Moira felt a little apprehensive, for she was about to call upon the great demon lord, something she had never done before. Taking a deep breath, she now summoned up her first major demon.
“Lord Asbaritch, I call upon you, show yourself, Moira Bourbon, Satanic Master, demands this of you.” Moira called out while fearfully looking around for a sign that her order was about to be obeyed by one of the powerful demons from the realms of hell.
The room did not cool, it froze, and a deep voice spoke out from the rear of the temple, although the demon had not yet bothered to materialise.
“What is that you require of me human, speak quickly for I grow bored of you already.” The silence that followed this deep voice was almost as scary as the voice itself, and Moira had to force the words from her throat before the demon departed, as it had threatened to do.
“First of all great Lord Asbaritch, I humbly beg of you to drink this special preparation that I have made for you.” Moira said in a quiet pleading voice.
The temperature in the room dropped even more, and Moira knew that the demon lord had finally materialised. Moira now saw the dark lord; he was olive green in colour, well over six foot tall and very well muscled. His eyes were large brilliant yellow glowing orbs. However, he was quite humanoid otherwise. The demon walked towards Moira, who shrank before it, Lord Asbaritch picked up the pewter goblet and greedily gulped down the contents.
“As I have said before, it has always amazed me that a race such as yours can make the most delicious of drinks; but enough of these pleasantries, tell me what you desire of me.” Asbaritch ordered.
“I want you to take Christina Hinds back to your fortress and to imprison her there, you have already met her husband, Rob Hinds, and you will find her at his house now.” Moira said in a slightly more confident voice. “If you will do as I ask of you, I offer these two casks of Rakiremanin to you as a gift.” Moira said indicating the two casks with her hand. “Plus you can feed on Christina Hinds by way of your usual fee, but please do not kill her, as I have other plans that include her.” Moira said in the syrupy voice that she used with most men.
Lord Asbaritch looked deeply into the eyes of Moira, holding her eyes captive while he spoke to her, however, even the demon lord had noticed her beauty, and was captivated by the sweet tone of her voice.
“Your father tried to best Rob Hinds, and you know how he fared, I hope that you have made a better plan Mon Chérie. Very well, Moira, I will visit her and introduce her to what you humans might term my Dreamscape. In reality, if I might use the term in relation to my domain, it is something much more terrible. It is realm of hell where humans are given to me to feed upon, to sustain me. Christina Hinds though will be my guest at my fortress, as per your wishes. I wait with baited breath to see just what else you have planned for them.” Lord Asbaritch said eyeing Moira greedily and making her squirm in embarrassment mixed with a generous portion of fear.
“There is one small problem Moira, I do not know where Rob Hinds lives, and there are so many humans in your domain?” The demon lord said casually.
“No problem my Lord. His house lies to the south of the road that encircles the city that we mere mortal humans call London; the demon Veigel has marked his home with a demonic marker. Its scent will stand out brightly for one as great as you are, my Lord.”
“You are correct Moira, I will find the home of Rob Hinds quicker than you could ever imagine.” Lord Asbaritch said.
With that the demon lord disappeared in a cloud of smelly red smoke and a peal of laughter that threatened Moira`s hearing. If the Satanists were successful in getting the better of the human Rob Hinds, then it would not be too unpleasant, for the demon lord was still a little irked at the way that the human had departed his realm the last time that they had met.
**********
Christina Hinds was just about to make a cup of coffee when the temperature in the kitchen dropped very sharply. Before she could so much as wonder what was happening, or respond to this harbinger of evil, she fell to the floor unconscious. Lord Asbaritch now fed upon her, but not enough to kill her. Three hours later, she awoke exhausted and with a splitting headache, she found herself in a small round room, it had a ceiling that rose to meet in a point at the centre of the room, and it looked to be the upper turret room within a fortress, but that was so obviously quite ridiculous. Christina got to her feet and hurried to the small window, from the top of the fortress tower she looked down upon a dry withered landscape.
