Deadly Violet - 04 (10 page)

“Let me take a guess, bub,” he grinned. “Current affairs ain’t exactly your strong suit. Am I right?”

Willets knew that he was being mocked, but forced himself not to react.

“Do you have a telephone that I could use?” he inquired, as politely as he could.

The fellow smirked again, then jerked his thumb.

It was a payphone, riveted to the back wall next to a pyramid of soda bottles. Willets wasn’t sure if he had any coins. But then, he didn’t know the number that he needed to dial either. He placed himself across the owner’s line of sight, picked up the receiver, and then muttered a spell under his breath to fix that.

The buttons started punching themselves without being touched.

He was limited by Regan’s Curse to this extent at least. He could not have made this call from any phone inside Raine’s Landing. The town was sealed off by the hex that had been placed upon it. When you tried to call someplace out past the municipal line, or use the Internet, nobody could hear you, nobody responded. Nothing happened.

Now, a ring tone sounded, only twice before it was picked up.

“Detective Monoghan,” came an unfamiliar male voice from the other end.

And it became too much for Willets. The long haul here and then the cool reception once he had arrived. The flood of baffling information, and that hick behind the counter making fun of him. And now this voice he hadn’t been expecting, coming at him down the line.

A searing white light seemed to flare inside his head, and he exploded.

“Who the hell are you?” he hollered. “I don’t want to talk to you! I need to speak with Lieutenant Lauren Brennan, and I need to do it
now
!”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

By the time the outskirts of Raine’s Landing came in sight, it was almost midnight. Lauren would have gotten here sooner, but the roads were hell.

Which wasn’t the only thing round here that answered that description, she reminded herself grimly. She’d told absolutely no one about the few days she had spent in this town back in the summer, but it still played deeply on her thoughts. She had come here in pursuit of an unusually vicious killer called the Shadow Man, Cornelius Hanlon …

And had found herself in the middle of a nightmare a thousand times worse than that. Real live demons. Monsters. Walking corpses. The stuff out of cruel storybooks, made solid and with claws.

But the ordinary folks who lived here – no, correct that, who were trapped here – weren’t so bad. Not most of them, anyway. There was one exception she could think of. If it had only been Cass Mallory who’d found herself in trouble, then she’d probably have stayed at home. They hadn’t exactly gotten on well, the last time she had been here. And that had descended into Cassie trying to kill her.

True, the woman had been under evil supernatural influences at the time. She hadn’t done it willingly. But Lauren still remembered being hit and blacking out. Regaining consciousness, to find herself roped to a tree out in the darkening forest. She still had awful dreams about it some nights.

Ross Devries, though? He was at risk too, and that was an entirely different matter. She liked the guy a lot, and thought about him often. He was handsome as hell, and precisely her type. Tough and honest and straightforward. And if that man needed helping, well, she was the woman for the job.

The lights of the town grew larger in her vision. God, it struck her all over again how average this place looked. And it was the abode of real-life witches. Almost everybody here practiced some form of magic. If she’d had to do police work in a location like this, she would have almost certainly gone nuts.

She sucked in a breath as she crossed the town line.
Oh, Mother of Mercy, here we go again.

And then Regan’s Curse started up in her head, the same way it had the last time. It didn’t just keep people in, she knew. It was devised to scare outside people off.

Hissing voices started murmuring through the confines of her skull, many of them female.

“You’re not wanted here,” they said. “Turn back around.”

But not being welcome was an everyday experience for Lauren. She worked long hours – some would say that she was married to her job. It left her little room for close companionship. And she spent a lot of her time prying into matters people would prefer she didn’t. So she was used to this kind of hostility.

She did what she had done back in the summer. Raised her shoulders. Tucked her chin down. Stared ahead furiously, concentrating on the road. And ignored the voices until they gave up and faded away.

And then her brow creased puzzledly. She peered from side to side. There was nobody in sight to greet her. She needed to get to a house on Bethany Street in the Marshall Drive district, and she’d never been there before. But Dr. Willets – who she’d only met extremely briefly in the summer – had assured her it would be no problem.

Except, how was she supposed to find it … guess?

A ball of red light, about the size of a grapefruit, suddenly appeared in the air a few yards ahead of her car. Lauren stamped on the brake and the Focus skidded.

The red light didn’t move. It simply hung there, waiting for her. When she eased another few yards further on, it mimicked that, keeping at a precise distance from her.

