Midnight Blood Read online

  The scene out here was no less chaotic than inside. Guests were stampeding out of the mansion, most of them running for their cars. Some of them were chatting hurriedly into their phones as they called the police and fire departments.

  I opened the false bottom of the Land Rover’s trunk and unrolled a length of burlap, revealing the four enchanted swords and four daggers within. Felicity arrived next to me and I handed one to her. Its blade took on a blue glow as she wrapped her fingers around the grip.

  I gave another sword to Leon and as he took it in his hand, its blade glowed likewise.

  Taking a sword for myself and closing the tailgate, I said, “Come on, let’s see what we’re dealing with here. Our first objective is to make sure everyone gets out of the building safely.”

  We ran back to the window and climbed inside. The ballroom was still full of the foul-smelling smoke but it drew back from the glow of our swords. “Put the blades together,” I said.

  I held my blade out in front of me. Leon, on my right, and Felicity, on my left, did the same, touching the tips of their blades to mine. This formed a wedge of blue light ahead of us from which the black smoke recoiled.

  “Anyone who is still in the room, follow the light,” I shouted. Then, to Felicity and Leon, I said, “We’re going to make our way to the door.”

  I heard people around me as we made our way to the door. They followed the light of our swords and blurted out questions.

  “What happened?”

  “Is the house on fire?”

  “Are we under attack?”

  I had no answers for them. I simply led them to the ballroom door so they could join the other guests leaving the mansion via the foyer.

  Someone grabbed my shoulder and I turned to see it was Jane Hawthorne. “Have you seen Charles?” she asked. Brad and a girl I assumed to be Elise stood next to her. Brad’s laid-back attitude was gone, replaced by something approximating terror.

  “Don’t worry,” I told them. “We’re going back in there. We’ll find him.”

  She nodded uncertainly, her eyes drawn to the three glowing swords. “Okay. I’ll make sure everyone here gets out safely.” She turned away from us and raised her voice as she spoke to the guests. “Please leave in an orderly manner. There’s nothing to worry about. Just make your way outside and we’ll let the fire department handle this.”

  I was pretty sure this smoke was beyond the fire department’s bailiwick. The way it had come out of the mirror like that meant it was magical in nature, probably summoned here for some purpose. Since we were here because Charles Hawthorne thought someone was trying to kill him with magic, that purpose seemed all too obvious.

  “We have to find Charles Hawthorne,” I said to Leon and Felicity. “He’s still in there somewhere.”

  We formed a wedge of light again and re-entered the thick smoke. I called Charles’s name but there was no answer.

  I could hear footsteps on the ballroom floor; there were still other guests in here, lost in the smoke.

  “Open all the windows,” I told Felicity and Leon.

  We split up and opened the windows in an attempt to disperse the smoke. The cold of the night entered the ballroom, chilling the air. I rejoined my friends and we called Charles’s name again.

  This time, I got an answer but it wasn’t Charles who answered my call, it was Amy. “He’s over here.”

  I followed the sound of her voice, quickening my pace as I made out figures through the dispersing smoke. When I reached Amy, I found her crouched down next to Charles Hawthorne’s prone body. The wheelchair was on its side, the shot glass smashed. Whisky covered the floor.

  “Charles!” I said, crouching down and feeling for a pulse.

  “He’s alive,” Amy said. “He’s just blind drunk. Someone probably knocked him over in their haste to get out of here.”

  Merlin was standing nearby, looking at the smoke around us with interest. He made a complicated gesture with his hands and nodded to himself, seemingly satisfied with something.

  “What was that?” I asked him. “What did you just do?”

  “I merely ascertained the nature of the magic that fills this room.”

  Leon, who had no idea Sheriff Cantrell was being possessed by Merlin, raised an eyebrow and said, “What the hell?”

  “And what is the nature of the magic?” I asked Merlin.

