Minutes to Midnight

by Phaedra Weldon

  I dropped the dandelion stem. "Gabriel's buried…" I looked at the ground and stepped away, just in case I was standing on her. "Here?"

  She pointed to a black spot in the grass by the deck stairs. "Her pieces are buried there. But you can't kill a Cherubim. She'll show up again soon as she possesses and cultivates a new body."

  Which also meant that when she does, she'll be meaner than before. "So Djins and Angels—"

  "Do not get along. Honestly, Angels don't get along with anyone." She pursed her lips. "Djins are mostly tricksters when they're left to their own devices. So soon as I saw what he did, I shot him. He left and I haven't seen him since. Someone's tried to break into the townhouse a few times but the floodlights scare them off."

  "You think it was Mike?"

  "It's been a rough month, Dags." She rubbed at her face. "I was about ready to call up Mephistopheles' cabal when I got a call from Thomas Rhymer. Said you were on your way home."

  I didn't know how the old legend did that. "So you haven't seen him."

  "No. Your friend Klinsky's been by twice, wanting money for information on Mike. I don't know if he realizes what's inside of Mike. If the Djin sticks to its usual activities, it'll get drunk and stay that way. What we have to do is make sure it doesn't turn violent. Once it starts down that road, there's no going back."

  I nodded to the kitchen. "And Stella?"

  "She was here when we got back. Illy said she showed up after we left and stayed." She nodded at me. "Your turn. You tell me everything that happened to you."

  Fuck that! I opened my mouth to lay out a plan to find Mike when the back sliding doors banged open.

  Darius ran outside and stopped a few feet from us. He was breathing heavy, sweat beading on his face. He wore a dark green tank, jeans and Sketchers. I hesitated—I didn't know if he was happy to see me or ready to strangle the life out of me.

  Raven stepped back as Darius came to me and literally buried me in his arms. The hug was brief and bone crushing. He lowered his arms and caught his breath. "It's good to see you again."

  I held up my hand—after my ribcage popped back into place. "Have you been tracking Mike?"

  "Nothing yet."

  I ran fingers through my hair. "Okay. Let me shower. You shower. We'll take my SUV and then—"

  "Excuse me?"

  I turned to look at Raven. She stood to my left, Darius's right, her hands on her hips. "What?"

  "You're not going anywhere right now."

  I opened my mouth but she held up a hand. I closed my mouth. "I've got to find Mike. It's my fault he's in this position."

  "How is this your fault?"

  "Because I hired the Djin to get you two out of the 'Pheral. But then he took advantage of things and took Mike. I was…locked up." With a zombie!

  "Darren—" Raven made sure I was looking at her. "You forget I had a little taste of you—and I got all kinds of insight from that single bite. You're running on borrowed energy—which we are going to have a conversation over later so I can understand the image I got." She waved at me when I opened my mouth to talk. "Silence. You need food, and you need sleep. You're going to eat, Darius is going to go home and pack and be back here by nine this evening." She looked at him. "You got that?"

  Darius nodded and put a hand on my shoulder. "I'm taking your car. I can get it gassed and ready."

  Raven moved past me and back into the townhouse. Raven and I stepped inside to see him grab the keys from the table by the door. The large man gave me a thumbs up and left.

  "He's worried about Mike."

  "We all are. Djins are not something you want overshadowing you. Mike knows how to shield himself, but even he's going to give out of will if we don't get that thing out of him." She put a hand on my shoulder. "Go shower. I'll get things packed. Then you need to eat and sleep. We've been consulting the BBOE about Djins and Darius has been in the local library for weeks. I think we might have some ideas we didn't before."

  Raven was right. Running off half-baked wasn't the way to do this. Whatever juice I'd taken from Rhonda was nearly gone. And a shower sounded very…very nice.

  I smelled bacon macaroni. That was Stella's specialty and something she'd gotten me hooked on when I lived with her. I ate nearly all of it, downed a full pitcher of tea and then one of water, plus two apples, a banana, a bowl of cereal, and then I drank the milk.

