Vieux Carré Voodoo (23 page)

But just as the list of links started to come up, I saw the
grayness coming around the edges of my vision.

I just managed to put my head back against the pillow as
everything faded to black.

ACE OF WANDS

A creative beginning

I was drifting downward through a fine mist, cushioned
as if on a cloud. As always, there was no sense of time or place. There was just
awareness, a sense that I was in some nether-place, not a part of one dimension
or another but somewhere in between. But this time felt different from the
others.

The air was cold, and I felt goose bumps rise on my arms
as I floated. From what I could remember of the previous times, it was temperate
and comfortable. I also felt uneasy rather than relaxed. I didn’t have a sense
of peace, the way I usually did when I went into a trance like this, when the
Goddess called me to Her side. Instead, I sensed turmoil, violence, and anger.
It disturbed me, and made me nervous and tense. Thunder roared deafeningly
close, and the mist lit up with flashes of lightning that blinded me. The smell
of burnt ozone filled my nostrils as I continued my descent. The farther down I
went through the mist, the greater the feeling of unease. Soon, I was terrified
to the core of my soul.

It didn’t make sense to me. The Goddess had never
inspired
fear.
It went against everything I believed.

When my feet touched down, the sense of terror was so
strong that I started trembling. The mist swirled and cleared away as if it had
never been there. I was standing on the edge of a sheer cliff that dropped away
behind me. My stomach lurched—heights have always terrified me. I quickly backed
away from the edge, but not before I caught a glimpse of a river and a thick
jungle on its opposite bank thousands of feet below me. I turned my back on the
drop, closing my eyes and praying. When I had calmed a little, I opened my eyes
and realized that the cliff was actually a wide ledge on the side of the
mountain. About a hundred feet away from me the mountain began to rise again up
into the clouds, its peak hidden. The ledge itself was smooth, as though the
stone had been worn down over the years by the footsteps of thousands of feet
over centuries. Where the mountain began to rise again I saw a gazebo-like
structure with three stone steps leading up to its platform. Stone columns
supported the onion-shaped dome, which looked like it was made of gold. An
unearthly light glowed beneath the dome, and I felt terror growing inside me. I
knew I was supposed to walk up those steps into the glowing light, but I didn’t
want to.

This was a manifestation of the Goddess I had never seen
before, and one I wasn’t so sure I wanted to experience.

The cold wind began to pick up, and heavy drops of rain
began to fall. I heard a low rumbling sound from beneath me, as though the
ground itself was afraid.

“COME BEFORE ME!” a female voice roared from inside the
structure.

I didn’t move. My terror was so strong my body couldn’t
move. I was frozen in place. I did not want to face Her.

The rumbling sound from beneath me grew louder, and the
ground itself began to tremble beneath my feet. I heard a cracking sound from
behind me, and I turned in time to see the ledge begin to crack at the edge. My
eyes widened as a large piece of the ledge crumbled and fell away. Another crack
began to split and started to spread toward me. I began to back away from it as
it approached where I was standing. Finally, I turned and began to run toward
the stone steps. I finally reached them, and jumped up onto the bottom step. The
wind howled as it whipped so strongly around me that I almost lost my balance. I
rubbed my arms with hands, trying to warm them. The chill was penetrating,
piercing through my body.

I could feel it in my very soul.

“COME BEFORE ME!” the voice roared again, and
reluctantly I climbed up onto the next step. The fissure that had opened began
to close as I watched, and I turned my eyes back to the glowing light under the
golden dome. The rain began falling harder, striking my skin with such force
that it stung. I climbed up to the final step and into the glowing light.

As soon as I did, it faded away until all that was left
was a blue glow in the shape of an eye on the opposite end of the platform.

I closed my eyes and prayed.

My prayer was answered with a laugh.

It was a horrifying sound, a laugh so bloodthirsty and
evil that I began to fear for my very soul.

I fell to my knees.

