But Mike put his finger to his lips and then pointed.
All four of us leaned forward to see. To the right a few of the potted arrangements were moving. I don't mean their leaves shifted in the breeze. I mean their leaves and vines moved like arms and legs. The three-legged stands bent, becoming legs, as the smaller potted arrangements grew stems and leaves down to push themselves along the ground.
I felt Grey move beside me, a low growl deep in her throat.
"Fae," Sam sighed.
I would have said fetches of some kind, given the description I had of them from Nona. But…okay I could go with Fae. I could also go for leaving and forgetting the whole thing if it wasn't for the fact a young girl, a girl I baby sat a few times, was at risk.
"What the hell kind of Fae are those?" Mike whispered. "It's like the funeral flowers are alive. And I don't mean that flowers aren't alive, it's just that…." He didn't finish the sentence but gestured.
Didn't matter. I got his meaning.
"I'm pretty sure they're fir darrig (she pronounced it fear deang). Or they could be goblins, or bogles. Depends on who summoned them."
Alarm bells. Warning sirens. I glanced from her to the moving plants. "Summoned them for what? I mean…why are there Fae outside of some old woman's mausoleum? Was she connected to them in some way?"
"I don't think so." Sam's expression paled even under the moonlight. "Shit…unless somehow someone or something already knows what we're up to."
"You mean Maab?"
"Possibly…but for her to know she'd had to have some means of listening in on our conversation at Mike's. But I warded the whole place against magical interference."
I looked at each of them before settling back on Sam. "So…what do you want to do? Either way we have to get into that tomb."
"We still have a few hours," Mike said, a bit more relaxed than I wanted him to be. He had the guns. I had a temperamental magic book. And no matter what I couldn't remember about last year, I did recall my insane fear of things moving that aren't supposed to.
Like dolls.
Or plants.
Venus flytraps scared the bejesus outta me.
I shifted my position so I could get a better look. Grey moved back a little. "I don't want to get too cocky. There's always room for error." It looked like the larger standing arrangements, the kind I remembered from childhood, poised atop three legged wire frames, appeared to be moving to guard the door. And the smaller, creepier ones took up positions in front of them. "It looks like a chess board."
"What?"
I pointed. "Look, there's a king and queen in the back, those two flanking over there look like rooks, and in front are the pawns—" I did a mental recount. "Hey…aren't a few of them missing?"
"How can you tell?"
"Because I remember one that had roses and now I don't see—"
Grey barked and growled. Loud.
"Dags!" Sam hissed beside me—and then disappeared.
I turned to see her flail backwards as something dragged her away! Grey launched into the air, snapping at something above Sam's head.
"Holy shit! A rose plant's got her!" Mike jumped up and grabbed her ankles and tried to stop her from slipping under a grove of azaleas.
Seriously? Man killer plants?
I scrambled toward her shoulders and saw vines wrapping around her neck. She tried to scream, maybe even repeat a spell, but the thing was choking off her air. Her attacker was the rose arrangement, and somehow the flower's leaves had grown out to grab hold of her. I reached past her shoulder and grabbed at the base of the plant. The thing was rooted in a florist's oasis, that spongy thing they used to hold the flowers in place. But when I put my fingers inside, it felt more like I was squeezing something very wet, very cold, and very nasty.
"Dags look out!"
Mike's warning came in time as one of the vines lashed out at my neck. I ducked to the right and squeezed whatever the hell I had a hold of as hard as I could, imagining it pop like a grape. The vine grazed my arm and I felt its thorns take off skin just as Grey lunged and snapped half of it off in her jaw. With a hiss I straddled Sam the best I could by sliding one leg under her shoulders just in front of the plant and the other over her chest to get her in a scissor lock. Then I reached down and grabbed at the vines encircling her throat. They were tight and Sam's eyes were rolling back. Damn thing was going to suffocate her before I could pry it off.
