Blood in the Marsh (31 page)

“‘My name is Marcus Coronelli.’

“My grandmother nodded. ‘I am Mayla.’ Then she tore a strip of cloth from her skirt and stuffed it into his mouth. ‘He will not steal your soul, Marcus Coronelli.’

“The man nodded and closed his eyes. She held her hand over his nose and mouth, and after a bit, his body relaxed in death. One of the followers saw her kneeling over the body and ran to her. She pulled the wad of cloth free just as he kicked her.

“‘Get away from him!’

“She cowered on the ground, sure what she had done had been observed. But the man was only interested in shredding the body with his knife, carving big chunks of flesh, and smearing himself with blood.

“My grandmother huddled on the ground, watching as the people’s attention switched from the dead bodies to one another. As they began to tear their robes off and paw at one another, she bowed her head, praying that the night would end and she could be free of the horror.

“She felt a touch on her shoulder and looked up at the demon in his new body. ‘Come,’ he ordered.

“She got up and followed him from the scene. He untied his horse and mounted it. ‘Tonight you sleep in the house.’

“She knew what that meant and shuddered in revulsion. The last time she had been ordered to sleep in the house was the night her baby daughter was conceived. After what she had seen, she was sickened to think that the child she held at her breast was the spawn of such a demon. But she loved her child and could never turn her back on her.

“As she followed him back to the main house she prayed for guidance and help. Suddenly she realized what she had to do. She would use his child as a weapon against him. She would find out all she could about him and teach her daughter, and somewhere, in some time, the knowledge would find its way to the person who would know how to use it to destroy this demon.”

May-May paused and took a sip of tea to soothe her dry throat. Lyra was quiet for a moment then jerked as if coming out of a daze. “Your grandmother took the flask! What happened to it?”

May-May smiled and patted her hand. “You listen well. Yes, she kept the flask. That along with the story was passed down to me.”

“Then you still have it?”

May-May stood up and walked to the cupboard. Behind a stack of old chipped plates she pulled a small wooden box. She put it on the table then sat down.

“Can I open it?”

May-May nodded and Lyra tentatively touched the box as if afraid it would hurt her. She took a deep breath, pulled the box to her, and opened the hinged lid. Inside was a silver flask. Lyra looked at the markings etched in the silver and felt a cold chill pass over her.

She had seen that symbol before, but could not remember where. Nick saw the look on her face and put his hand on her arm. “Lyra? Are you okay?”

“Huh? Oh yes, fine.” She stared at the flask for another moment then picked it up and shook it, hearing something slosh around inside.

“The drug!” She looked at Nick. “Do you think it’s still active?”

“I don’t know,” he said and looked at May-May. “Do you?”

She smiled and nodded. “Oh yes. It’s very active. But it’s not the original drug that was in the flask. That was destroyed long ago. What you have now is something far more valuable.”

Lyra gave her a puzzled look and May-May reached over to pat her hand. “Honey, what you have there is the way to finally beat that Demon. That is the antidote to the drug he uses to render his victims helpless. Without that drug he can’t take over the new host body.”

“So if he gives someone that drug, this can be given as an antidote to bring them out of it?”

“No.” May-May shook her head. “This must be taken first. It acts like a preventative so that the drug he uses won’t be effective.”

“Then you mean by using this he can be tricked!” Nick suddenly smiled.

May-May returned his smile and laughed. “That’s exactly what I mean.” She looked up and tears ran down her face. “We’re finally going to do it, Mother. At last the time has come.”

Nick looked at Lyra and she shrugged then returned the flask to the box. After a moment, May-May lowered her face and dried her tears. “Now, I’m going to have to ask you to leave, my new friends. I’m old and I’m tired. You come back tomorrow and I’ll finish telling you what I know.”

Lyra stood up and leaned over to hug May-May. “Thank you so much,’ she whispered. “I don’t know how to repay you.”

“Just make sure that devil is destroyed,” May-May said. “Then I can die a happy woman.”

Lyra nodded and straightened up. “We will, May-May. I give you my word.”

They left the house and got back in the car. Nick started it and backed down the drive as Lyra sat staring straight ahead with an unreadable expression on her face.

She didn’t say a word the entire way back to Brunswick. Nick took the keys in to the rental car agency and they got in his Jeep and headed back to Sea Island. They were almost home and still she had not spoken. He pulled over and stopped the Jeep.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on in your head?”

Lyra looked at him blankly then looked away. The symbol on the flask bothered her. She knew she had seen it before but she just couldn’t remember where and it was driving her crazy.

She looked up and her eyes widened. Coming from the opposite direction was Lexi’s silver Mercedes. “Get down!”

She grabbed Nick and pulled him down in the seat as the car sped by. He sat up and looked at her as if she had lost her mind. “What was that about?”

Lyra’s eyes were wide and her face was pale. Seeing Lexi’s car had jogged her memory. Now she knew where she had seen the symbol and it made her flesh crawl.

“Lyra!” Nick grabbed her and turned her to him. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I know who it is,” she whispered.

“You what?”

“I know who Adoul is.”

Nick’s mouth fell open in surprise. After a moment, he shook his head and frowned. “Well, I have no idea how you discovered that so suddenly but I’m all ears.”

“The symbol on the flask!” Lyra opened the box and pointed to it. “I knew I’d seen it before but I couldn’t remember where. Then when I saw Lexi’s car coming toward us it clicked.”

“Wait! You think you’re mother is Adoul?”

