3.0 - Shadows In The Garden Hotel

by Krista Walsh

  The muscles between Allegra’s shoulders tightened as a jolt ran through her, but she didn’t push. Vera supplemented her income with her work as a vengeance goddess, eliminating the world of cheaters and cads one summons at a time. Her services weren’t advertised in the local yellow pages, which suggested her skills were being shared by word of mouth.

  Interesting, indeed.

  Aloud, she said, “I cannot help but think Jermaine’s plan for us has triggered a far-reaching mousetrap. Whether he was at fault for this approaching trouble or not, the ties between all of us are invariably being pulled together in a tighter web. Much as I would prefer to continue our agreement to sever the connection, events are leading otherwise. I am in need of assistance.”

  Vera’s sharp gaze, which had slid over Allegra’s shoulder with her wandering thoughts, refocused and locked with hers. After a moment, she nodded for Allegra to continue.

  Allegra huffed at the silent encouragement. Ara returned from the stacks with empty arms and paused beside the counter, her gaze jumping from Vera to Allegra. Allegra shifted her back to the woman. “I would prefer to speak to you about this in private. It is of a rather sensitive nature.”

  Vera’s tight smile widened. “I keep no secrets from Ara. She knows as well as we do the need to keep the troubles of our world secret.”

  Ara offered a bright smile in response to Allegra’s wary stare. This time, Allegra picked up on the otherness about her. Not one of the mundane, then, although she didn’t recognize the energy.

  She still would have preferred speaking to Vera alone, but since it seemed neither woman was ready to cave to her demands, she shrugged and went ahead. “I have learned there is a creature — possibly one of several creatures — stalking the Garden Hotel. According to the staff, it has been a resident for over a decade. It watches people from the shadows, and if anyone is unfortunate enough to lay eyes on it, she dies. Quickly. It has already come after me, and as I would rather not wind up dead before my time, I want to know what this creature is and how to get rid of it. Or at least how to keep it away from me.”

  “What does it look like?” Ara asked.

  Allegra cast her a disdainful glance. “If I had seen it, I would hardly be standing here telling you about it, would I? I would be dead.” She wondered what Vera saw in such a slow-witted woman. But as they were trying to help her, she exhaled slowly through her nose and said, “I have not seen it myself, but a man who has worked there long enough to hear the stories has told me the creature appears as a decomposing corpse. He believes it scares its victims to death, but I am sure we all agree that such methods of killing are unlikely and difficult to accomplish. Healthy human hearts are too strong to stop at a bit of a fright.”

  Vera nodded. She gestured for Ara to return to the counter, then for Allegra to follow. Allegra pressed the back of her index finger against her nose to block out the smell of dust and antiquity as they passed through the stacks of old books toward a room at the back.

  Vera pulled a ring of keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door. She stepped inside for a minute, then returned with a leather-bound tome held carefully in both hands. She tucked the book under her arm long enough to close and lock the door, then nodded at Allegra and started toward the stairs.

  Allegra trailed along behind her, glancing at Ara as she passed. The blue-clad woman had buried her head in a book and no longer seemed to be paying any attention to the goings on.

  Strange woman.

  Vera opened the door to her apartment and shooed away the two dogs that bounded over to her. They were both of larger breeds — a German shepherd and a golden retriever were Allegra’s best guesses — and Allegra nudged her foot at them when they got too close. She had no inherent issue with the beasts, but hated the mess they left on her clothes.

  “Vidar, Baxter, come here,” Vera ordered.

  Allegra spared the dogs a second glance. From the conversation she’d overheard when she’d arrived, one of these creatures had frightened Vera’s thief out of the shop. Perhaps they weren’t entirely useless to keep around. She wondered how effective they might be against the monsters in the hotel, and if Vera would consider loaning her one. If something happened to it, surely it could be replaced.

