hand of hate 01 - destiny blues

by Sharon Joss

  ‘Dirk asked Obart for my hand in marriage, but the Old Master refused, saying that a carpenter could never provide a good home for me. So Dirk built me the magnificent house on Empress Street, and when it was finished, he asked Obart again for my hand. Again, Obart refused. Finally, I begged Obart to let me marry Dirk. He told me I would need to make him the richest man in Germantown. I put my hand in his big paw and promised him that I had already made him the richest man in Germantown, and if he did not let me go, I would make him the deadest man in Germantown.

  ‘He laughed that big hearty laugh of his, and I reached into his aura and caressed his life’s thread, ever so gently. His heart began to skip a beat, and then another and another. He fell to his knees and agreed to let me go, but begged me to continue working for him. Obart pocketed all my income, so I had no reason to work for him, but in the end, we settled on a contract.

  ‘I married Dirk and we moved into the beautiful house on Empress. I worked hard at the Amusements, but Obart would not leave me alone. He kept pestering me to make him richer. ‘I do not have your talent for making money,’ he’d say. Obart was a very superstitious man. He believed my magic would make him rich, but he was never satisfied.

  ‘One day, I noticed a creature sitting in a corner of my dressing room, like a little gargoyle. Too small to be fearsome, but too solid to ignore as just a trick of the imagination. I named him Oneiri. He did no harm, and seemed to appear only when I was sitting quietly, so I accepted him as part of my life.

  ‘I began to talk to him, and discovered the more I did so, the more animated he became. He seemed to be expecting something from me. The first time I gave Oneiri a direct command, Dirk and I were hunting for a murderer that was lurking in the streets of Shore Haven. The year was 1930, the summer after the stock market crash. Imagine my astonishment when we found creatures on the streets that looked to be the same sort of being as my Oneiri. However, these things were much bigger, completely visible, and able to move and react on their own. They attacked us.

  ‘Dirk and I were armed, but our hammers were no defense against them, the creatures did not bleed or even seem to feel the blows that we pelted upon them. They had us down on the ground, biting and tearing at us. The biggest one had Dirk by the neck. I was afraid the demon would kill my husband. In desperation I called out to Oneiri to save us.

  ‘Oneiri instantly appeared in the flesh and even though he was smaller than our attackers, he forced them away from us, cornering them and holding them at bay. I rushed to help Dirk, but he was already gone, his life pooling on the sidewalk of the alley.”

  #

  Her whole body shook. “You must stop this madness chere.” Her eyes blazed into me. “You must reseal the cavern. You must stop the demon master, whoever he is, before he kills again. I have spoken to the authorities many times, but they will not believe one such as myself. There is no one else who can do this.” She gasped for breath. “Promise me.”

  I hesitated. “Let me call the nurse.” I reached for the call button and pushed it.

  “Promise me!”

  Sheesh. “Okay, okay, I promise.” Anything to calm her down.

  “Swear to it. You will do what needs to be done. Your destiny calls to you, chere.” She had that scary look in her eye again.

  The weight of the universe seemed to hang on my answer, and if I said the wrong thing, I’d fall forever. “I don’t know what to do,” I whispered. “You have to help me.”

  “You have everything you need, chere. You are death incarnate.”

  The hairs on my arms stood on end. This was the real thing. Like a blood oath. My heart raced with adrenaline, and I felt my resolve harden within me. “I’ll do it.” A wave of heat passed through me, and I shivered.

  She looked relieved. “You are braver than you look, I think.”

  “Tell me what to do.”

  The door swung open and Rhys came in, followed by Fontaigne. I sat up straighter and smiled at Rhys, at the same time wishing they hadn’t interrupted. I glanced at my great-grandmother, but she’d closed her eyes. I checked for her pulse, and found it steady.

  “How is she?” Rhys came to stand next to the bed, and took her other hand.

  Fontaigne got right down to business. “Do you have a few moments, Miss Blackman? I have some paperwork to discuss with you regarding Mrs. Coumlie’s estate.”

  “Mr. Fontaigne, I don’t think this is a good time.”

  “Please, call me Gerard, Mattie.”

