by Carla Rehse
The leaves rustled again, forcing me to split my attention between them and the front door.
“Gatekeeper …” echoed in the air.
It took all my patience not to throw a stick at the house. “Yes. Fine. I, Everly Ivona Popa, Gatekeeper to Crossing Shadows, order you to open the freaking door!”
The tall prairie grass to the right swished.
“Gatekeeper …”
The back of my neck tingled.
Janice rubbed her palms hard on her capris. “I don’t like this. At all.”
Static electricity caused the hair on my arms to rise. The area around the trees darkened, as if a spotlight had been turned off. Or perhaps something invisible had somehow blocked the sun. The leaves continued to rustle, drowning out the swishing sound from the grass.
Something—somethings—had us surrounded. It sure would be nice if we had some brainiac steampunked goggles that transmuted electro-psychic energy, or whatever, so they’d reveal invisible entities. There’s gotta be a mad scientist genius type living in one of the border towns.
A high-pitched whistle sounded from the cabin. Not as if it were a continuous siren like a boiling kettle but at annoyingly weird intervals like a train engineer warning an idiot to move off the tracks. More games were being played.
Chase let out a low, rumbling growl as my heart thumped a rocking drum solo. Like a wild Keith Moon or maybe John Bonham, or—
Get a grip, stupid brain!
Shadows flew around us, but I caught a better view of them this time.
Luna moved closer to me, whispering, “Is it the Bleakness Wraith?”
I shook my head. “A ghoul. Ghouls, actually.”
“Ghouls are solitary hunters.” Luna sounded as confused as I was.
I scanned the sky. “Guess this bunch didn’t get the memo. Get your salt sachets ready.”
Ghouls edged closest to vengeful spirits on the “holy shitfire, run!” list. Far closer than Crying Ghosts. All spirits had escaped the Reapers, of course. But ghouls had been on the run for a long time, becoming twisted and cunning. They fed off intense emotions to sustain themselves. While vengeful spirits were strong due to the hate they brought when they crossed over, ghouls became strong due to their cornered-animal desperation to stay free.
Janice shoved her needle dagger into her waistband. “I really, really don’t—”
“What in hades are you thinking? Get your iron ready!” I hissed.
A flash of shadows plunged between us. Janice screamed as she fell backward. Chase growled, the hair on his neck standing up. He wagged his tail in angry, quick flicks as he circled Janice in a protective stance.
Luna threw a salt sachet near Janice. It exploded when it hit the ground, tossing fine granules of salt everywhere.
Some of the salt hit me in the face, and I licked it off my lips. I really wouldn’t mind a margarita right now.
Six shadows dove around us in a bird of prey pattern. Six! How could there be that many ghouls up here? I swatted the closest one with my sword. As soon as the iron touched it, the ghoul dematerialized. But another ghoul jetted in to take its place. “There’s too many of them! We’ll have to retreat and try to find a way around Darty.”
Luna yelled. Two shadows had knocked her to the ground. Both covered her. I slashed at the ghouls between us but couldn’t make any headway through them. They were unbelievably strong and kept rematerializing immediately after I struck them.
They shouldn’t have the energy to do that!
Chase darted from Janice, snapping at the ghouls surrounding Luna but was soon knocked down by three more. I realized my mistake. It wasn’t six ghouls but dozens of them. The ash trees must be infested with them. I’d never heard of more than two ghouls pairing up at a time, a rare occurrence in itself, but more than that? It wasn’t like things could’ve changed that much since I left. Something was very wrong here.
Ghouls shrouded Janice, who shrieked and thrashed around, rolling until she was at my feet. Blood sprayed from dozens of wounds.
Ghouls couldn’t cause physical injuries, my brain kept insisting in increasingly hysterical tones. I slashed at the ghouls near her with my sword. A ghoul landed on my head, blackening my vision. Janice continued to shriek, but I couldn’t take the chance of stabbing her. I raised my sword, figuring it would be safe enough to hit myself in the head.
The ghoul disappeared as soon as the iron smacked it, and I stumbled over a rock. Luna and Chase were motionless bumps on the ground, covered with uncountable ghouls. Blood pooled from them in crimson ribbons. Was this how the elders died?
