DAMAGED - A Bad Boy Romance (17 page)

“Wait a minute,” Emily said. “Are you telling us there are a lot of elementals for each kind of element?”

“Quite a number, actually,” Edward confirmed. “You guessed wrong about the gnomes, but they could’ve easily brought them into this location for the right price. The ghouls made them a better offer and they occupy the earth element section of the mall.”

“It’s something to keep in mind,” Dion said to him. “I hadn’t realized there was such variety per element.”

“You have much to learn,” Edward said.

The man on the bench pulled a pocket watch out of his jacket and looked at it. “Well, well, I have over stayed my time. Good luck, my pretties, you will need it in order to find what you seek, but I have faith in your abilities.”

Then he vanished.

It was sudden. One minute he was sitting there with an ice cream cone, the next he was gone. There was no flash of light or anything else. He was simply no longer there and the space on the bench was no longer occupied.

“Another variable in the equation,” Dion said. “I suppose we will meet many more so long as we stay here.”

“I don’t think we should stay here,” Lilly said to her friends. “We should move on and try to find a way to avoid the ghouls.”

“They’ll only follow us,” Emily said. “What’s worse, they know this place far better than we do. I doubt there’s a place we can hide that they don’t know about.”

Dion noticed a table near the bench with a few chairs around it. “Let’s sit there,” he said. “It will take them at least a half an hour to reach us at their pace. I want to look at the map and see what it shows.”

They went to the table and sat down. Dion rolled out the map and looked inspected it in great detail.

“What kind of paper is this thing on?” Lilly asked him. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“Papyrus,” Dion said. “They printed the map on papyrus. When you consider how we came by it, I’m not too surprised. At least it isn’t on vellum.”

The map was not printed. As they looked at it, it became evident it was hand painted. All the corridors and grand concourses of all four sections of the mall were on the map, but each figure was drawn by hand and colored in with care. Strange symbols listed what each one was for and how it related to the overall structure of the mall. Neither Emily nor Lilly could read the words written on the map.

“What language is this?” Lilly finally asked them. “It looks like Greek.”

“Not Greek,” Dion told her. “Coptic. The ancient Egyptian language written out with Greek letters. See? There are words in Greek you can read… if you understand the Greek alphabet.”

“But some of these letters don’t look Greek,” she continued.

“There were sounds in the Egyptian language which Greek didn’t possess. The Egyptians came up with some letters for those sounds.”

“I thought the Egyptians used those funny picture writings,” Emily said to them as she stretched her legs out. She kept an eye on the ghoul cleaners who were still headed in their direction.

“You mean hieroglyphs,” Dion said. “They started with those, but you need to be a decent artist to write in that form. It was difficult to find and train scribes who could do what the nobility needed, so they developed a shorthand version called hieratic. That was still too complicated so the Egyptians came up with a form known as demotic, which consists of a serious of dashes and strikes. Coptic is the easiest one to learn, so it stayed around.

“Not that it does us a lot of good,” Lilly said. “We can’t read the map, so how can we tell what it says?”

“I can,” Dion said. “I can use it to read the map, so I’ll be able to find our next target.”

“You can read this?” Emily asked him. “Dion, you are full of surprises. How many languages do you read?”

“Besides English? Three. Latin, Mandarin Chinese and Coptic. My parents insisted I learn these three when I was growing up. They seemed to think it was very important I knew them. Looks like they were right.”

“So what does it show us?” Emily asked. She leaned over the cryptic signs on the map, trying to decipher the symbols and how it related to what was indicated.

“Let’s see,” he told them as he ran his long fingers over the papyrus. “The walls are clearly marked on all levels. They split each level into a separate map, but the basement and subbasement are divided twice. Not much room in the subbasement and there is an exit marked which leads in and out. Must be how the ghouls travel to and from the mall.”

“Well this is interesting,” he continued. “There are stores on this map which don’t appear on any other. Now why would you not want a store to appear on a map of the mall?”

“Maybe they’re not really stores?” Emily said. “Perhaps something else?”

“No, these are stores, but I don’t think they’re supposed to appeal to humans. That’s it! Each of the five stores marked in gold aren’t accessible to humans.”

“How can that be?” Lilly asked him. “How do you have a store in a mall which restricts entrance? I thought the whole idea of a mall was to have a central location where anyone could come to shop.”

“Anyone can also include customers who are not human,” Dion told her. “For instance, this particular store would appeal to ghosts because it carries new tombstones and listings for houses they can haunt. I’m sure if I probe deeper, I would find it had insurance against mortal interference.”

“How do they keep out the humans from going inside it?” Lilly asked Dion. “It seems like any other store on the map.”