  While Vera ushered the dogs into her bedroom, Allegra took in the rest of the apartment. The space was as comfortable as the shop downstairs, with a wide open kitchen, three walls lined with counter space and an island-turned-tabletop in the middle. To Allegra’s right lay the living room, cluttered with the same cottage-style furniture that decorated the shop — black-and-white plaid with hints of red in a material that would have been scratchy when new but which had softened over the years. A ratty blue blanket covered in dog hair was thrown over the back of the couch. A matching armchair sat next to the fireplace with its back to the kitchen and a wooden rocking chair set across from it. A teacup perched on the small round end table between the couch and the rocking chair, a stack of books nestled beneath it.

  The far wall flanking the fireplace had been converted into built-in bookcases, each shelf full to bursting, the wood bowing. A half bookcase was tucked into the wall nearest Allegra, this one with a small stereo on top and a handful of CDs of classical artists leaning against either side. Based on the case sitting on top of the stereo, Allegra deduced that Bach was the composer of choice for the day.

  Comfortable, cozy, and nothing that Allegra would ever be caught dead living in. She longed to run her fingers over her leather sofas and silk scarves just to clear her senses of these rougher materials.

  Vera emerged from the back room and closed the door behind her. She waved for Allegra to have a seat, and Allegra opted for the rocking chair, hoping there would be less fur on the smooth surface to snag on her trousers. Vera settled into the armchair across from her and opened the book she’d taken from the room downstairs. The leather binding crunched as the spine contracted, and the scent of dust hit Allegra even from so many feet away. The pages were yellowed with age, covered in neat lines of a fine hand-written script.

  “By your description, I’d guess your hotel has draugrs,” Vera said. “Likely more than one. They don’t usually hunt alone.”

  She flipped to a page in the middle of the book and set it down on the table, turning it so Allegra could read.

  Allegra leaned forward and peered at the picture, then curled her lip in disgust. The monster was hideous. If that’s what was stalking her in the halls, she hoped she never had the misfortune to see it. Not because it might try to kill her, but because such a face would be etched on her memory forever with its horrible features. Peeling skin on a skeletal face, the nose nothing more than a hole in the middle of the skull, the clothes rotting and torn and clinging to its body with a stubbornness not even matched by her slinkiest outfits.

  “I thought draugrs were restless corpses,” she said. “Wouldn’t everyone be able to see them?”

  Vera shook her head and took the book back, settling it on her lap. “Not necessarily. You know as well as I do that most people only see what they want to see. It’s possible the creatures are always there, but the human mind blocks them out. It’s also possible they carry a natural glamor that blocks them from view unless looked at directly. The reason you picked up on them right away is because you knew to expect something in a hotel that old.”

  Allegra hmphed. “For the rates the Garden charges for its rooms, I must say I was not expecting murderous nightmares to be included.”

  Vera smirked and scanned the text. “Another possibility is that they’re not yet full draugrs.”

  “Explain.”

  Vera raised her gray gaze to meet Allegra’s, then dropped her attention back to the book. “They are restless dead, but they usually rise following a heinous act, such as a murder. I suppose it’s possible they’re being summoned by a necromancer, but it would require great power to maintain them, so it’s unlikely. Someone in our world would have heard about it.”

  “Ho
w could a murder create them?”

  “It’s generally accepted that the negative energy produced by the act of murder awakens lost souls who are stuck at the point of crossing over and summons them back. These spirits aren’t necessarily associated with the hotel in any way, they just get caught up in the energy around the area.”

  “So they are ghosts,” Allegra said.

  “In a sense. To begin with. They rise as ethereal spirits who feed on the energy of people around them. Between newly risen spirit and full draugr, they might haunt dark spaces and only become real when the glamor is broken and they’re seen.” She tucked one leg beneath her and scanned Allegra from her heeled toe to her dark hair. “Prolonged contact might also have the same effect. In other words, even if you never look at them directly, the fact that you’re aware they’re nearby might be enough for them to reach you.”

