I eyed him suspiciously as I made my way to the couch and sat down. Trying not to let my eyes drift south of his lips. “So… you seem to have recovered from our previous adventures.”
He sat in the chair opposite me and leaned back against the pillows, letting me see way too much.
I took a pillow from beside me and threw it at him, motioning for him to use it to cover up.
He laughed, but did as I requested.
“Um, what have you been into?” I asked, knowing full well I probably didn’t want to know.
He yawned and winked an amber eye at me. “Jeremy.”
I closed my eyes and let out a breath, recalling his statement from when we were in captivity. “Is he still alive?”
Andreas looked absolutely offended. “Of course he’s still alive! I’m not a monster. Jeremy was very apologetic.”
“Before or after you got him back in bed?” I asked.
“Before, during, and after,” Andreas boasted. “So what brings you here?”
“Well we still have work to do.”
“What? Rasputin is dead, Boude and Grace are safe and returned to us. All is well!” he cheered.
“Andreas, the zombies need their souls returned so they can find peace. And there are tons of souls in the wrong afterlifes. We have to sort through files at the Assignment Hall and get the Queen to help us get them where they are supposed to be.” I loved Andreas, but he was so selfish at times. I looked at him as he thought about my words.
Jeremy came walking through the house, his long hair looking smoother than mine did after hours of sex. He adjusted the very thin silver shorts he was wearing, and rubbed the sleep from his black and white eyes. He smiled when he saw Andreas. Andreas patted his lap and Jeremy promptly sat down. As he did so I caught a glimpse of what I could only assume were whip marks on his back. Wow, I thought, I so do not want to be here any longer.
“Helena, this is terrible for those souls, but I don’t see what I can do. That’s a job for those at the hall, and the Queen,” Andreas said as he traced his fingers along Jeremy’s neck. Jeremy was getting a lot of enjoyment from Andreas’s touch—the thin shorts were very clear on that.
I threw another pillow at the two of them. “Knock it off! You can continue your sex games when I leave!” I quarreled.
Andreas took his hands off of Jeremy, but made a face like I had slapped them away as if he were a child with toy he wasn’t supposed to have.
“We are all in this together. Please come help us sort files tonight and look for those souls at Rasputin’s house. It would mean a lot to me. I could have let Thaddeus leave your ass in that dungeon yesterday, but I told him I wouldn’t leave without you.” Maybe guilt would work on him.
“Fine, fine,” he relented. “Jeremy can come help too.”
Jeremy seemed a little surprised at this news, but was oddly fine with it.
I smiled at them. “Thank you. Do you know if Boude and Grace are at home?”
“I think they are back at Rasputin’s searching for those souls that you think are sooo important,” Andreas answered. He was playing with Jeremy’s hair again.
I needed to get out of here before they got worked up again. “Great, thanks! See you later.” I took off before either man could stand to see me out the door. Gay, straight, or any combo of, I didn’t care. I just didn’t want a private show.
I found myself approaching Rasputin’s house. It was just as menacing as it had been to me the day before. I fully trusted that Boude and Grace had killed the vampire, but I would have felt better if I had gotten to see the body. Being that a vampire’s body disappears here when it dies in the mortal world, I would just have to accept their word for it.
Boude greeted me at the front door with a warm smile and hug. “My friend, it’s good to see you today.”
In our embrace, his scent triggered a brief moment where I recalled being tangled in his flaming curls with his body wrapped around mine. I shivered and tried to shake away that memory. Yes, it was only natural I supposed. There was no denying those times happened, and we all knew Boude and I would never have been serious. But still, he was with my best friend now, and I didn’t want to think about him being naked with me. Too much awkward.
Just as I was pulling away and trying to gather my thoughts, more arms were around me, sandwiching me between Boude and Grace. What was I saying about awkward? I tensed at first, then relaxed into their arms once I realized how silly I was being. This wasn’t about sex, this was about the fact that we won, that they survived, that Rasputin was dead.
Eventually we made our way into the house, and I tried not to be too jumpy. Grace noticed my unease.
“It’s Ok, Hel. He’s really dead,” she said with a quick look to me and then to Boude.
“Indeed, the tyrant is no more,” he toasted with an invisible glass.
I smiled at them. “Tell me how it went. Were either of you hurt?”
They exchanged nervous glances.
Boude gave an embarrassed chuckle and started unbuttoning the top of his black velvet shirt, the silver embroidery glistening in the light. Grace stood at his side and stroked his arm.
He pulled the fabric aside on the left to reveal a thick white and pink scar from an obvious puncture wound just above his heart.
I covered my mouth in horror and Grace buried her head against Boude’s shoulder.
“It could have gone smoother,” he said.
“What happened?” I asked again, this time with considerably more emotion in my voice.
“Well, we had convinced him we were completely on his side. We did his errands and whatever he asked of us. Eventually he invited us to all go hunting together, and we knew that was our only chance. We both had stakes.” Boude looked at Grace and smiled. “That was her idea, for us both to carry them. That’s what saved my life.”
