Body Bags & Blarney (22 page)

“I don’t
understand.” Johnny kicked helplessly in the air.

“The virgin
blood must flow red with the sunset. As it has been decreed in the sacred
texts.” The hooded figure spoke up.

“If you kill
her, I won’t say anything man. I promise. Just let me go and I’ll leave and
never come back.” Johnny pleaded. “Just don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me.”

“Such selfish
desires.” The bald figure spoke. “Kill the girl and let you live?”

“I’ll do
whatever you say.” Johnny continued. “She doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“He would make
an excellent disciple.” The bald headed figure looked happily at the hooded
figure. “How long has it been since you’ve been worshipped?”

“She has been
with a man before.” The hooded figure replied. “Pity. I was almost tempted to
anoint him as our first herald.”

“I’m not a
virgin either.” Johnny spoke up. “I’ve been with dozens of women at parties.
I’m no good to you.”

The hooded
figure sniffed the air near Johnny. “I can smell the fear in you, but I can
smell the purity in your heart.” He tipped his head back as the hood slipped
away.

Vivienne,
nearly lost control as she stared in shock at the visage of Pastor Seamus
Kilpatrick. His skin was drawn tight against his skull, darkness around his
eyes.

“Hey, I know
you. You’re that preacher man that had the tent fall down during his show.”
Johnny cried out. “You’re a man of God, how can you kill me?”

Seamus looked
at the bald man with puzzlement upon his face. “A man of God?”

The bald
headed man shook his head. “No, you’re something greater than that. You’re
magnificent now.”

The withered
features that made Seamus resemble a walking corpse began to fade away. A healthy
pallor started to return to his face. “I am a man of God. You cannot keep me
under your control.”

The bald
headed man hissed in defiance. “No. You are a puppet for the master to
command.”

Seamus cried
out in pain and threw his hands up to his temples. “No. I am Seamus
Kilpatrick.”

With the
control released, Johnny dropped to the pavement, his left ankle twisted and he
cried out in pain.

“You are
nothing. You are weak.” The bald headed figure commanded. “Release control back
to the master or I will kill this innocent girl.”

“Don’t do it.”
Johnny pleaded. “It’s a trick.” He scrambled to get up, but the pain in his
injured ankle prevented him from putting any weight on it. “Please don’t do
this.”

The bald
headed man placed his hand upon Alexis’ throat. A small dagger rested against
her skin. “I’ll slice it clean open, she’ll be dead before she hits the
ground.”

“No.” Seamus
stepped forward. “No more bloodshed.”

Johnny scooted
awkwardly away from him as best he could. “You guys can keep everything. I don’t
care. I just want to go back home.” He pleaded with a tear-streamed face.

Seamus ran his
hands along his arms and cried out in pain. His features withered back to his
corpse-like state and he started to laugh. “It feels so strange to be trapped
inside this flesh.” He glared at Johnny. “Where do you think you’re going?” He
reached out and seized him once more in a magical snare.

“Are you
demons?” Johnny cried out as he was floated up into the air and spun around to
face his captor.

“Would that
make you feel less scared?” The bald headed man laughed. “No, he’s not some
simple-minded demon from your Bible stories. You’re dealing with something much
older and far superior in intelligence.”

“I’m an
Elemental.” Seamus walked slowly toward Johnny. “And you’re going to get to see
exactly where we come from in a few moments.”

“No.” Johnny
squirmed in the air. “I don’t want to go to hell.”

“You’re not
going to hell.” The bald headed man spoke softly. “You’re going somewhere even
further.”

“Where?”
Johnny whimpered.

“The Plane of
Chaos.” Seamus smiled as he reached out with his left hand and held it over
Johnny’s mouth. “A place of neither light nor dark, cold or hot, liquid or
solid.”

Johnny coughed
and then his image doubled. A faint, ghost-like duplicate of him drifted away
from his body.

“Your flesh is
so fragile, yet your spirit so nourishing.” Seamus Kilpatrick coaxed the image
toward him and opened his mouth. In an instant, the image swirled down his
throat and he licked his lips.

“The time will
soon be at hand.” The bald headed man spoke softly. “Soon, your kind will have
free access to this world. Cayuga Cove has hundreds of host bodies just waiting
to be controlled.”

Johnny’s
lifeless body floated over to the Escalade and took position behind the wheel.

“This one is
no use to us.” Seamus pointed at Alexis. “We must cover our tracks for now.” He
walked over the van and opened the back doors. Returning with a garden hose, he
willed one end of it into the exhaust pipe and other into the back window. “Put
her inside and lock the doors.”

