DARKNESS CALLS Chapter Ten
Joey and I spent the night in a guest bedroom on the third floor of the big house. The room was small and the bed was only a full size, but that just meant we had to cuddle up. I was more anxious, I admit, about someone walking in and finding him in my arms than I was about a midnight attack. My beast brain didn't give a shit about what anyone else thought, and my rational brain knew that probably no one here cared, but old habits die hard, and this thing with Joey -- whatever it was -- felt new and fragile.
Despite that, I slept like a baby and awoke to the sun peeking through the lace curtains. Joey woke up when I got up to take a morning piss. We dressed and went downstairs to the big kitchen. There were a couple of women, not the same ones as last night, bustling around cooking breakfasty things.
The big table was empty except for Vivana, who was sitting at one end drinking tea and reading from a small devotional-looking book.
Joey went up to her. "Aunt Vivana?"
She looked up at him, then glanced at me warily. "Yes, Joseph?"
He fished into his shirt pocket and pulled out the silver cross. "Will you bless this for me?"
Vivana blinked a couple of times. A smile slowly crept into her face. "I already have. But if you wish, we can both bless it again together."
"Okay."
She patted the chair beside her. He sat, and she placed her hands over his so they were holding the cross together. She bowed her head. After a moment he copied her.
God, I hoped my brother wasn't going to turn into a Jesus freak. One in the family's plenty. I went to pour myself some coffee and ask about breakfast, then sat down to drink and read the news on my netbook while one of the women whipped me up an omelet.
Amber came into the kitchen while I was eating. She walked over. "Good, you're up. We're driving back to the penthouse as soon as you're ready to go. Sherietta left half an hour ago. She'll meet us there."
I nodded and gulped a mouthful of coffee. "Opal coming with us?"
"No. She didn't spend the night."
Somehow that didn't terribly surprise me.
On the drive back to the city Amber quizzed me about the Darkness dwindling and how it would someday come back. I answered her as best I could, and volleyed a few questions back to her.
"What can you tell me," I asked, "about what happened in the closed family meeting yesterday?"
"In the convocation? For most of it we just continued talking. There were a lot of misunderstandings that had to be cleared up. Opal had told Sherietta that she wanted to be the next mistress, and implied that our mother and I were backing her. Not surprisingly, Sherietta thought that would be terrible for the Family, so she made her own bid for the matriarchy just to stop her."
Amber sighed. "What happened between Aunt Charolotta and Aunt Mercedes shattered this family. I hadn't spoken to Sherietta for years. She loves what she's doing, and has no more desire to be the next matriarch than I. Once we'd clarified things between us, it became obvious that Katerina was the best choice. We all need someone who can bring the Family back together, and she's the one who's been helping Momma Lolotta out here in the Valley for the past six years, tending to the Family's heart and hearth."
She paused. "There are things that members of the first line can do when we are gathered under a mistress" -- she was choosing each word carefully now -- "that we cannot do alone. Once we had selected a mistress we were able to look more deeply. It became clear that the demon had been taking advantage of the Family's dividedness to stir up trouble. That it was able to kill Momma Lolotta is shocking. We knew we had to do something. So we built the spirit-trap. It can imprison the demon for a thousand years."
I had zillions more questions that I was pretty sure she wouldn't answer, so I settled for just one.
"Why did Katerina make Joey a member of the third line?"
Amber turned to glance back at Joey. I checked in the mirror. He was staring out the window of the back seat. Something about his posture made it clear that he was listening to us.
Amber turned back. "You brother has legacy Darkness. You realize that, I hope."
"Yeah," I said. "It's pretty obvious."
"For his own and for others' protection, he needs some basic training. Bringing him into the Family as third line will get him that. It was a smart move."
I nodded. Amber's answers were illuminating. I kept thinking of the Estrella lineage as something like a super-secretive Kennedy or Rockefeller family, but that wasn't right. The source of their power wasn't political influence or wealth, although I bet they had plenty of both. The source of their power was Darkness. Darkness was the determining factor in all of their decisions and actions; it lay at the core of their very existence. I needed to remember that.
When we arrived at the penthouse, it was empty.
"Damnit, Sherietta," Amber muttered.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I bet she stopped by her office. That woman's obsessed with her work."
I grinned. "You don't know the feeling?"
"Of course I do," she snapped. She was about to say more, but checked herself and gave me a sheepish smile. "I just want to get this over with so I can get on to other things."
"Yeah, me too."
Sherietta and her bodyguard showed up fifteen minutes later.
"My apologies," she said. "There were a couple of things I needed to handle in person with my staff."
Amber looked at me and arched an eyebrow. Told you so.
"So," Sherietta continued, "here's the plan. The four of us will drive to your uncle's house in one car. You'll introduce Amber and myself as Joey's cousins. You've told us about the Project and we're very interested. We'd like to help out. All of this is true. When dealing with a demon, it is best to be as truthful as possible."
Amber nodded.
