Page 139

It’s Janet’s voice.

A few of the Lodge members are startled by the scream and step back from the big table.

This is why they dragged it from the rumpus room. Janet is tied down on top. Manimal Mike is on the floor unconscious, probably next on the sacrifice menu.

My clever plan from a minute ago goes out the window. I bark some Hellion hoodoo and the explosion knocks the closest Lodge members into the air and over the table. The others fall back and we come in fast.

None of these bastards have ever met a crazy Frenchman who hates their sacrificing guts. Vidocq throws vial after vial of noxious potions at the Lodge psychos. When they hit the ones who didn’t retreat to the far side of the sacrifice table, the vials burn them like phosphorous. Dan in his necromancer mask runs deeper into the cavern. Juliette fumbles with the phurba, drops it, and runs after him.

Janet can move their head just enough to sort of see what’s happening.

“Stark!” they yell.

I swing the na’at over my head like a bullwhip and slice through the chains holding them on the table. Vidocq grabs Mike and we hustle them back out of harm’s way.

Janet is bruised and bloody. They didn’t go down easy but fought all the way onto the table. Good for them.

They hold on to my arm.

“I’m sorry,” Janet says. “I should have listened. They’re all crazy.”

I’m not a told-you-so kind of guy. I point to the boulder where I hid with Vidocq.

“Wait there. We’ll be back.”

Mike shakes his head as he comes to. I cut him out of his bonds and take him back to where a few of the Lodge’s more gutless members cower against the cavern wall. There I give him the Colt.

“Shoot anyone who moves.”

“Glad to.”

Vidocq moves off to torch some of the other armed Lodge members. I turn to join him, but something slams into me from behind. There’s a burning, ripping pain in my side. I twist and throw an elbow behind me and send someone flying. But then someone else is on my back and reaching around to claw my eyes with their long nails.

I throw my weight back and slam us both onto the cavern floor. Whoever was on my back is seeing stars from where their skull cracked on the stones. The na’at falls from my hand, so I roll over and grab them by the collar.

It’s Maria Simon.

If she—or whatever Maria is—was hurt by the fall, it doesn’t last long. She swings at my eyes again with her nails. I dodge her hand and punch her in the throat. That rattles her enough that she holds still for a few seconds. Long enough for me to pull the Polaroid from my pocket and shove it in her face.

“Happy holidays from Chris.”

She freezes in place. Her hand goes up a few inches toward the photo as she whispers, “Chris.”

My whole side burns. I can feel blood flowing down my ribs.

I grab Samantha and say, “What are you? A vampire? A Drifter who got away? Or another spook, just a little smarter than the rest?”

Samantha, who- or whatever she is, lets out a sonic bellow in my face that’s loud enough and hard enough to knock me off her. She’s on her feet faster than I can move and runs into the Backbone like a goddamn cheetah.

I touch my hand to my side. There’s a deep gash along my lower ribs. I look around and spot Juliette’s phurba on the stones nearby. Dan, the sneaky fuck, must have doubled back. He dives for the blade. I kick it away and the bastard lands on his face. When I reach out to snap his neck, he grabs a dropped sword and swings it clumsily at me. But a clumsy sword is still a sword and I have to twist out of the way, which rips open the wound on my ribs even more.

I grab the na’at from the floor and swing it over my head a couple of times, backing Dan off. He holds the sword up in front of him defensively, and when I swing the barbed whip a third time, it snaps the sword blade in half.

The worst seems over and I’m finally ready to kill Danny boy once and for all when I hear weird, high singing.

Kenny has let loose the Stay Belows already in the cavern and sent out a few more to join them. Dan doesn’t bother saying goodbye. I want to chase him, but there will be time for that later in the mansion.

I head for the Stay Belows, but Vidocq is already there, holding them off with vials of bannissement par l’amarante. While he drives them back in Kenny’s direction, I collapse the na’at and manifest my Gladius. Vidocq falls back and lets me hack through the ten or so spooks left and send them to oblivion.