“Deal.” Denny swallowed a lump in her throat as she looked at the Demonic Bible. “I’ll keep you posted.”
“You do that. And Den? You’re not alone. I know you’re used to Rush being there, but you do have other friends...people who love you. Remember that.”
“Will do. Thanks.” Denny ended the call and gently lifted the Demonic Bible as if it had teeth.
Nothing.
“Damn it.” The best way to get Lauren’s help with all the books was to video one section at a time, so she pulled her phone out and videotaped one section of two or three hundred books. When she finished and headed for the door, something on the desk caught her eye.
The green marble slab had popped up about three inches.
Kneeling down so that she was eye level with the marble, she glanced at the Demonic Bible before slowly pushing the marble into place. She had somehow pressed a switch that unlocked this part of the desk.
Denny picked up the Demonic Bible again, and this time, when she looked closely at the space under it, she saw a tiny monofilament trip wire embedded in the wood. She put the book back in its place and walked over to the desk. The green marble slab had risen again.
Denny’s heart banged against her chest as she gently pulled the marble the rest of the way up and peeked into the hidden compartment.
There she found a red, felt-lined drawer that contained a small black box holding two silver poles, each about a foot long. They reminded her of short billiard cues.
“Oh, Mom, what have you gotten me into?” Denny was disappointed to find the black box empty, its black velvet interior embossed with the shape of the necklace that had once lived there. She put the box back in its place and tentatively picked up one of the silver rods. Two inches wide and a little over a foot long, it appeared to be a tube of some sort.
She stepped away from the desk and tried smacking the tube on the ground, hitting it with her hand, and even talking to it.
Nothing.
She stopped trying to get it to respond to her and examined the tube intently. She noticed a slight crack the length of the pole. When she couldn’t pull the two halves apart, she twisted them. The telescopic tube shot out, making the silver tube five feet long.
“A walking stick?” Denny said. She twisted the tube a little more until the device was longer.
“Well, shit. That’s no good.”
She tried hitting it on the floor, but nothing happened. She knew of only one person who could help her figure the poles out.
Denny closed up the lair before dialing his number.
“Ames, I think I’ve found Fouet and Épée. Can I come over?”
“By all means.”
***
L
auren called during Denny’s drive to see Ames, her voice breathless. “Pull over. I got some information on your boy...and I use that term loosely.”
Denny pulled over to the curb. “Okay. Lay it on me.”
“The kid came to town and the school midyear. Virtually nothing on him or his family. He’s from California, but that’s about all we have on him. His parents, if he had any, are nowhere to be found. I have my minions checking out his high school info, but there’s nothing so far.”
“How much nothing?
“Uh...well...
too much
nothing. That’s why I have a call in to my spies. We’ll see what he has on his transfer application.”
“You have high school spies? Do I want to know?”
“No, you don’t. Besides, it’s not important. So you know where he transferred from?”
Denny thought about the Cal Berkeley jacket. “Try Berkeley High School.”
“Will do. I’ll let you know when my minions get back to me.”
“Stop saying minions. You scare me. You know that, don’t you?”
“This from a woman who fucks a ghost?” Lauren laughed. “I’ll let you know as soon as I know.”
Fifteen minutes later, Denny stood downstairs Ames’s basement, the two cylinders in her hands.
“Let me see them.” Ames held his hands out and Denny gave them to him.
He turned them over and examined them closely. “Yep. These are your mom’s weapons.”
“They don’t work.”
Ames chuckled. “Not the way you think, no. Where’s the necklace?”
“The necklace?”
“Yes. These will not operate without the necklace.”
“There was no necklace.”
“No. There
is
a necklace and it’s up to you to find it. Without it, these are useless.”
“Why? I don’t––”
Ames pulled his necklace out from under his shirt. A Celtic symbol Denny had seen before hung from the silver chain.
“The symbol is a triquetra, a Celtic knot that means different things to different people. It represents the power of three.”
“What three does it represent?”
“The necklace doesn’t represent three. It is part of a triad, the other two parts being these weapons. Without the necklace, these are useless.” Ames handed them back. “You need to spend more time learning about the path you are preparing to embark upon before you come running over here.”
