Erasmus appeared beside me. “Are we hunting?”
“I thought I would go alone. You’ve got research to do.”
“I’m not about to leave you on your own. Junior Wiccan can do the work.”
“Her name is Jolene.”
“Whatever.”
We set out into the woods, fall leaves raining down all around us.
“It’s different,” said Erasmus, strangely conversational. “Just hunting the beast…and not the Chosen Host for a change of pace.”
I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. “I should hope so. I guess it must be weird for you. I mean, you probably were pretty hungry when you met me.”
“With every intention of eating your soul,” he said a little too glibly. “But then I got to know you. And fell in love.”
I got a little squirm in my belly over the tender look he was giving me. “I guess I lucked out all around. What if—”
But I clamped my lips shut when I heard the barking in the distance. Not a dog. I stopped, closed my eyes, and did as I’d done before to reach out to the Booke. I felt its magic seize me. In my mind, I was rushing forward between the trees, zooming faster than I could ever run. I went over a rise and down into a gully past a trickling brook. In the darkest part of a gathering of trees, it was there, face red with blood, tearing into…oh God. Was that a person?
My eyes snapped open. “We have to hurry.” I broke into a run. I followed the path the Booke had shown me, skirting the dense growth of trees, heading down to the brook, and splashing through it. I didn’t want to think about that person down on the ground, being eaten. Maybe they weren’t alive. But maybe they were. Don’t think about it, just run!
I slid down another embankment, sprinted up the other side and saw the dark grove ahead. I slowed only marginally while I swung the crossbow up to my shoulder. I ran while aiming it because I wasn’t planning on waiting to shoot. When I came to the trees and spotted the creature, I fired. I got it in the chest but wasn’t satisfied. I grabbed another quarrel from the stock, wrestled it out even as the crossbow fought me, and slapped it in the flight groove. I shot again. The creature thrashed and wailed in its strange barking call.
I stalked up to it, even though it had started to shoot out beams of light. Taking the crossbow like a club, I slammed it in the head and kept slamming till chunks of it started flying up at me. Still the light emanated from it as I beat it to a pulp. Erasmus grabbed my arms and swung me around. “You have to write in the book!”
I threw down the crossbow, stomped up to the Booke that had appeared, and took up the quill. I wiped bits of the Barking Beast off my face and used its blood to write how pissed off I was that it killed and how I wish I had hunted it last night and a few more details that seemed to satisfy. I felt the creature burst apart in a hail of sparks behind me. The Booke slammed closed and dropped. I left it there.
Erasmus suddenly wrapped his arms and warmth around me. “It’s all right,” he kept murmuring. “It’s all right. Calm down.”
“I just want to…I just want to kill them all!”
“I know. It’s all right.”
I took a shaky breath. “The person. Are they—”
“He’s dead. Don’t look.”
I felt I should, but I couldn’t. I just clung to Erasmus. “Is it anyone we know?”
“No.”
I pulled myself together enough to drag out my phone. I swallowed a few times, from nausea, from dread. “Ed? There’s a body. One of the Booke’s beasts killed him.”
“Where are you, Kylie?”
I lifted my eyes to the trees, the hills beyond. “I don’t know. Erasmus?”
He took the phone and it was strange seeing him talk into it. “We are a quarter mile off the main highway and past the brook. A dense clump of trees, approximately west-southwest from Kylie’s shop.”
“Leave the phone open. I can follow its coordinates. Keep Kylie safe. And…thanks, Erasmus.”
That sort of broke me out of it. I didn’t think I’d ever heard Ed use his name. Erasmus was still holding me tight but walking me away some distance. “Sit here, Kylie.”
“Shouldn’t a Chosen Host be made of sterner stuff?” I said weakly.
“You are made of very stern stuff. But you are still human and you have a weakness for the deaths of your own kind. There’s no need for you to see it.”
“Okay.” I dropped my face into my hands. “I kind of lost it there. I didn’t mean to beat that thing.”
“I have never been so proud.”
“Ha. I don’t think that was anything to be proud of. I lost it. I lost control.”
“Under the circumstances, I don’t think it was out of character.”
“Erasmus—”
He dropped to a knee in front of me and took my hands in his. “You are just the same in my eyes. You, a human, have been stretched to the breaking point, yet you still show unparalleled courage. I have never admired a mortal as much as I admire and love you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.” He gazed at me a moment before drawing closer and offering a gentle kiss. “Humans are best at showing courage. That’s why those in the Netherworld envy your kind so much.”
“If only I could give that to Satan, this would all be over.”
He rose and kept a hold of my hands.
A siren wailed in the distance. It wasn’t long until I heard Ed calling my name.
“Your constable is here,” said Erasmus, but the words held no jealous streak.
“Kylie!”
“I’m over here!”
He came crashing through the woods holding his rifle, followed by Deputy George, equally armed. Ed measured the both of us. “You all right?” he asked me.
I nodded and pointed back to the shadows. Ed turned and signaled to George. They both approached and stood over the victim.
