Eddie Lancaster Box Set 2, page 52
part #4 of Eddie Lancaster Series
‘Thank you,’ I said with gratitude. I already had magic now but a bit extra would be a handy boost. Plus, I might have had some other useful things that I’d forgotten about. One never knew. I followed the vampires back into the church. As I looked down at the shredded zombies I remembered the lesson Margie, Ashley’s mum, always used to remind me of — burn the body and scatter the ashes or it might come back.
‘You should probably burn that lot,’ I said to Howard and Amara.
Howard nodded and turned to one of his vampires. ‘Burn the remains.’
Chapter Ten
Nobody was particularly happy as we all trudged back into the church. The fight had been won but it clearly was not the end of the matter, and thanks to our oversight with the magic issue Howard and Amara were now unable to get any answers from the necromancer.
Howard grumbled something and trudged off towards the organ once we were inside. There must have been a door behind it because he went around the instrument and vanished.
‘Don’t mind him. He just needs to think things through. He gets a bit grumpy when things don’t go his way,’ said Amara, giving me a comforting smile. Not that I needed comforting. I had magic again, I was fucking ecstatic. Though I tried to conceal my joy since everyone else was so miserable.
Amara led us to the back of the church where there was a small wooden door just behind the pulpit. It opened soundlessly and I followed her down a narrow, winding stone staircase. If two people encountered each other going in different directions one would have to go back because there would be no getting past on this staircase.
‘Anyone would think you lost that fight,’ Lydia said. Clearly, she was not the sort to keep her thoughts to herself.
‘This victory was a hollow one,’ said Amara. She didn’t sound annoyed. ‘We lost two of our own. Howard and I have always been very selective about who we allow into the Canterbury group. Every vampire was hand chosen. We know all of them personally. So, when we lose one we feel it.’
‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ I said genuinely. Having very recently lost my girlfriend I knew how hard it hit you when someone you loved was torn away. Although, it actually wasn’t that recent anymore since Malek had thrown me a year and a half into the future. Time travel was a real mind fuck.
‘Thank you.’ We reached the bottom of the stairs and Amara took us off down a dauntingly long corridor. The stone walls met in an arch above our heads. This place was old. And huge. I’d expected a cellar, not a fortress.
‘Since the Exposure, we’ve been under more pressure to keep things quiet here in Kent. If the vampires make too much noise, draw too much negative attention, then the government will pass stricter laws on us. Fighting in the open is exactly the sort of thing we cannot afford to do. These necromancers are risking everything and they don’t even seem to care,’ Amara said in frustration. We passed several wooden doors and went down many turns. This place was a labyrinth. If Amara wasn’t such a friendly lady I would’ve thought we were being led into a trap.
‘They don’t care because all the heat is on you,’ I said. The media hasn’t mentioned them once. No laws will be passed on them.’
‘Maybe that’s what they want. To get the government to crack down on you,’ suggested Lydia.
Amara stopped outside a plain brown door that matched all of the others I’d seen so far. She turned back to us and shook her head. ‘No, I think they want to scare us with that. If we’re scared we’ll be more likely to side with them. Howard and I do not scare easily. We’ve survived greater foes than a band of necromancers. We don’t fear them and we don’t fear the government. But any kind of war, be it with humans or necromancers, will cost our kind. Vampires will die. That is something that we take very seriously.’ It was refreshing to see leaders like Howard and Amara. The only master vampires I’d met before had been Sebastian and Aldric, and neither one of them seemed to care about the loss of their people. Their followers had just been pawns to them.
‘For what it’s worth, if I was a vampire I would follow you guys,’ I said. As soon as the words left my mouth I cringed. It was far too soppy and not something I’d usually say. I don’t know what had come over me. Had death turned me all sentimental? I hoped not.
Amara looked at me with a twinkle in her eyes. ‘I’m glad you’re not, Eddie Lancaster. I’ve heard your quite a problem causer.’ Before I could get offended by Amara’s comment, Lydia burst out laughing. Her laughter echoed up and down the small corridor, bouncing back off the walls around us. It was quite a sound effect.
