Shadows in the Mist

by Jeri Westerson

  When Seraphina turned it over, there was strange design etched on the flat surface, something with squirrelly lines and dots and swirls—not unlike Erasmus’ tattoo. At first it looked like a design, but after a while it resembled some kind of writing. Seraphina showed it to Jolene, who snapped a picture of it with her tablet. “You can find out what this means, can’t you, dear?”

  “I’ll do my best.” She began tapping on the keys immediately.

  “No,” Seraphina went on. “I’d call this more…dare I say it? Babylonian. What in the world was Constance Howland doing with this?”

  Chapter Ten

  An ancient locket from an extinct civilization? I reached out and almost touched it. “Really?”

  Doc came up on the other side of Seraphina. “May I?”

  She handed it over. Doc examined it, turning it over and over in his fingers. “I’ll be darned. You’re right, Seraphina. I don’t know why I never noticed it before. Definitely Babylonian or thereabouts. Surely Constance Howland didn’t have anything like this.”

  “She did.”

  We all turned to look at Erasmus. He stood with his hands behind his back, his ever-present duster coat hugging his calves.

  Doc gestured toward him with the locket. “You saw her wearing this?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you know what it is?”

  “No.”

  “Did she…acquire it after she met you? Like Kylie’s amulet.”

  “It’s my amulet, and I…don’t know.”

  I pulled his amulet from my sweater and held it up. He always winced when he saw it. “Is it like this? Did she get it from you?”

  “No. I merely recall seeing it on Mistress Howland.”

  Doc shook his head, staring at it. “And she always wore it?”

  “Not always. She wasn’t wearing it when she died.”

  “When you pushed her!” said Nick.

  I held him back. “It’s okay, Nick.”

  “As I explained to Miss Strange, I did not kill her. She committed suicide.”

  “Oh, what a load of crap!”

  “Now wait a minute, Nick,” said Doc, holding up his free hand. I had wanted to look at the locket, but for some reason I didn’t want to touch it. “If she wasn’t wearing it when she died, she clearly knew she was going to come to her end. She must’ve set the locket aside. It must be important for her to ensure it was passed down to her descendants.”

  Seraphina took the necklace up again and held it to the light. The filigree was more than a design element. It was cut through—you could see to the backing or whatever was inside it.

  “Can we open it?” I asked.

  Seraphina tried to no avail and gave up with a shrug.

  “Let me see it,” said Nick. He took it to the counter and tried to pry it open with the letter opener beside my register.

  Jolene snatched it from him. “This is almost 4,000 years old, you goof!” She lifted her glasses to her forehead and looked at it up close. “Kylie, do you have a magnifying glass?”

  “Should be one in the drawer by Nick.”

  Nick pulled the drawer open, rummaged around, and handed it over contritely. Jolene brought the locket to the lamp and looked through the magnifying glass. “It doesn’t actually look like it does open.”

  “Ruth seemed to think so,” I said.

  Suddenly it was thrust into my face. “Maybe only a Chosen Host can open it.”

  I didn’t touch it. “Maybe only descendants of Constance Howland.”

  “If that were the case,” said Doc, “then Ruth would have been able to open it. Why are you hesitating, Kylie?”

  “Because…” I didn’t know why. All I knew is that I suddenly didn’t want to touch it. I backed away a step.

  “Kylie,” said Doc, studying me. “What is it?”

  “I don’t know. I just…don’t want to touch it.”

  “You wanted to before.”

  “I know. But now I don’t.”

  “Does it…frighten you?”

  “No…”

  Nick hugged himself, even though it was warm in the room. “This is getting weird.”

  “Why don’t I try,” said Jeff.

  Everyone looked at him as if they had forgotten he was there. And in truth, he tended to always stay in the shadows. New behavior for him. He used to love being the life of the party.

  Doc offered it to him, and he took it carefully, frowning at the squiggles. “Why does it say this?”

  Doc slid around the furniture to stand next to him. “Jeff, can you read what that says?”

  “Sort of.” He screwed up his face. “The Almighty Sin-Muballit guards what is his.”

