“I don’t think so… Mr. Wilton.”
He flinches when I call him by his true name and stops dead. He blinks several times and licks his lips. “What did you call me?”
“Clifford Wilton.”
He shudders.
“Yes, I have your true name, and you will do as I say.”
His blinking gets more furious, but he still doesn’t move. It’s as if saying his name has glued him to the floor.
“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on killing you.” Although I wonder why not. If I can make him take his own life, why wouldn’t I? Better to get rid of him while I can. “I only have a couple of questions, and a small request. If you co-operate, you’ll be fine.”
“If you think you can beat me by using my name, you’re wrong, boy.” His voice is deep and threatening, and I can hear the struggle in it. So far, his protests don’t sound convincing, but I’ll hurry up in case he does manage to free himself from his glued state.
“What’s happening? Did you find him?” Vicky’s voice asks from the other side of my vision.
“Yes, I’m starting the questioning now,” I tell her.
On the other side, I start with the most important issue. “So, Clifford Wilton, first of all, I want you to release Vicky from the curse you put on her.”
Shelton’s face contorts with the effort of fighting my power over him.
“What… curse?” he pants.
“Don’t play with me, Clifford Wilton!” I bellow. “When you touch her grave, Vicky gets pulled to the Shadow World.” I point a finger in his direction. It trembles with anger. “Break that curse, Clifford… now.”
The corners of his mouth twitch, and his hand flies up to cover his mouth, but the words spill out anyway.
“Break the curse upon the one,
that I want to make undone.
Touching her grave will do no good.
She will stay where she should.”
He takes a piece of paper from his pocket and lights it with a snap of his fingers. It turns to ash in an instant, and letters swim in front of my eyes.
My concentration shifts back to my body.
Vicky’s head snaps back, and a long string of black smoke escapes her mouth. It makes me feel relieved and scared at the same time. I reach out to support her, and she leans against me gratefully. When the last of the smoke leaves her body, she coughs and buries her face in my shoulder. I caress her back and whisper soothing words in her ear.
“Well? What else do you want?” Shelton Banks’ impatient voice interrupts us.
I send him a condescending smile. “I was just making sure you did what you were supposed to do.”
“The curse is lifted. Now get on with it while you have the chance. I’d say you have about…” he stares past me, and the muscles in his face contract as he fights my hold over him, “… two minutes.”
“We’ll see about that. First, tell me why you put a curse on Vicky. Why is she so important to you?”
“To me?” Shelton Banks laughs out loud. “Come on, you can’t be that stupid. You know who I work for.”
“Fine.” I grit my teeth. “You know what I mean. Why is she so important to Lucifer?”
“Because…” Shelton turns and tilts his head. His neck and jaws crack as he fights the pressure of the words that want to come out.
“Tell me the truth, Clifford Wilton.”
“Because she has inherited great power from her great-great-great…” he coughs and shakes his head, “great-grandmother.” He wipes drops of sweat from his forehead. “Or however many ‘greats’ there may be.”
I frown. “What do you mean? Who was her great-grandmother then?”
He stares at me with a mixture of hate and hurt.
“Clifford… tell me who Vicky’s great-great-great-whatever-grandmother was. And what powers are you talking about?”
He balls his fists; his face goes red. I fight the urge to step back. Then he throws his hands forward and opens his hands. A shock wave hits me, but instead of launching me, it travels through me.
I smile. This is exactly why I used a form of astral projection to speak to him. He can’t hurt me, because I’m not really here. Or not fully, at least.
Suddenly, the image on the right side of my vision tilts, and I hear several outcries of shock and surprise. Two pairs of hands catch my body before it hits the ground.
Shelton Banks smirks at me. “I told you I’m stronger.”
I raise one eyebrow and ignore the commotion around my body. “Are you now? I don’t know what you think you’ve done, but…” I spread my arms, “I’m still here, and I’m fine. So let’s continue, shall we? The sooner you answer my questions, the sooner I’ll leave you alone.”
Vicky’s voice calls out to me, and I see her vague form moving in front of me. She sounds further away than before. “Ask him about Beelzebub!”
I try to answer her, but my mouth won’t open. Shelton Banks is breaking through my hold over him. He is slowly freeing himself. I need to act quickly now.
What is more important? Finding out how to beat Beelzebub or getting rid of Shelton Banks?
I only have a second to decide, and I go for the former.
“Clifford Wilton!” I almost shout his name. “I order you to tell me how to kill Beelzebub!”
Vicky’s voice drowns out my thoughts for a moment. “Dante, come back!”
