The Devil's Third (22 page)

I glanced at the guys in front of me. They were all staring above my head, their expressions not at all surprised at Volac’s statement. It became obvious he had filled them in on his plan. I was curious to find out and found myself holding my breath, afraid I might miss what Volac had to say.

“Do tell,” Bael said.

“Have you heard of space burial?” Volac asked.

“Yes, I have.”

Space Burial?
I wondered what that was. It sounded like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.

“May 22, 2012,” Volac stated, “three-hundred and eight remains were successfully launched into space, along with SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket. The next liftoff is scheduled for August 2014; however, I can get Solomon’s ring rocketed into space within a week, if you relinquish his ring to me, that is.”

Wow. I hadn’t known humans could get their remains launched into space after they died. That was kind of cool, actually, and Volac’s idea struck me as a good one.

“I’m impressed,” Bael said. “But how will I know if the ring made it to space successfully?”

“You can see it for yourself if you like, or you can have Ayperos go instead.”

A long, uncomfortable silence fell between them. I closed my eyes and listened to what they were doing. A heart was racing. It had to be Volac’s, anticipating Bael’s response to his proposal. I realized then that Volac was scared of Bael. Well, I guess I couldn’t blame him. Bael was the most devious and underhanded of them all. I also knew what Bael was doing. He was completely manipulating Volac. Silently, I made a vow to myself . . . I would pay special attention to Bael’s every word and action because like I told him earlier, I was not his marionette.

“I have no ill will toward you,” Volac nervously said, “But--”

“I will accept your offer,” Bael abruptly said, “on the condition you accept mine as well.”

“Of course.”

“You and your followers leave Paige alone.”

“Fair enough.”

“I will have Ayperos go with you to launch the ring into space,” Bael said, “and he will remain with you until it happens. He’s on his way right now, so I suggest you stay put and wait for his arrival.”

How weird. Bael didn’t have a phone with him, nor did he know we were going to be held up by Volac’s group. I wondered how he got hold of Ayperos. They were walking away from the Tahoe to the other side of the street, and I knew why. If the ring was near me, it would hum. The closer it got to me, the louder it hummed. I imagined Bael didn’t want to take that chance.

“Before I give you the ring,” Bael said. “I would like for you to have your men stand down and let Paige and Brayden go.”

A sharp whistle pierced the night. The men stepped away from us and walked to where Bael and Volac stood. This would have been the perfect moment to take off, but I had Tree to think about. So I remained, even though Brayden gestured toward the field. I shook my head and mouthed, “Tree.” He rolled his eyes and opened the door, waving for me to get in. I slid into the backseat and stared out the side window, watching Bael give a tall, broad shoulder guy the ring. The door closed behind me, and I felt Brayden’s body heat against my back.

“Your stubbornness is going to get you killed or seriously hurt one day,” he mumbled. “We can still make a run for it.”

“I’m not leaving,” I firmly said, not bothering to look at him. “If you want to go, then go.”

“I’m not leaving you,” he said, his voice raised, as if my comment was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.

Bael shook Volac’s hand, and Volac promised he would wait for Ayperos before he got rid of the ring for good.

I turned to Brayden. He was sitting there with his arms tightly across his chest, his knees spread apart, scowling. I pretended like his attitude didn’t bother me, even though it did. I mean, come on. He was free to go about his life, where I was quickly losing hope, and the despair I felt earlier, still stuck in my chest like a glob of dried glue. But I had to at least try and defeat Bael or put him in his place. Not to mention making sure Tree and Carrie were going to be okay. I decided to overlook his little hissy fit and asked him a question instead. “Do you know how Bael got hold of Ayperos without using a cell phone?” I was still perplexed about it and thought maybe my question would ease the soupy tension in the air.

“When you join in a blood oath with a dark spirit, you two can communicate telepathically with each other,” he said, sounding bored.

“Seriously?”

Brayden looked at me and nodded. “You can also listen to the other one’s conversation, if the oath partner allows it.”

“Why would Ayperos create a blood oath with Bael?” I wondered.