  He grabbed a handful of the smoke and wafted it in my direction. “This is a smoke of illusion. It gives the intended recipient frightful visions. I’ve used it myself on the battlefield on a couple of occasions. It can send an entire army of enemy soldiers fleeing for their lives, even though the phantoms they see are merely creations of their own minds.”

  “I didn’t see any phantoms in the smoke,” I told him. “Did anyone else?”

  Leon and Felicity shook their heads.

  “This spell was intended for one recipient only,” Merlin said. He pointed at the prone body of Charles Hawthorne.

  “And it knocked him out?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “The whisky did that. Mr Hawthorne was already drinking himself into oblivion before the smoke manifested.”

  Charles rolled onto his side and groaned. He didn’t look like the fall from the chair had hurt him. There weren’t any bruises or cuts that I could see.

  Leon and I grabbed him under his armpits and lifted him into the wheelchair. Charles lolled to one side and opened his bleary eyes. “I had a terrible dream. It was in the smoke.” He lifted a finger to point at the thinning smoke and then dropped his arm as if it were heavy as lead.

  “What was it?” I asked. “What did you see?” Maybe the nature of the illusion would reveal who sent it.

  “The car wreck. Oh God, it was horrible. I don’t want to see that again. I don’t want to think about it.” His bloodshot eyes searched for something. When they didn’t find it, Charles said, “Whisky. Where’s my whisky?”

  “Oh my god, Charles, you’re all right!”

  Jane was running across the ballroom toward us with a look of relief on her face.

  He saw her and let out a long, deep sigh. “Get me out of here, Harbinger. I don’t want to talk to that woman.”

  “Not my problem,” I said. “My job is to find out who cast that spell, not help you deal with your marital difficulties.”

  Jane reached him and threw her arms around him. Charles scowled at me.

  In the distance, I could hear sirens cutting through the night. Turning to Merlin, I said, “That’s the police and the fire department. You should probably deal with them, Sheriff.”

  Before he had a chance to answer, I headed for the door with Felicity and Leon. I was pissed because someone had managed to attack Charles right under my nose and this case was obviously not going to be as simple as I’d first thought.

  In the foyer, I saw Brad talking to the girl I’d earlier assumed to be his sister. To make sure, I went up to her and said, “Excuse me, are you Elise Hawthorne?”

  She turned to me and nodded. “Yes. Yes, I am.”

  I took the crystal shard out of my pocket and held it up to her. There was no glow.

  “Thanks.” I left the foyer and went outside, leaving a confused Elise Hawthorne in my wake.

  When I got to the Land Rover, I replaced the swords in their burlap wrapping and stowed them.

  The police cars were arriving at the gate now, their flashing lights illuminating the faces of the guests standing in the parking area. Merlin and Amy were walking across the gravel to meet them. I wasn’t sure what Merlin was going to tell them but I was sure he’d think of something.

  Leon grabbed my arm and said, “You have to tell me what the hell is happening. Because that guy looks like the sheriff but he isn’t the sheriff.”

  “I’ll explain everything,” I said. “But not here. Meet me at Darla’s.” I wasn’t going to stand here chatting about the Hawthornes but I owed Leon an explanation. He’d been with me on some of my toughest cases and had picked
up a sword tonight without hesitation, even though he had no idea what we might be facing.

  “Cool, see you there.” He went to his car, or maybe I should say tonight’s car, since Leon owned a fleet of them and changed them regularly. Tonight, he was driving a white Ferrari Testarossa that looked like it came straight out of an episode of Miami Vice.

  I climbed into the Land Rover, expecting Felicity to get into the passenger seat, but she remained outside. Winding down the window, I said, “You coming?”

  “Just give me a minute. There’s something I have to do.” She turned away and walked toward the gate, waving to Leon as he purred past her in his Ferrari on the way to Darla’s. I watched as Felicity approached Amy and spoke to her for a couple of minutes before returning to the Land Rover and getting in beside me.

  “What was that about?”

  “I invited Amy to join us at Darla’s.”

  “What? Why?”