  The nurse popped in and shooed us out of the room. “It’s after visiting hours. Mrs. Coumlie needs her rest.” Since we couldn’t stay, we decided to head to the cafeteria on the main floor.

  We found a table off in the corner, and Gerard told us what happened.

  “Madam requested me to come to the house because she’d found you and wanted her will changed to reflect her wishes in regards to her heir. Knowing Madame does not have a lot of time left to her, I of course reshuffled my schedule to accommodate her. We had only just completed the changes to the will, when I realized there was someone else in the house.”

  “How did the fire start?” asked Rhys.

  “There was no fire.” We all looked up to see agent Porter approaching. He pulled up a chair and sat down, uninvited. “You have any ideas about that, Fontaigne?”

  “Do you two know each other?” I asked.

  “I heard a commotion in the kitchen, and of course Mrs. Coumlie is deaf, so I got up to investigate. As I approached the kitchen, a large creature came out through the swinging door and lunged at me. I called 911. I reported a fire, knowing it would bring the fastest response.”

  I wondered how much the lawyer knew about the Hand of Fate and her personal djemon. Did he know about Oneiri?

  “What creature? What happened next?”

  “The creature went after Mrs. Coumlie. She grabbed a fireplace tool and brandished it quite effectively while she shouted at the creature in French. I’m not quite sure what she said, but she held the creature off until the first fire truck arrived, at which point the creature escaped back through the kitchen. The firemen came through the front door, and Mrs. Coumlie collapsed.”

  “And what were you doing during all this?”

  The color rose in his face. “It happened so fast, I’m ashamed to say I froze. The sight of this tiny woman holding off such a monster was incredible.”

  “Can you describe this creature? How big was it?”

  The lawyer’s eyes shifted toward Rhys and I, as if he was uncertain how to answer. Oneiri was big, but not what I would call a monster. And why would he attack her?

  “I, I’m not certain. But it was big. It had to stoop to get through the kitchen doorway.”

  Holy crapolli. That wasn’t Oneiri.

  CHAPTER 24

  My cell phone rang. I stepped away from the table to answer.

  “Are you Mattie?”

  “Yeah, who is this?”

  “Lance asked me to call and tell you he’s been arrested. He gave me your number and asked me tell you he needs you to find him a lawyer.”

  I gripped the phone. “What?”

  “The FBI arrested him for the murder of all those people. He wants you to get him a lawyer and bail him out. I told him I didn’t want to get involved, so that’s all I got to say.” The caller hung up.

  My stomach lurched; I closed my eyes, my mind searching frantically for the lie, and not finding it. Oh my god, they actually arrested Lance for murder. The evidence had to be circumstantial, they couldn’t possibly have enough evidence to implicate him.

  On the other hand, my great grandmother had just fought off a monstrous djemon that was probably the real killer. I hoped Porter could convince the taskforce they had wrong guy, but I doubted that a hundred-and-twenty-seven year-old dwarf and her lawyer would be able to change their minds. I tried to calm down, but my mind was in overdrive.

  Madame Coumlie should never have been able to defeat a monstrous djemon at her age. She must h
ave some sort of power, or she would never have tried to face it. If a demon master was sending its djemon to kill people, Rhys and I were the only ones who would be able to find him and prove it. No one but me could see the djinn. If she told me what to do, I was certain I could force all those demons back into the Hill cavern. I would need Rhys’s help to get into the caves again. A plan began to take shape in my mind.

  The men got up from the table and I caught Fontaigne’s eye as we drifted toward the elevator. Lance wouldn’t be going anywhere for several hours, even if he made bail, but he needed a lawyer right now. I hoped Fontaigne would help us. He wasn’t a criminal attorney, but surely he could recommend someone. I hurried to catch up to the departing group.

  “What’s going on?” I asked Fontaigne.

  “Ah. I’m going to go with agent Porter and give a statement about the demon attack, after he speaks with Mrs. Coumlie. He believes this new information on the size of the attacker will refocus the FBI’s investigation toward a demon master.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear.”

