Shadows in the Mist

by Jeri Westerson

  Ed scowled. “Shut up, Doug.”

  “Oh, I don’t think so!” He tried to stand, but Ed shoved him back down with the butt of his rifle.

  “I’m not kidding. Shut the hell up. The rest of you, on the floor with him.”

  Slowly, hands raised, they all sat cross-legged beside Doug.

  “Now get this through your thick skulls. You need to help us. You need to return the gold. Where is it?”

  They all looked dumbly at each other.

  “This is ridiculous,” I muttered. “Erasmus, make Doug tell us.”

  Doug’s eyes widened with alarm. “You…you can’t do that. You’re the good guy.”

  I folded my arms. “I’m a pretty pissed off ‘good guy.’ Erasmus?”

  He grinned as Shabiri had, with a too wide mouth filled with too many teeth. “With pleasure.”

  “Shabiri!” cried Doug as Erasmus moved toward him.

  Shabiri appeared in an instant, but she looked annoyed. “Got yourself into a pickle, I see.” She smiled, looking Erasmus over in that lascivious way of hers. “Hello, Erasmus.”

  “Get out of my way.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t let you hurt him. Demon code and all.”

  “He wears your amulet. Foolish of you to let him.”

  “Look who’s talking? I notice that the human female has yours.”

  “That,” he said looking back at me, “I don’t mind.”

  She seemed taken aback, staring at him with her mouth agape. Erasmus hid his face in the shadow of his hair. Maybe he hadn’t meant to blurt that out so blatantly. Everyone else was looking at him with some surprise, too.

  I ducked my own head since Ed couldn’t seem to stop glaring at me.

  “You stupid, stupid fool,” said Shabiri when she’d gotten her voice back. “Didn’t I warn you centuries ago about that?”

  “Are you going to get out of my way?”

  “Well…” She glanced at her polished nails and rubbed them on her leather top. “I would, darling, but he does have my amulet, and I’m afraid I absolutely must protect him, though he scarcely deserves it.”

  “Hey!” cried Doug.

  She turned to him. “You must admit, you asked for it. I mean, look at the mess you’re in. The big, strong sheriff there has the drop on you. And you let Kylie get the better of you too.”

  “I am trying to get the book…”

  “You’re not trying very hard.”

  Erasmus, exasperated, grabbed Shabiri and whirled her around. “Why are you still forcing this imbecile to go after the book? I have told you time and again that it will yield you nothing. The book is solely the possession of the Chosen Host. No one else can use it. No one has the power.”

  “Not even you, darling?”

  “Why won’t you believe me? If I could free myself from the book, don’t you think I would have done so centuries ago?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You really do believe that, don’t you?”

  “What are you talking about? It is what it is. It is far more ancient than you are…”

  “You don’t know! You let yourself be yanked around as if there’s a ring in your nose, and you have no idea.” She grabbed his arm and they both disappeared.

  “What the hell just happened?” I asked.

  “Looks like our demons are having issues,” said Doug. He squared on me with a stupid grin on his face. “So, you and Erasmus. My, my. That must really burn your biscuits, Edward. That your girlfriend prefers demon action to you.”

  “We’re taking a break!” said Ed between clenched teeth.

  “Is that what you call it? I think the word you’re looking for is ‘dumped.’”

  He looked like he was about to slam the rifle butt into Doug’s face. Though I wouldn’t have minded that one bit, it wouldn’t get us the result we were looking for.

  “Ed!” I said, stepping in front of him, blocking his advance. “We need to get the gold back to the Draugr.”

  He trembled in anger but took a deep breath and lowered the gun. Rubbing his hands over his eyes, he nodded. “All right. Okay. Doug? Are you ready to tell us?”

  “Just to show that I’m not an unreasonable guy…it’s in the crawlspace. There’s an access door in the closet in my bedroom.”

  “Great.” Ed pointed the gun at Dean. “You go get it.”

  “Me?”

  “You don’t think I’m going to let my brother get it and accidentally slip away, do you?”

  Doug shook his head. “You don’t trust me. After I saved your life.”