‘This is where Gabe lives.’ She took out a key and unlocked the door for me. ‘I’ll wait outside. Please be respectful. This is his home.’
‘Of course,’ I assured her, and then stepped inside.
I’d been expecting a single room, but he had a small underground flat down here. I was in a living room. A corner sofa occupied one corner of the room, a huge television took up most of the opposite wall. Gabe had always had an expensive taste and that showed in the rich rug that stretched across the stone floor. I wondered how old it was, he had a thing for antiques. I couldn’t see anywhere in the living room where he might have stored my things so I moved over to the other two doors in the room.
One led to a bathroom so I closed it straight away. The other was his bedroom. A stately four-poster bed dominated the centre of the room. All of the furniture looked like it was antique. I wondered if that had been Gabe’s choice or if all the rooms were furnished the same way. I walked over to yet another door and pulled it open. A walk-in wardrobe. Ashley had always wanted a walk-in wardrobe. I wondered if she had one in the Dead Realm.
I glanced around and my eyes fell on a large cardboard box tucked under the shelving at the back. On the side, he’d written my name in neat lettering. I dropped to the floor and slid the box into the open. He’d kept so much stuff. Books, potion ingredients, enchanted objects that I’d gathered. There was even the tie I’d worn to Ashley’s funeral. There was no box of magic, though. It didn’t really matter now because I had magic, but still. It would’ve been handy. It was silly of me to even think there would be any magic here. I would never have left some lying around. I would have put it under so many protection spells that nobody would ever have been able to find it. Then again, those protection spells would have died with me.
I was closing the box up when I saw something. One of my old business cards from when I whored out my magical services. Arcane Incorporated. What a pretentious name. It must be the master copy. I’d only ever created one business card, I’d used magic to replicate it whenever I gave them out. The replications never lasted long, I couldn’t make something out of nothing even with magic. But they lasted long enough for people to use them. I reached in and plucked the card out only to discover that it was not my business card. It was plain except for the words: Zeke the Wizard.
I’d met him years before I’d come to Maidstone. He’d helped me get away from Rachel. He’d given me the idea for Arcane Inc. too. He was a bloody good wizard if a little snooty towards warlocks. That was a thing about other sorcerers, they all hated warlocks. He’d given me the card and told me to call him if I ever needed him. His specialty was… finding magical objects. A light bulb flashed to life in my head. Zeke would be bloody useful right now. He could help me find the Ambrotos Dagger.
I pocketed the card, returned the box to where I’d found it and then left. I considered leaving Gabe a note but I had no idea what to write.
Hi Gabe, sorry I missed you. I popped back from the dead real quick. See you on the other side if you ever happen to die. Eddie.
Yeah, I didn’t think he’d appreciate that note so much. Amara and Lydia were waiting outside. Amara locked the door and then walked us back out of the church.
‘What now?’ said Lydia.
‘I don’t know about you, but I am famished,’ I said. And I knew just the place to get something to eat.
Chapter Eleven
I stood on the side of the road staring up at the old stone building called the Muggleton Inn. It had been so long since I’d sat inside the grubby, mouse-infested, public house which also served as the supernatural hangout for the magical communities of Maidstone. Just looking at the grim bricks of the establishment, I could feel my mouth watering. It had been too long since I’d tasted the most delicious buttermilk chicken burger in the world. I hadn’t actually had a buttermilk chicken burger anywhere else so I couldn’t really make that comparison. The food at Muggs was pretty generic and almost certainly precooked and frozen. Still, I’d been in this place almost daily before dying. It was like another home to me. The staff were like relatives. Distant relatives. Not siblings, more like second cousins. Actually, that wasn’t really true, I could only name two of them.
‘This place is a shit hole,’ Lydia said, completely ruining the moment I was having with the pub.
‘Have you ever even been here?’ I said hotly. I took her criticism far too personally. An insult to my favourite establishment was an insult to me.
‘Uh, yeah… I live in Maidstone,’ she told me as if it was obvious and I was just supposed to know that.
