by John Conroe
“Here is dart from site where Lydia was taken. They must have shot at least ten to get one into her. Very small target. Very fast,” Arkady said, pulling a cigar tube from his pocket and dropping an animal tranquilizer dart into his hand. Singh took the dart and smelled it.
“This is a Coven recipe,” he noted. “Effective for vampires under two hundred years of age.”
“Can you counteract it?” I asked.
“I should hope so… I created it,” Singh said, turning and heading down to the room Tanya, Nika, and Stacia had disappeared into with Lydia.
Declan turned on the television before picking up the telephone to order a bunch of room service for himself, Stacia, me, and ’Sos. Doc Singh’s cooler would hold bags of blood for the vampires—with the exception of Tanya, who would likely tap my wrist for her dinner a little later.
Hanging up the phone, Declan turned to me. “Jake and his pals seemed to have partied up quite an appetite. Five pizzas, ten orders of cheeseburger sliders, and five dozen wings. Should be here in a half hour. But I’m concerned about this ongoing scent thing.”
“The building is lousy with the scent of multiple vampires. Unless they know our groups’ exact scent, it won’t set off any alarms,” I said.
“Well the ones who kidnapped Lydia will know her scent, right?” Declan asked.
“They would if any of them lived,” I said.
“Oh, right. Note to self—kidnapping of Tanya’s sister is bad for health. Like I’d want to inflict myself with her. But what about wolf and wolf-bear smells?” he asked, pointing at the furry lump sleeping on one of the suite’s expensive white sofas.
“That’s a problem. Any ideas?” I asked both him and Arkady.
The giant pointed to the vase of cut flowers in the centerpiece of the small dining table. “Need more of those. Room service?” Arkady asked.
“Hmm, gardenias, mums, white roses,” Declan said, looking first at the arrangement and then around the suite. He zeroed in on a big planter with a fern in it. “I’m so sorry, but I must,” he muttered softly to the fern before yanking it from the planter and depositing it gently into a garbage can. Go figure, the kid had pounded a sniper with his ball of death yet here he was apologizing to a plant. Witches.
He grabbed the planter and took it to the table, shaking it side-to-side to even up the remaining dirt. Arkady looked at me with eyebrows raised. I shrugged and looked back to the floral show.
Taking a gardenia flower in his left hand, Declan held his right hand over the cut stem and mumbled something that I couldn’t quite hear. It might not have even been full words, just sounds. Even my hearing couldn’t make it out. Then he poked a hole in the soil and gently pushed the stem into the soil. He repeated the same thing with each flower until the vase was empty and the planter had a strange forest of flowers sprouting out of it. Upending the vase, he poured the water into the planter, then headed to the galley kitchen faucet for more.
I started to ask what he expected to happen but snapped my mouth shut as the flowers began to grow. The look I exchanged with Arkady this time was astonishment. The kid saw both our expressions as he came back with the water-filled vase. “What? I’m a friggin’ Earth witch. You don’t think I can make shit grow?” he said, standing up straighter.
“I never thought about it before. I’ve mostly seen you break things, hack computers, fry stuff with electricity, and burn cities to the ground,” I said.
“Yeah, well, we generally grow things and take care of Mother Earth. You just caught me during a bad couple of years,” Declan said. “At home, the farmer up the street wins awards every year for the biggest pumpkins. I’ve always liked pumpkins. The seeds are awesome if you bake them with a little salt. That farmer still thinks it’s his secret homemade bonemeal fertilizer.”
The planter was now a thick mass of heavily scented flowers. Declan picked it up and put it near the door. “Will that do it?”
“Do what? Oh, flowers!” Stacia said, moving from the hallway to sniff the floral forest. She sneezed and shook her head. “Wow. Those pack a punch,” she said. “Who are they for, and where did they come from?”
“Scent cover of wolf and bear,” Arkady said. “Boy wonder grew them with little whispers.”
“You can grow flowers?” Stacia asked, looking at him with surprise.
He friggin’ blushed. “Yeah well. I’ve got a bit of a green thumb.”
“Thumb. Fingers. Hands, arms, feet, head, Hell, whole kid is green,” Arkady said. “How is the small and mouthy one?”
“She’s awake. The doctor gave her a shot of some special potion or something and she woke right up,” Stacia said.
“She alright?” Declan asked, voice uncharacteristically quiet.
“Her mouth started before her eyes even opened… so yeah, I’d say so,” Stacia said.
“I heard that, dog girl,” Lydia’s voice yelled from one of the bedrooms.
“See? Right as rain,” Stacia said. “So tell me about this growing thing and how come you never mentioned it?”
“Well, I’ve been sorta busy the last few years blowing up robots, fighting nasty programs, hunting werewolves, and stuff,” Declan said. “But Aunt Ash always had me do the planting or transplanting cuz my plants always did really well.”
“Really well? You just put a florist out of business in about two minutes flat,” I said.
