NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16: “The Skull” – Part 6.
Roughly twenty minutes later, Sylvie pulled into the small overgrown parking lot of Phantasmagoria. She pulled off her motorcycle helmet and looked at her old home. “You know, I can almost feel them still here.” She paused, “I close my eyes and I see all of them, I see the guests…my fake crystal ball, the tarot cards I purposefully misread. Everything.”
“You and he were here for about twenty years, I still see my mother and I playing in the lake. She let me catch tadpoles and study them as they turned to frogs.” She shrugged, “I suppose that is where I got my interest in marine biology.”
Finally taking a couple steps towards the entrance, Sylvie managed to trudge up to the broken windows and step into the foyer. She marveled at how the signs that showed where the theater, blood donation service, and even the art studio were still in almost pristine condition. “Even vandals don’t come in here. Perhaps the place is haunted.” Sylvie no sooner said the words than she envisioned Franco walking with a group of people into his art studio. “Wow, I just saw him. Even talking about how he will teach them how to make lovely beach and farm scenes.”
“Don’t get too sentimental, we have a job to do.” Casey pointed to Franco Tarsey’s office. “I don’t think he’d keep anything important other than business things in his office. Where was his room?”
Pointing to the back of the building, Sylvie motioned for Casey to follow. “We all stayed downstairs during the day. The building is nothing but glass, so we needed a place that was safe.” She wrapped her arm in Casey’s and reached the wall where the hidden door was. Sylvie winked and tapped a small button on the floor, causing the secret door to crack open and let out the dank air that had been trapped. “We had our own personal spaces. It is a commune down here, but your personal space was off-limits.”
Crossing the threshold and going down into the deep earth, Sylvie walked with purpose. “It’s like I never left. My space is to the left there.” She pointed to the small bed and wall safe that was open. “I took everything of mine when I left.”
Running into the room, Casey jumped on Sylvie’s small bed and took a deep breath. “It still smells like your hair.” She tore a piece of the fabric from the bed and tucked it away. “Something of you.” She winked.
Waving her hand, Sylvie kept marching down the long stone hallway, and turned right. “That was Franco’s spot.” She walked to the center of his little room and looked around. “Safe is still closed.” She looked at Casey. “I was the only one left, other than Kody, their space was ten steps from mine.”
“Call me crazy, but they have a heavy crush on my little Indian-rose.” Casey snickered and walked up to the safe. “Well, let’s see if anything is in here.” Gripping the handle, Casey gave a light pull and the metal door strained but didn’t break open. “A special metal, Sylvie?”
Nodding and partly laughing, Sylvie walked to the keypad that was to the side of the door. “It wouldn’t be very safe if vampire strength could just pop off the door, silly.” Sylvie focused on her little AI again. “Code, any chance you can break the code Franco used?”
“Analyzing.” Code responded and went silent while sending streams of numbers through the keypad. “Should take a couple of minutes.”
Casey walked over to the keypad and looked closely. “Tell code to try the following numbers. 8, 1, 4, 9 and 5.” She smiled, “They are the most worn-out numbers.”
“Adjusting.” Code stopped running all combinations through the pad and focused on the few variations of the five digits. Seconds later the pad glowed red and the safe opened with a hydraulic hiss. “Task complete. Query?”
Pushing the heavy door wide, Sylvie looked at the contents of the safe. She dug through what appeared to be old paintings and artifacts over eight hundred years old. “Things in here are priceless. Museums would pay a fortune to see these things.” She handed Casey an iron spearhead that had been worked to a razor's edge. “Take a look, there are holes drilled in the top, with remains of wax around it.”
Casey turned the weapon in her hand a few times and handed it back. “Blood holes? Can blood enhance weapons?”
An older woman’s voice came from behind them in the dark. “It can do much more than you are aware of, Miss Rivers.” The woman raised her hand and a white flare shot out from her palm, illuminating the room. “It took you both long enough to get here.”
“Tatum Blackwell.” Sylvie half snarled but didn’t attempt to move. “Why are you in this sacred place, since it was your girlfriend that did all this damage in the first place.”
Looking mildly surprised, Casey held the spearhead in front of her. “You both saved me and got me hunted by the FBI. I don’t know whether to kill you or thank you.”
Flipping her palm so that her fingers were spread wide, Tatum held in place. “I will consider this your holy ground and will not breach the peace here.” She made her hand glow hot white, “Don’t think I can’t fight if I need to.”
Covering the spearhead with her hand, Sylvie pushed Casey’s hand down a bit, never taking her eyes off Tatum. “Very well. Neither of us will attack first.” Sylvie raised one of her long eyebrows, “Now I want to know..why you are here.”
