Dread Nemesis of Mine (4 page)

Despite the warning, I almost glanced behind
us before turning the motion into a casual stretch of my arms. "How
do you know?" Though the walkways weren't teeming with people, they
were congested enough to hide any followers.

"I took us through a few side streets we
didn't need to use, but the chubby guy with the long black coat and
bowler hat is still following us."

I sighed. "We can't have whoever it is
trailing us back to Shelton's hideout. How long has he been
following?"

"Since we left the Orange store."

"Any idea what kind of super he is?"

She shrugged. "Only one way to tell."

My mind rifled through several plans—run,
turn and confront, or act casual. Between Elyssa and me, we could
handle most threats short of an angel or manifested demon spawn.
Using a nearby shop window as a mirror, I spotted the unkempt form
of a chubby man close to my height as he regarded us. His
expression verged on boredom.

Elyssa led me through a wide alley. We
emerged in Founder's Square. Towering effigies of the supernatural
founders of the Overworld bordered the sprawling plaza. The massive
statue of a demon spawn drew my eye to it and its neighbor, an
angel with outstretched wings, hands held low to the sides as
though in welcome.

Something seemed off about the two statues.
I'd only been to this place once, but the sight had etched itself
firmly into memory. "Wait a minute," I said. "The demon spawn
statue doesn't have horns anymore, and the angel's wings aren't
curled up."

"And the statue of Ezzek Moore is now raising
his staff in the air," Elyssa said, pointing out the statue of a
man in robes. "These are life statues. They actually move into
different positions over time, depending on how the Arcanes charmed
them to pose."

"Can they walk?" I imagined turning the
Statue of Liberty into a life statue and freaking out the noms.

She nodded. "Sure, I guess."

A crystal-sheathed representation of Earth
hovered in the center of the square, rotating slowly. I looked up
at the house-sized globe as we passed beneath it, then used the
chance to steal a glance back. The man was still following us, not
even bothering or trying to hide. Something very strange was going
on. Groups of people sparsely populated the wide boundaries of
Founder's Square. Enough so if the man were hostile, we could call
for help if need be.

I touched Elyssa's arm to stop her and turned
to face our stalker. His face never changed expression, nor did he
break his ambling stride, walking right up to us and holding out a
white marble to me. His irises were so pale as to be almost pink,
and his pale skin seemed doughy in spots and rubbery in others. I
glanced uneasily at his unnatural-looking fingers and decided I
didn't want to touch them.

"That's an ASE," Elyssa said, her brow
furrowing.

"A what?"

"An all-seeing eye. Templars use them for
holo-recording."

I fixed a stern gaze on the large man, but
made no move to take his offering. "Who are you and what do you
want?"

The man removed his hat to reveal a shock of
bristly white hair, and bowed. "Miss Ivy done sent me, Your Grace,"
he said in a rough cockney accent.

A hot flush raced through my body. Ivy had
sent him? I reached for the all-seeing eye.

Elyssa gripped my arm. "Wait, Justin. It
might be a trap."

"It ain't no trap, milady," the man said. He
sniggered and flipped his hat several feet into the air. It landed
at a jaunty angle on his head as he turned to me. "Truly, Your
Excellence, it ain't no trap."

"Then why did you laugh?"

"I'm sorry, Magnificence, but I'm a bit
overwhelmed by your presence." His lips curled up ever so slightly
as if he were enjoying a big joke at my expense.

I wanted to punch him. "Why do you keep
calling me stupid crap like that? Justin will do just fine."

"Whatever pleases you, Your Holiness."

Heat flared in my face in a violent wave of
anger. I bared my teeth at him and growled lower than humanly
possible. I spoke in deep guttural tones, words in another
language. Words I somehow understood.
Do not mock me,
filth.

The man backed up a step, his pale eyes
widening ever so slightly. Elyssa jumped back from me, a shocked
expression on her face. I looked uneasily at the two of them,
unsure what had just happened. I tried to speak the words again,
but failed to recall exactly what they were.

"What's your name?" I said, breaking the
stunned silence.

The man narrowed his eyes, his lips curling
back up with amusement. "If it please Your—you, Justin, my name is
Mr. Bigglesworth."

