Beyond The Door (7 page)

But in her soul she knew Zoë wasn't evil, and
she'd learned the Phantasm for all her faults, had been nothing
more than a betrayed child who wanted only the approval of her
father.

So without a word, Nona had driven back to the
compound and stumbled into something terrible.

She smelled smoke when she moved past the
kitchen. The sound of gunfire. Shouts. An the acrid tinge of magic
in the air.

Ethereals!

"Miss Martinique, you really shouldn't be
here."

The voice was young, and somewhat oily. Oily
was a hard word to describe itself, but it was a good one to
communicate the way the voice made her feel. She turned to see an
unfamiliar man in a gray suit step into the kitchen from the same
door she'd used. He had long blonde hair, swept back into a neat
ponytail. He wore silver glasses on his nose and bright blue eyes
peered out from the glass.

"Do I know you?"

"No. But I know your husband. And he wanted me
to make sure you got out of here safe."

She narrowed her eyes. Her husband. Adiran.
Choir instigator for her great-Uncle's biggest
whups
.
"What's happening?"

"The Society is being infiltrated," the man
said as he neared and took up a position not too close, but not too
far away. He had one hand on the metallic surface of a
workstation, the other in the pocket of his slacks. "I'm afraid the
Governor put out a warrant for the Society's arrest—pending charges
of tax fraud and kidnapping."

"Kidnaping?"

"Darren Gregory McConnell III of course." His
brows knitted together over his glasses. "Didn't you know who your
little charge was?"

She had to admit, she didn't know much about
Darren's background at all. "He's a third?"

"He's an heir. Originally from Oregon, it
seems. He has one surviving parent."

"He said his mother died, and his father died
in the line of duty." Nona didn't like the way this
sounded.

"She did...and he did. But you see," the man's
smile broadened. "No one else has to know that. But still, we
promise to take good care of the
Grimoire
once we have it in
our hands. Now please," and he turned sideways to indicate the door
he and she had stepped through. "Adiran insisted you not be present
when all of this goes down."

"Is Adiran here?"

"No—he's readying the throne for the
Grimoire
." He held up a finger. "That is, once they get the
pages pulled from the vassal and ordered correctly. I hear Miss
Orly has several of those pages." He looked at his watch. "I'm sure
it's only a matter of minutes before we have she and her little
vigilantes in our grasp."

He was a Virture. She guessed that pretty early
on. Same as Adiran Martinique. She could also guess the Ethereals
knew the Society was going to move Darren to a much securer
location with all the publicity showing up in the news about
Societies and organizations that didn't have public records. They
had spies amid the Society.

And perhaps in some strange way, she'd aided
them. "When you say you'll pull the pages from the vassal—you mean
kill Darren."

"Nona, please," and he clasped his hands in
front of him. "Mr. McConnell is already dead. His mind's hopelessly
cluttered with the book. This is all for the best. Now, if you'll
step out of the door, I can make sure you get home."

Nona smiled.
He thinks I'm a helpless old
lady
. This thought brought about a rise of confidence she'd not
had in several months. Not since being yanked from her body and
imprisoned inside of a Soul Cage, and then a rotting corpse. That
kind of experience, as well as her life up to that point had all
pretty much molded her as a woman of stronger stuff.

They meant to kill Darren. A boy who'd never
wanted any of this. A boy whose background still remained a mystery
to her. To everyone. A boy who loved her daughter more than his own
life.

A decision was made in that instant as she
turned from him and took several steps to the door. Before she
reached it, she turned and put a hand on his chest. "I'm sorry,
dear boy. What was your name?"

"Raziel."

And there she had it. The last piece of the
spell that twisted round in her head. Her hand glowed bright blue
with Witch Fire and the man with the beautiful face and long blond
hair twisted, bent and popped into a new dimension of existence as
a tiny cotton ball. Nona smiled as she caught him like a firefly
and then moved to the spice rack. She chose a rather unique looking
bottle and popped the little ball inside. "I'm sorry, little
Virtue. But I can't let you hurt Dags, or my daughter any more. No
matter what Adiran believes. I realize it's not the same as
me."

"Wow...remind me to never get on your bad
side."

She whirled at the familiar voice and nearly
dropped the bottle. "Nick!' The name slipped out before she could
stop herself.

Nick Shay moved into the kitchen. His blond
hair was pulled back as well and he wore dark clothes. A glock was
in a gloved hand and he gave her a hug with the free hand. "Nona
Martinique. So," he stood back and looked down at her. "You here to
help? Or do I eat you?"

She tried not to blush. But Nick did frighten
in her in a way, more so than his master, her former lover, Jason
Lawrence. Nick was a Ghoul, and could by all means, eat her. "Where
are they, Nick. I can get them out."

He glanced back as the fighting sounds grew
closer. "Mephistopheles is letting me know right now. You should be
in range to hear him if we get going. They're about three floors
down." Nick took her hand and lead her back to the door. With his
gun out he looked right, and then left. "But it might take us a
while to get down there."

"Wait," and she pulled him back in. "I know a
way around. Care to take a little stroll in the
moonlight?"

He grinned down at her. Straight white teeth.
He might be technically reanimated flesh, but he was one of the
handsomest Ghouls she knew. "Lead the way, young'n."

To him she
was
young. Much
younger.

Nona motioned him to follow as the two made
their way from the kitchen to the back gardens. Near the center was
an exit she was sure Rhonda would remember. And she told Nick to
tell Mephistopheles to tell Rhonda,
"Margarita Monday."

Back in the kitchen, grumbling fitfully inside
of a stoppered bottle, sat a very angry, pissed off
Virtue.

