“That’s not what I’m worried about,” she whispered.
She moved away from him, leaning against the wall of the cellar and watching from there. Jack closed his eyes and started pushing intrusive thoughts out of his mind, one by one.
The mystery of the strange man’s corpse in his father’s casket didn’t matter. The water nymph didn’t matter. Ryoko and her current emotional troubles didn’t matter. Mira and what she might eventually do after regaining her vampiric abilities didn’t matter. Katie and the question of whether he would ever see her again didn’t matter.
Nothing mattered except his breathing and his empty, centered mind. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been at it for when he finally felt himself reach the zone he needed to be in. He let one hand touch his grandfather’s staff, and the other touch the summoning circle.
“Adana,” said Jack, in a soundless voice.
The staff tingled underneath his fingers. He felt a flicker of something in between a memory and a nostalgic flash of emotion. The smoke from the incense began swirling and pooling over the summoning circle, shifting into complicated knots and shapes.
“Adana,” he said, this time letting the name out as a whisper.
The space over the summoning circle wavered, similar to the effect a powerful heat source has on the air. Jack could still peer through the smoke and see the other side of the cellar, but then it happened again, and this time, it looked more like the fabric of reality was rippling outward in concentric circles.
“Adana,” he said, drawing the sounds out longer and slower.
The smoke pulled into a tight, dark sphere, and the white chalk summoning circle began rippling with prismatic light overlaid onto the pattern. The flames of the candles began swirling in perfect, counter-clockwise circles, and then the pentagram flashed, filling completely with that same prismatic, rippling, rainbow color.
Jack watched as someone, or rather, something, wriggled out of the light that filled the summoning circle. He could only see a silhouette, blinded by the intensity of the spell in progress. The prismatic summoning circle had a pull to it, almost like a vacuum, and it sucked the incense smoke toward it, creating a shroud that veiled the features of the newly summoned arrival.
“Mortal,” boomed a deep, multilayered woman’s voice. “You called for me.”
The summoning circle’s light faded to a more subdued though still visible level. The smoke began to spread out again, and a woman floated over the pentagram in its wake. Jack blinked in surprise as the smoke cleared enough for him to make her out in detail.
Adana was, at a glance, anything but human. Her skin was onyx black, with a mirror quality sheen to it. A complex network of glowing red lines ran through it, connecting in intricate patterns. Despite the fact that the red lines pulsed at a steady rhythm, they didn’t look like veins. Rather, they looked like cracks, like how fresh cooling lava shifted in sections that revealed glimpses of the intense heat of the molten rock underneath.
Despite her unnerving skin, Adana was still a mesmerizing and beautiful sight. Her breasts were perfect, and the way they hung made them almost seem like they were reacting to Jack’s gaze, shifting and pinching together to pose in the most seductive manner possible. Her butt had the vaguest hint of a heart shape to it, and the proportions of her body were perfection itself.
And her hair. It was darker than her skin, as long as she was tall, and flowed like an intelligent, curious snake. It was made of the same ethereal, shadowy substance as Jack’s Spectral Hand tendrils, and he got the sense that if he was stupid enough to try to attack her, it would be the first part of her body to move in defense.
“Mortal,” repeated Adana. She turned her red eyes onto Jack, which reminded him more of oval windows to a hellish, burning landscape within.
“You’re… Adana?” he said. He felt so out of his depth, and it scared him to know that he was probably in more danger than he even realized.
“I am Adana, mortal,” she said. Her voice sounded like multiple women all speaking at once, carefully harmonized, but with indiscernible frequencies. “I know you. We… have met before, haven’t we?”
Jack glanced over his shoulder at Mira. Her face was pale, and she had her arms tightly folded over her chest. She looked worried, and that didn’t do much to alleviate his own budding anxiety.
“I don’t know if we’ve met before,” said Jack. “It’s part of why I summoned you. I need to know about something that happened a little over a decade ago.”
Adana let out a deep, condescending laugh. It was the kind of sound that made Jack feel small, powerless, and at the mercy of a creature with motives that he could not hope to comprehend.
“Time is a mortal fixation,” said Adana. “I have no want or need of it. You speak of the last time I shared your presence, then?”
Jack hesitated. He wasn’t sure. He felt like if he’d ever been in the presence of any demon before, let alone one that looked like Adana, he would have remembered it. Of course, his entire memory of the year his parents had died was hazy. There were spells that could do that to a person’s recollection, he noted.
“Yes,” said Jack. “I think so.”
“You think so?” boomed Adana. “You stand before Adana Ra-Vyz-Volina. Be certain of your request or discard it.”
“Yes,” said Jack. “Tell me everything about the last time you saw me. I need to know what happened, and who else was there.”
Adana stared at him. Jack desperately wanted to look away from her, but he sensed that doing so would be perceived as weakness. He felt like he was staring down a Medusa, or worse. Like his soul was being coaxed out of his body and stolen by those strange, hellfire eyes.
“I will not tell you of what you ask,” said Adana. “It is not my place to do so.”
Jack shook his head. He felt the heaviness of his own curiosity suddenly blunting down his fear and hesitation.