“There’s no path, Mr. Walker. There’s just a wide open field of hay and you’re asking me to find a needle.”
He chuckled. “We’ll see. There is no going back, Denny. Once you take one out, you’ve sent a message that you are in the game to stay.”
“I don’t
want
to become a demon hunter. I have a life. I believe I still have free choice, right?”
“Oh, Denny. This has very little to do with free choice. This has to do with the power flowing inside you, and that power is intoxicating. That’s a drug no narcotic can touch.”
“What
power
? Why do you keep talking in riddles, Ames? Just spit it out and tell me whatever it is you’ve been keeping from me.”
“You are not yet ready to hear the truth. When you are, you’ll know.” He walked to the door and opened it. “Come back when you have the necklace. And Goldy?”
Denny turned to Ames, who was watching her from the door. “Sir?”
“Reluctant hunters don’t last very long.”
“Will they still come after me and Pure?”
“Maybe.”
Denny nodded. “I’ll think about it.”
“Do that. Once you set sail on that course, it’s nearly impossible to turn back.”
Denny looked up at him. “Mr. Walker, my sisters are all I have left of my family. If protecting them means I have to tow the goddamn boat myself, I will.”
If he replied, Denny didn’t hear it.
***
T
he demon walked into a crowded theater and took notes. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Humans were constantly droning on and on about gun control and whether or not guns killed people or people killed people. They omitted the other possibility, of course, that demons killed people.
They killed them all the time.
It never ceased to amaze him how the humans wanted to take weapons away from the very people who needed them most: the innocent. The vulnerable. The unprotected.
It was amazing how little they learned from their own history.
When the government banned alcohol, the gangsters were thrilled. The bad guys, many of whom were demons, won the day and made millions, because you can’t legislate human behavior. Humans are like children; if you tell them they can’t have or do something, then they really want it. Ban alcohol? They want it more, and the underbelly of society will always get their hands on the banned item of the week.
Guns were no exception.
The bad guys would always have them. Always. No amount of police, politics or punishment would change that very simple fact. The only thing that might make gunmen think twice was if they knew someone might shoot back.
Scanning the theater, the demon guessed there was probably not one person in there with a gun. Not one person who could defend himself or protect his loved ones.
It was so ridiculously simple.
Fish in a barrel.
That’s all humans were.
Stupid fish in a barrel.
***
D
enny drove from Ames’s house to the convent and pulled over to use the phone. “Got a minute?”
“Sure. Come on over.”
“No I’d rather you come out. That place...sort of creeps me out. I’m in the parking lot.”
“
Creeps you out
? Since when?”
“I don’t know. Since now. Come on out here.”
Five minutes later, Sister Sterling sat in the passenger seat. “Are you okay? You look tired.”
“Rush is missing.”
“Missing? How can a ghost go missing?” Sterling seemed genuinely upset and that brought tears to Denny’s eyes. “Oh, Golden, I’m so sorry. Come here.” Sterling pulled Denny to her and held her, running her fingers through her sister’s hair. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”
Denny pulled back. “No. No it’s not. She’s...she’s been taken and I don’t have a clue how to get her back.”
The ferocity of her tears scared them both.
“Golden, what’s going on? You can trust me.”
Denny wiped her face with the back of her hand. “It’s this whole demon hunting thing, Sterling. I’m worried about Pure. Rush has been kidnapped. I got a C on my history exam, and I have a gigantic decision to make about whether or not I’m going to try to fill Mom’s shoes. I haven’t slept well since Rush was taken, and I’m scared to death that if I do nothing, something terrible will happen to us all.”
Sterling pulled a rosary from her pocket and stared at it. “Why are you so worried about Pure and how sure are you about Rush being...kidnapped?”
“Positive about Rush. I have a gut feeling that the new kid Pure is hanging around with is a piece of shit.”
Sterling slowly looked up from her beads. “New kid?”
Denny told her about him. “And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he showed up right when Rush disappeared.” Denny shook her head. “I’m backed into a corner here, Sterling. I’ve already lost Mom and Quick, but I’ll be damned if I lose Pure and Rush as well.”