‘Really? A Nephilim living in Maidstone? Odd.’
‘No more odd that a warlock living here. My mum lived here. Malek slipped her the d. Nine months later here I was,’ she explained. ‘At least I was born here. You just migrated.’
‘Being born in Maidstone is not some great honour, you know,’ I informed her. The place was alright at best. Certainly nothing to brag about. I was born in Surrey which was infinitely better.
‘We going in then, or are we gonna wait out here until your time runs out?’
‘Well… I’m not actually allowed in. Technically.’ After I’d teamed up with Nickolas Blackwood and then turned Maidstone into a war zone, the landlord, Bobby, had barred me for life. It was a shame because he’d just installed a plaque in my honour in my favourite booth. Before teaming up with Blackwood I’d actually defended the pub against the vampires of the Syndicate.
‘You’re a warlock who literally came back from the dead and you’re working for Lucifer, lord of the dead, and you’re scared of going into a pub because the landlord doesn’t like you? Get in there before I throw you in there.’
I turned to her and snorted but the way she looked back at me told me that she really would throw me in there. I had sacrificed myself for the greater good in the end so maybe Bobby had forgiven me. Fat chance. Bobby wasn’t really the forgiving sort. Still, the worst that would happen was I’d be thrown out again. I could handle that. And even if they killed me Malek would just send me back until I’d done the job or my time ran out.
I walked up to the door and one of the unfamiliar bouncers pulled it open for me. These bouncers were unlike the old ones in more than just appearance. The old ones were specially trained to deal with supernatural beings. They’d been given enchanted weaponry and items that enhanced their own speed and strength. I couldn’t detect a whiff of magical ability on these ones and there were no obvious weapons in sight. It didn’t make sense for Bobby to have decreased security after the Exposure.
‘Last call soon,’ the bouncer told me as I walked in. I had no idea what time it was. It was dark so I knew it was night. That was the extent of my knowledge. If it was last call soon then it must be close to midnight unless Bobby had changed the opening hours.
Nothing about the pub was different. It had the same dated decor that Bobby had replaced even after the pub had been almost destroyed in a vampire attack.
Nervously, I walked up to the bar. I was ready for my confrontation with Bobby. I recognised the girl working on the bar. She was in her thirties and had rough, blonde hair. I didn’t know her name, I’d always known her as barmaid. Awful of me, I know. She looked up and froze. The expression, deer in headlights came to mind.
‘Fuck me,’ she said in total shock. It wasn’t every day you saw a dead guy walk into your place of work.
‘Not now, I don’t really have the time and I’m kind of famished. Nothing like a night of fighting against and with vampires to build up an appetite,’ I said. I heard Lydia groan in embarrassment at my attempt at humour.
‘You’re dead,’ the barmaid said. It was a good thing it was a quiet night or there would have been a lot of angry customers not getting served because she was too busy staring at me.
‘Yeah, well, not at the moment. I’ve come back for a little encore,’ I explained.
‘Can you get over the shock and serve us. We haven’t got all night,’ Lydia snapped, leaning around me to get in the girl’s face.
‘No need to be rude,’ I said under my breath. Lydia glared at me.
‘Listen,’ I said to the barmaid, as I gently moved Lydia away from the bar. I tried to move her anyway but she wouldn’t budge and she was stronger than me so I had to give up. ‘I know Bobby barred me and all, but—’
‘Oh, Bobby’s gone. He sold this place and retired. We’re part of a big pub chain now,’ the barmaid said. The news didn’t affect me in the slightest but for some reason, I felt saddened by it. I always thought Bobby loved his pub and would never sell it.
‘Why did he sell?’ I asked.
‘Said he wanted to move to Spain. It was his childhood dream, apparently.’
‘To live in Spain?’ I said judgementally. She shrugged.
‘What can I get you?’
‘Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten my order?’ I said in mock horror. Every member of the bar staff in Muggs knew that I came here for one dish and one dish only. The buttermilk chicken burger.