The bald
headed man did as commanded, strapping Alexis into the passenger seat. “Now
what?”

“Now we make
it look good for the humans to find.” Seamus raised his hands and forced
Johnny’s limp leg to raise up. With a sudden thud, his right foot slammed onto
the gas pedal. The SUV took off, snapping the chain at the end of the lot and
barreled into the brush.

Still unable
to move due to the effect of the spell, Alexis could only watch in terror as
the vehicle careened forward and then slammed between two large trees with a
horrific crunch. The airbags exploded into her face and everything went dark.

Vivienne’s
link with the memory severed and she was thrown back to the present, with
Alexis at her side. “Goddess help us.” Vivienne shook at the unsettling horror
she had witnessed firsthand.

“Who are you?”
Alexis asked her again.

“I’m Vivienne
Finch. Don’t worry, I know what did this to you and I’m going to stop it.”

“Oh.” Alexis
didn’t seem to recognize her. Her eyes fluttered and she coughed again.
‘Where’s Johnny?”

“He’s here.”
Vivienne repeated as the emergency vehicles raced into the parking lot and
pulled up next to her car. “We’re over here.” She shouted to the workers as
they jumped out to the pavement.

They quickly took
over the scene, with Joshua arriving just as the ambulance transported Alexis
to Cayuga Memorial Hospital. He raced from his car with a look of concern on
his face. “What happened?”

“Looks like a
double suicide attempt, but the girl is still breathing.” One of the backup
paramedics explained. “Probably a breakup gone bad.”

Joshua wound
his way past the other officers and tapped Vivienne on the shoulder. “What’s
going on for real here?”

Vivienne shook
her head. “We’ve got a major problem and only on more chance to stop it before
it’s too late.”

Joshua looked
into her eyes and saw the fear. “I’m taking you home and you’re telling me
everything.”

“What about
your work shift tonight?” She asked.

“I’ll get one
of the guys to cover for me.” He assured her. “I’m assuming this has something
to do with what’s been going on?”

Vivienne held
tight to him. “It’s worse than any of us thought.”

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

“This is
absolute madness.” Joshua stared at Vivienne as she sat at her kitchen table
with Hunter by her side. She had told them the entire story, piecing together
the chain of events that had been unfolding in Cayuga Cove for weeks.

“I’ve actually
heard of worse things.” Hunter tried to lighten the mood.

“Vivienne.”
Joshua stared at her. “You want us to go to the cemetery tonight and exhume the
body of Father William?”

“The only
answer I can think of is to try pulling the memory from Father William’s body.
See if there’s something that will help us there.”

“Will it work
on someone who’s been dead that long?” Joshua asked.

“I don’t
know.” Vivienne answered again. “It’s the best thing I can come up with for
some answers. “I need to know what happened in there. What was so important
inside the church? Why was he killed by that Elemental?” Vivienne pleaded.

“What the hell
is an Elemental?” Hunter asked. “I’m not up to speed on all this magical
witchcraft stuff like you two.”

Joshua stepped
back from the table. “Frankly, I think you’re better off that way.” He slowly
paced back and forth in the kitchen. “It seems the more I learn about it, the
less I want to know.”

Vivienne took
a deep breath. She began to sift through the lengthy email she had printed out
from Nana Mary describing all that she knew on the subject. Holding up one of
the pages, she read it aloud to the group. “Elementals exist as part of nature.
Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. Then there are the layers between, such as dust,
smoke, and steam to name a few.”

“I follow
you.” Hunter gave her a little smile.

“Then between
all of that there is the most primal force that binds it all together. It’s
known as the plane of chaos.”

“Is it evil?”
Hunter asked.

Vivienne
scanned through the printed pages and found a paragraph explaining the concept
of chaos, as defined in human terms. “The very concepts of good and evil simply
don’t apply in this strange void between worlds. It is here, in a place that
defies definition, where the Elementals exist.”

Joshua ceased
his nervous pacing. “So what would someone gain by summoning one of these
Elementals into the world?”

Vivienne flipped
toward the back of the papers. “I know she mentioned something about that.”

“Since when
does Nana Mary use email?” Joshua asked.

“Carmen has
been giving her lessons during the day in the computer center in her building.”
Vivienne smiled. “I had no idea until I called her tonight.”

“She sounds
like a smart cookie.” Hunter added. “I’d love to meet her someday.”

