Talon nodded. It was a familiar story and accounted for the appeal of many cults. They promised a more profound connection, provided a clear identity, gave a sense of purpose. Unfortunately, it all came at a terrible price. This new family had no problem on inflicting violence on outsiders and critics. Those who didn’t share the group’s values represented an existential threat and needed to be crushed.
Charlie’s eyes lit up with a sudden flash of concern. “You’re not thinking of going out there, are you now?”
“Why shouldn’t I?”
“Because Morgaine will kill you. Haven’t you been listening to me?”
“I’m not that easy to kill. Many have tried.”
Charlie shook her head. “Morgaine is… changing, and her power is growing.”
Charlie’s features went blank, as if abruptly realizing she’d revealed too much.
After that, all his attempts to get her to open up again proved fruitless. Charlie was done talking.
Talon eyed her for a beat and fought back his frustration. She wasn’t going to give him anything else. It was time to call Casca and get the occultist’s take on the situation.
The problem was convincing Charlie not to bolt. If he lost her now, he might lose his best lead on the Children of the Green. Talon was certain she had more to tell him.
“Charlie, I know that you have no reason to trust me, but I can at least keep you safe from those goons. Will you stick with me for a little while longer?”
She laughed humorlessly. “Honestly, mister, I’ve got nowhere else to go.”
Chapter Seven
While Charlie listlessly sipped a glass of water in the kitchen, Talon made his way to the apartment’s balcony, which overlooked a busy thoroughfare. Through the sliding glass doors, he momentarily took in the frightened woman huddled on the couch.
Talon felt sorry for Charlie. The girl was in over her head, terrified for her life and gutted by the loss of her boyfriend. She wanted to leave the cult, but they still had their claws in her.
You couldn’t walk away from a group of fanatics.
The physical escape was the easy part. Her soul was still in Morgaine’s compound in the San Gabriel Mountains, a Child of the Green waiting to do her mistress’ bidding.
Talon let his gaze wander to the line of traffic crawling past his apartment while he waited for Casca to answer the call.
The occultist picked up on the third ring, and Talon brought his partner up to speed. As Talon relayed what Charlie had told him, he could hear Casca furiously typing away on his laptop.
“I’m impressed you got the girl to talk,” Casca said as he pounded keys.
“We caught a lucky break. Her boyfriend’s death served as a wake-up call. She never wanted to be part of a murder-suicide club.”
“Oh, you’ll like this. I dug up a little more on this cult leader of yours.”
Talon perked up, his curiosity piqued. “Go on.”
“Looks like Morgaine LaCroix’s father was a stuntman and married his B-movie scream queen. Morgaine never inherited the acting bug, but she became a hardcore daredevil.”
“That’s what Charlie was telling me. She was a stuntwoman, right?”
“One of the best in the biz. Morgaine’s movie credits are impressive. Watch any action film from the early 2000s starring a female lead, and the odds are high Morgaine was the one making them look like a badass. She has a black belt in jujitsu, is an expert motorcycle rider, jumps out of planes, scuba dives, rides horses. She is a real-life Amazon, addicted to danger.”
“Sounds like she was having all the fun,” Talon said with a grin.
Casca chuckled. “Only a former Delta Force Operator would think that setting yourself on fire or jumping from a tall building is fun.”
You got that right, buddy.
“So how does a stuntwoman end up becoming the leader of a killer cult?”
“Good question. She lost her husband and twin girls in a wildfire a few years back. After her loss, she quits working as a stuntwoman and uses her insurance money to purchase a vineyard. Then she proceeds to set up an environmental non-profit called the Children of the Green.”
This latest insight into Morgaine’s background gave Talon pause. He fully understood the transformative power of a traumatic event or injury. Losing Michelle to a techno-cult in San Francisco had set him on his current path, after all. The former Delta Force Operator could have never imagined that he would travel the globe one day hunting down evil occultists.
Talon’s phone buzzed, pulling him out of his thoughts. Casca had sent him a photo. It showed a tall, athletic blonde woman whose chiseled tanned features were as striking as her Amazonian physique. In the photograph, Morgaine wore a skintight leather motorcycle suit.
Zooming in on the picture, Talon noted the lightning-shaped scar that ran down her forehead and split her left eyebrow in two. Probably a souvenir of her motorcycle accident.
Talon’s attention shifted from the scar to Morgaine’s neck tattoo. A large circle covered most of her throat.
“What’s the deal with her tattoo? It’s not like the others.” Talon said.
“You’re looking at the symbol of the fifth element.”
A year earlier, when Talon and Casca had first crossed paths, the mention of a fifth element would have elicited blank-faced confusion on Talon’s end. After months spent immersing himself in Casca’s library, he had picked up a thing or two about the occult world and knew how to respond.
“The element of the Spirit,” Talon said.
“I’m impressed, Talon. Someone has been hitting the books.”
“I’ve had some downtime. So what’s the deal with this fifth element?”
“The Greeks called it the Aether, the refined air that the Gods breathe. A power that infuses everything. While the four elements make up the physical world, the Spirit exists within all of them. It’s the invisible, immaterial connection and balance between all the other elements.”