“Where on Earth am I?” In some weird dream from which she would soon awaken, Christina asked silently. She pinched herself, but only the once, for it hurt, and then she began to worry.
She walked slowly over to the door, but found it locked.
“Hey, you out there, whoever you are let me out.” She cried out in a mixture of fear and anger, but no one answered her cries.
She then realised that her neck was sore, and put a hand to it, and found it was sticky, looking at her fingers she saw that there was blood on them, and then Christina shrank into herself, fear flooding her mind and body. The day slowly moved on, but she saw no one, she was all alone. She shivered as this thought struck home; she was all alone, and without any food or water. This thought made her feel both hungry and thirsty, so she walked back to the door.
“Hey, when is dinner served around here and what about some water?”
Feeling and sounding a little braver after her action, however, no one returned her call.
“At least I don`t need to use the little girl`s room, because this room certainly done not come with an en-suite.” Christina said to herself, and then hoped that someone might come by when she did need to use those facilities.
Finally one thought raised her spirits, ‘Rob will find me, wherever I am.’
**********
Moira was standing within the small temple beneath the Great Hall of Parkston manor house; she was preparing the necessary ingredients for yet another potion. The ingredients were in a deep glass tray and as she mixed them together, a yellow plume of smoke began to rise from the potion, and when it reached the roof of the temple, it spread around it, thinning out as it went, before finally disappearing.
However, Moira called upon the demon Veigel just as the plume of smoke had begun to rise. “Veigel obey my call.” Moira ordered in a voice that rang loudly within the confines of the small laboratory. Moments later a thin veil of smoke began to rise from the corner of the room, and she now spoke again.
“Veigel come to me I command you.” Moira commanded.
As was usual, the temperature in the room fell and Veigel, a minor demon that many Satanists used on such occasions as this, appeared within the veil of smoke, his stunted body bent and his face terribly misshapen. Moira was almost sick as the stench of the beast reached her, but she fought to show no outward sign of it.
“Veigel, show me where Rob Hinds is at the moment, you know of him already, for you sought him out for my father.” Moira commanded the small demon.
“Of course Master.” Veigel replied in a thin rasping voice that Moira always had trouble understanding.
It took Veigel a few minutes to locate Rob, but then he found him, and an image of Rob appeared in the veil of smoke before Moira, Rob was sitting at his desk in the SIS headquarters.
Moira now mixed together another potion in another small glass bowl, she then lit it and a sickly smelling green plume of smoke began to rise from the bowl. She now summoned another demon. “Mughasar, I command you to appear before me now.” Moira`s voice roared.
Frost began to form on the floor around her feet, and seconds later another lesser demon appeared before her in a thick veil of black evil smelling smoke.
“I am here oh Master, what is it that you would command of me?” The minor demon asked.
This demon looked more humanoid than monster, although his head was quite large and it had horns growing out of the top of it; the demon was jet black in colour with huge red eyes that se
emed to glow, and it had large sharp teeth within its cavernous mouth. Moira now showed Mughasar the image of Rob in the veil of smoke.
“I want you to travel to the location that you see in the veil of smoke, and then seek out and find this human, he is named Rob Hinds. I then want you to appear before him in my form and repeat these words to him using my voice.” Moira now told the demon what to say. “Then you are to stay for a minute, but hidden from sight, to witness his reaction. Do you understand Mughasar?” Moira asked.
“Yes, Master, I will go now, and return to you after I have delivered the message and after I have stayed hidden from sight so as to witness his reaction to your words.”
Mughasar then disappeared in another veil of evil smelling smoke.
**********
Rob was sitting at his desk when he noticed a rapid drop in temperature, frost began to form on the floor around his feet and then an apparition appeared before him in a thick veil of evil smelling smoke.