“Jesus,” Ed muttered. “Let’s get the stretcher.”
They worked while I sat. It didn’t seem quite fair. But after a while, Ed came back to me. “I spoke to Doc about this, about encountering more book victims. The Wiccans decided it would be best not to call the coroner when we find bodies. We can get Doc to sign off on these cases. We’re just sending them to the mortuary. When I asked, most of the town decided to keep it to ourselves. And those remaining from Hansen Mills who joined us seem to agree. There are some folks in town who aren’t happy about this. Some have left. Others think we should call in the staties. I’ve been taking a lot of time to talk them down from that. Last thing we need is more people involved. They just don’t get that there isn’t anything they can do. Of course, there are some in that crowd that want me to arrest you.”
“And that would be even worse.”
“I tried to tell them that. Anyway, Doc’s got enchantments on them so they can’t leave or call out. Even covered the internet. But I don’t mind saying that we need to bring this thing to a close and soon.”
“I know. That Halloween deadline is looming.” I rose.
“Will you be all right? We’ve got to transport the victim to the mortuary and he’s taken up all of the backseat.”
“No, we’re fine. Any clue as to…to who that was?”
“Someone from Hansen Mills. I used to run him in from time to time for poaching. Maybe it’s poetic justice.”
“Don’t joke.”
“I’m sorry, Kylie.” He turned to Erasmus. “Take care of her.”
“With my life.”
Ed gave him a quick once over, seemed satisfied, and headed back to his SUV parked just beyond the trees.
I picked up the crossbow, worried I had hurt it. But it was made of sterner stuff too.
We began trudging back to the shop. But I was feeling odd. Not quite myself. Yeah, I had just beaten that creature to a bloody pulp without provocation, but it wasn’t that exactly. I felt…weak. And out of it. “There are only a few days left before Halloween, Erasmus. Is it my imagination, or am I feeling kind of weird?”
“Right now?”
“Yes.” He offered me his hand. I took it. He pulled me into an embrace and the cold and dark suddenly surrounded us. When I could breathe again, we were on the highway somewhere.
“Where are we?”
“Hansen Mills.”
“Why are we here?” I started scanning the skies for you-know-who.
“Because the ley lines cross here. And that is a most powerful place.”
“Wait. I thought they crossed at my grandpa’s house.”
“And they do. But they also cross here. Many, many more of them.”
“And that’s a good thing?”
“I think you will see that it is a very good thing.”
He walked ahead and I followed. Soon he turned off the road and headed up a verge. At least it was daytime and for once I could see where I was going, but it was still hiking over logs and rock outcroppings. We came to the edge of a fairly steep drop and he finally stopped…on the most precarious part of it.
“Here,” he said.
“Here what?”
He sighed impatiently. “Where the ley lines cross. There’s eight of them.”
“Maybe this was why I was supposed to stay out of Hansen Mills.”
“Your grandfather didn’t trust the lines. It’s good for some things, not for others. But for now, I think it will strengthen you. The magic converges here. Come. Stand here where I am.”
“There’s not enough room.”
“Do you think I will let you fall now?” He reached out a hand to me.
For a split second, I felt the littlest bit of trepidation. If he had been lying to me all this time, it was the perfect place to dispose of me where no one would know. Well, it was too late for that. I was too much in love with him to care. If he killed me now, there was no fighting it. And with a shake of my head, I released the thought. No, he wasn’t acting. He did love me. Everything he did and said showed that.
I took his hand and let him pull me up beside him.
He smiled down at me. “Do you feel it?”
And then I did. Wow. Surges of power. It lifted my hair. At least I think it did. A sort of electricity running down my arms to my fingertips. I tingled all over and more importantly, felt renewed, refreshed and suddenly full of energy.
Abruptly, Erasmus swept me up, enfolded me in his arms, and kissed me hard. I kissed him too, reveling in the power that seemed to pulse back and forth between us. He held me tight, kissing my lips, my face. And when he drew back to look at me, there was a kind of glow around him. It was a bright green and fluctuating. “What is that?” I said dreamily.
“What is what?”
“There’s a green glow around you.”
He looked at me hard. “You can see that?”
“Yes. What is it?”
“My life force.”
“Really? What does mine look like?”
“Orange. And beautiful. Like you.”
I kissed him again, because he was lovely when he let go like that. “Thanks, Erasmus. This was like…Chosen Host cocaine. I feel suddenly…really, really good.”
“I suspected that you were feeling drained. Emotionally as well as physically, and it was because the magic was ebbing. Yet, still tied to the book as you are, it was forcing you to expend greater amounts of magical energy.”
“That doesn’t seem like a very logical system.”
“That’s what happens when too many Ancient Ones stir the pot.”
“What a laugh riot those Ancient Ones must have been.”
He said nothing to that and carefully guided me away from the edge of the cliff. I bet Constance Howland and all the other Chosen Hosts would have given their eye teeth for that kind of concern from Erasmus. Best not to think about that, either.
“I feel better. Thanks for that.”
“It was my pleasure.”
“How did you know this was here?”
