All in Bad Time

by Yvonne Montgomery

  "It's Mr. Fitch, sir," he added quickly. "He isn't able to come tonight. He's caught in a large auto accident, sir."

  Severn closed his eyes, leaning against the door lintel. "He begged me to tell you, sir." Simms moved his hand to pull at his collar, dropping it to his side as he collected himself. "He insisted on it."

  Severn closed the door. He listened, ear pressed against the wood, until he heard the man's uneven steps down the hallway. Only then did he let out the breath he'd held so tightly.

  What went wrong? Severn reviewed the spell work in his mind, running through the sequence of elements in the casting. I did them all properly. He'd memorized the Latin perfectly and had counted the beats between each directive. I have the power of the Seventh.

  She wasn't vanquished. She didn't succumb to fear. She fought back.

  Again he mentally thumbed through the spell, slowing as an idea began to form among his hurried, obsessive thoughts. Fitch. The bumbling, puffed up fool was removed from my influence while my attention was on breaking the woman.

  A wave of dizziness almost felled him. Only his will kept him on his feet.

  Was it an accident? Or is there another player in this game?

  Another idea made his blood run cold. Could the woman have attacked Fitch while she was fighting off the spell? Could she know about them? Did she have the power to attack them as she chose?

  Chapter 10

  The square of light overhead was so far away. Eve trained her eyes on it, half convinced it would disappear before they got her out of the hole. She glanced over her shoulder to see if the monster was anywhere near.

  "Mrroauw?" Danica lashed herself against Eve's legs, back and forth. The familiar pattern kept Eve together. That and her arms firmly hugging herself. She hadn't noticed how cold it was when she was in the dark, but now she could feel currents of air moving past her. They could be spirits, invisible to me. She shut down the idea before it could gain traction. She had enough to deal with without adding spirits to it.

  "Anybody up there?" she asked abruptly.

  The shadow of a head appeared along the edge of the trap door. "Sure thing." It was Kerry's voice. "What, you think we all left to get coffee or something?"

  "Guess not." Why was this taking so long? At the feeling rising through her chest Eve clamped on the controls again. "Just getting bored with the décor." She heard the quiver in her voice and pretended she hadn't.

  "I don't doubt it." Kerry's shadow pulled back, soon replaced by a larger one.

  "Eve, do you want me to send down some water?" It was Aura Lee. "You must be thirsty."

  "Will I be down here long enough to go to the trouble?" She could hear the edge of dread in her voice. God knew how she sounded to the others.

  "I have a bottle right here and some ribbon. You'll have it right away."

  Seconds later Eve saw light reflect off a water bottle as it bobbed slowly toward her. She reached for it and clutched it to her for a moment before tugging at the loose knot around the neck. "Got it."

  Aura Lee pulled the ribbon back up as Eve fumbled with the lid and held the bottle to her lips. The cold liquid filled her mouth and she was suddenly horribly thirsty, nearly pouring the water down her throat. Coughing a little, she gulped some more and then screwed on the lid.

  "No choking, now." Aura Lee sent down another package, this one in a paper bag.

  Eve caught the bag and lifted out a fat buttered muffin. It was warm against her fingers and a whiff of pumpkin wafted to her nose. Eve swallowed against the lump in her throat. "Thank you," she muttered. She probably didn't hear me. "Uh, thanks," she called more loudly, and darted another look behind her. The pumpkin scent was doing strange things to her. At a wave of dizziness, she took a step back and sat onto the stone floor harder than she'd planned.

  "You're more than welcome." Sympathy was rich in Aura Lee's voice. "You poor dear. I can't imagine how difficult it's been for you there. I'm so sorry about the trap door and all. We had no idea such a thing existed and now we'll have to check every apartment to see if there are any others."

  Another head appeared beside Aura Lee's. "We'll work it all out." It was Rose. Even from the floor Eve could see the shadow of Rose's hand patting Aura Lee's shoulder.

  Taking a large bite of the muffin, Eve pulled off a morsel and held it out to Danica. The cat's tongue was rough against her buttery fingers.

  "Neal will be here any minute," Max called down. "He stopped at his house for a longer ladder. He said to tell you to hang tough."

  Eve washed down muffin with a swallow of water. "I'll do my best."