  “By first putting it in jeopardy? Get up, Fitch.”

  Dean rose and wiped at his leather chaps. “Such little respect around here,” he muttered as he made his way into the hall.

  “Kylie, why don’t you go with him.”

  I nodded. Dean didn’t seem happy about it, but I wasn’t interested in what he thought. In fact, I wished that I had a little more Chosen Host skills at my disposal. Maybe a spell or two to zap his ass with. Or that spear.

  I followed Dean into a back bedroom with an enormous bed covered by a gaudy bedspread. All the room needed was a velvet painting hanging on the wall.

  Dean opened a closet stuffed with T-shirts, jeans, and boots of varying shades of brown. He knelt and pushed the shoes aside, searching for the trap door. When he found it, he looked up at me in surprise. He dug his hand through the carpet to grab the ring and haul it up. Peering in, he stopped. “I don’t see nothing.”

  “Maybe you have to go down into the crawlspace.”

  Scandalized, he shook his head. “I don’t want to go down there.”

  “What’s the matter, Dean? Afraid of spiders?”

  “There’s stuff worse than spiders.”

  “I know. I keep having to kill them.”

  His eyes rounded as he looked me over. “Doug says a lot of stuff about you…that I’m beginning to think isn’t true.”

  “Stuff? Like what?”

  He shrugged. “That you’re just a…a girl, you know.”

  I threw my hands up. “What the hell, Dean? This is the twenty-first century. Women can even vote.”

  “I know! It’s just… Charise isn’t anything like you. To tell you the truth, she’s kind of a bitch sometimes.”

  “Well, thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  He ran his hand over his shaved head. “Well…I guess I’m going in. You don’t have a flashlight by any chance, do you?”

  “You’ve got a phone, haven’t you?”

  “Oh, yeah.” He dug it out, clicked on the flashlight, and shined it down the hole. I looked over his shoulder. I guess I expected a Leprechauny pot of gold, but there wasn’t anything there but a layer of fine dirt.

  Dean set the phone down beside the square hole, and dipped his foot in. When he put his other foot in, he was only waist deep. He grabbed the phone and slowly bent to lower himself the rest of the way.

  “If I don’t come back, something probably got me.”

  “I won’t let anything get you.”

  He leaned an arm on the carpeted floor. “Just for the record, if you were my girlfriend, I wouldn’t let no demon kiss you.” He gave me a significant look before dropping out of sight.

  His words had been slightly disconcerting at first, but if it meant at least one of the Ordo was on my side, it was worth it.

  After listening to him grunt and swear, I decided that waiting for him would be more tortuous than going down there myself, so I sat on the edge, dangled my feet down, and plunged in.

  I followed the beam of Dean’s flashlight as he whipped it this way and that. He pivoted, even bent over as he was, and shined the flashlight right in my eyes. “What are you doing here?”

  “I thought you might need some help.” I suddenly realized I wasn’t fond of cramped spaces. But as I lifted my own phone and shined light into the far reaches of the underside of the mobile home, past the axles and stacked foundation cinder blocks, it seemed plain to me that nothing was here
. Doug had lied. Surprise, surprise.

  “I don’t see anything,” I said with a sigh.

  Dean was more direct. “Bastard.”

  “Did you ever see it, Dean? This gold?”

  He nodded, moving farther to the edges where the lattice covering the bottom of the mobile home was broken. “It kind of looked like an old pirate chest. With coins and jewelry and stuff. Charise couldn’t wait to get her hands on it.”

  “Those gold necklaces she’s got. Were they part of it?”

  “I think so.”

  “Dean, why are you loyal to him? You know he’s going to screw you over if it’s to his advantage.”

  “That’s not…necessarily true.”

  “Really?”

  He looked right at me, then. “You don’t get Doug, or any of us. You’re from away. Things are different in small towns. We stick together. We stay put.”

  “I’m not disparaging that. Just the way you’re going about everything. It was the worst thing you could have done summoning Ba—uh, Goat Guy. Did you really think that was a good thing?”

  “You don’t get it. We’ve been his followers a long time. Ever since Doug banded us together. We’re a family.”

