Chapter Eleven
They appear to be following clues,” Maurice said to Surt.
“Let them,” he replied, reading the texts from his smartphone. Everything was going as planned. He had the Undecideds in the palm of his hand, spreading darkness and holding the portal between worlds open for him. The city was being squeezed, block by block. Fear was beginning to shift the balance. He just needed more time.
“But if they get the crystal, they will have the power to control the grid,” Maurice added.
“They don’t know what it’s for,” he said. “They don’t know how to use it or where to use it.”
“We don’t either.”
“We will.”
Maurice persisted. “It’s a risk.”
Surt looked up at him then. He was a nosy man. “It’s my risk, not yours.”
“But you promised all of us success,” he pointed out.
And a pain in the ass. “I will deliver on that promise. Just do your job.”
“What is my job?”
Surt put down his smartphone and leaned back in the chair. “Watch them. Let them find the crystal. Then take the crystal from them and bring it to me.”
“What if they won’t give it up voluntarily?” Maurice asked.
“Then take it by force,” Surt said tersely. “Just don’t kill them. I still need the map. And Driscoll.”
“You think they will know enough to look for a map?”
Maurice was smart but not that smart. Surt already had a master plan. He was only feeding Maurice enough of it to keep him interested. “They will. Trust me. Now get out there and find more people to burn.”
* * *
“Christ, I can’t believe I’m digging up my father,” Thane grumbled as he threw another shovel full of dirt to the side. A tiny lantern lit the patch of ground in front of his father’s grave.
They had dug only three feet after shoveling for the past few hours. According to New York City regulations, the minimum depth to the top of the coffin was three feet. He really hoped it wasn’t much farther down. It was already 4 a.m. and, although they were under the cover of dark, he wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.
“Please, you’ve done worse,” Reya said and drove her shovel into the dirt. “What about the evidence you planted in the Grimaldi case?”
He tossed dirt aside. “He was guilty.”
“Maybe so, but that’s not really your call,” she said.
Thane stopped shoveling to glare at her. “Hey, if you guys did your f*cking job, I wouldn’t have to get rid of these bastards.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s not what I meant. He was just doing his job. His contract.”
Sometimes she made no sense at all. “What are you talking about?”
She leaned on her shovel. “Soul contract. It’s what you agree to do before you come here. You and your group decide together what role each soul is going play, and what each will gain this time around.”
Just when he thought this entire scenario couldn’t get much crazier. He shook his head at her. “Are you serious?”
She rolled her eyes and went back to shoveling. “You think I could make this shit up?”
No, he didn’t. No one could make this shit up. He started digging again.
“I’m thinking I like it a lot more down here,” he told her. “Fine, he was playing a role. He was still wrong. Are you telling me that every murderer, molester, rapist, and abuser made a contract to do those things?”
“Maybe. Sometimes they just get carried away. It’s a lot of fun being bad,” she said.
“What about pure unadulterated evil?” he persisted. “And don’t tell me that doesn’t exist. I’ve seen it firsthand.”
“There is that,” she agreed.
“So how do you know I wasn’t doing my civic duty by getting rid of them?” he pressed.
“I know,” she said sharply. “It doesn’t hurt them. It hurts you.”
Whatever. Maybe she was right about that whole contract thing, but he had done society a favor and he was never, ever going to be sorry for that.
He hit something solid, and his heart sank. Reality returned. This reality, not some obtuse alternate universe where everyone was blobs of light floating around. This was real.
Neither one of them said anything as they continued to dig around the casket to the edges. Time ticked by, and with every shovel of earth, Thane recalled that fateful night in vivid detail. He tried to see it objectively like a cop should—all the pieces, every nuance, anything that would help him. He wondered about his mother and what she remembered. How she saw the scene unfold. He should ask her, but he knew it would be painful for her, if she remembered at all.
“You can get out now,” Reya told him, tossing her shovel on the ground.
He realized the top of the white casket was cleared off enough to open it. “Are you sure about this?” His voice sounded raw and rough.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “If there was any other way, I wouldn’t do it.”
He believed her. “Get it over with.”
Reya stepped up in front of him and took his hands. Hers were strong. “I’m serious. Just because I make jokes doesn’t mean I don’t care.”
He looked into her eyes. They were sincere and beautiful and shone silver in the night. “I thought I was cynical.”
She smiled and released his hands. “Comes with the territory. I’m going to open the coffin. You hold the top so I can get inside.”