  Allegra’s blood ran hot in her veins, and she ran her hand beneath her hair to allow a moment of cool air on her neck. “So does that mean they target their victims? Or do they go after whoever is nearby?”

  Vera shook her head. “I’m not sure. One theory is that their attacks stem from a perceived threat to their existence. They need to keep their secret, just as you would fight to keep yours. If they know you’re aware of them, they might not be satisfied to let you walk away.”

  A low groan escaped between Allegra’s lips, and she pressed the pads of her left-hand fingers against them, tapping the fingernails of her other hand against the wooden armrest.

  “They don’t kill their victims immediately,” Vera continued, reading again, “but will stalk them until the opportunity rises for an easy kill. Then they attach to the prey and suck out their myoglobin.”

  Allegra dropped her left hand onto the other armrest. “Their what?”

  “It’s a protein found in muscle. The fluid that looks like blood when you eat a rare steak. Draugrs consume these proteins to build up their own muscles. The more they feed, the stronger they become, until they break through the barrier between planes and become corporeal. So while they might begin as spirits, if left unstopped, they will become actual walking corpses.”

  The hair rose on the back of Allegra’s neck and she ran her hand over her stomach to soothe the clenched muscles. She found herself thinking of Monique. The expression on her face, the open-mouthed horror, made more sense in light of this information. Had she seen the monster before it fed on her, or had it remained invisible to her eyes until the last, leaving her to feel the suck on her life without understanding what was happening?

  Allegra thought about the sharp pain in her own back, the blood trickling over her skin. She shivered and shifted in her seat. The rocking chair creaked and rolled on its arced legs, a comforting soundtrack to counter the ghost story Vera was weaving.

  “Wouldn’t such visible symptoms show up in the police reports?” she asked, cementing her mind on the facts. She thought of how quickly the red welt on her back had faded — she had brushed that aside as something resulting from her own healing abilities, but perhaps there was more to it. “I was told that each death has come up as natural causes.”

  Vera frowned. “The book doesn’t go into specific detail, but from what I understand, they attach to the victim in two places. One connection to consume the fresh proteins, and one to expel whatever they took from their last victim.”

  Allegra cleared her throat to prevent herself from gagging. “Why would they expel what they had already consumed? If the purpose is to become corporeal, why not horde what they devour?”

  “The popular theory is that because a draugr is a decomposed corpse, the proteins rot when they enter its system. If it held on to the old fluids, they would eventually poison it.”

  “So the rotting proteins are ejected into the next victim?”

  Vera nodded. “An examination of the victim would show deterioration and degradation of the muscles, but it wouldn’t be considered a cause of death. The punctures themselves aren’t usually noticed, suggesting there’s some sort of healing property in the draugr’s sting.”

  The shiver creeping through Allegra curled in the base of her stomach and squeezed. One puncture had been in her back — had the other one attached? Had she jerked away too quickly for the beast to have finished?

  She brushed the backs of her fingers against her lips to settle her queasiness.

  “They’re strong,” Vera continued, watching her steadily. “Quick. They’ll latch on to any exposed area and the victim has no time to run. Once contact is made, it’s impossible for most people to escape.” Vera ran her fingers over the leather binding of her book. “You obviously succeeded.”

  Allegra bobbed her head in a gentle nod. “I hadn’t even realized it was on me until I stepped away from it.”

  Vera pursed her lips. “Not how I would choose to die. I imagine it gets painful the more they drain you. As though your entire body were in spasm.”

  Allegra swallowed hard and picked at the edge of the armrest. A sudden idea occurred to her, like a tiny light of hope. Some supernatural beings didn’t enjoy feeding on other creatures of the otherworld. Magic changed the flavor of the meat. “Would they be interested in someone — something — like me? I wouldn’t taste the same as a human.”

  Perhaps the taste the creature already stole will be enough to discourage it.

  Vera curled her lips in consideration, then said, “I don’t know if that would make a difference. It’s not blood they want. Your muscles require the same proteins to work as human muscles do.”