Something stung my face as I pulled, yanked and squeezed. I hadn't noticed the baby's breath decorating the roses. Tiny little white flowers that would normally compliment the red of the rose now sported some serious little choppers and were biting the shit out of any piece of skin they could get hold of.
Between my constant swearing and Grey's barking, we could forget the element of surprise.
"Mike," I said through gritted teeth. The other half of the vine I'd ducked and Grey snagged was back and wrapping itself around my chest. If it got to my neck I was going to have to let go. "I need….help…"
His response was a series of grunts. I chanced a look back at the Roman column headstone. Mike had problems of his own. He'd tossed his backpack off and was dueling one of the three legged arrangements. It was using one of its legs to jab and parry and Mike was using the biggest and longest damn knife I'd ever seen. Had he pulled that out of his bag? How deep did that thing go? The arrangement had lost a lot of flowers, the oasis visible in the mess. But Mike was sporting a good many bloody points over his shoulders and chest. The fighting monstrosity was holding its own.
The vine made it to my neck and I had to let go of the one wrapping around Sam's. I grabbed the end of it and stopped it from completing the circle, but the thing in my other hand began to burn my palm. Either my hand was on fire or the plant…
On fire…
Damn I'm such an idiot.
"Isatum!"
This time I had a clear visual in my head, pure intent, of what I wanted burned. And I wanted it burned down to nothing. The thing stopped its movements in seconds because every part of it glowed a brilliant yellow gold and then blood red. Two seconds more and the entire rose arrangement was little more than black ash.
And this time I hadn't burned me! Or even more importantly, Sam.
She gasped and lay on her back, her hands to her neck. I fell back but knew I couldn't stay there. With a groan I rolled over on my side and touched her arm. "You…okay?" I was out of breath. Wasn't used to all this exercise. That and I'd noticed when I used that spell I felt a little tired.
She nodded and I turned to look behind me. The three-legged arrangement had obviously seen its good buddy do a wicked witch, so it charged me. I held up my right hand at it. "Isatum!"
Poof. It had momentum but by the time it reached Sam and I, there was little left but ash.
"Why didn't you do that in the first place?" Mike pulled me onto my feet and then knelt over Sam.
"Because I'm not used to using it. And every time I do…." I turned my head from side to side, popping my neck. "It zaps a little out of me. But, now I know how to get into the mausoleum." I moved around the huge head stone and crossed the footpath to the target. All the plants jumped up and down. Scene looked like some CGI nightmare as they charged at me. Grey pattered up beside me and I saw her ready herself in a pouncing stance. Good girl. I held up both hands and said very calmly, "Isatum Sihirtu."
Serious fire. Every one of them exploded, burned and then drifted into little black dust. I thought I did pretty good. Didn't even singe the ground. But damn I had a moment of dizzy and might have fallen on my ass if Mike hadn't grabbed me.
"You okay?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Let's get this shroud and get the fuck out of here so I can take a nap." I shrugged him off, aware of Sam behind us. In fact, I'd started noticing her all the time. Not like in a she's a good looking woman way, but in a presence way. I could close my eyes and know where she was. Even at Mike's townhouse I knew what room she was in. Was that some weird link because w
e were Sentinels? We had the God Mother's blood?
I shrugged it off and strode to the front of the mausoleum. The doors were tall and thin. I estimated if they were opened, the width would just about accommodate a coffin and little else. They were solid, not stained glass or ornate iron like some of the others in the cemetery. I turned and held my hand out to Sam who gave me her penlight. I shined it on the door handle. The right door was ajar.
I opened it.
Something heavy, slippery, cold and smelling of charred flesh came at me. It knocked me backward and managed a death grip around my arms and chest. The fall to the ground knocked the wind out of me so I couldn't yell out anything. Too late I realized what it was.
The changeling.
Within seconds the thing had its long, sharp teeth buried into my neck while it's claws racked along my stomach.
Son of a…
AM i ALiVE?
