The Ballad Nocturne (The Midnight Defenders Book 3)

by Joey Ruff

  I took a drink, not feeling convinced at the moment. I wasn’t sure London knew the Swyftt I knew. Or maybe, it was the difference in our personalities, London and I, and how much of Swyftt’s garbage we could stomach. Maybe we’d just spent too much time together, too close to the bone.

  “You want to pack it in? Head back to the house?”

  He shrugged. “Up to you, brother. I’m game for whatever.”

  “There’s this thing Swyftt asked me to check.” I showed him the photo on my phone. “Ever seen it?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t fucking know.”

  I pocketed the phone. “Guess I got some reading to do.” He started loading his guns back in the Rhino. “You ever see a Gopher tree?”

  He looked up at me. “You fucking serious?”

  “We’ve got a small grove.”

  “You fuckers really do know how to party.”

  14

  Swyftt

  Nadia and Ezra were in the kitchen when we came in through the back door. They were elevated on stools beside the counter, a couple of mugs of coffee between them. The window over the sink had the curtains drawn, or else they would have seen DeNobb and I coming out of the shed. They would have known what we had found.

  Since they hadn’t seen, my demeanor was a bit of a shock.

  I don’t know what they’d been talking about with the smiles and Ezra’s bullshit pleasantries, but they stopped as soon as I pushed through the door. I stopped when I saw the voodoo woman and pointed straight at her. “You’ve got some fucking explaining to do,” I said.

  Nadia stood, hostile, as she yelled, “Jono, what the hell are you talking about?”

  I didn’t look at her, continuing to stare at Ezra, noticing the woman failed to meet my gaze. “Stay out of this, Nadia. Our friend here hasn’t exactly been honest with us.”

  DeNobb stepped through the door behind me. Nadia turned to him. “Jamie, what is he talking about?”

  “Don’t ask him,” I said. “Ask fucking Ezra. She’s the one with the answers. We’ve seen the golem.”

  Nadia looked at Ezra. “What is he…” Then she turned to me, “What are you talking about? Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “She’s keeping secrets,” I said. “I went and talked to St. Clair. He backed up her story about getting kicked out of the church and closing down her business, but with one major variation.” I looked at Ezra. “You were the one causing all the chaos about town, Love. You and that sodding golem you keep in the shed.”

  She looked at Nadia for a second before turning to meet my gaze. “Ah,” she said. “Of course, that’s what he told you. I shouldn’t be surprised. He’s turned this entire town against me, after all, why not you, too.”

  “So you’re going to try to deny what we just uncovered in the shed?”

  “I saw it, too,” DeNobb said, trying to be part of the conversation.

  Ezra swiveled on her stool to face me and stood. I nearly drew my gun. “It’s true that I created a golem,” she said. “I had to. I had no other means to protect myself. Or should I say, I tried to create the golem.”

  “It looked pretty real to me,” DeNobb said.

  “I don’t know what went wrong,” she said. “I followed the spell exactly. It took an entire weekend to gather materials and sculpt the frame, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t bring the creature to life.”

  “Protect yourself?” I asked. “From what?”

  “The skunk apes.”

  “Skunk…Apes?” DeNobb asked. “What are those?”

  I thought back to the creature in the shop. “It’s what they call Bigfoots around here,” I said. “Sasquatch, Yeti, skunk ape…it’s all the same fucking thing.”

  “You’ve seen one,” Ezra said. “Where?”

  “Inside your old shop,” I admitted. “Right in the heart of town.”

  “And you saw the golem. Did it look like it had been causing damage?”

  I didn’t say anything.

  “Did you get a reading from it?” Ezra asked.

  “I…” I didn’t. I tried, but the thing was cold. Vacant. But that wasn’t the point. “You know about my ability?”

  “Oh yes. I know all about you, Mr. Swyftt. Solomon talked of you at length, though I’ll admit, much of it had slipped my mind until talking to this lovely lady of yours.” She took Nadia by the hand and smiled at her. “The real question you should be asking, Mr. Swyftt, is how the preacher knew about the Golem in the first place, as it’s never left the shed.”

