The Ballad Nocturne (The Midnight Defenders Book 3)

by Joey Ruff

  He was a brownie – a house spirit, the benevolent caretaker of my house, and like Crestmohr, had played his part for longer than I knew: cleaning and cooking for little more than a place to stay, a saucer of milk, and a crust of bread. To say he was shy would be an overstatement. The brownie hated people, stayed away from them at all costs, except for me.

  “Chess,” I said. “How long have you been there?”

  “Tis best they go. Bid them haste. The fewer at this time, the better. The Circadian clock will soon begin to tick.”

  I shrugged, having no idea what he was talking about. He didn’t often speak – contented mostly with just making himself known to me – but when he did, it was often in riddles. I didn’t know if it was intentional, or just his nature.

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  “Tis best they are not present for what comes next.”

  “And…what is that, exactly?”

  He tore a bite from his crust of bread and dropped crumbs all over my desk as he said, “Ouroboros.”

  4

  Swyftt

  We pulled into the manor well before sundown. We’d gotten caught in the rain on the trek back to the car, but had since dried, though my clothes still stuck to me in places that were less than comfortable. I was looking forward to a shower and a fresh bandage on my leg, which still throbbed.

  I typed my code into the keypad, and the gates opened. Beside me, DeNobb laughed a little.

  “What?” I said.

  “Nothing, I just…” He was staring sideways out of the side window. “There’s a gate here, right, for cars and stuff, but there’s not a wall or anything around it.”

  “There is a wall.”

  “It’s two feet tall and composed of loose stones stacked on top of each other. It’s ornamental, at best.”

  I shrugged as I pulled through the gate onto the long, winding drive. I was too tired to think about it. “Ape calls it a perimeter marker, says it goes around the entire estate. This place is in the middle of nowhere, he doesn’t need an electric fence.”

  He continued to stare out the window at the trees and the large, stone statues of foo lions. “I guess if anyone does mosey in, these creepy statues would do wonders to scare them off.”

  “First of all, nobody fucking says ‘mosey.’ What are you, Billy the Kid? Second, the foo lions are symbolic. They’ve been used to guard temples in China for over two thousand years.”

  “So…old and creepy. I don’t know why they’re called lions, anyway. They look more like a gorilla and a dragon had babies. And those babies really like balls.”

  “Again, symbolic.”

  In total, there were four pair of foo lions that stood at regular intervals along the unreasonably long drive up to Ape’s manor. In typical foo tradition, the statues were always paired together, representing the yin and yang of the Chinese culture they came from. Unlike typical foo tradition, they were not male and female, but all male. Facing slightly toward each other and balancing one foot on top of what appeared to be a circus ball, each in the pair was basically a mirrored image of the other, with a large, square jaw with dagger-like fangs protruding down and a thick mane that appeared to be composed of scales or plated armor, rather than hair.

  I suppose they were a little menacing, but over the years, I had gotten used to them.

  “Speaking of symbolic, what’s that pattern on the ball?”

  I slowed the car to get a glimpse of the marking he was talking about: an intricate web of stars, made of flower petals and forming a collection of circles, all set in a vague hexagonal shape. Staring too long produced an optical illusion effect that crossed my eyes.

  “It’s called the Flower of Life.”

  “What does it mean?”

  “Don’t know. It’s ancient, and it’s on a temple guardian, so it must be a ward of some kind to scare off evil.”

  As always, I parked behind the house. Before I could even open the car door, two brown blurs streaked from behind the nearby barn and sprinted toward the car. I whistled as the door opened, and the two blurs came to an abrupt halt and stood completely still, taking the form of two large dogs: Rhodesian Ridgebacks. One had a black nose and mask around the eyes.

  I stepped out of the car and called to them, “Thai, Taboo….”

  Normally, I hated animals. Probably because so many of them tried to kill me, at least when it came to things such as sigbins, bonnacons, and perytons. However, the Ridgebacks had earned my respect, and I liked having them around.

  They didn’t come to me, but sat there beside DeNobb’s door, swarming his legs immediately as he stepped from the car. He started laughing and almost fell over.

  “Good,” I said. “Take them over to the barn and feed them, would ya?”

  He didn’t say anything to me, just stooped down and started petting them, greeting them in baby-talk, and letting them lick all over his face.

  I left him and walked inside to find Nadia in the kitchen, working on her laptop. “You’re home,” she said as I entered, not looking up. “I was just about to call you.”

  “I’ll save you the trouble. The case was shit. I spent all day with your boyfriend and have dick to show for it.”

  She closed the screen and looked at me. She was wearing a yellow shirt and her favorite red jacket that came down to mid-thigh, which were good compliments to her caramel-colored skin. Wearing only a hint of make-up, her black hair had been straightened and was worn down.

  “You didn’t find the girl?”

  “There was nothing left to find.”

  She was quiet for a minute, sad even. “What are you going to tell her friends?”

  I shrugged. “Haven’t gotten that far yet. Any ideas?”

  She shook her head. “Sorry. And not to sound insensitive or anything, but that wasn’t why I was going to call you.”