“You know those fake barricades on the front of empty stores? The ones you don’t notice because they fit in so well with the mall architecture? They have them over the stores where humans aren’t supposed to shop. Ghosts can go right through the barricade, but a human wouldn’t even know it was there. I’m not sure how they keep mortals out of the stores which appeal to the vampires and werewolves, but I’m sure there is a way to do it.”

They looked at the map for a few more minutes, ever mindful of the steady approach of the ghoul cleaners. Finally Dion pointed out another store on the map. “There it is,” he told them, “the location of the Earth Elemental Grandmaster. I need to go there right away.”

“How do you know it’s the right location?” Lilly asked.

“It is colored black and has the alchemical earth symbol on it. If you look at other sections in the mall, you’ll see the symbol for air, water and fire on them. There is one store in each of the four mall sections where the Elemental Grandmaster resides. It’s marked with the symbol of that element. Here…” he pointed out each store on the map. “All I have to do is reach the store and find the Elemental Grandmaster who runs it.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Lilly said. “How do we pull this off? It’s never as easy as the plan. And I think our ghoulish friends have begun to cut us off.”

They could see the ghoul cleaners in motion as they surrounded them. There was still a way out, but it would close very soon if they didn’t move.

“So which is the store in our section?” Emily asked Dion. “I’d like to get this wrapped up today and go home. Those ghouls are giving me the creeps.” She watched as two of them who swept the floor looked up and grinned.

“Here,” he said and pointed to a store on the map. “It’s a pharmacy called The Alchemist Shop. The Elemental Grandmaster has to reside there. Makes sense when you consider alchemy was the ancient science of purification of material matter.”

“I thought the alchemists were trying to find a way to make gold,” Emily said. She continued to keep the progress of the ghouls under observation.

“That was what they told everyone. It was a way to get royal patronage while you continued your work. They attempted to understand the basic forces of the universe with the materials they had with them. Sometimes it was a quest for the philosopher’s stone or the universal solvent. Sometimes it was internal and the ‘great work’ would change them as much as it changed the object of their experiments.”

“It appears to be on the opposite side of the restaurants,” Lilly said, “if that’s what is supposed to be here. Funny, I count three restaurants on this map across from it; I thought there were only two…”

“Number three is for werewolves,” Dion told her, “you’re not supposed to know it’s there. It looks like a short walk down the concourse, so let’s go.”

Dion rolled the map up and tied it with the leather strand Mr. Jehuti gave him when he was handed the map. They began walking in the direction of the pharmacy. Naturally, their path took them on a collision course with the ghouls.

Chapter 5

Three of the ghoul cleaners were directly in front of the trio as they headed to the pharmacy. However, this time of day the mall was crowded with shoppers who wanted to take advantage of the early shopping.

Two of the ghouls put their brooms down and glared at Dion and his friends as they walked past them. The ghouls didn’t dare interfere with them, as it would alert the other shoppers. Emily could see the rage in their faces as they walked past them. The ghouls had attempted to close in on them by stealth, but now they walked past them. There was nothing the elemental creatures could do about it.

Emily smiled at the ghoul cleaner as she walked by him. She could see him twist the broom handle in his hands as they went past.

“It won’t be so easy the next time,” Dion said to his friends. “They tried stealth to put a stop to me this time. Next time they’ll be more aggressive.”

“I don’t see what they can do to slow you down,” Lilly told him. “Imagine the bad publicity if a mall shopper is jumped by the janitorial staff. The papers will be full of stories and the county will launch an investigation. What happens when they find the ghouls living in the subbasement? I don’t think they want it to happen.”

“They may look slow and stupid,” Dion warned them, “but they’re out of their environment. They’ve managed to survive outside for thousands of years by avoiding contact with humans. They have all kinds of ways to get back at us. So long as we’re in the mall, they are fighting on their own territory. Keep that in mind.”

Soon the pharmacy loomed ahead. It was directly across from them in a few minutes. It was also next to one of the mall theaters.

The Alchemist Shop was a small pharmacy, which was easy to miss from the outside. The exterior had few glass windows and only one entrance, which was behind a closed door. Unlike most of the mall shops, this place had a reason to restrict traffic from the inside and out. There was only one sign on the exterior, which proclaimed it to be a “Full service pharmacy” and a smaller one which promised “Compounding on premises”.

“It has those colored water glass things,” Emily observed as they stood outside and looked at it. “You can tell it’s a pharmacy.”

“I suspect the Elemental Grandmaster wants it that way,” Dion said. “He or she has plenty of customers who come to him or her alone, I would guess. No reason to advertise the presence to just anyone.”

“At least we’re here,” Emily said. “Now let’s go inside and see what the deal is with you receiving these powers. Maybe I’ll even go home early.”

