Darkness Descends (The Silver Legacy Book 1) (17 page)

Ames laughed. “Or something. There is a lot you need to learn and you’ll never learn it all. Every demon is different. Every demon has a different weakness and a certain power. Some are spiritual who possess, others are living, breathing humans. The spiritual demons are hundreds of years old. The older they are, the harder they are to kill. The younger ones are those that are living. They’re easier to kill.” Ames put the pike back in the rack. “I am willing to train you, but I have a few rules that must be agreed upon.”

Denny waited.

“You may
never
speak to anyone about your visits here. When you come, you are to wear the proper attire of a Tae Kwon Do student. You never bring anyone else, never share information with anyone about me or us. If you ever walk out of a session because you can’t stand the heat, then we are through. I do not cotton to whiners, quitters, or weak-willed individuals. My time is far too valuable to waste. Do you have any questions?”

“What if I don’t want this responsibility?”

“It’s too late for that, I’m afraid. It has already started.”

“Started? What’s started?

Ames Walker strode past her and into the small anteroom. “Everything, my dear. Everything. And your life will never be the same.

***

O
n the way back to school, Denny’s cell rang. She pulled off the road and answered it.

“Golden, it’s Ophelia. I need you to come right quick.”

“Is it Victor? What’s happened?”

“My boy is fine. Got some news I know you gone wanna hear. Come on by first chance you git.”

“Is now too soon?”

“Now. Come on by. I’ll fittus up some special tea.”

Denny knew whatever news Ophelia had for her was not good. Ophelia only brewed her special tea to keep people calm.

Twenty minutes later, Denny sat in the parlor holding a cup of chamomile and peppermint tea.

“What do you mean someone came to you while you were talking to Sarah? Who?”

Ophelia leaned forward. “The only bein’ capable of comin’ through to me in the spirit world.”

“You mean a ghost?”

Ophelia’s eyebrow rose. “You know what I mean, girl, and she done git all up in my face when I wasn’t even talkin’ to her.”

Denny’s heart skipped. “That sounds like Rush. Was it Rush?”

Ophelia crossed her arms.

“I...uh...seem to have lost my ghost.”

Ophelia leaned forward. “Ain’t all you gone lose, girl, if’n you don’t start spillin’ the truth. You can’t keep this in your chest. Gone come out one way or t’other.”

Denny sighed. It was evident she wasn’t going to be able to pull any punches with Ophelia, and she shouldn’t have even tried. “We’re lovers.” She waited for Ophelia to cast aspersions that never came.

“What ya do in your bedroom is your biness, Golden, but from what I could tell by alla her babblin’ is that somethin’ or
someone
gots her.”

Denny leaned forward, sloshing her tea into the saucer. “Got her? What do you mean someone
got her
? She’s a ghost. She can’t
be
got.”

Ophelia waved this away. “Jus’ what I’m sayin’. Somethin’...vile and evil was with her. I felt it. She could not get away from it.” Ophelia shuddered. “Evil is the onliest word I know for what I felt. It’s gotta mighty hold on her, awright. She can’t git through––can’t get out. It’s got her in a tight fist.”

Denny’s heart started racing and she could feel the perspiration dotting her forehead. Rush was...alive? Here? Not gone? There were no words to describe her relief. “So she came to you. She’s still...earthbound?”

“That she is. She come to me to tell you she can’t do nuthin’ without help, Golden. That girl done need your help to break free what gots her.”

“Break. Free. Free of what?” Denny felt something stir in her, but it wasn’t the ice cold hand of fear. Quite the contrary. Denny experienced the heat from the flame of anger.

“Of what evil gots her.”

“What do I need to do to help her?”

Ophelia looked into her tea cup as if searching for the answer. “This I cain’t tell you. I did git the sense that whatever it is that gots her, is scairt of you, but I think you oughtta be
very
afraid of it.”

“Why?”

Ophelia shook her head. “It ain’t just on the spiritual plane, Golden. Whatever it is has crossed over into the physical plane and is usin’ yer Rush to get to you. They’s holdin’ her hostage.”

The anger got hotter and Denny could now feel it burning in her chest. “
Hostage
? Crossed over? How is that possible?”

