"I have some of these, you know." I picked up the gum mastic, staring at the pale translucent droplets, each no bigger than the end of a pencil eraser. "This stuff's insanely expensive."
"We won't need much. And I thought it was better if I brought everything just in case you were out of some of them."
"This isn't all Native American medicine. You're mixing traditions now?" I grinned at her; she'd been the one to insist that it was time to "go back to her roots" several years earlier.
She blushed. "Well, I talked it over with White Deer. She convinced me that you have to use what works, whether or not it's part of your path."
"Umm-hmm… good lesson."
Murray ground up dragon's blood, peppercorns, sage, and gum mastic into a fine powder. She used my coffee bean grinder to do so, and I immediately jotted a note on the dry erase board hanging on the fridge to buy a new one. She looked up from the concoction she was making. "Do you have any Florida water?"
"Yeah," I said, thinking about the stash of herbs and other oddities that I stored in a little cupboard in the pantry. Not everything fit into Nanna's trunk. I fished through the cupboard. Rose water and lavender water, there—another bottle of Florida water bought from a Santeria shop in Seattle. "Here we go. Time to lure Mr. B & U out of hiding."
"Right. Then we perform the exorcism. After we drive him out, we close the portal using the energy from this incense I'm making." She frowned, making sure that all the ingredients had been powdered to dust. She opened a small container and tapped a white powder into the incense. Saltpeter, to provide some sparks when the incense hit the charcoal burner.
"Sounds lovely… sounds hard. Where did you put the incantations I gave you?"
"I rewrote them on index cards and stuck them in your grandmother's journal. While I ask the spirits to bless the incense, why don't you get everything else ready? The journal is back in the trunk." She closed her eyes and began to chant in her tribal language. I couldn't understand the words, but the power behind them was chilling.
Murray had tucked two sets of cards into the journal. I had translated Nanna's ritual and adapted it for our use, making sure both the ritual and the chants were easy to remember. Basically, it was a directive to "get out and stay out." By the time I had everything ready, Murray joined me. She tapped the powdered herbs into a small jar and fixed the lid on.
I took a deep breath as she gave me the same look she used to in college when we were about to pull some incredibly stupid stunt. "Ready?"
"No, but that's never stopped us before." I tucked the book and water into a bag for easy carrying. She added the incense and draped the bag over her shoulder. The stairs looked overly steep, though I knew it was just my reluctance to attack the spirit. "Lead the way."
"Ready to rumble?" she asked, putting her foot on the first step.
My stomach burbled. "Sounds like it. Let's go." As we neared my bedroom door, I wondered just how we were going to convince Mr. B & U to show up. "It isn't quite like calling a dog… Here, boy, come here, boy," I said.
Murray stopped a couple of yards away from my room and nodded toward the door. "I don't think you need to worry. I think he's waiting for us."
I followed her nod. A faint blue light glowed from beneath the door. "What the hell?" Torn, wanting nothing more than to turn around, go back downstairs, and get out of this house, I leaned against the wall and made sure that I'd affixed the seax dagger onto my belt. The weight hung, comforting, against the gauze of my skirt. "Let's get this show on the road. I'm tired of being afraid."
"Wait." She fumbled in the bag and pulled out the Florida water, yanking the stopper with her teeth. She handed me the bottle and picked up the bag with Nanna's book and the incense in it. When we were ready, she opened the door.
The entire room oozed with tendrils of neon-blue light.
Thick, with an oily feel that slid over the skin, the light seeped into the corners and pillowed like thick, viscous lava. Startled, I pulled back. Murray slipped past me and placed a censer on the end table near the door. She dropped the ouroboros into the brazier and then struck a match to a charcoal round, which she placed atop of the pendant. After the charcoal had lit, she sprinkled a good pinch of the incense on top.
Light emanated from behind the vanity, where it flowed out from an oval-shaped opening right where my mirror had been. Here it was at its brightest, and my eyes hurt when I looked directly at the vortex. Like a blowtorch, I thought, but I really didn't look forward to meeting the welder. A thin mist filled the room, hovering over the light. We moved forward, one step at a time, until we were standing in the middle of the room.