  We looked at each other.

  “You know,” I said, quietly, filling the silence, “maybe we shouldn’t open it until we know what it is. Look at all the trouble I caused by opening the Booke.”

  “Don’t open it,” said Erasmus.

  “Why not, Mr. Dark?” asked Doc.

  “It is as Kylie says. Until we discern its function, it would not be wise to open it.”

  “Does this relate to the book, Mr. Dark?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Nick made a disgusted sound. “He’s lying.”

  Suddenly Erasmus was in Nick’s face, backing him into the wall. “What do you know of me, whelp? I am older than that locket. I am eternal. A demon of the Netherworld. I don’t have to listen to your whinging.”

  “Erasmus,” I admonished. I pulled him by the shoulders away from Nick, who was panting and clutching the wall.

  Jeff hunched over and began to growl.

  “Everyone,” I said loudly, “just calm the hell down.” I glared down Erasmus and Jeff. “Jeff, you take the locket.”

  His growl stopped, and his sneer disappeared. “What? Why?”

  “Because it doesn’t seem to affect you. You can guard it.” I took a deep breath. “Now who is Sin-Muballit, and do we have to worry about him?”

  Jolene smiled. “For once, no. Sin-Muballit was a king of Babylon in the Amorite Dynasty. He was the father of Hammurabi. You’ve heard of him, right? The guy with the code? It predates the Ten Commandments. Anyway, it just means that—if this inscription is true—it’s from about 1740 BCE.”

  “Oh.” I stared at it suspiciously, trying to discern its secrets. I was willing to bet they weren’t anything good. “What would this have to do with…us? The Booke?”

  “Seeing that Ruth had it,” said Doc, “I can’t think that it would have to do with the book. But then again, Mr. Dark here says Constance Howland wore it.”

  “A family heirloom,” I muttered. “I can’t see a Puritan woman wearing a Babylonian necklace. Unless she didn’t know what it was. I wonder how she got it.” I turned toward Jeff. “And why can Jeff read this? I thought he could only read demon languages.”

  Doc rubbed his chin. “That puts a new face on Babylonian, doesn’t it? Perhaps it’s an offshoot of demon languages.”

  “All human languages are an offshoot of demon languages,” said Erasmus in a bored tone. “We were here first, after all.”

  He didn’t seem to expect the stunned silence that greeted him. He shrugged and leaned back against a post, hiding his expression behind the shadow of his hair in his face.

  “Uh…Jolene?” I said, thinking maybe a change of subject was a good idea. “Have we found out anything more about the ghoul?”

  She swiped across her tablet. “Nothing new. It seems pretty mundane, as far as other-worldly creatures go. I mean, it might hunt kids, but it usually likes them when they’re already dead.”

  “Yeah. Why would the Booke spit out this guy? It’s not all that dangerous. Not like a kelpie, or a werewolf.”

  Erasmus was sulking. Even with his arms crossed tightly over his chest and his nose in the air, he managed to say, “I have yet to determine why the book chooses what creature to disembark.”

  “That’s helpful.”

  He glared at me. “Is it?
”

  “That was sarcasm, genius.”

  His sulk got sulkier.

  “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. I’ve still got to get rid of it. But it sure seems that each time I encounter it, Andras shows up to spoil my party.”

  “Now that is interesting,” said Doc thoughtfully, but he didn’t say anything more.

  “We also have to find a way to take down Andras. Jolene, start studying what it takes to kill a demon.”

  She flicked a glance at Erasmus before tucking into her tablet.

  A knock at the door had us all sit up straight. Ed stood in the open doorway, with Deputy George behind him. “Looks like your evening is broken up.”

  “Only some of them have left,” I said, urging him in. “We still have coffee. How about a cup, Deputy Miller?”

  George came in and doffed his Smokey Bear hat. He flicked a glance at Nick. “Don’t mind if I do, ma’am.”

  “Can I tempt you with some cake?”

  He snatched a glance at Ed, seemed to see it was all right, and nodded.

  Nick offered him a chair, and a warm smile, both of which George barely acknowledged.