“Sounds like we’re talking about the Force,” Talon said with a grin.
“If that helps you wrap your pop culture polluted brain around the idea, sure, why not?”
“And you think Morgaine is trying to tap into this invisible power through murder-suicides?”
“According to the literature, some elemental nature rituals can release the full power of the fifth element,” Casca said.
“Any idea how this spiritual power might express itself?”
“Sadly, the literature is vague on that front.”
Talon shook his head. Figures. Casca and his “literature” sometimes delivered stunning insights… but just as often, they were filled with vague ideas that confounded him more than they actually helped. Solid intel was hard to come by when going up against supernatural forces.
“How far am I from the vineyard?” Talon asked, focusing on a more concrete question.
“It’s about a seventy-minute drive if you don’t run into traffic.”
Talon nodded soberly, his gaze turning back to the frightened former cult member in his apartment.
“That contact of yours with the LAPD. Think you could get him to keep an eye on Charlie while I go take a look?”
“I believe I can arrange that.”
The Children of the Green assumed that Charlie and her mysterious guardian angel were on the run or hiding out somewhere. They wouldn’t expect him to make a go for their cult compound.
A line from Sun Tzu’s the Art of War popped into Talon’s head: Attack your enemy where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.
Talon planned to do precisely that.
Chapter Eight
Talon’s rental car powered up a winding road that snaked its way through the San Gabriel Mountains. The range ran west to east across Los Angeles through Glendale, Pasadena, Arcadia, Asuza, and Claremont and featured some impressive peaks and canyons. Outside, bloody sunlight cast the mountains in a crimson glow.
By the time Talon reached
Morgaine LaCroix’s winery, night had fallen. Talon pulled his rental to the side of the road and killed the engine. Terraced vineyards stretched out before him in all directions. Much further ahead, a series of white buildings gleamed in the moonlight. Designed in the California Mission style, all of them framed by trees and more mountains, they stood out like a beacon on the hill.
There were no fences or other barriers to ward off intruders except for a rustic stone wall that enclosed the property. The wall was only a few feet high and could be easily scaled, serving only a decorative purpose. On paper, this was just a small winery, not the secret headquarters of a cult. Morgaine LaCroix had no reason to worry that anyone would connect the recent string of murder-suicides with the group of eco-fanatics she’d gathered in this place.
Talon planned to take advantage of Morgaine’s false sense of security.
He wore a black combat suit and balaclava that allowed him to blend with the darkness. He touched the protective pendant hanging from his neck and secured the demon slayer blade around his waist. His trustworthy Glock in hand, Talon slipped out of the vehicle.
He eyed the parked car, considering whether it could be spotted from the buildings above. A dense thicket shielded the car from the two-lane road that ran past the property.
The darkness greeted him with a gust of cold air. The temperatures were chillier up here in the mountains, especially at night. A shiver that had nothing to do with the weather raced up his back.
Despite his surface bravado, dread had settled in Talon’s stomach, and he couldn’t shake it. As he cut through the terraced vines that surrounded the main structure, Talon’s mind turned to Charlie’s ominous assertion that Morgaine’s powers were growing. He thought of the circle tattoo on the cult leader’s neck.
The Element of the Spirit. The Fifth Element.
How was Morgaine hoping to tap into this elusive power that, according to the Greeks, infused the physical universe? More importantly, how would such power even manifest itself?
A sudden sound pulled Talon out of his musings, and he spun around, pistol up. He waited in the darkness for a beat, every muscle coiled and ready to explode into motion. When the sound didn’t repeat itself, the tension left his body.
Saying that his nerves were on edge was an understatement. Rampant speculation about Morgaine’s plans was impacting his focus. The mind was both a warrior’s greatest ally and his most formidable enemy. He couldn’t let his imagination get the better of him. He had to stay focused on his current objective.
This was foremost a recon mission. Learn as much about his new enemy as possible so he could strike with greater efficiency when the time was ripe.
Within minutes, Talon made it to the vineyard’s main structure and pressed himself against the shadow-soaked walls as he circled the property. The place felt like a ghost town. There were no guards or other forms of security. Talon drew no comfort from this. To be honest, he would have preferred a heavily fortified compound. He could deal with guards a lot easier than nasty magical surprises.
By now Morgaine’s fire-branded goons must have reported back to her about the stranger who helped Charlie escape. The lack of security suggested Morgaine wasn’t too concerned about this recent development. Why? What did she have up her sleeve?
Talon continued his exploration of the seemingly deserted property, his unease deepening with each passing second.
He rounded the main structure and darted past a second building. A glance through the window showed that this was where the grapes were processed. Three large trucks used for transporting cargo loomed in the nearby shadows, each of them stamped with the vineyard’s logo. Morgaine’s winery was a small but viable operation.
His wary gaze combed the darkness as he zig-zagged between the buildings and reached a central courtyard surrounded by a wall of green vines.
