown said. “And you will be punished for your sins.”

  Raven turned and saw the clown still holding Joshua in place. Then, there was the sound of tearing flesh. Joshua screamed as the clown tore him in half and tosses his pieces in opposite direction, covering himself and Raven in blood and bits of bone.

  “Marvelous,” she muttered.

  She drew her pistol and fired two shots at the clown’s heart. Both struck home, she saw them sink into flesh and bone, but the clown acted like he barely felt them. He brushed the slugs from his chest and hefted his knife.

  “Guns can’t kill me, Ravenel Tempeste. It is God’s will.”

  Raven backed away. “I somehow doubt that God is whispering in your ear. Look at you, you’re a clown in a convict suit, how can anyone take you seriously?”

  The clown moved quick for his bulk. He stepped forward and slashed at Raven’s face. She blocked with her pistol and felt a sense of relief that the blade deflected off the Automag’s slide. That, at least, was something.

  The clown looked surprised. “Interesting, I did not expect you to be able to fight or I would have killed you first. No matter, I will kill you, then Rupert Levac.”

  Raven backed away and snapped into a kick that hit the clown in the jaw. It was like kicking a sandbag stuffed with concrete. He grunted and shook off the blow as if he’d been tapped by a child.

  “You are not strong enough, Storm,” he intoned.

  Raven righted herself and drew one of the knives from her boot. She held it in her left hand, her pistol in her right. “You’d be surprised, I mean I once pulled the head off a snake god, a clown in a concrete bunker should be a piece of cake, right?”

  The clown slashed again. He was so blindingly fast, Raven was barely able to block. She deflected his blade with her own and slapped him across the face with her pistol. The sigils etched into the Automag’s slide glowed on impact and left a burn in the clown’s flesh. He screamed in surprise and backed away, flailing at the wound in his cheek.

  Raven followed up the attack, hoping to take advantage of the clown’s pain and surprise. She slashed and stabbed at his abdomen then spun to hit him with the pistol again. The clown leaned out of the way and caught her arm in one massive fist.

  “There is only one God,” he intoned.

  Raven slashed with her knife and felt the blade bite deep into the clown’s stomach, to little effect. He picked her up and threw her away like she was an old rag doll. She crashed into the stone and fell to the ground, stunned and weaponless.

  “There is only one God,” the clown repeated, “and he is not on your side.”

  Raven shook her head to clear it and pushed herself up. “Are you sure? I mean, I know of at least three. There’s the big eye in the sky, then there’s the
snake guy I mentioned, and then there is my friend Sloan. You haven’t met her, she stays out of things, but she’s a Golden Eagle Knight. Or was, I’m not sure how that works, but her power comes from The Eagle God. I’ve seen her throw a Buick and rip a door off the hinges even though she weighs ninety pounds soaking wet. I’m willing to take some things on faith.”

  She drew her other knife and twirled it between her fingers. “I’m done clowning, pal. Let’s do this!”

  The clown stopped his advance. “Was…that a pun?”

  Raven shrugged. “I saw too many 80s movies as a kid.”

  Her quip worked. The clown roared in anger and charged. Raven waited until he was almost on top of her, then she leapt over him and let her vampire out of its cage. The world went blue and she landed with the taste of blood in her mouth. She twisted and raked her knife across the clown’s back, then kicked him behind the knee hard enough to shatter bone. The clown staggered forward, but didn’t fall. When Raven stepped forward to attack again, he lashed out with one massive fist. She felt the impact to her skull all the way down to her toes. She fell to the ground and the clown stepped on her neck, cutting off her air.

  “You are through, Storm. Now, you will pay for your sins.”

  Raven choked and spat blood. She could feel him crushing her trachea, see the light fading as her air was cut off. She gripped her knife and rammed it through his ankle with all her strength. When the blade came through, she gripped its edge and lifted the clown off her. He crashed to the ground with a surprised scream and she scooted away, holding her neck while it healed.

  “Someday I may meet my maker and pay for my mistakes, but you won’t be the one cancelling my stamp,” she croaked.

  The clown rolled on the ground and pulled the knife from his ankle in a spurt of blood that ran down his boot. He looked at it disdainfully and tossed it away into the darkness. Raven watched his advance and tried to think. The pain in her throat and shoulder was a distraction, but she had to focus. Her hand closed on the pistol by her side and her eyes fell on the mirrors behind the clown. What had he said?