He climbed out of the hole and lay facedown on the ground, half hanging over the edge. He forced his mind to focus on the surroundings, and the din of whispers from the dead in the graveyard who hadn’t moved on yet. As insane as that sounded, it was better than the alternative.
Reya heaved the cover open and the remaining dirt slid down the smooth top. He grabbed the edge of the cover she lifted and turned his head to the side. He couldn’t handle seeing his father’s body. Every part of him reacted in revulsion, and it took every ounce of inner strength to just be.
Reya leaned in and searched the contents quickly. After a few moments, she said, “Nothing in the casket or in his clothing. It has to be here.”
Shit, had he just exhumed his father for no good reason? He was definitely going to Hell. Then he heard her bump the top of the casket.
“Wait, there’s something sown in the liner on the top. The stitches are coming apart.”
There was a rustling, some more thumping, and the sound of fabric ripping. Suddenly, Reya sat up holding something clear, about six inches long and an inch thick.
“Is that it?” he asked, surprised by the tightness in his throat.
She nodded her head as she turned it in her hand. “Just like your mother said. A crystal.” Then she climbed out of the hole. “The first clue was the grid. The second is the crystal.”
“So what’s the third?” Thane asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Something that links them together?”
Sounded good, but he really wasn’t in the mood to figure it out right now. “We’re done here,” he said, and shoved the cover shut. He stood up and brushed dirt from his clothes. How had his life come to this?
Reya brought the crystal over to the lamp. As soon as the light hit it, it reflected into a thousand white beams.
“Don’t do that,” he said, automatically putting his hand over it. He scanned their surroundings. “Someone will see it.”
She tucked the crystal into her pocket, dowsing the light. “It’s not a normal crystal. I need to show it to Orson.”
He was feeling miserable. “Fine. First, you’re going to help me move all this dirt back.”
“He’s okay,” Reya said suddenly.
Thane looked at her standing two feet away from him. There was compassion and a strange kind of wisdom in her eyes. She had all the answers. He had none.
“Who?”
“Your dad,” she said. “He is happy and waiting for you on the other side. He’ll be there when you cross over.”
Thane closed his eyes at the thought that she might be right. To see his father again, to talk to him, to hug him. It was more than he could hope for. And if he wasn’t so disgusted with himself at the moment, he might ask her for details. She would give them to him, he could tell. He just couldn’t bring himself to ask.
Instead, he picked up his shovel and drove it into the pile of dirt. Had his father fulfilled a contract, too? His mother? Then what was the point of all of this? Did everyone just come here to play a part? Was it all some kind of sick game? What kind of universe was this?
Wordlessly, Reya moved to the other side and began tossing soil into the hole. They worked for another hour in silence, each lost in their own, very different thoughts.
They were nearly done when the wind whipped up abruptly, kicking up loose dirt and swirling it around the grave. Then a thousand screams pierced the air. Thane swung his shovel up as the hellraiders tore by both him and Reya. She had her staff out, spinning it and shredding the demons to pieces.
Burning bits spun and glowed in the freakish gale. Thane was swinging his shovel at anything that came within reach. A chorus of shrieks accompanied the death count. And then a blast of hot air hit him, knocking him from his feet.
The blast left his ears ringing, but he held onto consciousness with sheer will. He hit the dirt, rolled, and came up with his gun ready to find Reya standing between him and a giant gargoyle-like monster. His skin was black and greasy. He had four muscled legs, a wide chest, and a large head. Two red eyes shone, separated by a single, deadly looking horn. It was like something out of a bad alien movie.
“Reeeeyyyyaaaa,” the beast said with a long hiss.
“Maurice,” Reya replied, standing her ground. “Go back to Hell where you belong.”
Thane blinked. How was she on a first-name basis with this thing? Whatever it was, it didn’t look friendly. He aimed his firearm and emptied it into Maurice’s head. The bullets passed clean through.
Shit. He holstered the useless gun. This was going to get ugly.
Something like a laugh rumbled through the monster’s chest as he looked at Thane. Then Maurice took a step toward Reya, crushing a solid granite tombstone to powder under his massive, clawed foot. The grass beneath him turned to ashes in seconds. Steam rose from the ground. Headstones became red-hot pokers jutting from the earth. “You have sssssomething I waaant.”
Thane shielded his face from the searing heat emanating from the creature. When his jacket sleeve started to smoke, but he was surprised to see that his skin underneath was fine. What was happening to him?
“You can’t have him,” he heard Reya yell, and felt a brief moment of wonder.
“I don’t waaaaant himmmmm,” Maurice replied, moving another step closer, within ten feet of Reya. She seemed totally unaffected, but Thane could feel his jacket smoldering.