  “This is my case now, remember? I want Amy to help me solve it. She wants her dad back as soon as possible and she’s going to want to help in some way. So she can work with me on the Hawthorne case.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’ll probably get the Blackwell sisters to help as well.”

  “So you get the entire Scooby Gang while I’m stuck with that old wizard?”

  She smiled and shrugged. “Maybe next time you’ll think twice before swearing an oath to a faerie in a pond.”

  “Yeah,” I said, starting the engine. “Maybe I will.”

  6

  Leon sat back in his seat and shook his head as if in disbelief of what we’d just told him. He looked from Amy to Felicity and then to me. “Merlin? That’s wild, man!”

  “It’s very worrying,” Amy told him.

  His face became serious. “Yeah, of course. I’ll help in any way I can.”

  I picked up the last chicken finger from my plate—we’d ordered a number of dishes and shared them while we’d talked to Leon—and said, “We want you to work on the Hawthorne case with Felicity and Amy while I track down the Midnight Cabal with Merlin.”

  He nodded enthusiastically. “Count me in.”

  “That’s settled then,” I said. I was less than happy with the arrangement. Going after the Midnight Cabal meant that at some point in the future I was going to come face to face with my mother and I’d pledged to kill her when that meeting occurred.

  Could I do it? Would I do it? It was my duty as a P.I. but she was family.

  Which was more important, family or duty?

  I popped the chicken finger into my mouth and chewed it thoughtfully. I guess I’ll find out when the time comes.

  “So you’re going to be using Excalibur,” Leon said, taking a sip of his soda. “The Excalibur.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, but it’s not that impressive; the damned thing’s creepy as hell.”

  My phone rang and the screen displayed the caller ID. Mysterium Import and Export. “Be right back,” I told the others as I got up out of the booth and headed outside to take the call. I touched the screen and said, “Harbinger.”

  “Alec, it’s Michael Chester. Are you well?”

  “Not too bad,” I said, pushing through the door and stepping out into the parking lot. The night seemed to be getting colder every second. “What have you got for me?”

  “A possible Cabal member in your area.”

  “Great, what’s their name?”

  “I’m afraid it isn’t that straightforward, Alec. My contact in the Shadow Watch told me that a couple of his agents are going after this person tomorrow. They want to question him. So I can’t just give you his name and let you jeopardize their operation.”

  I sighed. “So what am I supposed to do?”

  “The agents have agreed to let you accompany them when they bring him in. That way you get access to the Cabal member and the Watch get their man.”

  I thought about it. I hadn’t sworn an oath to take down the Midnight Cabal singlehandedly and the agents of the Shadow Watch were sure to know more about what I was getting myself into than I did. Maybe they could help me.

  “How does that sound?” Michael asked.

  “Fine. How do I contact the agents?”

  “You don’t. They’ll contact you.”

  Why did I suddenly feel like I was in a spy movie? I sighed frustratedly and said, “Okay, thanks. I’ll await their call. Or tape that self-destructs. Or whatever other means they use to contact me.”

  “Talk soon, Alec.” He ended the call.

  I went back inside the diner and slid into the booth.

  “Any news?” Amy asked.

  “Apparently I’m going to be contacted by two Shadow Watch agents and I’m going to accompany them while they catch a Cabal member.”

  “Shadow Watch?”

  “Yeah, I guess you could call them the foot soldiers of the Society of Shadows.”

  “I thought you were the foot soldiers,” she said. “The P.I.s”

  “No, not really. It all goes back to when the Society first started and the roles it gave its members. Felicity can probably explain it better than I can.” I gestured to Felicity, who was eating an onion ring.

  She quickly chewed it and said, “It’s simple really. The Society of Shadows was formed in the late 17th Century to fight preternatural threats. At that time, the Midnight Cabal already existed. Its aim was to keep the population enslaved to a growing fear of the supernatural, to engender superstition and terror.”

  “So who formed the Society?” Amy asked.