  “I’ll need you to come back to the caves with me.” Rhys clenched the keys in his hand. “We need to find that other entrance and seal it off.”

  “Absolutely.” I nodded. “The FBI just arrested Lance for the murders.”

  All three men stared at me.

  “But in light of the attack on Mr. Fontaigne and my great-grandmother, they’ll have to cut him loose, right? I mean, obviously they’ve got the wrong guy.”

  I appealed to Fontaigne. “My brother needs a good attorney. Can you help us?”

  The lawyer nodded. “We have a fine attorney in my firm who specializes in criminal cases. Let me give him a call.” He turned aside to make the call as we waited for the elevator.

  “Your brother isn’t going anywhere.” Porter said. “I need to collect these witness statements first. Without evidence of a larger demon running loose, I’ll have no pull with the taskforce.”

  “If we bring back the two djemons I saw running loose in the caves, couldn’t we persuade the task force that someone has breached the caverns?”

  “Not if they’re the same puny size as the others you’ve showed me.” Porter checked his watch. “Eyewitness testimony is the only thing I have to convince the task force of the bigger threat. The sooner I take those statements, the sooner we can get the task force looking in the right direction.”

  Rhys disagreed. “No one is going to believe Madame Coumlie, Frank. On looks alone, she isn’t credible. We must show them the breach in the cavern. Even the FBI accepts those caverns serve as containment for paranormal entities. We need to find that breach and fix it.”

  Porter looked fit to be tied. “You know I can’t help you in those caves, Warrick. I agree the old lady isn’t credible, but with Fontaigne here as a witness, I’ve got a much better shot at convincing them.”

  I had an idea. “What about Oneiri?” Rhys shook his head and gave me an exceedingly intense expression that said shut up, but I ignored him. “Why don’t we show them Oneiri?”

  “What are you talking about? Who’s Oneiri?”

  “It’s nothing.” Rhys started to dismiss my suggestion, but I interrupted.

  “Oneiri is Madame Coumlie’s djemon. He’s big enough.” Rhys put his hand on the back of my neck and squeezed a warning. I couldn’t understand why he was so agitated.

  Porter’s jaw clenched as he processed the information. “That soulless bitch,” he swore a string of oaths.

  “Hey, that’s my great-grandmother you’re talking about.”

  “Consorting with an unregistered demon is an act of treason. I always had a bad feeling about her anyway. She’s condemned herself to hell, as far as I’m concerned. If I’d known she was such an abomination, I would have arrested her immediately.”

  Heaven help Lance if they discovered he had a demon. “Show a little respect. She is a human being, not a monster. Besides, Oneiri is all the proof you need.” I fought to control my temper.

  “You knew about this, Warrick?”

  “She’s the Hand of Fate, Frank. Just because your tests didn’t find anything doesn’t mean there’s nothing there.”

  Porter’s face reddened, his jaw clenched in anger. “You say this Oneiri thing is big enough to kill. Why didn’t either of you think to tell me earlier? Seems to me she and her demon are at the center of this whole case. The woman is a menace to society. I could have you all brought up on conspiracy charges.”

  “Take it easy, Frank. The old lady is no killer.”

  “And she’d never let Oneiri hurt anyone.” I shook my head. “She’s not the one you’re looking for.”

  The elevator dinged, and the doors opened. Porter went in first, radiating silent fury, and we all eased to the opposite side of the car. A sensation of hot wind whooshed across my skin, and I staggered against Fontaigne. I grabbed his arm to steady myself. A sense of foreboding came over me.

  “Are you okay” Fontaigne asked.

  I nodded, unable to speak, as a dreadful pressure began to build inside me.

  Fontaigne whispered to me, saying he’d gotten his colleague to agree to represent Lance, at least for now. I gave him a thumbs-up and kept my trap shut, my anxiety growing by the minute. Something bad was happening. I began to sweat.

  A moment later the doors opened on the fourth floor, and I took off running down the hall. A flurry of activity greeted me at the nurse’s station and a group of medical personnel gathered soberly at the door of my great-grandmother’s room. I raced toward them as my premonition became reality.

  The women in the doorway stepped back, and two nurses switched off the monitors. The mood was subdued and respectful.

