The Curse of Oberon (The Inglewood Chronicles Book 3) (10 page)

**Liz**

The small village outside of Clogherhead was not the friendliest place in the world.  Whatever had been happening up here really was wearing on the locals.  The small fishing village seemed like it wanted nothing to do with the four outsiders that arrived.  Fortunately Fergus was with us and he said he had a friend who could help.

We drove a few kilometers outside the village to this isolated spot.  The driveway was hidden well, if not for Fergus I would have never even spotted it.  We drove down the narrow tree lined path until we reached the end.  The house, if you wanted to call it such, looked as if it had been created from the land around it.  Fergus hopped out of the car and motioned for us to do the same.

I was apprehensive; I had a strange feeling about this place.  “Fergus, just who might your friend be?”

The Red Alpha winked at me.  “Lass, I don’t wanna ruin the surprise.  Ye just mighta know him!”

Bernard and Kristie looked at me expectantly, but no names came to mind.  As Fergus broke into a jog towards the door, the three of us followed at a much more reserved pace.   He was already pounding on the solid piece of oak in front of us when we joined him.

After his third obnoxious knock, the door cracked open slightly.  “That’d be our signal ta come in.  Let’s not keep the man waitin’”

Bernard blocked access to all of us.  “Fergus my friend, why am I picking up that particular scent?”

“Come now Bernard, ye know ta trust me.  Move yer anvil of an arm and follow me.”

I gave Bernard a look, but he dropped his arm and allowed Fergus to enter.  “I trust him, but I’ll kill him if this goes bad.”

“Lizzie, are we the only two in the dark here?”

It seemed Bernard was not going to fill me in either.  “It appears so.  Shall we find out what the surprise is?”

The room was dark, yet I picked up on the smell Bernard was referring to.  I recognized that cologne.  “Connor?”

The Ambassador of Ireland hurried by us and shut the door.  “I must apologize for the secrecy.  Fergus was in on it the entire time, but it was my idea so please do not get mad at him.”

I was dumbfounded.  “I believe I’m too confused to be upset.”  I looked at the Alpha and Connor standing beside each other relaxed.  “An explanation would be very nice, if you would be so kind.”

“Anders reached out ta me before he left South America to go to the conference Lemoyne is hosting.  He said that the council was investigatin’ Roderick over some terrible things Jonathan did.  He did not clarify and I have not heard a peep from him since.”

I had received the summons too but chose to ignore it.  “You were worried I was in league with Jonathan?”

He continued his story.  “Jonathan came ta me right after he fled from England, though at the time I did not know what was happenin’.  He requested me help in findin’ the O’Byrne Clan, insistin’ they had somethin’ that belonged ta us.  Somethin’ seemed off and I was not about ta go antagonizin’ the oldest witch coven in Ireland for nothin’.”

“So you turned him down?  I am shocked he did not kill you.”

“I never said I turned him down, but I was not as helpful as I could have been.”  He looked over at Kristie.  “I sent him ta Northern Ireland on a false trail.  I apologize if he caused ye any trouble.”

There was bad blood between the two of them, just like their countries, but Kristie did not act on her anger.  “He never bothered me.  Probably knew I’d reach out to either Liz or Roderick to verify his story.”

“That is all for the best.”  He walked over and lit a candle.  “He returned not long afterwards, sayin’ my trail led him nowhere.  By this time I had been in contact with Anders and was more informed.  He suspected my knowledge and left without as much as a goodbye.  My own research since then has brought me here, with knowledge he made contact with Anita and she has what he needs.”

“Damnit!”  I lashed out at a small table near me.  “We are too late!”

Bernard put an arm around me.  “Calm Liz, we don’t know how long it’s been so he’s made contact.  We still might be on his trail.”

“We have another problem, Anita is on the move and she is weaving a lot of dark magic.”

Wonderful, more bad news.  “That would explain the attitudes the locals had when we arrived.”

Kristie had the most witch knowledge of us all, so I was glad she offered her opinion.  “This unfortunately matches up with what Rosette told us.  She said that she probably already summoned the Dullahan.”

Connor’s face went even paler than usual.  “That crazy old witch… If she did, she has gone too far!”

