We moved toward a steep hillside as Aka Manah kept poking me in the back and the sounds of the stomping demons filled the forest. I noticed a small clearing up ahead at the base of the hill. We emerged into the overcast day and my soles crunched the frozen blades of grass as I walked through the open field.
An enormous rock, almost twice my height, sat at the base of the wall. As I started to ascend the hill, Aka Manah grabbed my suit jacket and pulled me back. “We needn’t go any further.”
Aka Manah held out his arms and closed his eyes. The enormous stone rocked back and forth, building up momentum, before finally toppling over on its side and exposing a huge opening in the base of the mountain. A rush of dark magic rushed out of the opening and I didn’t need Aka Manah to poke me this time.
I entered the dark tunnel, not knowing where to go so I stretched out my arms and let my fingertips skim against the sides. Hot to the touch. The pathway narrowed and descended sharply. Sweat built up on my forehead as the temperature increased substantially.
In complete darkness, I could still see the portal ahead. This one had a red glow to it, making it different from most of the ones I had previously encountered. I slowed down as I neared the portal and turned around.
Aka Manah planted two dainty hands on my chest and heaved me into the transfer unit.
A tight, constrictive feeling surrounded my entire body, ratcheting up the pressure by the second. I started to lose sensation in my extremities as the grip tightened. As I was about to pass out from the pressure, a flash of white light erupted, nearly blinding me.
The vise grip relented, and my body felt wonderful. I flickered my eyelids, trying to adjust to my surroundings. Firelight danced, its shadows creeping up the walls of the stone room I found myself in. I turned to my left and almost rubbed my nose on Aka Manah’s biceps.
I checked out the rest of the dimly illuminated room. A stone slab shaped like a rectangular table sat in the middle of the room. Two gentlemen (probably not the right word choice) sat facing me on the other side of the table. The devils, Bruceras and Montidore stared at me.
Bruceras gestured toward a row of chairs on the opposite side of the table. “Please, sit.”
The devil appeared to have a big reptilian body even though he was seated and garbed in red robes. The dark creature’s long neck and face were burgundy. Black lesions covered his cheeks and he had thirteen little spikes coming from his bald head.
I sat down in one of the chairs and Aka Manah took the one on my left. I scanned the room, searching for my father, but didn’t find the bastard. This had all the makings of a set up.
Montidore said, “You can relax. We aren’t going to kill you.”
Relieved blood didn’t exactly course through my veins. I wasn’t starting a habit of trusting devils, or demons for that matter. The unrelenting heat caused me to loosen the tie and unbutton the top button of my dress shirt.
Bruceras bit at his claws and spat the remnants to his right. “Believe it or not, we are going to help you.”
I smelled a rat. “The Red Cavern wants to help me? That makes no sense whatsoever.”
Montidore leaned forward over the table. He was much bigger than his fellow devil, especially in the upper body. The dark green demon had long white hair and a matching beard that hung to his chest. His deep yellow eyes were unnerving, to say the least. “Even if I were to tell you that we have a common enemy, rejected by the heavens and the hells?”
I said, “The Sendal Spirits.”
Montidore nodded in satisfaction. “Indeed. Commonalities connecting our virtues don’t oft exist. Do you know about your father?”
There it was. This was all a big set up. I craned my neck to see what area my father was coming from. Perked my ears up to hear his nasty voice.
I started to draw upon my magical reserve. “What about him?”
Bruceras scratched his face, and said, “He pledged his soul to the Sendals. He’s nothing more than flesh and bones. However, that flesh and bones carries an incredible amount of magic from within. Your father is getting stronger by the day. In less than a week, he will be virtually unstoppable.”
I commented, “That’s reassuring.”
Montidore grinned, “If you think we’re here to make you feel better, don’t flatter yourself. There’s a serious problem afoot, and we need you to get to the bottom of it.”
This day had taken some odd turns. “So you want to work with me to chase the Sendal Spirits out of Pittsburgh?”