Three more ghouls dropped onto Janice, and she too went motionless. Ghouls didn’t attack like this. They weren’t pack animals and didn’t congregate in high numbers. Couldn’t congregate as it would draw the attention of Reapers. None of this made sense. But what was so much worse—I didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t like I could call the Ghostbusters.
“Sebastian! Nevaeh!” As expected, I received no response.
Okay, so what did I know? Salt didn’t affect them. Not for long at least. And one sword wouldn’t be enough. I racked my brains for a plan.
Iron throwing net.
Didn’t Luna say she brought one? If I could place that on Janice and get rid of the ghouls, maybe I could staunch the blood and save her. I had to at least try.
Janice moaned, “Everly, help me. Don’t leave me to die!”
Gatekeeper… Gatekeeper …
Wind blew around me, ruffling my hair. Pressure around both elbows and feet stopped my movement. More pressure on my legs tried to force me to the ground. Whispers filled my ears. Whispers of violent plans. Plans against me.
Panic swelled in me, feeding the ghouls. The whispers became louder.
Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die.
“No!” I screamed.
Heat exploded from me, flinging the ghouls away. A vortex of power erupted from my abdomen, a golden tornado of energy.
The air in front of me rippled, then split. The cabin and trees disappeared. In their place was a waterfall of glistening, spinning white light to my right, and violently flickering orange flames to my left. In between, a small round, dark-gray circle rotated slowly. More of a smudge than anything.
Waves of power continued to surge through my body. My hair tangled around my face from the force of the energy. It neither hurt nor felt good. It felt … different. Alien.
Whispers webbed around me, some pleasant to my ears, while others jangled my nerves. Angels and demons vying for my attention. I thought I had opened the Gate and vanquished the girl demon in the Devil’s Box. I’d been wrong. I didn’t know what had happened to her, but I did know one thing—the Gate was now open.
Holy Saints on fire.
The stubborn part of my brain wanted to know how I could open the Gate with the town under complete lockdown. The anxious section of my mind just wanted to know how I was gonna close the thing. I’d figure that out later.
I swept my hand into a fist, and the iron disc embedded in my wrist chimed in a subsonic song that I felt in my bones rather than heard by my ears. All the ghouls in the area rose in a twisted, dark whirlwind above my head. They fought like the dickens to get free, punching and kicking with shadowy limbs.
The disc continued to chime a comforting song. I’d no clue how I knew how to do this, running on instinct and panic. I tightened my fist, then tossed the energy at the flickering flames. The ghoul whirlwind tumbled after the spray of energy. The flames parted, and the ghouls vanished behind them.
The power flowing through my body stopped abruptly. The air shimmered, and the cabin returned. I sank to the ground, shaky and nauseous.
Someone behind me slow clapped.
SEVENTEEN
Well, that’s clear as mud
The world spun as the sky darkened to night. A bright silvery sky that didn’t belong in my reality. The cabin faded away, leaving me in a field of stunted, misshapen trees with glowing silver bark.
I froze. Only one person had ever called me that. And he died twenty-seven years ago.
“Cat ate your tongue?”
“It’s cat got your tongue.” I wobbled to my feet, and this time my unsteadiness had nothing to do with my bad knee.
“Yeah, and what’s a cat gonna do with a tongue once it gets it?”
I turned with a slight smile on my face at our longstanding joke. “Mack Valencia.”
He grinned. The dimple his nephew inherited peeked out from his close-shaven beard. “Everly Popa. Gatekeeper. Always knew you had greatness in ya.”
He looked exactly like the last time I saw him—or, in truth, five minutes before he died ’cause that was technically the last, last time I saw him. After all these years, his final scream and the stench of his disembowelment still haunted my dreams.
Mack had taken Lawson and me on an unapproved hunt right before we graduated high school. It was our first time tracking something more dangerous than ghouls. Things went south fast, and we realized too late we weren’t hunting a lone vampire. Mack sacrificed himself to save us and died horribly. Death by a pair of werepanthers did not lead to an open casket.
