His eyes lit up, the silver flecks shining. “No doubt. Carolyn’s been telling me that they might be able to help me walk again. I’m not holding my breath on that one, but it would be a nice perk.”
They had so much more than I could never offer him. “I really hope they can make that happen for you, Reg.”
I was floored. I just lost my best friend to the vampires. My father figure. A man I looked up to for inspiration. I’d never realized it before, but Reg was a hero to me. The sacrifices he had made for the benefit of others, touched my heart. They made me want to be a better man, strive for greatness. I was losing my inspiration.
I had to stop being selfish and realize that this was the best move for Reg. Now he could live much longer and all his pain will probably go away. He would likely outlive me now.
I went to sleep that night with a heavy heart, hoping everything would magically get better the next day.
I woke up and received more bad news. Of course. Gretchen informed me that there had been fifty uprisings last night and the murdering of young Japanese women continued.
My partner on the Pittsburgh Police had also received a hand-written death threat on her door. It said that if she continued to talk to me that she would be dead before tomorrow arrived.
Whoever had written it (I suspect my father from the misspelled words.) didn’t know Gretchen very well if they thought that she would be afraid of an empty threat. I couldn’t help but feel totally responsible for everything. If I hadn’t opened that Dark Artistry box and released that red spirit, none of this would have occurred. But then I wouldn’t have been able to defeat the Jersey Devil and rescue Mabon.
If I can’t defeat the spirits in the next few days, I can kiss my new city goodbye. Even if all the benevolent underworlds joined together, the Sendals might have too much power by then.
I needed to go back into the office to assess the damage and make an insurance claim.
Carolyn was still sleeping on the couch with Colossus. I decided it would be a good idea to leave a meal for the vamp, so I extracted some blood, put it in the busted unicorn sippy cup, wrapped it in plastic, and left a note on the coffee table for Carolyn.
I got cleaned up, dressed, and went into the office. The damage was worse than I had originally expected. I wrote a comprehensive list and took a lot of pictures, but wavered on what I could claim as the cause of the damage.
I would have to say that someone broke in and did all this. No claims adjuster would believe the truth. I fought against the awful stench and tried to complete the task in as little time as possible. A powerful revving engine caught my attention. I turned and looked out the glass window on my front door.
A Hummer limousine pulled up in front of my office.
26
When the werewolf chauffeur jumped out of the driver’s seat and walked to the door in the back of the vehicle, my suspicions of who this might be were confirmed. The driver pulled out a red carpet and dragged it up to my front door.
A freakin’ metaphor for the Red Cavern. How did I miss that? Oh yeah, scrambled brain.
I wondered what form the demon would choose today as Socrates emerged from the vehicle with the help of the werewolf because of the height of the limo. It’d be so sweet if the Greeks were rolling by right now and saw this poser.
The wolf opened my front door and the demon shifter walked through the jamb. I waited for the immediate comment about the funky odor, but he only said hello, and waved. I assumed the mainland of the Red Cavern probably wasn’t the most hygienic place around.
I skipped a greeting and got right down to it, “I hope you have good news.”
“I wouldn’t show up to this hole of an office if I weren’t bringing pertinent information. Excuse me.” He shifted into Aka Manah, the demon with a bull skull for a head.
“And I don’t like hanging out with demons, so we might as well get on with it.”
He announced, “We found out where the Sendals are staying.”
A rush of energy swirled through my body. “Where?”
I stood by the door and Aka Manah leaned back against my desk. I wasn’t thrilled that his buttcheeks were invading my work space. He said, “They have been inhabiting the U.S Steel Tower after hours. Apparently, they plan on going big.”
The U.S. Steel Tower was the tallest building in the city. It had a triangular shape and housed some of the biggest businesses in Pittsburgh. “Why would they pick something right in the heart of the city?”
He shifted around, trying to get comfortable. “As I said, they aren’t messing around. Going right for the jugular to show that no one should mess with them.”
