The Cult of Osiris: Book 2 in the Cedarstone Chronicles

by Sean Stone

  “The dynast ritual,” Adam read out loud. He’d heard of it before, long ago when he was studying for his Master’s degree in the occult. It was an old ritual no longer used by most covens whereby all sorcerers of a coven would bind their powers to the dynast as an act of allegiance. The dynast then had complete control over their powers so they could never act against him. It also meant that the dynast could block their powers if he wished. Adam hadn’t considered it before, he hadn’t even thought of it.

  “It would get you the allegiance of the whole coven,” Toni said excitedly.

  “Only if they agreed to do it which I doubt they would. Genevieve definitely won’t do it,” he said. Adam doubted that Genevieve would bind her powers to anybody, not even Clara Winters. Adam didn’t blame her, he certainly wouldn’t do it. The dynast ritual was an outdated and frankly medieval practice and not one that he wanted to bring back.

  “That doesn’t matter, if everyone else binds to you then she won’t be able to turn them against you, she’ll be powerless to fight you. So, if she won’t behave you can expel her,” said Toni.

  Adam nodded. It made sense, but only if he could convince the rest of the coven to go through with it. He wasn’t happy about using the ritual but there wasn’t an alternative. “What do we need to perform the ritual?” he muttered, more to himself, as he perused the page. The items would be no problem but they needed to wait until the next new moon which was over two weeks away. “We’ll need to talk to each person individually. If we talk to them in a group then Genevieve will talk them out of it there and then.”

  “Yep, so what, shall we take half each?” Toni suggested.

  “Can you handle it? I’m not asking too much?” Adam asked, knowing what her answer would be.

  “I can handle it,” she said cockily.

  He smiled. “Alright, let’s give it a go. We just need to make sure that we keep this a secret from Genevieve if she finds out it’ll be over before it’s begun.”

  *

  CHAPTER THREE

  William was starting to think that allowing the other factions to destroy the council had been a bad idea. He’d thought that removing everyone’s common enemy would prevent any fighting, but all it had done was create more. With the council out of the picture the other factions just turned their attention onto each other. Vampires, sorcerers and werewolves all trying to kill each other and making William’s life a nightmare. Every time the fighting broke out, he had to find a way to break it up, clean it up and cover it up. The last one was the easiest so long as the witnesses hadn’t already fled the scene. There had been a couple of occasions where there had been fleers, luckily they fled to the police station where William used his vampiric manipulation to make them forget. He was starting to understand what drove Jonathan Langford to such extreme ways of dealing with the factions; there seemed to be no other way of maintaining peace, they were all determined to destroy each other.

  They were not his concern this evening, though, the new mayor was. The council had rebuilt itself and elected Bradley Carter, one of the few surviving cabinet members, as the new mayor. William was on his way to his first meeting with Bradley and his primary concern was making sure that the new mayor had no notions of joining the fighting.

  William had served as a head of the special investigations team under three mayors; first had been Daniel Clifford, then Andrew Langford, followed by his son Jonathan Langford. The three of them all had one thing in common: their hatred of the supernatural and their desire to control them. William hoped that Bradley was different because if he tried to rebuild what Jonathan had lost then the council would be destroyed again, and this time for good. William didn’t know much about Bradley, he’d never had any dealings with him. All he knew was that Bradley was a high ranking cabinet member and worked closely with Jonathan, so it wouldn’t surprise William if Bradley had had a hand in many of Jonathan’s plans.

  The mayor’s office looked exactly the same as it had when Jonathan had held it. The same dark oak desk and green leather sofas. It reminded William of his father’s study - full of lavishly posh furniture that he wasn’t allowed to sit on until he was old enough to be trusted not to ruin it. None of the mayors had ever changed the office much, their tastes were all fairly similar. Bradley was sitting on of one of the sofas, looking over some papers. His sleeves were rolled up, his tie was off and light brown hair looked like it could do with a comb. He was the first mayor who actually looked like he’d done a day’s work; the others had always looked immaculate. Bradley peered over his reading glasses when William walked in and then stood up to greet him.

  “William, good to see you,” he said as he tucked his glasses into his breast pocket. He held out his hand and William shook it. He had a firm handshake; a good sign. William’s father had always said if a man had a weak handshake then he wasn’t worth talking to. “Please take a seat.” He gestured at the second sofa and they both sat opposite one another. “Do you… drink?” he asked hesitantly.

  William chuckled. “I do, but I’m fine for now, thank you,” he replied.

  “Okay so, let’s get to business. I know that you care about Cedarstone, William, you genuinely care and you only act with the towns best interests at heart. You wouldn’t have been doing your job for as long as you have if you didn’t. How long’s it been now?”

  “Fifty-four years,” William replied. He’d been the first officer in the supernatural investigations team. He’d built the team and made it what it was. Every member of staff had been selected by him.

  “That’s dedication right there. To this town, because you care about it. I care too. I know it’s hard to believe because I worked with Jonathan for all that time, but I’m not like him. He only pretended to care about the town, and everything he did, did more damage than good. We need to work together to repair the damage he caused and stop this town from tearing itself apart,” Bradley said.

