by R. L. King
Aubrey produced his own phone, which Stone had insisted he get a few months ago. “I’ll do that, sir. Best to let Miss Thayer focus on dealing with any magic that might arise. Though if my theory is correct, there might not be any to deal with.”
“I hope so,” Stone said. He glanced at Jason, who was opening his camera bag. “What have you got there?”
Jason pulled out digital camera on a strap, followed by an SLR, and slung both around his neck. “If I’m gonna be the mundane in the crowd, I might as well make myself useful in mundane ways. I figure you might want some photos if anything weird is going on.”
“Good thought,” Stone said in approval.
“I’ll be right back, sir,” Aubrey said. He hurried off toward the garage, and returned a few moments later carrying two stout wooden objects. As he drew closer, Stone chuckled. “A cricket bat and a shillelagh? Aubrey, you are full of surprises.”
Aubrey offered the scarred cricket bat to Jason. “Best if we can defend ourselves, sir. I didn’t think you’d approve of my discharging a shotgun inside the house.”
Verity grinned. “Give me that camera, Jason. This needs documenting.” When he handed it over, she backed off. “Smile, both of you. The two mighty hunters ready to battle the forces of darkness with sporting equipment.”
Neither of them did, but she snapped the photo anyway and returned the camera. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Stone backed off, motioning for Ian to follow him, and called Aubrey’s mobile. When the caretaker answered, he put the call on speaker and nodded toward the house. “Be careful,” he called again, trying not to visualize a ceiling beam falling on their heads. “And do not go downstairs in the east wing. We’ll save that for the next experiment.”
He watched with growing tension as the three of them mounted the front steps. Verity held up a hand and paused before they crossed the threshold, obviously scanning with magical sight. After a few moments, she nodded and stepped inside, and then a few seconds after that waved the others in.
“Is anything happening?” Stone demanded, pacing. “What do you see?”
“It’s a bit of a mess in here, sir,” Aubrey’s crackling voice came through immediately. “The entryway is in quite a lot of disarray. The lamps have exploded, there’s a broken table on its side, and it looks like something slammed into the door to the great room at rather high velocity. And something has blown the rug to pieces.”
“Yes, that was me. It attacked me when I tried to enter. Verity, can you tell if any of it’s illusion?”
“Doesn’t look like it.” She sounded farther away, as if she might be turned away from the phone. “It’s just a mess, like Aubrey said.”
“Any blood on the walls?” Ian called over Stone’s shoulder.
“Nope.” Jason this time. “No blood. I’ve got some pics for you.”
“Good. All right,” Stone said. “Keep going.” His heart beat faster. “What about the aura, Verity? It still looks green from here. Any sign of red?”
“Nope. All green. It’s freakin’ weird-looking, but it seems calm enough at the moment.”
“We’re opening the door to the great room now, sir,” Aubrey said. “It’s quite dark in here.”
“The chandeliers are on the floor,” Verity said. “Three of them, it looks like. There’s glass all over the place.”
“That matches with what I saw,” Ian murmured to Stone.
“Careful,” Stone said again. “But you don’t hear anything? No screaming? Nothing’s moving?”
“Nothing,” Jason said. “Place looks like somebody came in here and tossed it. Books on the floor—holy shit, is that a sword poking through the back of one of the sofas?”
“Yeah, that happened last night,” Ian said, leaning in to be heard. “It’s from the wall. Scared the hell out of me.”
“All right,” Stone said. “So at least so far, it doesn’t seem you lot are setting the echoes off.”
“You sure you don’t want us to check out the east wing?” Verity asked.
“I’m sure,” he answered quickly. “I want a bit more time to study the situation before we go there—I’m still hoping to work out a way Ian and I can go in with you, or if nothing else I want to ask Eddie and Ward to accompany you so you’ll have more magical protection. Check out the kitchen and the west wing. Ian, you ran directly from the east wing to the front door, right?”