Bruceras shook his head slowly. “No. We are going to tell you about the Spirits and let you take care of them.”
I said, “That doesn’t exactly sound fair, and by the way, you haven’t told me much at all.”
“We’ll send Socrates with the rest of the information as we find it out.” Montidore laughed, and everyone joined in except for me. “Fair or not, if you can resist going after your father, so be it. The Spirits are about to kill all the Japanese women in Pittsburgh. Guess that means nothing to you too. From where I am sitting, you have much more personal hatred for them than we do. And if you don’t, you damn well should.”
This meeting with the devils was shaping up to be as disappointing as the ones with Socrates. Only Montidore had an above average vocabulary. The demons and the Red Cavern were all hype. “How does a soul get rejected by hell?”
Bruceras revealed, “For not sharing the virtues we cherish. However, they seem to develop a certain ruthlessness after rejection. The void between the heavens and hells is vast and most spirits get trapped in liminality, stuck in-between. In this state, they wander around aimlessly until they dissolve into nothing. Mind you, that process takes hundreds of years, but they normally don’t cause any problems in this world.”
I shifted around in the heat and uncomfortable chair. “How can they get back to this world?”
Aka Manah finally joined the party. “They are beckoned back, pulled from the in-between and back to this world.”
Everything was falling into place now. “Like a Dybbuk Box?”
Bruceras answered, “Precisely. There are many other forms in different cultures as well. Mainly fools bring them into this world, not knowing what they are about to unleash. Single souls can’t even cause much destruction either. It’s when they combine multiple souls into Sendal Spirits that the mayhem begins.”
Montidore added, “Anyone from the Red Cavern caught calling on spirits from liminality is immediately put to death. We realize that the Sendals can become more powerful than all the devils combined. With that said, you understand that time is precious in this matter. They could easily build enough strength over the next week to take over Pittsburgh.”
It seemed like there had been a great miscalculation. “Then why would you leave it up to an inexperienced wizard such as myself?”
Montidore said, “Look, we aren’t here to blow smoke up your ass or in your face. We know you have friends and the capability of taking care of this. You will need help from your Gods and anyone who knows magic. If you try this alone, you will surely die.”
I informed them, “You may want to check the records. I’m not exactly Mr. Popularity around Pittsburgh and most of the people I know that practice magic, they never leave the Deep Burrow.”
“Maybe you should convince them to burrow their way out of there.” Bruceras chuckled.
Montidore turned to him. “Really, a pun? And not even a very good one.”
Bruceras sat up straight, staring at me. “Let’s get serious then. You’ve got a few days to figure this one out. See, the thing about the Sendals is that they come after the so-called good guys first. We can always go to another city. I’m not so sure that you can do the same.”
He was right. They would have to drag me away from Pittsburgh, kicking and screaming. Or kill me, and it appeared the Sendals didn’t have a problem with that. It didn’t surprise me that my father sold out to anyone that would help him get out of jail. My dad wasn’t ready to handle that kind of
power. It’s precisely why he had been locked up.
Montidore said, “If there’s nothing else, we will have our Greek friend here take you back to your world.”
I wiped the sweat from my forehead. “I think that just about covers it. Why didn’t you just have the great philosopher tell me all of this? Why go through this big charade to get me down here?”
Montidore told me, “We thought you would question why the Greeks were so open to sharing this kind of information with you. Meeting with Gods adds validity to the whole thing.”
“Fair point, but not as much as I am questioning whether I should trust the Red Cavern. You guys aren’t exactly known for your honesty, no offense.”
Montidore stood up. He was over seven feet tall. “Honesty is overrated and you know it. You aren’t honest all the time. That emotional baggage from your terrible upbringing keeps bouncing off the walls of your mind. You hide it, bury it deep down, but you know it hurts so you lie about it and tell everyone that nothing is the matter. You even lie to yourself.”