  “You’re right. I do have a hard time believing you, you did help Jonathan in everything that he did,” William replied, as respectfully as possible.

  Bradley nodded. “Yes, I understand. There isn’t anything I can say that will convince you but I hope that over time you’ll see for yourself that what I’ve said is true. My plan for this council is to remove it from supernatural matters. The council will concentrate on what every other council concentrates on, development, education, recreation and so on. The supernatural is your domain, I want you to deal with things as you see fit.”

  “You mean to have no involvement?” he asked dubiously. What he was saying was too good to be true, there had to be a catch.

  “I’m going to need you to keep me updated and if you don’t get results, I mean if you can’t get a handle on things, then I’ll have to find someone who can. The well-being of the town is my responsibility which means I have to find the most suitable person to handle the supernatural matters. I think you’re that person, but you do need help,”

  “What help?”

  “You need more officers. The vampires, the werewolves and the sorcerers all have small armies, and you have a team of eight. They will never listen to you,” Bradley said. “I can hire people to help you.”

  “No. If I try to control them with threats then I’m no better than Jonathan,” said William.

  “Then how do you plan to stop them from fighting?” Bradley asked.

  “I need to mediate between them, to get them to compromise. If they see me as a mediator rather than a dictator, then they’ll be more inclined to listen to me. If I storm in with a squad of soldiers and try to force them to follow my orders then they’ll kill me and then go right back to fighting each other,” William explained. “Jonathan tried it that way and look what happened.” Jonathan’s body had been delivered to the town hall with a piece of wood jutting out from his chest.

  “Well, like I said it’s your domain so you handle how you see fit. But I need you to get this under control quickly.”

  “Why?” William asked
. He understood that it was best for the town to stop the fighting before it got out of hand but there was something that Bradley wasn’t telling him, some other reason for sorting the situation promptly.

  Bradley sighed and shifted in his seat. “This town has certain devolved powers from Westminster as you know. What you probably don’t know is why. There are people within the government who are well aware of the existence of the supernatural. We have devolved powers so that we can keep the supernatural a secret and to a certain degree under control. We’re not the only town in the country like it, there are several others. I have a meeting coming up with the director general of MI5 and if he reports to the home secretary that I’m not in control then they will send soldiers to take control. I’ve been assured that they have the resources to do it,” said Bradley. William could see that he wasn’t lying, there was genuine worry in his voice and written on his face.

  “Do you know about any weapons at Winters Research Labs?” William asked.

  “I know that Jonathan had commissioned research but as far as I know he didn’t get anywhere with it,” Bradley replied.

  “Well there are rumours that he did and at the very least I want those weapons out of reach from the other factions. I can’t risk them using them on each other.”

  “I don’t have access to the company I’m afraid.”

  “But you could get me access? Get me a search warrant or something?” William asked hopefully.

  “I could get a magistrate to issue one but whoever’s running the company no doubt has eyes and ears everywhere. They’ll move the weapons before the inks even dry. If they haven’t already moved them.”

  “Could the council purchase shares in the company?” he already knew the answer to that question.

  Bradley shook his head. “The treasury doesn’t have enough in it to buy a company. I’m sorry William. I can get the warrant if you like?” he offered. William appreciated the gesture but it was pointless.

  “That’s fine, I have other options to explore.” He had one option and not one that he wanted to take, but now there was no choice.

  “I wanted to ask you about something else,” Bradley asked tentatively. “James Tenson, have you seen him about?”

  “No. He was caught up with Nickolas Blackwood and Arthur Winters. I’m assuming he’s dead,” William said honestly. Almost everyone who had had anything to do with Nickolas three months ago had wound up dead. The only one who had survived was Adam Kent and that was only because he’d managed to stay out of Blackwood’s way.

  Bradley nodded. “That’s what I thought, but I just wanted to be sure. I had no intention of keeping him on the payroll but I wanted to know if he was still about. He knows enough about the council to cause trouble if he was to turn up before I’ve convinced Westminster that we’re doing fine. The same goes for Eloise, have you heard anything about her?”

  “I assumed she was dead too. If she’s alive she’s not in town. She’d be a fool to stay here,” William said confidently. Eloise had an utter loathing for anything supernatural and with no protection left the smartest option was for her to run. If she’d survived. William had heard that she’d been with Nickolas, Benjamin and James when the curse had broken. Benjamin’s body had been found under a pile of rubble, a few feet away from his head, and James and Eloise were both missing. Nickolas was the only one who had been seen alive.

  “Very good. What about Nickolas Blackwood, do I need to be worried?”

  “He isn’t in town right now,” William replied, hoping Bradley would leave it at that.

  “But his followers are.”

  “Yes. My stance on Blackwood is to stay away from him unless he causes trouble. I don’t think he will. He’s not the sort of person who stays still for long so once he’s got whatever he needs I think he’ll move on,” William lied. He had no idea what sort of a person Nickolas Blackwood was, but he was hoping that he was right. If Bradley got worried then he might try to do something and that would certainly end badly.