  I had to give it to Ezra. She tried so hard to come across as a matronly school teacher, the kind what cares about each of her students and values their learning. She projected a very nurturing façade. Nadia bought into it hook, line and sinker, and for a minute, I wanted to, also. Except that I couldn’t. I couldn’t explain what it was, couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something about her that didn’t add up. Call it a gut feeling.

  Still, what she was saying tracked with what I had seen.

  “Let’s say I believe you,” I told Ezra. “Where do the skunk apes fit in?”

  “They’ve lived in the swamps for as long as I can remember,” she said. “Some call them Saksanai. It’s an old word, taken from a small clan in the Himalayas. The word means keeper, or guardian. They’re peaceful.”

  “Then why would they attack you?” Nadia asked.

  “I do not know, child. I’ve long suspected that Pastor St. Clair has found a way to control them.”

  “Okay,” DeNobb said. “Hold on. This is getting confusing. A real he-said/she-said kind of thing.”

  “I don’t blame you for questioning it,” she said.

  I didn’t say anything. I was only half listening, too busy thinking about the words that the beast said in the shop right before it attacked me again and ran off. It was confused.

  “How would you control something?” I asked.

  She shrugged, dismissively. “There are several ways, I’d imagine, that one would be able to accomplish this.”

  “No. You’re the magic lady here. How would you control something?”

  Clearly picking up on my insinuation, her eyes burned intensely into mine for a moment. “I wouldn’t.”

  I watched her back just as intently, not letting my gaze wander, noticing the small wrinkles developing at the corners of her eyes that I hadn’t noticed before. “How about a voodoo doll?”

  “Jono,” Nadia said. “Stop. Don’t be rude.”

  “Who’s being rude? I’m just asking for an expert opinion.”

  “You’re picking a fight.”

  “Bollocks.” I sighed. “Hypothetically, then, Ezra. How would somebody control someone?”

  “A voodoo doll only works if you have a physical tie to the person you want to control. Like hair, teeth, flakes of skin, drops of blood.”

  “And you had that? Of Huxley?”

  She didn’t answer right away. Then, “Yes. He was my husband.”

  “So having a physical tie to the person makes the doll into that person? Allowing you to move the person by moving the doll?”

  “Yes. Like a smaller version of the person.”

  “You would know all about that, wouldn’t you DeNobb? Mini versions?” I smiled.

  “Jono, stop!” Nadia said.

  “I’m ribbing him. He wanted to be mates.” I looked at Ezra. “Would somebody be able to create a doll of a skunk ape? Not you, obviously, but just somebody…hypothetically?”

  “If one could get something from a skunk ape, possibly. But, then again, perhaps not.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because of the nature of the spell. Human beings are a trinity. Huxley was a holy man. I was much less religious, but he believed that God was a trinity: Father, Son and Spirit.”

  “Okay…?”

  “And that man, he said, was made in God’s image, also as a trinity. Yet, man’s trinity was body, soul and spirit. The doll becomes a symbol of man’s body, controlling the physical
form and allowing the person to feel the pain in his body as was applied to the doll.”

  “Sure,” I said. “You don’t think that would work against a skunk ape?”

  “It would be greatly determined by whether or not the skunk ape had a physical body…”

  “And wasn’t a spirit,” I said, understanding.

  DeNobb clearly didn’t. “Hold on,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll get berated for this… Body, spirit, what…?”

  “Right,” I said. “Once more for the stupid…er, uninitiated.”

  Ezra, with her matronly school teacher manor, looked at DeNobb and said, “The Sidhe are creatures of spirit. They can’t live in the physical world as we do. They live on a separate plane, a spiritual realm called Fairy. At certain points, our world meets theirs and they are able to cross over, manifesting a physical body, but that body does not last. When they cross into this world, their power is limited. They cannot be killed, only their physical body can be destroyed, which banishes them back to their world.”