“I think she’d
love a visit.” Vivienne continued to scan the lengthy email pages. “Okay, here’s
something interesting about summoning an Elemental.” She put her finger halfway
down the page to mark her place as she read. “A vast magical energy unlike
anything on Earth, a captured Elemental could provide a nearly inexhaustible
fuel supply to power a plethora of spells, charms, amulets, and talismans for
eons.” Vivienne shuddered. “It is one of the most evil rituals ever conceived.
Used by only the darkest practitioners of magic. Those foolish enough to try to
summon one usually end up the mastered, not the master, at the end of the day.”

“You’re saying
that a pair of these things were brought into our world by some sorcerers with
their magic talismans?” Joshua interrupted her.

“Yes.”
Vivienne nodded. “With some unwilling help from Alexis Warner and Johnny
Guido.”

Joshua hovered
over her. “So, he was a pawn with money?”

“Exactly.”
Hunter reasoned out. “This guy must have thought he hit the jackpot when he got
him involved in his plan. A dumb kid with a big bank account to fund his
activity, all the while making him feel like he was actually part of a scheme
that was going make him richer than his parents.”

“What Johnny
didn’t know was that this sorcerer already knew about the strange nature of
Cayuga Cove before they had even met. Knowing what a treasure trove of magic he
had discovered, he needed new talismans forged to harvest the energy for his
own twisted use. Talismans are cheap to construct, except for those used in the
ritual of summoning and trapping Elementals. That requires gems of exquisite quality
and he didn’t have the funds to proceed.” Vivienne added.

Joshua
scratched his chin. “So this sorcerer somehow got involved with Johnny Guido
and they came up with a plan to steal precious jewels while hiding them in
plain sight in little shops all over the country disguised as costume jewelry?”

“The same
knuckleheads that I had been tracking up and down the coast, leading me here.”
Hunter spoke up.

“I recall
Stephanie mentioning that Alexis got a free trip to Florida from some
photographer she had waited on at Clara’s Diner.” Vivienne remembered. “I think
that so-called photographer was our sorcerer all along and she gave him the
perfect bait to use for his hook to give some rich kid like Johnny all the more
reason to accept his business offer.”

“Why lure him
back to Cayuga Cove?” Hunter asked.

“Because I
think his plan was to get him back here, control him with a spell, and force
him to do the dangerous things for his rituals.” Vivienne answered. “If Johnny
was caught, all the blame would go on him and the sorcerer walks away free and
clear.”

“So what went
wrong?” Joshua asked.

“Random luck.”
Vivienne replied. “At some point, he must have summoned an Elemental into a
talisman to power a mind control spell.” She knew all too well how complicated
they could be. “By using the super-powered magic from the Elemental, he was
almost guaranteed it would work on Johnny.” She thought back to what she had
read in her grimoire about mind control spells. “The library would make the
perfect place to cast such a thing.”

Hunter’s eyes
narrowed. “Why the library?”

“That kind of
spell is best cast where the energy is most sympathetic. Libraries are filled
with knowledge, thoughts, and ideas. All the things that would enhance the
chances of it working properly.”
Vivienne
continued. “Before the meeting, I remember Kathy saying that she saw Alexis and
some handsome new boyfriend sitting together in the library working on a
project together.”
 

Joshua snapped
his fingers. “So the sorcerer follows them to the library waiting for the right
moment to cast his spell. In order to blend in, he goes into the meeting hall
so they won’t see him.”

“The moment
Seamus Kilpatrick started his big drama, it was in the sorcerer’s best interest
to stir the pot and create a ruckus. With the meeting disrupted, it would give
him the perfect chance to slip away and grab Johnny in the library. With all
the shouting and such, no one would hear if Johnny cried out or tried to fight
him off when he cast the spell.” Vivienne could feel the pieces of the puzzle
falling into place. “Only random luck ruined his plan because he wasn’t
counting on Seamus tripping and falling into him. During the fall, not only
were they both injured, but the talisman containing the summoned Elemental was
broken, freeing it.”

“How do you
know about the talisman being broken?” Hunter asked.

“Because after
the meeting broke up, Kathy found it on the floor.” Vivienne answered. “We
thought it was just some cheap kid’s toy and I turned it in to Harriet for the
lost and found box. Later on at the jewelry party, I ran into her and she told
me the man who had been injured claimed it was a family heirloom.”

“So where did
the Elemental go after it was freed?” Hunter asked.

Vivienne
thought for a moment. “It took over the nearest living host who just so
happened to be Seamus Kilpatrick. During my visit into his mind, I learned he
had a magnet concealed in the Bible he placed over his heart that disrupted his
pacemaker in order to have his dramatic moments during his impassioned
speeches. When his heart stopped briefly, the Elemental must have swooped in
and assumed control of his body.”