  "Did you hurt yourself when you fell?" asked Andrea.

  "I should've asked you earlier," Rose added. "Should I call the doctor?"

  Eve rubbed at the back of her head and noted the ongoing throb in her legs. "I clipped my neck and hit my knees, but aside from some aching, I'm pretty okay."

  "Goodness." It was Aura Lee again. "I'll send Brenna to the house for the first aid kit. We'll have to check for swelling. Do you have a headache?"

  "I'll bet she does." Neal had arrived and was standing at the edge of the door. "Max and I are going to send the ladder down. You need to get over to the side so we don't drop it on that head of yours."

  Eve forced herself to her feet, grabbing Danica as she got out of the way. She held the cat to her, feeling her purr against her as the end of the metal ladder slid down to rest on the floor. She thought about getting out of the dungeon and her arms tightened. Danica pushed against her chest and jumped out of her arms. "Damn," she whispered.

  "Did it land squarely?" asked Neal.

  Eve peered at the shadowy stones. "Yes, it looks stable."

  "Good. I'll be right down."

  "Wait a minute." Eve's eyes opened wider. The rungs of the ladder were beginning to move, twisting in place. "Something's happening." Her breath was coming more shallowly.

  "What d'you mean?" Neal sounded impatient as he thrust the flashlight into the opening and aimed it toward her.

  In the cone of the light Eve could see her surroundings more clearly. She caught a motion from the ceiling, blanching at the thick cobwebs billowing like sails. "Oh." A thick musty odor filled her nose and she coughed.

  "What's that moving down there?" Neal demanded. The rungs looked like living snakes now, and the sidepieces were beginning to move in turn.

  "It's the ladder." Eve edged toward it, extending her hand to feel it. Her fingertips touched the scaled surface and the deep cold of it hurt her skin.

  "It's icy," she said, her voice shuddering. "And it's moving like snakes fastened together."

  "Fucking hell. What's going on around here?" Neal grabbed at the top rung and just as quickly pulled back his hand. "She's right. It's like dry ice." He leaned closely toward the rungs. "Jesus, they do look like snakes."

  "Let me see." Noreen took a couple of steps toward Neal and reached for the side of the ladder.

  "Be careful," Neal protested. "This is weird as hell."

  Noreen gently touched the pulsating metal and withdrew her fingers. "Aura Lee, come look at this. Have you ever heard of anything like it?"

  Aura Lee came closer, pulling the folds of her caftan to one side as she peered at the top of the ladder. She stared off into space as she considered the problem. "You know," she said slowly, "I think this might be the result of a spell. I remember reading about something a bit like this." She hefted herself to her feet. "I'll be right back," she called to Eve, and headed toward the front door. "It's in one of my books!" The door slammed behind her a few seconds later.

  Neal knelt next to the opening in the floor and peered down. The ladder continued to move. He edged away from it. "How're you doing?"

  Eve had spent several seconds looking around her in the small area illuminated by the flashlight. The massive spider webs continued to catch the wind she couldn't feel. "Uh, okay, I guess." She glanced again at the ladder rungs, still coiling as the side supports had become thicker, now l
ooking like small boa constrictors hooked together by the rungs. A sudden thought hit. "Neal, is this really happening?"

  His short laugh was bitter. "Damned if I know." He shone the flashlight in her direction. "I'm hoping Aura Lee can help us figure it out. She's got all kinds of witchcraft shit in those books of hers." When Andrea came to kneel beside him, he grabbed her hand, and they exchanged a worried look.

  "She's taking her own sweet time." Eve cast a glance behind her, feeling another presence. Had she heard something? Was the monster back?

  "She's probably leafing through her tomes about magic as we speak." Neal set the flashlight on the edge of the opening. "I have a rope in my pickup. How strong are you?"

  Eve's attention had shifted toward the faint rustling coming from the shadows beyond the spider webs. "Neal?"

  "Yeah?"

  "Shift the light to my right, will you?"

  Neal turned the light in the direction she was looking.

  When she saw the light reflected by a multitude of eyes, she cried out. Hundreds—no, thousands—of squirming serpents were slithering together across the ground toward her, bodies coiling and uncoiling in colonies as they spread across the stone floor of the cave. "More snakes." Her voice was nearly silent, as breathy as the sound of the serpent skins shifting against dirt.