  Allegra released a breath and steeled her spine. “But they are restricted to the hotel, correct? If they were summoned out of a crime committed at that location, their existence would work the same as any haunting. The binding would contain them.”

  “I don’t think so,” Vera replied, crushing Allegra’s hopes that checking out and commuting from home would be her simple solution. “They stay in one place because that’s where they’re strongest, but if they make a connection with a victim, they begin feeding off the new energy instead of the original source. No matter where the victim goes, the draugr will follow to finish its feed. If one has already fed off you, then it likely won’t stop until it’s drained you completely.”

  Allegra pressed her hand against the base of her throat to remove the tightness. “I suppose that leaves me with only one option,” she said, ignoring the bitterness of her distaste. “How do I destroy them?”

  Vera skimmed the page again, then set the book on the table and crossed her legs. “The standard methods — tearing off their heads or setting them on fire. Even in their semi-corporeal form, fire will do enough damage to send them into hiding until they recover. Of course, both options would require getting close enough to fight back.”

  Allegra sealed her lips together, not enjoying the thought of coming within a foot of one of those nightmares. Corpses drinking human proteins. The threat would undoubtedly unleash her demon, but she would have to maintain control to avoid losing everything she’d gained.

  “There is an alternative,” Vera said, and Allegra’s gaze shot up to hers. She was about to snap at her for not mentioning it earlier, but the semi-goddess didn’t give her time. “As I mentioned, the most common cause of draugrs is a murder at the location of the haunting. Typically, after a crime, the body is removed for burial. The spirits will linger at the source for a while, feeding off the energy created by the crime, and then will disappear after the source energy has been consumed.”

  “Clearly that has not happened here,” Allegra said. “There are exceptions?”

  Vera nodded. “The draugrs might stick around if the corpse is never removed. Just like a haunting — although in this case, the haunter is not the murder victim but a side effect of the crime.”

  The skin between Allegra’s shoulder blades prickled, and she shifted forward in her chair. “Is that the only possibility? Can they be created by any other sort of crime? Any other cause?”

  Vera rai
sed a shoulder. “It’s an old hotel, so I’m sure there’s enough negative energy built up in those hallways for anything to happen, but it would take something extremely powerful to break the barrier between the mundane and the afterworld. I might be wrong, but I strongly believe you’re looking for a corpse.”

  Allegra circled her fingers through her hair, looping a lock around her forefinger and tugging it down to create a curl. She repeated the gesture as her thoughts shuffled through the information. Finally, she asked the question dangling between them.

  “What do I do if I find it?”

  Vera crossed her hands over her stomach. “There’s a banishing spell you can cast. One that will sever the connection between the body and anything that might be feeding off the energy. You can cast it on your own, it’s a simple enough spell, but it would be stronger with more people. Like adding more strands to a rope. Each strand creates a stronger net, decreasing your chances of any energy slipping through the holes.”

  Allegra snorted. “That is not an option. I can handle this myself.”

  “Then I wish you luck.”

  Allegra didn’t want to dig around the hotel for a corpse. It would be difficult to do so without drawing attention to herself, and likely a dirty task as well. The alternative, however, would risk her being taken by surprise and without any guarantee that she would come out on top.

  And if there was one thing Allegra preferred, it was being on top.

  With a groan, she clasped her hands in her lap and glared at the book on the table. “Very well. If you could provide me with the banishing spell, I suppose it’s time I begin my hunt for a dead body.”

  9

  The taxi pulled up in front of the hotel, but Allegra hesitated before getting out. She stared at the stone exterior of the building and checked each window, searching for a decomposed face staring back at her.

  She didn’t want to go inside. She wanted to tell the driver to take her back to her condo building, and then call Cody and have him gather up her belongings to be delivered. The monster stalking her would follow, but she could handle one draugr more easily than a hotel full of them, and at least at home, she would have the advantage of knowing her terrain.