House Infernal by Edward Lee (43 page)

Just like the other times. They made frenetic love in the
leaves beside the pond. John was on top of Betta, thrusting.

Then the name clacked in her head-

John.

Who else could've dragged her out here but him? Another accomplice in Freddie's cult, she thought, and a clever
cover. Pretending to be someone nearly retarded, a churchgoing "yard boy," always happy to do volunteer work ...

But did that mean Betta was in on it, too?

She seemed to be enjoying John's ministrations very
much.

Most of Venetia's sentience remained in chaos. The
cricket trills made it even harder to think through the
pain, and it occurred to her now that she felt dehydrated.
She struggled to remember. She thought it had been about
eight PM when she was knocked out.

How many hours had she been lying out here in the
woods?

She tried to sort facts: John killed Driscoll-obviously in
league with the current members of the cult Tessorio formed
forty years ago, and he's obviously the one who knocked me out
and dragged me here. But-

Something shriveled inside of her.

What's he going to do next? Who's he going to sacrifice next?

It was a concept as old as human civilization itself. The
blood of the "pure" spilled as an offering to the gods, and
more specifically-Satanists sacrificed virgins.

The two women murdered last spring had been chaste
and, more than likely, Father Driscoll was too....

The four comers of the Involution gave Venetia the
grim suspicion that a fourth murder was almost certainly
on John's to-do-list.

Me, Venetia thought.

"Aw, baby, I love you so much," John whispered in a
hot gasp. His hips bucked at the peak of his climax, after
which he collapsed on Betta. Betta, in turn, embraced him.

All the while, Venetia regained more of her senses. They're going to kill me if I don't get loose on my oum. More
thinking: There's a gun in Father Driscoll's drawer-if only 1
could get it ... And the car out front, the black Mercedes:
Are the keys on Father Driscoll's dead body?

But now-

Venetia thought she heard something, but not from
near the pond where John and Betta had had their fun.

The sound seemed to be behind her.

A creaking sound. Like an antique chair creaking, or the timber on an old boat.

Hog-tied, it was nearly impossible to flip over and see
the source of the noise. But if she did manage to flip
over ... John and Betta might hear her struggles.

Either way, her predicament was bleak.

John pulled his pants back up, while Betta remained
nude on the ground. As previously, Venetia could only see
them as silhouettes, and now John was helping Betta get
back up and put her blouse on.

"Come on, honey," he continued to whisper. "I have a
surprise for you."

Betts's silhouette paused, and now she seemed giddy
with anticipation.

"This way, by the trees. .

The silhouettes moved closer-

They're coming here! Venetia thought.

Then John switched on a flashlight. He maintained the
lowest whisper. "Here's the first part of your surprise,
honey-"

The light snapped right down into Venetia's face.

Betts made a noise as best she could: something like a
gasp.

"That's Venetia. I tied her up and brought her out here ...
because she's very important." A chuckle. "Unlike you.-

In the fringes of light, Venetia could see a look of complete shock on Betts's face.

'But here's the real surprise." John's voice grew louder.
"I did it just for you, Betta...."

Next, the flashlight snapped upward, behind where
Venetia lay.

Betta's mouth fell open in a silent scream.

Crack!

John hit Betta in the head with the flashlight. She collapsed right in front of Venetia.

John reached behind the nearest tree and produced a
long length of rope with a noose at the end. It had obviously been preprepared. He calmly put the noose around
Betta's neck, then began to yank on another length of
rope. Each yank hoisted Betta a few more feet upward,
until her feet dangled a foot above the ground. The body
hitched for a few moments, then hung still.

Venetia tried to scream through her gag.

"That's it for her." The light was back in Venetia's face.
Now the young man spoke at normal volume. "Guess
you've got some questions, huh, cutie?" and then suddenly her gag was cut off.

"John, you evil bastard!" Venetia shrieked.

The figure behind the flashlight stalled. "John?" and
then he cracked a laugh. "Fuck!"

Now that he spoke at normal volume, Venetia realized
her error. It was a voice she'd heard before ... but not
John's.

Oh, God-it can't be ...

"So you thought I was that dimwit geek who cuts the
grass?" The flashlight turned up to the face. "Shit, baby,
you're dumber than Betta."

It was Dougie Jones.

He grinned down, the light dicing his face with jetblack wedges.

"You're in jail!" Venetia shrieked. "I saw you arrested!"

"Yeah, and then I broke out." The pumpkin grin sharpened. "All by the grace of my god. You know him."

Venetia's eyes felt lidless.

"Eosphorus. Ash-Shaytan. Lux Ferre. Iblis. Lucifer, my
Morning Star."

Venetia's mind whirred like a mouse on a wheel. "If
Betta was in your cult, too, why did you kill her?"

He sniggered at the hanging corpse. "That mute bitch
was just some squeeze on the side-she was never one of us. I had her completely duped. Told her I worked at a
store in town and was going to community college. She
fell in love with me real fast."

"You led her on for ... what? Just sex?"

"No, no, don't be stupid. For access to the prior house.
After the spring murders, they put serious locks on the
place. I needed her key-"

"So you discreetly copied hers," Venetia realized, "after
you became involved."