  “Are you the family?”

  I nodded, my eyes filling as I stared at the still form on the bed. “I’m so sorry. She passed just a few moments ago. We checked her and she was gone.” She took my hand and gave it a sympathetic squeeze. “It was very peaceful, I assure you.”

  I bit my lips and stood in silent shock. The nurse excused herself, saying she would send the doctor by in a few minutes if we had any questions.

  Porter came up behind me. “What happened? I thought she was fine.”

  Fontaigne answered forestalled him. “She was one hundred and twenty-seven years old. What do you think?”

  Porter glared angrily at me. “Well there goes my corroborating witness. How do we get hold of that djemon?”

  Rhys answered him. “Once the demon master is gone, so is the djemon.”

  “Shit.” Porter stomped off.

  Tears prickled as I moved toward the bed. Rhys and Fontaigne stood in the doorway; the men as alone with their thoughts as I. Tears rolled down my cheeks, but I refused to cry. I glanced at them, startled to see their eyes misting as well.

  Fontaigne stared at me curiously. “What’s the matter with your eyes?”

  I wiped my tears, not understanding. Rhys and Fontaigne came closer, shock registering in their faces.

  Rhys stroked his chin. “Son of a bitch.”

  Fontaigne pulled me into the little bathroom and showed me my reflection in the mirror.

  “All hail Mattie Blackman. The new Hand of Fate.”

  I gasped as I stared at my reflection in the mirror, and the color washed from my eyes, fading the iris until the brown paled to the unnatural color of new pennies. I gripped the sink to steady myself. I now had the same yellow halo around my pupils as my great-grandmother.

  I blinked my eyes and turned my head, inspecting myself at different angles, but I couldn’t recognize the image of me reflected in the mirror. Subtle changes to the bone structure of my face made my cheekbones appear more prominent, my jaw stronger. I ran my hands up and down my arms. Something was happening to me; inside me. My black eye and bruises faded away before my eyes. The pressure, which had built up in the elevator evaporated; replaced with a sensation of disorientation and loss.

  Nausea crept up in my throat. “What’
s happening to me?” To the core of my being, I understood this change would be permanent. I would never be confused with ‘normal’ again.

  CHAPTER 25

  In my worst nightmares, I sometimes dreamed I’d inherited my mother’s schizophrenia, but never once did I imagine I would become an everlasting member of the bizarre brigade or a poster girl for the Finger Lakes Spirit Festival.

  Rhys squeezed into the tiny bathroom beside us. He put his arm around me and tried to make me feel better.

  “You’ll be okay, Mattie. All you need are a pair of colored contact lenses. Nobody even needs to know.”

  Our faces in the mirror wore the same dazed expression. Today had been a long one for everybody. I felt safe here in the crowded bathroom, standing next to two men I barely knew. My great-grandmother trusted these men. She trusted me. She trusted me to find a way to stop the demon master and return the djinn back into the sealed cavern. No one but me.

  I remembered what agent Porter had said about the demons. Loaded weapons, he’d called them. I simply couldn’t think of Blix and Larry as dangerous. I thought about the phantom demon master and his monstrous djemon running loose in my hometown. The killer djemon started out just like me and Blix. Someone had let these things loose and planned to use them to kill. This had to stop.

  “What exactly is the Hand of Fate?” My voice sounded distant and disconnected.

  “Perhaps not what you think.” Rhys leaned against the doorway. “The original Egyptian legends of the three fates spoke of Amun, the ram-headed god, who impregnated a priestess of one of the snake goddesses of the waters of Chaos. The three sisters borne as a result served the poor, the wretched, and distressed mortal citizens of ancient Egypt. Not until the Greeks kidnapped them and brought them to Greece did they became famous as the oracle daughters of Zeus and Chaos. The women eventually took human husbands, gave birth to children, and over the millennia the lineage faded, as generation after generation diluted the sacred family origins. Madame Coumlie was the last of her kind; a wild card, like a roll of the dice, or a meteorite. She dedicated herself to helping people in need, and supported the paranormal and supernatural community here in town.”