The Malveaux Curse Mysteries Boxset 2

by G A Chase

  “At the moment, I could wring his neck. Up until he pulled this boneheaded play, I thought we were making progress. His passing through the third gate and past his ex-wife seemed to confirm that he was evolving toward a person who could rejoin the human race.”

  From the way her wings sank below her shoulders, he could tell she held herself responsible for falling for his deception.

  “Don’t give up hope just yet. Changing a man whose dastardly deeds are legendary doesn’t happen overnight.”

  She shook out her feathers. “Maybe not, but we still need a plan. We can’t give him the cane, and that confines you to life. I guess I’m on my own out here.”

  He started pacing in front of the portal. “He hijacked her straight out of your conversation. That means the seventh gate is still open, at least from this side. Though, as we don’t know where Kendell ended up, we have no way of knowing where that portal leads or even how to get someone else through it.”

  “Could you toss her a lifeline?” Sanguine asked. “You did a pretty amazing job preventing me from slipping out of existence.”

  Myles hated enlisting the band’s help again. They had already suffered a lot of spiritual stress in trying to keep Sanguine connected to life. “I’ll see what I can work up. What will you do?”

  “Kendell’s out here somewhere, but he’s done a remarkable job of keeping her hidden. I’d have felt her presence if he’d have simply dumped her in hell, so she must be in some other dimension. We have to assume Delphine is still on our side, though it was her shop where the abduction took place. The only other person who plays around with alternate dimensions is Luther Noire. There’s no point in you confronting him in life, but I’ll cut that door down like the archangel Gabriel with his flaming sword if I have to. Whatever supernatural object Colin absconded with must have ended up on this side of the wall between life and hell.”

  Myles couldn’t imagine Luther ever parting with anything he’d added to his collection. “It might not have been Luther’s fault. If Colin did steal from the World Trade Center, he’d have needed some other way of accessing the vaults. Luther certainly wasn’t going to let him in, and if Colin had broken in, Luther would have contacted us.”

  “Right. So the church is my first stop.” She spread her wings. “Not like they’ll refuse to let an angel into their sanctuary.”

  He made a mental note to check each of the faces of the carved angels in the cathedral just to be sure her holy visage hadn’t somehow been captured in stone. “Just don’t go giving them someone else to worship.”

  43

  Myles waited at the gate until Sanguine had flown off to tackle her end of the plan. Even with her enhanced abilities, finding Kendell would be a long shot. Having a sexy angel in a diaphanous white goddess dress flying all over the city, however, would certainly attract Colin’s attention. He lowered the green shutters over the speakeasy, fearing that his next contact with hell might not be so easy.

  With the devil distracted, Myles hoped to create more than just a spiritual lifeline to Kendell. He walked into the club and pulled Charlie away from organizing the bar for the night’s activities. “We’re not opening tonight. I need you to find the band. Tell them it’s about Kendell. We need to rescue her, and it’s going to take everyone’s help. And have Polly and Lynn bring Muffin Top and Cupcake. I’m headed home to grab Cheesecake and Doughnut Hole. Tell everyone to meet up at Delphine’s as soon as possible.”

  Myles pedaled his bike as fast as the potholed streets would allow. Every minute, he envisioned Kendell in some cold, dark cell, scared and all alone. Hang in there, my love. I’m sending help.

  He tossed the bicycle under the stairs of their apartment building and ran up the three flights. His leg muscles were burning from the exertion. When he finally opened the door, he saw Cheesecake lying on the ottoman, staring out the window and whining. Doughnut Hole paced in front of the French doors.

  “Come on, dogs. We’re going to go save Kendell.”

  Both pups ran over to him, barking with excitement. He grabbed his cane before hooking Cheesecake up to her leash and whisking Doughnut Hole under his arm. Good thing Delphine’s is closer than the club.

  When he reached Scratch and Sniff, he saw that Minerva’s VW bus had already arrived. He entered the shop, where all four women and two dogs were nervously waiting for him.

  “We’ve all been through this before,” he said. “I propose forming the same spiritual bridge we did to strengthen Sanguine when she was saving Kendell. This time, though, we’re going to connect directly to Kendell through the seventh gate.”

  Polly held Muffin Top close. “What about the pups?”

  “Think of it like this. If Kendell had fallen through the ice into a lake, we would each hold hands and work our way out to grab her. That’s what we’re going to do now, but with her locked in an unknown dimension, we might not be able to pull her to shore. Even if that is the case, though, the pups should be able to use us as a bridge to her since they aren’t originally from this dimension. If we can’t pull her out of hell, the least we can do is send her help.”

  The women were lying next to Kendell’s motionless body with all their heads together by the time he’d finished his explanation. Before he joined them, he addressed the four animals. “Once we build the link, I’m trusting that you pups will know what to do. Just follow Cheesecake’s lead. She’ll know right where to find Kendell.”

  As he performed his release from life, Myles experienced each of the women’s souls as fellow links in a chain that extended from Kendell’s motionless body at her seventh gate to an unknown solid barrier. He could feel the separation in dimensions like an abrupt change in temperature, but the wall was something new. The dogs took off across the human souls like squirrels running along a power line. At the solid obstacle, Cheesecake stopped in her tracks and started barking. The puppies, however, pounced through the wall as if it weren’t there.