This was the man Ivy had mentioned! "Are you
the one who brought me this?" I held out the slip of blank paper
from the graveyard.

"Aye, I put it out for you to find."

"Good lord, she really did visit you," Elyssa
said.

"Fine, I'll take the ASE," I said, holding
out a hand for it and hoping I didn't have to touch Bigglesworth's
icky skin.

He dropped it into my palm. A smiled crossed
his lips briefly before he straightened them. "It's real urgent,
sir."

I tucked it into a pocket, unwilling to view
it here where everyone could see it. "Where's my sister? What are
the Conroys doing to her?"

He shook his head. "It ain't for me to say,
no sir. Miss Ivy tells me what to do and I does it, no questions
asked."

I stepped toward him, tempted to grab him by
the collar despite his revolting skin. "Where do the Conroys keep
her?"

Again, he shook his head. "I've done my duty,
sir and I can't do no more." He tipped his hat. "G'day to you
both." He winked at Elyssa and smirked. Turned on his heel and
headed back toward the alley we'd come through a few minutes
earlier.

I started after him. "Oh, no, you don't."

The chubby man increased his pace. I jogged
after him, not wanting to make a scene. When he reached the alley,
Bigglesworth turned. Tipped his cap at me and chortled. His body,
clothes, everything, melted into a puddle of pale goop. Elyssa
gasped behind me. I watched in utter disgust as the goop funneled
into a drainage grating on the side of the alley floor and vanished
inside.

"What," I said, "in the hell was that
thing?"

Elyssa shook her head. "Some kind of shifter,
but one I'm not familiar with."

I looked at the marble-sized ASE, almost
expecting it to melt into goop as well. Thankfully, it seemed quite
solid. Still, just knowing Bigglesworth had held it made me want to
scrub it and my hands with bleach and steel wool. "How do I turn
this thing on?"

"Maybe you should wait until we're somewhere
private," Elyssa said.

I turned back toward Founder's Square and
noticed horns slowly growing from the forehead of the giant demon
spawn statue. "Yeah, you're probably right."

After threading our way through congested
afternoon traffic, we reached Decatur and parked behind a donut
shop. A red
X
next to a smelly dumpster marked the spot.

"He chooses the loveliest locations," Elyssa
said, holding her nose.

"Better than the one downtown." My nose
wrinkled at the memory of the stained mattress in the abandoned
building above that hideout.

I turned back to the red
X
. Imagining
a set of stairs in the place of the mark, I said, "Open up, you
green-blooded son of a bitch." As usual, my words alone had no
effect. I blew out a disgusted breath and made a chalk circle
around me. The static feel of trapped magical energy pressed
against me. I repeated the spell. The concrete faded away to reveal
a set of stairs leading down into a lit hallway.

"Shelton uses some whacked-out pass phrases,"
Elyssa said as we walked down the stairs.

"You'd have to be a nerd to appreciate it." I
hurried down the narrow corridor and entered a large space the size
of a school gymnasium, eager to look at Ivy's message. Shelton had
partitioned the area into testing grounds, creating a magical
gauntlet I hoped to eventually emerge from victorious. At the rate
of my learning, that happy occasion probably wouldn't be for
another century or so.

On the other side of the testing grounds, we
entered a hall and the residential part of his hideout. Shelton had
told me he'd carved this entire place out himself with magic.
Elyssa and I passed through the hall and found Bella and Shelton
lounging at the kitchen table, drinking tea and playing
Scrabble.

Shelton groaned as Bella formed the word
zygote
on the board. "Saved by the bell," he grumbled,
standing up.

Bella, a petite Arcane I'd met during my time
in Colombia, smiled sweetly at him. "And to think, English isn't
even my first language."

"Whatever, woman. You've been playing
Scrabble a couple hundred years longer than I have."

Bella's violet eyes widened with hurt.
"Harry, you should never call a woman out on her age."

Shelton snorted. "Cry me a river, princess. I
give you a place to live so we can teach Junior here how to use
fairy dust, and you kick my ass at every board game I own."

"Except Candy Land," she said, grinning.