Shelton Banks raises his arms again, but this time, I don’t wait for him to hit me with whatever he’s got up his sleeve. I close my eyes and concentrate completely on my body. A blast of air hits me, but the invisible string between me and my body pulls me back at the same time. I shoot up through the ceiling and back into darkness.
* * *
Dante Banner returns in The Eighth Mage – Will Dante and his friends be able to keep their enemies at bay? Or will one of the Devil’s allies finally find its way into their midst…?
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Preview
Cards of Death book 8
The Eighth Mage
CHAPTER 1
Both sides of my vision are black. I can hear faint voices coming from one side; the other has gone silent.
I feel my soul coming to a halt and try to open my eyes.
Nothing happens.
I do feel something. A hand is placed on my chest, and someone shakes my arm. “Dante? Are you back? Open your eyes.” The voice is hard to hear with all the pounding going on inside my head.
“Am twying,” I mumble. It’s as if my lips and tongue are stuck, and my limbs weigh a ton.
With difficulty, I lift my hand and search for Vicky’s. She grabs it and squeezes hard. “Are you back?”
I nod, or at least, I think I do. “Yes.”
“Did you get the information we need?”
“Give him some time to recover,” D’Maeo says reproachfully.
A soothing warmth spreads through me, and I relax.
“Is that better?”
Of course, I should’ve recognized the feeling of Mona’s sparks doing their job.
“Much,” I answer. The drummers in my head cease their attempts to drive me crazy, and the heaviness leaves my limbs. I open my eyes and smile when I see only one image, no more split screen.
“How did it go?” Charlie asks, wringing his hands.
I sit up carefully. “Rather well. I got him to lift the curse on Vicky, and… he didn’t kill me!”
Vicky lets go of my hand. “What about Beelzebub?”
“Well, Shelton Banks had enough of the interrogation before I could make him answer that question, so we’ll need to come up with another way to find out more about Beelzebub.”
Vicky stands up abruptly and turns her back on me, letting out a frustrated sigh. “I can’t believe you, Dante. I told you to ask him that question first. It was the most important one!”
I shake my head fervently but stop when the annex starts spinning around me. “I know you think it was, but I disagree. Keeping you from getting killed is more important. And more urgent.”
“No.”
I throw my hands in the air. “Yes, Vicky!”
She turns back to me, her eyes fuming. “You don’t need me to beat the Devil! But you do need to kill Beelzebub!”
Despite her shouting, I keep calm. I knew she’d be angry, but I’m happy with the choice I made. Shelton Banks made it very clear that Vicky is important in our battle against Satan. “Yes, but you’re wrong. You are important.” I look up at the others. “Each of you is. It has been said to us many times that we were all chosen to do this. Keeping the team complete is our best shot at winning.”
Vicky is still fuming, but she doesn’t answer. She just stares at me until I break eye contact.
Charlie helps me up, and I brush the dirt from my clothes.
Maël steps closer. She takes me in from head to toe. “He told you something about Vicky, didn’t he?”
I nod. “I asked him why they wanted Vicky out of the way so badly. He gave me an evasive answer, about her great-great-great-grandmother and the powers she inherited from her.”
“What?” If Vicky’s frown was any deeper, her eyebrows would melt into one.
I fold my arms together with a wide grin. “Looks like it’s a good thing I saved your ass.”
Maël is now scrutinizing Vicky. “We need to find out what kind of powers you inherited. We will need them to beat Lucifer.”
Jeep beckons us, and we follow him into the kitchen, where he taps the book we couldn’t decipher. “I bet that information is in here.”
Everyone agrees, and I’m about to do the same when something weird catches my eye. This time, I am certain it isn’t my imagination. My breath catches in my throat and I point at Jeep’s arm. “Jeep… one of your tattoos is moving again.”
I’m looking at the tattoo on Jeep’s lower arm. It’s a skull with a nasty grin. There’s no doubt about it… it is moving. The mouth opens and closes and the eyes blink.
The tattooed ghost’s expression is a copy of mine, full of surprise and fear.
Vicky has momentarily forgotten about her anger with me for asking Shelton Banks to free her of his curse before asking him for a way to defeat Beelzebub. She apparates to the other side of the table and bends over Jeep’s arm. “How is this possible?”
Jeep clenches his jaw and closes his eyes. “He’s trying to get out.”
Maël rises to her feet and pulls her staff from under her cape. “Can you stop him?”
Jeep’s head tilts in all directions as he fights the ghost inside his tattoo. “I’m not… sure.” His hand presses down on the skull, but that only makes it move more frantically.