  * * *

  Kendell had never realized how much she hated small, dark, scary places. She sat against a corner of the dimly lit cell with her arms around her legs, trying not to cry. Even focusing on her hatred of Colin failed to help her overcome her fears.

  As she had when she was a girl, she closed her eyes and started singing “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” The old Simon and Garfunkel tune so perfectly represented love to her that she imagined she was hearing Cheesecake howling along.

  When the flurry of puppies jumped into her lap, she feared she was losing her mind, but their intense kisses hinted at another explanation.

  “Myles must have found a way to get you through the portal.” Crying was no longer something she resisted. “Where’s your mama? That damn vault must be preventing Cheesecake from crossing over because she’s not from this realm. You sweet, wonderful dogs. I missed you all so very much.”

  Doughnut Hole took up the duty that was usually Cheesecake’s by cuddling tightly to Kendell’s face and soaking up her tears with his shaggy coat. They were still the dogs Kendell remembered from life and not the hellhounds they’d been in Colin’s realm.

  “So that’s how he’s keeping me hidden. This box must have come from Luther, though he wouldn’t have parted with it willingly. Hopefully, you dogs being here means Myles has figured out this box’s origin as well. At the very least, when Colin opens that door again, he’s going to be in for a shock.”

  She needed to find a way to prop the door open long enough for the pups to get out and revert to their hellish personas. They had already proven their ability to scare the crap out of any devil. She petted the scar on Muffin Top’s nose. “You are all such brave puppies, just like your mama.”

  As much as she didn’t want to let them go, Kendell needed to figure out what was in the vault that she could use to help the dogs escape. “I passed out when he opened the door. I guess mixing in another dimension must have overloaded my spirit. We need to figure out how to protect you guys from that same situation. If you have any i
deas, I’m all ears.”

  As she started looking around at all the boxes, she began to wonder exactly how dumb Colin really was. From the psychic energy she felt radiate off each chest, she knew they were filled with Baron Malveaux’s cursed items. She reached for a rough-hewn box, but her hand passed right through it. “Of course. I’m just spirit and not flesh.” She turned to the door and pushed against it with all of her strength. “Damn you, Luther Noire. I can’t grab anything inside the room, but I also can’t get through these walls.”

  She slid back down to sit with the pups. “I don’t imagine you guys came up with anything, did you?”

  Doughnut Hole snuggled tightly to her side while the other two continued to explore their new cage.

  She scratched the dog’s ears. “At least I’ve got you guys. You just made my day a thousand percent better.” She couldn’t wait to give Myles a big kiss for understanding her needs even if he couldn’t immediately rescue her. “I just hope Sanguine isn’t doing something foolish like burning down hell in an attempt to save me. Or worse, killing Colin.”

  * * *

  Hell had a way of providing for all of Sanguine’s needs. She wondered if stacking the deck in her favor was a holdover from her grandmother, or if the old woman had managed to transfer hell’s reins to Sanguine without her realizing it. Of course, when it came to the virtual overlay of cardboard people that Kendell and her gang had built in life for projection into hell, the rules were more understandable.

  She held up the flaming sword. “So which are you? Did someone in life create you so I could possess you in hell, or did I think you up and make you real all on my own?”

  Waves of crackling fire worked up from the hilt to the point.

  “Or maybe you’re just a manifestation of my anger at Colin. Whatever you are, those priests and monks hiding in their marble sanctuary are about to have their religion shaken to the ground.”

  Though she thought it a tad dramatic, she flew at the gates of the church with the blade pointed ahead of her like an avenging angel about to wreak her justice. As she approached the heavy wooden doors, they flew open, allowing her passage through the sanctuary to the altar at the front.

  She put her bare feet on the purple carpet and held her sword up to light the room. “Someone had better materialize this instant, or I’m going to see if this sword can do more than just impress.”

  A monk in a black rope rushed out of the side office. “There’s no need for all the theatrics. I assume you’re here about Colin Malveaux. If you’ll lower your sword, I’ll show you what I showed him.”

  Sanguine felt a little foolish for having caused such a commotion, but performing the same act on Colin, as she would have liked, wouldn’t have helped her free Kendell. The truth was, she was itching for a fight and never had liked the Church very much. Their having burned her ancestors at the stake had a way of souring her impression of the people in that institution.

  “Of course,” she said. “You just walked him right up to the World Trade Center fail-safe, didn’t you? I’ll bet you even helped him figure out how to use it.”

  The old man quivered in his robes. “Unlike you, he had the necessary credentials. When it comes to the supernatural, we respect the division of sacred from secular. As Luther Noire’s objects aren’t blessed by the Church, all I could do was make sure Colin was justified in making his claim.”

  Sanguine followed the monk down the dark, dusty passageway. “What did he take?”

  “I’m not sure he took anything. He futzed with a control board, but I couldn’t detect any change. He was only after what was his.” The monk struggled to slide the marble slab partway off the sarcophagus. “I may not understand how this thing works, but we have our own divine intervention down here. If he’d tried to take anything that didn’t belong to him, I’d have known.”