“Then you’re...you’re willing to go through with it? You’re going to follow in Mom’s footsteps and be a hunter?”
“If there’s another option, I am all ears, because frankly, this wasn’t the plan I had for my life.”
Sterling leaned over and wiped Denny’s face. “It wasn’t the plan for any of us, Golden. Losing Mom and Dad changed everything for all of us, but as much as you want to protect our family, I wish you wouldn’t. There must be another way.”
“There
isn’t
another way, Sterling, and you know it. I don’t relish the idea and it scares me to death, but I have a family to protect. I have a responsibility to Pure...to our family...hell, maybe even to this legacy.” Denny sighed. “I...I found Mom’s weapons.”
Sterling inhaled quickly. “You did? Quick looked everywhere for them.”
Denny cocked her head. “But I thought––”
“Quick was never on the radar, Golden. Too hot-headed, too quixotic. Too––”
“Quick.”
Sterling shrugged. “Yes. Too much himself. He was never the one Mom planned to train if she couldn’t get our family free of the legacy, but that didn’t keep him from looking for the weapons or thinking he had what it takes. He didn’t. Mom knew that.”
“But the demons don’t know that. They just knew they couldn’t get to you so they went after him, huh?” Denny held her hand up. “He didn’t do it, Sterling. You know it. Pure knows it. I know it. He’s a lot of things, but he’s no killer.”
Sterling bowed her head and fiddled with the rosary. “I suppose I have to agree with you on that. Quick can mess things up and has never been good at getting out of his own way, but he isn’t capable of committing that kind of violence.”
“So now that you’re in here and he’s in there, they’re coming for me and they’re using Rush to flush me out. I’ve found her weapons. Now, I have to find Mom’s necklace. I think it’s one of those Celtic pendants people are wearing these days. Do you know what I’m talking about?”
Sterling looked up from the rosary. “Mom always wore that cartouche dad brought her back from Cairo. I’ve never seen her wear anything else.”
Denny looked at the rosary her sister had been carrying with her since she was a kid. “That’s okay. I’m going back to Atlanta to see if Quick has it or knows where it is.”
Sterling shuddered. “I wish you wouldn’t. It’s not good for your soul to be in that environment.”
“I need that necklace, Sterling. Without it, those weapons are worthless. Ames says I need the triquetra or––”
Sterling looked up. “You’re seeing Ames Walker?”
“Yeah.” Denny stopped. “How do
you
know Ames?”
Sterling’s eyes widened. “I...I don’t know him. I know
of
him.”
Denny’s right eyebrow lifted. “Uh-uh. That wasn’t even a good try. You’ll need to say a few Hail Somebodies for that white lie.”
Sterling put her rosary back in her pocket. “When I was a teenager, I once saw him with Mom and I developed a mad crush on him. Every time I saw him, I would hide and peek around the corner just to watch him. I counted eight times when he met with Mom.”
“Eight times?”
Sterling stared out the window as if seeing the memory. “Yes. I was too busy drooling over Mr. Walker to listen to their conversations, but I knew whatever they were doing was secretive.” Sterling checked her pocket watch. “I have to get going. Please don’t go to Atlanta. If you are meant to have the necklace, it will show up.”
“Sorry, sis, but I don’t believe life works that way. I need that necklace. I’m stuck in stasis until I find it.”
Sterling opened the door. “As much as I wish you wouldn’t take all of this on, I’m really proud of you for watching out for Pure. Mom would be proud.”
“Would she? Would she be proud knowing I was ready and willing to step into her place even if it means putting my life’s ambitions on hold? Is that what she’d want for me?”
“Well, I can’t speak for Mom, but I know
I’m
proud of you.”
As her sister stepped out of the car, Denny leaned over the passenger seat and looked out at her. “Sterling, if you knew where that necklace was, you’d tell me, wouldn’t you?”
“You’re a grown woman, Golden. I will support whatever decisions you need to make about your life. Take care of Pure.”
As her sister walked away, Denny yelled after her, “That wasn’t an answer, Sterling. I can’t take care of her without that necklace. Without it, I can’t defend our family. Without it, we’re sitting ducks. Don’t send me on a wild goose chase if you know where it is.”