  “Okay…”

  “So, you know the dreams I’ve been having for the past couple weeks…”

  “The voodoo lady. Ezra…something…”

  “Ezra King. I had another one. She’s in trouble, Jono.”

  “Okay.” I didn’t say anything else, just moved to the fridge and grabbed a cold bottle of water, chugging it.

  “Maybe you didn’t hear me. She’s in trouble.”

  “What are we supposed to do about that? She’s a dream-lady. We don’t even know if she’s real.”

  “Of course, she’s real.” She lifted her necklace to show me the credit-card-sized amethyst she was wearing. “Huxley’s amulet gives me access to his memories. It’s where I learned her name, and I only dream about her when I’m wearing it. Not only is she real, but she’s connected to my father.”

  Her father, Solomon Huxley, was my friend and mentor in a group of Night Hunters called the Hand of Shanai. His dying wish was that I raise his daughter despite my getting him killed.

  “Too bad we don’t know where she lives.”

  “But we do,” she said with a shit-eating grin. “Louisiana. Small town outside of New Orleans, place on the bayou.”

  “So, what? You want to go there? We can’t leave Ape. He can barely get around.”

  “I’ve already talked to Terry about this. He convinced me to go. We’ll just have someone look in on him. You need a break, and you can’t use Anna as an excuse now that you have your little video app.”

  “Nadia, I… Fuck. You’ve already bought the sodding tickets, haven’t you?”

  She smiled. “Three on the red eye.”

  “Three?”

  “You, me and Jamie.”

  “Fuck that. You want to go, let’s go, but we don’t need to take him. He gets enough free rides around here.”

  “You took him on as your apprentice. We’re not sidelining him.”

  “I only took him on as an apprentice because he needs to carry his weight if he’s going to be hanging around. And if he’s going to be hanging around you, he needs to be able to keep you safe.”

  “I appreciate the s
entiment, but he’s coming. The tickets are bought. Think about this as a training exercise.”

  “We’ll give his ticket away. Invite London.”

  “You don’t like London. He gets on your nerves.”

  “And yet, I somehow prefer his company to others. Funny thing, that.”

  “Dammit, Jono. Get over yourself. He’s coming.”

  I took a deep breath and ran my fingers through my hair. I didn’t really want to go, but she was right. I did need to get away. A change of scenery could be really good.

  I nodded. “Fine. How much time do we have? I need a shower.”

  “Few hours. You have plenty of time.”

  “Good. Can you get me a fresh bandage, Love?”

  “Okay. What happened?”

  “Your boyfriend shot me.”

  “Oh my god, seriously? Are you okay?”

  “Fine. It wasn’t his fault. It was the gun.”

  Maybe she picked up on my tone, as she sounded annoyed when she said, “Jono…”

  “Fine. A scratch, that’s all it is. Just need to clean it out.”

  She nodded. “I’ll clean it.”

  “You have an address where we’re going?”

  “Sure.”

  I handed her my backpack. “While you’re at it, box up the five-sevens. Overnight them for delivery tomorrow.”

  “Jono, this is vacation.”

  “She’s in trouble. Your words. Trouble comes with strings and those strings are usually attached to something with teeth.”

  “I don’t think it’s that kind of trouble.”

  “If you’re taking a date, so am I.”

  I watched her for a second, but she was unrelenting.

  “No guns. It will be good for you,” she said.

  “Famous last words.” I turned and walked into the living room.

  She called after me. “Where are you going?”

  “To talk to my monkey. Mail my beauties.”

  “No,” she called after. “And stop referring to them as women.”

  Ape’s house was a forty-three-room Tudor home – a combined twenty-eight thousand square feet of brick and glass that was built in the early 1890s. For the most part, the place was empty, as it was just the two of us and Nadia, and more recently DeNobb. His absentee groundskeeper stayed out in the barn. Typically, I found Ape upstairs in the study, but Doc Cooper didn’t look kindly to stairs in his condition, so he’d been confined to his bedroom suite on the ground floor.

  Knocking once, I entered without waiting for a reply. Ape was lying in bed, his laptop open beside him. A news report of some kind was streaming on the screen.

  He glanced over at me casually, as though he’d been expecting me, and said, “Look at this.”

  On the screen, there was a man a little younger than me – mid to late thirties – red hair and neatly groomed beard, a purple collared shirt. He had an earnest look in his eyes.

  “In 1999, David Wilkerson wrote a book called America’s Last Call,” the bearded man said. “In that, he cautioned how America was being ushered a call to repentance. He believed America was on the brink of an economic and social collapse. Clearly, I don’t need to remind you of the recession in recent years, the staggering job loss… If we don’t repent, and it seems unlikely we will – as a nation, you understand – we’ll experience God’s wrath and judgment, just like Israel did, time and time again, all throughout the Bible.”

  “So you’ve found God in your rehabilitation. Is there a point to this?” I asked.

  “Keep watching,” Ape answered.

