Secrets of Windwood, page 5
“The next thing you know, you’ll have me stick my tongue to a freezing pole.” He snatched the hundred-dollar bill from her. “It says, I have spilt my own blood to curse you, Solomon, and your house. My blood is now part of the very soil on which this house rests. As long as Windwood stands, so shall I. From this day forward, every last Lord, from now through eternity, will be struck down. Horrible torments and terrible tribulations await all of you.”
“Okay, so you know what it says.”
Gideon gave her an I-told-you-so smile.
“I know you didn’t bring me here for a history lesson, or to teach me Italian, so tell me the real reason I’m here.”
“We are going to contact Luna ourselves. She was kept in this room, which should make contact with her all the easier. I snuck into Calvin’s office during the reception and found this.” He showed her a tattered leather book with a large gold pentacle engraved on its cover.
“And she’d help you, why?”
“I’ll promise to restore her body. In exchange, she gets rid of Simon for me.” Gideon smiled.
“You know what? I think you’re insane. I want no part of this. You’re so obsessed with Simon, I’m beginning to think you’re in love with him.” She began to walk away.
“Nola, please. I need your help. I can’t do this alone. I have to stop Simon and Georgia from having children, or the curse Luna placed on Solomon will pass to my grandchildren.” He caught her by the arm and pulled her into a kiss.
“All right, I’ll help you. Just stop begging. It’s very unflattering. God, I need my head examined.”
CHAPTER 7
Payback Time
Gideon smiled and dropped to the floor. Sitting Indian style, he pulled Nola down by the wrists. He opened the book, which was also written in Italian, and began to search for the right spell.
Halfway through the book, he said, “Here we go!”
In a thunderous voice, Gideon began the incantation, which seemed to be a mix of different dialects. Nola began to get chills and felt uneasy as a mass of cold air enveloped them.
“Stop it, Gideon! I can’t breathe. Feels like something’s clawing at my chest, trying to get inside me.” She shrieked, and her eyes became black as coal.
“Nola, Nola.” He stared at her in awe.
“Hello, Gideon. It’s been a long time,” a distorted voice said.
“Who are you?” he said, his eyes wide.
“You don’t remember me? I was only your father-in-law,” the spirit said, staring blankly.
“Marshall?”
“I’ve waited almost a hundred years to face you again.”
“I didn’t summon you,” Gideon scratched his head.
“You might want to brush up on your spirit summoning, for you’re going to need more than a book to reach her.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You cast an amateur spell that called on every spirit that could hear it, and I was the strongest and able to break through.” He cackled. “A hundred years ago, you took something that meant more to me than anything in the world. I find it only fair that I return the favor.”
“What are you going to do?”
“You’ll see.”
The room became warmer.
Blinking, and shaking her head, Nola said, “Gideon, what happened?”
“I’m not sure.”
***
Ginny heard the gunshots. She heard Georgia scream, and saw the police take Andrea into custody. Yet through it all, her father was nowhere to be found. Once again, the house fell eerily silent.
Ginny stood before the dresser, staring at the mirror, and began to take out the baby’s breath to let her hair down. Now all she wanted to do was get into a nice hot bath, relax, and forget about everything that happened tonight.
“I’ve drawn you a bath and left some fresh towels for you on the hamper,” Charlene said. “If you need anything else, I’ll be out in the hall.” She smiled from the doorway. “For the record, it was a beautiful wedding.”
Her young face was vibrant. Her golden hair shone, and her smile was worth a million bucks.
“Thank you, Charlene.”
The young girl nodded and closed the door.
Ginny unzipped her teal gown and let it slide to the floor. After stepping out of it, she drifted to the bathroom, where she dropped her black panties and left the matching bra on the doorknob.
“That’s more like it.” She eased into the warm water in the clawfoot bathtub. “Ahhh. I could get used to this.” Eyes closed, she laid her head against the back of the tub.