Reya held the staff in front of her. “Don’t suppose you are here for me?”
Maurice lowered his head. “No.”
“Dead guy in the casket?”
The giant head pivoted back and forth unnaturally fast for something so large. “Lassssst chanccccce.”
The crystal. That’s what he wanted, Thane realized. He stepped out from behind Reya. “Don’t give it to him.”
“I won’t,” Reya yelled back. “Get down!”
Then the beast unleashed a furnace blast from his mouth. Thane ducked behind a statue and felt his jacket catch on fire. He pulled it off and stomped on it to put out the flames. Then he leapt from behind the stone to face a demon.
Except they were gone, racing across the cemetery. Reya was in front with the beast right behind her. Thane grabbed a shovel and took off after them, following the trail of seared earth and toppled headstones. All the while, he kept trying to figure out how he was going to help stop something that was obviously from the dark side.
Now would be an opportune time for these so-called legacy powers to kick in. He skidded to a stop at the caretaker’s building—an old stone structure two stories tall. Reya was positioned on the roof—monster high. She was holding the staff straight up over her head, and it was glowing white, lighting up the entire grounds.
So much for keeping the lights down. Someone would call law enforcement in. Would they see what he saw? Or would he be standing here alone and singed within an inch of his life?
Maurice rose on his hind legs, claws flexing on his front arms. “Give me the cryssssstal, and you can live.”
Reya’s staff glowed brighter, and the wind kicked up again. Dawn was crushed under a roiling black and choppy sky. Lightning flickered through the dark clouds, and thunder rumbled menacingly.
Reya yelled, “I don’t think so.”
Maurice opened his mouth and shot flames directly at her. They seemed to go right through her. Lightning tracked from the heavens, struck a tree right behind the building, and blew it to shards.
“I’m stronger than you think,” she said. “Tell Surt he’ll have to do better than you.”
Surt? Did this animal work for Surt? That would explain how she knew its name. They were going to have a little talk after they sent Maurice back to Hell.
Thane looked down and noticed his shovel was glowing white, the same as Reya’s staff. It didn’t feel any different, but it meant something.
By instinct, he wielded it by the handle and threw it will all his might at Maurice. It flew like a javelin and struck the monster, half of it disappearing into his back. Maurice wailed in pain and spun around in a heartbeat.
The claw came at him so fast, Thane barely had time to move. It struck him in the shoulder, sending him flying. He landed against an obelisk tombstone.
Maurice took a step toward him and then stopped. Thane didn’t know why until he heard singing. Like a choir singing. It took him a moment to realize that it was coming from Reya’s staff.
Maurice stood straight up, his shape changing, growing taller and even more massive. The black shape blocked out a huge part of the stormy sky. When he was done growing, he towered five stories over Reya.
“Hand it over. I don’t want to killlll you,” he said.
The staff was beginning to vibrate so loudly that Thane could see Reya’s entire body shaking under the pressure. The air became so heavy and thick that he could barely draw a breath.
“That’s too bad,” she said. “Because I do want to kill you.”
Maurice grabbed for her, and she leapt from the building, landing on the ground between his massive legs. She drove the glowing staff into the earth and held on. Lightning bolted from the sky, going right through the center of Maurice and striking the staff.
Reya was thrown back against the building as Maurice shuddered and then buckled. A shockwave spread out from around the staff, and his black body disintegrated into a mountain of ash.
A second later, the sky was clear, and the wind died. Dust settled as sunrise broke to silence. The only remnants of the battle were a trembling staff, a mound of gray otherworldly creature, and a destroyed graveyard.
Thane got to his feet, made sure nothing was broken, and walked over to help Reya up. “It occurs to me that the dark side is not as secure as it should be.”
Reya frowned, looking amazing as ever and none the worse for wear. “It occurred to me, too.”
Sirens filled the air, and Thane could already see the blue flashing lights through the trees. Reya pulled the staff from the earth. She walked past him looking really pissed off. “We need to get out of here.”
He took one last look around and ran with her across the cemetery toward their rental car.
* * *
“It has to be connected to the grid,” she said when they were safely in the car and a few blocks from the cemetery. She held the crystal in her hands and felt its energy pulse through her. It was powerful, unnaturally powerful. And it was the reason she was able to defeat Maurice.
When she took this job, she’d been told she had the power to defeat the darkness, and yet, she’d never be able to do it without the staff she’d brought over from the dark side. And tonight, she wouldn’t have been able to defeat Maurice with even that. The crystal was the extra power she’d needed. She’d felt it come alive and fill her with an immense strength.
