“Sleep now,” one of the witches urged as she danced past my vision.
“When you awaken, all will be well.”
“Don’t fight it.”
“Let the spell carry you away.”
“Safe and sound.”
“Close your eyes.”
“Dream of new things.”
“The things we put in your mind.”
“Let the dreams become your memories.”
My surroundings began to fade into blackness. At first, I thought the candles were being extinguished, but then I understood that it was my mind being snuffed out. The witches’ voices became distant. Then, the darkness overtook me.
“Alec, are you okay?” The female voice woke me up. I sat up on the bed, rubbing my eyes. Had I been dreaming? Then I remembered the childhood memory of sitting in the chalk circle while the Coven cast a spell to lock away part of my mind.
Mallory was leaning over me, her hands on my shoulders, a look of concern on her face. “You were dreaming,” she said. “I heard you call out in your sleep.”
I felt groggy, disoriented. “Just give me a second. What time is it?”
“It’s almost eight.”
I’d been asleep for almost ten hours. I slid my legs off the bed and shook my head a couple of times, feeling my awareness of reality returning.
“You look like hell,” Mallory said. “I’ll put the coffee on.” She left the room and I heard her go downstairs.
I sat on the bed for a few minutes longer, until my mind was clear of the thick darkness that I’d either been dreaming about, remembering, or experiencing as I slept. When I felt fully awake, I went down to the kitchen.
Mallory was standing by the sink, pouring steaming coffee into two mugs. She added milk and sugar before handing me one of the mugs and asking, “Are you feeling okay? I got back here hours ago and you’ve been asleep the whole time. Jet lag that bad, huh?”
“It isn’t jet lag,” I said, sipping the hot coffee. “I got some of my memories back and it’s playing Hell with my mind. I feel like my brain is trying to reboot itself back to a previous operating system installation.”
She grinned. “You got your memory back. That’s great. So what was the big secret about Paris?”
“The Paris thing isn’t really all that much of a revelation. Basically, the satori told me to send the box here to myself because there’s some prophecy about the Box of Midnight having to be in Dearmont to destroy an ancient evil or something.”
Her hazel eyes widened. “Wow, sounds heavy.”
“Yeah, but I’m not betting on it being true. Prophecies aren’t set in stone. My dad and I were given some information by a coven of witches and it turned out to be wrong.”
I told her the details of my trip to London, leaving nothing out except the part about Felicity staying there.
When I was done, I’d almost finished my coffee. I poured us both another and said, “That locked magical door in my mind, the one Devon Blackwell told me about, had nothing to do with Paris. It was put there when I was young. From what I can now remember, the witches that run the Society cast a spell on me.”
“What? Why would they do that?”
“I don’t know. It happened when I was young, just a kid. There’s something they wanted me to forget.”
Mallory shrugged. “So what is it?”
“I don’t know yet. The memories are returning slowly. They’re just fragments that are slowly being pieced together.”
“Okay,” she said. “We can’t do anything about that now. You’ll remember in your own time. But from what you just told me, we have a bigger problem. What are we going to do when John DuMont arrives in town looking for that box?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Apparently, I’m going to destroy the heart inside the box.”
“And get cursed? No way, there has to be something else we can do.”
I thought about it for a while, drinking my coffee and racking my brain for a solution that didn’t involve releasing an ancient curse. “We could move the box,” I said. “It wouldn’t solve the problem, but it might buy us some time. DuMont knows it’s in Dearmont, but he’s been too afraid of the prophecy to come for it himself, so he’s been sending others to kill me. But now he knows we’re onto him, which is why he wasn’t at Highgate Cemetery when he was supposed to be. He’s probably on his way here now. So we make sure that when he gets here, the box is somewhere else.”
Mallory considered what I was saying and nodded her approval. “Okay, it could work. Where are we going to take it?”
“As far away from here as possible. Felicity said the staff only has to be in the vicinity of the box to work and we have no way of knowing how far away the box has to be before the staff can’t use its energy.”
She drank the last of her coffee and put the mug into the sink. “I have an idea. I’ll take the box and you deal with DuMont when he gets here. He needs to be stopped. This could be your best chance. You know he’s coming, so you can be ready for him. And as long as I get the box far enough away, he can’t use its power. You and that vampire should have a good shot at defeating him.”
It was a good plan. Polidori and I might have a chance of killing DuMont if the box was taken out of the equation. I nodded. “Yeah, let’s do it.”
“I’ll leave now,” Mallory said, going to the front door and pulling on her boots. “I have a shovel in the Jeep. I’ll call you later when I have the box at a safe distance.”
I went to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Be careful, Mallory.”
“Don’t worry about me. I get the easy job. All I have to do is drive. You have to stay here and fight the bad guy.”
“Still, I’m going to worry about you. Wait here.” I went down into the basement and picked up an enchanted dagger in a leather sheath. I went back upstairs and gave it to Mallory. “Take this.”
“Thanks,” she said. “And don’t worry, I’ll be careful.” She kissed me on the cheek and opened the front door. I watched her climb into her orange Jeep and drive away, honking the horn as she pulled away from the curb.