  “Ed, why don’t you help me in the kitchen?”

  Ed followed me and shut the door behind us. “He insisted on going with me. I couldn’t shake him.”

  “That’s okay. What did the coroner say?”

  “Hard to avoid seeing axe and sword marks everywhere. Right now, it’s murder from random thugs with farm implements. But this is getting serious, Kylie.”

  “I know.” I paused. “Hey, where do the bodies go around here?”

  “Mortuary. Up by the cemetery.”

  “That means the ghoul will go there.”

  “Aw, Christ. You aren’t going to hunt that thing tonight, are you?”

  “I have to.”

  I couldn’t quite discern the complex emotions in his eyes. There was weariness, certainly. But also maybe a bit of pride. And a healthy dose of exasperation, of course.

  “You know I have to,” I said softly. I was also a little proud of him, too, putting aside his obvious discomfort with the two of us together but helping anyway. It warmed me inside.

  “This new paradigm sucks.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, I know.”

  “Look, Kylie…” He stepped forward and took my hand. “Maybe I was a bit hasty and selfish…”

  The door abruptly opened, smacking Ed in the shoulder.

  “Oh!” said Nick. “Sorry, sheriff. Can I help?”

  I grabbed the coffee carafe and handed it to Nick. “How does George like his coffee?”

  “Cream and sugar,” said Nick and Ed at the same time. Ed frowned at Nick as he ducked his head and slipped through the door.

  “How does he—”

  “He’s a barista, remember? Here’s the cream and sugar,” I said, shoving them into his hands. “I’ll cut him a slice of cake. You want another one?”

  Ed accepted his second plate of cake, and soon we were all together in the main shop, drinking more coffee, while Ed and George devoured their slices. How they could eat after what they’d seen made me shake my head.

  George set his empty plate aside. “That was sure good, Ms. Strange.”

  “You can call me Kylie, George.”

  “Yeah.” He flicked another glance at Nick as he rose.

  “Hey, deputy,” said Nick. “Can you help me with the plates?”

  “Sure, Mr. Riley.”

  Ed got in close once they were in the other room. “Quickly! What happened with Ruth? Find out anything?”

  I sat back and rubbed my eyes. “We found out that locket she wears is Babylonian with some weird demon language inscription on the back.”

  “Babylonian? What’s she doing with something like that?”

  “Well, unless Moody Bog was founded in 1700 BC, I’d say Constance Howland had some very interesting connections.”

  “How do we know your ancestor had that?”

  Jolene piped up with, “Mr. Dark saw her wearing it.”

  Ed glanced slowly at Erasmus, who gave him an equally sneering glance in return. “I forgot. The demon’s been around a while.”

  “More than ‘a while,’” snorted Erasmus.

  “Anyway,” I said, intervening, “we have to find out its purpose. In the meantime, I want to go over to Doug’s with you tomorrow.”

  “I’m not taking you there.”

  “Well…then I’m going by myself. I just thought you’d rather be there to make sure there was no funny business.”

  “Kylie, I do not want you going over there.”

  “Ed, you don’t seem to understand the dynamic—”

  “I’ll go with her,” said Erasmus, a smug look on his face.

  That did the trick. “If he’s going, I’m going.”

  “That’s what I asked in the first place,” I muttered.

  The kitchen door blew open and a smiling Nick strolled in, pulling down the hem of his shirt. A few seconds later, George came through…with tie askew.

  I motioned to him with some hand signals. Wide-eyed, he got the message, straightening his tie and tucking in his shirt.

  “Look at the time,” said Nick. “Maybe we should get out of your hair, Kylie.”

  “Nick is right,” said Doc. “But we’ll all be back tomorrow afternoon to work on the, uh, project.”

  “Project?” said Jolene. “Oh! Project!”

  Spell, they meant. Something to get rid of the Draugr.

  I had decided to question Doug myself about them. Maybe I could hammer into his head once and for all that whatever bad thing he did affected everyone else. Maybe he didn’t care. But I had to believe that the family who raised Ed had to have instilled the same sense of fair play and goodness in his brother, too. Somewhere deep, deep inside.

