He shoved her against a tree and pressed the pistol barrel to her head. “Stop it, goddamn it!”
“Eric, don’t do this,” she pleaded.
“Babe, you chose the wrong guy to fuck with.” He gripped her arm and brought her into a clearing. “Here she is!” he yelled at the woods.
Ray Roamingbear approached, holding up his crossbow. “That’s my boy. We’ll take her from here.” He made clucking sounds with his tongue.
A large animal burst through the clearing. It snatched Jessica in its arms and disappeared with her in the dark forest. Her screaming trailed off.
Eric collapsed against a tree.
Ray cuffed him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry about her. You done good. Welcome to the clan, my new brother. Tonight, the females are all yours.”
A coven of beautiful women surrounded Eric, pawing him with eager hands. Celeste came to the front of the crowd and caressed his face. She smiled with sharp teeth. “Darling, you have earned a night you will never forget.”
Part Eight
Fear Wears Many Skins
I had never loved a woman with so much intensity that I would risk my life for her. My very soul. That I would cross over into forbidden spirit realms to protect her from the evils that walk between worlds. And then the Hollowers took my Elena and nothing else seemed to matter, except finding her.
—Detective Winterbone
Chapter Twenty-Two
Kyle dreamt he was running with the elk again. Moonlight lit the winding trail that carved through the forest. The herd led him to the Great House where Kyle heard drumming and chanting. The windows were aglow with orange firelight. He entered the community building. At the center of the long room, several Cree elders and younger men sat around a fire.
Grandfather Two Hawks spoke, “The great war approaches. Those that live beneath the earth are growing stronger. We must prepare our spirits for battle.”
As Kyle walked toward the circle of men, all their heads turned toward him.
Grandfather motioned with his hand. “Come, Kyle.”
He sat next to his grandfather, awestruck by the strength and fierceness in his eyes. He looked twenty years younger. “It’s time you learned how to use your gift.”
Grandfather’s hands began to glow with bluish-white light. He placed his palms on Kyle’s head. Then he woke up…
…back inside the bomb shelter. Bluish-white light illuminated the darkness. As Kyle’s eyes adjusted to the gloom, he realized the light was coming from his hands. Sparks swam across his palms like silverfish. The strange phenomenon faded quickly and the room went dark again. Kyle lay back against his pillow. “What the hell?”
* * *
The next morning, Kyle, Elkheart, Madu and Scarpetti gathered as many weapons as they could carry. As Kyle stuffed shells into his sawed-off shotgun, he fought back the urge to break down. His heart felt as if it were being ripped apart. He had failed to protect Jessica and now she was lost in the Devil’s Woods.
His father gripped his shoulder. “She’s still alive. We’ll find her. Shawna and Amy too.”
Scarpetti said, “Sir, I think your son should hang back here.”
Kyle shook his head. “No way. I’m going.”
“You’ll slow us down,” Scarpetti said.
“I can hold my own.”
The ex-Delta Force soldier squared up to him. “You ever been in combat inside a cave? It can royally fuck with your head, man. In Afghanistan, I saw trained soldiers go crazy and start killing their own men. Last thing I need is to be worrying about you down there.”
“We need him,” Elkheart said, stepping between them and getting in Scarpetti’s face. “We need every man who can shoot, and my son is a damned good shot. He goes with us. End of discussion.” He passed around caving helmets, radio headsets and night vision goggles. Elkheart showed Kyle how to wear the goggles and turn on the infrared illuminator to see in pitch-dark. To demonstrate, Elkheart turned off all the lights in the bomb shelter. The infrared illuminator created enough ambient light to see details of the room. Kyle could see the others moving about. “Amazing.”
“You’ll need one of these too.” Elkheart handed him a tiny flashlight. “In this mode it’s a high-powered flashlight. When you push the button, it shoots out a strobe and temporarily blinds your target. When those bastards go underground, their eyes get extra sensitive.”
Scarpetti said, “Yeah, they hate this shit.”
Kyle flashed the strobe a few times, and bright flickering light created chaos in the darkness not unlike the strobes at a nightclub.
Elkheart went over a plan that sounded impossible to pull off. Kyle had been down in a cave only once in his life, and that had been with a teenage guide and a busload of tourists taking pictures. He’d suffered severe claustrophobia and vowed never to enter a cave again. He kept that to himself. The more his father talked, the more Kyle thought their mission sounded insane. Four men against a cult of shape-shifting demons. A better plan would be to drive out of here and bring back a hundred-man rescue team who knew how to maneuver through caves. But there wasn’t time.