I told him, “I’m just fine, thanks for the concern.”
Montidore wouldn’t let up. “See, there it is. And I am certainly not concerned. Do you share all the information with your partner, Gretchen?”
I stood up, and said, “All right, I get the point. That still doesn’t change the fact that you might be lying to me to set me up.”
Montidore followed me toward the door. “Set you up for what? If we wanted to kill you, don’t you think we would have done it back in Irwin? We don’t like to play around too much before our killing. After death is a different story altogether.”
True. Gruesome, but true. They could have easily killed me when all the demons appeared out of the woods. The devils were making too much sense right now and I didn’t like it.
Bruceras cracked his long neck, and said, “Merlino, best of luck, we are counting on you. Aka Manah, show this man back to his world.”
The demon escorted me back to my house and I stumbled out of the back of the limo and onto the sidewalk. I sat on the steps of my porch before going in, trying to understand what just happened. A fire burned inside my chest. I wanted to kill my father. Turning to anyone that could give him immense power didn’t surprise me in the slightest.
He’d always been a firm believer in shortcuts. It was his anger that raged inside me, scaring me that I was turning into that maniac. I tried to force the cloud out of my head and rationally analyze what had just happened.
The Red Cavern and I had a common enemy, and they were even willing to help me defeat the Sendal Spirits. Shocking. They realized the threat my father posed as much as me. Combining the special bloodline with the power of the Sendals, made for a lethal combination and needed to be stopped.
For my father to use remote magic, it meant he’d learned an immense amount in barely any time at all. I knew it wouldn’t last in the long run, but he could kill me before his star burnt out. There were several things I needed to do.
I wanted to see Jonathan to find out if we could re-trap the escaped spirits back into the Dybbuk Boxes. Then I needed to visit the Celtic Gods to see if they can help me out.
I jumped up, went inside and Reg, Alayna and Carolyn were sitting at my kitchen table.
I commented, “Reg, a turtleneck sweater? I’ve never seen you sport that bad boy before. What’s the occasion?”
Reg answered, “Laundry backed up is all. Ronald’s been busy lately so I gotta go deep into the reserve, you know. You saying it doesn’t look good?”
I put my hands up. “Easy, big fella. I’m not saying that at all. Just that we’ve been friends for a few years and I’ve never seen it. Damn stylish though. Especially back in the 90s.” I started cracking up.
Carolyn laughed in Reg’s tone again and kissed him on the cheek. I said, “I found out some amazing information today about my father and the uprisings.”
The excited listeners moved to the edge of the benches as I told the story about going to the Red Cavern.
“I don’t understand why you would take a meeting with the Greek Gods in the first place,” Alayna said.
I tried to explain, “I just figured Pittsburgh would be safer with the Greek and Celtic Gods working together.”
Alayna played with her braids. “They do work together. We’ve always shared information that would be beneficial to keeping the world safe. Always. Sometimes relations can become strained, but we’ve always kept an open line.”
Socrates had never told me that. “I did not know that. And it sounded like they had information about the Sendals. I was fooled by the pretty face.”
Carolyn said, “That spirit in your office was a weak one. It was probably less than one hundred souls combined. In the next few days, the Sendals will combine thousands of souls and maybe even more than that. They can go with making a dozen spirits strong beyond anyone’s belief, or they can make a thousand spirits that aren’t very strong and go with a numbers game.”
I said, “It appears that the stone men and my father are on their side as well, all ultimately controlled by the Sendals. I don’t know how many other human entities they have control of. And furthermore, I haven’t the slightest clue on how I am going to kill them.”
Alayna said, “To kill a group of old spirits, we need to go back in time. You will need runed weapons.”
Reg asked, “Ruined weapons?”
Alayna said, “Weapons that have been blessed by proper rituals and rune symbols. Weapons filled with enchantment. That is the only way I know of.”