Back then, Mack had embraced the grunge look and loved his plaid flannel shirts and Doc Martens. His ghostly image brought to mind Soundgarden and Alice in Chains and munching on 3D-zesty ranch Doritos. Simpler times. Or perhaps the memories were just hyped up by my middle-aged brain in deference to all the current baggage I had.
I took a deep breath, so I had enough air for yelling. “Damn it, Mack! You’re a ghost? Really? You escaped your Reaper. Are you effing insane?”
“Whoa, language now.”
“Language?” I threw my hands up. “Dude, I’m older than you were when you died. Okay, I’m seriously weirded out. Where the he—the heck are we?” A second thought sprung to mind. If I’d moved locations and could see Mack so easily, maybe he wasn’t the only ghost around. I’d better watch my language as I already had plenty chalked up on the “bad” column. “I’m dead, aren’t I? Huh. Are you a Reaper now?”
Perhaps I should be a little more upset by that. The dead thing, not the Mack the Reaper part. But I was tired, hungry, and really needed the ladies’ room. Sure would’ve been nice if someone had mentioned that frequent restroom breaks were a common side effect of perimenopause instead of all the talk about hot flashes. Wait a minute. Wouldn’t the whole “dead thing” negate all of that?
Mack chuckled. “Can see why you’d think that, but nah, you’re not dead.”
“Then, where are we? Where’s Lawson? And Luna, Chase, and Janice? I think they’re dying. Like for real. We gotta help them. My kid is missing! Oh, and by the way, angels have gone rogue. Demons are unchecked. My mother is dead, and her soul can’t get to Heaven. A witch is trying to voodoo the whole town to hell. And an Archangel wants to nuke us!”
I managed to keep my voice as non-yelling as possible given the situation. Mack had been my trainer for too many years, and I still loved and respected him. But I gave him enough tone for him to raise an eyebrow.
“We can’t get to them right now.”
“You’re a ghost. Casper your way over to them.” I took several steps but didn’t get anywhere. Not like I was stuck, but as I moved, the landscape moved with me. As if I had this part of the world glued to the bottom of my shoe, so where I went, it did too. “I’m so tired of this weird shit.”
“Language!” Mack scowled at me. “And I’m not a ghost. I’m more like a … guardian of the woods, if you will.”
I raised an eyebrow. “That makes absolutely no sense.”
“Hold your horses, Missy girl. I’m trying to explain. Always were an impatient little thing. See, you opened the Gate and that gives you enough mojo to glance inside the otherworlds. For a time, at least. So, I thought I’d mosey over and say howdy.”
“This is the otherworld?” I glanced around, feeling mighty disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, the woods were sorta pretty in the silvery dark, with wispy fog settling on the silverish-glowing limbs, but I figured Heaven would’ve been more about blinding light and harp-playing angels resting on clouds.
“It’s an otherworld, that’s all I’m gonna say.” Mack sniffed. “Time’s just about up. I also wanna tell you to get your backside in gear. Nearly lost control opening the Gate, didn’t you? You gotta do better.”
I scoffed. “Gee, thanks. Couldn’t have figured that out without you.”
He shot me the Mack look that had been known to make men pee their pants. But, as a woman, I was strong enough to just stare back. Until those pesky guilt feelings surfaced again.
I scrubbed my face since apparently the otherworld—an otherworld—made my eyes, uh … water. “I know, all right? Everything depends on me and that damned Gate, so there’s no time for a Poor Everly session. I’m doing the best I can! You try figuring this out with an insane angel as your training coach.”
Mack’s eyebrow inched up and I immediately felt thirteen again, whining about the boys being naturally stronger than me. Mack had no sympathy for me back then and sure had none now. Emotions flitted through me as I remembered all the wisdom he’d shared.
Destiny was taking the life you had and making it your own.
I took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. “I’ve been so wrapped up about how much I don’t want to be the Gatekeeper, but that doesn’t matter. Keeping everyone safe does. So, no more complaining about how everything’s unfair and concentrate on what I’ve learned so far. Got it.”
Mack smiled as he touched his nose. “Say, when you get to my cabin, holler helpwch gyda’r chwiliad. Remember the Welsh accent I taught you?”