“Yeah. Through the great room. I didn’t go anywhere else. I wanted to get my ass out of there before something smashed me into a wall or drove me crazy with all that screaming.”
“Right, then,” Stone said more loudly. “You heard that, right? Check the areas where neither Ian nor I went, and see if they’re disturbed.”
“Okay,” Jason said. “We’re heading upstairs.”
Stone didn’t realize he was holding his breath until Verity’s voice came through again a few seconds later. “Everything looks fine up here, Doc. Nothing disturbed as far as I can tell. Nothing’s moving except us.”
Stone pondered. “Looks like Aubrey’s theory is holding up so far,” he said under his breath to Ian. “The damage is confined to areas where you and I went, which certainly sounds like the echoes have some issue with the Stone family specifically.” Louder, he said, “All right—come on out. Keep your eyes open, though. I wouldn’t put it past those things to try something when they don’t think you’re paying attention.”
When Verity, Jason, and Aubrey emerged through the front door a few moments later, though, the echoes had remained dormant. Stone ceased his pacing and hurried over to them, tension draining from him as he did. “Everything all right?”
“Yeah,” Jason said. “Nothing bothered us. Like I said, it looked to me like somebody broke in hunting for something.”
“Except for the sword,” Verity added. “And the radioactive green glow.”
“Here, see for yourself.” Jason pulled out the digital camera, fiddled with it, and offered it to Stone.
Stone paged through the photos on the tiny screen, with Ian looking over his shoulder. They showed exactly what his friends had described: the broken chandeliers, scattered books, destroyed rug, and shattered windows. “I’d half expected the photos to be buggered up,” he commented, handing the camera back. “Echoes can do that sometimes.”
“I’m not sure they were even there,” Verity said.
“What do you mean? Of course they were there,” Ian protested. “You saw what they did in there.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. I don’t mean they don’t exist—just that I didn’t get any sense of being watched while we were in there. Did either of you?” she asked Jason and Aubrey.
The caretaker shook his head. “No. I’d like to think I’m rather well attuned to that house for someone with no magical ability. I didn’t feel anything odd or disturbing—other than dismay at the thought of having to clean up all that disarray in there.”
“You won’t,” Stone said, only half paying attention as he once again studied the house with magical sight. “We’ll have a crew in to do the cleaning once this is sorted.” He frowned. “I’m going to try going in again. Perhaps they are dormant right now. Perhaps they spent all their energy on the little show they put on last night, and now they’ve got to rest before they put on another one.”
“Do you think that’s wise, sir?” Aubrey asked, brow furrowing.
“Not really. But I’ve got to know. I’m already bloody sick of being run out of my own house by a load of supernatural squatters.”
“You want me to go with you?” Ian asked.
“No. If they’re still active, it shouldn’t take long to verify it.” He held up his phone. “I’ll keep the line open.”
Verity looked as if she might say something, but then signed and nodded. “Be careful. Don’t get yourself run through with any medieval weapons or anything.”
“That’s always been my aim.” Stone shot her an amused sideways glance.
The others remained cl
ustered in a little knot near the circular driveway, their attention riveted on him as he trudged back toward the house.
It didn’t take long to determine the echoes were most decidedly not dormant. As soon as he stepped over the threshold, the screams began anew, and all around him, the broken glass, books, bits of shattered furniture, and swatches of destroyed rug began whirling around him like a tornado.
Get out!
You don’t belong here!
Murrrrrdererrrrrrr!
GO!
The voices shrieked and wailed, falling over each other and competing for which could be louder and more head-splitting. Stone spun around, shield up and magical senses active. He heard a liquid whoosh from above him a split-second before something warm and wet cascaded down on him from the ceiling. As it bypassed his shield and drenched him to the skin, he realized with horror that he was soaked in bright red blood. It ran down his neck, creeping down his chest and back, and dripped from his sodden hair into his face. His feet squelched and slipped in it as he whirled and darted back through the door. He’d barely stepped through and closed it behind him before a heavy fireplace log slammed into it with a rattling, ear-shattering thud. He lost his balance in the slippery blood and staggered forward, tripping over his feet at the top of the steps. Both Ian and Verity caught him with magic and lowered him to the ground before he took a hard tumble.
