Modern Sorcery: A Jonathan Shade Novel Read online

  “Including me?”

  “You’d be number eight, but DGI didn’t keep you alive. Jonathan did. DGI wanted you destroyed, but my father talked them out of it. He figured if he could get them to spare you, it would make it easier for them to keep sparing the other warriors too.”

  Kelly grabbed Naomi by the throat. “I ought to kill you,” she said. “You’re a lying sack of shit.”

  “Calm down, Kelly,” I said. Kelly and I knew that the rest of the original Sekutar were dead because we’d been there when they were destroyed and had barely escaped with our lives. Naomi might not know that the program had been reinstated. It wasn’t important either way. We all knew there were more warriors. First generation or second wasn’t really a factor.

  “She was in on it from the start,” Kelly said. “Just like I told you. She’s using you like she did before. Only this time, the cost in lives is greater.”

  “I hired Jonathan because I knew he’d be safe from Ravenwood,” Naomi said, her voice coming out choked by Kelly’s grip. “And since Ravenwood knows whatever the people he possessed know, I was hoping some of my father’s fear of Jonathan would rub off.”

  “Your father was afraid of me?” I asked. That surprised me.

  “You couldn’t be controlled. That scared him. I never told him about you being impervious to magic. And now you’re our best hope of stopping Ravenwood.”

  “Kelly, let her go.”

  “I don’t take orders from you, Jonathan.”

  “It wasn’t an order. I just think we can discuss this like civilized people.”

  “She’s a liar.”

  “Yes, I believe you’ve established that.”

  “She’ll keep lying.”

  “She has no reason to lie now.”

  “She doesn’t need a reason. It’s a habit.” But Kelly released her and stepped back.

  Naomi rubbed her throat. “Thank you,” she said.

  “Lie to me again, bitch. See if you can thank me after I snap your neck.”

  “For someone who thinks the body count is too high, you sure like to play the violence card.”

  “When innocent people die, it bothers me. Whatever happens to you, you brought on yourself. Big difference.”

  “Naomi,” I said. “I need to know what’s going on.”

  “So far, you managed to get Ravenwood’s attention, and he checked you out. I think he was trying to possess you the whole time you were doing the demonstration with Margie. The fact that he couldn’t will keep you on his radar. But I don’t know that he considers you much of a threat or he’d have killed you.”

  “Just like that.” I intentionally withheld the fact that Ravenwood said we might be useful.

  “It wouldn’t be difficult. You can’t be affected by direct magic, but indirect magic will certainly work on you. He could open a hole beneath you a thousand feet deep and let you fall to your death. He could control all the weapons in Kelly’s cabinet over there and have them all attack you at once. You might block some, but you’d be killed eventually.”

  “Nice to know.”

  “He’s primarily dangerous to wizards, of course. He doesn’t care about normal people. If anything, he’d think of them as his subjects. He won’t go out of his way to hurt them, but he won’t care if they’re lost as collateral damage, as you just witnessed. I learned a lot before he escaped. We were wrong about so many things.”

  “Such as?” I asked.

  “Magic isn’t dying at all. Through the centuries, wizards have simply lost the ability to tap into the power lines that encircle the planet. Ravenwood can tap into them with no trouble at all. He waited until the crystals were united, and then he escaped. He tapped into the power, killed two wizards faster than I can tell you about it, and took over my father so he’d have a vessel.”

  I considered this. The belief among wizards was that the power lines were fading and that was why magic was dying. Some areas still have more energy than others—such as the ley lines in the Welsh countryside. From what Naomi was saying, the entire theory would have to be reassessed.

  “What happened to the crystals?” Kelly asked.

  “Destroyed. Just like I said. Ravenwood isn’t going to be recaptured that way.”

  “So you let us waste time looking for the Alyshian?”

  “I told Jonathan the crystals were destroyed. I’m letting Al and Frank waste time on that. The only reason I even called Frank was because I figured Lina would call him. It’s best to have them searching for the crystal because they would be liabilities if they came in contact with Ravenwood. Al already knows this, or he wouldn’t have cleared everyone out of DGI.”

  “And why did you send us there?” I asked.

  “I didn’t. You and Kelly just left me here with your pretty, little ghost. Silly me, I figured if I told you Al was at DGI that Kelly wouldn’t want to go anywhere near there.”

  “You think I’m afraid of them?” Kelly asked.

  “If I were you, I would be.”

  “You’re not me.”

  “Hold on a second. You said Al knows this, but he doesn’t think Ravenwood is actually free. He was worried about the possibility.”

  Naomi sighed. “When I called Frank about the Sekutar, Al was with him. So I figured I’d best come clean about Ravenwood being free.”