A line of goose bumps rose on my arms, and I shivered. The acid reflux level in my stomach warned me that I was well on my way to an ulcer. Oh, God, if I could be anywhere but right there, but I didn't have a choice. Nobody else could clear out this room, nobody else could undo the damage that Kip's spell had caused. Murray and I were on our own. I tried to push down the swelling panic—spirits, like dogs, responded to the scent of fear, and my pheromones were dripping with it. I cautiously loosened the dagger for easy access while keeping one eye on the vortex. The door slammed shut behind us, and we both jumped.
"Shit!" Murray looked over her shoulder, but I was too scared of what lay in front of us to turn around.
I hissed at her to catch her attention. "What do you see?"
She gulped. "Nothing. Nothing at all. The door just slammed by itself. I gotta tell you, Em, my respect for you just shot up 100 percent. If what you went through last night was half as scary as this, then just the fact that you actually stepped back into this house makes you a hero in my eyes." She opened the book, flipping the pages until she found the cards with the ritual I had prepared.
"By the way, what do I do with the water?" Now that we were actually here, everything I had memorized seemed to vanish into the ozone.
"Throw it on him when he comes through the portal."
Sure thing. Nothing to it. Just throw it on the astral nasty. Florida water was used in Voudoun ceremonies, that much I knew, and Nanna had used a lot of it, but still, giving a demon a bath wasn't my idea of a good time.
We slowed, approaching the central core of light. Murray was whispering, practicing the incantation over and over under her breath. I gripped my bottle of Florida water tightly, hoping against all common sense that it would do some good when the time came. We stood less than a yard away from my vanity, staring into that brilliant mouth of light. I didn't know whether to whisper. Whatever it was obviously knew we were there. I glanced uncertainly at Murray. She took a deep breath.
"Isn't he supposed to be here before we do this?"
She gave me a long look, as if I were dense. "Uh, I think he already is. Who do you think created that portal?"
Exasperated, too tired to think clearly, I was about to make a snarky comeback when a ripping sound tore through the room, emanating from the center of the neon maw. "Great Mother, something's coming through!"
"This is it, we have to see what's beyond that light. Throw the water on it."
"Now? You said throw it on whatever moves!" I grasped the bottle, not sure what to do.
"Just throw the fucking water!"
I hesitated a moment, thinking: Demon… Murray… Demon… Murray… In the end, my fear of making Murray mad won out over my fear of the demon, and I splashed the water into the light, trying for as wide a dispersal area as possible. I might as well have dropped my blow dryer into the bathtub, considering the fireworks display that let loose when I set off my water bomb. Sparks shot out in a hailstorm of crackling tracers.
"Yikes, get down!" Smoke swirled around us, the scent of ozone thick. The smell nauseated me, and in an attempt to avoid losing my dinner, I twisted a hard left, promptly tripped over something hidden by the mist and went sprawling on my butt. As my tailbone landed on the floor with a painful thud, all I could think was that at least it was better than if I'd fallen on my knee again. I was immediat
ely swallowed up by the billows of fog that now seemed to writhe and coil from the floor like a nest of serpents. The shock of the fall put an end to my queasiness.
"Are you okay?" Murray lent me her arm, and I struggled to my feet.
"Yeah." My butt ached, but I would survive.
Her gaze was fastened on the light, which flared so brightly that we had to shield our eyes. I turned my attention to the portal. As soon as I reached out to examine the energy, a cold sweat broke out over my body. "Murray… can you feel it? Something's moving in there." All of my courage went AWOL, and I started to panic. "Murray, I do not want to be here when Mr. Big & Ugly comes rampaging out of that electrical door he's created for himself. I'll just sell the goddamn house. Now let's get out of here!"
Murray's hold on the book loosened, and it slid out of her hands. "I think you might be right. He's coming… he's coming right through that portal… and we're right—" A brilliant blue light shot out from the vortex and caught her midsentence. She screamed as the ray raced through her body, sending her into a convulsion. Then—in what felt like a slow-mo instant replay—she stiffened and fell to the ground. She landed face first, inches from the corner of the footboard to my bed. Any closer and she would have cracked her skull.