THIS
is bad—really
bad.

Joe crouched as low as he could, his weapon in
front of him as he lead the way down the corridor. He took point,
checking around corners as Azrael brought up defense behind Rhonda,
Jason and Dags. Dags was draped over Jason's shoulder with Rhonda
keeping a close eye on the iPad in front of her. She'd pulled up a
set of diagrams she'd had made while the house was in construction
which gave an overlay of exits not on the submitted blue
prints.

Jason had gotten a message from Nick—which had
made no sense to Joe. "Midnight Margarita?"

But Rhonda seemed to understand the message was
certain they were going to get out of this one with their skins in
tact.

I dunno...
he thought to himself as he
used a mirror he had in his belt and looked around the corner.
This seems pretty dicey. According to Jason that was S.W.A.T. up
there and they don't play around. If they had orders to kill
us—intel that we really
had
kidnapped some hot-shot's son?
Having Dags unmoving over Jason's shoulder just didn't look real
smart. Anyone gets a shot of that—it'll be all over the
news.

But the Revenant refused to put him
down.

In the mirror Joe saw the two doors Rhonda
claimed would be up ahead. He also saw two shadows reflected on the
floor just around the other corner at the end of the straightaway.
He held out his hand for them to stop and nodded for Rhonda to come
closer. Once she did, he whispered. "There are at least two of them
around corner, waiting for us. Which one of those doors is the one
you want?"

Rhonda took the mirror and he shifted back to
let her flatten herself against the wall and sneak a peek around
the corner. She looked back at her iPad, then back at the mirror.
"It's the door facing them. The one facing us is an
office."

Joe looked around them. Not much to use for
distraction. Unless... he waved back at Azrael. "Are they behind
us?"

Azrael shook his head.

"What are you thinking?" Rhonda was looking at
him.

"I'm thinking we need a distraction to get them
away from that door. As it is now, it's right in line with their
weapons and we not only need to get the door open, all of us,
including Jason and his baggage, need time to go
through
the
door. First order is getting rid of the two guys waiting—and there
might be more behind them."

She pursed her lips. He always thought she was
cute and he admired the way she pulled her shoulder length hair up
into high pigtails. She lifted the iPad into the air to her right
and it promptly disappeared. He knew she'd tucked it into her Veil,
a null area around her that orbited her in a geo-synchronous
fashion. Kind of like a Clark Belt. "You really need to show me how
to do that some day."

"Maybe," then she reached back up and plucked a
small box from the air and set it on the floor. "Care for a little
transmigration operation?"

"You think we got time?"

"You think we have a choice?"

He shrugged. Rhonda opened the box and pulled
out several different rectangles of marble. She held a few up then
picked one and put the others away. After replacing the box in the
Veil she looked at him. "You remember your part?"

Joe made a face. "I remember a lot of
things."

"What are you two doing?" Jason asked. He knelt
down beside the two of them with Dags quiet on his shoulder. Joe
reached back behind him to touch Dags' neck. Still alive.
If you
call that living
.

"We're going to create a barrier," Rhonda said.
"It should hold long enough for us to go through the door at the
end of the corridor."

"How—"

And then Rhonda pulled a black crayon from her
back pocket. She drew a circle outside of a pentagram and then
started filling in with symbols Joe didn't even
recognize.

"Oh," Jason said and backed up. "Magic. You go
first."

Once she had the circle finished on the tiled
floor, she drew an identical one on the block of marble. When she
was finished she put her hand in the center of the floor
circle.

"You know this reminds me of an anime I
watched—" Joe said.

"Can it. This is reality." She handed him the
block of marble and stuck the crayon behind her ear. "Aim it right,
Joe."

He nodded before he slipped his gun into the
back of his pants. Setting the block up on his side he turned it so
it was parallel to the right turn wall. Once he had it flush, Joe
used the mirror to eyeball where he wanted to send it. It wasn't
going to take more than a nudge, but the marble was heavy to exert
without physical force. He narrowed his eyes as he concentrated on
the block—calculated the stopping point—and pushed the block down
the corridor along the wall.

From the vantage point of the two soldiers
waiting for them, they would see an upright block of marble slide
from the left and into the center of their hallway. A sharp pain
cracked between his eyes and Joe winced.
Brain Freeze is easier
to deal with than this
. He felt the trickle of blood on his
lower lip that always followed that kind of magic and wiped it away
with his sleeve. He motioned with his left hand at Rhonda as he
watched the block in the mirror. "Ready when you are."

Rhonda closed her eyes and said a few phrases
under her breath. The circle burst into a brilliant blue/white
Witch Flame and the floor hummed. Joe tucked the mirror back into
his shirt pocket and grabbed his gun as he heard someone shout and
boot heels on the tile. The marble abruptly expanded and filled the
corridor with smoke and the smell of scorched steel.

"Go go go," Joe called out. He knew the opening
was blocked by the marble—but that wasn't going to last forever.
Enemy gunfire echoed from the other side in an attempt to shoot
through it.

Rhonda was up and down the corridor to the
door. She punched a code in and opened it as Jason arrived. After
he went through the door Azrael followed. She waited beside it as
Joe ran ran toward her, keeping an eye behind them. Rhonda went
through the door just as the office door on the opposite wall
opened.

A man in black fatigues came out and jammed
something into Joe's back. With a curse—Joe twisted around but lost
his balance. Luckily he landed on top of his assailant and managed
to press his gun barrel into the man's face. "Asswipe."

He fired.

"Joe!"

He came out of the office, shut that door, dove
through the escape doorway and then slammed the escape door closed
behind them. He put his hand to the control panel and shorted it
before he followed behind the others.