“I need to know!” he said, barking the words out. “I summoned you so that you could tell me.”
Adana laughed again. It hurt his ears to listen to that laugh while simultaneously making him want to bow down to her. Jack was still on his knees, but he kept his head held high, staring down the naked, onyx demon.
“I will not tell you of what you ask,” repeated Adana. “But I can call someone who would be willing to.”
“Who?” asked Jack.
He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up straight, and a knot formed in his stomach. This was what both Mira and Palmer had warned him about. Adana was trying to make a deal with him, and he already felt like he was playing from a position of weakness rather than power.
“My brother,” said Adana. “Mezolak Ra-Vyz-Kotaro. He was there for our last encounter. It is his right and his alone to speak of what transpired.”
“What’s your price?” asked Jack. “I’m not going to agree to anything without knowing what I’m giving up in return.”
“The price is simple, mortal,” said Adana. “You merely need to release him from the oath he swore to allow him to come seek you.”
“The oath he swore?” asked Jack.
“Jack!” called Mira, from behind him. “Think about what you’re doing!”
“Mezolak swore an oath to leave you unmolested,” said Adana. “He swore that he would not come within a certain range of you throughout the entire course of your life. You, as the beneficiary of this oath, may release him from it at any time.”
Jack rubbed a finger against the bridge of his nose. He felt powerless, like his back was up against the wall, and the only choice left for him was clearly a mistake.
“What are Mezolak’s intentions?” asked Jack. “Will he attempt to kill me if I release him from this oath?”
Adana let out a single, condescending chuckle.
“Oh, mortal,” she said. “I cannot speak for him, but I doubt very much that he would intend you harm. I suspect he’ll try to make a deal with you, much as myself and all of my brethren would.”
“Don’t do this, Jack!” shouted Mira. “Please! You know it isn’t going to end well.”
Her voice was desperate and pleading. It reminded him of Katie a little. Katie had called him a monster on more than one occasion, and Jack had done monstrous things. He knew now that he was no monster, at least not compared to the creature he was about to make a deal with.
“How would I… go about this?” asked Jack. “Releasing him from his oath?”
“Merely speak the words, and it shall be made so,” said Adana.
“Jack!” hissed Mira.
He ignored her. He’d already made his choice the day before, when he’d committed to digging up his father’s grave. He glanced down at the summoning circle, which still hummed with prismatic light, expecting to see the face of another demon waiting just underneath the floor. Jack cleared his throat and started speaking.
“Tell Mezolak I release him from—”
The door to the cellar slammed open. A hurricane-strength wind came rushing in through it, rather than another monster from the Other Realms. The wind snuffed out the candles on the points of the pentagram, and both the prismatic light and Adana’s physical presence abruptly vanished in a flash of color. Jack caught one final glimpse of her face, which was set into an ugly expression, a mixture of rotten impatience and unbridled disdain.
“Damn it!” he shouted. “Fuck! God fucking damn it!”
He stood up, briefly running his hands over the now-dormant summoning circle. The cellar looked exactly as it had when he’d first begun the ritual, except for the fact that the door at the top of the stairs was now slamming against the wall as the wind continued to play with it.
“The storm,” said Mira. “It’s picking up strength. You should be extremely thankful that it happened to do so at such a fortunate time.”
Jack sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Mira looked concerned but more relaxed than she had a moment earlier.
“I was so close,” he said.
“Close to potentially throwing your life away,” she said. “Regardless of what it might entail, making a deal with one of these creatures is tantamount to suicide. You should consider finding another way forward.”
“I guess,” he said. “But we have other things to worry about right now.”
CHAPTER 16
Weather induced chaos reigned throughout the mansion’s upper floors. Several of the foyer’s front windows had been opened at some point during the day and left open, allowing gale-force winds and torrents of rainwater in through them.
Jack and Mira hurried from window to window, shutting each one. They were soaked by the time they finished, and the mansion felt only slightly more secure. The walls groaned from the intensity of the storm outside, and the occasional thump sounded each time a windswept object connected with the exterior.
“This is insane,” muttered Jack.
“And unnatural,” said Mira. “I would think it safe to assume that your water nymph is the instigator behind it.”
“She’s not my water nymph,” said Jack. “But you’re probably right. And if it’s this bad here, with the mansion being on high ground, then the town…”
Jack didn’t even want to think about what Lesser Town probably looked like right now. He had to do something. The water nymph couldn’t be left to run amok unchecked. Not when the people on the island, who were mostly outside of the supernatural loop, didn’t know what was going on.
“Stay here,” Jack said to Mira. “Batten down the literal and proverbial hatches. I’m heading after her.”
Mira scowled, but she gave a slow nod.
“Be very careful, Jack,” she said. “You aren’t invincible. Not even as a vampire.”
“I’ll be okay,” he said.
He pulled on a light waterproof jacket and headed for the door. As much as he would have preferred his grandfather’s old leather duster, he doubted that it would serve him all that well if the situation called for swimming, given the thin and rather heavy lining of chainmail inside of it.