“Are you okay?” Thane asked.
She eyed him, surprised by his obvious concern. “Fine, thank you.”
She held the crystal up to the sunlight, and Thane quickly pushed it back down. “Are you crazy? You want Maurice’s brother to show up?”
He was taking all this quite well. “Maurice was from the other side. He shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t have been able to cross over.”
“No shit,” Thane said, taking a corner far too fast and coming face-to-face with a military tank parked in the center of the street. He ground the car to a stop as an armed soldier approached. Thane showed him his badge, and they were waved on.
He waited until the tank was out of view before talking again. “He works for Surt, I take it.”
“Yes, secondhand minion.”
Thane said, “They’re watching us. Following us. It’s the only way they could know where we were.”
That had dawned on her as well. “They waited until we got the crystal. That’s why they wanted you. They knew somewhere in the back of your mind, you knew where to find it.”
He nodded, his expression grim. “They’ll still watch us then.”
Reya felt a twinge of disappointment and told him what he wanted to hear. “As long as we have the crystal, you’ll get your shot at Surt.”
His expression didn’t change, but she saw his soul flash red. He asked, “So what’s it for?”
She blew out a long breath. “I have no idea. But one thing is for sure, Surt sent his most powerful guy to get it.”
Thane cut her a glance. “Speaking of which, nice trick with the staff.”
She wanted to tell him it was the power of crystal, but thought better of it. Besides, it’d keep him on his toes around her. “Nice trick with shovel.”
He blinked then. “I don’t know how that happened. I just went with it.”
His powers were manifesting. Just in time, too. “There are others like Maurice.”
“Like how many? One or two?”
She winced. If only. “Hundreds. Thousands. The bigger question is how are dark beings getting through?”
“I don’t understand,” Thane said with a frown. “Where are they coming from?”
Reya sighed. She just needed to stop talking around him. That would save her so much trouble. “These guys are from a fourth dimension but not one you’d recognize. It’s dark, a wasteland created and fueled by negative forces. Maurice and hellraiders are fourth dimensional beings materializing in this dimension temporarily.”
“So that’s harder to do?” Thane guessed. He pulled the car into a parking space in front of his apartment and killed the engine.
She nodded. “Jumping dimensions is difficult. Going from a higher dimension to a lower dimension means lowering your energy frequency. Only certain souls have that kind of power. Otherwise, it can rip you apart.”
He hung his head. “Jesus. Who the f*ck designed this?”
She didn’t tell him that this was only a small part of the whole scheme. It was so complicated that only in true soul form could anyone grasp it. Even then, no soul could fully see it all.
“If Maurice came over from the fourth dimension,” Thane said, “that means he ascended there. And if he’s working for Surt, then Surt ascended already, too.”
She eyed him. For a mere mortal, he was quick.
“Did you ascend to a dark fourth dimension?” he asked.
For example, she should have seen that coming. “Yes.”
“With Surt?”
“Yes.”
He turned to her. “And yet you came back to the third dimension. That must have been hard. You must have really wanted out.”
She met his gaze. “Yes.”
“Was it really that bad?”
Reya blinked a few times. “Worse than anything you can imagine.”
“I don’t know, I’ve seen a lot,” he countered.
How was she going to convince him? “You’ll just have to trust me on it.”
For a long time, they looked at each other. His soul color wavered into the green and blue range, and she saw his acceptance and empathy rising. It gave her hope, but at the same time was she saving him, or hurting him with this information and interfering with his growth? Either way, she liked it better when she didn’t give a damn about the souls she met. This was different. She cared. And caring was a diversion she couldn’t afford to have. Especially not with a man who had a destiny like his. There was no room for her in his life.
“You could have told me this sooner,” he said.
Oh, right. “Would you have believed me two days ago?”
His lips thinned. “Probably not.”
“There you go,” she said. “As it is, I’m going to get in deep shit for sharing as much as I have already.”
His hands rested on the steering wheel as he stared straight ahead. “I know. I appreciate it.”
Because it’s the only way I’ll be able to exact my revenge, Reya finished his thoughts silently. Was she helping to bury him forever? Normally, she could see clearly how events acted out of anger affected someone’s karmic journey. But she was too close to him, and that worried her.
He nodded finally, and then looked up at his apartment. “We can’t stay here any longer, can we?”
He understood. She shouldn’t feel guilty about it, but she did. “They’ll be waiting for us.”
Thane started the car. “So where are we going to go where they can’t find us?”
She smiled. “Where else? A church.”