“I still don’t understand why a spirit that can’t even hold a material possession would be doing all of this. It just doesn’t make sense.”
He stared at the stains on the carpet with his haunting eyes. “They want power, same as most people. If they wanted, the Sendals could inhabit someone’s body or they could just be the ultimate puppet masters, using humans or supernatural creatures to do their bidding. Or maybe they just want to cause mayhem. There’s a cause I can get behind.”
I asked, “How did you find out where they were?”
“Someone that used to be loyal to the Red Cavern is helping us. He joined the Sendals but we can still track him. This information is as good as gold.”
Hmm. Were the demons at the Red Cavern setting me up? It seemed too good to be true that they were relaying information to me in good faith.
It was in their best interest to eliminate the Sendals considering the Spirits were a direct threat to everyone. However, trusting a devil or demon still didn’t seem like a good practice to start.
I warned him, “I better not find out you are lying.”
“If I’m lying, the entire city is in danger. And don’t think they will stop at that. Humans will be driven out of all the cities eventually. People will become dependent on the Sendals to keep them alive. A starving man will do just about anything for a morsel of food even if it tastes like shit. They will turn the human race into slaves. There is no reason for me to lie to you.”
“You must have a lot of faith in me. Why would you depend on me? It might be a good idea to give me some help.”
He shook his skull. “The devils aren’t prepared to lose anyone over this. They are poised to move to another city.”
I argued, “But you just said that the Sendals will just go to the next city, and the next after that. Here’s the deal. I’m going down there tonight. I will have a small crew joining me, but we very well might lose. It would be wise for the Cavern to throw us some expendables. If not, you might as well go back to your underworld and get comfortable.”
He stood up tall, puffed his big chest out, and straightened his pinstripe suit jacket. “I will give this message to the devils. I know the devils and would instruct you not to hold your breath on the matter. I’ve never wished a human good luck in a fight before, because I’m usually the one fighting them. Good luck, kid, because you’re going to need it.”
Kind of a backhanded compliment. I didn’t want to believe the truth and face reality. My ragtag crew was no match for the Sendals. I didn’t want to put anyone else’s life in danger and thought about going alone.
Aka Manah shifted back into Socrates and waddled up my steps, shivering in his burgundy robes, and jumped into the back of the Hummer limo with a helpful push on the backside from the werewolf chauffeur.
Two vamps, a wizard, a mage and a Normal. We didn’t walk into a bar, but we were clearly outclassed by a group of ancient spirits. Then I tried to figure out what we would do with Satoku during the battle. I couldn’t leave her alone or take her with us. Both were too dangerous.
I debated whether I should call Gretchen for backup from the po po. Considering none of their conventional weapons had worked on the stone men, they would be useless against the spirits. I now had issues with my father, my girlfriend and my best friend. Not a good mental place for a wiza
rd who’s about to go into battle.
I needed to go somewhere to get my head in a better place. I settled on a spot that I had been neglecting since I’d moved to Pittsburgh. Life moved so fast, it seemed like I had only blinked once, and a year disappeared off the calendar.
I finished making the insurance claim and went back home to get ready for my little trip.
A few hours later, I dropped down to my right knee, staring at the tiny gravestone at the cemetery in West Virginia. Tears welled up in my eyes. I didn’t peruse the area to make sure I was alone. At this point, I didn’t care who heard me.
The two-foot rectangular stone was succumbing to the elements and chipping in certain areas. The dull gray marker only had a few fading words etched in to it.
In Loving Memory
Brighid Parker Boyle Merlino
Mother. Wife.
That was it. My mother deserved better.
“I know it’s been a while since my last visit. I wish I could come more. I’m lying, I probably could come more, but I convince myself that I’m too busy to do it. I feel like a terrible son. You raised me better than that. I love you. Miss you like crazy too. If you don’t know by now, dad busted out of jail. He’s running with some dark spirits right now and he’s on a quest to kill me. But he’s not going to. I hate to say it, but I have to put a stop to him. He’s gone past the point of no return. He sold his soul, probably a good deal for him.” I chuckled, knowing my mother would have enjoyed the verbal jab.
