Eddie Lancaster Box Set 2, page 56
part #4 of Eddie Lancaster Series
‘So all these people just died so you could catch me?’ A pang of guilt struck my heart even though I knew I was in no way responsible for what had happened here. But coming here had been pointless. It was a waste of time. If I’d just stuck to my plan to go and see Clarke then all these people would still be alive and this cow would still be waiting needlessly in the cemetery.
‘No. These people died so they could be added to my numbers. The larger army wins the war.’ She took a step toward me and I noticed that she had a limp on the more rotten side of her body. It only added to the pirate look she had going on. The knee-length leather coat helped too.
‘What war?’ I asked. ‘The war with the vampires?’
‘Vampires are our natural ally. They are dead like us. We don’t want to slaughter them. They would be a very useful ally on the field.’ Anya’s eye met mine and she smiled again, exposing heavy yellowed teeth. ‘As would you.’
I snorted and shook my head. ‘You think I’d ever team up with you?’
‘You are one of us, Eddie. You were dead and now you have been returned to life. Only you have been fully restored. Our bodies are still dead. How did you do this? Share your secrets with me and I will let you go.’
‘Will you let me go? Because a moment ago you were saying you wanted me to join you,’ I replied. ‘I’m not going to trust a walking corpse, even if it can talk.’
Her eyebrows furrowed in annoyance. It was an expression I was used to seeing. ‘If you tell me your secrets you can go free until my brethren hunt you down. If you join us you can rule at our side.’
‘Rule what? Who are you going to war with?’
She looked out at the cemetery and then lifted her chin to gaze up into the cloud-filled sky. ‘We can rule the whole country.’
‘Ooh! Now I get it. You’re insane,’ I said. I slapped my forehead with my palm as I spoke. Her head snapped to face me, her expression sour.
‘How dare you?’ she snarled viciously. ‘Tell me what I want to know or I’ll kill you.’
‘Kill me if you like. Malek will just send me back again.’
She had been walking towards me but when I said the angel’s name she stopped mid-step. ‘Malek?’ she asked nervously. Her creased brow creased even more and her eye filled with unease.
‘You know him?’ I said. Was that fear? Had she met Malek and now had reason to be afraid of him? She never gave me an answer. Instead, the barrier she’d boxed me in with began to hum and blinding purple light emitted all around me. I tried to conjure up some kind of defence but she was a powerful sorcerer, far more powerful then I was. The magic washed over me like radiation and within seconds I was falling into darkness.
Chapter Seventeen
I woke up sometime later to an empty cemetery. Anya was gone as was her zombie army. The only bodies that remained were those that had been dismembered beyond use. Most of the police officers had been raised up as zombies too. I pulled myself to my feet and looked around at the hundreds of empty graves that surrounded me. As I peered across the cemetery I wondered how the corpses had managed to break out of their coffins which had presumably been nailed closed. The mind comes up with the weirdest questions in times of a crisis.
Flashing lights caught my attention. I looked over and saw several police cars over by the main gates. I wondered if the other cops who were now dead had reported seeing me in the graveyard. Were they looking specifically for me, or just coming to investigate the disturbance? I didn’t hang around to find out. I turned and jogged towards the Pheasant Lane gate. Not one grave that I passed was undisturbed. I shuddered thinking about how large the army of corpses in the necromancers’ thrall now was. Anya alone commanded every corpse from his cemetery. Every corpse except for Ashley’s. It was weird that I was now thankful I’d destroyed her corpse before she could be enlisted in the army of the dead. Did Anya seriously think that with an army of zombies she and her friends would be able to take over the United Kingdom? It not only seemed insane, but it also seemed stupid as well. I was pretty confident that the vampires would be able to put a stop to the scheme if Howard and Amara acted soon. If not, then Shirley could lead her sorcerers against the necromancers. As long as the necromancers were stopped before they were large enough to take over Kent, then their plans would never come to fruition. At least I now had enough information to pass on to Howard, Amara, and Shirley. Maybe it was worth seeking out the werewolf alpha and telling him what was going on. I’d never put much stock in the abilities of werewolves, but maybe I’d underestimated them. No, probably not actually. I wouldn’t bother wasting any time on them. Werewolves were boring, classless, and pointless.