Brayden shrugged. “I don’t know, but they go way back.”

I opened my mouth to say something but heard Bael approaching. I sat back and wondered what was going to happen next. I had to come up with a plan, but at that moment I didn’t know what. Brayden lifted his arm and placed it around my shoulders. I scooted closer to him, wanting desperately to be reassured everything would be okay and to feel the comfort of his arms around me.

“He won’t be bothering you anymore,” Bael said, sitting behind the wheel, glancing in the rearview at me.

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. His very presence sickened me. I caught my mind trying to revert to World War II. I wouldn’t allow it. Instead, I glared at him. I had no idea what was going to happen from here. All I knew was I had to beat him at his own game, but the question was how?

Chapter Twenty-Two

Nathan

I fell in step with Ameerah. We crossed the half empty parking lot to a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Beads of early morning dew clung to the shiny black paint, making me wonder how long Ameerah had been lurking around the hospital. She pulled keys out of her pocket and pushed a button. A clicking noise resounded inside the vehicle. I quickly scanned the area for intruding eyes. A red Ford Focus pulled into a parking space, and a petite blonde emerged wearing blue scrubs. Other vehicles were filing in. The morning shift was arriving and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Ameerah opened the door and disappeared from my sight. I followed suit, sinking into the soft leather seat. In no time, we were exiting the hospital grounds, turning off of Exchange street toward twentieth. Trees towered above houses built in the early 1900s, shedding their crimson and gold leaves around the spacious properties. The early morning sun poked through the gray clouds, highlighting the brilliant foliage scattered on patches of bare earth.

Without taking her eyes off the road, Ameerah reached between our seats to the back, producing a pale yellow, leathery book with brass clasps holding down leather straps. She tossed it to my lap. “It’s a grimoire,” she said, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth.

I picked it up and ran my fingers over the strange cover. I found it odd there was nothing written on it. I turned it over. There were no words or pictures on the back as well. The spine was even blank. There were dark brown wrinkles, bunched on the bottom and fanning out on the top of the cover. I examined it some more and realized on close observation it resembled The Tree of Life. I pointed to the image. “Is this The Tree of--”

“Life,” Ameerah said, her smirk crossing her face now. “Yes, and it’s bound in human flesh.”

I raised my eyebrows, knowing back in the seventeenth century there were people who practiced binding books in tanned, human skin, called anthropodermic biblipedy–an exercise I found quite gruesome. In all my travels, I’d heard stories of these books, but never encountered one until now.

Ameerah reached to brush her fingertips on the spine. “I take it you don’t possess one of these macabre artifacts?”

“No, but I’ve heard tales of them,” I answered, wondering who was the poor bastard this skin belonged to.

“You do have a grimoire, right?”

“Of course. I have several.” I unlatched the book and opened it. A gasp of air blew into my face, assailing my senses with a musty, sour odor. I wrinkled my nose at the foul stench, my mind pulling up an image of a putrefying, gaping wound.

“The smell will subside in a minute,” Ameerah said, slowing behind a flatbed trailer piled with logs. She leaned to her left to see if she could pass him. “Dammit. I can’t see around him.” She released an annoyed sigh and sat back.

I focused my attention back on the grimoire, not bothering to ask her why we were on a back country road or where we were headed. I became too interested in what I held in my hands to care at the moment. The parchment paper was yellowed from age but in fine condition considering its ancient origin. Latin was the chosen language in this book of magic. Black magic to be exact. I could tell by the occult symbols displayed on almost every page I thumbed through. One of the pages had a glyph which stood for sulfur–a cross with a smaller horizontal bar above it and what looked like the number eight attached to the bottom on its side. The emblem stood for spiritually of the human soul. Below, it talked about its nature and how to merge and take control of another spirit housed in a temple made of flesh and bone. It also spoke of boundaries and invitations. One could not gain access to the dwelling of a spectral being unless permission was granted. A list followed on how to acquire such authorization and deceive
innocents
by using such measures as the talking board. I immediately thought of Bael tricking Carrie when he was possessing Matt, and they were playing with the Ouija board.