  She didn’t want to know what type of magic the Church employed. The console inside the marble box didn’t look as if it worked. “So all he did was flip a switch and leave?”

  “He messed with all the switches and pushed a button, but in essence, yes.”

  “Any idea where the objects he requested ended up?”

  The monk pushed the stone back in place. “Not my department. You’d have to ask Luther.”

  At least I now know how he did it. Maybe I can leverage that information to get Luther to be a little more forthcoming and not resort to his usual enigmatic responses.

  Sanguine left the church in frustration and flew at the World Trade Center again with sword drawn. The flaming blade melted the window to the floor of Luther’s offices. She stormed down the hallway with her wings spread and blade drawn to look as intimidating as possible.

  “Oh, it’s you.” Luther barely looked up from the stacks of papers that littered every available surface in the conference room.

  “We need to talk. Colin has stolen his possessions—in case you hadn’t noticed.”

  The man looked more haggard than she remembered. His clothes were wrinkled, his hair disheveled, and his sunken eyes looked as if they hadn’t closed in a week. He lifted a pile of folders. “Do you have any idea what I’m up against? When that devil of yours had control of my building, he was setting off vaults like they were fireworks and it was the Fourth of July. Your witch cousins in Salem are having a field day with their returned brooms and caldrons. The city fathers up there are all up my ass to get things under control so they don’t have to resume their witch trials.” He picked up a royal-purple folder with a golden sash. “And look at this. It’s from the queen of England, no less. The druids are forming an uprising. Don’t those fools realize the capstone to Stonehenge was never meant to be used for barbequing chickens? You’d think for a group who prides themselves on knowledge, they’d know the difference between a ritual sacrifice and cooking lunch. Thank the ancients that Colin didn’t figure out how to access the hidden vaults in the pyramids at Giza, or we’d be looking at another alien invasion. So you’ll have to forgive me if I find the pilfering of a handful of men’s jewelry boxes not my highest priority at the moment.”

  Though she could see his problem, she didn’t honestly care. “Weren’t the objects supposed to dump into the river in case of emergency?”

  Luther tossed the file from the queen onto a stack of similarly colorful folders. “They would have if he’d used the main control panel. Since he locked out the vaults on the cabinets themselves, their resting places reverted to where the objects were originally discovered. Though their specific dumping location is dependent on a number of factors.”

  “Well I hate to inconvenience you, but if our shared nemesis isn’t brought under control, he might decide to finish the job. He did figure out how to access the fail-safe.”

  That got his attention. “The monks are supposed to notify me in case of a breach.”

  She pointed at the mess of folders on the foldout table. “Maybe they have, and you just haven’t gotten to it yet. Ever think of hiring a secretary?”

  He searched through some loose papers. “I had one. She didn’t prove trustworthy. Help me look for some handwritten document on Saint Louis Cathedral stationery.”

  “What’s the point? He’s already been down in the crypt.”

  He straightened up from leaning over the table. “What do you think I’m doing here—updating my records? Each vault that’s ejected from the tower creates its own microdimension. By being out of sync with everything in and around them, the vaults become impossible to detect. If I know where to look, though, I can pick up on their homing beacons. Think of a beacon as being like an airplane’s black box pinging after a crash. The range isn’t that far and grows weaker as the batteries fail. If Colin had used the central controls to eject the vault, there would have been a record letting me know where to begin my search. But he didn’t, so in order to focus my efforts, I need as much information as possible on how he set the controls so I can find some clue as to where the iron box ended up.”

  Sanguine s
tarted digging through the closest pile of folders. “So if someone were held prisoner in one of those vaults, they’d be invisible to the rest of that dimension?”

  “The vaults are designed to be the ultimate cage. Paranormal objects have a way of working themselves free from any confinement, so the vaults are like prison cells in space. Even if they’re opened, anything inside will only escape into nothingness—at least while they’re powered up. The battery life on those boxes varies depending on their size and how long they’ve been in this tower. Once the power dies, the vaults are no longer invisible. Then we have treasure hunters searching every country on earth.”

  Sanguine skimmed the documents in front of her. Most of them were more about the objects and the reason they were dangerous than where they might be located. A lot of the handwriting was hurried and the words filled with desperation.

  “Kendell disappeared while I was talking to her over our hell’s-gate link. Do you think Colin could have used his vault to snatch her?”

  Luther tossed his latest folder on top of the one from the queen of England. “The vaults are purely isolation containers meant to maintain the objects inside. They can’t reach out and grab any passing magical object. They aren’t traps.”

  Sanguine thought Colin might have found a use for the vault that Luther hadn’t considered. “But it is logical to assume he is using his vault as a jail cell to hold Kendell where she can’t escape, so he must have had the vault deposited somewhere he could get to it.”

  Luther turned to a map of the river. Though it wasn’t computerized, flashes of light appeared like lightning bugs along the coast. “See all these blimps? He dumped so many vaults in the river it’s hard to know which one had his objects. The homing beacons are interacting with each other, giving me false readings. And as this realm of yours doesn’t have real people, I’m finding it a challenge to hire an interdimensional excavation team to dredge the river.”