nancy werlocks diary s02e11 (2 page)

“You should be a mother the way you wield guilt.”

“I owe you.”

“Multiple times over.”

* * *

The Old Broad Street Presbyterian Church and Cemetery was built in 1792 and is the final resting place of New Jersey governor Elias P. Seeley. It is on the national register of historic places. And, apparently, is now the home of a ghul.

Undead are not my specialty. With the exception of Chancellor Vianu, I’ve never even talked to a vampire. Well, not knowingly. I might have and not realized it. The Delaware Valley has a fairly large vampire population, after all. But they leave us alone and we leave them alone and therefore we all go about our respective business. There was a blow-up of sorts in Philadelphia a few years ago and from what I understand the Blood Court had called in a favor with the Technomancers to shut down some cell towers temporarily to prevent a breach. But I never did get the full story.

I don’t count the zombies we dealt with at the cairn because those were thought beasts acting like zombies from popular fiction. So they weren’t real zombies per se.

Houston is on his new tablet searching WitchNet for information on ghuls while I drive. “Good news is that ghuls aren’t virulent. So if we get bitten we won’t get zombified,” says Houston.

“That’s reassuring. How do we kill it?”

“Fire or sunlight seems to be the most effective means. Oh God, that’s disgusting!” Houston looks away from the tablet.

“What?”

“We should have picked up some chainmail. Someone posted images of a ghul victim.”

“You and Eric ate an entire pizza during that
Walking Dead
marathon and now you get squeamish?”

“
Walking Dead
isn’t real. This could be me in thirty minutes.”

“Talk to me. What do they do? I need to know.”

“According to the article, ghuls prefer decaying flesh to the living flesh. That’s the good news. They burrow under coffins, break them open, and feast on the corpses. The bad news is that they will totally make their own corpse banquet if one isn’t already available. Ghuls attack from below by dragging prey underground, where they then kill the victim and leave it to putrefy in a pool of water until ripe. Yummy!”

“What are the signs of ghul activity?”

“Primary sign are sink holes, which indicate the ghul has broken into a coffin from below and eaten the corpse.”

“Do they even still bury people at that cemetery? I would think all of the old graves are nothing but bone at this point.”

Houston shrugs. “Get this. Apparently ghuls hibernate for years or even decades at a time. Ghuls have been known to go into hibernation when their feeding grounds become dormant, and then awaken at the first introduction of fresh corpses.”

“So this thing could have been there for decades and is just now waking up with the munchies?”

“Any plan here, Boss? How do we find this thing? And if we find it, do you just call down Hellfire on it in the middle of the day?”

“For now, let’s just do the walkthrough and see if we can get a clue where it lairs. We can just try to get a better idea of what we are dealing with, and then come back with a real plan. And maybe bring Lee.”

“Your demonic knight in shiny armor? He has experience saving you from the undead.”

“I hate you sometimes.”

I park the car across the street from the church and we walk around the perimeter taking pictures. The beauty of “historic” towns like Bridgeton is that people don’t get bent out of shape when strangers are taking pictures of buildings. They just assume you are a history or architecture buff.

The gate is unlocked, so we walk onto the property and begin strolling through the graves, continuing to take photos. We come across the first sunken grave. At the second sunken grave, we notice the “vandalism” that was reported. There are long, claw-like markings on the tombstone.

“Houston, what did the file say on ghul physiology.”

“Two to three inch long talons that can cut through hardwood and stone. Razor-like teeth to break open bones to get to the yummy marrow. What you would expect from a monster that eats corpses.”

“I’m going to kill Steve.”

By the time we finish a full walkthrough, it is almost dusk. The last of the sunken graves is so old that the tombstone is missing. I snap the picture and take one last look around. “Something’s not right.”

“You think?” replies Houston.

I roll my eyes. “Look at the ground.” Houston gives me a perplexed look. “This soil was recently disturbed. The surrounding ground is covered in grass.”

“A recent grave…with no tombstone?”

We both kneel down and carefully dig away some of the loose soil with our hands. Six inches down, there is a piece of tarp. “Of crap,” I say.

