Deadly Violet - 04

by Tony Richards

  Except, how was she supposed to find it … guess?

  A ball of red light, about the size of a grapefruit, suddenly appeared in the air a few yards ahead of her car. Lauren stamped on the brake and the Focus skidded.

  The red light didn’t move. It simply hung there, waiting for her. When she eased another few yards further on, it mimicked that, keeping at a precise distance from her.

  At which point, she got it. She was supposed to follow the thing.

  Hadn’t anybody here heard of normal stuff like maps and signposts?

  Oh, goddamn this town!

  A much larger red ball of light – about a foot across – hung low in the air above 51 Bethany’s front yard. It was emitting heat, and had been doing so for hours, so that most of the snow on the lawn below had melted. The magical equivalent of a brazier, then. It was a necessary luxury, since Martha and Willets had been waiting here a good long while. They’d warm their hands at it occasionally, like a pair of hobos round a burning oil drum.

  They’d been chatting to pass the time. Almost continually, in fact. She liked jazz music as well, and he was interested in art, so it turned out that they had a lot in common.

  Lehman’s head came up abruptly. His senses were finer tuned than hers, and he had noticed something she had not. He clicked his fingers, and the ‘brazier’ disappeared. And then the smaller ball of light came round the corner.

  Followed, a few seconds later, by a familiar blue-green compact Ford. It skittered to a halt beside the curb, and then its occupant got out.

  Pretty as a picture and as tough as nails, Willets thought admiringly. What a combination.

  Lauren walked over to them, five foot eight and slim and shapely. She had a narrow version of a heart-shaped face, framed by very blond and slightly curly hair. Was wearing her usual dark pants, a pair of fashionable boots designed for the winter, and a fleece-lined black leather jacket with a fake fur collar.

  She looked slightly wary, which she usually did round here. And rather worn out by her journey too, which Willets hoped was only temporary, since she had some heavy manual work to do.

  She shook his hand politely and then turned to Martha, who she greeted a lot more warmly, since they knew each other better. She had been a guest in Martha’s home, and seen the woman work some very clever spells.

  “I’m not sure I really want to know,” she told them both, “but what exactly is the problem?”

  They didn’t go too heavily into specifics, outlining the general details. But her eyebrows lifted all the same.

  “And you can’t do a thing to help, with all that power at your fingertips? You guys keep on finding brand-new ways to mess yourselves up, now don’t you?”

  Martha looked faintly aggrieved, but Willets took it on the chin. How else was an outsider supposed to regard a place like this?

  “I’m seriously the only person who can help?” Lauren asked him.

  “When it comes to magic, you’re a virgin. Which is what we need.”

  “Wow. It’s been a while since anybody called me that.”

  Willets grinned, then led her around to the back, Martha following along behind them.

  Something had changed since they had last been standing here. The scene was still the same, except the violet glow had spread out a short distance from the nursery room. The entire windowsill shone that color, even the sections where the drapes were still in place. And the ladder had taken on shades of mauve as well.

  As they watched, its structure wavered gently.

  “I’d leave that alone,” the doctor observed. “You’re going to have to find another way up.”

  Lauren looked the rear wall up and down.

  “No problem.”

  She went straight to a drainpipe, propped one of her boots against a lower sill, and started scrambling up that way. Watching her, Willets supposed that she’d been something of a tomboy when she’d been a kid, into climbing trees and stuff. She really was a remarkable young woman.

  Lauren reached the top in less than thirty seconds. And his heart skipped a beat when she disappeared inside. Maybe he’d been wrong, and she’d get frozen like the others. He was almost praying that was not the case.

  “Hey!” he heard her yelling, and his whole body relaxed a little. “There’s a kid in here as well! She’s floating in the air, and she’s revolving! Should I fetch her too?”

  The tension came straight back.

  “No, I wouldn’t recommend it!”

  “So I simply carry Ross and Cassie out? I don’t say abracadabra or anything?”

  “I wouldn’t recommend that either!”

  “Okay!” came the voice behind the battered drapes.

  There was a pause of a few seconds.

  Then, “Ah, Jesus Christ!”

  “What’s wrong?” the doctor called up anxiously.

  “I thought I’d try Cassie first! Thought that she’d be lighter! Boy, was I mistaken!”

  “It’s probably her big bone head!”

  “You’ve got that right!”

  Another half a minute passed, and then Lauren showed up at the window again, with a torpid Cassie in both arms.

  “You want me to drop her? Seriously?”

  “Yup.”

  “Okay, you’re the boss.”

  She held Cass out, then let her fall. Willets and Martha raised their arms when she did that. Cassie plummeted about six feet, then stopped, defying gravity. The rest of her descent was slow and easy, and she sank down with a soft crunch into the deep snow. Her limbs were loose, and her eyelids were open, but she still wasn’t moving.

  When they looked back up, Lauren had disappeared again. And this time, the struggling sounds went on for practically a minute before she returned to view. It turned out that she had Ross in a fireman’s lift.

