by K. H. Pope
“Did you get anything out of Piedmont? Did he own up to taking Lana?”
“No, Alice. I told you he wouldn’t.”
“John, you know that Piedmont and Pearl are responsible for the abductions.”
“I don’t disagree with you.”
“Something has to be done. The regular police isn’t going to do anything. Ammon is supposed to be talking to someone in the Magi Elite International Police Division, but I don’t know how that’s going.”
“Who is Ammon?” John asks.
“He’s another friend of mine.”
“Well, call him up. See what he found out.”
I grab my cell out of my pocket and make the call. Ammon answers immediately.
“Any word on the cops?” I ask him.
“No, they won’t question him,” Ammon answers. “Where are you right now?”
“Wait a minute.” I cover my mouth in mock shock. “You don’t know where I am? I can’t believe it.”
“Alice.”
“I’m at John Zuller’s log cabin at Black Bayou Lake. Before you get here, can you find out all the places that Harrison Piedmont and Pearl Nakamura owns? I’m convinced that they have Lana and Max.”
“It’s no problem,” he says. “I’ll be there shortly with the information.”
I disconnect the call and toss the phone on the sofa.
“What is the plan if we find them?” John asks. “Piedmont will not let them go easily.”
“We have to wing it,” I reply. “I wish we could get in touch with Evelyn Crowe. I bet she could make him give up Lana since that’s her friend, too.”
“I know who I can call in Germany. Perhaps, he can get word to her. She might come back and help us.” John gets on the phone and calls his contact.
And I wait impatiently for Ammon to arrive. A half hour passes by before he comes through the door without knocking. I’m so glad to see the dapper Egyptian that I nearly give him a stranglehold of a hug.
“Did Piedmont or Pearl have any other houses they own?” I ask anxiously.
“No, they didn’t.”
I’m disappointed. Another damn wall, and I’m pissed.
“But Martha, Harrison’s wife, has a house located in Klondike, Texas, right near John Chapman Lake.”
John and I look at Ammon like he said something that was absolutely insane.
“Why would she have a place in Klondike, Texas?” John asks.
“Martha inherited it from her stepfather. It’s remote, no one goes out there to the land. It’s the perfect place to hide Lana and Max.”
“Let’s go,” I remark, heading for the door.
“Wait a minute,” John says. “You can’t just go there.”
“Watch me.”
CHAPTER 21
With the help of Ammon, John and I appear on the road in front of Martha’s house. It looks brand new. All of the shades are down. Doors are closed. The wind wipes around the house, carrying dust. It looks abandoned, but I know it’s not.
I close my eyes, shut out the surroundings, and concentrate; trying to remember the familiar smells of Lana. I go back to the times when she took care of me, and at that moment, I can feel her. She’s terrified. She’s close, right in the house before me. I open my eyes and look around.
There’s no one standing outside or keeping guard. The flat earth and the tumbleweeds are the only things I can see for miles beyond the house. The sound of the nearby river is barely audible. This is a breathtaking place, but there is a pronounced fear from behind the walls of the house.
“Alice, there is a fresh grave over here.” John is standing in the yard, behind a tall dry, leafless brush.
Ammon and I walk over to where he is, and I place my hand on the dirt. It’s Max’s grave. I’m not happy about this at all. His poor wife will be devastated.
A sudden surge of power from inside the house grabs my attention. There are several beings inside. Ammon, John, and I starting walking towards the house. We stop right in front of the porch.
“Shall we?” Ammon says, almost too casually.
“Absolutely,” I answer with heated anger.
With the will of my powers, I crack the door right on its hinges, and Ammon sends a white fire blaze right out of his hand, making the door explode into dust. We enter the house. It’s empty, no furniture, but it’s not long before Harrison Piedmont, Pearl Nakamura, and a man I haven’t seen before makes an appearance. Then Evelyn Crowe walks into the room from a side hallway. I’m confused and shocked. What is she doing here?
The answer becomes obvious as she smiles directly at me. I’m ready to fight them all. I’m boiling with eons of anger in the pit of my stomach. I take in each person. The unknown man has dark Latin American good looks. He is impeccably dashing in his grey suit. Evelyn Crowe is wearing a red dress jacket suit, fitted perfectly to her form, and she stands with strength and confidence. Harrison Piedmont has the aura of arrogance. He appears to be angry, eyeballing each one of us, like it supposed to instill fear. And Pearl Nakamura, she’s dressed in all black, looking perfect, and ready to fight another battle. She better be. I am.
Evelyn speaks first. “Well, we have company, everyone. Alice, the great Ammon Seth, and John Zuller. You have quite a team on your side, Alice.”
Her comment doesn’t require an answer.
“John, you disappoint me today. You failed your mission.”
“Did I?” he asks smartly.
“You were given specific instructions to keep Alice away from Moltean Corporation and all of its personnel. Instead you helped her with the investigation.”
“Guess I’m not good at following orders,” he reply snidely.
“Honestly, John, you aren’t good at much of anything,” Evelyn responds nastily. “You’re fired.”
This does not rattle him in the least.