There were no police officers at the Pheasant Lane gate, which was a serious flaw in their efficiency. It helped me out, though. I slipped right out and vanished into town. It took me a while before I saw a taxi I could hail. Then I was off on my way back to the town centre.
Salamanders was exactly as I remembered it. Small and cluttered. Stacks of wooden boxes sporting elephant carvings, piles of incense, and other supernatural memorabilia were placed seemingly at random across the store. I noticed a shelf that boasted real potion ingredients. That had not been there before. I assumed the store owner had made some new additions after the exposure. The store had always sold real ingredients but had never advertised them so blatantly. I went over and perused the contents of the shelf. The items could be used in real spells but it was nothing you couldn’t get from a hundred other places in town. Potions weren’t all about fairy dust and the like, a lot of them just needed everyday herbs.
The guy behind the counter paid no attention as I wandered through the shop and headed to the tapestries at the back. I peeled back the red and gold tapestry and saw the familiar wooden door that led to Clarke’s abode. I turned the handle and stepped into the library that I was very familiar with. It was a small room and every inch of wall was covered with crusty old books. Except for the one space on the opposite side of the room where there stood another wooden door. That door led to Clarke’s home. Or I assumed so. I’d only been through it once when Clarke had taken me through to a living room of sorts.
Clarke was standing with his back to me, scanning one of the shelves. He was a little younger looking than I was and a little shorter. His short light hair was longer than I remembered, he’d let it grow out. He turned as I entered and the book he’d been holding thudded loudly to the floor. Clarke loved his books more than he loved most people so I knew that I was seeing genuine shock.
‘Yeah, I’m alive again,’ I said. It was getting a bit boring having to keep telling people my story but I knew I was going to have to do it again now. ‘Shall I go through?’ I pointed at the door to the rear of the room. If any conversation was deserving of a trip to the more intimate room then it was this one.
Clarke bent over and carefully lifted the book from the floor. One of the dry, brown pages had fallen out and he tutted loudly. ‘I shall have to give this one some special attention later on,’ he said. He placed the book down on his desk which occupied the centre of the room and then he led me through the back door.
The room was not lavishly decorated. Plain walls and a few items of furniture. I couldn’t remember exactly what it looked like last time I’d been so it was hard to compare. I knew there had been more chairs last time. Two high-backed cosy looking armchairs stood in the middle of the room with a small mahogany table between them. I sat down at Clarke’s invitation and he followed suit. There was a teapot with two cups accompanied by a plate of Jaffa Cakes on the table. I was certain that Clarke did not have a bottle of gin hidden by his chair.
The cups filled themselves with tea and he indicated I help myself. I nodded my thanks but didn’t reach for the tea just yet. Looking down I noticed it was exactly how I liked it. Was that Clarke’s power or this place’s? Either way, it made me uneasy. It meant that something had taken a look inside my head. What else had they seen?
‘You always had a knack for surprising me, Eddie, but this surpasses everything,’ he said after I’d told him how I came to be alive again. ‘Lucifer’s grace is the reason why you have been restored to full health whereas the necromancers you have encountered have not. Their spirits have returned to their bodies but without the grace, they do not have the power to heal them.’
’So Lucifer’s grace healed… No, it made me a whole new body,’ I said. I was glad I’d been given the grace. I couldn’t imagine wandering around in a rotting corpse. But then, how had their spirits returned to their bodies at all? Was Malek connected somehow? Maybe they’d escaped the Dead Realm and were on the run from Malek. That would explain why Anya had fled at the mention of Malek’s name.
‘May I see the tattoo?’ Clarke said.