"Roland will follow behind," Sherietta continued. "He'll wait outside to intercept your uncle if he tries to flee and to insure that there's no outside interference."
"Fine," I interrupted, "except for two things. First, he's not really our uncle and second, there'll be three of us in the car. Joey's not going."
"But Daniel," Joey protested, "I'm going, too. I need to be there."
"No, little bro. No way. That thing's already fucked you over royally once before. I'm not going to let you near it again. It knows you too well."
I turned to Amber. "Am I right?"
Amber stared back at me, wordless. Shit.
"He needs to be there," Sherietta said firmly.
"You agree with her," I said to Amber, "don't you? That's why you're looking so sorry-eyed. I can't fucking believe this!"
"Listen," she said, "I don't feel good about it either. But he does need to be with us. If it really does want him back, Joey may be the only thing that stops the demon from fleeing as soon as we show up. It could run if it knows we're onto it, and go anywhere. We'd never find it."
She put her hand on my arm. "He won't be in as much danger as you fear. He's stronger than you realize, and Sherietta and I will both be there. If the three of us can't protect him, there's no safety for him anywhere."
I shook her hand off and turned away.
"This is just -- " Sherietta began.
"Wait," Amber interrupted. "Daniel, it is precisely when a force has fallen into harm's way that it is capable of striking a blow for victory. You know that."
I turned back. Her green eyes were focused intently on me.
"You read The Art of War?"
"Yes." She smiled faintly. "Sun Tzu gives useful advice."
I hate it when someone uses my own words against me. I looked at Joey. "Bro, I really want you to stay here."
"But Daniel, don't I get to choose?"
Shit. They were teaming up on me. I'd take on the whole Estrella Family if I had to, but with one sentence my little brother stopped me in my tracks.
"Yeah, Joey." I sighed. "Of course. You get to choose."
But I had a really bad feeling about this.
The bad feeling lasted on the drive all the way to Walter's place. The others may have been feeling it, too, because there wasn't a lot of chitchat in the car.
Walter lived in a one-story ranch style house that had been built in the `60s. Over the decades many of the other houses on the street had been renovated, but Walter's looked pretty much like it had when it was new. I hadn't seen it in years and it was still exactly as I remembered. Even the paint color was the same. His station wagon was in the driveway when we pulled up to the house. Good. I was worried that we'd go to all that trouble and then he wouldn't be home.
I parked in driveway, behind the station wagon. Twenty seconds later Roland pulled up across the street. We got out of the car and walked up to the front door. I turned and looked at the others. Their faces were somber. Through the tinted window of his car Roland gave me a small nod.
"Has anyone thought about what we'll do if he has a gun?" I asked.
"Don't worry about it," said Sherietta.
"So you're absolutely certain that he doesn't have one?"
"That's not what Sherietta means," said Amber. "Firearms are too unreliable in the presence of those who can wield Darkness. They can be neutralized. The demon won't rely on a gun."
Like the cars hadn't started when the grendel came calling. Fine.
I rang the doorbell. We waited for half a minute and I rang it again. Still nothing. I was about to ring it a third time when the door swung open.
A scrawny teenager with bad acne stood in the doorway scowling at us.
"What do you want?" he asked. There were some pretty incredible smells drifting out of the doorway behind him: unwashed adolescent bodies, recent sex, rancid food, vomit, excrement, blood ... and the faint whiff of sulfur.
"Hi," I said. We'd agreed that I would do most of the talking. "We're here to see Walter. His car is in the driveway, so I assume he's home. We'd like to talk with him."
"You know the Doc?" The kid regarded us suspiciously. "Who are you?"
I put on the best smile I could dredge up. "My name's Daniel. I'm an old friend of Walter's. Who are you?"
"I'm a new friend." He smirked.
I felt the beast inside growling. Walter's doorman was starting to piss me off.
"Be careful, Daniel," Joey cautioned.
Sherietta snorted. "Surely you don't think this child could pose any problem for your brother?
"If Daniel gets angry, he might hurt him." Joey's voice was solemn. "Then afterwards he'd feel bad about it."
The smirk slid off the kid's face and he took a step back. "I'll go get the Doc," he muttered. He scurried off, leaving the front door still wide open, which wasn't a bad idea. The house really needed some airing out.
Cautiously I followed him down the short hallway past the living room. A quick glance revealed it was empty and dark, the curtains drawn. A few more steps brought me to the doorway to the family room. The smells ratcheted up an order of magnitude. Ugh.
The family room was occupied by three more teenagers -- two boys and a girl. They were sprawled across a couch and a couple of armchairs like so many limp dolls. One of the boys raised his head an inch to look at me, then dropped it, as if holding it up for more than a couple of seconds was too damn much work. The others ignored me.
I slid forward a few steps. There weren't any lights on, but enough sunlight was coming in through the back patio door to see that the room was filthy. Empty liquor bottles and pizza boxes had been tossed against the walls. Someone had thrown up in one corner, partially over a stereo speaker. It had not been cleaned up. On a marble-topped coffee table there were more liquor bottles, a bong, a giant shit-smeared dildo, and a razor blade on top of an empty plastic sandwich bag. Must have been one hell of a party.