At which point, she got it. She was supposed to follow the thing.

Hadn’t anybody here heard of normal stuff like maps and signposts?

Oh, goddamn this town!

A much larger red ball of light – about a foot across – hung low in the air above 51 Bethany’s front yard. It was emitting heat, and had been doing so for hours, so that most of the snow on the lawn below had melted. The magical equivalent of a brazier, then. It was a necessary luxury, since Martha and Willets had been waiting here a good long while. They’d warm their hands at it occasionally, like a pair of hobos round a burning oil drum.

They’d been chatting to pass the time. Almost continually, in fact. She liked jazz music as well, and he was interested in art, so it turned out that they had a lot in common.

Lehman’s head came up abruptly. His senses were finer tuned than hers, and he had noticed something she had not. He clicked his fingers, and the ‘brazier’ disappeared. And then the smaller ball of light came round the corner.

Followed, a few seconds later, by a familiar blue-green compact Ford. It skittered to a halt beside the curb, and then its occupant got out.

Pretty as a picture and as tough as nails
, Willets thought admiringly.
What a combination.

Lauren walked over to them, five foot eight and slim and shapely. She had a narrow version of a heart-shaped face, framed by very blond and slightly curly hair. Was wearing her usual dark pants, a pair of fashionable boots designed for the winter, and a fleece-lined black leather jacket with a fake fur collar.

She looked slightly wary, which she usually did round here. And rather worn out by her journey too, which Willets hoped was only temporary, since she had some heavy manual work to do.

She shook his hand politely and then turned to Martha, who she greeted a lot more warmly, since they knew each other better. She had been a guest in Martha’s home, and seen the woman work some very clever spells.

“I’m not sure I really want to know,” she told them both, “but what exactly is the problem?”

They didn’t go too heavily into specifics, outlining the general details. But her eyebrows lifted all the same.

“And you can’t do a thing to help, with all that power at your fingertips? You guys keep on finding brand-new ways to mess yourselves up, now don’t you?”

Martha looked faintly aggrieved, but Willets took it on the chin. How else was an outsider supposed to regard a place like this?

“I’m seriously the only person who can help?” Lauren asked him.

“When it comes to magic, you’re a virgin. Which is what we need.”

“Wow. It’s been a while since anybody called me that.”

Willets grinned, then led her around to the back, Martha following along behind them.

Something had changed since they had last been standing here. The scene was still the same, except the violet glow had spread out a short distance from the nursery room. The entire windowsill shone that color, even the sections where the drapes were still in place. And the ladder had taken on shades of mauve as well.

As they watched, its structure wavered gently.

“I’d leave that alone,” the doctor observed. “You’re going to have to find another way up.”

Lauren looked the rear wall up and down.

“No problem.”

She went straight to a drainpipe, propped one of her boots against a lower sill, and started scrambling up that way. Watching her, Willets supposed that she’d been something of a tomboy when she’d been a kid, into climbing trees and stuff. She really was a remarkable young woman.

Lauren reached the top in less than thirty seconds. And his heart skipped a beat when she disappeared inside. Maybe he’d been wrong, and she’d get frozen like the others. He was almost praying that was not the case.

“Hey!” he heard her yelling, and his whole body relaxed a little. “There’s a kid in here as well! She’s floating in the air, and she’s
revolving
! Should I fetch her too?”

The tension came straight back.

“No, I wouldn’t recommend it!”

“So I simply carry Ross and Cassie out? I don’t say abracadabra or anything?”

“I wouldn’t recommend that either!”

“Okay!” came the voice behind the battered drapes.

There was a pause of a few seconds.

Then, “Ah, Jesus Christ!”

“What’s wrong?” the doctor called up anxiously.

“I thought I’d try Cassie first! Thought that she’d be lighter! Boy, was I mistaken!”

“It’s probably her big bone head!”

“You’ve got that right!”

Another half a minute passed, and then Lauren showed up at the window again, with a torpid Cassie in both arms.

“You want me to drop her? Seriously?”

“Yup.”

“Okay, you’re the boss.”

She held Cass out, then let her fall. Willets and Martha raised their arms when she did that. Cassie plummeted about six feet, then stopped, defying gravity. The rest of her descent was slow and easy, and she sank down with a soft crunch into the deep snow. Her limbs were loose, and her eyelids were open, but she still wasn’t moving.