  Stella's Susie Home Maker attitude worried me. This wasn't the same Stella I remembered, but I wasn't sure if this change was because of time in the Peripheral, or if Rhonda…Charybdis…did something to her.

  I stood under the shower for ages, just hoping the heat would wash or burn away the things I'd seen. I knew Raven wouldn't let what she'd seen in my blood go and I would have to face her and explain things a bit more. I was ashamed of what I'd done to Rhonda. Horrified didn't come close to describing it. The thought that I was capable of that kind of destruction terrified me. Maybe I was afraid it would terrify Raven too.

  Or give Darius a reason to actually shoot me.

  After a four hour nap, Raven woke me. She'd cleaned and bandaged my thigh while I slept. She also assured me I wasn't going to be a Lamia. Darius was back, the car gassed. She and Stella had packed my things. Everyone was at the table when I ambled down stairs, thinking I could use another shower to wake up now.

  And a cane. I really needed something to take the edge off my thigh.

  After a desert of apple pie and cinnamon ice cream, Raven filled Darius in on a few things and I told them about the Ghoul in the cemetery.

  Raven said she'd call Mephistopheles and let him know what happened to Lucy. After knowing this, that Society he likes might decide to bust in on our rescue." She narrowed her eyes at me. "What is it? What else haven't you told us?"

  I twisted my head to the right to pop my neck. "What do you know about Charybdis?" I fixed my gaze on Raven's face. "Her brother Scylla, the Chimera, and Echidna. You talked about them before."

  "Aren't those mythological things?" Daren said as he finished his fifth slice of pie.

  Raven returned the look. "You want to know more. Does this have something to do with what happened to you?"

  "Yeah it does…but I need to know about her first. And I'd like to hear it from a Revenant."

  "All right." She leaned back in the easy chair with a drink in her hand. "There once was a very happy couple, Lilith and Samael. They loved each other beyond measure. And they believed nothing could ever taint that love. Until they had a child. They called her Echidna. She was beautiful, articulate, and very powerful, even at a young age. But she also enjoyed cruelty and loved to experiment on creatures weaker than herself. Not long after she reached adulthood, she gave birth to a set of twins. A boy and a girl named Scylla and Charybdis. No one knew who the father was, and Echidna didn't care. They were nearly as beautiful as she was and she doted on them endlessly because they shared her cruel nature.

  "But Echidna's father was unfaithful to her mother and fell in love with another woman. He left his daughter, and his grandchildren, to have many, many children with this new love. Echidna watched her mother's heart break, until eventually Lilith lost her heart and was tossed from her place of power. Echidna was furious, and it is rumored this anger gave birth to a third child. This child she called Chimera."

  Raven sipped her drink. "But having this new child didn't ease her pain, so she had the new wife killed. When Samael discovered what his daughter had done, he sent every minion in his World after her. He wanted her head. But she escaped by fleeing into the Material world. She was the first to consume a human. To overshadow it. To control it so her father's minions wouldn't be able to sense her whereabouts."

  "You mean…she didn't join with it."

  "No. She commanded it. Unfortunately, such a union just burned the poor human up. She had to move from body to body to stay hidden. Now, during this time, one of her father's new children, a stupid little girl named Sophia, destroyed her father and took over his throne. She
banished nearly all of her brothers and sisters from the Dark World and sent her own beasts after Echidna and her children. Sophia didn't want the murderer of her mother to die. No, she wanted her to suffer.

  "Now, Echidna loved praise. She loved being adored and worshipped, so she used her powers and developed a small following after she possessed a young man named Apollodorus. It was by this fame she was captured and entombed by a spell. Sophia commanded her sister, Inanna, to write this spell that would bind and corrupt Echidna. It would make her a monster like the monsters she had created. Echidna vanished from the world and Sophia cursed Echidna's followers to forever keep her secret and guard her tomb so she could never be found."

  I glanced over at Stella as she cleared the dishes.

  Darius leaned forward. "Is she still there in the tomb?"