Panting, he dropped to his knees. His heart thudded so hard he thought he might pass out. Still in the grip of panic, he tore his blood-soaked coat off and flung it aside.
Except it wasn’t blood-soaked.
The long black coat was dry and clean, aside from a light dusting of dirt from where he’d thrown it.
“Doc?” Verity hurried over to him. “What’s wrong? Are you okay? You went so pale—”
Stone rocked back, still on his knees in the dirt. He stared at his hands, half expecting to see them caked in sticky red blood, but all he saw was a bit of grime from the ground.
“Bloody hell…” he got out, breathless.
“What happened?” Jason demanded, as Aubrey came over to grip Stone’s shoulders. “What did you see?”
“They’re…not dormant.” He paused a moment to get himself back under control, then accepted a hand up from Aubrey. “They are most certainly not dormant. And they’ve definitely got something against me.”
He held out his arms, inspecting himself for any leftover signs of blood, but saw none. It was as if the blood had never been there—which, of course, it couldn’t have been.
“What happened? We didn’t see anything,” Jason said. “Didn’t hear anything, either. You just suddenly freaked out and took off, then tripped over your own feet and did a header down the front steps.”
Stone retrieved his coat, shook the dirt off it, and shrugged back into it. “Blood,” he said. “I felt like an extra in a bad Carrie revival. Those things were screaming at me like before, and suddenly something dumped a big bucket of blood on me from above my head. Illusion, but…damned convincing.”
“My God…” Aubrey whispered. He gripped Stone’s arm. “Sir…what are you going to do? If you can’t get inside—”
Suddenly, Stone’s momentary fear burned away, replaced by cold anger. How dare these renegade echoes, or whatever the hell they were, try to drive him out of his own home? Even if his ancestors had been less than saintly, he’d never done anything to them, and there was no way he planned to take on this guilt by association without fighting back.
“What I’m going to do,” he said, clenching his fists, “is make a few calls. Before I can do anything else, I need more data.”
10
Stone, Ian, Verity, and Jason were already at the London house when Eddie Monkton and Arthur Ward arrived through the portal an hour later.
“Some problem you’ve got, mate,” Eddie said after Stone introduced them to Ian. He carried a large leather satchel slung over one shoulder and couldn’t hide his excitement. “I’ve been waitin’ for you to give a ring ever since you ducked out last night.”
Ward, at least, had the grace to look concerned. “Where is Aubrey?”
“He stayed back at the house.” Stone led them upstairs to the sitting room, where one of the house’s skeleton staff offered them refreshments and then departed. “I asked him not to, but you know Aubrey. He’s more stubborn than I am, and as he pointed out, whatever’s going on there doesn’t seem interested in him.”
“Sounds like it,” Eddie said. “So you’ve got some kind of family-related ’aunting, or curse, or summat.” He settled back with cup of coffee. “Why don’t you start by tellin’ us the whole story?”
Stone couldn’t sit still, so he paced and prowled the large room while catching his two friends up with everything that had gone on so far. Both of them listened with close attention, and by the time he finished Eddie was practically wriggling in his seat, and Ward wore an expression somewhere between fascination and horror.
“Okay,” Eddie said. “So you ’aven’t been downstairs again since you took that first look ’round yesterday afternoon?”
“I was, briefly,” Ian said. He sat perched on the end of one of the antique brocade sofas. “I didn’t stay long, though, after everything went to hell.”
“It seems a reasonable assumption that the carved door breaking disturbed the echoes,” Ward said contemplatively, rubbing his chin. “But if that’s so, what broke the door in the first place?”