Evelyn returns her attention to me. “Alice, when you came by to see me earlier today, I was a bit surprised. How did you find me?”
“The fallen never reveals their secrets.”
Ammon chuckles.
She exhales, clearly not pleased with my answer. “Tell me something, Fallen. Have you heard of the Magi Elite?”
“I have.”
“I am the president of that organization,” Evelyn remarks with pride. “And you have been a real problem for us. You had one of our very own infiltrate our computer system to find Lily Fawlke. You should have known that Tibios would be caught.”
“President Crowe,” Ammon intercedes. “We are here for the hu-”
“The human woman stays here until I get what I want!”
“The Magi Elite will not approve-”
“Ammon, I am the Magi Elite.”
“What is it that you want, Evelyn?” I ask impatiently.
“Mrs. President to you, Fallen. I want you to stop your search for Calamous and Lily Fawlke, and I want you to die.”
“At least, you’re honest,” I say with a laugh.
“Do you know why Lana was taken?” Just like that she’s changed the subject, but it’s one I want to hear. “She was taken because of you, Alice.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“After you fell to Earth, Ammon took you to Lana’s home. That is where you lost the rest of your angelic wings, the stumps that were on your back. Lana saved them, locked them away in a little chest. She told me about you and the wings long after you had moved on from Plain Dealing. Of course, I wanted them. They could be used to kill you, and it would end your search for vengeance. And on top of that, I planned on using them to keep my power over the Magi Elite.”
She’s wrong. There isn’t anything she can make that will overpower the sentence that was handed down to me from above. But honestly, that doesn’t really bother me. What really worries me is that my anger put Lana in harm’s way. How could I have been so stupid?
Evelyn moves closer to me. “I take it you know about the curse on the house. I wish I knew who made it, but anyway, I believe it do
esn’t affect you. That’s why you’re going back there to get those wing stumps for me.”
“You think?” I ask smartly.
“I know, or Lana dies.”
“I can’t get them,” I remark. “I’ve already tried.”
“Well, you’re going to try again. They’re yours. Therefore, you shouldn’t have a problem.”
This woman hasn’t thought this through, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve already made my decision on what I plan on doing, and I will see it through.
With a sigh, I answer, “Okay.”
“Alice,” John remarks. “You’re not going to do this.”
How does he know?
Without warning, I focus my energy on everyone except Pearl. They fly back hitting the walls. Pearl sends a bolt of lightning at me, and that’s exactly what I wanted her to do. I consume the current, combine it with my energy, and I send it back to my opponents, including her.
Piedmont is the toughest to hold down. He is the first to break free, but Ammon releases a white hot fiery ball at his chest. Piedmont hits the wall with an amazing force and lands on the floor. He’s unconscious.
I release my powers from the unknown and concentrate totally on Pearl and Evelyn. John sends a sonic wave towards the unknown, but he disappears right before the wave can connect. Glass from the windows shatters around us. I let go of the women, shielding my face from flying glass. Evelyn and Pearl hit the ground hard, but Evelyn shake uncontrollably from the surge of electricity. Pearl crawls over to her. She touches her hand, and they disappear together.
The battle is over that quickly. John and Ammon go to check on Piedmont. I listen for Lana. I can still feel her presence in the house. I go towards the back of the house to a hallway, and I make all of the doors open simultaneously. Lana is in the second room, and when I go through the entrance, I see her cowering in the corner.
The moment she sees me, the disbelief and the relief appear in her expression. I go over to her, and she wraps her arms around my neck. I can’t breathe from her holding me so tight.
I sit back and smile, letting her know that she’s going to be okay.
CHAPTER 22
The morning arrives with renewed hope. Lana is seeking therapy on the back deck of her house. She’s listening to the frogs croaking and the crickets singing. She’s content in the moment, wrapped up in a full size blanket. Her jet black hair is unkempt, but she still looks beautiful in a girl next door kind of way. I sit down beside her, and a smile appears on her face.
“How do you feel?” I ask.
“I feel better. Glad to be home.” Lana adjusts the blanket around her shoulders.
“I can still get you to the hospital if you want,” I offer.
“No, Alice, there isn’t anything they can do. They probably have bigger problems with all the craziness that’s going on.”
“Do you want to talk about what happened?”
She looks up and sighs.
“You don’t have to,” I remark.
“No, I’ll tell you. Max and I went to Viking to feed the homeless Friday. While we were out there, Max kept getting phone calls. Every single call was an argument. He kept saying no. That he didn’t want to be involved. He said there has to be another way. I had to send him back to the van.”
“Who did Max get into a fight with out there?”
“I’ve never seen the guy before. He was strange looking, almost like he wasn’t human.” Lana shivers and pulls the blanket tighter. “I don’t think he was human.”
“Did you and Max leave Viking after you made the handouts?”
“We did, but we didn’t get very far. The same car had the road blocked half a mile away from Viking. The same inhuman guy was standing outside the car, and so was Sister Abigail.”
“Sister Abigail of St. Eligius was there?” This is shocking to me. A nun with something inhuman? Lana can’t be right.