The moment she spoke, there was a commotion in from the lobby next door. They turned and watched as twelve ghoul cleaners emerged from the lobby with floor polishers, vacuum cleaners, mops, brooms and rags. As they stood and watched, the ghouls set up a barricade right outside the pharmacy and began to clean. In minutes, the floor polishers ran at full speed and the ghouls were busy with glass cleaning and doing what they could to remove every speck of dirt in front of the pharmacy. They parted to allow a few confused customers to leave the pharmacy, but prevented anyone from entering it. At no time did any of the ghouls speak to each other or the shoppers. It appeared they had a way to communicate which did not involve sound.

“I have to give them credit for planning,” Dion said to his friends. “Still, they can’t block the entrance to the pharmacy forever. Eventually they’ll have to move on. Even Officer Karanzen won’t tolerate this kind of behavior for long.”

“Yeah, but what do we do in the meantime?” Emily asked him. “We can’t sit out here all day waiting for them to move.’

“The restaurants,” Lilly pointed out behind them. “We can go to one of them. Shouldn’t be much trouble. We can go have dinner and hope they’ll be gone by the time we’re finished. Maybe we can get a table near the window and keep watch on them.”

They all agreed this was as good an idea as any of them had. The ghouls weren’t moving, but eventually the Elemental Grandmaster would make them leave the front of his or her pharmacy. Dion and his friends couldn’t wait all day so they turned to the restaurants behind them.

“We have two choices,” Dion said to Lilly and Emily. “Chinese or this New Orleans place.”

“Never ate New Orleans style before,” Emily said. I vote in favor of it.”

The other two agreed and they walked to the entrance.

Baron Sam’s New Orleans Chicken didn’t appear to be very big from the outside. They were disappointed to see there was no window that looked at the pharmacy across the hallway. The trio stopped and looked at the menu outside the restaurant, which was posted for all to see. The prices appeared to be quite reasonable so they pushed the door open and went inside.

Inside, the restaurant was decorated for Mardi Gras. Colorful beads decorated the interior and vinyl masks lined the walls. The interior was designed to resemble some place off Canal Street with French influenced architecture built into it. They stopped and took it all in for a few minutes until someone came up to them.

“Greetings!” a loud voice said to them. “I am Baron Sam and I rule here!”

They turned to face a tall black man who wore a top hat. He handed each of them menus and asked them if they’d ever been inside his establishment before.

“I don’t believe so,” Dion told him. “At least not me. I don’t think any of my friends have ever been here either. I see you specialize in New Orleans food?”

“Yes,” he laughed again. “We serve food from Louisiana and also from Haiti. Have you ever tried blackened catfish? It is one of our specialties?” Baron Sam quickly found them a table and had a waiter bring them water.

Through the PA system Dixieland jazz music played. From one wall extended the branches of a tree with imitation Spanish moss. Dion expected to see a fog machine unleash a mist at some point. The girls took it all in and looked at the set-up before them. After reading the menu, they made their order.

Before the food was served, Baron Sam came back to see them. “Excuse me,” he asked them. “Did you by chance visit the bookstore down the concourse? It’s run by a relative of mine and he let me know three young people who fit your description might come by.”

“In fact,” Dion said to him. “We were just there before we came here. He gave me a special map I needed to find my way around the hidden sections of the mall.”

“Ah, you must be the young man on the quest. This explains those cleaners out in front of the pharmacy. The lady who owns it is Athena West and you will need to see her. I’ve been on the phone already with the mall management and told them to get the cleaning crew moved. Not only are they causing people to avoid the pharmacy, but customers will also stay away from this side of the mall when they see all of them outside. People will just assume some kind of disaster has taken place and won’t go near here.”

“So you must know about who the cleaners are,” Emily said to him. “Have they always used ghouls to take care of the building maintenance?”

“Ever since the mall opened,” he told them. “They are normally spread through all sections, but they have their base of operations out of this part of the mall because it’s the element which governs them. I know the management threatens them all the time with gnome replacements if they have problems. However, today is the first time I’ve ever had to deal with them doing anything unusual. I’m guessing they really don’t want you to meet up with Mrs. West.”

“They’ve stalked me earlier in the day,” Dion explained. “They know I’ll be able to bind them if the Earth Element Grandmaster bestows her powers on me. But I really don’t know what they have to worry about.”

“They don’t want to lose their place in here,” the man explained. “The ghouls have no desire to hiding out around graveyards and forced to avoid humans. They’ll do just about anything to stay away from the way they used to live. Personally, I think the mall management takes advantage of them, but they don’t seem to mind the arrangement. At least for now.”