“The injured
sorcerer had no idea what had happened until the next morning when he regained
consciousness.” Joshua nodded. “And when he found the talisman had been broken,
he knew there was trouble.”

“Yes.”
Vivienne sighed. “He had a nasty-tempered Elemental on the loose who he had
been stealing energy from to cast his own spells. As far as he knew, it could
be inside anyone in town.” She snapped her fingers. “And at some point, Seamus
and the sorcerer met up again and this time, he ended up becoming the slave to
a new master.”

“Now we have
an Elemental walking around town trying to cast a dark ritual.” Joshua
grimaced. “Only we don’t know what they have planned.”

Vivienne
looked up at Joshua. “Oh yes we do.”

“We do?”
Hunter asked.

“They want to
open a gateway from their plane to here. When I was inside Alexis’ memory, I
heard the sorcerer mention that Cayuga Cove would provide hundreds of bodies
for them to possess and use however they please.”

“How far along
are they?” Joshua looked over at Vivienne.

“In order to
complete a ritual you must call to the five corners and cast the circle. Earth,
Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. Can I have a pen and some paper?” Vivienne asked.

Joshua walked
over to the junk drawer and pulled out what she needed. He sat down at the
table and placed them in front of her. “Here you go.”

She drew a
pentagram on the paper. “So we have the fire which was at Suzette’s business.
Water has to be Father William drowning in the baptismal pool.” She marked and
labeled each one.

“What about
the tent revival collapse?” Hunter asked. “Would that fit in?”

Vivienne
nodded and marked the point. “Yes. Gravity pulling the tent to the earth.”

“That leaves
air and spirit.” Joshua studied the map. “So we’ve got air and spirit to be
fulfilled before this gateway opens.”

“No.” Vivienne
interrupted. “Johnny’s spirit was taken away when the Elemental controlling
Seamus killed him.” She marked the point. “That only leaves air.”

“Why isn’t the
Elder Council doing something to stop this?” Joshua asked the group. “Aren’t
they better equipped to deal with this?”

“I called Nana
Mary tonight and she is sending word to them with everything that I know.”
Vivienne replied softly. “But we don’t know how much time is left before they
attempt to cast the last part of the ritual.”

Hunter growled
slightly under his breath. “I’m pretty sure these Elementals aren’t just going
to stand around and let us interfere with their plans.”

“We know who
they are.” Joshua pounded the table with his fist and sat down next to
Vivienne. “I wish I could just throw them both in jail and keep them confined,
but we don’t have any proof to make that happen.

“You can keep
them for questioning for twenty-four hours, right?” Hunter asked his brother.

“That’s all I
can do.” Joshua answered. “After that, I can’t hold them without proof.”

“If we could
time it for the right twenty-four hours, then we could stop the ritual.” Hunter
said hopefully.

“If I had to
guess, I’d say that the last casting for the ritual would be on the full moon.”
Vivienne looked over at her wall calendar that had the full moon dates circled
and highlighted. “That would by Sunday, the 16
^th
.”

“So, I throw
them into jail on Saturday the fifteenth and they cool their heels until Monday
morning, missing their chance to finish the ritual.” Joshua scratched his chin.
“That should do it.”

“But Seamus
isn’t human anymore.” Vivienne reasoned. “I saw him wield some very powerful
magic. I doubt that a simple jail cell would keep them confined for very long.”

“Do you have a
spell to drive the Elementals out of someone’s body?” Joshua asked.

“No. But when
I was probing Alexis’ memory, I saw Seamus Kilpatrick briefly regain control of
his body from the Elemental.” Vivienne added. “So, their spirits are still
inside their bodies, they’re just being repressed.”

“We need some
kind of way to fight back against them.” Joshua spoke up.

“There might
be an answer there if I can see what really happened that morning inside the
church. Maybe find a defense?” Vivienne circled the conversation back to the
beginning.

Hunter glanced
up at the wall clock. “It’s not totally dark until after seven now with
Daylight Savings Time. At least, dark enough to do what we’re planning to do
and not get caught.”

“We better get
some shovels, flashlights, and some dark clothing. It’s going to be a long
night.” Joshua reached out and took her hands in his. “We’ll leave for the
cemetery in about an hour.”

“Okay.”
Vivienne sighed.

“What is it?”
Joshua looked at her. “Is there something else that you’re not telling me?”