Elkheart lit a candle at an altar. “Before entering Macâya Forest, we must purify our minds.” He touched the flame of his lighter to a bowl of sage. He looked at Kyle. “Ask Great Spirit, or whatever you call God, to free your mind from fears and channel your anger into the courage of a warrior. Call in your animal guides. To fight these demons, we must be strong physically, mentally and spiritually.” Elkheart chanted in Cree. With a crow’s feather, he wafted the smoke over his head and around his body and then passed the bowl to Madu. Kyle had never been much for praying, but if he was ever going to start this seemed the time. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil…” It was the prayer that his mother had taught him as a kid. He whispered it softly. Then he asked for the safe return of Jessica, Shawna and the others. Finally, he called to his animal spirits, the elk of the forest. “Run beside me, brothers. Lend me your strength, swiftness and courage.”
Elkheart raised his large elk-horn knife over his head and sang to Great Spirit. Madu kneeled and held his machete flat against his chest, whispering his own prayer. Scarpetti kissed his cross and rosary and then crossed his chest. To close the ceremony, his father blessed a crate of Stoli bottles filled with reddish-brown liquid that gave off a potent smell. Then his men stuffed each bottle with a kerosene-soaked rag.
“What are those?” Kyle asked.
Scarpetti smiled. “Molotov cocktails with a shamanic kick.”
“One of your grandfather’s concoctions,” Elkheart said. “Vodka, gasoline, elk’s blood and his prayers.”
Kyle felt his adrenaline pumping as he put on a vest loaded with shotgun shells. The leather holder strapped to his back allowed him to reach back easily and grab the sawed-off shotgun. He also chose a 9mm MP5 submachine gun with a night vision scope. The gun was small, light and had a shoulder strap.
Scarpetti grabbed a monster submachine gun. “M4 Carbine with a grenade launcher.” He grinned at Kyle. “Size does matter.”
“We’ve got one last surprise for our demon friends.” Elkheart pulled out two black vests and handed one to Madu. As they put them on, Kyle’s father reached into the pockets and pulled out a clay brick and a timer. “C-4 explosives. We’re going to make those fuckers wish they hadn’t messed with us.”
Kyle shook his head, looking at the father he had always thought was just a bookish professor who liked to dig up bones. “Dad, since when did you become a soldier?”
Elkheart puffed on a cigar. “Years ago, when I was working a dig in Cambodia, I came across a temple with demons carved into the stone. The glyphs showed them worshipping a larger devil that had many faces. I kept finding signs of its existence in the jungles of Africa and South America. This devil made its way into Christian art and mythology, but it doesn’t look like anything like a red man with horns and pitchfork. The Great Shape-shifter doesn’t hol
d any one form. It just mimics people’s fears.”
“How did it come to exist?” Kyle asked.
“I have no idea of its origin. All I know is the beast has been around since man started carving symbols into stone. Our tribe has always called it ‘Macâya’. It’s not breeding only with women here, Kyle, but in other parts of the world, as well. Madu and I fought some of these demons in Africa.”
“They killed my family,” Madu said. “And took my sisters.”
“We believe this nomadic devil travels through a subterranean tunnel system that connects all the continents. Every ten years it returns to Macâya Forest to breed. The clan throws a religious ceremony and prepares an offering of women to the one they call ‘Lord Father’.”
Kyle felt knots in his stomach. “It’s returning today, isn’t it?”
His father nodded and lugged on his flamethrower pack. “They hold the ceremony inside the copper mine.” He checked his watch. “We need to leave now. At dusk, one or more of the captives will be chosen as the Macâya’s mate.”
* * *
Floating.
Jessica opened her eyes to blinding sunlight.
Blue sky above. Blurred faces. Singing.
For a moment, she thought she was dead.
Her vision cleared slowly. Faces moving out of the haze. Men and women smiled down at her. Sang in a language she didn’t understand. Jessica felt water in her ears. She lifted her head. She was half-submerged in a lake, wearing someone else’s long white gown and nothing else. The townspeople cradled her back, her legs, her feet. Two women held her hands to their hearts and sang to her with tears in their eyes. A redheaded woman placed a bouquet of sticks and dried flowers on Jessica’s chest.
Who were these people? Whatever drug they’d given her, her brain returned to sharp awareness all at once. She panicked and began to struggle. The men held her in place. She was crying, helpless. Her body shivered uncontrollably.
Through a gap in the swaying bodies, she saw another group was gathered around another floating girl. She looked Jessica’s way. Their eyes met. Lindsey Hanson’s petrified expression mirrored Jessica’s terror.
The gap closed as more people crowded around Jessica. Mayor Thorpe’s face loomed over her. He cupped her head in his hands and spoke in another language, his tone punctuated like a preacher. She felt water being sprinkled on her forehead. It mixed with her tears. The mayor smiled down, eyes beaming, and dunked her head underwater.
* * *
Kyle followed the mercenaries out of the bomb shelter, prepared for an ambush. There was none. The study and downstairs hallway had burned to the ground, leaving a gaping hole. Sunlight streamed through the missing wall. They checked the house and surrounding woods, but the shifters had left the village. They had removed the bodies of the ones shot down, leaving no evidence behind. They had done their damage, though. Demolished the Hummer and turned the Jeep on its side. All the windows downstairs had been shattered. Glass and broken furniture were strewn across the smoking floor.