  “Well, we’re not exactly sure,” Felicity said.

  I took an onion ring and said nothing. I knew the Society had been created by nine witches known as the Coven but that information was hidden even from some high-ranking members.

  “The point is,” Felicity continued, “the Society put protectors into most cities and towns. These people were known as Wardens. They kept watch in case preternatural danger should arise within their territory. As well as the Wardens, there was a group of Society members tasked with destroying the Midnight Cabal and other paranormal organizations and armies. They were named Templars after the much older organization, the Knights Templar.”

  She took a sip of soda before continuing. “As time wore on and the world changed, the Society updated itself to keep with the times. The Templars went underground and became known as the Shadow Watch. The Wardens became the Preternatural Investigators that are found in most towns and cities today. Although they have a different name, they still do the same job as the Wardens; keeping the people within their territory safe from supernatural threats.”

  “And they have cool weapons,” Leon added.

  “Yes,” Felicity said. “And they have cool weapons.”

  Amy nodded thoughtfully, digesting what she’d just heard. “So all of those unassuming-looking P.I. offices dotted around the country are actually outposts of a secret society?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “They’re the public face of the Society of Shadows.”

  “Is there a central office somewhere? A headquarters?”

  “There is,” I said, thinking of the Mysterium Import and Export building in London with its elevator that descended into another realm where the Coven resided.

  “And what about the Midnight Cabal?” she asked. “I guess they must have a headquarters too, right? Like an evil lair inside a volcano or something?”

  “Probably but it’s well-hidden, wherever it is. I doubt it’s in this dimension.”

  Her eyes widened. “Okay, now you’re blowing my mind. Are there really other dimensions?”

  I took another onion ring and nodded. “I’ve traveled to three others. I’m sure there are more.”

  Amy looked into her soda glass wistfully. “Wow, I think I’m in the wrong job.”

  “Your job is important,” I told her. “And the life of a P.I. isn’t as glamorous as it may sound.”

  She took a sip of soda, sighed, and looked out of the window at the cold night. “
Just tell me that you’re going to get my dad back, Alec.”

  “I am. As soon as I do what Merlin wants, he’ll release your dad and everything will go back to normal.”

  She leaned in closer over the table. “Will it though? Because if Merlin releases my dad, doesn’t that mean he has to go back to the cave again? He’s not going to want to do that is he?”

  I thought about that for a moment. She was probably right; when Merlin released the Sheriff from the cave, he’d have to go back there himself. Would he renege on the deal and try to stay in our world?

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” I told her, uncertain how I could force Merlin back into his prison if he didn’t want to go. I had to hope that the wizard followed the faerie code of ethics when it came to deals and oaths.

  “What’s your plan for tomorrow?” I asked Felicity in an attempt to steer the conversation in a different direction.

  “Well I suppose we’re going to have to revisit Lucy Hawthorne,” she said. “The other members of the family are innocent as far as magic use goes so that leaves Lucy as our prime suspect.”

  “You going to knock on her door again?”

  She shook her head. “This time we’re going to be a bit more devious and put a tail on her when she leaves the house. She has to leave sometime and when she does, we’ll be waiting.”

  “Nice.”

  “And I want to speak to Charles Hawthorne. He saw something in that smoke that frightened him. I want to know what it was.”

  “He said he saw the events of the other night when his driver drove the car off the road.”

  “Well that’s not exactly what he said. He mentioned a car wreck. His car wasn’t wrecked the other night. I think he was speaking about a different event.”

  I wasn’t convinced. “He could barely string together a coherent sentence, so he probably got his words confused.”

  “But he didn’t mention the demon,” Felicity said.

  I shrugged. “The demon?”

  “The one he saw on the road that night. Merlin said the spell was intended to induce fear in someone. Wouldn’t the caster send an image of the demon? Surely that’s the most frightful thing Charles has ever seen. But he didn’t even mention it. He just said ‘the car wreck,’ whatever that refers to.”