I held my wrist out to him and he took it in his hand. With his other hand, he stroked my hourglass tattoo gently, getting a feel for the magic. To an outsider, it would’ve looked incredibly creepy.
‘Yes, that’s a powerful spell,’ he said quietly. ‘There’ll be no breaking it.’ He released my wrist and sat back in his chair.
‘I wasn’t looking to break it. I just need to find the dagger before the time runs out,’ I told him. ‘I was wondering if you’d heard anything?’
‘No,’ he said before I’d even finished speaking. ‘I haven’t heard anything about the whereabouts of the Ambrotos Dagger.’
‘Oh.’ It was literally the only thing I could think of to say. Never had I been so disappointed. Clarke always had some information for me, even if it was of questionable use. I couldn’t think of him ever shutting me down so completely before. ‘Eddie, you don’t need to be so scared. Not finding the dagger isn’t a guaranteed unhappy ending for you. It just means you will have to be judged. The same as everybody else. You’ve done some bad things and you’ve done some good things. I think that in your heart you’re a good person,’ he said kindly.
I shook my head. ‘I don’t think Lucifer will agree. Look at what I did to Cedarstone. All those people dead. A whole town that nobody will ever be able to enter again.’
‘You didn’t mean to kill all those people. I don’t think anybody expected the magic to be as volatile as it turned out to be. We all expected it to stay in that one place, absorbed by the earth. Magic has never behaved this way before. Nickolas Blackwood is responsible for that. Not you. And as for Cedarstone… Since before you were even born that town was tearing itself apart in its constant wars between rival races. Walking the streets now is such a serene and tranquil experience. Honestly, I think you’ve done the place a favour.’
I laughed at that. Only Clarke could think that making a place inhospitable was doing it a favour.
‘Maybe. But I’d still rather not have to be judged. even without the Cedarstone stuff, I don’t like my chances,’ I told him. ‘Is there anything you can tell me that could help me find it?’ He shook his head.
‘Eddie,’ he leaned forward to emphasise what he was going to say. ‘That dagger is better off wherever it is now. The Ancients held onto to that object for thousands of years before Nickolas got his hands on it. Handing it over to him willingly was one of the biggest mistakes ever recorded in supernatural history. Trust me, I’ve recorded a lot of them. I don’t think any object had ever been used for such evil as that dagger was used by Nickolas. Nickolas proved that humans cannot be trusted with such powerful objects.’
Clarke was usually quite impartial about things. He was always a researcher. An unbiased source of information.
‘Lucifer agrees with you. He wants to remove it from the Living Realm where he can keep an eye on it.’
‘If he is to be believed,’ Clarke said suspiciously. He was looking down at his tea with a dark, brooding expression on his features.
‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
‘The Devil cannot be trusted. That is a truth that has existed throughout history. Human and otherwise. There are books and books and books that describe beings who have done nothing but lie to achieve their evil desires. These beings have always been believed by scholars to be the same being — the Devil. I believe Lucifer has something else planned for that weapon and it would be better for everybody if he never got his hands on it.’
‘He’s an eternal being of the Cosmos. Even if I fail him, I doubt he’ll stop trying.’
‘As long as he cannot enter this realm with his powers, he will be unsuccessful in his quest. I am sorry I can’t help you, Eddie. If I could bring you the peace that you deserve then I would.’
I left Clarke’s with a very deep feeling of unease. His speech didn’t sit right with me. It wasn’t that I disagreed with him, or doubted anything he said. I got the impression that even if he could help me he wouldn’t. He didn’t trust Lucifer with the dagger and he seemed to want him to have it even less than he wanted humanity to have it.
Another dead end. I sighed as I left the shop and hoped that Zeke or Lydia was having more luck.
Chapter Eighteen
‘There you are,’ Lydia said as I exited Salamanders. She was leaning on a pillar with her arms crossed over her chest moodily. Although, she always had a sort of grumpy air about her.
