“I'll help all I can. Can you defeat demons with ice cream?”
“If anybody can, you can,” Mab said, and followed her back out to the counter.
The guy in the Coke-bottle glasses had his notebook open in front of him, but he was looking into his empty coffee cup.
“I'll get that for you.” Mab went behind the counter to get the pot, and when she filled his cup, he looked up and said, “Thank you.”
She looked into his sharp gray eyes, sharp even behind those thick glasses, trying to see if there was a demon in there -
“Something wrong?” he said, and she realized she'd been staring.
“No.” She put the coffeepot back. “Sorry, I just -”
His eyes were really sharp behind those glasses. Glasses that thick shouldn't be that clear; glasses that thick almost always distorted what was behind them -
“Are those just plain glass?” she said.
“No.” He picked up his coffee cup.
“Oh.” She hesitated, but he went back to his notebook, so she went back around the counter and waved to Cindy, heading for the door and Delpha for some answers.
A whistle, sharp and short, made her turn around.
He was holding out her work bag to her with one hand, not even looking at her while he drank his coffee and read his notebook.
She went and got her bag. “Thank you,” she said, and he nodded, his eyes still on his notebook, but she saw that grin flash again.
So he's probably not a demon, she thought, and went out to find Delpha.
Mab dropped her bag at the Fortune-Telling Machine and headed down the midway to the back of the park and Delpha's trailer. She ignored everything on the way except for Sam the maintenance guy, who returned her wave with a polite hello as if he'd never met her before - so much for her deathless allure - and Carl Whack-A-Mole, who was standing in front of his booth, looking annoyed.
“What's wrong?” she said, slowing.
“Somebody broke in here last night,” he said, disgust in his voice. “Didn't take nothing, but some of the bears are ditty. Don't make no sense to do that.”
“There's a lot of that going around,” Mab said. “I have to go see Delpha, but I can come back and help you if -”
“Nah,” Carl said. “Can't give out dirty beats. I'll get some new ones. But thank you just the same.”
“You're welcome,” Mab said, and picked up speed, moving past the Dragon and the hulking orange Strong Man statue, and then through the woods, between Old Fred's and Hank's empty trailers on the left and Gus's and Glenda's trailers on the right and down the path to the edge of the island and Delpha's Airstream.
When she got there, the door was ajar, which was odd since it was cold.
Too cold.
That's not right, Mab thought, and even though the door was in her way, she suddenly saw Delpha lying on the floor, her eyes staring up at the ceiling, her hands clenched into fists -
“No, no, no.” Mab ran to the trailer and yanked the door wide open.
Delpha was lying on the floor, her eyes staring up at the ceiling, her hands clenched into fists ....
“Glenda! ”Mab screamed, and turned and ran for Glenda's trailer.
Wild Ride
10
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Ethan had woken slowly with a hangover, easing up on the banquette, his hand over his chest to press down the pain from the old bullet, which seemed not so bad these days. Probably because of all the other pain he'd been feeling. Given the number of hits he'd taken in the past few days, he was grateful to be alive.
Then he heard Mab scream, and he was out the door before Glenda made it out of her bedroom.
He ran down the steps and looked down the path to the park, and Mab hit him from behind, pulling at him, crying, “Delpha, ”and he pushed her aside and ran back to Delpha's trailer.
She was on the floor, and he knelt down beside her, but it was obvious she was gone, had been gone since the night before. Probably not too long after he'd left her to go back to his mother's and find his flask.
He should have stayed.
He touched her and she was icy cold, beyond death cold, and he looked up and saw that the window over her couch was open. It didn't matter, she hadn't frozen to death, but he still hated that she'd lain there all night in the cold.
“What is it?” Glenda said from behind him, and then drew in her breath. “No.”
“I'm sorry, Mom,” Ethan said, not turning around. “I should have stayed with her.”
“Oh, no,” Glenda said, coming in to kneel down beside him. “Not like this. She knew it was her time, but not like this.”
Ethan frowned at her, but she was crying now, picking up Delpha's hand to hold it, so he went outside to see what in hell had murdered his mother's best friend.
It had to be demons, but somehow, this didn't seem like Tura's style. Maybe Fufiuns wasn't as harmless as they thought.
He walked around to the side of the trailer to look at the open window. The hitch was there with a cigar butt beneath it, and an old, rotting lawn chair had been dragged over beside it, under the window, but it was one with strips of plastic for a seat, ancient strips of plastic at that; it could never have held a human being.
Something bright blue was caught in the window, between the casement and the frame. He stood on the hitch to reach it, tugging it free, and then couldn't figure out what it was; something kind of... fluffy.
“I need to make some calls,” Glenda said from behind him, and when he turned, her face was tearstained even though her voice had been sure.