“Boss, if that is what I think it is, this may be above my pay grade.”

“I gotta call Steve.” I stand up and start dialing my phone.  Houston suddenly pushes me aside just as a claw bursts through the soil at my ankles.

“Crap, crap, crap!” I lose my balance and fall flat on my face.

The creature pulls itself partially out of the ground and hisses. It has a humanoid shape with mottled gray skin stretched tight over its boney frame. It has large black eyes and elongated, pointy ears that move in the direction of sound much like a dog’s. It drags itself toward my flailing legs. Houston gives it a kick to the side of the head. It snaps its head in his direction and takes a swipe at his leg. Houston jumps out of the way, but the claw just catches his jeans and tears the material. The creature goes back underground and I scurry to my feet.

The ghul bursts up out of the ground just behind Houston and slashes him across the back. He falls to the ground, rolls over, and kicks at the creature. I conjure a bolt of fire and throw it at its head. The creature shrieks in pain and starts thrashing about. Houston kicks it a second time in the midsection and sends it backward. I pray no passerby hear the commotion and throw a second bolt of fire at the ghul and it tries to go back underground.

Houston scurries after the ghul and grabs it around the legs to keep it from escaping. Blood is oozing from his back. The ghul twists around and tries to slash at Houston’s head. Houston barely keeps his head from getting lopped off. “Burn this thing to Hell, would you!?”

I offer a quick prayer to Hephaestus and call down a narrow column of fire on top of the ghul’s upper body. The heat causes Houston to let go and roll away, but at least he didn’t take the direct hit. I rush over to Houston as the ghul burns to ash.

“I feel a little lightheaded,” says Houston as his head lolls to the side.

“We have to get out of here. Can you walk?”

He shakes his head. “My back…argh!”

I dig a healing potion out of my purse. “Drink this. It should stop the bleeding so we can get you moving.”

I open the bottle. Houston squints. “It that potion red?”

“What does it matter what color it is?” I ask while pouring the potion into his mouth.

“I’m in too much pain to make the joke.” Houston struggles to his feet as we hear a siren in the distance. We have to get out of here before the police arrive.  Thankfully, Hellfire is so lethal that it instantly turns undead to ash, so I don’t have to worry about that. But explaining what caused the explosion that was no doubt reported?

And then, of course, there is the matter of what appears to be a very illegally dumped dead body wrapped in a tarp.

I manage to get Houston into the passenger’s seat as two police cars and a fire truck speed by us. People are stopped on the sidewalks looking in that direction, but nobody seems to be paying attention to us. I drive Houston over to Doctor Maddley’s in Millville, the closest doctor in-network who treats supernatural injuries. It takes over an hour to get Houston healed up.

“You’re lucky the wounds are superficial,” says Doctor Maddley has he begins treating the second degree burn on Houston’s forehead. You’ll have some mild scarring on your back, but no muscle scarring. “

“They don’t feel superficial,” mutters Houston. “I can barely lift my arm.”

“Try to avoid any strenuous upper body activity for a few days to give everything a chance to heal. You are going to be sore. Just take some Tylenol and get a lot of rest.”

“Tell the slave driver there.” He turns to me and says, “You almost set me on fire!”

“The fire column was nowhere near you!”

“It was like three inches from my face!”

“You were the one shouting for me to burn it to Hell.”

“Since when do you listen to me?”

We get home and Houston goes up to his room to go to sleep. I call Steve and give him an earful, and he promises to cover Houston’s deductible out of his expense account. I turn on the news and listen to the report of a mysterious fire at the cemetery, and there are conflicting reports of a partially decomposed body of an unidentified female found at the site.

“What happened to my son!?” screams Vivika as she suddenly manifests almost on top of me.

“He’s fine, Vivika,” I reply without turning to her. I’m just too tired to deal with her.

“He’s not fine! Something attacked him. He said it was a ghul! Why did you take him out hunting a ghul? How could you let him get hurt?”

“I did it just to annoy you, Vivika,” I finally snap. I am so done with her attitude. “I figured the best way to get under your skin was to injure my apprentice. Is that what you expect to hear?”