  "What did you say?" Neal directed the light beam around the chamber. "Holy mother of God, what is that?"

  Eve pushed herself to her feet. "Snakes, thousands of them." She edged toward the square of light falling from the trap door where the ladder continued to writhe.

  "This is nuts," she heard him say.

  Nuts or not, she had to get out of there.

  Eve pulled on the sleeves of her shirt, bringing the edges over her hands, holding on them with her fingers. She had two choices: stay and chat with the mob of snakes or climb the cold reptile ladder. "I'm coming up."

  "Go for it." Neal pointed the light directly at the first row of snakes. "Make it fast."

  Eve put one foot on the bottom rung, forcing herself to ignore the sickening fleshiness of it. As she reached for the side of the ladder she heard a small sound from the shadows she faced. Then it was louder and she turned toward it. I forgot Danica!

  "Mrroauw."

  "You have got to be kidding me." She almost rested her forehead on the scaly rung until she remembered she couldn't.

  "What the hell are you waiting for?" Neal yelled. He was leaning out across from the top of the ladder. He jerked his hand upward. "Those things are getting closer. Come on!"

  "I'm coming." She let go of the writhing support and turned to slip around the ladder. "Kitty-kitty," she said softly and clicked her tongue. "Danica, come." She could see the cat's eyes blink, the yellow appearing and disappearing in the murk over by the wall of the chamber. Eve snapped her fingers. "Come on."

  The rustling sound was louder and Eve jerked her head around for a quick look. The writhing mass of reptiles looked like a single, horrible organism moving inexorably toward her. The sound of the snakes' hissing grew louder, diminishing the thunder of her pulse in her ears.

  Eve ducked under the rungs, half expecting the touch of reptiles around her legs, but she made it from under the ladder and headed quickly toward the shadows hiding her cat.

  "Eve, what're you doing?" Neal demanded in disbelief. "Get up here now!"

  "Mrroauw." Eve saw the cat's head move, a pale break in the darkness. She plunged toward the motion.

  "Kitty-kitty." I'm going to strangle her if the snakes don't eat her. "Kitty-kitty." She cast a look behind her at the snaky bodies intertwining, twisting as they flowed across the floor. She heard a shriek from above.

  Danica leapt from the shadows, her 500 claws poking into Eve's skin. Clasping the cat to her chest, Eve stepped on the bottom rung and swung her body around. The sear of ice on her hands hardly registered as she grabbed the nearest crosspiece and scrambled up the ladder as fast as injured leg and panicked cat allowed. Her palms throbbed but she kept moving. As she drew near to the opening, she felt a clutching at her foot, as if many fingers grasped at her. She reached up and Neal grabbed hold of her wrist. "Pull me up! Hurry!" she cried, and he jerked her onto the floor. Danica sprung off and went running.

  Eve turned to see the glittering eyes of a sea of squirming snakes twist up the ladder, heads sliding over each serpentine step until they reached the edge of the trap door. Behind her a scream ripped the air. As she bent her leg to kick, a large bird flew from the chamber shadows across the light from the trap door. An owl? Eve lowered her leg to the floor as the raptor caught several snakes in its beak, whipping them from the ladder. Its wing knocked the ladder sideways along the edge of the opening, sliding into a crash to the floor below. She pushed herself up to track the owl's flight, gasping as a snake dropped onto the stone.

  She collapsed back on the floor, looking up to see Andrea and Neal holding onto each other.

  Kerry was on her knees beside her. "Did they bite you?"

  Eve turned her head back and forth, reveling in the feel of the floor supporting her. "Don't think so." She lifted her hands. "They hurt."

  Noreen bent to look at one palm, horror in her eyes. "Blisters all across your palms."

  Kerry cringed at the wounds. "Oh, God." She checked Eve's other hand with care. She turned to Rose, who'd fallen back at the appearance of the snakes. "You need to call the doc. She's got sores the size of quarters."

  Rose nodded and came closer. "From the ladder?"

  Eve closed her eyes as fatigue washed over her. "I guess. Is Danica okay?"