  “I think you’re all in this together,” Kelly said.

  Naomi sighed. “Think what you want, Kelly. Al and Frank didn’t want to believe Ravenwood was free, but they agreed to take precautions anyway.”

  “So are they still wasting time looking for the crystal, or did you tell them about that part too?” I asked.

  “I didn’t tell them about the crystals,” Naomi said. “The only person at DGI who knows about that is Anselma, but so far as I know, she’s still in Zurich. So yes, I think they’re looking for the crystal. What else would they be doing?”

  “Working with Ravenwood, perhaps?” Kelly said.

  “Oh, that’s priceless. Next you’re going to accuse me of working with him.”

  “Wow, and you’re psychic too.”

  “Ravenwood killed my parents!”

  I looked at Kelly. “To work with him, she’d have to be able to see him or at least hear him. Right?”

  Kelly shrugged. “How the hell should I know?”

  “She couldn’t see Esther, so how could she see Ravenwood?”

  “Maybe she uses the crystals.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you that the crystals were all destroyed?” Naomi said.

  “And who told us that?” Kelly asked and gave Naomi an accusatory look. “Why should we believe anything you say? Why shouldn’t I just kill you now?”

  I stepped between them and grabbed Kelly by the upper arms. She could have tossed me aside, but she simply stared past me at Naomi. “There’s been enough death for one day,” I said.

  Kelly nodded. She looked over at the bodies still sprawled on the floor. “She’s playing us, Jonathan.”

  “I know you think so, but I’m not convinced.”

  “You could be standing on the gallows and she could be putting the noose around your neck and you’d still be, ‘Oh no, Naomi would never do anything to hurt me.’ When are you going to wake up?”

  “Can we deal with this tomorrow?”

  “Far better to deal with it now.”

  “No, right now we should deal with the bodies of your students.”

  She grew silent for a moment. “You’re right.”

  I looked at the fallen women. “What do we do with them?” I asked.

  “I’ll handle it. Just help me get them to the back room. I’ll notify their families.”

  “And tell them what, exactly?”

  Kelly didn’t answer. I wasn’t not sure the magnitude of the situation had hit us until that moment. I think we were all in shock. We couldn’t tell anyone the truth. Nobody would believe it. But how could we explain twelve women dying—one with a broken neck and the others w
ho simply stopped living?

  “I’ll have to think about that,” Kelly said. She shook her head, and for the first time since I’d met her, Kelly Chan looked completely lost.

  We all started toward the bodies, but Kelly spun and shoved Naomi back.

  “You aren’t worthy enough to touch them,” Kelly said.

  Naomi just nodded. “I’m sorry,” she said. As she stared at the bodies, I thought the ramifications of what she’d helped to set in motion were weighing on her. I saw tears in her eyes as she turned away, and I wanted to go to her, but Kelly and I had other business to handle.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  That night, I tossed and turned on Kelly’s couch. We agreed that it was best to stay close together. Esther stood in the center of the room, keeping a watchful, if ghostly, eye on everything. Should Ravenwood put in an appearance, she would wake me. I couldn’t get the image out of my mind of Ravenwood pointing and having eleven women drop dead.

  Naomi slept in a sleeping bag on Kelly’s bedroom floor. Kelly refused to allow her to use the bed. I figured we’d done a great job getting Kelly to let Naomi stay there at all. Meanwhile, Kelly walked patrols around the building. She wouldn’t be able to see Ravenwood, but she could spot any Sekutar warriors who might want to pay us a visit. It made her feel proactive.

  Instead of sleeping, I ran questions through my mind. How deep was Naomi involved in this mess? Did it include other wizards? Since Ravenwood was so powerful, why was he wasting time checking me out, and why was he interested in Naomi? Did he think she had the crystal or crystals? Had they actually been destroyed? If not, could they be used to trap him again? If that wasn’t an option, could he be killed? My first thought was that if he possessed someone, maybe we could kill that person and he would die too, but I knew that was crap because Margie died and he wasn’t affected. How do you stop someone who can simply point at people and make them die? How do you kill something that’s already dead?

  Sadly that last question was one that I often wrestled with in my line of work. So many questions. My head felt about to explode. I sat up and rubbed my temples.

  “You should be sleeping,” Esther said.

  “I wish I could.”

  “You didn’t ask me, but I want you to know that I agree with Kelly. I think that Dumb Dora in there is trouble with a capital T.”

  “Noted. But I think she’s on our side.”

  “You would.” Esther moved closer. “Why don’t you walk away?”

  “I don’t think that’s an option anymore.”