“Good evening Rob Hinds, you will be pleased to know that I am arranging for you to journey to domain of Lord Asbaritch again, to his Dreamscape. So be ready to go at midnight tonight. To ensure that you fully comply with my wishes Rob, I must inform you that you will find that your lovely wife Christina is already there. While you are in the Dreamscape, you will seek out and locate the Key of Tartarus, it is hidden somewhere within the fortress of Lord Asbaritch. If you do not return with it then Cassie Ryder, who we have already borrowed, will be sacrificed by me, Moira Bourbon, in revenge for the death of my father. You will have to overcome Lord Asbaritch yet again to find your way out, and quickly, for I am not known for my patience. Oh by the way Rob, the key is in the shape of an old oil lamp, the sort that you rub if you are after a genie, yes I know, shades of Aladdin and all that, but that is just the way with many of the ancient satanic artefacts. If there happens to be more than one oil lamp within the fortress, then you will know which one to take by the large ornate letter T set in a dragon motif, it is painted upon both sides of the lamp.”
Rob sat there stunned, but even as the apparition faded, he was writing down all that Moira Bourbon had told him about the oil lamp, he then looked across at his two colleagues who were also working late. He saw that they too were equally stunned by what they had all witnessed. They still had their automatic pistols out, aimed at the place where the apparition had been, although they would have proved ineffective against a veil of smoke.
Sir Willoughby Brown moved across the office to Rob` desk, he had witnessed the end of the apparition`s message, having been called in by one of the agents as soon as the apparition had appeared. He too seemed as shocked as the others in the room did, but he soon pushed this aside.
“Rob, what on Earth was that thing, and how the hell did it appear and disappear inside one of the most secure offices in England.” Willoughby Brown demanded to know.
“That was Moira Bourbon, the Satanist whom we took prisoner in France two years ago, and she managed the whole thing using black magic.” Rob replied, receiving a room full of astonished gasps of disbelief, which he brushed aside.
All the time he spoke, Rob was using his mobile to call Christina; unfortunately, she was in no state to answer his call, as she was lying unconscious upon the hard floor of his apartment.
“Oh I am not joking Sir Richard, black magic does exist, and Moira`s father was one of the more dangerous practitioners of the ancient art, it seems that Moira has come on some since we last saw her.” Rob said to Sir Richard, although the two other agents were also listening to what he was saying.
“If black magic is a reality, then how could she become a powerful Satanist, she has been in a secure psychiatric hospital since then; there is no way that she could have learnt the art, as you call it Rob?” Sir Willoughby Brown asked of his top agent.
“Sir Richard, a couple of days ago she managed to walk out of that secure hospital, and right passed the front desk and into the car of a dead psychiatrist. I thought that maybe she had some help, but from her performance today, I now think she managed the escape all by herself.” Rob replied grimly.
For a moment Sir Willoughby Brown did not know what to say in answer to what he had just heard, he wanted to laugh at his best agent, but something within him told him that what he had just heard was the truth. Instead of trying to laugh off the visit of a Satanist, well her form anyway, or to try to explain it away rationally, he offered Rob the department`s assistance.
“Well in that case Rob, you had better take whatever help you think appropriate, when you visit this Dreamscape.” Sir Willoughby Brown declared in an equally grim tone. “Because, you will undoubtedly need it.”
“The Dreamscape is a domain ruled over by the demon Lord Asbaritch; it is in another dimension, one of the many hell dimensions, it is not in our own one Sir Richard. Unfortunately, although I would welcome company, I must travel alone, as only the spirits of myself and any other of the agents who accompanied me would actually travel into the Dreamscape. However, any one who accompanies me could appear anywhere within that domain, and I might never find them, so you see I have no other option than to do this alone.” Rob explained to a very quiet office. “However, I could do with some help, in the form of the company doctor, and his nurse. While my spirit is away I will need medical help to keep my body alive, they can fit an IV drip up to Christina and myself, assuming that Christina was at our apartment when her spirit was taken by the demon lord.” Rob asked of Sir Willoughby Brown.