  “Okay,” DeNobb said. “But aren’t bigfoots just like… oh, what’s the word? One of those Cryptid things?”

  Ezra considered that and then answered, “What some call a Cryptid is just a very rare animal. Perhaps, the skunk apes are exactly that, and if they were, they would indeed have a physical body. If this were the case, they could perhaps be controlled by a doll, but we cannot be certain. As they reside in the swamps, it is likely that they are spirits that cross back and forth, as the forest – or in this case, the bayou – is such a place of transition.”

  DeNobb actually started to sound like he was understanding. “So spirits can enter our world through the forest?”

  Ezra nodded. “Not the only way, but certainly the most common.”

  I turned to Ezra and said, “So maybe not a doll. How else? Assuming they’re spirits, how would you bind them? Magic?”

  “Yes,” she said. “That’s the only way I’ve heard of. Or a magical item, of some kind.”

  “And would whatever spell you use to bind a spirit also bind an animal?”

  “Probably.”

  I pulled out my phone and showed her the picture from the alley. “Have you ever seen this before?”

  She didn’t say anything, but then again, she didn’t have to. The way her eyes went wide and her body went rigid, it was pretty clear she had.

  “St. Clair seems to think this is something of yours.”

  “It isn’t,” she said.

  “How do I know that?”

  She didn’t say anything. It almost looked like she wasn’t able to say anything.

  “Why do you look afraid of it? Do you know what it means?”

  She nodded.

  “So…what is it?”

  Her voice was little more than a whisper. “It’s the mark of the Ballad Nocturne.”

  15

  Before I could ask any clarifying questions, Ezra collapsed into a heap on the floor.

  Nadia scrambled to her side, ordering DeNobb to help her. I just stood there, watching, arms folded across my chest. They tried to lift her. It wasn’t pretty. Nadia’s petite frame doesn’t exactly make her a power-lifter.

  She looked up at me, annoyed. “Do you want to lend a hand here, Jono?”

  “Not particularly,” I said.

  She looked at DeNobb. “Let’s get her into the living room then. We can lay her on the sofa.”

  I watched Ezra. As DeNobb grabbed under her arms and Nadia lifted her feet, the woman’s face began to change. Well, age. The wrinkles around her eyes deepened and spread out across her face like little rivers. Her dark hair became streaked with sparse white hairs. Her hands shriveled like a kid what was left in the tub too long.

  In the span of thirty seconds, the woman went from looking twenty-something to greater than sixty. Forty years in the blink of an eye. DeNobb screamed by the sudden shift. Stepping back and losing his grip, he dropped her. Ezra’s head bounced off the linoleum kitchen floor, and I stepped over and picked her up purely on reflex.

  “I’m sorry,” DeNobb said. “Shit. What just happened? I didn’t do that, did I?”

  I just rolled my eyes. “Take her feet,” I said. He did. When Nadia’s hands were free, I asked, “What’s the bloody Ballad Nocturne?”

  “How do I know?” she asked.

  “Because you have a sodding phone with Google, Love. I’m sure you know how to type?”

  “Hang on.”

  She stayed behind in the kitchen while DeNobb and I carried Ezra down the hallway and into the living room, lying her down on the sofa. I checked her head from where she was dropped. There was no visible blood, but that didn’t mean a sodding lump wouldn’t grow like in a Looney Tune.

  I looked up at DeNobb, who was standing a few feet away, one hand up on his head. “I’m sorry, Swyftt. I feel like shit. What happened?”

  “I don’t know. But I would have dropped the cunt, too. Don’t worry about it.” I turned to the kitchen. “Nadia? Anything?”

  She came around the corner. “I’m not worried about that right now, Jono. I’m trying to search rapidly aging, fainting spells. That’s not normal.” She looked at Jamie. “Are you okay?” He nodded. “Is she okay? Her head, I mean?”