  “Alright, well I think that’s all.” They shook hands again and wished each other luck before William left.

  For the first time in over fifty years, he had a positive feeling. Cedarstone finally had a mayor who seemed to have its best interests in mind. Bradley was someone William could see himself working quite happily with. He only hoped that he wasn’t being deceived, because if he was then he might just destroy the council himself.

  When William stepped into Morgan’s night club he was immediately overwhelmed by the smell of fresh blood. A feed must be taking place, he thought as he scanned the crowd. Sure enough, he could see a fair few vampires sinking their teeth into unsuspecting prey. They weren’t discreet to William but the average drunken reveller wouldn’t notice a thing. William couldn’t say he was happy about what he was seeing but what clan vampires did inside their own nightclubs was not his jurisdiction. That was the arrangement they had with the clan; as long as they didn’t feed outside their property William wouldn’t step in. Not that there was much he could do anyway, Richie was only humouring William by agreeing to his rules.

  William didn’t drink from the vein, he had his own supply of blood at home, stolen from the hospital. He had never liked stalking humans and treating them like cattle. It just didn’t feel right to him. He pushed his way through the crowd of intoxicated clubbers and when he arrived at the bar he caught the barmaid’s attention. It was clear that she recognised him straight away from the slight widening of her eyes. She walked over making an extra effort to appear casual.

  “I need to talk to Richie,” he said. He didn’t need to shout, she was a vampire and had enhanced hearing. She nodded once and then disappeared.

  William hadn’t wanted to come here. His relationship with Richie was a less than comfortable one, ever since Rosie had died thirty years ago. Rosie had been William’s girlfriend; the only woman he’d ever loved. She’d also been Richie’s adopted daughter. Richie had started a war with the council and Rosie had been one of the many casualties. William had harboured resentment toward Richie ever since. He was trying to let go of that resentment; he’d accepted that her death wasn’t Richie’s fault, but it was hard. He’d blamed Richie for so long that letting him off the hook seemed an impossible task. He’d only seen Richie once since he came out of the catatonic state that the council had put him in and he’d kept the meeting short. The clan had given the town less trouble than the other factions so William had been able to send other officers to deal with them. He mainly sent Zander, the other vampire on his team. Richie was something of a racist vampire and preferred to deal with his own kind.

  The barmaid returned and motioned for William to follow her. She led him downstairs where the underground manor was. All of the high ranking clan members lived in the manor with Richie. William was familiar with the building as he’d spent a fair bit of time here when he was with Rosie, but he hadn’t set foot downstairs since her death and following the barmaid through the halls brought back pangs of nostalgia. Rosie had been working as a barmaid when he’d met her and his first visit downstairs had been led by her. The barmaid took him through several corridors and William was thankful when they passed the throne room. He hated being received in there; he found it demeaning having to speak with somebody whilst they sat in a great stone chair several inches above him.

  Richie was waiting in his sitting room. Once William was inside the barmaid left them alone closing the door behind her. Richie jumped up from his chair and wrapped his arms round William in an unexpected hug. William made no move to return the gesture and stood still until Richie released him.

  “Will, old boy, it’s good to see you again. You don’t visit nearly enough,” he said loudly. Richie was a loud man. William didn’t think he knew how loud he really was.

  “I’m very busy,” he said feebly.

  “I suppose you are, what with all the fighting. Don’t tell me you’ve come to try and get me to play ball with the wolves and the witches again?�
� He strode over to the drinks cabinet and started pouring two drinks, William was about to object when he noticed that Richie was pouring blood.

  “I didn’t think you drank from the bottle?” Richie had always been a vein drinker, he insisted on it. He said that bottler drinkers were sissies.

  “I’ve been a little different since my time with the council,” he said and handed one of the glasses to William. “Thirty years in captivity can really change a man.” He smiled but William saw the pain his eyes.

  “Yes, I suppose they can.”

  Richie fell back into his chair and patted the seat across from him signalling William to sit down. “So, since you never make social calls anymore I’ll go ahead and assume this is town business? New mayor send you did he?”

  “The new mayor is staying out of supernatural affairs,” William informed him.

  “Well, blow me down, it’s about time we had a mayor who knew his place. But you are here on business, right?” said Richie.

  “Yes. I need a favour, a rather large one,” William said and took a gulp of blood. He wished that he’d had a few alcoholic drinks before coming downstairs, it would have made this easier.

  “You know I’m always willing to help you if I can,” said Richie. Wait to hear what it is first, William thought.

  “I need to borrow some money. A lot of money.”

  “And when you say borrow…”

  “I mean have,” William said. It was unlikely that he would ever be able to pay the money back, especially if the company was doing as poorly as Clara said it was.

  Richie crossed one leg over the other and sat silently contemplating William’s request. “How much?” he said at last.

  “Enough to buy Jonathan Langford’s shares in Winters Research,” said William. He rubbed his palms on his trousers nervously.

  “I take it you’re looking for the weapons?” said Richie. A knowing smile lighting up his face.