Elkheart and Kyle picked up Grandfather’s rocking chair, which still had his body in it, and moved him to the center of the cabin. They put his sacred pipe in his lap beside his favorite tobacco. They each said a prayer to the great man who had helped shape their lives. Honoring Grandfather, they lit the cabin on fire.
As Kyle watched his childhood home turn into a giant bonfire, Grandfather’s ghost emerged from the flames. The old man gazed at Kyle and his father for a long moment, then Grandfather shape-shifted into the spirit of a great elk and ran off into the woods.
* * *
The two mercenaries kept their guns trained on the woods as they followed Kyle and Elkheart down the hill to the garage. Parked inside, the red Ford Bronco was still intact. They loaded up their gear and weapons. Before leaving, Elkheart took Kyle down the road and showed him how to operate the MP5 submachine gun. “This is how you swap out the clips. This is how you shoot.” He demonstrated, shooting at the wall of the stables, and then let Kyle fire off a few rounds to get a feel for it. The bullets shot out in rapid succession.
“Got the hang of it?” his father asked.
Kyle nodded. His arms shook with adrenaline as he thought about Mayor Thorpe and his clan taking Jessica. “I can’t wait to use it on those fuckers.”
“It may take more than bullets to stop them.”
“What do you mean?”
“These demons don’t just exist on the physical plain. They are connected to other dimensions and can attack us on a spiritual level.”
Kyle saw movement through the trees.
His father reacted faster, spinning with his gun. Standing at the edge of the tree line was the ghost of Nina Whitefeather, looking at them curiously. Behind her several other ghosts appeared, including Zack, who gazed at them with vacant eye sockets.
Elkheart was staring at them too.
“You can see them?” Kyle asked.
His father nodded. “Just like Grandfather, I can see into the spirit realm and call in animal guides, what our elders called manitou. Every generation has one tribe member born with the gift of second sight. When you were just a kid, you used to talk to animals and imaginary people. I knew then it was you.”
“My whole life I thought I was crazy.”
“So did I when I saw my first ghost. I was just a boy, and a dead medicine man walked into the village and put his hands on my head and started speaking to me. I ran screaming to my mother.” His father chuckled. “No, son, you’re part of a long lineage of spirit warriors. This gift can serve you in dealing with dark forces. You can call in the manitou as your guides. They’ve helped me many times. If we had more time, I would train you how to fight drawing power from other dimensions.”
Spirit warriors? Other dimensions? Kyle had so many questions.
His father frowned. “I’m having second thoughts about you going back to Macâya Forest. I started this war with the Thorpe clan. There’s no reason you—”
“I’m not afraid to die,” Kyle said, but the crack in his voice betrayed him and made him sound like a child trying to prove something to his father.
“You’d be risking more than your life. Mayor Thorpe is a powerful trickster known as a Soul Eater. When a demon kills a man, Thorpe absorbs his soul, and his imprisoned spirit haunts these woods.”
Kyle observed all the lost souls gathering in the forest.
His father’s eyes filled with concern. “I don’t want you to end up like them.”
“I’m going with you, Dad. You won’t talk me out of it.”
“I see you’ve got my stubborn streak too.” His father sighed. “All right, but follow my orders.”
Kyle nodded, gripping his submachine gun.
His father pulled out his favorite hunting knife. “I want you to have this.” The long blade with the elk-horn handle had been given to Elkheart by his father. “It’s been blessed by many generations of elders. May our ancestors of the Great Elk Tribe watch over you.”
Kyle held the knife, feeling a strong vibration in its handle. “What about you? You need their protection too.”
His father smirked. “They’ve been watching over me long enough.”
* * *
They rode in silence as Elkheart drove the Bronco down the bumpy dirt roads. Sitting in the backseat holding the MP5 between his knees, Kyle imagined they were going deer hunting. He shut down all fears and got into the mindset of a hunter.
His father parked at the wall of trees that bordered Kakaskitewak Swamp. He turned the vehicle around, facing the dirt road that led back to the village. Ready for a fast getaway. The four men got out and loaded their bodies with weapons, ammo and equipment. Putting the caving helmets on, they tested the radio headsets. Kyle spoke into the small mike that hung in front of his mouth. The crackling voices of the other three chirped in his left ear.
Scarpetti tweaked the volume on Kyle’s headset. “These radios are for if we get separated down there. Keep the chatter to a
minimum.”
Madu said, “Demons can hear for long distances and use sound waves to target prey. Like bats.”
Kyle nodded.
Elkheart pulled out a hand-drawn map and spread it across the hood. It looked like a Y-shaped tree with a few smaller branches. He whispered, “This is the tunnel system for the copper mine. The rails run down about fifty yards and then split off here.” He tapped the center of the Y. “The left tunnel goes down to where the females have their den. The right leads down to where we think the males gather. We’ve never explored that far.”
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