It was Grace’s turn to go on, “We were all feeding outside of a homeless shelter. Most of the people outside that late were addicts. When you drink from someone high, you get a little of the buzz. So once we saw Rasputin’s eyes look a little glazed, Boude jumped him with his silver stake. Rasputin came back on him with a ferocity I couldn’t have imagined, and pulled his own stake from his robes. We didn’t even know he carried one.” Grace shook her head recalling the memory. “He pinned Boude to the brick and drove the stake into his chest. I thought he was dead and I lunged for him. I wasn’t in the right position to take out his heart but I got him at the back of the skull. I knew it wouldn’t kill him, but it was enough to stop him. I saw that Boude was still alive and pulled out the stake. I brought him fresh blood, and then we finished off Rasputin.” She looked at Boude with pride and relief after her story was finished.
“You healed fast,” I told Boude.
“I’m fairly old, had just fed, and then fed again right after it happened. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been so lucky,” he admitted.
“Thank you both. That was so risky, and I would have blamed myself if anything had happened to either of you.” I dropped my head.
“We all know that all of this was my fault,” said Boude. “I should have never rescued him. We all suspected he was mad. I should have just ended his suffering and been done with it.”
“Boude, there have been times I have been very upset with you, but I’ll never find fault with you having a good heart.”
I saw Grace smile at him and squeeze his hand. Boude simply gave me one of his subtle, yet elegant bows.
“So, shall we find these lost souls so that the zombies can move on?” I asked.
“Yes,” Grace said, “we’ve searched the attic, but there are so many places they could be. And I’m pretty sure there are hidden passages and things in here.”
“OK, let’s head to the next floor down from the attic and work our way down to the basement. We’ll all stay on the same level so we can search every crevice. Persephone said that we’ll know them when we see them, so that’s good at least.” I stretched and began up the
stairs, Boude and Grace following behind.
As we ascended the marble staircase I was once again in awe of how bright the inside of this house was. It seemed like a trick of the mind, to be so sinister on the outside and so luxe inside.
The third floor of the house was large and elegant, just like everything else. We each took a bedroom and began searching.
The room I was in was nice: tall ceilings, with a small but intricate chandelier over the four poster bed. The bed was made up with a yellowing white bedspread, decorated with red and yellow birds. The curtains were red with white silk ties, and a dusty dressing table was in the corner of the room. It was a lovely room, but obviously unused in some time. My guess was that Rasputin only kept the most seen parts of the house tidy.
I lifted the mattress and looked in the drawers of the dressing table. I checked the small closet and tried to feel for any secret doors or hidden compartments. I even tried to twist or pull the sconce on the wall to see if anything opened up. No luck, and I was a bit disappointed by that. Who didn’t want to find a hidden passage in an old mansion?
I met Boude and Grace on the landing and their findings had been the same: nada.
The second floor was almost identical to the third in appearance. Three bedrooms, two of which were dusty and practically empty. The third bedroom had been Boude and Grace’s room, so there was no need to check it.
The first floor was, of course, where the foyer and living room were. As I looked about I noticed there was no kitchen, but there really was no need for one. I did find another door tucked away down the hall past the living area and dining room. If you don’t have a kitchen, why do you need a dining room? I pondered.
I expected to open the door and see a simple storage closet. Even in the afterlife you tended to accumulate more crap and clutter. But what I saw caught me off guard.
The room was huge, almost as large as the living room. Large, dark tapestries hung on the walls. I caught glimpses of white fangs dripping red blood, and pained faces staring at me in the threads. I turned away from looking at them.
The bed could have fit eight people, and was an unmade mess of black sheets and blankets. Heavy black drapes hung around the sides of the bed. It looked like a black hole in the middle of the room: a thing you would enter and never emerge from. I was claustrophobic just looking at it. Of course this must have been Rasputin’s bedroom.
I backed out of the room and called, “Hey, guys, I could use your help.”
In a moment Boude and Grace were by my side. “Did you find something?” Grace asked.
“Yeah, Rasputin’s room,” I replied. “It’s giving me the creeps, badly. Can we all search it together?”
We all went in, and tried to stay focused on what we were looking for and not what we were finding. So many creepy things were strewn about in that room: vials of congealed substances, sharp instruments encrusted with dried blood, bits of spells written on old scraps of paper. If we hadn’t needed to find those souls, I would’ve lit a match and burned all that evil to the ground.
Nothing. In all of that filth and depravity, there were no souls to be found. Part of me questioned if Persephone was right. Will we recognize the souls when we find them? I wondered to myself. What if we’re overlooking what’s right in front of our faces?
“Alas, it is time to go into the basement,” Boude shuddered.
If he didn’t want to go down there, I was certain I wouldn’t like it either. But down the stairs we went.
The basement was dark, damp, and creepy, as are most basements. Having just been in Rasputin’s bedroom, though, I wasn’t as creeped out as I would have been before.
Shelves covered in bottles and books lined the walls. I tried to read the titles on the spines, but the lettering had been worn away with time and frequent use. I had a feeling they were books of spells and recipes for sinister concoctions. I didn’t have any desire to open one up and confirm my suspicions.