“No, those flowers will all be dead by tomorrow morning. Left alone, even cut the way they were, they would have lasted several days. But I just forced them to root and grow. I accelerated their lives by like five or six times normal. That’s not what I normally do,” Declan said.
“Witch boy is a closet garden gnome?” Lydia asked, coming down the hall with a blanket over her shoulders, followed by Tanya, Nika, and Doctor Singh. The little vampire was sipping a baggie of blood and looked a little hungover. Seeing as how alcohol has very little effect on vampires, it was a look I’d never seen on her before. “God, what’s that stink?” she asked, screwing up her face.
“Gardenias?” Stacia asked.
“No—it’s him—the garden gnome. He smells like the bottom of a cigar shop ashtray,” Lydia said.
“Hey, Arkady lit one too,” Declan protested.
“Yeah, he stinks too,” the littlest vampire said, dragging her blanket over to the couch and collapsing in a pile across from the television.
“So, she seems pretty normal,” I said to Doc Singh.
“Her body should throw off the effects within the next hour or so, especially if she eats,” Singh said.
“Well, she’s right here and she’s eating,” Lydia said, holding up the blood bag but ignoring us to focus on the TV. The news was on and, like most of it these days, it was about the upcoming funeral of state for President Garth.
“How long is this room good for us?” Tanya asked Declan.
“Computer wise? Indefinitely. Human staff noticing the weird vampire girl in the blanket? Probably till tomorrow. Who knows?” Declan asked.
“So we’ve got the rest of tonight and part of tomorrow. We’re hidden inside the Masters’ headquarters, so we might as well gather intelligence and try to figure out what the demon is up to while simultaneously getting to the bottom of the president’s murder,” Tanya said. She then told them what we had found out from Barbiel.
“Wait, how can a name be written into rock before language was even invented?” Nika asked when Tanya wound down her report.
“Well, demons and angels have their own languages that predate Earth. Maybe elementals do too,” Tanya said, turning to Declan for confirmation.
“What? Me?” he asked.
“You’re the one with two elementals living in his backyard,” Tanya said.
“Yeah, but they’re babies. Sorta,” he said.
“You mean you created them?” Nika asked.
“No, don’t be silly. I can’t create elementals. I made homes for them and they sorta slipped in. But they’re both super young. Maybe
just a few hundred years old. Hard to tell. They don’t speak; we just sorta understand each other. Kind of feelings and images sorta stuff,” Declan said.
“Could the name of the elemental under Yellowstone be some kind of shape or image in the rock?” Tanya asked.
“I guess. I suppose. Who knows? People don’t interact with true elementals,” he said.
“Why would the demon want to blow up the super volcano?” Doctor Singh asked.
“Actually, the president’s death and the volcano might be linked,” Lydia said from her nest on the couch. “What happens to Salt Lake City if the volcano blows?”
“Salt Lake City is within the projected fourth radius of a worst-case eruption of the Yellowstone caldera. Current theories outline a massive eruption within Yellowstone, with varying concentric zones of damage radiating outward. Ash and debris could be ejected from the caldera as high as thirty kilometers, spreading outward dependent on existing wind conditions at the time. Sulphuric acid is typically ejected during an eruption, lingering in the atmosphere for years. The primary cause of damage would be ash fall, which in the Salt Lake area could exceed sixty centimeters of material. Roof collapse would be the leading cause of death although normal respiration would be difficult at best in those conditions. Ash would choke out the rivers and kill vegetation, clog heating and cooling apparatus, cut power lines, close airports, and ground almost all flight activity. Ash would blanket the central agricultural region of the United States, killing all crops as well as livestock. Ejected material in the atmosphere would likely cool the planet by several degrees, severely effecting the global growing cycles for at least several years,” Omega said over the television’s speakers.
“Thank you, Omega. Why Salt Lake City?” I asked Lydia.
“Because Garth’s having two services. One in Washington, and then another after his body is flown back to his hometown of Salt Lake. Currently, it seems like most of the world leaders will actually attend the Salt Lake service, at least, according to the talking heads,” Lydia said, waving at the flat screen.
“So, what? The demon kid wipes out most of the world’s leaders while crippling America and disrupting much of the world’s food supply?” Stacia asked, then rolled her eyes. “Nevermind. That’s pretty much demon nirvana, right?”
“That’s probably his absolute best-case scenario. But he’s probably okay with any combination that would create widespread havoc and chaos. Breeding ground for demon incursions, plus who knows what contacts he and his mother have made during the month. They may have worked deals with some of the fringe Satanist groups and dark circles that we know are out there,” I said.
When we, along with demons, angels, werewolves, and vampires were “outed” to the world, religious fervor increased exponentially. But along with the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and other One God religions, there was a spurt of growth among the demon worshippers and Satanist religions. It was a huge source of discord and division across the whole country and, in fact, globally. They operated on the fringes of society, having been driven underground by the vast majority of the world population’s outrage and anger after all the outbreaks of demons that had occurred around the planet. But they were still there. Still hoping for demonic apocalypse.