Each of my Irish counterparts seemed to be deathly afraid of the possibility.  Bernard looked as uncertain as I felt.  “Could someone enlighten the non-Irish population what the Dullahan is?  I am quite old, but never heard much more than tales used to scare children.”

“You of all people should understand the power of stories ‘Bloody Lizzie’ Bathory.”  I hated it when any of my older friends like Kristie brought up my dubious past.  “There’s a seed of truth in all those old tales.”

Connor took to explaining it for us.  “The Dullahan is a creature created of purely dark magic and it is bound ta whoever summons it from the fiery pit it lives in.  A spectral creature, it only returns once it has completed the mission the summoner has given it.”

As he finished up, “As with all ghostly apparitions, the Dullahan has very few weak points in which to attack.  The thing we need ta find out is what exactly she would summon it ta do.”

“To do that, we need to find Anita and ask I assume.”  I was not going to be frightened by this witch and her pet.  At least not yet.

“Have you heard of O’Byrne Cliffs?”  I nodded my head yes at Connor’s question.  “Then that is where we are goin’ ta go.  And yes Liz,” he could tell I was not onboard with his inclusion, “I am goin’ with ye.  This is my territory and I will not have this witch torturin’ the humans.”

Kristie gave me a ‘meh’ shoulder shrug, so I decided to drop it.  If this was my territory, I would be forcing my way along too.  Over in the corner, Fergus was leaning up with a smile on his face.  “Sorry lasses that I pulled one over on ye.  It was never my intention, but we had ta be sure we could trust ye.”

“Excuse me for being a bit pissed,
friend
.  When you invited me to run with your pack, I thought there was a bond of trust.”

“Bernard,” Fergus tried to keep it cool.  Bernard was one large wolf.  “I trusted ye, I really did.  But I never met Liz over there and we weren’t sure she’d be usin’ ye.”

Vic’s older brother walked right up to him, a good head and shoulders taller and looked down with anger.  “Next time you’re not sure, just ask or you won’t like the consequences.”  And with that he turned around and smiled.  “Things are settled here.”

Fergus was as white in the face as Connor.  “That’d be one big wolf…”

“Alright Connor, this is your territory, so you get to be in charge of this operation.”  It was actually nice to pass the leadership torch off to the ambassador of this region.

He tried to look confident.  “Alright, I know where the cliffs are.  Let us get there before dark, as I have no intention of dealin’ with a witch at night.”

**Cristof**

There were only four of us in the dungeon – myself, Lemoyne, Anders, and Kai Orochi.  This was no longer just a simple incident of betrayal; no, without trying to sound melodramatic, this was a possible end of the world scenario.  I had just told the three of them what Rissa told me and I could see even Lemoyne’s personal attacks of Roderick fall to the wayside.

The French vampire expressed his thoughts first.  “Are we one hundred percent sure the girl understood what she heard?”

“Before I called the three of you together, I reached out to Gregory and he verified.  We all know Gregory Collins is not one to make up a story just for fun.”

Anders cursed in his native Portuguese.  “If this is true, we have a much larger problem than just Jonathan being a rat.”  Then he raised a very good point.  “Does anyone even know where Cain is supposed to be buried?”

Lemoyne raised his hand.  “Very few know this, so I share it with the utmost of caution.  In a tower-like temple in the old Byzantine empire, outside the city of Constantinople.”

“Lemoyne,” Kai’s quiet voice brought a sense of calm.  “It has not been called that in a long time.  You date yourself.”

“Istanbul then.  Either way, the temple is in modern Turkey, hidden just out of view on the Black Sea.”

I was a little surprised at his knowledge, but I would run with it.  “How does one open the crypt to free the monster?  That is, if he is still alive after all these millennia.”

“That is an even greater secret; according to the documents I have personally read at the Vatican, the Byzantine-Vampire Emperor Justin II used a witch to seal with tomb shut.”  It was like a lightbulb went off in his mind.  “The witch who is in service to Elizabeth – what is her name?”

It took me a moment to remember.  “Rosette O’Byrne I believe.  Why do you care?”

His eyes flew open, making the rest of us wonder if he had lost his mind.  “The witch who sealed the tomb, it was said she had flaming red hair and spoke in a Gaelic voice!  This cannot be a coincidence!”