Talon tentatively started to cross the enclosed yard and froze dead in his tracks. If it hadn’t been for the bright moonlight shining down on the area, he would have plunged into a pit that someone had dug in the soft turf.
He took a steadying breath as he studied the rectangular hole in the ground. It had to be at least six feet deep. Following a sudden hunch, Talon scanned the area and spotted four more.
These aren’t holes, he corrected himself. These are graves.
Piles of dirt sat next to pits, suggesting the soil would all too soon cover the freshly formed wounds in the Earth. He thought of the tattoo on Carlie’s forearm, wondering if one of these graves had been meant for her.
“The Children of the Green will soon return willingly to the element that spawned them.”
The ghostlike female voice drifted from the encroaching darkness, both seductive and threatening at the same time.
Talon scanned the moon-soaked field of mass graves for the speaker. It had to be Morgaine. Somehow, she’d been expecting him—a realization which made him tighten his grip around his upraised Glock.
He stood in the darkness, weapon ready.
The shadows shifted in the near distance, and a figure stepped into the light, approaching between the fresh graves. The silhouette outlined in the pale moonlight belonged to a goddess, tall and formidable but also curvy and feminine. She wore a white dress that revealed tantalizing glimpses of tanned skin and her athletic arms and legs. “It’s poetic, isn’t it? From the Earth we come, and to the Earth we return. But few of us ever have the chance to enjoy the experience firsthand.”
As Talon glanced at the holes in the ground, he could almost see the cult members willingly marching toward these graves. They would lie down in the earth while still alive, most likely cuffed to some unwilling victim while the other cult members began to pile dirt on them.
Despite the cooling breeze, sweat coated his features, his jaw set tight.
No wonder Charlie wanted to put this insanity behind her. What sort of fanatic would choose to be buried alive?
Morgaine continued to advance on him. She was either unaware or unconcerned about the gun leveled at her.
As she drew closer, Talon took in her striking features. Angular and tough, imbued with an intense sensuality that called out to him like a flame in the dark. He knew it would burn him, but he wanted to touch it anyway.
They regarded each other for a beat, seizing each other up.
“I could ask you who you are, but names given to us by others are meaningless. All that matters is who you are on the inside.”
Her eyes, dark and fathomless as the empty graves, bored into him. He could not look away as she spoke.
“I look into your eyes, stranger, and I see you. You’re a man of violence, a man of action, and a man of justice. There’s a hunger that burns inside of you that won’t ever be sated. You’ve seen death, and you experienced loss. There is strength in you, and there is sadness and an indomitable spirit. Perhaps you were a cop or a soldier, a man of action who wanted to change the world. We share that much in common.”
Talon shook his head. “I’m nothing like you or the fools who blindly follow you to their deaths.”
“Are you sure? We all follow someone in this life. Didn’t you learn to respect a chain of command?”
“And who do you follow?” Talon asked.
“Mother Nature, of course. I’m her humble servant.” Morgaine’s eyes shone in the pale glow of the moon above them.
“You think Mother Nature wants a bunch of confused hippies to sacrifice themselves for her?”
Morgaine smiled.
“I wouldn’t call them confused. Is a soldier confused when he lays down his life for his country? Why would you doubt that some people might want to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the planet they love?”
Morgaine took another step toward him, her hips swaying. Talon tried not to notice.
“Perhaps you’ve forgotten the meaning of sacrifice? Once you knew the value of duty, but now you’re just a simple mercenary. Did Charlie’s family hire you to save their daughter from the big bad cult leader
?”
The question hung there for a moment. Morgaine saw a lot, but she didn’t see everything. She wasn’t some all-knowing oracle who had all the answers. The woman was skilled at profiling people, as all great con artists were. But she wasn’t tapped into some magical network. Or at least not yet. She saw him as a veteran who now hired himself out to the biggest bidder. A man who could be bought and therefore most likely swayed.
Morgaine fundamentally did not understand who she was dealing with here. And Talon hoped to use that to his advantage.
“How does murder-suicide help your cause? How does it save the planet?”
“I could try to explain it to you, stranger, but I doubt you’d believe me.”
“Try me.”
Morgaine smiled, almost as if impressed by his persistence.
“Some other time, perhaps over a bottle of wine.” Her gaze ticked to her winery, amused at her own joke. “I think that covers the pleasantries. Where’s Charlie? Where are you keeping her?”
“Why do you need to know that? So you can bury her alive?”
“She promised herself to the goddess.”
“Hate to break it to you. But the lady had a change of heart.”
There was a flicker of irritation in Morgaine’s eyes.
“You will tell me where she is, soldier, one way or another.”
Morgaine took one more step toward Talon, and his finger whitened on the trigger.
“Alright, that’s close enough. Stay right where you—”
Talon never finished the sentence as an invisible force wrenched the Glock right out of his hand. He watched with disbelief as the pistol sailed through the darkness. As a consequence, he was a fraction too slow to react when Morgaine sprinted toward him. She cut through the air with a grace that spoke to her years of martial arts training. Her outstretched leg connected with his chest and sent him reeling.
Occult Assassin: The Complete Series (Books 1-6) Page 58