“A human being was here,” Ethan said. “Somebody who knew Delpha was alone and lived clear back here, somebody who knew the park. Could even be another Guardia -”
“No,” Glenda said. “A Guardia cannot physically harm another Guardia. We're bound together. But other people besides the Guardia know this park. How do you know there was a human here?”
“Cigar butt,” Ethan said pointing to it.
Glenda stiffened. “Ray.” Then she shook her head. “He waited outside. Demons killed Delpha. He just ... waited.”
“I need to go ask some questions,” Ethan said, his anger rising.
“Don't do anything to him,” Glenda said, looking with loathing at the cigar butt. “Don't give away that we know he's involved. We need to find out how involved.”
“I can ask him,” Ethan said grimly.
“No,” Glenda said. “We need to he smart. Delpha. . .” Her voice cracked. “. . . would want us to be smart.” She shook her head, blinking hard, and then went down the path, and Mab put her arm around her and went back to her trailer with he
Ethan walked around to the path and looked through the doorway to Delpha's body, covered by a dark blue blanket now.
He shouldn't have left her the night before. He should have been there to take our the demons and that animal Ray, who'd smoked while she suffered.
He could ask questions later. He sat down on the step to stay with Delpha until the ambulance came to take her away.
When Delpha was gone, Ethan went to find Gus.
The old man took the bad news pretty well, shaking a bit as he sat down after Ethan told him, but calmer than Ethan had thought he'd be.
“She was a good woman,” he said. "She knew it was her time. She told us that before we went to find Tura. But I thought when she was all right after that
“I'm sorry, Gus,” Ethan said.
Gus nodded and then took a deep breath. “Now we gotta get that chalice to Mab to fix, there's a mold for it in the Keep, and there's Tears brightened his eyes. ”Delpha, she was a real good woman."
Ethan put his hand on the old man's shoulder. “Then let's get the bastards who killed her.”
“Right.” Gus blinked his eyes back to normal. “Let's go get those bastards. Put 'em back in their damn chalices. We'll go do that.” He set off' down the midway, towa
rd the front of the park.
Ethan followed him to one of the clown-topped garbage bins, this one behind the carousel. Gus put his shoulder to it, and Ethan joined him, and together they rolled the metal container out of the way, revealing a trapdoor.
Ethan pulled it open, and a shaft beckoned. Gus climbed down as Ethan put a mini-Maglite between his teeth and brought up the rear, closing the trapdoor behind.
He paused for a second to get oriented. They were in one of the tunnels that ran under Dreamland, tunnels Ethan had been expressly forbidden to explore as a boy, which was why he knew most of them. Gus was heading toward the center of the park, into a descending tunnel that Ethan was pretty sure went under the Keep lake and then up to an old wooden door with a large iron handle in the center and an oddly shaped keyhole above it. When they reached the door, Gus produced a large ring of keys. He fumbled through them until he found an ornately crafted iron key, which he slid into the hole and turned.
There was a screech, and Gus stumbled as the key did a quarter turn. The door swung open, and Ethan felt a whoosh of stale, dry air blow over him. He followed Gus inside, his hand hovering over the grip of the pistol strapped to his thigh.
“There's a switch in here somewhere,” Gus muttered, shining his light around.
Ethan felt a chill as the wavering beam lit up the rusting, rotting odds and ends of the old amusement park, all tumbled together in the huge circular stone basement of the Keep, a place he hadn't seen for over twenty years. Faded signs, broken statues, weather-beaten trunks: Glenda never could throw anything out. He didn't shut the door behind him, afraid they might not be able to get it open again.
Gus headed in the direction of the narrow stone staircase that circled up to a wooden door one level above. He reached the bottom of it, flipped a switch, and a row of naked lightbulbs around the wall flickered to life.
Ethan followed him to the base of the stairs and climbed. The door at the top was locked.
“Gus, you got the key for this?” Ethan called out. “If the stuff's in here, I'll get it.”
“Yeah. The chalice mold's up there. And the weapons. Hold on a minute.”
He slowly climbed the stairs, and Ethan winced with him as he climbed. No wonder Glenda didn't want him in here alone. Gus produced another iron key and opened the door and went in.
Ethan started to follow and then paused, sensing something. He turned on the landing and knelt, pulling his gun out and pointing it at the open door below. The door behind him swung shut with a click, Gus on the other side.
Down below, the man in black slid in the open door, holding a large, strange gun, like an oversized shotgun with a large round drum magazine.
He had hard black body armor on the upper body, goggles, and a mask over his mouth as he looked around the room, coming to stand directly' beneath Ethan. It wasn't demons, but it was something real he could fight. Got you, Ethan thought, and jumped.
When the ambulance had taken Delpha away, Glenda said, “I have to talk to you,” and led Mab into Delpha's Airstream.