Ophelia slowly shook her head. “They’s a lot to learn ’bout the spirit world if you gonna play in its sandbox, Golden. A whole heckuva lot. You ain’t got much time. Rush is in danger.”

“Give me the
Cliff Notes
version.”

Ophelia pulled her shawl around her shoulders. “These spirits don’t just run amok in the spiritual world. This one done come over ’cause someone invited it.”

Denny set her tea down. “Invited it? Someone living invited the evil spirit to enter our world and it entered it only to go after Rush?”

Ophelia slowly nodded. “Oh yeah. Someone invited that evil into our world, and unless it’s stopped, ain’t no tellin’ what harm it might do...to Rush...to you...you people you love.”

“And you think I’m the one who needs to stop it?”

Ophelia shuddered. “No, girl, you ain’t the one. You is the
onliest
one and whatever it is you got, they want.”

***

D
enny always knew where to go whenever she needed answers: to the think tank.  Lauren could finds anything out about any subject.

“It’s me.”

“Hi, you. Long time no see.”

“I’ve been...busy would be an understatement.”

“You okay? You sound weirder than normal.”

Denny chuckled. “Thanks. If I told you my mom was a demon hunter, would you think me crazy?”

“I already think that.”

“Seriously.”

“Seriously? I think you better start from the beginning.”

Fifteen minutes later, with Lauren filled in, Denny tossed out her request. “I have a list of names I want you to look at and tell me if anything comes to mind.” Denny took a photo using her phone of the names she’s produced from her own research and instant messaged them to her. “I need a rush job on this, Lauren. It’s an emergency of sorts.”

“Okay, I got them. Let me take a look and see what I can do. Does this have to do with this demon stuff?”

“It does. Thanks for not thinking I’ve gone around the bend.”

“You have a ghost for a girlfriend, Den. Of course I believe you.”

“Well, that’s what this is about. I seem to have misplaced that girlfriend.”

“Your girlfriend? Rush is missing? Is that even possible?”

“For lack of a better word, yeah. There’s a lot more to it than that, but for now, let’s focus on the list.”

“Well, that sounds ominous.”

“It is, but I don’t have time to go into the details. I need to know what the people on that list have in common. Was it what they wrote? Were they award winners? Why would my mom have a list like that in her journal?”

“All over it. I’ll e-mail or text when I get a bead on something.”

“Thanks a bunch. And please hurry.”

Denny began opening all of the desk drawers, looking for false bottoms or keys or something—anything—that would help her figure out what the hell she was doing. So far, the desk yielded nothing.

She took a deep breath and sat back with her mom’s journal, randomly picking a page to read.

~~~

I
’ve been watching the children carefully. I can’t believe that Golden and the ghost seem to have made some sort of truce. The ghost never bothers her...or us. She just watches. It almost feels as if Golden has her own sitter the way the ghost stares at her from her perch at the top of the stairs

Robert wants to do some sort of séance to get her out of the house, but I refused. She’s not causing any harm. As a matter of fact, I get the feeling she likes my family and I don’t feel at all right about booting her from her home.

Denny quickly read through the next few entries until she found another concerning Rush.

The ghost’s name is Rushalyn Holbrook, the daughter of the contractor who renovated the house. I don’t know how she died, but I reckon she was twenty-five or six at the time. Anyway, when she finally spoke to me, it was to tell me that Golden was sicker than she had let on. When I took her temperature, it was one hundred and four. We rushed Golden to the doctor, who diagnosed her with encephalitis.

After that, Robert never again spoke ill of Rushalyn, who watches Golden like a mama bear watches her cubs. When I asked her why she didn’t talk to my daughter, she simply said, “It’s not time.”

I’m not at all sure why Rushalyn still lingers, but I really am glad she does. It feels like I can stop worrying about Golden, which is good since Quick has become a handful.

He’s a whole other story.

~~~

D
enny skimmed the next dozen or so pages before her cell phone rang. “That was fast.”

“I’m super smart,” Lauren said. “It’s not the names.”

“Damn. I was hoping it was some sort of––”

“It is. Listen to me. Look at your list.”

Denny did. “Okay. What are you seeing that I’m not?”