  She paused for breath, and then pitched him over her shoulder with what would have looked like remarkable ease, if you hadn’t known she had a black belt in jujutsu.

  And he fell to earth the self-same way.

  By the time that she was clambering back down, the two adepts were hunched over the pair of bodies, which were warm and breathing, but still immobile. There was the oddest purple sheen in Ross and Cassie’s eyes, which she supposed was part of the spell that had been worked on them.

  But it began to fade as she strode over. Lashes fluttered. Eyelids blinked

  Then Ross sat up.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Vanishing trees? Darn it, he wasn’t being kept in the loop, and was definitely displeased by that.

  Nick McLeish had taken it upon himself to go on a one-man patrol through his beloved neighborhood of Garnerstown, satisfied his family was safely tucked away indoors. He wore a thick fur hat with earflaps, a padded winter coat, dockers with pajama pants pulled up underneath them, and a pair of galoshes over two socks on each foot. The whole ensemble made him look pretty hefty, and he’d already been putting on some weight the last couple of years. But Nick was not a vain man. And besides, there was nobody around to see him.

  Lord, but it was freezing. His hands were going numb, despite the fact that he was wearing woolen gloves. He put them to his mouth and blew steam through the fabric, trying to warm his fingers up. And had to be careful not to poke his eye out when he did so.

  Because he’d come out armed, but not with any gun. He didn’t keep them in the house, not with three small kids around. The last time he’d wielded a hunting rifle, he had borrowed it from one of his neighbors. But now, he was holding a claw hammer, the biggest he could find, and had a foot long screwdriver tucked into his belt for good measure.

  And hell, if those things didn’t work, he might be into his flabby forties, but his job had kept him good and strong. Barehanded combat was always a prospect. But with what? What were they up against?

  He reached the intersection with York and gazed around.

  Even a place like Garnerstown looked pretty in this kind of weather. It wasn’t the most affluent or picturesqu
e place normally, and he was the first to admit it. But by this time of year, its defects had been covered up. The picket fences were a good deal whiter than they’d been a month back, and the dandelions which sprouted up everywhere around these parts were buried to the last bright yellow head.

  But Nick didn’t care about those kinds of superficialities. He cared for the people in this district, and it was on their behalf that he was patrolling. If he didn’t keep an eye on stuff, then who else would?

  Everything looked fairly normal. Only a few houses still had lights on, and you could see tinsel glittering around the edges of those windows. Most people had gone to bed, tucked in snugly from the extremes of the December night. But what else, he wondered, did they need to be sheltered from? Ross Devries hadn’t told him a great deal, and he simply wasn’t sure.

  And that had been bothering him all day. Ross was usually a good guy, a straight shooter. Not the kind of person who was devious or evasive. If there was something coming down on them and he refused to spell out what it was, perhaps he didn’t know.

  Nick moved on, hoping his suspicions were correct. Because if you couldn’t trust the blond ex-cop, then who could you trust?

  A sound came from the far distance behind him.

  “Mollendop.”

  Nick swiveled around. What was that? It had definitely been a voice. But had that been a single word, or several?

  He could make out no one, anywhere his gaze went.

  “Chentalisk.”

  That was a second voice, coming from the same direction. Different, slightly higher pitched. And both of them had a faintly echoey quality, like they’d been coming from an enclosed space.

  He stared around again, but every front door was still closed and every garage shut. There were no windows open he could see. So was this kids, playing some kind of trick on him?

  “Hullo?” he shouted.

  He was going to wake people up, but what the hell.

  “Uttcam,” came the reply.

  What was this gibberish? Nick had forgotten his surroundings and was starting to get heated. He lifted the hammer.

  “What does that mean?” he called. “’We’re gonna make another tree disappear?’”

  “Mollendop.”

  There was a flash of purple in the corner of his eye. He spun.

  And his mouth dropped open.

  A hole had appeared a foot up in the air. Which, he supposed, was the same as saying that a hole had appeared in nothing. It was as tall as he was, had a wavering oval outline, and was letting out bright violet light that turned the snow in front of it the color of spilled wine.

  And at first, that was the only thing he could make out. But then a pair of figures began stepping through.

  They were very definitely not of this world. Nor of any world that he could possibly imagine. They were vaguely humanoid in shape, but with the emphasis on vaguely. Looked shorter than most grown people, somewhere around five foot tall. Or maybe that was because they were so badly hunched over? Then he noticed one of them had tentacles where its arms ought to be. Nick jerked.

  They were almost the same color as the hole that they had stepped through. Their outlines were solid, but the hue across their bodies was constantly wavering and shifting, which made them look rather less than real. Their limbs were as narrow as pipe cleaners. But their hairless heads were chunky, almost square, with jutting lower jaws.

  No noses. Only holes. A single long, blunt tooth protruded upward from both of their mouths. But it was their eyes that startled him the most. They were perfectly round, and were a slightly darker purple than their bodies. Had a weird, lustrous glimmer to them. And they didn’t blink, because he couldn’t make out any lids.