  But for now, we’d need to get over to the mortuary. And I wanted back-up this time. “Hey, Jeff. Need a ride home?”

  He did that head-cocking thing that dogs did. It was…disturbing. “You offering?”

  “Yeah. Erasmus wants to come, too.”

  Both Ed and Erasmus looked at me suspiciously.

  Chapter Eleven

  It was just Erasmus, Jeff, and I in my Jeep. Erasmus had assumed he’d be sitting shotgun as always. When Jeff got there first, there was some pushback.

  I didn’t have time for this. “Just get in the car, Erasmus!”

  He muttered something in a guttural demon language that I didn’t understand, but that Jeff clearly did. He spun in his seat and glared. “I heard that!”

  Buckling himself in, Erasmus merely smiled.

  “Why are demons such dicks?” said Jeff, settling in.

  Through the rearview mirror, I saw the smile disappear off Erasmus’ face.

  “I hope you’ve figured out by now,” I said, ignoring their antics as I pulled into the street, “that we aren’t taking Jeff home right away.”

  “Since you’ve got your crossbow, I sort of figured.” Jeff looked at the locket and put the chain around his neck. “Good thing this isn’t silver.”

  “Yeah. So are you okay with helping me with this ghoul?”

  “That’s what your friendly neighborhood werewolf is for.”

  “I appreciate it.” I said, adjusting my grip on the steering wheel and making the turn toward the cemetery.

  “Yeah. You know what the funny thing is? I always wanted a dog but figured I didn’t have the time. Now I’ve got the best of both worlds, I guess.”

  He had the right to be sour about it. But it did make me feel guilty.

  I followed the sign for the mortuary. Though the gates were closed, nothing was locked. You had to hand it to small towns.

  I followed my headlights through the mist up the drive to the mortuary building. I figured we’d go toward the sign that said “back entrance.” I doubted many bodies came through the front door.

  I parked the car, killed the engine, and sat, listening to the night. Peering into the sky, I won
dered if my personal assassin was near.

  Swinging to the back seat, I grabbed the crossbow. “That’s wicked,” said Jeff, admiring it.

  “I guess. Erasmus, I have a feeling that Andras is waiting to pounce. I think he’s using the ghoul to find me somehow. Maybe they made a bargain.”

  “Yes, I was wondering that myself. It is not beyond the scope of a demon to use such tactics. I know very little of Andras except by rumor. But a ghoul is little better than a dog. They wouldn’t have the capacity to bargain.”

  “Then how is Andras using it?”

  “He is said to be particularly devious and unrelenting. My best guess is that he is simply following him.”

  “Great. How do I kill him?”

  “You don’t.”

  “Demons can be killed, can’t they?”

  He squirmed a bit. “This is not a comfortable topic.”

  It was Jeff’s turn to smile, and he turned around in his seat to give Erasmus his full wattage. “Don’t tell me you’re scared?”

  “I know Kylie would never use these methods on me. You, on the other hand…”

  “Jeff, could you wait outside?”

  “What? Just as it was getting good?”

  “Please. I need his help.”

  He blew out a breath. “Okay. I’ll sniff around outside, see what I can find.” He meant that literally, of course. He got out of the Jeep and started removing his clothes. I turned away and saw him morph out of the corner of my eye. A blond wolf padded away into the shadows of the building.

  I turned and faced Erasmus. “He’s gone now. Can you tell me? Do you…trust me?”

  His eyes narrowed, and his scowl was world class. “You cannot kill a demon easily. Your Wiccan spell should have killed me, but it did not. Perhaps it wasn’t done correctly. Certainly being speared through the chest with iron would disable a demon and send them back to the Netherworld. And it isn’t easy to escape the Netherworld.”

  “That’s why demons need to be summoned.”

  “Precisely.”

  “So why can you pass through over and over?”

  “Because of the book. It serves as a gateway. Which is why other creatures can come through it as well.”

  “That’s right. It’s a gateway. And it seems to strengthen spells and other gateways. That other vortex that the Ordo opened.”