When they looked back up, Lauren had disappeared again. And this time, the struggling sounds went on for practically a minute before she returned to view. It turned out that she had Ross in a fireman’s lift.

She paused for breath, and then pitched him over her shoulder with what would have looked like remarkable ease, if you hadn’t known she had a black belt in jujutsu.

And he fell to earth the self-same way.

By the time that she was clambering back down, the two adepts were hunched over the pair of bodies, which were warm and breathing, but still immobile. There was the oddest purple sheen in Ross and Cassie’s eyes, which she supposed was part of the spell that had been worked on them.

But it began to fade as she strode over. Lashes fluttered. Eyelids blinked

Then Ross sat up.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Vanishing trees? Darn it, he wasn’t being kept in the loop, and was definitely displeased by that.

Nick McLeish had taken it upon himself to go on a one-man patrol through his beloved neighborhood of Garnerstown, satisfied his family was safely tucked away indoors. He wore a thick fur hat with earflaps, a padded winter coat, dockers with pajama pants pulled up underneath them, and a pair of galoshes over two socks on each foot. The whole ensemble made him look pretty hefty, and he’d already been putting on some weight the last couple of years. But Nick was not a vain man. And besides, there was nobody around to see him.

Lord, but it was freezing. His hands were going numb, despite the fact that he was wearing woolen gloves. He put them to his mouth and blew steam through the fabric, trying to warm his fingers up. And had to be careful not to poke his eye out when he did so.

Because he’d come out armed, but not with any gun. He didn’t keep them in the house, not with three small kids around. The last time he’d wielded a hunting rifle, he had borrowed it from one of his neighbors. But now, he was holding a claw hammer, the biggest he could find, and had a foot long screwdriver tucked into his belt for good measure.

And hell, if those things didn’t work, he might be into his flabby forties, but his job had kept him good and strong. Barehanded combat was always a prospect. But with what? What were they up against?

He reached the intersection with York and gazed around.

Even a place like Garnerstown looked pretty in this kind of weather. It wasn’t the most affluent or picturesque place normally, and he was the first to admit it. But by this time of year, its defects had been covered up. The picket fences were a good deal whiter than they’d been a month back, and the dandelions which sprouted up everywhere around these parts were buried to the last bright yellow head.

But Nick didn’t care about those kinds of superficialities. He cared for the people in this district, and it was on their behalf that he was patrolling. If he didn’t keep an eye on stuff, then who else would?

Everything looked fairly normal. Only a few houses still had lights on, and you could see tinsel glittering around the edges of those windows. Most people had gone to bed, tucked in snugly from the extremes of the December night. But what else, he wondered, did they need to be sheltered from? Ross Devries hadn’t told him a great deal, and he simply wasn’t sure.

And that had been bothering him all day. Ross was usually a good guy, a straight shooter. Not the kind of person who was devious or evasive. If there was something coming down on them and he refused to spell out what it was, perhaps
he
didn’t know.

Nick moved on, hoping his suspicions were correct. Because if you couldn’t trust the blond ex-cop, then who
could
you trust?

A sound came from the far distance behind him.

“Mollendop.”

Nick swiveled around. What was that? It had definitely been a voice. But had that been a single word, or several?

He could make out no one, anywhere his gaze went.

“Chentalisk.”

That was a second voice, coming from the same direction. Different, slightly higher pitched. And both of them had a faintly echoey quality, like they’d been coming from an enclosed space.

He stared around again, but every front door was still closed and every garage shut. There were no windows open he could see. So was this kids, playing some kind of trick on him?

“Hullo?” he shouted.

He was going to wake people up, but what the hell.

“Uttcam,” came the reply.

What
was
this gibberish? Nick had forgotten his surroundings and was starting to get heated. He lifted the hammer.

“What does that mean?” he called. “’We’re gonna make another tree disappear?’”

“Mollendop.”

There was a flash of purple in the corner of his eye. He spun.

And his mouth dropped open.

A hole had appeared a foot up in the air. Which, he supposed, was the same as saying that a hole had appeared in nothing. It was as tall as he was, had a wavering oval outline, and was letting out bright violet light that turned the snow in front of it the color of spilled wine.

And at first, that was the only thing he could make out. But then a pair of figures began stepping through.