“Blind magic,” Ameerah said, glancing at the page I was reading. I looked up, and she shrugged. “Compelling, actually, but not in the fictitious vampire kind of way. It’s a cunning act performed by slipping through the back doors, using tools that dazzles the mind and dulls all reasoning.”

“Have you done this before?” I asked.

“Every dark spirit has.” Ameerah tore her eyes off mine and stared out the windshield. The road ahead branched into a fork, and the logger in front of us slowed. His left red blinker light came on, signaling he was turning left. “I’m not proud of it,” she continued, “but at the time I was bitter toward humans.”

“Because of what your parents did and what happened to you in the asylum, right?” I guessed.

Her eyebrows pulled together. “Yes.”

I turned my attention back on the book and noticed a thin, purple ribbon poking out toward the middle. “What changed your mind?” I asked while using the side of my thumb to open the page. I was met with a hand drawn picture, similar to the one in my own grimoire, except the image was reversed. Instead of a the male figure standing inside a circle, it was a hooded one.

“Nadia. One day I had decided to visit the
care facility,
as they call it nowadays . . . the one I died in. A young counselor, fresh out of grad school was dabbling in the dark arts, which gave me a pass to inhabit her body. Nadia was one of her patients and . . .” she paused and looked at me. She nodded at my lap. “It’s a deadfall.”

“I’ve seen this before,” I said, “but the figures are opposite of each other. The circle of power protects the individual from any malevolent harm.”

“It does,” she agreed. “However, this spell traps the entity, and the caster can force answers or harm it if he desires to do so. Sometimes even banish the spirit from earth.”

Something clicked inside my brain. I looked out the window. We were on a twisty, scenic road, driving through farm and forest land. This page was marked for a reason, and the way Ameerah was looking at me with a half smile and a devious, almost defiant look in her eyes, I knew. I knew what her plan was to find Paige. The tightness in my shoulders loosened, but there were questions I needed answered beforehand. “Where are we going?”

“To an abandoned house. We’re nearly there.”

“To cast this spell?”

“Yes.”

“Why this house?”

“I feel safe there, and it’s away from prying eyes.”

I narrowed my eyes and stared at her until she looked at me. “There’s more to it than what you’re telling me.”

She sighed. “Fine. There are strong energy sources throughout the earth. The negative areas are where darkness dwells, only released if called upon, or its likeness enters the area, allowing it to leach onto the source. There’s also positive as well as mystical energy. The house we’re going to is teeming with the latter, which will aid you in this deadfall spell.”

“How do you know this?”

“Some of us can see energy. That’s why we can see the light inside of Paige. I think it has to do with having physic abilities when we were human. I’m aware Anwar shares the same gift, and I’m guessing when he was mortal, he had extraordinary senses as well.”

“He did,” I confirmed.

“In the spiritual form, we can see energy but not in the flesh. Although, when we inhabit a human, we can feel it if we pay attention to our surroundings. I think it’s the same with every sentient living being.”

My pulse quickened when a thought occurred to me. “This deadfall spell,” I said, pointing to the page, “can we use it to trap Bael?”

She gave me a funny look. “Bael?”

“Bael is the name of the ‘old one.’” I forgot she didn’t know his true identity. For some odd reason, the “old one” had kept his given name a secret, and only a few in his group had known it, but then he decided to tell Paige, and I imagined our dark world would know it soon enough.

“It’s true then?” Ameerah asked, her mouth agape. I didn’t need to respond. She saw the answer in my face. “Rumors started circulating within the past twenty-four hours about his name, and now you’re confirming it.”

Her hands began to shake. She gripped the steering wheel and fell silent, focusing her attention on the road. She turned right onto a narrow, dirt path, lined with oak trees. I looked at the side mirror and watched the prairie and distant farms fade away. I thought about conjuring a dark spirit. I had a spell for it, but nothing like what I held in my hands. I thought about trapping Bael and how advantageous it would be for all of us.

“Ameerah, can we capture Bael?” I watched her. She looked pale.