The food arrived and they finished their chicken dinner in less than half an hour. Dion had money with him that day and paid for all their meals. It was delicious food and they complemented Baron Sam on his cooking. He thanked them and quickly handed the trio change so he could return to the kitchen. As they left, Lilly could hear him barking out orders in Creole to the cooks in the kitchen.

The ghouls were still outside blocking the entrance to the pharmacy. They seemed to have an attitude that they could wait there as long as anyone else could. The three friends stood there and watched them continue to polish and clean the floor outside the pharmacy. Anytime anyone would attempt to enter it, they would stare at them and shake their heads.

“Can I have a look at that map?” Emily asked Dion. “Maybe I can figure out a way out of this mess.”

“You can try,” he told her while handing it over to her. “But I don’t see how you’ll have any better luck than I did. Remember, it’s all written in Coptic.”

“Whatever,” she said as she untied the scroll and spread it out on a nearby table. “I can figure it out from the layout. I scored the highest in my class on mechanical reasoning. I have a good head when it comes to abstract reasoning too.”

As the others sat down at the table with her, she traced a hand down the corridors and concourses marked on the scroll. “Funny thing,” she said, “not only does this map list a restaurant which isn’t supposed to be here, but it shows a separate service entry for it too.”

“I guess the werewolves don’t want it obvious what they serve,” Lilly said to her. “I’m sure it would cause all kinds of trouble with the health board.”

“Look,” she said while pointing out a few other eating establishments on the map. “If this means the same thing, there are at least five places scattered through this mall which are restaurants, but aren’t open to the general public. This one is pretty big and looks like some kind of a cafeteria. But why is it located in the basement?”

Dion looked at the map with her. “It’s for the ghouls. I’m guessing they don’t want anyone around to see what they’re eating. When you consider they have the same nutrient requirements that a vulture has, it makes sense. I’m sure the smell must be horrible down there.”

“But not to the ghouls,” Lilly said as she looked at it with her friends. “It probably gets a very different response from them.”

“Now
that
is something we can use,” Dion said as if he’d just had and epiphany.

“What do you mean?” Lilly asked him.

“All we have to do is find some roadkill outside to distract the ghouls. Shouldn’t be too hard with all the cars speeding past the mall.”

“Yuck,” Emily turned her face in disgust and tossed her blond hair over one shoulder. “You can go find some roadkill and bring it inside; I’ll try and locate another path around the ghouls.”

They looked at the map for another ten minutes, but nothing emerged that made any sense. The ghouls continued to block the front of the pharmacy and acted as if they were doing some kind of advanced cleaning. Anyone who approached them found a reason to leave after they glared in response. Even with the sunglasses on, the ghouls could be imposing.

“If they are paralyzed by strong light,” Lilly said, “might there be a way to direct some powerful sunlight on them and get through to the Earth Grandmaster?”

“Where are we going to find the arc lights?” Dion said. “You have to rent those things and I have no idea where we’d find one.”

“Get a mirror of some kind and shine it in their direction?” Lilly suggested as she continued to search through the map. “It might blind them long enough to get past.”

“Same issue,” Dion said. “We have to find one. Where would you find a mirror large enough to shine light on the whole group? In addition, there is the problem of finding a beam of intense enough sunlight to direct in their direction. I don’t see one handy.”

They continued to stare in the direction of the ghoul cleaning crew who returned their gazes with contempt.

At one point, the owner of the pharmacy opened the door and walked out to confront the ghoulish crew in front of the store. This had to be the Athena West, The Earth Grandmaster, they realized, although they could only see her from a distance. She stepped out and nearly slammed the door behind her.

“So this is why we haven’t had any business in the last hour,” the woman thundered at them. “Can’t you finish up whatever you are doing and move on? Look, I have bills to pay and you need to get this wrapped up.”

The ghouls stopped working but continued to stand in place. Finally, the storeowner realized they blocked the entrance to her pharmacy for a reason.

“Oh, trying to keep someone from coming to me for elemental help, is that it?” she said. “Do you have any idea what I can do if you keep this charade up? All it takes is one phone call to the center and you will all be scampering under the moonlight trying to survive. You have fifteen minutes and if you aren’t gone, I will go directly to the mall manager.”

She stood there and maintained the standoff.

The pharmacy owner was a tall woman, who appeared to be of African ancestry. Dion stood there and thought he’d never seen a woman so black in all his life. She was the color of anthracite coal in a mine at midnight. He didn’t think it was possible to make a person so dark in complexion. She wore a lab coat over a short dress and had a pair of boots, which were made from tooled brown Moroccan leather.  Her hair was teased out but tied back by a black wrap that descended down to her shoulders. She was tall and had to be a good six foot two in height, and the boots she wore made her appear that much taller.