by King, R. L.
Carly subsided into silence then, and after a couple of minutes Jason turned on the car’s radio. “See if you can get the news,” he said to Stone. “If something this big is going down in Ojai, they might be talking about it.”
Stone fiddled with the tuner until he got a local news channel. They listened for a few moments as the reporter finished a national story; then the dispassionate voice of the newsman announced: “Switching to local news: additional police officers from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department are being deployed to Ojai following a series of grisly murders occurring within the last two hours in the small town. These bring the total over the last two weeks to thirteen. Ojai police chief Marilyn Darnell has asked the public to avoid the town at this time—unless you’re a resident or you have urgent business there, you’re urged to stay away. Police have their hands full tonight with the murders, which have struck in apparently unrelated locations, including a local concert being held at Libbey Park. More news updates as we receive them. Now, to weather—”
Stone snapped the radio off and stared at it. “It waited until we were away,” he said in a monotone.
“What?” Jason asked.
“It waited. It knows Edna can’t deal with it on her own, which means that with me out of town, there’s nobody there who can stop it. It knows we went after Carly. It waited until we left to do this.”
“We couldn’t stay there forever, Al,” Jason said. “You know that. If it was gonna happen, it was gonna happen eventually. We’ll just have to get there as fast as we can and do what we can to deal with it.” He nudged the car a bit faster. “Just watch the road and get ready to take off the spell if you see any cars.”
Normally, it would have taken them almost two hours to get from Santa Maria to Ojai. Between the dearth of traffic on the highway, Jason’s reflexes, Stone’s spell, and the BMW’s comfort at one-hundred—mile-per-hour -plus cruising speeds, they managed to cut almost an hour off that time. They only had to slow down when they got off 101 in Ventura, and both Stone and Jason were visibly impatient as they continued at what seemed like a relative standstill toward Oak View and Lopez’s house. Carly, exhausted by her evening’s ordeal, an incipient hangover, and all the information she’d had to process in a short time, had dozed off around Santa Barbara, and was now snoring softly in the back seat.
The lights were off in Lopez’s house as they pulled up in the driveway. “He must have had to report in already,” Jason said, getting out.
“Let’s see if Edna’s here,” Stone said. He hurried up to the front door and knocked. “Edna? Are you in there?”
He began growing concerned when no one answered, but after almost a full minute a light switched on and the door opened a crack. “That you?” came a familiar voice. “About time!”
“We got here as fast as we could,” Stone protested. “I assume Stan has already gone?”
“Yeah, about an hour ago. They’re calling in all the police they can get their hands on.” She pushed the door open further; she was wearing her usual outfit of jeans and Native-print shirt, with a thin leather jacket over it. “Did you bring Carly?”
“She’s in the car,” Jason said, coming up behind Stone. “We’d better get going.”
“Did you find anything in the book?” Stone asked. “Please tell me you did.”
“I did,” she said. “Tell you on the way. Let’s take Stan’s truck, though. He told me to. I’ve got the keys.”
“Why?” Jason asked.
“In case we need to go anywhere that overpriced land-yacht of yours can’t manage,” she snapped. “Plus, Stan seems to think yours might be recognized—some people still think you were connected with the murders, and that’s not good tonight. Come on, we’re wasting time.” She closed and locked the door behind her.
Stone noticed she was carrying a bag over her shoulder. “Is the book in there?”
She nodded. “Be careful driving,” she told Jason. “It’s a madhouse out there. I’ve been listening to Stan’s police radio. There’ve been two more murders since you talked to him, including another one at the concert downtown. The police are trying to control the situation, but people are scared and they’re having a hell of a time. They’re worried about a riot.”
Stone quickly gathered his magical gear, which he’d stowed in the BMW’s trunk, then they pulled it into Stan’s garage. Jason woke up Carly and all of them got in the truck.
Jason, who was driving, switched on the police radio as he got moving back toward Ojai. “Holy crap, Al,” he said under his breath. “This was a bad scene before—now it’s turning into a nightmare. If people get scared and start trashing the town—”
“We’ll do what we can, Jason,” he said grimly. “Just get us there.”
The chatter on the radio wasn’t encouraging . Apparently it was taking some time to deploy the police from Ventura, so they were still coming in and getting their briefings. Nobody was saying where the murders had taken place, except that there were now at least three of them at the concert at the downtown park. The police and other emergency personnel that were already on the scene were trying to disperse the crowd and deal with the bodies, but the people were scared and uncooperative, and some were acting erratically.
“Where you want to start?” Jason asked Stone.
“Let’s get downtown if we can,” he said. “We won’t have time to set up more than a rudimentary circle, but with Carly on hand that might be all we need. If it’s killing people to make more minions, then I’m hoping if we can get rid of it, the minions will just leave on their own.” He twisted in his seat to face Edna, who was in the back. “Do you concur?”
She shrugged. “Sounds like it might work. I don’t know, though. I never had to deal with anything but the main guy.”
“Uh—” Jason interrupted. “Al? Problem.”