Mab's only two previous experiences of Airstreams had been Glenda's retro green-and-yellow barkcloth with red Formica, and Gus's camouflage with industrial shelving, but Delpha had taken trailer living to a new level. 'I he walls were painted blue with tiny gold stars, the couch was purple velvet scattered with heavily embroidered velvet pillows, the tabletop was a huge cracked slab of malachite, and the crown molding was branches, twined around the living area for Frankie, who was roosting up there now, in a nest over the entry to the kitchen, where Delpha had hung a dark blue bead curtain. The place looked like a seraglio with an aviary.
She must have loved living here, Mali thought, and stroked her fingers over the malachite. Even cracked, the table had to be worth thousands; it was beautifully made and very old, but then Delpha had been very old. Maybe she'd gotten it for a steal because it was cracked, at some secondhand shop back in the forties. Maybe
I should have talked to her more, Mab thought with real regret. She knew so much, and I just ignored her.
Of course, she ignored everybody. She didn't do people; she did work. Suddenly, Joe made a lot more sense. Seize the moment, be happy, connect -
“Sit down, Mali,” Glenda said, taking a seat on the velvet couch, and Mali sat down opposite her in a beautifully carved, wide-seated ebony chair, determined to listen this time. To connect, goddamn it.
“I'm so sorry about Delpha,” she said, leaning forward a little over the beautiful table. “I know how close you were. She really was an amazing woman -”
“'Thank you Glenda said, red-eyed but calm. ”She left you everything."
Mab blinked at her, stunned.
'She wrote out a will, so we have that if anybody makes trouble, but nobody will."
She left you everything. The ebony chair, the malachite table, the Air-stream, a home -
“She told me last night before we went to catch Tura,” Glenda went on. “She said that she wanted you to have everything, so I'm handing it over.”
“No, no,” Mab said, wanting it all and knowing it wasn't hers; everything she owned fit in two suitcases, that was best, no ties It should go to you,“ she said to Glenda. ”I didn't even know her. You were her best friend."
“I have everything I need. She knew that -”
“Glenda, this table alone is worth thousands of dollars -”
“- you would be called to succeed her.”
Mab blinked again. “Uh -”
“She had this all planned,” Glenda went on. “She cleaned the trailer out. The trash cans are full, and there's a box on her bed labeled 'Goodwill.” Her face began to crumple, but then she got control of herself again. “She knew. She was a Seer. And she said the next Seer is you.”
Mab sat back as far as she could. Taking the trailer, staying in the park, surrounded by people -“I can't.”
“You have to.” Glenda was the one leaning forward now. “There's nobody else. She left you everything you need to take over for her, this trailer and its contents, like this malachite table. It wards off evil, you know.” She looked down at it sadly, running her finger along the crack in its surface. “This crack is new. Too much evil to ward off last night.”
“Maybe you didn't hear her right. You know, Delpha wasn't always clear when she said things.”
“It's the curse of the Oracle,” Glenda said. “They get obscure messages. Like 'There will be a great victory.”
“Huh?” Mab said.
“This famous general asked an oracle once who would win the battle he was going to fight, and the oracle said, 'There will be a great victory,' and -”
“And the general assumed that meant him and he went out and got his ass kicked.”
“You know the story.”
“No, but it sounds like something a military guy would do,” Mab said, and then remembered Ethan was Glenda's son. “No offense.”
Glenda shook her head. “Besides the trailer, you get the Delpha's oracle booth, a ten percent share in the park, and Frankie.”
Mab looked up at the raven perched over the kitchen archway.
Frankie looked back down.
“I don't think so,” Mab said.
“You need Frankie,” Glenda said. “Once your power hits full strength -”
“Power?” Mab said, startled again.
“Well, of course, you get her sight, too.” Mab must have looked confused, because Glenda prompted her. “Her visions.” Mab still frowned, so Glenda said, “Oh, for heaven's sake, you're the one who painted the Oracle booth. Did you miss the sign that said 'Psychic'?”
“No,” Mab said. “But I didn't miss the sign that said 'OK Corral,' either, and I don't think those are real cowboys. Look, Glenda -”
"She had real powers, and now they're yours. You're the Oracle now.
And Glenda began speaking very slowly. “You're part of the Guardia now, too. The Guardia is -”
“A bunch of people who fight demons,” Mab said. “No,
I can't.”
For the first time since Mab had come into the trailer, Glenda looked at a loss for words.
“Nothing personal,” Mab said. “It's just not something I'd be good at. As I told Delpha, !'m not a joiner. People... I don't do people. So this inheritance should go to whoever does join -”
“You don't understand,” Glenda said. “The Guardia isn't a club, it's the world's only defense against the worst demons. Demons are real, Mab -”
“I know. I was possessed by one last night.” Mab wrapped her arms around herself, remembering all that murderous blue-green pressing down on her heart.
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