  Were these things dangerous? Most strange creatures that had come into to this town turned out to be that way. Nick went back several paces, then got control and stopped himself from doing that. His pulse was racing, but he took a deep breath and steeled his bulky frame for whatever might come next, his hammer at the ready.

  The creatures didn’t notice him at first, gazing around at their new surroundings. Then they finally stepped away from the opening.

  They did that very warily. But Nick took advantage, and inspected them a little closer. They appeared to be wearing no clothing, and the skin of their bodies looked a little rough and bumpy, like cheap leather. He had never seen the like.

  The one with the tentacles started waving them around.

  What were these?

  It was almost like they’d heard the question. Because, the very next second, both pairs of rounded eyes battened on him. Nick felt thoroughly unnerved, but did his best to hold his ground.

  The creatures went still themselves, initially. And then, the one who had normal hands lifted one, the spindly fingers jerking back and forth. Was that some form of greeting?

  “Uh, a very merry mollendop to you,” Nick muttered.

  He was starting to feel stupid, standing here all bundled up. But what was he supposed to do?

  The purple fingers kept on beckoning. And the other creature raised a tentacle, began to do the same. They wanted him to come across. But he still had not the faintest idea what they were, or what their intentions might be.

  He shook his head stiffly.

  “I’ll stay here, guys, if it’s all the same to you.”

  Perhaps they couldn’t understand him, but his refusal to move was perfectly apparent.

  And Nick felt something tugging at his thoughts.

  The words in his head were being shifted to one side. Others were replacing them, and not his own. They were in no language he had ever heard, but he realized they were telling him to drop the hammer and come forward.

  He’d had something similar happen a few months ago. He’d fallen under something’s spell, and been controlled by it. And the fact that it was happening again enraged him.

  Nick gritted his teeth, anger coursing through his body. And – summoning every last ounce of the strength he had – he pushed the new instructions out.

  The two creatures twitched with alarm. Maybe they weren’t used to being defied this way. And – maybe because of that, who knew? – the hole behind them disappeared.

  Nick’s anger grew even worse. He was the one who had them at a disadvantage now. There was nowhere left for them to escape, and they didn’t look like they could beat him in a throw-down fight.

  Vaporous breath was hissing out between his jaws.

  “Want to be the boss of me?” he shouted at them. “Want me to come over there?”

  He waved the big hammer in their direction, and then pulled out the screwdriver too.

  “Well, you’ve got your wish! ‘Cause here I come!”

  And, blinded with rage, he went rushing at them. No one treated Nick McLeish that way.

  At first, they simply stared back at him, not seeming to understand what he was doing. But when they finally figured out that he had violence on his mind, they didn’t waste a second. Both strange figures turned and fled.

  It turned out they could run slightly faster than he was able, but Nick continued after them. It took a whole block and a half before they saw that he would not give up. So they turned at the next corner, disappearing round it.

  Nick put on an extra burst of speed. And caught sight of them again, just in time to see the creatures clearing snow away from the front of a storm drain. Which stopped him dead in his tracks. What were they up to?

  Before he could do anything more, both purple figures flattened out, becoming two-dimensional. And they went sliding into the drain like a pair of massive strips of paper.

  He’d lost them!

  Sweat was making his clothes cold, and his lungs were wheezing furiously. But Nick paid no mind to that. He went over to the storm drain, doing his best to peer inside.

  And when he finally went down on his hands and knees, he could see the sewer beneath was full of dozens more different-sized holes, every one of them emitting purple light. The aged br
ickwork down there was suffused with it.

  It looked like this whole area was literally being undermined.

  Nick stood up and headed back. Something very ominous was going down, and people needed warning.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  What was I doing sitting in the snow? The last thing I remembered, I’d been closing in on the Little Girl. Hoping, at the very least, to get more information out of her. Something must have gone wrong, but I couldn’t figure what. And so I stared around.

  Willets was peering down at me. And so was Martha. But then I turned my head to the other side, and tensed up with surprise. Then stood up, smiling.

  “Lauren?”

  I could scarcely believe it. But she was there, and smiling back at me as well.

  “Hi, Ross!” she chimed.

  How come she had returned? I hadn’t seen her since the summer. Our visitor from Boston beamed at my amazement, gave me a brief hug and kissed me quickly on the cheek. A bolt of energy – a connection – passed between us, but I did my best to ignore that.

  “I don’t believe this,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

  “Getting you out of trouble. And not for the first time, I might add. Lehman called me.”

  I was silent for a short while, struggling to get my head around what had been going on.

  “Looks like you’ve got more trouble than you can cope with,” Lauren added.

  “Uh,” I shrugged, trying to look casual. “It always looks that way. We always manage.”

  But that made me sound a good deal more confident than I felt. My head was still noticeably blurry, as if I’d been fed some knockout drops. And I hadn’t been expecting anything like that. We’d gone into this believing we were the only people who could help. But apparently, not even me and Cassie were immune to this whole Amethyst business.