Stone turned back. Up ahead of them, a line of red brake lights loomed in the road. Beyond that they could make out the flashing blue-and-reds of a police car. “Bugger,” he snapped. “They’re blocking the road. Probably don’t want any more people than necessary coming in to play tourist.”
“What do we do?”
Stone noticed the roadblock extended out on both sides, which meant nobody was leaving town and the road going out was clear. “Drive up to them on the other side,” he directed.
Jason stared at him. “You sure?”
“Wait!” Edna said. “Can you turn around?”
There were already cars behind them, but there was no traffic on the other side. Some of the others were already getting the same idea, pulling out and changing direction to head back the way they’d come. “Yeah, but—”
“Do it,” she said. “If we go back, we can catch Villanova Road and get in from there.”
“Won’t they have that blocked, too?” Stone asked, as Jason began turning the truck around.
“Not likely,” Jason said. “They don’t have that many cops in Ojai, and the radio said the Ventura guys are just getting their orders. Things are gonna be a clusterfuck. They don’t have enough men to block all the ways in and out.”
“Should we go pick up Suzanne?” Jason asked.
“No time,” Stone said. “We’ve got her book and we’ve got Carly—I think that’s all we need.” He turned around to Carly. “Are you all right back there?”
“Scared shitless,” she said in a shaky voice. “But I’m starting to think you might be telling the truth.”
“Well, that’s something. Don’t worry, we’ll keep you safe.” He hoped he could keep that promise.
They drove a short distance back toward Ventura when Edna pointed. “There. Turn left.”
Jason did as instructed. Stone noticed that none of the other cars were doing the same thing: either they weren’t familiar with the local roads or else the police presence had dissuaded them from trying to get closer to the
action. Someone had set up cones across the road to stop anyone from going further, but it was easy to drive around them.
Villanova Road was narrow, tree-lined, and twisty, but it didn’t go on very far. In less than ten minutes they’d reached its end and made a right back onto the road that would become Ojai Avenue. As they drove past the junction of highways 150 and 33, no more flashing lights greeted them. “Good,” Jason said. “No more blocks. Like I said, I doubt they have the manpower to block everything off.”
They soon had another problem, though: traffic. Ojai Avenue, they discovered, was considerably more choked with vehicles than one would expect on a sleepy late-summer Sunday night. “Left here,” Edna ordered. “I can get us there on back roads.”
Stone, grateful that they had someone who could navigate the town without having to resort to map-reading, nodded. “Tell me what you found in the book,” he said, as Jason turned the truck in the direction Edna had indicated.
She reached in her bag and pulled it out. A new bookmark poked out of it, about halfway through. “It’s not much,” she said, “but it looks like a pretty good banishment spell. Similar to the summoning spell you found: it’s not specific to a particular entity. The magic in here is more your style than mine, though, and my Latin’s rusty.” She passed it forward. “Take a look.”
Stone flipped on the dome light, took the book and opened it to the page Edna had indicated, bowing his head low over the scribblings.
“Is that a magic book?” Carly asked from the back seat.
“The real thing,” Edna said.
“Oh, wow...” she murmured. She was still looking very much like something large and heavy had smacked her hard between the eyes. “I think I need a drink.”
“Extradimensional vengeance spirit first,” Stone said without looking up. “Drink after.”
Following Edna’s directions, Jason got the truck the rest of the way downtown until they were one street over from Ojai Avenue near Libbey Park. Sirens sounded in the distance, and even with the truck’s windows up they could hear yells, the occasional crash of glass breaking, and general pandemonium.
“Pull in here,” Edna ordered, pointing at a narrow drive that looked like it led back behind a small, closed business. “Can’t guarantee the truck’ll be safe, but I don’t think people will look here.”
Jason again did as directed. He grabbed a walkie-talkie and they piled out of the truck. Stone closed the book, stowed it in his leather bag, and slung the bag over his shoulder.
“Anything?” Edna asked him.
“You were right,” he said. “This should do just fine, assuming we can pin it down long enough. Can you get any sense of where it is?”
Edna paused a moment, leaning against the back of the truck and closing her eyes. “It’s close,” she said. “I’m guessing it’s right in the middle of the action, wherever that is.”
“Sounds like Libbey Park,” Jason said. When everybody started to move, he said, “Hold on one sec.”
“Jason,” Stone protested. “We don’t have time—”
“No, listen. This is important.” His expression was serious. “We gotta be careful. This isn’t just about magic. This is about panicked people, and they can be every bit as dangerous as magic when you get enough of ’em together. They’re like herd animals when they’re spooked.”
“We’ll be careful, Jason,” Stone said. “Now let’s—”
“No, I don’t think you get it, Al,” Jason said, continuing to stand his ground. “It’ll be tough for you to shield all of us with all this shit going on. When people get in mobs, they do things they’d never do normally. When you add in people who could be possessed—including cops—”
Stone took a deep breath. “Point taken,” he said. “All right. You’re the expert in this situation. Get us as close as you can to the park, so we can find out if Many Faces is there. Once we locate him, we’ll work out the next stage of the plan.”
Jason nodded. “Okay, got it. C’mon.”
“Don’t forget—even if they’re possessed, they’re still just people. We’ll have to be careful. We don’t want to kill anyone.”