She shook her head apologetically, chewing on her bottom lip. ‘That’s not on the new menu.’ She pulled a massive sheet of paper which apparently served as the menu from under the bar and handed it to me. I studied the paper in silence, searching for my favourite burger. I actually thought I would find the necessary evidence to prove her wrong, but it was not to be. After a moment of sorrow, and some threats from Lydia, I ordered the all-day brunch instead. She ordered the same and then we headed to my booth at the back. There was a couple sitting in it but a look from Lydia sent them packing pretty sharpish.
‘So where do you think this dagger is then?’ she asked. She shoved a handful of chips into her mouth with all the grace of a dumper truck without any tyres. It was a rare thing to find a girl who didn’t care about eating so sloppily in front of a guy. Most girls tended to cover their mouths with their hands while they chewed. I’d always found that peculiar.
I shook my head as I considered the options. ‘Alliance of Covens might have taken it.’
‘There is no Alliance of Covens anymore. Not how it used to be anyway. It’s not called that,’ she said, shovelling more food into her gaping maw. ‘After the Exposure, they had to change things up. That woman with the school took over and all the Covens just answer to her now. Not much of an alliance though.’
‘What woman with the school?’ I asked. There had been no woman with a school when I’d been around.
‘The old woman. Sharon Demelta or something like that.’ She waved a hand as if it was unimportant.
‘Shirley Demelza?’ I said in surprise. She was the least likely candidate to take over from Clara. The whole governing thing bored and frustrated her. She was the leader of the Medway Coven but that was as far as she ever wanted to go.
‘Yeah, that’s her. She opened up some school for magic kids in a village in Medway. Then they voted her Dynast for Kent.’ Dynast was the title given to a coven leader.
‘Strange. I assumed Arthur Winters would have taken over. He was in charge of the Cedarstone Coven.’ Cedarstone was the supernatural capital of Kent. That had probably changed after I’d blown the centre of it up. More than the centre from the things I’d heard since dying.
‘Well, there is no Cedarstone, therefore no Cedarstone Coven. Plus, they had a vote and picked their leader that way. Arthur ain’t in charge of nothing.’ I said nothing about the appalling grammar she’d just hit me with.
‘We’ll need to visit Shirley in the morning. If she’s the chief sorcerer in Kent then she’s most likely to know where the Ambrotos Dagger went.’ I took a sip of my drink as I thought about where else it might have gone. The government could have taken it. They’d want to learn as much about such an item as possible. Maybe even try to weaponise it themselves.
The warlocks could have taken it to try and make themselves immortal. Or even try to use it to resurrect Nickolas Blackwood. He’d used it for a resurrection in the past I’d heard.
On the other hand, the dagger could still be in Cedarstone. If the town was as dangerous as I’d been told it was then nobody would have been able to survive venturing in to retrieve the dagger. But the idea of a weapon that could create immortals and kill anything being left abandoned in the street seemed unlikely.
I remembered Zeke’s card which I’d taken from Gabe’s room. I reached into my stolen blazer and pulled out the card.
‘What’s that?’ asked Lydia, not that she seemed all that interested.
‘This is the means to contact someone who might be able to help us. He specialises in finding enchanted items,’ I told her. I didn’t even know if Zeke was still in business, or alive. It had been years since I’d seen him. He could’ve died, or been taken prisoner, or even moved away. He had a lot of dealings in the Fairy Realm so it was entirely possible that he’d moved there.
‘Well, fucking use it then!’ Lydia snapped. ‘We’re on a countdown numbnuts.’
She had an excellent point so I didn’t bother to argue. I held the card away from my food and with a single thought, I set it ablaze. Orange flames licked at the card, consuming it until dust fell through my fingers and the card was no more.
I looked around, expecting Zeke to simply appear. But that was obviously impossible. Sorcerers couldn’t teleport. I’d never seen any do it, at least. I’d only ever seen warlocks do it and it took a lot of power to pull it off. I used to be able to do it. Until I’d died and lost all the beautiful magic I’d gathered over the course of my life.