Maël raises her wand and points it at the tattooed ghost. But before she can utter a single word, a shadowlike shape pulls itself from Jeep’s arm with so much force that it propels itself forward, against the edge of the table. The table moves forward, hitting Maël at the other side and making her drop her wand. Jeep is pushed backward. His chair topples over, with him in it.
Maël scrambles to her feet first. She aims the tip of her staff at the form hovering above the table now. Again the figure is faster. It shoots down and hits her in the chest. The rest of us pull out or conjure our weapons and aim it at the escaped ghost, while D’Maeo bends over to try and grab it.
The shadow form rises to the ceiling and holds up two freshly grown arms. “Wait! I’m not here to hurt you!”
Everyone, except for Charlie, hesitates. A grease ball hits the figure square in the chest and he’s pushed back, hitting the wall above the back door hard.
“Ouch.”
I gesture to Charlie to lower his arm. Somehow ‘ouch’ doesn’t sound like something an evil mage would say. Normally our enemies growl or shout threats when we hurt them. But a simple ‘ouch’ and an ‘I’m not here to hurt you’ aren’t enough to convince me he’s on our side. This might be a trick. He might’ve stayed behind on purpose, in case we found a way to take out the other seven mages that escaped Jeep’s tattoos. Which we did.
With a lightning bolt still dancing eagerly on my palm, I walk over to him. I make it float up to his neck and push his newly formed chin up with the sharp, sparkling tip. “Who are you and why did you stay behind when the other mages escaped?”
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Sneak Peek
Soul Jumper
House of Decay
Welcome to Vex Monster Tours.
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PLAY
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“Hi there, and welcome to Vex Monster Tours. If you’re looking for an adrenaline-filled adventure, you’ve come to the right place. My name is Vex and…
You’re laughing, aren’t you? I don’t blame you. I would too if I were you. But it’s not my fault that I’m called Vex. My parents had a great sense of humor, or so they thought. They were both Soul Jumpers, of course, like me, and thought it was ironically funny to name me Vex, since they trained me to be a nuisance to any kind of monster.
Anyway, in case you don’t know what a Soul Jumper is, I’ll explain it to you briefly.
A Soul Jumper is a human with special powers, born and trained to kill monsters. We are stronger and faster than regular humans and have more endurance and agility and some other extras. When we touch the last victim a creature killed, a connection is made with the next target of that monster. When that target is attacked and about to lose the battle with the monster, our soul jumps into the target’s body. From that moment on, our natural strengths are doubled, as are our senses. This gives us the power to defeat the monster before it kills another person. While we’re inside the victim’s body, they have no control over their moves but can still feel everything and talk to us. If they die, we jump back into our own body, which is protected by a flock of birds. Hawks, in my case. We have special Soul Jumper battle outfits, like I’m wearing now, connected to our souls to make them jump with us. They have some neat gadgets as extra back-up.
So, where was I?
Oh yes, Vex Monster Tours offers you the chance to see and fight any evil creature up close. To increase your chances of winning without my help, you get a day of training. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but I’ll give you a cupcake that contains a special mixture. It will give you the ability to pick up everything you learn a lot faster, and it builds up muscle at triple speed.
A blood vow is made between me and the monster of your request in which we agree not to attack before the arranged time. I will protect you
the best I can while letting you fight the monster for as long as possible. Sounds cool, right?
But why, do you ask, would a monster agree to fight two people? Well, for one, most monsters are cocky, and two, these days, there are so many hunters roaming the streets that they have a hard time finding a quiet place to attack. They think they have a better chance for a meal when they’re just fighting you and I… but we’ll prove them wrong.
Have any questions? Feel free to email or call me!”
CHAPTER 1
I sense something off even before I see it. My muscles tense at the feeling that I’m not alone, like I should be.
Custos lands quietly on my shoulder while I peer left and right. Everything seems normal. There are no odd sounds, no footprints on the path or in the earth around the trees.
Then I notice it. The door to the training barn is ajar. It’s just a crack, and there isn’t enough wind to make it move, but I know something is wrong.
Custos cocks his head when he notices it a second later. He nudges my neck with his beak, as if to say, ‘Go check it out!’
Slowly moving closer, my mind whirls around the possibilities. Did I fail to properly close the portal after the last training session, making it possible for the monster to escape?
I shake that thought off. Even if I didn’t close it completely, the portal only lets monsters cross halfway. It’s not really a passage; they can’t get through to this world.
The Seventh Crow Page 22