Opening the door and stepping out onto the lawn felt like playing a mini-game, with Jack having to time closing it just right in order to get the better of the harsh winds. The rain was coming down in thick, blinding sheets. Taking the car would be suicide, not that the cover it provided would have made much difference, given that Jack was already soaked through.
Between the night sky and the thick clouds overhead, Jack could only see through relying on his vampiric night vision. He ran down the hill at a loping pace, shifting his weight and momentum to take advantage of the wind whenever he could.
Along either side of the road flowed two runoff streams of water that seemed to get a little larger with each step he took. By the time Jack reached the outskirts of town, they were small rivers, each one winding forward along the path of least resistance, carrying leaves and bits of garbage down into the flooded streets.
Lesser Town was a mess. The damage done to the first few buildings Jack saw made what had happened to the mansion seem like scattered showers. Windows were smashed open, and shingles were missing from roofs. The water was up to Jack’s knees, and the few shops below ground level had been completely flooded.
As he moved further into town, the water became deeper and the destruction more obvious and heart-breaking. Jack had to slow his pace as the floodwaters made it up to his waist, flowing as fast as any river out toward the ocean. The rain and wind continued to whip at his face. He was disoriented and all too aware of how easily a flying piece of shrapnel could catch him in the back of the head.
There was a van with its lights on, and someone was still inside, judging from the panicked honking of its horn. It was moving through the water, and it took Jack a couple of seconds to realize that it wasn’t of its own volition. The floodwaters were taking it for a ride, along with its passenger, toward an unpleasant, underwater conclusion.
“Hold on!” shouted Jack. He pushed forward, letting himself actually swim through the water flooding the street. It was the fastest way for him to get around without relying on his blood magic.
He reached the van just as it started to tip onto one side. Even through the storm and the closed windows, Jack could hear the panicked sounds of people with in. A woman, with two children. He slammed his fist against the driver’s side window twice, the second time with a generous application of his vampiric strength.
The window shattered, and Jack immediately reached a hand through, unlocked the door, and swung it open. The woman in the driver’s seat was facing away from him, leaning over into the backseats to try to pull her children back above water, now that the van was on its side. Jack pulled her out of the van, and then reached for the kids, neither of whom was older than ten.
Everybody was screaming except for Jack, and granted, he almost felt like he wanted to. The woman stood on her feet, but she was short, and the water came up to her breasts and was still rising. Jack passed her one of the children, a girl barely more than a toddler in a pink dress, and then threw the other one across his shoulders.
“We have to get to higher ground!” shouted Jack. “Can you stay close to me?”
The woman nodded. She was saying something, but it was the type of incomprehensible, run-on sentence that people often default to when panicked. Jack scowled as he glanced around them. It would take too long to head back out of town, toward the slope that the mansion was on, and they’d be exposed the entire way.
Instead, Jack opted to start leading the woman and her children toward the grandiose statue of the island’s discoverer that lay near the center of town. It was a beautiful stone depiction of a man standing atop the bow of a ship. It looked far more realistic with the water running past the ship’s hull than it ever had before, but what mattered to Jack was that it was at least fifteen feet high and above the reach of the floodwaters.
Even still, it was slow going. He couldn’t swim safely with the child on his back, and he had to account for the woman and the little gi
rl, too. He kept a tight hold on her wrist, pulling her above water as much as he pulled her forward. Jack felt like a drowned animal by the time they reached the ship, and he immediately began lifting the woman and her children up to safety.
“Don’t go anywhere!” shouted Jack. “I’ll come back for you, okay? I just need to find somewhere safe.”
The woman shouted something. It was something he probably needed to hear. A rushing wave of water slammed into him, knocking him against the unmoving hull of the stone ship. He felt his forehead split open and begin bleeding freely into the water, and then he felt small hands grabbing him by the scruff of his shirt.
The water nymph let out one of her clicking, aquatic laughs. She seemed gleeful at the situation and swam easily through the water, dragging Jack with her at an impressive speed. He tried to shout for her to stop and ended up taking a breath of water instead, which induced a burning fit of coughing.
“…Stop!” Jack managed to find his feet and pull away from her, though the water was now up to his armpits. “Stop this! You’re killing people!”
The water nymph swam in a lazy circle around him. They were over toward the boardwalk now, almost by where Jack and the others had gone swimming earlier that day. It was scarily hard to tell the difference between where the flooding ended and where the ocean began.
“Hey!” Jack seized the water nymph by the shoulders. “Listen to me! You’re going to destroy this town if you keep going!”
The water nymph made a hissing noise, and Jack realized that he’d just done exactly the wrong thing. A wave exploded into life and crashed into him, knocking him off his feet and through the window of a nearby building.
The building had been built to withstand at least an impressive amount of flooding, as it was mostly dry inside. The window the wave had tossed Jack through immediately began pouring water in, and it reminded him of a leak below deck on a sinking ship. Jack stood up, feeling his anger reach its breaking point.
He focused on his blood essence reserves and cast Shadow Levitation, letting himself float above the water as he slipped back outside through the window. He couldn’t see the water nymph, but he knew he had her full attention.
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