“I’m doing it for you. I’m doing it for all the times he hit you. Maybe a little bit for all the times he hit me too. I wish I had done this a long time ago. Maybe you wouldn’t be gone if I had. I know about the night you died. I know that dad hit you that night. And I know that you ran out of the house and ended up in Houlihan’s Square. And everyone knows that George killed you. Most people don’t know that he was a crafty warlock. He probably used mind control on you to lure you into his territory before he—did what he did. Enough of that talk. I hate to sound grim but my life’s pretty gritty these days. Taking care of the people of Pittsburgh is a rough job. In the rare event that things don’t go the way I want, you need to know that I love you more than anything. Just as much today as the last day I saw you. I remember it like it was happening in front of me right now. I always think about what could have been. What should have been. You should still be with me. I’ve finally made something of my life and I know you’d be proud of me. I’m running my own business and everything. I was hoping dad would be proud of me, but that didn’t go so well. I’m having problems with my girlfriend right now. Sure would be nice to have you around to give me some advice. I really hope we can work things out. I really like her and she’s good for me. I’m going to start visiting you more often, I promise. I sometimes wonder if you went into Houlihan’s Square on purpose that night, just to get away from all that nonsense. I wouldn’t blame you one bit, that’s for sure. I missed you like crazy after it happened, but hopefully you were and are in a better place now. I love you, mom. You’re everything that’s good about me and I’ll never forget it. I’ve got to go do something I’m not very proud of, but I must get rid of a necessary evil. Our evil. He won’t hurt anyone anymore.”
I stood up and took a few deep, chest quaking breaths. I didn’t want to tell her about the fact that my father had turned to murdering police officers after escaping from jail. My head buzzed as the chilly winter air danced on my scalp. I blew a kiss to my mother, held back the tears, and headed toward my car.
I tried to concentrate on the upcoming battle, but my thoughts were scattered more than ever now. I got into my car and got out on the highway. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to call Gretchen for help from the Pittsburgh Police. The more I chewed on it, I realized having cop blood on my hands wouldn’t bode well for my future in this city.
The police wouldn’t be able to do anything with their conventional weaponry anyway. Best-case scenario was that they would scare the bad guys away from the sirens. Looked like it was up to my ragged crew and me. My heart of hearts still held out hope that Alayna would come through with some badass creatures from the Deep Burrow to help, but I was preparing to fight without them.
Someone in a black Cadillac zoomed up on my ass. After it had ridden my tail for about thirty seconds, I figured out it was my friends, Ernesto and Victor, who finally went to pass me. I prepared to flip the driver off, but he didn’t zip past me. Instead, I heard a loud metal thunk and my tires screeched as my car was jolted into the emergency thunder strip, adding another element that surprised me.
I held the wheel steady, turning slightly to the left, not jerking the wheel and ending up in the left-hand lane. The joker had hit my rear passenger door, and I looked in the rearview mirror to find the car. Another thud of metal on metal was followed by a wailing scratching sound. The rearview mirror showed my bumper skidding across the road and into the concrete raised impediment in the middle of the highway, leaving a trail of bright orange sparks in its wake.
A silver Honda swerved out of the left lane to avoid the long bumper. Alright, where you at, Ernesto? The terrible driver seemed to be going for the rear quarter-panel trick, but his aim was terribly off. I couldn’t find the hitman for the spirits as I craned my neck around while keeping an eye on the road ahead.
No black Cadillac anywhere. Almost as if it had vanished. They didn’t scare me, they got my blood boiling for a good brawl. The tiger inside roared, ready for battle. I flew the rest of the way home, continually checking for the men in black to come back but they never did.