  "She's fine." Max held the cat in his arms and came slowly across the floor. "She's a bit wild-eyed."

  "Me, too." Eve just breathed for a while as she mentally went over the aches and pains she was feeling.

  "Did the fall kill the snakes?" Brenna asked.

  Neal let go of Andrea. "There's a question you don't hear everyday." He stepped to the trap door and looked into the chamber below. Frowning, he retrieved his flashlight from the floor and aimed the beam from corner to corner. He lowered himself onto his hands and knees, then onto his belly and sent the light about the area again. The others stood clustered around him.

  "What about the owl?"

  The room went still. Eve opened her eyes to find everyone staring at her. "The owl. It pulled some of the snakes off the ladder."

  Rose knelt beside Eve and put her hand on her brow. "You said you hit the back of your head when you fell, yes?"

  Eve struggled to sit up, finally letting Rose help her. "Didn't you see it? Any of you?" She could tell by their concerned expressions they hadn't. "Maybe it fell, too." She looked toward Neal, still holding the flashlight at the edge of the trap door. "Please look. It came out of nowhere and went straight for the snakes."

  "Okay." Neal turned back to the chamber below them and slowly moved the light over the area.

  Noreen dropped into a chair. Her face was as pale as snow. "This situation becomes stranger by the second."

  Max shifted the purring Danica to one arm and rested his other hand on Noreen's shoulder for a brief moment. "We'll get to the heart of it."

  "What d'you see?" Kerry asked Neal in a plaintive voice.

  Neal cast the light over the underground area once more. "It's what I don't see I'm worried about."

  Noreen made a face at his cryptic statement. "Elucidate, please."

  Neal pushed himself up and got to his feet with an assist from Andrea. "There's not a single snake body that I can see."

  "Shit," Brenna murmured. "They're hiding somewhere."

  Neal put his arm around Andrea and rested his cheek against her brow. "Maybe. I didn't see an owl, alive or dead," he told Eve. "There's also no ladder."

  "What?" Max stared at him in surprise. "You're joking."

  "Afraid not. Take a look if you don't believe me. I saw dirt, a few cobwebs, and skid marks from the ladder supports. That's it."

  The front door crashed open and they all jerked t
oward it in time to see Aura Lee, several books clutched against her chest, charging into the room. A smile of relief spread across her face when she caught sight of Eve. "Thank the Goddess you're all right."

  Eve closed her eyes again.

  Aura Lee handed a book to Rose and another to Noreen. "There are a couple of pieces I found about the transformation of matter through complicated spell work." She registered their surprise and weariness as disbelief. "I'll point out the pertinent passages. Some sophisticated work has been done here. It's not every day you see an aluminum ladder changed into snakes, or into the appearance of snakes."

  Rose looked up from the book she'd been handed. "How could it have been an illusion? Eve has blisters on her hands from touching the rungs. And she felt the snakes on her ankles."

  "What are you talking about?" Aura Lee's face crumpled in consternation. "There were other snakes, too?" She wheeled toward Eve. "Were they apparitions? Looking real but not?"

  Eve shook her head slowly. "I could see them, hear them, hell, I even smelled them."

  Aura Lee bent to look closely at Eve's hands. "Oh, my dear. This puts a different complexion on everything." She stood up abruptly and snatched up the multicolored cloth bag she'd brought with her.

  "What do you mean?" Noreen asked in a testy voice.

  Aura Lee pulled out a necklace and bent to place it around Eve's neck. "The ability to transform or just disguise a ladder into joined snakes is amazing enough, especially since it was able to injure Eve. But to make those snakes?" Shivering, she reached again into the bag and pulled out more necklaces. "These are the amulets I made for all of you." She handed them out, cautioning them as they put them on. "You must wear these 24/7. They're waterproof, so leave them on in the shower."

  Brenna held the tiny vial suspended on the leather chain of her amulet, peering at the dried leaves and blossoms mixed with a variety of different substances she couldn't identify. "These are supposed to protect us against snakes?"

  "These will protect you, but only if you're wearing them." Her glance around the group caught the skepticism on several faces. "It's all right if you don't believe in the amulets. Wear them anyway. If we're dealing with someone with the skill and power to create these terrifying things, we need all the protection we can muster."