“Are you sure you didn’t see any cracks when you examined it, Stone?” Eddie asked.
“Nothing obvious.” Stone glanced at Ian, who shook his head. “If they were there, they were well hidden.”
“And no magic around it?”
“Not a bit. Ian and I both looked carefully. If there ever was any, either it’s gone by now or the door was blocking it.”
“Okay…” Eddie opened his satchel and removed several books and stacks of papers, which he laid across the coffee table but didn’t open yet. “Ward’s probably right about the door, but it’s also possible that we’re lookin’ at this thing wrong side ’round.”
“What do you mean?” Verity asked.
“Well, I’m willin’ to bet quite a lot that the door and the echoes are related somehow—but there’s two ways of lookin’ at ’em. Maybe the broken door caused the echoes, either by stirrin’ ’em up or by releasin’ ’em from some kind o’ stasis or captivity…or else the echoes were there all along, and did somethin’ to break the door.”
“That doesn’t make as much sense, though,” Ward pointed out. “Stone and Ian went down there to look around yesterday afternoon and nothing bothered them then. Right, Stone? Did you sense anything unusual?”
“Not a thing. Well, other than the fact that there’s been a ritual room and network of bloody catacombs hidden under my house for at least a couple hundred years. That’s a bit unusual.”
“Ian said he heard the crack late last night,” Verity said. “It doesn’t make sense that something that heavy would just…fail like that, so suddenly, after being there that long. Especially if it was reinforced with magic. I know you said you didn’t see any, Doc, but like you said, maybe it was shielded from the other side or something.”
“Maybe the earth shifted,” Jason said. “Same thing that caused the crack in the floor in the first place. Maybe it happened again.”
“A good thought,” Stone said. He wondered briefly if this could be related to the rifts he’d found earlier that year, but even aside from the fact that his home didn’t correspond to any of the dots on Desmond’s globe, his gut told him it wasn’t. “But since it coincided so closely with our presence in the chamber—probably the first human presence down there since it was sealed…”
“And definitely the first Stone family presence,” Eddie added.
“—I’m more inclined to suspect that our breaking through the floor into the chamber was the catalyst,” Stone finished.
“But I thought you said it was the workmen who broke
through and found the space underneath,” Jason said.
“Yes, but the workmen weren’t Stones.”
“No,” Verity said. “But nothing attacked you the first time you went down there, either.”
“Perhaps that’s because the vault wasn’t cracked yet,” Ward said. “From the sound of it, the whole thing down there was a system: the carved vault door, the passages, the ritual room, and the fact that it was all sealed off.”
“Yeah,” Eddie said, leaning forward with enthusiasm. “I think you’re on to something, mate. Stone, once the workers breached the initial protective enchantments by breaking through the floor, maybe that released enough power for whatever was behind that vault door to break out, which in turn let the echoes out to play.”
“Or the combination of the floor breach and the presence of two powerful Stone family members in the vicinity was enough energy to set it off,” Ward added.
“That’s all great,” Jason said, “but indulge the mundane for a minute here, okay? Regardless of what started it, what are you going to do about it? I’m guessing Al doesn’t plan to sell his house because it’s full of pissed-off ghosts. Do we even have any idea who these ghosts are, or what pissed them off in the first place?”
Stone had almost forgotten that he hadn’t told Jason anything about his family. “Er,” he said uncomfortably. “I’ve got some idea, yes. I don’t want to go into the details right now, but let’s just suffice it to say I found out not too long ago that my ancestors got up to some fairly ghastly things. Including human sacrifices, apparently.”
“What?” Jason gaped at him. He rubbed his face. “You’re sayin’…you think somebody in your family was sacrificing people in your basement?”
“That’s exactly what I think. The ritual area seemed set up for that sort of thing, and our theory is that the bricked-in alcoves were where they interred the bodies when they were…finished with them. You can’t ash a dead body, and if they were hidden away in a sealed chamber, there was no chance they’d ever be found.”