“That’s right, grovel before Kali,” a voice whispered
into my ear.

Kali! The Great Mother of the Hindu religion, the Great
Goddess who had created the earth and all living things! She was a goddess of
love, of creation, but she also had another face. She was also Kali the
Destroyer, who killed gleefully and happily, because creation can only come from
destruction. Her dual nature was both wonderful and terrifying. One must never
anger Her.

“Come before me,” the voice purred softly, echoing
around me in the shadows. “Rise and walk.”

Somehow I managed to get to my feet and forced myself to
walk toward the glowing blue eye. As I drew nearer the torches, the darkness
seemed to fade. The glowing eye grew brighter, casting off a powerful light that
I could not take my own eyes away from. It drew me nearer, and as I got closer I
saw the form of a woman, seated cross-legged on a stone platform. She had four
arms, and her large breasts were bare. Long thick tangled black hair hung around
her head. She wore a large gold crown sparking with small diamonds. A necklace
of skulls hung around her neck, large gold hoops adorned her ears. One of her
eyes was closed, the other glowed blue. In one of her four hands she held a
long, ugly sword. Another held a human skull.

I dropped to my knees, but could not avert my eyes. Her
countenance was beautiful yet terrifying.

“Yes, kneel in my presence,” she said through bright red
lips that barely covered teeth filed to sharpness. The glowing eye narrowed.
“You are the one?” She threw her head back and roared out laughter. It echoed in
the room and inside my brain. It was a sound I knew I would never forget, and
would most likely hear in my nightmares for the rest of my life. The glowing
blue eye focused on me, and as I watched it, the blue faded and it became a
normal eye, the white almost blinding in its purity, the brown center remarkably
beautiful. “If you are the one, then you are the one. Are you strong enough in
body, mind, and spirit to do my bidding?”

“I…I don’t know, Great Mother,” I whispered.

Outside, I heard thunder roar again.

“My eye must be returned,” she said. “This sacrilege can
no longer be permitted to continue.” The closed eye opened, and I bit my lip to
keep from screaming. It was an empty socket, and blood streamed from it. It shut
again.

“I—”

“SILENCE!” She roared again, and I winced, clapping my
hands over my ears in pain. “I did not give you permission to speak! How dare
you, insolent human! I should strike you dead!”

I dropped to my hands and knees, putting my head down in
obeisance as my entire body began trembling in terror.

“You quake with fear in my presence, as you should. An
eternity ago I danced this world into existence,” she went on. “And forty years
ago, as you measure time, I was defiled. I have tired of waiting for this
sacrilege to be rectified by believers. They have failed me, and they shall be
punished. My patience has been exhausted.” All four arms waved, reaching
heavenward. “Kali will be avenged, make no mistake about it, human. I am the
creator and the destroyer. If I am not appeased, I will rain destruction down on
this insignificant world.” I looked up as she smiled. The sharpened teeth were
dripping with blood. “It will bring me great pleasure to hear the screams of the
suffering. Let them suffer as I have suffered from this affront to the Goddess!
Let the streets run with blood! Let the air reek with the smell of burning
flesh! Let the oceans turn to fire, the creatures of the air burn! Only then
will my anger be appeased!”

The air crackled with energy. Blue sparks flew from Her
fingertips.

And the skull necklace began to move.

My stomach lurched as the skulls gained flesh and lips.
Eyes appeared in the once-empty sockets. Streams of blood ran from the severed
necks. And as I watched, I began to recognize the faces.

Mom. Dad. Colin. Frank. Millie. Velma. Storm and his
wife Marguerite. Rain and her husband. David. The head of everyone I’d ever
loved or cared about was hanging around Her neck. Their mouths opened in silent
screams, their eyes moving from side to side in agony.

I closed my eyes. I could not bear to look at them. My
stomach roiled in terror. My skin was covered in goose pimples, and I began to
shake again.