“What?” Oh look, five seconds had passed and once again I felt like I’d fallen down Alice’s hole. But instead of a hookah-smoking caterpillar, I got Mack the Flannel-Wearing Ghost.
“The Bwbach won’t offer aid if you’re rude. Ya know, Welsh brownies? Sheesh, keep up, will ya. Helpwch gyda’r chwiliad. Say that and they should help search the records for the witch that has the kids. It’ll take you years to read all the crap I stored away without their help. Don’t forget to pay them with either cold cream or warm milk. And don’t confuse the two, or there will be hell to pay, I tell ya.”
I blinked. “Bwbach? You stole actual Bwbach from Wales? In violation of every nation’s Celestial treaty concerning the treatment of indigenous beings? And they’re in your cabin. I can’t even …”
Mack shot me a shifty glance. “Who said anything about me bringing ’em to Texas? You want help or not?”
I rubbed my eyes. “Mack—”
The air pressure around me shifted.
Mack held out his arms as if to hug me. “Time’s up. I’m proud of ya, girl. Always have been. Tell that nephew of mine he’s an idiot. He’ll know what I mean. Hey, maybe ya oughta keep this to yourself instead.”
His image shimmered.
“Are you okay? Like, really okay?” Not that I could help him—I wasn’t even sure what he was—but I needed to know.
“Just busier than a one-legged goat in a butt-kicking contest. Helpwch gyda’r chwiliad. Don’t forget.” He disappeared from view, but his raspy chuckle rang in my ears.
Bright green light flashed in a vertigo-inducing, scintillating pattern. I stumbled and would’ve fallen if Sebastian hadn’t grabbed my arm. “Sebastian?”
“Oh, good. You survived the altered state without suffering brain damage. Nevaeh gave even-odds on that.”
“Glad to know I beat the odds.” I tried to keep my tone neutral, but from his slight smile, I didn’t think I managed it.
“You all right?” Lawson asked.
He looked okay, better than okay, but I couldn’t trust that I had returned to reality. “Lawson? You’re back? Where are the others?”
Luna, Chase, and Janice were gone, and I spotted no signs of the ghoul carnage in the twilight-illuminated grass.
Se
bastian held up a warning hand as Lawson began to speak. “What do you think happened, Gatekeeper?”
“What I think happened?” My voice became a little shrill at the end, but I had a right to be irritated. “What I know happened was Lawson disappeared, hordes of ghouls attacked and seriously hurt Luna, Chase, and Janice!”
“Whoa.” Lawson held up his hands. “Everyone’s fine. The others are cooking supper in the cabin. Ghouls did swarm, but they only attacked you. And you, well, I don’t know what you did, but they disappeared and Sebastian and Zim showed up.”
Zim stepped out of the shadows. “The Gatekeeper opened the Gate, fought through the nightmare trance, and banished the ghouls. Now that I know she’s okay, I need to check on my people.” Hellfire erupted under his feet, and he disappeared inside the bright-orange flames.
Nightmare trance? A dark spellwork trap. The witch was working with ghouls? Controlling them, perhaps. And from the height of Zim’s flames, he must’ve received an extra jolt of Hellfire when I opened the Gate. Then the witch must’ve received one too, as their magic was also tied to Hellfire.
The hits just kept on coming.
“What’s a woods guardian?” I asked Sebastian.
He stopped brushing his velvet sleeve that I had mangled to prevent myself from falling. “From where did you learn that term?”
It didn’t take a criminal mastermind to realize I needed to keep Mack’s visit a secret. The sharp, suspicious glare on Sebastian’s face was enough of a warning. “It was something I read while researching the witch.”
“Hmm. Perhaps you should eat, Gatekeeper. I sense your aura has faded from your otherworld excursion. I bid you a good night.”
As soon as the light from the angel orb vanished, Lawson elbowed me in the side. “You lied to Sebastian.”
I shrugged. “It wasn’t exactly a lie as I plan to read about the guardians right now. Helpwch gyda’r chwiliad.”
“Huh?” Lawson shot me a confused look.
“Oh, something a flannel-wearing birdie told me.” I gave him a mysterious smile, glad for once to be in the loop. Mack might’ve been a lot of things, but he had never let me down.