She nods with closed eyes. The tears trickle down her reddened face. “As soon as Max got out of the car, the guy killed him. Sister Abigail took the church van from me, and the guy took me and Max’s dead body to wherever you found us.”
“How is Sister Abigail involved in this?”
“I don’t know, Alice.” Lana wipes her tears. “I don’t know.”
“What happened after you got to the house in Texas?”
“Evelyn was there. We talked over coffee right in the dining room. She made me another offer for the Victorian. It was the craziest thing, Alice. She said that she’d build a brand new house for me just like this one in Dijon, France, and she’d pay for all the building and decorating costs. She’d put me up in a model home until the house was done, and I wouldn’t have to pay any utilities or costs of living. She would take care of everything.”
“Why didn’t you take it? She would have let you go.”
“The moment I signed my house over to her, she would have killed me. I know how Evelyn is. I know what she’s capable of. She is cold hearted, and she doesn’t care who she hurts. She gains nothing from paying my utilities and building me a brand new house. I’d be buried exactly where Max is right now if I agreed to that deal. Really, she was going to kill me right at her dinner table when I refused her offer, but I had the upper hand. I told her about the spell on the house.”
“You knew about that?”
“Yes, I knew. John wrote the spell for me, and I recited it. I was shocked to see it create the chamber under the house.”
“John Zuller? He wrote it?” I point over my shoulder.
Lana nods. “Yes. He saved me, Alice. If that spell wasn’t there, I would be dead. When I told Evelyn about it, she was so angry. She couldn’t kill me. She couldn’t threaten my brother’s life to make me sign. She couldn’t do anything but keep me locked away in that room.”
“You told her you casted the spell?”
“No, I only told her that it existed.”
“Okay, that make sense, and it also explains why Evelyn couldn’t track the magic. You don’t have a magical signature. You know, I didn’t realize you kept my wings.”
“I thought about giving them back to you, but the feathers that were still on them were so beautiful. They shimmered all the time, like little flashes of light.”
“I’m sorry, Lana. I didn’t think those wings would have been that much trouble.”
“There’s no need for you to apologize. I made the decision to keep them. You didn’t make me.”
“Still, Lana, I’m very sorry.”
We sit quietly, enjoying the scenery for a while. Eventually, John comes out on the deck and leans against the railing.
“You lied to me,” I remark to him.
“About what?”
“You knew my wings were in the basement. You made the spell. You knew who casted it, and you didn’t tell me.”
“I didn’t want to tell you everything,” he admits.
“Why not?”
“There was the matter of trust.”
“But you were honest about the other stuff,” I remark.
“I had to hold some things back, Alice. Remember what I said back at the coffee shop. I felt like I told you too much. I didn’t really know you.”
“Well, I guess if I were in your shoes, I would have done the same thing, except I would have lied more. I’m just glad this is over.”
“Not quite,” John remarks. “I came out here to let you know that Ammon has been summoned to see the acting president for the Magi Elite.”
“Why?” I ask curiously.
John shrugs.
“They better punish Evelyn Crowe and all the rest of them.”
“We’ll see,” he remarks. “You know how they operate. Are you ladies thirsty? I can grab you something from inside.”
“Will you bring me a glass of merlot?” Lana asks.
“Merlot for breakfast,” I comment.
She laughs and nods.
“Yes, indeed,” John says.
When he goes back inside, I rise from my cha
ir and stand at the railing. I have something to tell her. This is not going to be easy, but I have no choice. “Lana, I have bad news.”
“I don’t know if I can take anything else bad,” she says.
“I’m sorry to tell you this, but Jeff is dead.” My heart is racing.
She looks away and says, “Evelyn got to him, anyway.”
“I’m not sure if she did,” I remark.
Lana looks at me curiously.
“I went to see him yesterday. I was going to question him about why he was selling your house. I had him pinned his chair. He started to choke. I have no idea who killed him.”
She covers her mouth.
“I’m sorry, Lana.”
The news is hard for her to take, and her shoulders start shivering. I want to comfort her, but I’m afraid to go near her. She stands and goes inside. She walks by John without taking her drink.
I turn around to face the backyard. I might have helped saved her life, but it doesn’t make up for the life she has lost. I decide to leave, but I ask John to stay with her, just in case Pearl or the others show up.
CHAPTER 23
The garden at St. Eligius is beautiful. It seems like the flowers have grown since the last time I was here. I sit down on the bench against the church. The rain clouds in the distance skies are approaching. It’s going to be a heavy downpour before the day is over.
The wooden door opens, and Father Paul comes out. He isn’t surprised to see me, but he smiles in his usual way. It’s not really cordial, but it’s not mean either.
He blocks my view of the unsettled sky. “Are you still looking for Lana?”
“I found her.”
“Really? I’m impressed.”
“She was being held against her will in a house in Klondike, Texas.”
Father Paul’s expression turns into one of being troubled. He asks, “Are you sure?”
“Very sure,” I answer quickly. “Father, where is Sister Abigail?”
“She’s inside.”
“How does she know Harrison Piedmont?”
Father Paul puts his hands behind his back and answers, “Harrison is her brother.”