“You listen to me, you little harpy. My son—”

I stand up. “Back…down…now.”

“How dare—”

“
You
need
me
, Vivika. It isn’t the other way around. Remember that.”

Vivika’s facial expression hardens even as she changes her tone. “I…I don’t think you did anything on purpose, Nancy. I would never accuse you of willingly trying to hurt my son. I just saw his back and…it reminded me of the motorcycle accident. I wasn’t thinking rationally.”

I feign a smile. “You’re his mother. It isn’t your job to think rationally when he’s hurt.”

“I am truly sorry, Nancy. I forget how much stress you are under. So many people depend on you.”

“Well, I’m sure we can both agree a lot of this stress will be over after Samhain.”

“Oh yes, that we very much can agree on.” Vivika vanishes back across the Veil, and I’m pretty sure I’ve officially made her hit list.

A Deal With the Devil

October 16
^th
,

As soon as I saw the Jersey Devil walk into the shop, I knew it was going to be a long day.

Jacob Leeds ducks his head as he walks through the doorway. He’s wearing a heavy, oversized coat that hides his wings and a pair of frayed denim jeans too long for his legs. This is just as well, since the pant legs dusting the floor hide his hooves. He’s clutching a brown paper back in his gloved hands. Even with his glamour active, his face is unnaturally wide and his jaw has a stark Neanderthal look.

I check to make sure Anastasia is busy with other customers and wave for Jacob to follow me to my office. He tilts his head and stares blankly at me, but then his eyes widen with recognition and he follows me.

As soon as I close the door, he drops the brown bag on my desk and points at it. I tentatively open the bag to find it filled with…nail clippings. “Oh,” I say and nod, hoping to trigger an explanation.

Jacob grunts and nods back.

I only ever dealt with Jacob once. I was twenty-three and Mom had just had knee surgery after slipping on a patch of ice. She had asked me to make a delivery for her to a client, which turned out to be a cave in the Pine Barrens. I dropped off a box, Jacob grunted at me and went back in the cave, and I reminded myself that I had totally made the right decision to pursue an advanced degree in psychology over demonology.

“Was this something Mom ordered?” I finally ask.

Jacob scratches his chin. 

I look in the bag a second time. Yep, definitely nail clippings. “You want me to buy these?”

Jacob grunts and nods.

“All righty, then!” I take the bag over to the counter and put it on the scale. Eight ounces. Do you have any idea how much nail clippings that actually is? Was Mom buying his clippings all these years? And who the Hell was she selling them too?

I call Houston, who is still sitting at home nursing his injured back.

“What’s up, Boss?” he asks.

“Can you try to summon my mother and ask her why Jacob is trying to sell me his nail clippings?”

“Um…”

“Jacob Leeds.”

“Er…”

“It was your back that got tore up, not your vocal cords.”

“I just don’t know why these questions still surprise me, but they do.”

“I kinda need to know. Like
now
.” Jacob tries to sit in the chair, but can’t get comfortable because of his wings. So he sits on the floor.

“Okay. I’ll call you back.”

I sit on the corner of my desk and fold my arms. “I have my apprentice…looking up prices.”

Jacob grunts and nods. A minute later, he removes one of his gloves to reveal a clawed hand. He starts to pick his teeth with his pinky claw.

“Do you want some water?
I
want some water. Just wait here. I’ll be right back.” I leave Jacob in the office and go check on Anastasia.

Anastasia is making doe eyes at a male customer while extolling the virtues of the Green Grove men’s line of haircare products. He ends up buying the box set with shampoo, conditioner, and a hair spritzer for $43. As soon as he leaves, she does a little happy dance. “Yeah, I’m good. I know it,” she sings.

“By the gods,” I laugh. “I swear you are destined for a career on the Home Shopping Network.”

“I know! I would be
sooo
good at that, too! But they don’t have any shows on New Age products. Oh my God! You should totally call them about doing a show! And I could be your spokesperson!”

“How about instead of worrying about your future spokesperson career, you stock the bottle shelf?”