I went back inside and closed the door. Mallory’s plan made sense and should give me a chance to defeat DuMont. But an icy tendril of dread slowly slithered up my spine. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something really bad was about to happen.
18
I spent the next hour in the basement, preparing for battle. From the array of weapons on the racks, I chose my enchanted sword and an enchanted dagger. I had no idea what magical defenses John DuMont could summon, but enchanted weapons worked against most things, their enchanted blades able to penetrate magical shields.
Along with the dagger and sword, I chose a pistol crossbow like the one I’d used in London and a quiver of bolts. Having a ranged weapon could come in handy.
After attaching the dagger and crossbow to my belt, I carried the sheathed sword upstairs. There was no point putting it on my belt or back just yet because it made driving Hell, and I intended to drive around town looking for DuMont. There was no point waiting for him to come to me.
I just hoped that Mallory had driven far enough away to get the Box of Midnight out of range of DuMont’s staff. Without the box’s power, the staff was useless, and that was the advantage I was counting on. DuMont would arrive here expecting his staff to get a charge of magical juice from the box. Hopefully, when that didn’t happen, he’d be distracted enough with the staff’s lack of power that I’d get a chance to strike.
It was a long shot, but it was all I had.
I wondered how many miles Mallory had been able to put between the box and Dearmont, but then remembered that she had to go out to the woods first and dig the damned thing up before she could head out of town. She probably wasn’t very far away at all yet.
I fixed myself a chicken sandwich and ate it quickly, washing it down with a Coke before grabbing my keys and heading out of the door. There’s nothing like being fueled by chicken and sugar when you
need to fight bad guys.
I got into the Land Rover, laying the sheathed sword on the back seat, and wondered where to go first in my search for DuMont. Main Street seemed like a good starting place. I had no idea what Dumont even looked like but was sure I’d know him if I saw him. Practitioners of magic can be recognized by something that is much deeper than mere facial features. It’s a feeling like seeing someone you know among a crowd of strangers; your attention is automatically drawn to them. I had no doubt that DuMont would draw my attention the instant I saw him.
I started the engine, then turned it off again when my phone buzzed. It was Mallory.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“Alec, we’ve got a problem. I dug up the box and I drove a couple of miles out of town. But I can’t go any farther.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“There’s some kind of … force field blocking the road.”
I felt suddenly cold. DuMont was here, and he was making sure the box didn’t leave the area. “Can you go around it?”
“No, I can see it stretching into the woods on both sides of the road. Then it curves back over Dearmont. It’s like a dome.”
I got out of the Land Rover and looked up at the evening sky. Sure enough, there was a scintillating purple hue in the night sky. DuMont had put the town on magical lockdown. Everyone was trapped. And DuMont could tap into the power of the box and use the Staff of Midnight.
“Fuck,” I whispered into the phone.
“Alec, what are we going to do?”
“I’m going to find DuMont and kill him if I can.” I paused, still looking up at the magical barrier surrounding Dearmont. “But if I can’t beat him in a fair fight, there’s only one other thing I can do. I’ll have to destroy the heart inside the box.”
“No, that’s crazy.”
“Mallory, bring the box back here.”
“Maybe I can get past this force field somehow. I’ll keep trying.”
“Just bring the box,” I said.
There was a long pause, then Mallory said, “Okay,” and hung up.
I put the phone back into my pocket and almost jumped out of my skin when I saw Polidori standing by the Land Rover. He was still sporting his nineteenth century Gothic look and he was smiling.
“I guess you heard that conversation,” I said. “DuMont has trapped the entire town in a magical dome. I told Mallory to bring me the box.”
“Good,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do, Alec.”
“I’m not going to do anything until I face DuMont in a fight. Destroying the box is only a last resort.”
“Of course. As I told you before, I don’t trust prophecies any more than you do. So, let’s go and find DuMont and attempt to kill him. Perhaps all this nonsense about destroying the box will turn out to be just that: nonsense.” He climbed into the Land Rover’s passenger seat.
I got in and started the engine. “Don’t I have to invite you into my car or something before you get in?”
“Not into your car, no. I can’t enter your house unless you invite me in, and I can’t see that happening anytime soon.”
“You’re right about that,” I said.
I backed off the driveway and put the Land Rover into gear, but shifted the vehicle back into neutral when I saw Leon Smith’s RV approaching. The huge vehicle pulled up alongside us and Leon leaned across his butler, Michael, to speak to me through the open window.
“Hey, Alec, you know anything about the craziness going down on Main Street?”
“What craziness?”
“Heard it on the police scanner. Reports of zombies terrorizing the locals.”
“Shit, he’s already started raising the dead.” I turned to Polidori. “At least we know where to find him.”
“Where is the girl with the box?” Polidori asked.
“She’s on her way. For someone who doesn’t believe in prophecy, it sounds like you can only see this ending one way.”
Polidori shrugged. “The destruction of the box is our strongest weapon against DuMont.”
“It also carries a death sentence,” I reminded him.
“Somebody gonna tell me what’s going on?” Leon asked.