Her mind was working overtime as the events of the evening replayed over and over again. Where was her father? Where was her sister? And most important, who got shot?
Exhausted, she began to fall asleep, when something tried to pull her underwater.
“Someone help me!” she screamed, holding onto the sides of the tub.
The force continued to tug at her feet, harder and harder, until her hands finally slipped, sending her beneath the water.
Water splashed over the sides of the tub, soaking the linoleum floor and trickling out into the bedroom as she thrashed toward the top. Ginny could no longer hold her breath or fight this being off. She had accepted her fate, when a hand reached down and pulled her out by the hair.
“Miss Blake, are you all right?” Charlene reached for a towel.
“Something’s trying to kill me.” She gasped while gripping Charlene’s arm.
“Hurry up. Let’s get you out of here.” Charlene held open a large mint-green towel.
“Thank you!”
As Ginny went to step out of the tub, the force pulled her all the way under until she disappeared.
“Miss Blake! Miss Blake!” Charlene reached into the tub.
Still unable to grasp what she just saw, she ran out of the room, screaming.
Gideon rushed down the hall. “Charlene, what’s the matter?”
“She’s gone! Mister Blake, your daughter’s gone.” The girl was trembling.
“What do you mean, gone?” He looked into the bedroom.
“The bathtub swallowed her,” she whispered. “I heard her screaming, and I rushed in to find her underwater. I thought she’d fallen asleep and slipped. I helped her up and then watched her vanish before my eyes. I’m sorry, Mister Blake. I’ve had enough of this loony bin. I’m going back to Mobile.” She turned and ran down the hall.
“Ginny!” Gideon called out into the bedroom.
“She’s gone someplace you’ll never find her,” Marshall said.
With his hands in his face, Gideon sank to his knees and bawled. If only his hatred for the Lord family hadn’t got the best of him, his daughter would still be here. What if Marshall wanted to go after Georgia, too? He had to cut Georgia out of his life completely to save her from a similar fate.
“Nola!” he screamed out into the hallway. “Nola, please hurry.” He stepped back into the bedroom.
“What is it? You look like you’ve ate some bad sushi.”
“Marshall’s done something to Ginny,” he whispered, as he strode over to the nightstand.
He pulled out a stationery and a pen, and shoved it at her.
“Here. I need you to write a letter to Georgia. Convince her that she and Simon are in danger. But most importantly, make her leave Solomon’s Wake.”
“Isn’t this a bit drastic?” Nola pushed a strand of blonde hair out of her face.
Gideon glared at her with his cold, dark eyes, and left the room without saying a word.
***
The blonde woman drove her gold Tempo down I-73, toward Channing’s compound in West Virginia. Most of the cars flew by her with ease, a good number of the drivers honking or flipping her the bird. It wasn’t her fault the transmission went out and the car wouldn’t go past forty.
She reached for her car phone and dialed the number. A man answered on the second ring.
“It’s done,” she said. “Gideon released the spirit of Marshall. Andrea Lord has discovered her son Simon’s secret, and I have Nola in the trunk.”
“Very good, my dear. You shall be handsomely rewarded.” He hung up.
“You’re welcome.”
As she continued to drive, she couldn’t help but feel like she had seen that house before, even the people in it. Only, she couldn’t remember anything about her past. And every time she tried, she became more frustrated. For all she knew, her name wasn’t even Lila.
Rather than get upset, she turned the radio on to hear her favorite song, Madonna’s “Crazy for You,” and began to sing at the top of her lungs as the other cars whizzed by.
CHAPTER 8
Sins of the Father
It was almost six, and Toni was still wide awake. That her granddaughter, Carla, still wasn’t home didn’t help her insomnia. Instead of lying there, she got up, strode over to a large closet with sliding mirror doors, and yanked back a bunch of dresses, coats, and stoles to reveal a door made of Scottish silver, the strongest metal known to man—nothing supernatural could penetrate it.