  “You think that creep who slapped me will come after you?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. He called me a necromancer.”

  “Some palooka who can raise the dead? Maybe he thinks that because you can see him. And me too.”

  “But necromancers control the dead.”

  “He doesn’t know you can’t.”

  “I don’t see how that helps us.”

  “It might be berries for later.”

  “I doubt it. Too many things don’t make sense to me.” I leaned back on the sofa.

  “At least you’re thinking about them. Now get some shut-eye.”

  “I think I’ll check on Naomi first.”

  I rolled off the couch. The bedroom door stood slightly ajar. I pushed it open a bit farther. Naomi sat up in the sleeping bag.

  “You can’t sleep either?” I asked.

  “Not a wink. You talking to the ghost out there?”

  “Yeah,” I said and entered the room. I closed the door behind myself.

  “I thought I heard you speaking. Seemed kinda odd hearing only one side of a conversation.”

  I sat down on the edge of Kelly’s bed.

  Naomi looked up at me with sad eyes. “You think I’m out to hurt you,” she said. It was not a question.

  “Don’t confuse Kelly’s accusations with my beliefs.”

  “You did stand up for me a bit. That was nice.”

  “Don’t call me nice,” I said.

  “I like nice.”

  “Nice is boring.”

  She smiled and rose to put her arms around my neck. “I could use a healthy dose of boring right about now.” She kissed me.

  “My kind of bored,” I said.

  She kissed me again then pulled off her shirt. “Let’s see how boring we can be.”

  I shook my head. “Sorry.”

  I pushed her back a bit. There was no way I could make love with her until I knew the true reality of our situation.

  “Really?” she said.

  “Get some sleep.”

  I left her there and returned to the living room without looking back.

  “You all right?” Esther asked.

  I didn’t answer. I stretched out on the couch and went to sleep.

  When I woke up, I felt I hadn’t had any rest at all. Clearly hours had passed. Kelly sat at the dining room table with her hand on the typewriter as she spoke in whispers with Esther. I strained to hear them but couldn’t make out any words. So I sat up, pretending to be ready to face the new day.

  “What’s for breakfast?” I asked.

  “Whatever you fix,” Kelly said.

  “I miss my old breakfast of joe and sinkers,” Esther said, looking wistful.

  “Coffee and doughnuts? Sounds good to me.” I rubbed my face. “I’ll make a run to the shop, but first I want a shower.”

  “I, for one, would appreciate that,” Kelly said.

  “Me taking a shower or me getting doughnuts?”

  She just smiled. It was good to see her smile. After last evening, I wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to smile again.

  To get to the shower, I had to pass through the bedroom. I eased the door open so as not to wake Naomi. I stepped into the room and saw that there was no reason to be quiet.

  Naomi was gone.

  “I didn’t see her leave,” Esther said.

  “She’s better than I thought,” Kelly said. “It’s not that easy to slip past me.”

  “Did she slip past, or was she abducted?” I held up her cell phone. “This was on the nightstand.”

  “As if that means anything?” Kelly said. “Your little head is doing all your thinking.”

  “Not all my thinking.”

  “Just couldn’t keep it in your pants, could you?”

  “Actually I did keep it in my pants, but that—”

  My cell phone rang. I hoped it was Naomi, but when I checked the caller ID, it read Sharon.

  “Took you longer than a few hours,” I said, happy for the distraction.

  “Your request was not a simple one,” Sharon said.

  “What did you find?”

  “Nothing real.”

  “I don’t understand. What do you mean nothing?”

  “Nada, zilch, zero information. I checked everywhere, which is why it took so long. I even checked the Forbidden Texts at great risk to my personal well-being, so I can tell you with absolute authority that there is no mention of a Blake Ravenwood anywhere in any historical record in any part of this world or in any time period.”

  “So you were thorough.”

  “I’m a librarian.”

  “You said nothing real.”

  “I found one book of mythology in the Forbidden Texts that mentioned Blake Ravenwood as something along the lines of the Bloody Mary urban legend.”

  “Can I have you check a few other things?”

  Kelly and Esther looked at me impatiently, but I turned away from them. I didn’t know what to make of Naomi’s being gone, but I knew I still needed more information, and maybe it could prove useful.

  “You already owe me Rockies tickets,” Sharon said.

  “And two silver dollars for your collection, I know. Just run a quick check for me on an artifact called the Alyshian Crystal.”

  “You’ll have to spell that.”

  I did.

  I heard her fingers clicking away on a keyboard.

  “You sure about the spelling?”


  “Pretty sure.”

  “I’ll try a few variations, but I’m getting nothing on a preliminary search. You want me to go deeper?”