“Why do we not ask Roderick?  Surely he can put these puzzle pieces together?”

While I liked Anders suggestion, Lemoyne still held a grudge.  “How do we not know he is in on the scheme?  We still have not cleared him of being ‘in the know’ as they say in America.”

“If you plan to hold secret meetings,” I had to smirk at the old vampire’s voice, “then I suggest you do not hold them in a place where I know every passage.”

“Roderick…”  The two rivals, Lemoyne and Roderick locked eyes.  “Spying on us to see what information we have gathered?”

“Quite the opposite you pompous fool, I have come to corroborate the facts.”

Kai opened her arms wide.  “It is an honor to have you join us.  Cristof, in a wise move, decided to keep this just to us until we were sure it was not just a misdirection ploy.”

Roderick walked right by Lemoyne and joined Kai and Anders.  “I assure you it is not.  As I have stated before, I witnessed the removal of the gem from the catacombs from under London.  Funny how certain individuals did not either wish to believe me or choose to hear me.”

“Enough!”  The time for petty arguments was over.  “The two of you can deal with your issues later.  I want to know everything Roderick.”

He complied, as my looks kept Lemoyne from adding his little comments while he told us all he knew.  My first thought was I needed to talk to Liz about her report, as it appeared she omitted some very important points.  Unfortunately, it was too late to give her a stern talking to.

“So this is why Jonathan is in Ireland.  I was curious why he fled there.”

“Yes, we were all under the impression that Elizabeth was after him due to his killing her chief inspector.”  Anders put his hands together, looking worried.  “We need to send reinforcements over there to help capture him.”

“Capture is not enough.”  Kai was not as lenient.  “Death to the traitor is the appropriate punishment.  Though allow me to offer a different course of action.”

“What are your thoughts Kai?”

“We send a team to the temple Lemoyne spoke of Cristof.  We do not know if Jonathan is still on the Emerald Island or not, but we know his eventual move will be to free Cain, no?”

We all contemplated her idea.  “Liz is in Ireland and if she is hot on his trail, then we let her finish the job.  I am sure she reached out to either Kristie or Connor as it is.”  That seemed the most reasonable course of action.  “Lemoyne, I recommend you take Anders and Kai with you to Istanbul.”

Roderick’s hands went flying in the air.  “You are going to send him?  Are you daft?”

“Would the three of you go and get ready?  Allow me to talk to Roderick alone.”  Anders and Kai were pleased to be given an out, but Lemoyne wanted to linger, I could tell.  I gave him a hard look before he joined them heading back into the main part of the house.  Alone finally, “You are an insufferable fool, you know that?”

“Me?  You are the one sending Lemoyne of all people to guard Cain’s prison.”

“Again, shut up for a moment would you?”  He looked aghast I would talk to him in such a way.  “Do you trust me?”

He shifted from annoyed to perplexed.  “Thirty minutes ago, I would have said yes without hesitation-”

I put my hand over his mouth, tired of hearing his bitching.  Was it disrespectful?  Highly.  “Listen carefully as I might be your only true ally in all of this.”  I let go of his mouth, and had to bite my lip not to laugh at his indignant face.  “Tonight, there will be transport awaiting you to take you to a highly unusual place.”

“I do not take orders from you.”

Ignoring him, “Just prior to Lemoyne’s initial trial for you, word reached me that a helicopter was seen over the ocean, heading to a place that none willingly go.”  His eyes grew and his mouth dropped.  “I want to know why someone would go to Neverland.  Are you up for a field trip my old friend?”

**
Jonathan**

As promised, the blonde hair and blue eyed witch showed up to the castle I was currently making court in.  I dismissed her upon seeing the note from Anita that just read ‘Promise.’  I knew exactly what she was referring to, yet cared little.  With the witch firmly in my possession, whether she came across my older sister was none of my concern.

What did bother me was the fact Pan had not returned yet from Neverland.  My source was never wrong, so I knew the Gem of Babylon was on the island.  The question that really bothered me was how it ended up there.  I had asked multiple times about it, but was stonewalled each time.

I looked out the window; the cool night offered a breeze that whipped my hair around.  I was so close to my goals.  I could not wait for Pan any longer; he knew where to reach me once he had the gem.  It was time to leave this country and begin the final phase.