Toni began to look at some of the things she had in the vault. Clothes hung on a long metal rack by the door. They included a flapper gown, a wedding dress from 1735, and a pair of gloves worn by Grigori Rasputin. She even kept the mallet that Dr. Van Helsing had used to finally destroy Count Dracula, locked in a glass case. This stuff was all trivial compared to the other objects in the room.
One of her more spine-chilling oddities was kept under a velvet shroud in a huge, enchanted glass box. She had not laid eyes on it in years because it frightened her and raised too many questions about her own lineage.
Toni moved around the large case and stepped on her shoelace. To keep her balance, she grabbed the shroud, pulling it off, and revealed the severed head of a beautiful woman.
“Now you’ve done it. You won’t sleep for days.”
Toni put the cover back over the case, and couldn’t help but stare at the name engraved on a silver plate at the bottom of the glass—Ivana, Baroness of Zorn.
Ivana Zorn and her entire family were the scourge of the earth. They reveled in the ways of black magic, devilry, and vampirism, and they terrorized Bavaria for years. Yes, the Zorn’s were a bad brood whose ferocious bloodlust led to their undoing. They were so wicked while alive that they continued to haunt the living after death.
One night, in the late 17th century, a brave man set out to rid Bavaria of these demons once and for all. He trapped and decapitated every last Zorn in the cemetery except two, Ivana and her brother, Xander, who could not be found. The surviving vampires sought refuge in the castle, but the man burned it down with them in it. One by one, they came out and he finished them off. Eventually, Ivana met her demise, but Xander had never surfaced.
Toni hurried up with the cover and crossed the room.
She reached for a switch that turned on a bunch of monitors she had built into the wall. One showed her the driveway out in front of the house. Another showed the hallway, kitchen, and living room. And the other three showed the underwater prison of her fallen comrades.
One room in particular was of great interest—the one that contained the golden sarcophagus and the only thing capable of destroying the vampires, witches, and werewolves. As long as that coffin remained sealed, the threat was minimized. Thankfully, as she scrutinized the surroundings on the screen, there were no signs of it opening anytime soon.
Toni let out a sigh of relief and was glad Carla had talked her into getting the cameras, or she’d have to travel out to the lake every night and open the door to make sure the coffin was secure and that there were no intruders inside the chamber. The accursed object had been in the possession of the Monarchs since it ended up in the ocean after the Titanic sank.
Toni continued to stare at the screens as she thought of the other evil trinket stored in the vault. Also buried in it was another small box made of the same silver of the door, and lined with black satin. She plucked the box from the shelf, opened it and reached inside to pull out a beautiful blue diamond pendant. She held it up to the light and watched as it glistened and danced under the fluorescents. She gasped as the ugly face of Luna appeared inside the gem.
“You will not win this time. Your spirit will never rise again to hurt anyone.” Toni dropped the necklace in her pocket and took off toward the river.
This pendant was also known as the Zorn necklace. It had belonged to Ivana, her mother, and Luna, who was a Zorn by birth. The necklace was the cause of great turmoil through the centuries, as it brought misery and destruction to anyone who wore it.
On the edge of the embankment, Toni reached into her pocket, pulled out the long chain, and with all her might, hurled the pendant into the Aurora.
“Game over, Luna.” Toni smiled as she watched the diamond sink until she could no longer see it in the murky water.
“Dare I ask what that was?” Gideon came up behind her, wearing gray sweatpants and a white undershirt.
“Nothing you need to be concerned with.” She turned around and saw the condition he was in. “What happened to you? Have you been crying?”
As Toni looked at his puffy eyes and disheveled hair, as well as the condition of his clothes, the Gideon she knew was nowhere to be found.
“I’m leaving, and I suggest you do, too.” He reached behind his ear to pull out a Marlboro, lit it, and took such a long drag it made her chest hurt.