  “Fine, Love. But don’t you think a Google search of the bloody Ballad may benefit us in this situation? She fucking announces it and then, BAM…” I smacked my hands together for emphasis. “She goes out like a light and…”

  “I get it, okay.” She did something on her phone. “The only thing I can find on the Ballad Nocturne is a Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra.”

  I took a deep breath. “Fine. I’ll call Ape in the car.”

  “Don’t bother Terry with this. He has plenty on his plate, already.”

  “Like lying in a fucking bed and responding to social media posts? Or shooting guns with London? When did that lot become so important?”

  “Wait. In the car… Where are you going?”

  “We’re all going. I need to do what I do best, Love, and that’s figure out what the soggy bollocks is going on around here. My gut says both Ezra and St. Clair are hiding something.”

  “Where are we going?” DeNobb asked.

  “St. Clair said there have been several attacks. I need to see one of these places for myself.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Nadia said. “Ezra might be in trouble. She might need me if she wakes up.”

  “She’s going to need you to ask her what the Ballad Nocturne is. Fine. You stay here. Do you need your suitcase out of the car?”

  “Probably wouldn’t hurt.”

  I motioned for DeNobb, who immediately went to grab it.

  I looked around the room at the shelves full of books and trinkets. “Well, since you’ll have a bit of time, maybe you can do some research…”

  “Jono…”

  “I’m serious, Love. All these books, you may find a clue as to what happened to her. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty sure all this bollocks is related. Somehow. But do be careful, okay. St. Clair said that Ezra was in league with a knight of Hell.”

  “I don’t believe that for a second. I’ve spent time with her.”

  “Feel like you got a good read, then, do ya?”

  “I think I’m a decent judge of character. Present company excluded.” She smiled at me.

  “Give me one example that she isn’t completely evil.”

  “Off the top of my head?” she said. “She was a whole lot more patient with Jamie than you’ve ever been. And if you were paying attention, he actually seems to understand what she was explaining.” I didn’t say anything. “Besides that, my father knew her better than anyone. Including St. Clair. I get nothing from the amulet. At least, as far as warnings go.”

  “Well, keep the amulet on. And your phone. Let me know if anything happens. Call the second she wakes up, Love. And if you find anything in the reading about the Ballad…”

  “I got it, Jono. Don’t worry.”

 
“I do. About you, Nad. I don’t know about that ‘knight of Hell’ business, but I don’t exactly get all warm and fuzzy being around Ezra myself.”

  “You’re paranoid.”

  “How’d you think I’ve stayed alive this long?”

  “Jono,” she said, growing a little more impatient. “I’m a big girl. You can stop all of this. I can take care of myself. You can’t always…”

  “Stop all of what?”

  “The babying. The…training Jamie to be some super soldier. The overprotective bullshit.” She just looked at me. Her big eyes were soothing. She was so beautiful that it was hard to believe there was any of Huxley in her, as he wasn’t a very pretty man.

  “I know you, Nad. I know what you can do. You’ve survived plenty…hell, more fucked up nonsense than any other girl your age, and that’s not taking in to account Brom’s horde and the gargoyles. You’re strong, but you’re young. You’re still inexperienced.”

  “So, train me.”

  “We’re not having this conversation again. Not now.”

  “After the mall, I came to you and told you that I was ready to do more. That I was eighteen now, that I was tired of being kept in the dark, and that I felt like I’d proven myself to you. Your answer to that was to train Jamie, instead. And I can’t help but feel that you’re doing that as an excuse not to train me. Am I wrong?”

  I didn’t say anything.

  “Jono, am I wrong?”

  “Of course, you are. I chose to train him because I wasn’t going to have a free loader living in the house. If he was going to be there, he was going to pull his own weight, and I needed him to pick up some slack with Ape being down.”

  “And you couldn’t train me because…?”

  “Because I’m not a school marm. You don’t get multiple students. That’s one thing the Hand got right. One trainer, one trainee. Intense, hands-on experience. I’m training your boyfriend now. Maybe when he’s done…who knows?”