“Other than the fact that I’m super smart? I ran them through a number of programs, but it wasn’t until I put them in a vertical list that I saw what it spells out. Once I did that, my Jumbles skills came in handy. Circle the first letter of each name.”

As she did, Denny realized it spelled “
under the Bible.”
“Damn, Lauren. Good catch.”

“Years of Mom’s Jumbles will do that to you. I don’t know what you’re doing, Denny, but be careful.”

“Always.” After hanging up, Denny scoured the shelves for a Bible and found a Satanic Bible and a Word Bible, but no Christian Bible. So she looked again.

Under the Bible
meant something.

When Denny was finally too tired and hungry to keep looking, she left the lair and, and on her way out of the closet, she decided to check her mother’s room.

There it was. Inside her nightstand was a
King James Bible
.

Denny stared down at the book. It drew her to it, but she stood, unmoving, unsure she was ready. Unsure of everything. She knew the moment she read what was in there, her life would be changed forever.

***

D
enny gazed at the Bible. Had it always been there? She couldn’t remember. When they were kids, they seldom entered their parents’ bedroom. Her mother had made it clear that was where adult playtime happened.

She wondered about that now.

Was there really any playtime or was it Gwen’s way of shielding her children from a life filled with evil, darkness and violence?

Denny’s heart raced as she reached for the Bible. When she finally touched it, nothing happened. She sighed. She had no idea what she’d been expecting––lightning and thunder––God’s booming voice––It was silly, she knew, but they’d never been a religious family.

Ever so slowly, she lifted the book and looked under it.

Nothing.

Denny opened the Bible.

It was just a Bible.

She shook it; she thumbed through it. She felt the binding.

Nothing.

Denny set the bible down and quickly re-entered the lair where she stood at the desk looking around the room. She called Lauren again.

“You rang?”

“I need another kind of Bible. I’m looking at over three thousand books here.”

“Okay. Let’s try something different. First off, how are they organized?”

Denny walked along, tracing her fingers across the spines. “Looks like alphabetized by author’s last.”

“Perfect. Okay. One sec. There was a name that jumped out at me when I was initially looking.”

As Denny waited, she examined the cracked, aging spines of the books. Where had her mother gotten so many old books?

“Here. Okay. Go to the T section. Look up Tsirk, T-s-i-r-k, Suse J.”

Denny fingered the books until she found the one with that name on it. “Here it is. The Demonic Bible. The print is so tiny, even if I had seen it I would have missed it.”

“I’m guessing that’s it. The name spelled backwards is Jesus Krist with a K,” Lauren said.

“Damn, Lore, you’re really good.”

“No. I’m really smart. Smart enough to know this isn’t just about Rush. What in hell is going on? You can’t tell me you're standing in front of a bookshelf that has a Demonic Bible and not tell me what the hell is going on.”

“I told you. I’m trying to find Rush.”

The line was silent as Lauren waited her out.

“This is serious stuff, Denny. Please be careful. Messing around with a ghost is one thing, but demons? Going after
anything
evil is dangerous, but if it’s in your genes, if it’s what your family legacy is all about...then I guess that’s what you have to do. Just know that I’m here if you need anything. Anything, Den. Day or night.”

“Thank you. That means a lot.”

“Are you...scared?”

“Shitless. It feels like I’m going to war armed with a rubber knife and a water pistol.”

“Well, in this instance, you really can’t know too much, so call if you need anything else.”

“Actually, there is. Can you track down some information on a kid by the name of Mike Cockerton?”

“Uh oh. I don’t like the sound of this.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t like this kid. Called me a man-hating dyke.”

“What? Oh, hell no. I’ll dig into it right away. Did you tell Victor?”

“No. Why would I––”

“Because that man can crush walnuts in one hand, and he would think nothing about teaching your Mike Cockerton how to comport himself.”

“Nah. I’ve got this. Could be he’s just an asshole teenager.”

“Or?”

Denny closed her eyes and remembered the quick glint of red she’d seen in his eyes. “Or he could be something else.”

“Oh great. Could you be any creepier? Don’t answer that. I’ll look him up as long as you promise not to go around him until I have a chance to check him out. Don’t do anything rash.”