"Murray!" Oh, my God, was she dead? Was she breathing? I dropped to the floor and crawled to her side. As I grabbed her wrist, I prayed for a pulse. Let her live, please let her live. There—faint and thready, she had a pulse. She was alive.
I had to get her out of there. I forced my way to my feet and started to lean over to drag her out of the room, but a sucking noise, like a caterpillar squirming out of a cocoon, stopped me. The sand had run out—the hourglass was empty. Something was coming through the vortex. No time to cry, no time to scream, no time to do anything except leave Murray where she was as I grabbed the loose pages that had scattered out of Nanna's journal. The light shifted as a dark shadow forced its way through. Hell and high water, Mr. B & U was in the building.
If he had ever been human, it was no longer apparent. The creature stood well over seven feet high and was a silhouette of black hair, matted by some unholy aniniotic fluid. He was illuminated by only his brilliant eyes and by a nimbus of the neon energy that glowed like cobalt. He started toward Murray, then stopped and turned in my direction. Soft laughter echoed through the room, rising like thunder drums. I knew that laughter; I'd heard it before.
I cautiously took a step back and found myself flat against the wall. I could see Murray to my right. She moaned a little and turned, curling into a fetal position. Another person hurt because of me. Furious, so angry I felt like the brilliant white center of a candle flame, I whirled on the creature. "What the fuck are you doing in my house? Get out! Get out now!"
He laughed again, his aura flashing, and his words emanated from deep within the inky silhouette that mirrored his movements. "I was invited." The voice was sensuous. Dangerous. Mad.
"It was a mistake! Kip didn't know what he was doing."
The blue nimbus flared as he threw his head back, inhaling deeply with a satisfied sigh, almost as if he grew stronger with my outburst. And then I realized that he had. He was feeding off my anger and fear. And he'd been feeding off all the worry and pain he'd caused since Kip first opened the door and accidentally let him in. I straightened my shoulders. I had to calm down.
I took a deep breath as he cocked his head, looking at me quizzically. Unable to stop shaking, I tried to force my mind to the task before me. If I didn't banish him, both Murray and I would die—he'd feed on our essence, draining us dry, then go on to follow my children and terrorize them.
I tore my gaze away from the demon and, in a quivering voice, recited the incantation. "You demon of the dusk, begone from this house, back to the dark core of the universe from whence you came! Begone! Begone! Begone! By all the gods, by all the saints, I order you to vacate this house and never return!"
The creature snarled and lunged forward. I screamed and pulled out the dagger, holding it in front of me to keep him at bay. Again, he stopped, his eyes glowing with a preternatural anger. One step away from total panic, I bit my tongue hard, trying to bring myself out of my fear, forcing myself to remember that if I lost control, everything would be lost.
I needed help. If only I had help. Just a little nudge, a pat on the shoulder to remind me that I wasn't so totally alone. "Oh, God, Nanna, where are you? I wish you were here. Why aren't you here?" Unbidden, the plea tumbled out of my lips, words tripping over my tongue.
We squared off—the creature and I—poised, waiting. I had no doubts that he would kill me if he could. It was him or me; there were no other options. The universe consisted of this moment, this one point in time. Only the shadow-eater and I existed. My emotions began to drain away, all fear and pain and joy. This creature had no concept of what it was to be human, his only sensations those of satiety or emptiness. He took his pleasure in sucking the life from other beings. He was the essence of the void, the essence of emptiness—a chasm that would never fill.
There could be no reasoning here. He lunged again but stopped short, confused, when I held my ground against his thrust. Again, he tilted his head and craned forward to look at me; then he let out a low growl, and the rumble began to fill the room. I shook my hair away from my face, letting a blessed wave of numbness glide through me like a cool summer morning. Once again I repeated the incantation, calmly, my lips carefully forming each word, each syllable. "You demon of the dusk, begone from this house, back to the dark core of the universe whence you came! Begone! Begone! Begone! By all the gods, by all the saints, I order you to vacate this house and never return!"