I assumed when I started the fire in the Cairn that the little Brendi Monster escaped. It never occurred to me I'd burned it too. And whether or not the vengeance this thing attacked me with was because it wanted revenge, or because I was a target didn't matter. What did matter was I knew it was killing me. And there wasn't a spell in my head to stop it.
I heard Mike, Sam and Grey's angry barking and snarling. Sam's voice rose above the wolf's as she recited something. I caught a flash of blue white light, felt something cold on top of me and then the changeling wasn't there anymore. Not that it mattered. What had my full attention was the thought of dying. The pain in my neck and chest was like a fire of its own. I put my hand to my neck, touched something wet and held it in front of me. In the moonlight I saw my palm covered in something dark and slick.
"Dags…stop. Don't touch it. Don't move." Mike knelt over me and had his hand on my forehead. "Jesus…oh god damn it…Sam look at it."
"Shut up." Sam's voice was tight as she moved beside me. "Got it." She appeared just before the penlight came on. The beam focused on my chest and then my neck. Breathing was becoming difficult as something filled my throat. I coughed and tasted blood. A lot of it. I felt it trickle over my cheeks as it came from my mouth.
"This is what Teresa looked like," Mike said in a soft voice. "That's the thing that killed her. Oh God…I really didn't want to believe it, that something that looked like Brendi could do this…."
"Mike, you have got to rein it in." Her voice cracked a little. I knew she was panicking. I was too. The pain crescendoed to a roaring blaze in my chest as I coughed up more blood and decided it was a better idea to lay still and die.
No Darren… they will not let you die.
The voice was familiar. It was Grey again. I'd forgotten I'd heard her before. I hadn't even mentioned it to Sam or Mike. "You…I can hear you…"
"What?" Mike leaned in close. His face was a little bleary. "You can hear me?"
Yes. You need to release the Grimoire so they can save your life. The book protects you as you protect it.
It does? I wasn't sure how to release it. And it was getting harder to stay awake and concentrate. The pain became a numbing wall around me.
Darren, just open the book for her.
Open the book for who?
The answer came to me through the fog and I felt my chest unclench.
"Sonofa—do you see that?"
"Mike, stand back. Let me get in there."
I refocused and saw light moving over Mike and Sam. Floating in the air a few feet above me was that small, delicate book. The light from it illuminated Sam's face as she knelt before it. The light moved from white to blue to gold and then to white again. Tiny sparkles danced around her face and I coughed. "Say…the words…."
"Say the words? But…I don't know Sumerian!"
It didn't matter. Intent was all that mattered. And she as a Witch should know that. I closed my eyes.
Sam's voice rang out across the vast darkness behind my eyelids. And as she repeated the spell in a language long dead, images of people I knew came to me. They came so fast I couldn't name them, and when the spell was done, the last sight was of my mother smiling down at me.
"Dags?"
A hand moved my shoulder back and forth. I reached up and batted at them. "No…uh uh…ten more minutes."
Someone snorted. "He's fine."
Mike? I opened one eye, then the other. "What time is it?"
He grinned down at me. "Can you sit up?"
I pushed myself up on my elbows and then he helped me into a sitting position. Sam sat a few feet away, her hands against her face. "Sam?"
"Give her a minute. I don't think she's used to using that kind of power."
"What?" Barking and snarling to my right caught my attention. Grey had the little changeling monster corralled against a tree. A pentagram glowed around the base of the tree and the changeling. I looked down at my shirt. It was bloody and torn to shreds, but the skin beneath it was smooth and white. I seriously needed to get to the beach.
"You okay?"
I looked at Sam. She looked paler than usual and I put a hand to my neck. "Yeah. Apparently so. Are you? That thing was choking you."
She nodded and I saw she'd been crying. She sniffed. "Yeah…that spell healed me too."
"It did? Then that's great, right? So, why are you crying?"
"No reason." She pushed herself up and walked to me. She reached down to me. "Let's take a look inside."