As I looked around the basement, though, a realization struck me. Yes, it was dark and musty down here, but overall it was entirely too clean for a basement. Even the upstairs areas were dustier than it was down here. I ran a finger along the shelf in front of me and it came away clean. This was Rasputin’s work area, where he kept the things he valued. If the souls were anywhere in this house, they were down here.
“I think we might be onto something,” I said to Grace and Boude.
With only the light of a bare hanging bulb to search by, soon our eyes were strained from looking for clues. Grace went upstairs and brought down a couple of small lamps to brighten things up.
I looked under the shelves, and behind books. Boude checked the small crawl space under the stairs, and Grace tried looking up to see if anything was hidden in the beams of the ceiling. Still, there were no clues to the souls’ whereabouts.
I sat down on the floor and sighed. They had to be here, I could feel it. “Boude, is there anywhere special to Rasputin where he might have hidden them? Or is there anything else you know about souls that could help us find them?” I asked, clinging to any trace of fast fading hope.
“Rasputin had many secrets. If there was another place as important to him, I don’t know it,” Boude paused in thought. “And all I know about souls is that they are what give humans their inner light, their vibrancy. That’s why all the gods want them. It’s how they stay alive, just by being in possession of them.”
“Turn off all the lights,” Grace said, rushing to turn off the lamps.
I didn’t want to be in the basement in the dark, but I did as she asked.
We all stood close together as the lights were extinguished, not knowing what to do or where to look. It was a thick, heavy darkness.
“There!” Boude exclaimed. “Look down. There seems to be a tiny bit of light coming from underneath a piece of the floor.” He felt his way toward the glow and stooped down to feel of the stone floor below him. “I feel a crack, but it’s not got a big enough gap for me to get my fingers in and lift it.”
Grace turned the lights back on and we rushed over to Boude to find a way to pry up the stone. I noticed a long thin piece of metal on a nearby shelf and it fit into the crack perfectly, allowing us to lift the piece of flooring. I was certain that’s exactly why Rasputin kept it nearby.
Once the stone was removed, the glow could be seen even without the need for full darkness. A pure source of light, so white it was almost blue, was shining out of the dark hole we had just uncovered.
Boude reached down and lifted up the round, clear jar, and it made me think that that was what the moon would look like if someone could hold it in their hand.
I looked down into the empty space and picked up a piece of paper that had been underneath the jar. I unfolded it and quickly saw that it was the spell Rasputin had used to direct the souls to him, rather than them going to wherever they were destined. All of the ingredients seemed obscure, and a few of them made me cringe.
Boude and Grace didn’t even notice the paper I found. They were beyond fascinated with the jar of souls. But we’d done it, we’d found them. We were were one step closer to fixing this mess, and it was time to visit the Queen.
I sent Boude and Grace off to get Andreas and Jeremy. I told them to pick up the food and tequila and go on to the Assignment Hall to help Margaret go through the files, and that I would join them after I brought the souls to the queen.
I obviously couldn’t just carry a jar of souls across the underworld and attract unnecessary attention, so I put the jar in a tote bag that Grace loaned me. The glow was still too bright from inside the bag, so I put the jar in a pillowcase before placing it into the bag.
At our last meeting, Thaddeus told me where I could find him should I need to be in touch; and sure enough, there he sat on a stool at the bar across from the big fountain in the city.
I was usually pretty good at reading most people, but Thaddeus was so dry I couldn’t get a good read on him. He seemed so incredibly neutral—but, if t
he queen trusted him, I would too.
I climbed onto the barstool beside him and opened the bag just wide enough for him to see the glow. His facial expression never faltered as he glanced into the bag. He simply nodded, finished his scotch in one big gulp, and motioned for me to follow him as he headed out the door.
We walked street after street; I was simply following Thaddeus. He was walking so quickly I was having to rush to keep up. I was afraid he would disappear somewhere and leave me behind.
Finally he came to a large white brick building. I had walked by it many times, but never really noticed it. Unlike most of the buildings in the city, there was no sign outside saying what business was inside, or which set of apartment buildings it was. I was struck by the understated elegance of the building. The white castle of a queen, camouflaged in the gray of the surrounding city. After having met Persephone, it seemed perfectly fitting.
Thaddeus removed a small golden key from his pocket and unlocked the the tall glass door with gold leaf trim. I followed him inside, and was struck by the beauty. It was like walking into an indoor courtyard.
Large green trees towered above me, their limbs hanging low with colorful fruits. Bright tropical flowers popped through all of the greenery. I heard water rushing, and turned to see a waterfall pouring out of the mouth of a silver ram’s head into a small pond below.
Queen Persephone was sitting by the falls tending to a lily planted nearby.
Thaddeus cleared his throat, and the queen turned to see us
“Hello, Hel,” she smiled sweetly.
Once again I was completely overcome by her beauty and power. I noticed her hair was even lighter than the last time I had seen her, and I could have sworn her eyes were lighter too. I half-bowed-half-curtsied again, and internally rolled my eyes at myself for being so silly. “Your highness,” I said.
She waved her hand dismissively at me and turned back to her flower.
“It’s lovely here. I’ve missed all of this,” I told her, as I inhaled the scent of the flowers and my eyes took in their vibrancy.
Three Witches in a Small Town Page 14