"Oh, my," Amber breathed as she entered the room behind me.
"Crap," muttered Sherietta.
Joey's face was expressionless.
"Daniel, Joseph -- isn't this a pleasant surprise!" Walter stepped out of the doorway at the far end of the family room. Uncle Walt wasn't looking so great. He'd lost weight and his skin was papery and grey. His clothing hung off him like old man's clothes.
"Who are your companions?" he asked. The pimply-faced doorman peered at us over his shoulder.
"These are Joey's cousins," I said, "Sherietta and Amber Estrella. What's with the house guests?"
"They were living on the streets, poor kids. I figured if nothing else, I could at least give them a roof over their heads."
"That's kind of you," Amber said.
"Thank you," he beamed.
The girl giggled. It was a loud, hysterical giggle, just this side of crazy. Or maybe it had already crossed over.
Walter turned to the doorman. "You left the front door open again, didn't you? Go close it. Children, get up."
The kid gave me a wide berth as he passed by and headed back down the hallway. The others didn't even twitch.
"So," Walter continued, "what can I do for you?"
Sherietta cleared her throat. "Daniel has told us about the Project and all the amazing work you've done. We'd like to help."
"That's wonderful! What did you have in mind?"
The conversation felt like a school play that was going really, really badly. Nothing sounded the least bit believable. It was like everyone knew that their performances sucked, but there was nothing to do about it except keep on reciting the lines we'd been given.
Amber took a step forward. "My mother kept all the letters she received from Mercedes. There may be something in them that could be helpful."
She held out a 9"x12" brown envelope, stuffed with papers. Inside the envelope there really were letters from Mercedes to Vivana. Wedged between them was the quartz crystal. For the trap to be sprung, Amber had told me, Walter didn't have to actually touch the crystal. He just had to accept the envelope.
"Children," Walter said sharply, "I said get up." Suddenly there was a new timbre in his voice. It sounded almost stereophonic, like two voices were saying the same thing in unison. I recognized it instantly. It was how the demon had sounded talking through Joey in Fellers' office.
Behind me I heard the sound of the front door being closed and bolted. The children stirred and rose to their feet. Each of them was holding a hammer. The girl giggled again.
That's it; play's over. Time to throw out the script. The beast inside of me snarled.
"Sorry, little bro," I said to Joey. "I guess I'm just going to have to deal with feeling bad later on."
I slid forward.
Walter looked at me and frowned. "Bad dog!" he said. The dual timbre of his voice was suddenly a hundred times stronger. "Down!"
Imagine you're having a dream in which invisible ropes coming out of the floor are tied around your wrists and thighs. The ropes are jerked sharply, and you're pulled down onto your hands and knees. They're so tight that you can't even move an inch.
Now imagine it's not a dream. Abruptly I fell to the floor. It felt like I was glued there.
One of the boys leapt forward and snatched the envelope from Amber's hand. His sudden movement was explosively fast. He threw it down onto the coffee table and swung at it with the hammer: thump. He swung and hit again: thump. He swung a third time and crack ... the coffee table broke.
The other two teenagers were advancing on Sherietta and Amber, their hammers raised. The Estrella witches slowly backed up. Amber was murmuring in a singsong voice and shaping symbols with her fingers like sign language. Sherietta was staring wide-eyed at the girl coming towards her and inching backwards. Joey just stood there, staring down at the ground, hands hanging at his sides. So far as I could tell, our side wasn't doing too well.
"Powers," moaned Sherietta. "He's broken the container." The crystal had shattered.
Amber just kept muttering and waving her fingers.
There was a sudden sharp blow to my ribs; if I hadn't been rooted to the floor I would have keeled over. I twisted my head and saw the doorman sneering down at me. He'd kicked me, and the little bastard was wearing steel-toe work boots. Shit, it hurt. Waves of red-hot pain shot through my side. Probably cracked a rib. The kid raised his own hammer and started to close in on Amber.
This was really not going according to plan. Our plan, that is. It looked like the demon's plan was progressing just fine. My bad feeling about this had been dead on. We were so --
WE AT NIFTY CENTRAL APOLOGIZE FOR THE INTERRUPTION, BUT ONCE AGAIN IT'S PLEDGE WEEK. NIFTY'S CONTINUED EXISTENCE DEPENDS ENTIRELY ON THE GENEROSITY OF ITS READERS. IT IS ONLY THROUGH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM PEOPLE LIKE YOU THAT WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BRING YOU SUCH CLASSICS AS "SEX LIVES OF THE RICH AND INFAMOUS", "SODOMIZED BY SATAN", AND, OF COURSE, THE EVER-POPULAR "CHANGING DADDY'S DIAPERS". SO PLEASE, MATE, DON'T BE A WANKER. CHIP IN!
AND NOW, BACK TO YOUR PROGRAM...
-- fucked.