They were very definitely not of this world. Nor of any world that he could possibly imagine. They were vaguely humanoid in shape, but with the emphasis on vaguely. Looked shorter than most grown people, somewhere around five foot tall. Or maybe that was because they were so badly hunched over? Then he noticed one of them had tentacles where its arms ought to be. Nick jerked.

They were almost the same color as the hole that they had stepped through. Their outlines were solid, but the hue across their bodies was constantly wavering and shifting, which made them look rather less than real. Their limbs were as narrow as pipe cleaners. But their hairless heads were chunky, almost square, with jutting lower jaws.

No noses. Only holes. A single long, blunt tooth protruded upward from both of their mouths. But it was their eyes that startled him the most. They were perfectly round, and were a slightly darker purple than their bodies. Had a weird, lustrous glimmer to them. And they didn’t blink, because he couldn’t make out any lids.

Were these things dangerous? Most strange creatures that had come into to this town turned out to be that way. Nick went back several paces, then got control and stopped himself from doing that. His pulse was racing, but he took a deep breath and steeled his bulky frame for whatever might come next, his hammer at the ready.

The creatures didn’t notice him at first, gazing around at their new surroundings. Then they finally stepped away from the opening.

They did that very warily. But Nick took advantage, and inspected them a little closer. They appeared to be wearing no clothing, and the skin of their bodies looked a little rough and bumpy, like cheap leather. He had never seen the like.

The one with the tentacles started waving them around.

What were these?

It was almost like they’d heard the question. Because, the very next second, both pairs of rounded eyes battened on him. Nick felt thoroughly unnerved, but did his best to hold his ground.

The creatures went still themselves, initially. And then, the one who had normal hands lifted one, the spindly fingers jerking back and forth. Was that some form of greeting?

“Uh, a very merry mollendop to you,” Nick muttered.

He was starting to feel stupid, standing here all bundled up. But what was he supposed to do?

The purple fingers kept on beckoning. And the other creature raised a tentacle, began to do the same. They wanted him to come across. But he still had not the faintest idea what they were, or what their intentions might be.

He shook his head stiffly.

“I’ll stay here, guys, if it’s all the same to you.”

Perhaps they couldn’t understand him, but his refusal to move was perfectly apparent.

And Nick felt something tugging at his thoughts.

The words in his head were being shifted to one side. Others were replacing them, and not his own. They were in no language he had ever heard, but he realized they were telling him to drop the hammer and come forward.

He’d had something similar happen a few months ago. He’d fallen under something’s spell, and been controlled by it. And the fact that it was happening again enraged him.

Nick gritted his teeth, anger coursing through his body. And
– summoning every last ounce of the strength he had – he pushed the new instructions out.

The two creatures twitched with alarm. Maybe they weren’t used to being defied this way. And
– maybe because of that, who knew? – the hole behind them disappeared.

Nick’s anger grew even worse.
He
was the one who had them at a disadvantage now. There was nowhere left for them to escape, and they didn’t look like they could beat him in a throw-down fight.

Vaporous breath was hissing out between his jaws.

“Want to be the boss of me?” he shouted at them. “Want me to come over there?”

He waved the big hammer in their direction, and then pulled out the screwdriver too.

“Well, you’ve got your wish! ‘Cause here I come!”

And, blinded with rage, he went rushing at them.
No one
treated Nick McLeish that way.

At first, they simply stared back at him, not seeming to understand what he was doing. But when they finally figured out that he had violence on his mind, they didn’t waste a second. Both strange figures turned and fled.

It turned out they could run slightly faster than he was able, but Nick continued after them. It took a whole block and a half before they saw that he would not give up. So they turned at the next corner, disappearing round it.

Nick put on an extra burst of speed. And caught sight of them again, just in time to see the creatures clearing snow away from the front of a storm drain. Which stopped him dead in his tracks. What were they up to?

Before he could do anything more, both purple figures flattened out, becoming two-dimensional. And they went sliding into the drain like a pair of massive strips of paper.

He’d lost them!

Sweat was making his clothes cold, and his lungs were wheezing furiously. But Nick paid no mind to that. He went over to the storm drain, doing his best to peer inside.

And when he finally went down on his hands and knees, he could see the sewer beneath was full of dozens more different-sized holes, every one of them emitting purple light. The aged brickwork down there was suffused with it.

It looked like this whole area was literally being undermined.

Nick stood up and headed back. Something very ominous was going down, and people needed warning.