The other agents had been all willing to join him in his quest, even if they were worried about the state of Rob`s mind, but they now seemed just a little relieved not to be joining him on his strange journey.
“Rob, how on Earth do you know all of this?” Sir Willoughby Brown asked in amazement.
“Although I never put it into my report regarding Ulysses Bourbon, he had myself, Father Pritchard and John Ryman sent to the Dreamscape, Sir Richard. You might recall that Father Pritchard was the priest who helped me, in both England and France, when Ulysses Bourbon kidnapped my fiancée and her sister for what was our first black magic affair. John Ryman was my wife`s brother, and he died in France saving all of our lives, he was a true hero. It was only because I spoke sympathetically to one of the local inhabitants in the Dreamscape, that he helped me in turn, he gave me enough information to allow me to turn the tables on the demon lord, and make him return us back to this dimension.” Rob explained. “I decided to omit that part of my trip for obvious reasons.” Rob added wryly.
It was about now that Mughasar returned to Parkston manor, leaving behind another terrible smell, that went unnoticed because of the first one that the demon had brought with it.
Sir Willoughby Brown had slumped down into an empty chair, looking as if he had been told that the pope was not a catholic, and then he looked up at Rob. “Ok Rob, I will leave this weird case in your hands, it appears that, for the time being, I will not be able to help you. Let me know if you find the body of your wife in your apartment, if not then I will organise a nationwide search, while you do what you have to do to get your wife and sister in law back safely.” Sir Willoughby Brown decided.
“It might be best Sir Richard, but before I return to my apartment, I will give Father David Pritchard a call.” Rob said and immediately phoned his friend. Luckily, Father Pritchard was in, and Rob quickly explained what had happened, he then asked his friend for his assistance.
“If you are willing David, I really need you to set up a pentagon, just as you did before, to guard us from evil. Then when Christina and I return to our bodies, we can all move into the pentagram to protect us from the ungodly, should Moira decide to renege on her promise to free Cassie, and attempt to kill Christina and myself. She is just as likely to try to get hold of the Key of Tartarus without actually living up to her side of the bargain.” Rob said grimly.
“I am on my way Rob, and I will bring everything that we shall require to fight the good fight, see you soon.” Father Pritcha
rd promised. “Rob, Tartarus was the part of the ancient Greek hell where only the most evil people, or ancient gods, were sent. Once there, the souls of the people were made to endure eternal torture, I hope that this key you are to bring back is not a key that unlocks a door into Hell, particularly that part of Hell.”
**********
At the Parkston manor house, Moira was feeling decidedly chilly, for the demon Mughasar had returned to the temple after completing its task. Before she dealt with that demon though, she had to send another demon back to its hell dimension. She looked down at the demon Veigel contemptuously. “Be gone foul one until I need you again.” Moira commanded. But the demon didn`t go immediately, instead it looked up at Moira, its red eyes radiating with the evil that oozed like water from the demon, infecting anyone near enough to it, although Moira seemed unaffected by its presence here on Earth.
“I need paying Master.” Veigel`s voice once again sounding much happier than before, and much less servile.
“Here take it and be gone.” Moira commanded, and the demon rushed at her and took his payment. When sufficiently satisfied with his payment, he disappeared from view, leaving behind him the foul stench of hell. Moira stood for a moment, gripping the small work surface to steady herself, for she had been weakened by the blood taken by the lesser demon.
The demon Mughasar now told Moira everything that he had witnessed after passing on his message; thankfully, he had left before Rob had spoken to Father Pritchard, and so Moira knew nothing of his appearance in the game. Mughasar now demanded his payment of blood, and after paying his fee, Moira felt very weak, so she then returned to the Great Hall to meet another member of the coven, Doctor Hamlin, who was waiting there for her. Moira lay down on a settee while Hamlin gave her a blood transfusion to replace the blood that the demons had taken.