I thought about Carolyn’s fingernails. The vamps had ancient rune symbols that they’d been using for a long time. So did the Deep Burrow. Lucky me. “What do you think about joining me for a visit to the Deep Burrow tomorrow, Alayna?”
She closed one eye and peered at me. “I think I could be compelled to do that.”
I wondered, “Does magic in a conventional sense work against them?”
Alayna said, “No one that’s ever survived a fight with a true Sendal, has found a source of magic other than the enchanted iron weapons.”
Reg asked, “Is it the iron or the enchantment that they can’t deal with?”
The faerie flicked something off her shoulder. “We believe it to be a combination of both. No one’s been daring enough to only use an iron weapon without the rune symbols and blessing. If you would like to be the first, I wouldn’t advise it.”
I’m not that crazy. “No, nothing like that. I’m just trying to figure out if we can use other means to take them out. I still don’t know where the Sendals are located either. Or my father.” I’d pushed the thoughts of my dad to the back burner, but his death threat loomed large right now. I wondered what kind of deal he’d made with the Sendals.
My phone buzzed in the inside pocket of the suit jacket and I pulled it out. Unknown number. Ah, what the hell?
Chapter 18
HERE WE GO AGAIN, HUMPHREY Bogart. “Hello, Detective Mike Merlino.”
The soft voice of a man came through. “Hi, you are the Occult Detective, right?”
“The one and only. How can I help you, sir?”
“I think I might have some information that could help you with the graveyard uprisings. I’ve heard and seen some things that I’m probably not supposed to but it can’t be undone.”
I walked into the living room. “I’d love to hear more about that.”
“I can tell you a few things, but I’m scared. I don’t want to talk about it over the phone. Could we meet up sometime?”
“I should have some open time today. What works best for you?”
He said, “I’m going to be busy most of the day. How about tonight? I have an apartment in the Southside. Say, nine o’clock.”
“I can make that happen. Why don’t you text me the address to this number and I will see you at nine?”
He said, “I can do that. Thank you. You might be the only hope. See you later.”
“Alright, see you then.” I h
ung up the phone feeling like Obi Wan Kenobi.
I walked back into the kitchen. “That was someone who thinks they might have information about the uprisings.”
“Was he Greek?” Alayna joked.
He didn’t sound like Socrates. “Very funny, but maybe, I couldn’t detect an accent. I’m going to need help on this one. Do you think the Gods would let me take anyone from the Deep Burrow to help? What about your cleaners?”
Alayna narrowed her eyes and shook her head. “Doubtful.”
“Why?”
The faerie answered, “The Gods provide help when they see fit. If one person can accomplish the task, they won’t send additional help. The Gods have been pushed beyond any measure we could even comprehend, and they expect a fraction of that out of their subjects.”
I never thought of myself as a subject to the Gods. It was completely accurate though. To reach full potential, one needed to be pushed over the edge several times. I’d been shoved over that cliff a few times already and it was tremendous for my development as a wizard.
I’d learned to rely on nobody except myself, but this situation called for me to bring some help. I thought about who in the city of Pittsburgh would be able to provide help in a supernatural fight. I hated the person who kept coming back into my mind.
I debated whether I would rather die or accept help from Felix. As much as I talked shit on him, he was probably the best candidate to battle the Sendal Spirits. I’d have to swallow a lot of pride to make it happen, and the preliminary taste in my mouth didn’t give me much hope.
I arrived at the client’s apartment on the main drag of the Southside. I watched citizens spill out of two bars and flood the sidewalks. Flakes of snow began to fall, but the holiday cheer running through the patrons made them seemingly unaware of the conditions as they danced down the sidewalk. It had all the makings of a bar crawl.
I followed them down East Carson Street. Most of the people went into the Straight Shooter Saloon and cleared the way for me to find the address I was looking for. I went another block and a half and found a three-story apartment building made of bricks.
Bloodline Awakened Supernatural Thriller Series: Books 1-3 Page 33