“I have been here before, you know.”
“Three hundred years ago, you mean.”
“Ley lines do not change.”
“Did you help Constance Howland like that?” Way to go, Kylie. You just couldn’t resist asking, could you?
He paused. “I helped her with the creatures from the book. That is my purpose.”
And then took her soul. I guessed it was on my mind lately. I wished that wasn’t his thing.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said cautiously.
“Do you?”
“Yes.” He kept his head facing straight ahead as we walked. “You’re thinking about how I ate her soul.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
“Yes, you were.”
“Okay, so I was. Soul-eating seems to be of great concern these days.”
“I know. We will find something to trade with Satan. Your junior Wiccan is very good at what she does.”
“Can’t you just call her Jolene?”
He stopped and grabbed my hand. “I will not allow you to put yourself in danger. If nothing can be found, I will not allow you to give up your soul.”
“How are you going to stop me?”
His whole demeanor changed. I could tell he was thinking hard and that he didn’t know. “I…I will simply…”
“You don’t control me. I control you.” I fished out the amulet and looked at it again. “It’s kind of an ugly thing.”
“It is part of me.”
“Erasmus, if we don’t do this, the Booke will plague me all our days. And it’s killed so many people. And what about Baphomet? How do I get rid of him?” I shook my head. Sometimes it was hard to believe this was my life. “I don’t know how much longer I can do this. You see what I did back there. I beat that thing with the crossbow. That is not normal behavior for me. And you yourself said that no Chosen Host has lived this long…thanks to you.”
He stiffened at that.
“It’s true! You can be as nice to me as you want and I know you love me, but that is a fact, Erasmus. And it isn’t something I can just dismiss.”
“It is my past.”
“But how long can you go without eating? You’ll have to at some point.”
“That’s not for you to worry over.”
“Yes! It is! We’re talking about someone’s soul.”
“This is not the time to speak of this.” He was getting more irritated and began walking faster.
“Erasmus! Slow down. Are we walking back to Moody Bog?”
He stopped again. “I will take you back, then.”
“Wait. Wait.” I just stood there for a moment, thinking. “What if…what if Jolene can’t find anything.”
“She will.”
“What if she can’t?”
He was huffing breaths in short bursts, smoke lingering at his shoulders. “We will find a way.”
“What if we can’t? Erasmus, you have to promise me something.”
“What?” he asked suspiciously.
“You have to promise me…that you will help me close the Booke.”
“I am already doing that.”
“No. I mean…you have to let me go to Satan and bargain. With whatever I’ve got.”
“No.”
“You have to!”
“NO!”
“Erasmus, if you can’t let me do that, then you might as well eat my soul right now.”
He blinked at me and swept forward. “Kylie, no. I won’t. I can’t.”
“I can’t keep doing this forever.”
There was real pain on his face. Maybe he’d just never understood humans before but he was getting the full lesson now. We were vulnerable, expendable, and we tired easily. He did the only thing he could think of; he enclosed me in his arms and held me tight. “I won’t let you die,” he whispered.
But I didn’t see how he would be able to prevent it.
Chapter Twelve
<
br /> Back in my shop, I walked around greeting the villagers. They were mostly young people—high school age, college age—all with eager faces and earnest dispositions. But there were some older folks, too: housewives, a few retirees, some shopkeepers…like Jolene’s parents. They had brought a box of old clothes and dishes and were handing things out. Some people had lost everything.
My villagers were learning magic left and right. I wondered if they’d still be able to perform it when the Booke was gone. And then I wondered…if I’d be around to see it.
Erasmus was bugging Jolene as she worked. She stopped to talk to him from time to time, no doubt asking questions. He seemed to be trying to hurry her up. But I knew she had to take whatever time it took.
Jeff was entertaining some kids by making his ears and snout grow. This was going to be one weird town when we got done with it.
Jeff glanced at me then from across the room and winked.
Nick came up behind me. He stood with me and watched Jeff change from a long pointed-eared semi-werewolf to a human again.
“I was never popular,” said Nick. “Never one of the cool kids. Yeah, I did the whole Goth thing, but just for the look, not because I was emo and didn’t belong. You’d think I used to be bullied for being gay, but no one seemed to care. Now look at us.” He chuckled. “It’s weird, no question.”
“How’s your paranormal patrol going?”
“We need a hipper name than that. But it seems to be fine. They’ve spotted Headless a few times, but everyone knew enough to give him a wide berth. How is the mission to Hell working out?”
“I don’t know. Slow. And we’re running out of time.”
“I hear you got the Barking Beast.”
“Oh, I got it all right.”
“Yeah. I heard that, too.”
I passed a hand through my hair. “Nick, it’s getting to me.”
He rested his arm on my shoulder. “I know, dude. But you’ve got to hold on. We’ll come through for you.”
“I hope so. This place is ready to pop.”
Someone had brought in a police scanner, which suddenly crackled to life. “This is Sheriff Bradbury. Baphomet was spotted heading your way. Northeast. Get ready.”
The Darkest Gateway Page 11