As I spoke, I became aware of another presence forming in the room. Brilliant and golden, warm, and bringing the scent of lilacs and springtime with her. Nanna.
She stood by my side, her hand on my shoulder, and I felt her strength surge into my body. Joy raced through my veins, energy and sustenance, life and strength. Together we repeated the incantation, our voices rebounding in unison to shake the walls. "You demon of the dusk, begone from this house, back to the dark core of universe whence you came! Begone! Begone! Begone! By all the gods, by all the saints, I order you to vacate this house and never return!"
As the last word fell from my lips, I lunged to meet the creature as he sprang forward. His talons flashed as he slashed at me, but I twisted, turning hard to thrust the dagger directly into his heart. Spark! A jolt of current raced up my arm. I dropped the blade, doubling over from the shock. Mr. B & U let out a terrible shriek as the light began to fold in waves around him. The walls began to vibrate as the force reversed polarities, turning into a vacuum, and sucked the demon back through the vortex, the mist and fog rushing behind him. With a crackle so loud it left the hairs on my arm standing up, the neon glow shrank to a single point, then vanished with a soft "pop."
Silence blanketed the room. He was gone. Mr. B & U was actually gone.
Every part of my body hurt. As the room cleared, Murray begin to stir. Nanna patted me on the arm. I stared into her eyes, wishing she could hold me like she did when I was a little girl. My heart ached for a chance to say hello, to tell her I loved her. She mouthed the words "I know" and then faded with a flicker of pale light.
I dropped to the floor, exhausted, and reached out to help Murray crawl into a sitting position. "You okay?" I asked.
"I have no idea," she croaked. "I'm alive, that will have to do. Look…" She pointed toward my vanity.
Dreading what I might see, I took a deep breath and looked. Susan Mitchell hovered near the bench, a horrified look on her face. She glided forward and stopped beside me. Slowly, with infinite care, she reached out one ghostly hand and rested it on my shoulder. Her energy rolled in gentle waves, tickling as she reached out to stroke my hair. I closed my eyes and relaxed. The demon was gone. Susan patted my shoulder again—I could feel the light pressure from her aura—and then she pulled back and moved to my vanity, where she sat on the sto
ol.
I leaned back against the bed. The quilt was covered with a moist layer of goop. Whatever the substance was, it was slimy and dripped off my fingers in long streamers. I scraped up a handful and held it out to Murray.
She examined the slime. "Ectoplasm."
I coughed. "I thought that was a Ghostbusters thing."
"Nan, ectoplasm has showed up around a number of paranormal occurrences."
Wonderful. Cosmic joy-juice, spread all over my quilt. I scooted over, away from the bed, and she joined me, slumping down like a sack of potatoes. Susan, the ghostly member of our little trio, was still sitting at the vanity, patiently staring into space. I wondered what she was thinking about.
I gestured to get her attention. How did one blow off a ghost? "Uh… can you come back later? We're fried." She stood up and dusted off her dress. As we watched, she began to fade, and at the last moment, she gave a little wave.
Murray forced herself to her feet and retrieved the incense. The only thing left of the ouroboros was a twisted hunk of silver; whatever energy Mr. B & U had been working with had melted it to slag. While Murray smudged the room heavily, letting the clouds of incense smoke fill every corner to purify the energy surrounding us, I picked up my dagger and recited the incantations that would close the portal Kip had inadvertently opened. Half an hour later, the bedroom was clear. Wherever Mr.
Big & Ugly had come from, he had gone back via the same route.
We extinguished the charcoal in the brazier and budged downstairs, where we dropped on the sofa, ectoplasm, smudge soot, and all.
Murray shook her head. "We're insane."
"Of course we are," I retorted.
"What do we do now?"
I considered our options. Finally, too tired to think, I held up the phone, as I had so many times during our years as college roomies together. "Pizza?"
She started to laugh. "Make it extra cheese."