Shelton seemed to bite back a response with
visible effort. He blew out a breath and looked at me. "Candy Land
my ass. You got the phone, bucko?"

I showed him Nookli. "Yeppers. But first, I
need to watch this." I pulled the ASE from my pocket and held it in
the palm of my hand.

"What in blazes are you doing with an
all-seeing eye?" he said, taking it and holding it up to the
light.

"It's a message from Ivy. Some dude named
Bigglesworth gave it to me."

His eyebrows pinched. "What kind of stupid
name is that?"

I shrugged. "Get this—the dude melted into
some kind of pale goo and went down a sewage drain when I tried to
chase him down."

Bella gasped. "Are you quite certain?"

I nodded and gestured at Elyssa. "We both saw
him do it. Why?"

"If this creature is what I think it is, then
you have witnessed a very rare breed of supernatural."

"Yeah, well what is it?" Shelton said.

She shook her head. "I do not know if they
even have a classification."

"He looked like a creepy version of the
Pillsbury Doughboy," I said, shuddering at the thought of his
rubbery, doughy skin. "Can he morph into any shape?"

"It sounds to me as though he wasn't trying
hard to appear authentic," Bella said. "From the little I know
about the species, they often assume the appearance of their last
victim."

"Victim?" Elyssa said uneasily.

Bella nodded. "They encase their victims with
their bodies—the pale goo you mentioned—and consume the poor
soul."

I threw up a little in my mouth at the
thought. "On another subject," I said, indicating the ASE, "can you
operate the thing?"

"I can do that," Elyssa said, taking it from
Shelton and setting it on the table. She tapped the marble three
quick times. It started to spin, slowly at first, building momentum
until it made an audible hum against the wooden top.

A holographic image sprang into the air above
it. Ivy's head crowded the scene, a look of fear emblazoned on her
face.

"Justin, I need your help." Tears trickled
from her eyes.

The loud clang of metal on metal gonged
through the air. Ivy shrieked.

"Let us in you little brat!" Someone shouted,
sounding as if they were on the other side of a wall or thick
door.

Ivy looked back at me. "Vampires attacked us.
I don't know what happened to Mom or Grandma and Granddad." She
sniffled and wiped her runny nose with a hand. "I'm in the panic
room, but they'll break through any minute. Mr. Bigglesworth is the
only person who can get this message to you."

"Why don't you let us in, little girl," said
a familiar voice.

A chill prickled down my spine. "Maximus," I
growled.

"Come on, sweetness," Maximus said in a sugar
coated voice. "We're going on a little trip. You'll love it."

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Ivy
screamed. She turned back to the ASE again. "Please, Justin, help.
I don't know when you'll get this or where they're taking me, but
nobody else can help me now. I think the vampires killed them
all."

A shuddering crack rocked the view and Ivy
screamed again as chunks of concrete and white dust filled the air.
The holograph blinked out. The rotating ASE slowed to a stop and
rolled against a teacup on the table with a
plink
.

Anger and despair welled in my chest, lodged
in my throat, and all that emerged was a choked sound. I backed
away from the table, my eyes darting back and forth between the
concerned faces looking at me. I wanted to rush to Ivy's aid. Do
something,
anything
to save her right this instant. Had
Maximus taken her to Colombia? Or was he keeping her here and
somehow making the Templars think he was in South America? Come to
think of it, I didn't even know when this had happened. Yesterday?
Today?

Elyssa seemed poised to pin me to the floor
if I decided to do something rash and make a break for the door.
God knew I'd done such a thing plenty of times. Uncertainty,
however, rooted me to the spot. I needed information and
Bigglesworth was the only one who had it. Why had he been so casual
and mocking when handing it to me? The guy certainly hadn't seemed
like someone on a mission of mercy. His relationship to Ivy was
unclear to me. Was he a pet? A protector?

"Now don't freak out, Justin," Shelton said.
"We'll find her, I promise."

Bella touched my arm. "When did this happen,
Justin? Did Bigglesworth say anything more about it?"

"He was a jackass," Elyssa said. "He didn't
even say what was on this recording. In fact, he didn't seem
particularly concerned about anything."