I’d called everyone and told them to meet at my house so we could all roll downtown together. I walked through the front door and found Carolyn, Reg, Satoku, Felix and Colossus in my living room. “Thanks to all of you for doing this. I’m not going to lie, some of us might not come out of here alive. If you want to back out now and avoid that risk, I would totally understand.”
The room remained silent. I turned to Satoku, and said, “Can I talk to you for a minute in the kitchen?”
“Sure.”
27
Colossus followed us into the kitchen, scurrying around on the linoleum near our feet. I took a deep breath, and said, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything. I know I don’t always say the right thing and I have this stuff with my dad hanging over my head, but that’s no excuse.”
I moved closer and gave her a gentle hug. It felt so right again, and her flowery perfume wafted into my nostrils. She rubbed her silky fingers up my arms as I continued, “I know I messed up and I totally understand if you want to be with…” I gestured very conspicuously with my head toward Felix.
A confused look came over her face and her eyes narrowed. I whispered, “Felix.”
She burst out laughing and spun around, tapping her knee. I didn’t get the joke. She clued me in, and said, “We’re just friends. He has a girlfriend anyway. I tried a bunch of times. Ha, just kidding.”
I got that joke. It was like a ten-ton weight had been lifted from my shoulder. Sorry Atlas. Too soon? Confirmation that nothing had been going on between them while she was staying with Felix sent a surge of energy though my sore body.
I asked in a playful manner, “So are you going to stay mad at me forever?”
“Hmm, that’s a tempting offer, but I think we can get past this. Asking him to come down here to help was a big step for you.” She leaned up and pressed her velvety lips against mine.
I planted my hand on the small of her back and pulled her closer. Her luscious lips danced on my bottom lip, pulling it in and finishing with a quick lick of her tongue. She wrapped her arms around my neck, brushing her velvety cheek against mine, and everything seemed right again.
I whispered, “Take this.” I slipped her a spray bottle of the magic mist. “Spray it on yourself to disappear so you can stay safe while we’re down there.”
If I could avoid getting killed tonight, maybe we could get back on the right track. Big if, but now I had
extra motivation. We finished our cuddling and rejoined everyone in the living room. I went upstairs to get my gear on and grab my weapons. The protection suit felt weird at first, but once I began to move around, I got used to it.
We took two cars down to the city and parked three blocks away from the U.S. Steel Building/Tower. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out. Text message from Jonathan.
He said he was ready to start the ceremony and would wait for me. I let him know that I wouldn’t be able to make it and told him to carry on without me. Thankfully, he agreed, and I hoped he could thin out the herd of Sendal Spirits before we got into the Tower.
I turned to Satoku, “What are you going to do?”
Her eyes widened in terror. “I’m not leaving you guys and staying in the car, that’s for sure.”
I agreed, but that added another worry to the situation. “Make sure to use the mist to stay hidden. It will hide all your clothes and anything you are holding.”
Even with the invisibility, I anticipated a lot of flying shrapnel. I’d be more concerned about her getting injured from the collateral damage than killing bad guys. Receiving killing clearance from the Gods was great, but I still needed to be careful not to kill any innocent people. Surprisingly, the streets were free of traffic.
We started heading toward the tower and I found out why. The earth was shaking from a horde of stone men marching toward us. The men in black were also interspersed with the stone men that had been raised from the dead. There were about a hundred of them, and the magic thickened the air.
I took a few deep breaths, pulled my triskele amulet out and kissed it for good luck. I tucked it under all my layers, and the suit held it firm near my heart. I quickly turned to Reg and Satoku and handed each of them one of my enchanted knives for protection.
“Do not lose those. If either of you do, I’m a dead man. No pressure. Satoku, make sure to stay behind us in a crouched position so we can take the impact of whatever comes at us. The knife will disappear if you are holding it.” I winked at Satoku, and touched the grip on my sword and the knife next to it for reassurance.
Graveyard Uprisings Page 17