  “And where does Ed fit into it?”

  “Sheriff Ed? He’s the enemy! And he treats Doug like garbage.”

  Yeah, he did do that. But there was a history there, too. “They’re brothers.”

  “I get it. I don’t get along with my family either. But Doug is smart. He’s got ideas. He got us all together.”

  “But can’t you see the harm you’re doing? Do you really want to kill people? People you’ve known all your life? Like the Warrens? And those other people that Baphomet killed last night?”

  He turned away, scowling. “You can’t think about that stuff when you’ve got ambitions.”

  I grabbed his arm. “That is such bullshit and you know it!”

  He shook me off. “I know he promised to make us rich and he delivered.”

  “At what price? Do you really want that money—that gold—knowing that people will die? I don’t know you, Dean, but I can’t help but feel that this isn’t really who you are.”

  “You’re right. You don’t know me.” He walked away as dignified as a guy could be while crouched under a mobile home. I followed him quickly, afraid he’d block the trap door, though in that case it would be easy enough to kick through the surrounding lattice.

  He didn’t close the trap door, and I climbed out on my own without a helping hand. Dean looked divided—angry at Doug but trying to be loyal to him, too. Doug had introduced a lot of complications to the Ordo’s lives that had probably been relatively simple before. But I realized from our underground encounter that if I could talk to each Ordo member individually, I could make a few cracks in their loyalty. Well, maybe not Charise’s, but perhaps Ed could do that if he talked to her.

  Dean stomped back into the living room and faced Doug, fists at his side. “It isn’t there.”

  Doug looked from him to me. “The hell it isn’t.”

  “Dean’s right,” I said. “It isn’t.”

  He got up, ignoring Ed’s threatening gestures. “Are you shitting me?”

  “It’s not there,” said Dean, ready to throw a punch.

  But Doug didn’t look like he was acting. “What the hell…” He shut his eyes. “Shabiri,” he hissed. “She fucking took it.”

  “Goddammit, Doug!”

  “Edward! Listen to me for once in your damn life. She took it, okay? I never meant for people to die for this.”

  “No,” he said sourly. “Just me.”

  “I wasn’t gonna let them kill you. Only scare you a little.”

  “Oh, thanks. You’re a real prince.”

  “I’m trying.”

  “Prove it. Call Shabiri back, then.”

  He nodded. “Okay. Shabiri!”

  We all expected her immediate appearance. When that didn’t happen, Doug and I wore matching expressions of horror.

  “E–Erasmus!” I called.

  Nothing. This wasn’t good.

  “Now what’s happened?” I muttered.

  Movement out in the yard caught my attention. Was it Erasmus? No, it was something else, something smaller. It was creeping up to some of the dead Draugr. Or deader Draugr, I supposed. The ones whose heads had been blown off. Something was bent over one body, doing something I couldn’t quite make out.

  I didn’t bother to think whether it was a good idea or not as I marched to the door and threw it open. I stood on the porch, trying to see through the mist. It must have heard me, because its head snapped around and stared at me. Bugged-out eyes, wispy hair, green complexion. The ghoul?

  My fears were confirmed when its features suddenly contorted and morphed into those of the Draugr. Unlike its lumbering, undead brethren, the ghoul hopped up and took off running on all fours.

  “What the hell?” My hand itched uncomfortably for the crossbow, but it was too far away to come. “But it was back in the Booke. What’s going on?”

  By then, Ed had reached me and saw the little jerk flee. “Wasn’t that the—”

  “Yeah. The freakin’ ghoul.”

  “But I thought once you wrote it in the book…”

  “I thought so, too.” I looked up at Ed. “I have to go. I have to meet with the coven.”

  Ed looked back into the mobile home. I couldn’t let him stay here alone. We’d have to leave this for now.

  Ed blew out a breath and stomped back inside. “We have to leave. More trouble. But you,” he said, pointing his gun at Doug, then skimming it toward the rest of them. “You all have to find that gold. We have to give it back to the Draugr in order to stop the killing. Do you understand me?”

  “We get it, Edward,” said Doug.