“What are the odds that the Vegas Coven chapter had an agreement with Dragan and his mom to off Garth in exchange for some better position in a post-Yellowstone world?” Lydia asked.
“Too rich for my liking,” Tanya said. “Declan, how much control would Dragan have over this volcano elemental if he got its name?”
The kid shrugged. “I have no idea. I don’t know much about elementals, except that it must be extraordinarily powerful.”
“But you have two elementals of your own?” Lydia asked. “You have to have some clue about training a pet volcano.”
“I don’t control Draco and Robbie. They choose to help me,” he said.
“They do virtually every thing you ask,” Stacia pointed out. She had reclaimed her DP-12 shotgun from Nika and was cleaning it. I raised an eyebrow at her and it and she quickly looked away.
“They do, don’t they?” Tanya asked. “Do you have their names?”
He was silent for a moment. “I don’t know,” he said. Seeing our expressions, he grimaced and went on. “I think they may have given me their names, at least the ones they use, but I don’t really know. The names aren’t words, but sort of a combination of feeling and image. And I’ve never tried to order them around. I ask and they just… do.”
“What would this name look like… the one for the volcano guy?” Nika asked.
He frowned. “Who could know? If your angel dude was accurate, he could be like Draco and Robbie, operating with projected visions and feelings,” he said.
“Like how?” Tanya asked.
He threw up his hands, clearly at a loss, looking to Nika for help. She studied him, frowning in concentration. “Oh, yes. I see,” she said after reading him. “Not something you can really put into words.”
“So how would Dragan know how to say… project the Yellowstone name?” Stacia asked.
Declan’s frustrated look cleared up with sudden realization. “Just remembered some Sorrow stuff. It could be a thing of power, possibly fixed right into the rocks or fossils or whatever. Just holding it might give someone with a sensitivity to such things a clue about how to project it,” he said.
“So any archeologist or paleontologist digging in the fossil record could come across the equivalent of a nuclear weapon?” Doctor Singh asked.
“Junior Copperfield with the girly cards over there is the equivalent of a nuclear weapon. What we’re talking about is a doomsday weapon,” Lydia said.
“It would take someone of real power to even read the thing, let alone try to say it. And trying out a super powerful elemental’s name with the intent of controlling them seems like a quick way to die,” Declan said.
“Would it hear it? You know, if someone like you were to project it?” Tanya asked. “Yellowstone is pretty far from here.”
“Approximately seven hundred forty miles,” Omega said.
“Yeah, see? Far,” Tanya said.
“Sure. I can reach Robbie and Draco from here and they’re even farther,” Declan said.
“Two thousand, six hundred thirty-one miles,” the television intoned.
“Thanks, Omega,” Declan said. “Distance doesn’t seem to be an issue with elementals.”
“Let’s suppose that demon boy has some juice. Barbiel said he was a big shot down below, right?” Lydia asked. Both Tanya and I nodded. “So let’s say he can force the elemental to do as he says.”
“I don’t know. I tussled with Dragan and his mom and as much as they weren’t pushovers, I’m not convinced they have the juice to force this Yellowstone dude to do anything. He’s a freaking supervolcano for God’s sake,” Declan said. “I know I wouldn’t want to try it.”
“They’re not stupid. They gotta know the same stuff, right? I mean, the demon must have been literally born with this plan in mind. Where could they get the power?” Lydia asked, looking at the kid.
“Human sacrifice, I guess,” he said.
“You guess?” she asked.
“Well, come on. Weren’t the islanders always sacrificing young virgins to volcanos?” he asked her back. “What if he snuffed out like a hundred or two hundred tourists or something?”
Our little group went silent, all of us exchanging looks. “Damn. Must be a hundred ways to kill lots of tourist peoples,” Arkady said.
“So. First order of business. Escape our current digs and track down the witch and the demon. The whole thing is moot if we stop him finding the name,” Tanya said.
“That’ll be a bitch if the vampires are running around getting in our way. We gotta distract them somehow,” I said.
“Father cost the casino four million, one hundred ninety-two thousand, seven hundred sixty-seven dollars tonight in approximately sixteen minutes. The building is
a veritable beehive of frantic activity. The vampire Arlan even came up from the hidden offices to berate the security staff and casino management,” Omega said. “Would they be distracted if he did the same to all the casinos?”
We all looked at each other, smiles forming. Declan held out his hand to Stacia. “I’ll need those stripper cards back.”
She frowned but finally nodded. “You’re not going to enjoy them though,” she growled.
He might have gulped a little. “Not very much.”
Chapter 18
The food arrived and we paused to lay waste to the enormous spread of high-calorie party food the kid had ordered. The vampires fed from Singh’s supply and Tanya helped herself to my right wrist while I shoveled food with my other hand.