“We can’t leave, and you know this. As the only two members of The Order remaining, we’re bound by duty to stay. The Monarchs will behead us for high treason, burn us at the stake, or throw us down the mine with the others. Have you forgotten what we were all sent here to do?”
“No, I haven’t!” He put his cigarette out. “Look around you, Toni!” He spun around. “The Monarchs are in slumber, Lord knows where. And who knows if they’ll ever wake up. The last vampire member of The Order is long gone. The werewolves are scattered, and their numbers dwindled. And you witches are down to a few. For what reason on earth would you want to stay?”
“The golden sarcophagus with the face of a young pharaoh on it, that’s why. Your pack master and his followers tried to open it, and that’s why you got the job of watching over it.”
“It was also the day the virus first manifested and infected my whole pack, and started a war that almost killed all of us.”
“Then you know we cannot leave.” Toni sat on the grass and motioned him to follow. “Our whole purpose for being here is to protect that tomb and keep it out of the hands of those who want to do us harm. The Monarchs instructed us to—
“Our beloved Monarchs are the reason for all this!” He jumped up. “They brought that coffin here, believing that inside was a talisman that would enable someone to bring the dead back to life. Instead, we found Pandora’s Box. Like the legend says, it unleashed evil on the world the first time. However, if it’s opened again, it’ll put evil back. And in doing so, take every magical, mythical, and supernatural being with it.”
“We still don’t know if that’s true. Regardless of how it came about, we are responsible for it until we are informed otherwise.”
“I’m done with all of this. I don’t care if that tomb opens, or if the Commies find it. Channing is back, and he’s coming for us. I must protect my family. So as far as Georgia believes, I’m dead.” He looked at Toni with tears streaming down his face.
“I knew it! He escaped from the tomb earlier, didn’t he?” She stood and moved closer to him.
“Yes, but I didn’t know until much later.” He wouldn’t look at her.
“You’re still a lying son of a bitch, and as selfish as ever.” She grabbed him and spun him around to face her. “He’s your son, and the reason for half this mess. I helped you trap him down there, and you were going to leave without telling me he was out and about, leaving me to fend for myself? This is how you repay me for saving your ass with the Monarchs, and for telling you about that book?”
“Toni, we’ve done all we can. Everything has been secured. There’s nothing left for us to do, and no one to guide us. Channing is not going to be happy with us. You know as well as I do what he’s capable of. Don’t make the mistake I did and wait around for him to make a move.” He took Toni’s hands and looked her in the eyes. “I’m gonna sorta miss this place, and your nagging.” He tipped her chin and strode off down the beach.
Slowly, she made her way back to the inn, taking to heart everything Gideon had told her. What if Channing did come for Carla, or he managed to get into the tomb? There was no way she could defend herself alone, or protect the town.
A group of schoolchildren whizzed by on their bikes and waved to Toni. As she continued on, she got a cold chill down her back, which caused her to stop and turn around. She looked up to see Windwood, the imposing monument of timber and stone looming over Solomon’s Wake. Right then, she realized that everything going on in town was caused by that house and the people that had inhabited it for over two hundred years.
“You are right, Gideon. It’s time for me to go. The sins of our fathers will not fall on our children.”
Toni kept on moving and didn’t look back.
CHAPTER 9
A Homecoming
Present Day
Old Windwood was quiet as Aaron Sutton cleared the dinner dishes from the dining room table like he had done for the past thirty-something years. He was the only servant to remain at the manor. The others had left long ago, along with most of the family.
The elderly servant shuffled to the back of the house, toward the kitchen, passing all the empty walls where Picassos and Monets once hung, with only the white silhouettes of distant memories left behind. Aaron placed the dishes in the sink and began to clear away the night’s dinner. He wrapped up what was left of the catfish and put the slaw in a round container next to the cornbread in the refrigerator. He helped himself to some sweet tea, sat at the small table and was ready to have a biscuit with honey, when a crash down the hall scared him half to death.