‘Yes. I did say I’d be here,’ I told her.
‘I went in looking for you but I couldn’t find the secret door,’ she explained, giving the shop an accusing glare as if it had deliberately tricked her.
‘It’s behind the tapestry.’ I pointed through the door to the tapestry that concealed Clarke’s place.
‘Nothing there when I looked.’
‘Strange. Maybe the door disappeared because Clarke was busy or something,’ I said with a shrug. ‘No luck anyway. What about you?’
‘Nope. Malek doesn’t know anything. He’s impressed you’ve managed to stay alive for so long, though. So there’s that.’ I snorted dismissively.
‘It’s all up to Zeke now then,’ I said glumly. ‘Let’s get some lunch.’
We trudged down to Muggs despite Lydia’s protestations. When we were sitting down I filled her in on what had happened at the cemetery. She didn’t seem that interested at all. Not even when I told her that Anya seemed to recognise Malek’s name.
‘She might have met him in the Dead Realm. Maybe he judged her or something,’ Lydia suggested as we walked into the pub and headed to my booth.
‘I thought maybe she’d escaped the Dead Realm and was scared he’d come after her.’ I said.
‘It’s possible. You said Malek’s name and she scarpered. She’s probably scared he sent you to bring them all back to where they belong.’
‘What? Why would she think that?’ I was not some kind of bounty hunter for Malek and I resented the implication that I was.
‘Since you’ve been back you’ve attacked two of the necromancers. It kind of looks like you’ve got a problem with them.’
‘Brilliant,’ I moaned. I’d only attacked them because they’d shown up in all the wrong places. ‘At least now they’ll leave me alone.’ If they thought Malek had sent me then they’d want to stay as far away from me as possible.
Lydia shook her head. ‘Nope. They’ll see you as a threat to their plans to take over the country. Is that really what they said?’ she asked in disbelief. I nodded. ‘Ridiculous. But you’re an obstacle now and you can lead Malek to them. They’ll want you out of the way. Or, they’ll keep trying to get you on their side. You’ve achieved a full resurrection and they will want the same. So, kill you, or claim you. Either way, they’ll be after you.’ None of what she was saying bothered her at all. She remained completely detached from everything she told me. But then why would she care? Babysitting me was a task she’d never wanted. She didn’t even like working for Malek so if his plans went awry then she’d probably take some satisfaction from it all.
‘But I can’t give them a full resurrection,’ I said.
‘Are you really this slow? It’s gotta be an act right?’ She leaned over the table and rapped her knuckles on my head. I shoved her arm away roughly and dared her with my eyes to do it again. ‘You’ve got Lucifer’s grace in you. The grace of a fucking archangel. It means they could drain you of all your blood and use it to power some resurrection spell. Fuck me. I don’t know how you managed to survive for thirty years with that brain.’
‘I’m not thirty!’ I said loudly. It was odd that that bothered me more than being called stupid. I guess I’d reached that point of life where age was starting to seem important.
‘What are you like a year away?’
‘I’m twenty-seven.’
‘Hmmm, yeah I don’t think so.’
‘Erm, I was twenty-seven when I died,’ I informed her matter-of-factly.
‘Yeah, and that was like two years ago. So now you’re thirty.’
‘Twenty-nine!’ I snapped. ‘And you’ll get here soon enough yourself.’
‘Mate, I won’t be thirty for another nine years. You’ll be long dead by then.’
‘You are just a treat to have around, aren’t you?’ I said sourly. She flashed me a sarcastic smile and then pulled out her phone.
One benefit about Muggs being under new management was that it now had an app we could order food on. No having to go up to the bar. Not that I ever did anyway, but this was even easier than talking to people. I smiled at how antisocial the world was becoming.
Once the orders were placed, Lydia slid the phone across the table to me so I could phone Howard and Shirley and let them know what the necromancers were up to. They both reacted with surprise to the necromancers' plans for nationwide domination — followed swiftly by laughter.