Tatum dropped her hand and breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God. I have used quite a bit of my magic keeping the others at bay.” She sat down on Franco’s bed and crossed her legs. “Watch out for that Agent Miller, Miss Rivers. She’s gunning for you.” She then turned to Sylvie. “I am here to explain exactly what happened and why you are seeing these creatures.” She flicked her palm and showed the images of the windmills. “I suspect you are about to find the book I have been hunting for since I saw the images of the past.” Noticing the confused look on the two vampire's faces, Tatum nodded and held up her hand. “Patience, I am getting to it.”
“Get there faster. Every time you summon your magic, it makes me nervous.” Casey half-snarled but stayed where she was told. “I don’t have a favorable outlook on your kind, mage. One tried to kill or enslave me to his will, the other wanted to make me a pet.”
Tatum flipped her light brown hair to one side and smiled. “Denise was always a bit eccentric.” She paused, “You are up against these things.” She pulled up an image of a shadewraith. “Yes, I am well aware of the creatures.” She shrugged, “At first I was content to let them wreck everything for you blood-sucking beasts.” She waved away the image, “What you should know is that Denise’s careless use of necromantic magic destroyed four of the five seals.”
Casey squeezed the bridge of her nose. “Is there anything that Denise didn’t do? I mean cleaning up this mess is getting daunting. We still have more to do.”
Wiggling one of her thin fingers, Tatum stared at Casey. “I don’t approve of her method, as it killed people, but I don’t regret for a second the loss of your huge flock of beasts.” She took a breath, “Look, what you don’t know is that there is one … a shadewraith that can control them all.”
Suddenly seeing her vision splash in her memory, Sylvie half whispered, “The white ghost.”
“The very one that was the Cross-Killer.” She pulled up an image of Elle Miller with a blank look in her eyes. The Cross-Killer had this same look.” Tatum twisted her hand to make the image turn. “Since Elle has left the area, I haven’t felt the white ghost’s presence.” Tatum let the image fade. “Sounds like the ghost took another body and left the one Elle supposedly shot.” Rubbing her hands gently, Tatum concluded her suspicion, “Odd how the woman’s body was mostly decomposed and the agent fired a shot anyway, huh?”
Walking behind Sylvie after placing the spearhead back in the safe, Casey pulled herself into her lover. “How the fuck do you know all this?”
Waving her hand once more, Tatum let a small white ghostlike tendril flow from her palm and into the safe, where it wrapped around a fairly large book. “I believe this is what you are looking for.” She showed the couple the book. ‘To Xenagos’ was written in blood on the cover. “Miss Miakoda, while you get premonitions, I can see the past with a wave of my hand. I knew the book was part of the puzzle, I just couldn’t get into the safe.” She pointed to the metal container. “Sealed with vampire blood and keyed to unlock only by vampire blood. Quite inventive.”
Unwilling to let the book fall under Tatum’s control, Sylvie reached out and gripped the leather spine. “This doesn’t belong to you, mage.”
“I need this to fix the four seals that Denise destroyed.” She dropped the magic she was using, for fear of ripping the book. “I figure I am responsible for that much. You have to deal with the fifth one and whatever is loose out there.”
Grumbling softly, Casey angrily spoke. “The whole thing is a vampire ritual, I would prefer that you keep your grubby magic off of our legacy. We will take care of this…right Sylvie?”
Clenching her fists hard enough so the ligaments popped, Sylvie barely held her temper in check. “So, human magic busted the door partially open so that the strongest of the shadewraiths escaped and caused nearly a year’s worth of death. Brilliant, the whole lot of you need to be stripped of your power, you obviously can’t use it safely.” She turned and kissed Casey on the cheek, “Right, Casey.” Sylvie’s eyes moved to new moons, going black as the shadows in the room. “If you want to do something, take care of Agent Miller. Keep her away from us while we repair the damage your crazy bitch friend caused.”
Uncrossing her legs and standing up, Tatum let the light in the room fade away. “Consider this as my debt for Denise’s actions paid in full. After this is complete, we go back to our corners and see what happens.” Seeing the two vampires nod their heads, Tatum headed out of the room. “Good luck, for all of our sakes.”
Tucking the Dryod text under her arm, Sylvie smiled at Casey. “She couldn’t have fixed it anyway. I suspect the key is in the verses.” Sylvie took a deep breath. “Okay, we go get the ledger and diary now. We wait for the day to work on the passages.”
Peering into the safe once more, Casey pointed to a pile of bloodstones. “Why would Franco have a pile of bloodstones?”
Clapping excitedly Sylvie found a small bag and scooped the smooth stones into it. “They all refer to bloodstones. Let’s take them to be sure. Perhaps the book will explain what they honestly do.”
Casey jumped and kept hugging Sylvie. “We did it. One thing down and one thing left.” She got serious, “Then we deal with Alan.”
“I so love you, Honey-bunny.” Sylvie laughed.