  I was heartened. If we could convince them about this, maybe we could make them understand about Baphomet.

  I scanned the skies looking for him and Andras. Something had to be done about the both of them. And that ghoul.

  As we went down the stairs, Doug came out to the porch. “Hey! Are you just gonna leave these dead…” He gestured vaguely. “These Viking zombies?”

  Ed glanced around. There were about four dead ones around, including the one the ghoul had been dining on. “Drag them into a pile and light ‘em up. It’s the safest way.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  Ed smiled grimly. “Nope. Watch out for the others. Fire seems to stop them for good.” He turned away, holding the rifle parallel to the ground as he stomped toward the car.

  I hurried to keep up with Ed. “This will make us even, Doug, if you get that gold,” I called to Doug over the hood of the car.

  “Even, sweetheart? I don’t know about that.”

  “It makes me even with you, I mean. It means I won’t kick your ass.”

  He laughed for a second before he stopped, thinking about it.

  As I got in, Ed couldn’t hide the tiny smile at the edge of his mouth. He started up the Interceptor, and we peeled out of the yard.

  The radio squawked with calls from dispatch. “Sheriff? Sheriff, you there?”

  “I’m here, Patty.”

  “Sheriff, we’re getting all kinds of calls about trespassers and troublemakers. Really weird calls.”

  “I’m on it, Patty. I, uh, just won’t be available to radio for a while. I’ll be monitoring, though.”

  “Should I get George to investigate?”

  “No, don’t do that! I’m on it. Locations?”

  “Up near the Blackstone Farm, Norton Pond, and Oak Bog.”

  “That’s a thirty-mile stretch. Well…I’ll do my best.”

  “Dispatch out.”

  He slowly pressed the accelerator once we made it to the highway. “Must be the Draugr. And they’re really moving.”

  I was quiet for a while until I noticed our surroundings. “Uh, Sheriff?”

  He glanced at me. “Yeah?”

  “I don’t kn
ow where you’re going, but I have to meet the coven.”

  The Interceptor slowed to highway speed. “Oh. I forgot. Where was it again?”

  “Alderbrook Lane.”

  “Oh, yeah.” He looked for a spot to turn around and did so.

  Silence fell again, until I broke it with, “Charise, huh?”

  His grip on the steering wheel tightened. “It was a few years ago. And it was only a couple of dates…that were mostly just for sex.”

  “Oh my God, are all men animals?”

  “I don’t know that I would be disparaging me for that,” he grumbled, “but that’s what she said she wanted. She wasn’t my girlfriend, but everyone else sort of characterized it that way.”

  “Wow, are you ever dense. That’s just what she said because she didn’t think she could get you any other way. Why do you think she’s with Doug now?”

  “No. No. That can’t be right…” I could see him working it out, his dark brows digging into his eyes. All at once he blurted, “Ah jeezum rice! I feel like such a heel now.”

  “Well...”

  “How was I supposed to know?”

  I shrugged and sat back while Ed brooded. Maybe I had used Ed for the same thing. Or maybe I had used Erasmus. I had no way of knowing. Or maybe I didn’t want to think too hard about it. But it was what men did, wasn’t it? Juggle several women. Why couldn’t I juggle men? My life was a little too complicated to settle down now.

  I stared out the window at the darkness of the forest, trying not to think at all.

  Ed passed Alderbrook Lane, then slammed on the brakes, shaking his head. Logic couldn’t get you out of the spell, and ultimately, I was gladdened by it. If we ever needed it, we still had a place to hole up where we couldn’t be found. It was too bad it was so far from my shop.

  My poor little neglected shop. How was I ever going to make a go of it if I wasn’t ever there? But did it even matter when in the end I was going to die?

  No, stop thinking like that, Kylie. No one’s going to die. Erasmus won’t eat my soul and I will defeat this damned Booke. I will.

  And yet, I felt its pull getting stronger by the day. Sometimes I’d catch myself for minutes on end just thinking about it in a strange, dreamy way. And those moments were stretching for longer and longer amounts of time. Almost as if…it was pulling me between its leather-bound covers…