Lyra shook her head. “The day Chelsey and I went to the house to get my clothes to move into Lucius’, Lexi and Leopold were there. He came to the upstairs landing as we were leaving and called out to us. When I looked up he was wearing a silk robe and he made a big show of letting it be known that he wasn’t wearing anything under it. But he was wearing a heavy gold chain around his neck with a medallion on it. This symbol was on the medallion. Nick, it’s Leopold!”

Nick leaned back and stared at her with narrowed eyes. “Lyra, are you sure about this? You did say you were at the door and he was on the landing so you could have been mistaken.”

She shook her head. “I’m absolutely positive. And L Lucius said that the amulet was the way we could recognize Adoul. This flask and that medallion have the exact same symbol on it. I’d bet my life on it.”

“I rather you didn’t put it quite like that.”

Lyra closed the box and looked down at it. “Now what do we do?”

“We go home and tell Michael what we found and we get the contents of that flask analyzed.”

Lyra looked up at him quickly. “And then?”

“And then we find a way to prove Leopold is the man we’re looking for.”

She nodded as he started the Jeep and pulled back on the road. Neither of them had anything else to say on the rest of the drive. They were both too busy trying to decide what to do next.

Later That Evening

By the time Nick and Lyra finished telling Michael and Chelsey everything that had happened and all they had found out from May-May Carter, it was almost midnight.

“So what are you going to do with the flask?” Chelsey asked. “Couldn’t you just drink some of it so that you would be immune just in case?”

Nick shook his head. “We still don’t know all of it. Hopefully, tomorrow May-May will fill in the rest of the blanks. At any rate I think it’d be best if we turned the flask over to the boys at the lab and let them analyze the contents, find out just what kind of substance it is.”

Lyra didn’t say anything. She wasn’t sure she wanted to turn it over to the CIA. Right now that was the only weapon they had against Leopold.

“Where is it?”

“Huh?” Lyra realized Nick was talking to her. “What?”

“What did you do with the flask?”

“I put it in my room, why?”

“Would you get it for me while I make a call?” She nodded and went upstairs. Taking the box from its hiding place, she opened it and took out the flask. Nick’s wrong. This is the only protection we have. We can’t give it up!

Making a sudden decision, she went into the bathroom and poured out a bottle of mouthwash, rinsing it well. Then she poured most of the liquid from the flask into the bottle and hid in under the sink behind a stack of towels. She made sure the flask was securely closed before she returned it to its box and took it downstairs.

Nick was waiting in the den. “Michael and Chelsey decided to turn in. Someone will be here within the hour.”

She nodded and set the box on the coffee table. “Nick, what are we going to do about Leopold? Couldn’t you just tell the people at the CIA who he really is and have them arrest him?”

“We’re running a check on him now. But we can’t move until we have solid evidence, and right now all we have is a story from an old woman and a medallion you claim to have seen.”

“But I did see it!”

“I know, but it’s not enough.”

She sat down and stared across the room with a frown on her face. “I bet if Lucius was here he’d know what to do.”

“Lyra,” Nick turned to her. “You’re starting to get obsessive about Lucius. He’s dead and he can’t help us, except for his diary.”

“His diary!” She jumped up and ran upstairs. She ran into her bathroom and opened the false baseboard where she had hidden the diary. As she pulled it out a picture fell on the floor.

Lyra picked it up and recognized it as the same picture she had found there once before, of Lucius on stage and a shapely woman standing behind him with the feathered mask over her face.

“What’s that?” Nick asked from behind her.

Lyra stood up and handed him the picture. “It’s a photo of Lucius.” She didn’t tell him that she knew she had put the picture in the desk and had no idea how it had gotten back into the hiding place.

“Who’s this with him?”

“I don’t know. One of his stage assistants, I guess.”

“Nice figure,” Nick commented.

She handed him the diary and he opened it up then looked up at her. “Where’s the rest of it?”

“What do you mean?”

He took hold of her arm as she started to turn away. “The back section’s been torn out. What happened to it?”

Lyra looked down at the diary. “No one knew where I hid it. Not even you.”

“Obviously someone knew.”

“But who?”

He shook his head and took the diary. The last page that had not been torn out was blank except for something stuck to it.

“A cigar band.”

Lyra grabbed it and crumpled it in her hand. Nick held out his hand, palm up. “Let’s see it.”

“It’s just an old cigar band. How important can that be?”

“Lyra.” His voice carried a warning.

“Fine.” She slapped the cigar band in his hand and turned away.

“A Lyra cigar,” he said as he read it. “Interesting. What do you suppose this means? That he knew who your father was?”

“I suppose.”

Nick walked over, took her arm, and led her to the bed. “Are you sure no one knew where you hid this?”

“Yes.”

“Yet someone found it and tore part of it out. Why?”

“To keep me from finding out what was in it!” she snapped. “Why else? Look, Nick, I’ve been thinking about this and I think it’s time we test our theory. We have to find out for sure if Leopold is the man or we’re looking for and I think the best way to do that is for me to spend a couple of days at my mother’s.”

Nick grabbed her. “Don’t even think that! You know what he’ll do if he gets his hands on you.”

“Yeah!” she said bitterly. “And god forbid I do anything to spoil what he wants.”

“Just what’s that supposed to mean?”

Lyra jerked away and walked to the door. “You’re the secret agent. You figure it out!”

Nick followed her downstairs. Just as he walked in the den, the gate bell rang. He went to the intercom and answered it, receiving the correct response. A minute later, he let a man in the back door.

“Lyra, will you excuse us for a few minutes?” he asked as the man entered the house.

She nodded and walked down the hall and Nick turned to the man. “Got anything yet?”

“As a matter of fact there are a couple of interesting tidbits,” the man said as he followed Nick into the den. “Seems like your and the Count’s paths have crossed before.”