Inner Flame
Page 5
Chapter Four
A ghostly gray mist seemed to hover mere inches off the ground. A shiver rippled through Sera. Where the hell was she?
“She came through here,” said a voice from beside her.
Hank! He’d come home. She turned, ready to blast him for being such an asshat. The space beside her was empty.
“Jazz!” he called, drawing Sera’s gaze downward.
A brawny pit bull twisted his head and looked up at her. Brindle stripes stood out against the grayness, but his white markings were lost to the pervasive mist, lending the illusion that he had only half a head.
“What?”
“Jazz went along here, and not long ago. I can smell her trail.” The dog’s mouth moved and Hank’s voice emerged.
Seeking to steady herself, Sera groped for the wall. It was warm and soft under her hand, and it moved in a rhythmic wave, almost as though it were a living, breathing thing. She dropped her hand and recoiled away from the wall.
“What… what is this place?”
Hank snorted. “You don’t recognize it?”
Subtle motion beneath the fog captured Sera’s eye. A whisper of sound, not quite rustle, not exactly a hiss sent chills creeping along her skin.
Hank growled into the fog.
Peering closer, Sera caught sight of a ropelike shape slithering along the corner of the wall. Revulsion sent a shudder through her.
“Oh, God, it’s a snake!” she cried.
“Where?” shouted Hank. But he was already off into the fog. “We can’t let it get to Jazzie!”
Jazz! Where was she? Where were they?
“I hate snakes!” she called after him. She tried to follow but her feet felt like they’d taken root. She couldn’t chase down a snake. They terrified her. If one was slithering away from her, let it!
A shrill scream came from deeper within the fog, then several sharp barks mixed with Hank’s shouts. Sera’s feet broke free, and she raced into the mist, following the terrifying sounds.
Green light flashed off to the right, drawing her gaze and her steps. An arch loomed ahead of her… something about it seemed familiar. Where had she seen that before?
A feminine voice rose and fell, soft but commanding.
“Mother?” Sera squinted into the fog, now glowing with the green light. “What the devil are you doing?”
“Shhh…” said Muriel. “This is the tricky part.”
In one hand, she held a long metal rod divided by a fork on the distant end, which was pressed tightly against the ground, trapping a giant snake by its neck. The thing was at least twelve feet long and its body writhed against the hold, but it couldn’t free its head. Muriel used her free hand to open a wooden box that stood on a dais in front of her. Markings carved into the dark, aged wood looked like letters... but it was not like any kind of letters Sera had ever seen.
Murmuring in a voice so low Sera couldn’t make out the words, Muriel waved her free hand through the air, sprinkling some kind of powder on the snake. Abruptly it stopped moving and began to shrink. When it was about a third its original size, Muriel used the hook to scoop it and guide it toward the waiting box.
In a puff, the snake became no more than a stream of dark smoke that the box seemed to inhale. As soon as all the smoke was inside, the lid on the box sprang closed like a trap door. The green light faded.
Another shrill scream echoed through Sera’s mind, and she snapped her head in the direction. “Mother, Jazz is in trouble. You have to…”
She glanced back to find herself alone. Mother, snake, box, and dais had disappeared leaving nothing but fog.
“Sera!” called Hank. “Get down here. I can’t hold it off any longer. It’s got Jazzie.”
“Jazz!” Hank was right; they couldn’t let that monster hurt her. Sera took off in the direction of his voice.
Monster… Not a snake?
She stumbled as her mind struggled to catch up. Mists swirled around her. Jazz screamed again. Closer this time. Sera slipped to the side. It felt like she was running on a spongy bed of gelatin.
“No!” Jazz cried out.
“Sera!” yelled Hank.