“You here to help?” I asked him.
“Yeah, sure.”
“We have to kill a necromancer who is raising the dead in downtown Dearmont.”
His eyes went wide. “Are you telling me there really are zombies in town?”
I nodded. “And we’re going to have to deal with them as well as the necromancer.”
“Hell yeah, we’re in.”
“Good.”
Leon pointed at Polidori. “Who’s your friend?”
“This is Polidori. He’s a vampire.”
A worried look crossed Leon’s features. “A vampire?” Polidori opened his mouth and extended his fangs, and Leon shrank back from the window slightly. “Okay. We’re still in.”
“Meet us in the parking lot behind my office building,” I said. I put the Land Rover into gear and drove up the street.
“Friends of yours?” Polidori asked, nodding toward the RV behind us.
“Yeah, they’re good people.”
He turned back to the windshield and sat quietly.
“Can I ask you something?” I said.
“Of course.”
“What would happen if you destroyed the box? The curse says that whoever destroys it will have only one year to live, but you’re not alive anyway.”
He looked amused at my suggestion. “You think I’m going to play around with an ancient Egyptian curse because of the way it’s worded? I may not be alive, but you can be sure that if I destroyed the heart of the sorceress in that box, I would meet my end in a year’s time.”
I shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”
He laughed. “You mean it was worth trying to make me take the fall for you.”
“No, I was genuinely curious.”
“The spirit of the curse will take effect no matter who or what destroys that heart. Arguing over semantics doesn’t mean anything when faced with such power.”
“Yeah, I guess if anyone knew how to cast curses, it was the ancient Egyptians.”
“And Rekhmire was one of the most dangerous,” Polidori said. “He almost destroyed the pharaoh’s living army with his own, dead one. The curse he cast on that box is powerful indeed.”
I sighed and called Mallory. She answered immediately. Her voice sounded worried. “Alec?”
“Meet me in the parking lot behind my office,” I said.
“Okay. There’s something you should know. The box. It’s on my back seat right now and it’s doing some weird shit.”
“What’s happening?”
“There’s a purple glow coming from it and the hieroglyphs are moving.”
“What do you mean moving?”
“I don’t know. Forming different words, maybe. It’s freaking me the fuck out.”
“Okay, don’t worry about it. Just get to the parking lot.”
“I will.” She hung up.
I wished Felicity were here; she’d know what all this meant.
“The box is opening,” Polidori said. “The hieroglyphs line up to form the formula that acts as a key. The process begins when the Staff of Midnight draws on the power of the box. At first, the box only feeds a small amount of power to the staff. Enough, say, to raise a few dead bodies. As the staff continues to draw on the box’s power, the box slowly opens. When it is fully open, the staff can use all of the power of the sorceress’s heart.”
“Great,” I said. “So once the box is open, we’re screwed.”
“Not necessarily. When the box is open, the heart inside is exposed.” He looked at me meaningfully.
“Yeah, okay, I get it,” I said. “When the box opens, I destroy the heart. Message received, loud and clear.”
Maybe some prophecies couldn’t be avoided after all.
19
As soon as we hit Main Stre
et, the extent of the problem became apparent. Townsfolk ran in panic or hid behind parked vehicles while at least a dozen animated corpses roamed the street. The zombies were little more than skeletons dressed in the clothes they’d been buried in, including Union Army frock coats. Some of the undead wore tattered Victorian gowns. The horde of walking corpses lurched back and forth along Main Street, spreading panic by gnashing their teeth and reaching for the residents of Dearmont with skeletal hands.
“This is just the beginning,” Polidori said. “As the staff grows in power, DuMont will raise more and more of these mindless abominations.”
I wasn’t sure where he got off calling the zombies abominations, since he landed squarely in that category himself, as far as I was concerned. I parked in my usual space behind the office and got out, bringing the sword from the back seat with me and attaching the sheath to my belt.
Michael parked the RV next to the Land Rover and jumped down to the ground, a shotgun in his hands. Leon came around the vehicle, similarly armed, and said, “You see those things?”
“Yeah, I saw them,” I said. “Let’s send them back to where they came from.” I unsheathed the sword and it glowed brightly in my hand.
I led Polidori, Leon, and Michael along the side of the building and onto Main Street. The scene was total mayhem. A man in his sixties ran past us, screaming. His pursuer, a skeleton dressed in a frock coat and string tie, approached us and clattered its teeth together.
I swung the sword at its neck, severing the spinal column and sending the skull tumbling to the sidewalk. When it landed, Leon crushed it beneath his boot, the old bone breaking easily. The body dropped to the ground as if it were a marionette whose strings had been cut.
“Aim for their heads,” I said. “Just like in the movies and on TV.” I stepped into the road where zombie in a voluminous golden gown was shambling toward a petrified mother holding her baby and shrinking back against the window of a clothing store. An abandoned stroller stood on the sidewalk a few feet away. The poor woman had probably just been taking her baby on a pleasant evening walk when she’d been confronted with the chaos that Main Street had become.
The Harbinger PI Box Set Page 29