“Please,” I whispered. “No, Great Mother.” As soon as I
said the words I braced myself in terror, waiting for the killing stroke. Yet
She did not swing Her terrible sword. She did not roar Her anger again at my
insolence.

I opened my eyes.

The streaming blood pooled at Her feet and began flowing
toward me in a single stream.

“I must be avenged,” She said again, and the eye began
to glow blue again.

The river of blood reached my hands. It was warm and
sticky. It began flowing heavier, and up my arms.

“Look into my eye,” She purred again, “and see what I am
capable of.”

Against my will, my eyes were drawn to the intense blue
glow. As I looked, all I could see was blue—

—and then I saw the mushroom clouds expanding over
cities I recognized, one after another. London. Paris. New York. Chicago.
Sydney. Rio de Janeiro.

I heard the screams of the dying, of the terrified.

Blood, everywhere death and destruction, all living
things being consumed in that horrible atomic fire.

I started screaming, and over it all, I could still hear
her maniacal laughter…

I sat up in my bed with a start, shivering.

I was cold, so damned cold. I pulled my blankets around me.
I’d never had such a horrifying vision before in my life. The Goddess had always
come to me with love, even when She had a warning for me. I had always known
that there were many faces, many incarnations of the Great Mother, but this?
There had never been anything like it before. I was terrified. I could not get
the image of the necklace of dripping and dripping heads around Her neck out of
my mind.

Please, Great Mother, please do not do this.

But She had been insulted, defiled, and She was angry. Kali
would not be denied.

And with control of a source of uranium at stake, it would
be so easy for Kali to make good on Her threats. It would be all too simple.
There were so many men in this world that would relish obtaining the power of
the uranium, unleashing its forces of death and destruction on the world without
a care for the outcome. There were so many who would welcome the purifying fire,
see themselves as holy martyrs cleansing the world by unleashing the power that
would lead to its end.

Time, as we measure it, means nothing to the universal
powers. It might not happen tomorrow, but Kali was angry, and She did not make
empty or idle threats.

She was the Creator, but She was also the Destroyer.

Thunder roared as I sat there, almost making me jump out of
my skin. My laptop screen glowed in the darkness, next to me on the bed. I’d
forgotten it was there, but it no longer mattered. It no longer mattered who had
killed any of the people who had died thus far because of Kali’s Eye. All that
mattered was finding that damned sapphire and returning it.

Kali must be appeased, or Her vengeance would be terrible to
behold.

Rain began to fall, hard and heavy. I could hear the wind
whipping and howling around the house. I tried to calm my heart rate, tried to
get my terror under control.
Stay calm, Scotty,
I told myself over and
over again.
You must stay calm.

I swallowed. The fate of the world might very well rest in
my hands.

Me. Scotty Bradley, who used to shake his ass on bars for
dollar bills to pay his rent.

The universe certainly had a strange sense of humor.

It was not for me to question Kali. It was not for me to
understand Her reasons, or why She had chosen me. It was now up to me to find
the damned sapphire. And to do it, I had to be calm. I had to be rational. I had
to solve Doc’s stupid riddle, and to do so, I had to have a clear head and
focus.

I took a deep breath, cleared my mind, and said a quick
prayer for strength.

I pushed the blankets off, and started to get out of my bed
when I heard something just outside my window. I froze as my heart rate went
back up, and listened closely.

Someone was coming up the stairs.

It might just be Millie,
I tried to reassure
myself, but in my gut I knew it wasn’t her. I’d heard Millie climb those stairs
a million times, and unless she’d gained some weight, it wasn’t her. I kept
listening, and cursed to myself when I remembered my gun was locked safely in my
desk drawer. There wasn’t enough time to get it before whoever it was reached my
door.
You might not need it,
I reassured myself, and besides, Colin was
sleeping on the couch in the living room—and surely he had his gun within reach.

But the storm was loud. Colin most likely couldn’t hear
someone coming up the back stairs in the living room—and he was sleeping.