  The bearded man continued: “America is being punished. There have been many notable incidents since Hurricane Katrina, with the most recent being the freak storm that devastated Seattle a few weeks ago. And the citizens of the city are so delusional that they’re trying to claim some monster attack. What was it, gargoyles? It’s God’s judgment on Seattle for being so rotten in its soul. Even its homeless population has turned cannibalistic. All those poor children. It went on for months, as I understand it. Nobody was the wiser. It’s absolutely sick, what people are capable of. This is the same city that, a few years ago, claimed its fair share of missing sailors at some strip club.

  “If we don’t heed the warning and repent our immorality, worse will come. When the Israelites didn’t heed their warnings, war came for them.”

  I reached out and closed the screen on his laptop, silencing the video. With a laugh, I said, “So, war is coming to Seattle? Who the fuck is this guy?”

  “His name is Alex Kessler, he’s based out of Boston.”

  Hearing that name was like taking a shot to the gut.

  “We’re making national news now,” Ape said.

  “Did you say Kessler?”

  “Yeah. His dad was David Kessler, that outspoken evangelist that was murdered in his home.”

  “I know who he is.”

  “So Alex is this up-and-coming Billy Graham fig…”

  “No, you don’t get it. I know him. Alex. Didn’t recognize the wanker, but…yeah.”

  “Seriously?”

  “I was a priest last time we crossed paths. He was a fucking kid.”

  “Small world. Well, now he’s taking on Daddy’s mantle, from the sound of things.”

  “It’s a family business,” I said. “You have no idea.”

  “What does that mean?”

  I shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”

  He eyed me suspiciously for a second before deciding to drop it. “Fox News played a clip from the interview earlier. I went online and found the whole thing. What’s more, he’s not the only one. The fanatics in the city, Jono, I can handle those. Find the most active forums, create a half dozen screen names, and really just amp up the crazy.”

  I stifled a laugh. “That what you do all day? Watch Fox News?”

  He ignored me. “But national news, Swyftt. And not just tabloids. For crying out loud, we were on the Tonight Show yesterday. A bit in the monologue. It was played for humor. People think the city’s gone mad, I guess, but…what about the next attack? It won’t be here. It’ll be somewhere else. And the Hand is nowhere to be found. Hunter isn’t returning my calls and Austin’s off doing God knows what…”

  “Fuck Hunter,” I said. “I… Shit. Nadia was right. I need a sodding vacation.”

  “She talked you into it, huh? Good.” He went silent for a minute as he turned back to his computer, opening the screen. “Oh, how’d the job go? You find that hiker?”

  “We were too late,” I said. “She was… She didn’t make it.”

  “The Tikbalang? Was it there?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Too right. Fed the bitch to the Teind.”

  He closed his eyes.

  “Here’s hoping Kessler doesn’t hear about it. I’m sure he’d have an opinion on that, too. College coed goes missing in State Park for skipping campus Bible study.”

  “I find it hard to believe you were friends with this guy.”

  “I never said we were mates. Just that I knew him was all.”

  Nothing was said for a few minutes, and it grew awkward pretty quickly. “Look, I need to pack,” I said. “I just wanted to let you know that I’ll have Stone come by and check on you while we’re gone, water the plants and that.”

  “Stone’s on assignment. She’s not coming.”

  “Fine. Someone else, then.”

  “I don’t need anyone, Jono. I can stand just fine. I’ve got a pair of crutches around here somewhere. I could do with my own vacation…from this bed.”

  “I’ll phone London.”

  “I don’t want London. I don’t need anyone.”

  “I’m calling London. He’s over the racist bullshit, at least where you’re concerned. He saved your life. He thinks you’re fuck buddies now, or something.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s not true. At all. And gross.”

  “You know what I mean. Don’t go mental.”

  “Jono, seriously. I’m fine.”


  I didn’t say anything as I moved to the door. Before I could turn the knob, I stopped, turned to him. “So…what’s the statute of limitations on hauntings?”

  “What…ghosts? You don’t believe in ghosts.”

  “Well, that was before Rino’s, wasn’t it.”

  “Okay, but you might need to elaborate a little.”

  “I mean, Joe the Plumber dies. He has unfinished business or whatever. Nobody hears from him for a time, thinks he’s resting in peace, and then, Bob’s your uncle, say, twenty years later, he fucking shows up haunting his wife. What’s your take?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not sure, Jono. I guess it’s possible.” He looked at me for a second thoughtfully. “Where’s this coming from?”

  “It’s hypothetical. Don’t worry about it. But maybe if you get bored with your conservative news broadcasts you might do a little research?”

  “I was just flipping through the channels.” He took a deep breath. “But, sure. I’ll see what I can find out. It’s not like I have anything else going on.”

  I turned around and opened the door, as I stepped out, Ape called, “Jono.”

  I looked at him.

  “I’m serious. Don’t call London.”

  “Fine,” I said.

  “I want to hear you say it.

  “I won’t fucking call London. You’re a big boy. You can wipe your own arse. I got the message.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Get some rest.”

  5

  Our flight out of Seattle boarded at 11:45 PM and we were in the air by 12:30. The flight wasn’t full, which I was glad for, as it afforded me to sit alone by the window while Nadia and DeNobb sat a few rows back.

  The flight was six hours, with a layover in Denver. It was early morning when we landed at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. I was exhausted when we landed, as I hadn’t slept at all on the flight.