  Raven smiled. "No one knows where the tomb is, so there is no way to say yes or no." She looked at me. "You know of the Bulwark."

  "I know of it."

  "The Bulwark happened when the worlds went to war. The White Knights of the Angelic horde, as they called themselves, lead by Scylla and Carybdis, believed the machinations of the Dark World's children were despicable and all of them should be put down. They declared the first strike by killing off the God Mother's children—the keepers of the borders—one by one."

  "Sophia retaliated and sent out minions to kill Light Soldiers on sight. But while they fought, other beings sought a refuge away from the war, a place to live peacefully away from them, and found that place on the Periphery of life. Using the lost chapters of Inanna's book, they created the Peripheral. Djins, Succubi, Incubi, Fae, Faeries, all manner of creatures judged to be inferior to Dark or the Light, sought this World out.

  "Finding sanctuary there, Charybdis, Scylla, and Chimera became their rulers, but instead of a refuge it became a living hell. Soon the other Worlds found this Peripheral World and discovered the leads of the horde were they. They attacked. It was the first time the Dark and Light Worlds united under a common cause. During the battle, a lone surviving child of the God Mother spoke the spell of undoing."

  "The what?" I asked.

  "When Sophia kicked Inanna out of their home, the book was ripped apart and scattered. Inanna loved to write things down. And some things…" She looked at her glass "…should never be written down. The God Mother, angry at the Light World for killing her children, gave this child the power of destruction from this book. This small child spoke the spell, and the Peripheral burned. Everything inside of it was laid waste."

  I swallowed. I'd seen this destruction. I'd seen…the aftermath. "That…was part of the Bulwark."

  "Yes. The fighting stopped. Immediately. Those that survived picked up their toys and went home." She sipped her drink. "The other worlds feared the magic that had come out of the Peripheral, even though they never found the spell or the one who recited it. So they threw everything they didn't like into the Peripheral like so much garbage and sealed it away and never spoke of it again."

  "Holy shit," Darius said.

  I leaned back in the chair. "But the spell didn't kill everything in the Peripheral."

  "No. It didn't kill the three things it should have killed."

  I held up my fingers and ticked them off. "Scylla, Charybdis, and Chimera."

  She nodded. "You should know the spell the God Mother's child spoke might be in the book inside of you."

  I put my hand to my chest. "That spell is in here?"

  "It could be. No one knows how complete the book is. Only Inanna would know. But you see how powerful the legend of the book is in the minds of those of us who lived through such destruction."

  So…the Grimoire could, in essence, destroy the world. I'd always believed that was a myth, something the Seraphim wanted to believe. But what if it were true? What if I had inside me the magic capable of destroying everything?

  "So now we have holes from the 'Pheral to here and we have some of those nasties running around. Lovely." She sat up. "I'll add this news to what I need to tell Mephistopheles. He'll definitely want to send reinforcements to find her— "

  "She's in Rhonda." I blurted it out. I didn't know any other way to do it. I'd wanted to know who Charybdis was first, and now that I did, I realized I had indeed been the prisoner of a creature worse than Maab.

  Raven stood and stared at me. "What?"

  I licked my lips. "You thought it was a Revenant…and you were right. Just not a Revenant like you. It was Charybdis that somehow took Rhonda and brought her back to the Peripheral." That's when I told them what happened to me there. With the Djin possessed Lamia and then my experience with who I thought was Stella. But I didn't tell them what I did to Rhonda.

  Raven was silent. "So she's found a host."

  "Yeah."

  Darius finally said. "She's one of those twins you were talking about."

  I nodded.

  "Pretty dangerous?"

  I nodded again as I heard my phone ringing. I put my hands to my back pockets but nothing was there. I hadn't seen my phone in a while.

  Raven stood and went to the table by the door and retrieved it from a bowl with keys. She looked at the face. "Girl in the boots?"

  I held out my hand and took it. I hit answer. "Sam?"

  "What the fuck is wrong with Mike?"