I stood. I felt great. Especially after having torched a whole bunch of fear deang or whatever. Mike joined us as I lead the way into the mausoleum. It was cramped inside, with very little room for much more than a sideways slide along the sides. Sam created one of those little mini-suns like she had in the other cemetery and sent it up so the light would illuminate the small area.
The center of the space held a coffin on a stand. The top of it came to my waist and it looked new. Along the walls on either side were concrete squares with names and dates engraved on them. The wall opposite the opening was blank, except for a portrait of a man and a woman. A small gold nameplate below it had something etched on it, but I couldn't see it. I figured they were the great grandparents of the family in the tomb.
"You guys ready to lift the lid?" Mike looked at each of us.
"This is creepy." I glanced at the opening where I heard Grey barking outside and I hoped the pentagram holding that changeling held. I also assumed the wolf would let us know. "But okay." Mike and I found the hinges and positioned ourselves on the opposite side of the casket while Sam continued holding the light. "One…two…three…"
We lifted the lid.
"Mrs. Jessica Reinhold looks good," Mike said. "So…where's the shroud?"
"Shroud really is a figure of speech," Sam said as she produced a white handled knife. She leaned inside the coffin and cut off a square of the woman's dress.
"That's so wrong." Mike made a face.
"A shroud is historically known as the cloth or linen a body is interned in. Since we dress bodies nowadays and we don't burry them in cloth, this is the closest to a shroud we're gonna get." She pulled a baggie from her back pocket, dropped the square in, closed it and shoved it back in her pocket.
"That's just…" Mike and I closed the casket. "Anti-climactic."
"Oh I don't know." I lead the way out of the mausoleum. "I think near-death is climactic enough for me." Three times I'd gotten myself into some serious shit and three times Sam pulled my ass out of the fire. My ego owed her big time.
Grey guarded the little changeling. I hadn't really gotten a good look at it since it blitz attacked me. From a distance it was hideous, like a random caricature of what a burned little girl would look like. The raincoat was half melted to her body. I glanced over at Mike to see how he was taking it. His jaws were clenched but otherwise I couldn't read him. I looked at Sam. "Can a changeling create Fae?"
She shrugged. "A changeling is a type of Fae, but I don't think they can create themselves."
I pointed at the pentagram on the ground holding the creat
ure. "This that spell you were talking about? The one that holds them?"
Sam nodded.
I moved up beside Grey and directed my words to the crispy changeling. "How did you know we'd be here?"
"Guardian, Witch, Sentinel, Speaker of Spells…." The thing kept repeating the words as if it were rattling off a list. "All those things…so many names you have. But the last…the last is the road that will choose you."
I knelt down to its level, Grey's muzzle even with my head. I wasn't paying much attention to its little litany. "Your queen sent you here?"
The thing stopped muttering and looked at me. Well…it really didn't have eyes. More like black sockets. But those sockets could have bored a hole through me. "Oh no…. No, no, no."
"She didn't make the killer plants?" I pointed to the piles of ash. "The ones I burned?"
Brendi Monster moved as close as she could to me. "I made them. I listened to you and made an army to take you again. I wanted to punish you."
Sam spoke up. "I didn't know changelings could make Fae."
Brendi Monster laughed.
"You wanted to punish me because I escaped?" I wanted her to focus on me.
"You burned our Cairn! You destroyed so many. So many… She was so angry at me and I didn't have an answer." Its voice was strained too. Maybe I'd singed the vocal chords? "I listened yes, yes. My purpose is to kill the family of Brendi Ross. Kill the mother. Kill the father. Kill the uncle—but you're not a real uncle. So very different…"
I glanced at Grey. She glanced at me. I wanted to ask her out loud what she thought, but I knew she didn't want Mike and Sam knowing she could talk. So I tried it another way. You have any idea what she's talking about?
She licked her muzzle. You did some serious damage to the Cairn. Maab got mad and punished her. You can see that for yourself.
"So I didn't do that?" I goofed and said it out loud. Grey hung her head.
"Didn't do what, Dags?" Sam stepped forward.
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