“That’s the plan,” Jason said. “But a lot more people will die if we don’t stop this thing, yeah?”
Stone and Edna both nodded soberly.
“Wait,” Carly said. “I’m not gonna kill anybody!”
“We’ll be careful,” Stone said. “None of us want to do that. Jason: let’s go.”
“Stay close together,” he said, and started off.
They crossed the street and moved around the back of a row of small shops that backed up the more picturesque Arcade. “This way,” Edna said, pointing at an arch to their left. “We can get through to the other side of the Arcade here.”
As they headed through the arch and out to Ojai Avenue, they passed several people going the other way, their faces wreathed in fright bordering on panic. They moved fast and, aside from jostling them as they went by, paid Stone and the others no attention. Ahead, yells, screams, and the amplified voices of police on bullhorns split what would normally have been a peaceful night.
When they reached the Arcade, they saw instantly that whatever they wanted to do, it wasn’t going to be easy. The sidewalks and streets near Libbey Park across the street teemed with people—there had to be at least two or three hundred of them milling around, shoving their way past, and shrieking in fear. A broken bottle flew past them and crashed into the side of the building in a shower of broken glass.
Stone paused a moment to switch to magical senses, and what he saw made him stiffen. Several of the people in the crowd were suffused with the sickish green aura that indicated possession by Faces or one of his minions. “Edna—?” he said grimly.
“I see it,” she replied in the same tone.
“What?” Carly demanded.
“Several of them are possessed already,” Stone said. “That’s probably why Faces committed all the murders tonight—to get himself more minions.”
“Are they just killing people indiscriminately?” Jason asked. “I thought they were mostly only killing descendants, unless they needed more forces.”
“Looks like they need more forces,” Stone said. “That means everybody we meet is going to be potentially possessed—and trying to kill others.”
“Try not to get surrounded,” Jason said. “Come on—let’s go.” He held up the walkie-talkie. “I want to see if I can find Stan.”
They worked their way around the periphery of the crowd, crossing the street and moving east up Ojai Avenue until the crowd began to thin. Several more improvised missiles sailed past them, including rocks, bottles, and full soda cans; none hit, but one flew uncomfortably close to Edna’s head.
Behind them, a scream rose up, followed by a collective shriek of fear. Stone whirled just in time to see a figure plummet from the town’s iconic post office tower and crash to the street, where it was immediately surrounded by people.
Jason had the radio turned on, and a series of ordered but somehow still urgent voices crackled out of its tiny speaker. He listened for a moment, then pointed back toward Libbey Park. “Sounds like they’ve set up a command post in the gazebo in the park. Come on. Let’s go check in with them and maybe we can find Stan.”
“Don’t we have to find what we’re looking for?” Carly asked. She was staying close to Jason and looking terrified.
“We will,” Stone said. “We’ve got another friend we want to try to locate, but if we can’t do it soon, we’ll just have to move on without him.”
They were about to slip into the park when a voice called, “Hey!” All of them looked up to see two men heading toward them. Their expressions were angry, and one of them carried a long, thick tree branch. “Possessed,” Stone said, raising his hands to prepare a spell.
“Wait,” Edna said. “Let me see
if I can divert them.”
She concentrated for a moment, standing still as the two men approached. The one with the tree branch drew it back in a mighty windup, preparing to charge the group, but then he stopped, branch in mid-swing, and suddenly looked confused. So did his friend. As the others watched, the man dropped the branch and the two of them wandered off into the crowd as if nothing had happened.
“Nice job,” Stone said. “They’re still possessed—what did you do?”
“Just gave them a new purpose,” she said. “See? It’s not all about direct power.”
Stone glanced sideways at her. “Yes, point taken. Come on.”
Behind them, someone yelled. Jason spun in time to see another man, this one with a large pocketknife, lunging toward their group. Stone turned a second later to see him grab the man’s arm, twist it to make him drop the knife, and fling him into the low wall separating the sidewalk from the park. He snatched up the knife, folded it, and stuck it in his pocket, letting his breath out. “This is fucking insane,” he announced to nobody in particular.
They could see as soon as they entered the park that the police had indeed set up their command post in a large wooden gazebo that was one of Libbey Park’s centerpieces. Two squad cars, lights whirling, were parked between the gazebo and the street, and three bright spotlights on stands had been set up next to them, shining harsh illumination over a large area nearby. Several cops were inside the gazebo, a couple talking on police radios. They all wore helmets and what looked like riot gear.
“There’s Casner,” Stone said, pointing. “Give me a moment—let’s not all go in at once.”
Jason and Edna, hyper-vigilant, steered Carly over near—but not too close to—the squad cars while Stone moved toward the gazebo. When he got about ten feet away, a voice boomed over a speaker: “Back off, sir.”
“Casner!” Stone yelled. “It’s Alastair Stone. I need to talk to you.” He didn’t stop moving: once he’d identified himself, he didn’t think Casner would shoot him. The cop had too many real threats to deal with. The other cop, now recognizable as Aguirre, had has gun in one hand and was yelling something into a mic he held in the other, but he didn’t seem to be paying any attention to Stone.