  Uh oh. "I uh—"

  "You either get your tiny ass down here and help me fix him, or I'm going to banish him back to the 'Pheral, guns and all." She disconnected.

  I looked at Darius and Raven. "I know where Mike is. He's in New Orleans."

  CORONER'S iD

  We were packing the SUV when a familiar white truck pulled up in front of the townhouse and blocked us in.

  Illy put the huge utility vehicle in park and jumped out of the driver's seat, a folder in her hand. "Dags!"

  I smiled and wrapped my arms around her. Before I knew it I was kissing her lips with a need I didn't realize I had. She was warm and real and soft to touch.

  When we came up for air, she brushed my cheek with her fingers. "I'm so happy you're alive."

  "Me too." I searched her face under the street light and kissed her forehead. "Why're you here?" I wasn't unhappy to see her. I was just surprised. While standing there, I thought about asking her to go with us.

  "Well, Darius left me a message that you were back, but I was at work. And the reason I was at work late was because the Coroner's Office was going to release the identity of that last victim. The one they were holding back?"

  Raven joined us, as did Darius.

  She held the folder in both hands. "You're not going to like it. I had them double check."

  I took the folder and noticed she'd started shaking. I glanced at Darius, then Raven as I opened the folder and looked at the information given.

  "What's everyone standing around for?"

  As a unit we turned and looked at Stella. She stood on the last step, her apron in place, her hands on her hips.

  "Death certificate." I handed the folder to Raven and stepped forward. "For one Stella Ann Rosenberg. Age thirty-four, weight one hundred and thirty pounds. Height, five-seven. Hair, red. Town of residence, Roswell, Georgia." The sword appeared white and silver in my hand as I wrapped my fingers around the hilt. "Who, or what, the hell are you?"

  about the author

  Phaedra Weldon is a writer and mother of one. Born in Pensacola, Florida, Phaedra was raised in the lush, green southern tropic of Georgia. She grew up on southern ghost stories told while eating marshmallows around campfires, or on the back of pick-up trucks in the middle of cornfields on chilly October nights. She worked as a Graphic Artist for over twenty years in the publishing and sign industries until she became a full time writer in 2009. Phaedra currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and daughter.

  This work and everything in it is the sole property of Phaedra Weldon. Any copying or reprinting will be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law.

  The Eldritch Files

  My
sterious Times

  Chapter One

  They huddled in a small group, bent over what looked and sounded to Sam like someone in trouble. Someone held against their will.

  "Not that way—" Kyle Kendrick said to her right as he stomped through the dark forest. Her right hand shot out and slammed into his face and cupped his mouth in her palm to silence him.

  She chanced a glance at him, his face and expression visible under the full moon. Kyle looked angry. She made sure she looked angrier as she nodded to the clearing just past the group of pine trees.

  Kyle looked where she indicated and his eyes widened to the size of small chicken eggs. Well, that can't be a good sign.

  Samantha Hawthorne turned toward the group facing her and her best friend. Their previous interest now lay struggling on the ground behind them. The center of the group took a single step forward, a long pipe in his hand. He slapped it against his other hand.

  "Well, well. We have visitors, mates." He sounded Australian. Which was an accent that stuck out like gnat in a bowl of milk in southern Louisiana. "Why don't you step out here so we can get a good look at you."

  They were Powers. Minions created by the Second Choir of Angels known as Virtues to do their bidding. The movies and television painted demon-possessed humans as being the ultimate in nasty. Well…their creators obviously never met up with Powers.

  They were human once. But when a Virtue ripped the human soul from their body and delivered what they called a Heavenly Host, a soulless zombie was born. An undead gangster.

  Powers were known by their smell, which Sam had sensed on the wind after twenty minutes of following Kyle into the swamp near his family's old home. They were less than a mile from Lake Pontchartrain. Fireflies dotted the shadows with yellow light and the earthy, musty smells of rot and Night Blooming Jasmine wasn't enough to mask the Powers's stench. To her it was worse than decaying flesh, but not as bad as the blood of a Faerie.