"Sure. Once a chick gets mushy for a guy, they're a
cinch to manipulate. Oh, sorry, you haven't seen the rest
of my work." Then he flipped her over and shined his
light upward.

Venetia's scream wheeled out into the woods.

Two more bodies hung by their necks, both naked, their
white skin nearly glowing in the moonlight.

Mrs. Newlwyn and John.

"More sacrificing?" Venetia dared ask.

"Nope. These are different-we call them precursory
oblations. Killing the innocent for kicks, you know? It
keeps the psychic energy around the house nice and dark.
We killed a lot of people in these woods-me, Freddie,
and Sue. Tortured 'em, burned 'em, even buried some
alive. Hitchhikers, bums, hookers." Dougie leaned over
and pinched Venetia's cheek. "It keeps the air rich-just
the way Boniface wants it. We do as he bids."

"Pope Boniface died over a thousand years ago."

Dougie shot her a surprised look. "You're a Christian,
for fuck's sake. Nobody ever really dies. Exalted Duke
Boniface is alive and well."

Venetia was working her wrists behind her back, praying they would come undone. Keep him talking. Bide more
time. "Tell me about the Involution, Dougie. I know you're
going to kill me, so go ahead and say it. You need four
sacrifices, right? One for each corner of the Involution?"

"Last spring we got the first two," he said. "The nun
and the old biddy. And you saw the third-"

"Father Driscoll," she croaked.

"Right. Another virgin. The fucker was celibate his whole life, which was just what we needed. Chastity equals
purity, and purity corrupted equals power to Lucifer."

Driscoll was the third, and I'm the fourth. She continued to
twist her wrists within the lash.... "Why did you drag
me out here? Why not just cut my throat and drain my
blood in the prior house like you did the others?"

Dougie shook his head. "You don't know anything."
Then he cut the bonds around her ankles and wrists and
lifted her to her feet. "The actual sacrifices are much more
critical than these precursory jobs."

Venetia couldn't believe he'd untied her ... until he
stuck a pistol in her ribs.

"So what are you waiting for?" She stumbled as he
shoved her toward the clearing's exit.

He stalked along through the brambles, one hand
girded about her arm. "Since you're not going to be
around that much longer, I guess I can tell you." Dougie
paused. "The blood needs to rot-"

"What?" Venetia almost gaped.

"Virgin blood alone isn't good enough. It has to be
soured. It has to be corrupted before it's poured at the
four font-points-"

Font-points, Venetia thought. Each corner of the diagram ... or each corner of the house. "Font-points ..

"Any container will do," Dougie explained. "But the
blood needs to rot for at least a day before the Involution
can be charged, and it's not quite time yet."

Now he'd taken her out of the clearing and across the
moonlit backyard, toward the house.

The blood has to rot for at least a day? "What time is it now?"

"A little past midnight."

"You knocked me out at about eight, right? So how
many people have you killed in the four hours since
then?"

Dougie laughed and squeezed Venetia's buttocks.
"Hate to tell you this, baby. It wasn't four hours ago I
jacked you out. It was eight PM last night."

I've been unconscious all that time? It didn't seem so, but
then it made more sense when she remembered what he'd said about the blood. "So Father's Driscoll's blood has
had over a day to 'spoil,' huh?"

"That's right. We hid the Morte-Cisternas back in the
woods-"

"Morte-what?" she interjected.

"The fonts. It's just a fancy name for whatever container
we use to hold the blood. It's the blood, get it? The blood
is what makes it all work. Always has, since Lucifer's Fall.
Where do you think all that witchcraft and hokey folklore
shit came from anyway?"

"The sacrifice of virgins," Venetia said. "The offering of
chaste blood to Satan..."

"Uh-huh. It's all true, it just got all fucked-up and
twisted around over the ages. There ain't no witches on
broomsticks but there really is power in virginal blood.
You just have to do it all right-" He squeezed her buttocks again. "Plus, you've got to have faith." Then he
laughed some more.

He unlocked the back kitchen door with the key he'd
copied from Betta's. A twinge of hope flared when Venetia
remembered that Dan had gone to the bar last night.
Maybe he'd gone tonight as well....

Maybe he's back now-.. . and Dougie doesn't know.

"Everything's ready now," Dougie said, more to himself. He seemed very satisfied. "I've brought everything
inside. We just have a little time to kill is all."

Venetia wilted. Now Dougie was caressing her buttocks
and thighs. "But if you rape me, I won't be a virgin anymore, Dougie."

"Oh, don't worry. That won't happen. But that doesn't
mean I can't play with you a while...."

He wedged his hand up between her legs. Venetia
winced. Her blouse was torn open, her bra ripped apart at
the cups. The rough hand suddenly kneading her bare
breasts made her stomach quake.

"Yeah .. .

But the molestation decreased once he got her into the
atrium; at once he seemed distracted.

The huge room looked vacant now, to the extent that
Venetia was taken aback. "You've been busy," she said.

"Yep. Took most of the day." Then he parted from her,
looking out in awe. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

All of the couches, chairs, and tables had been moved
away to the atrium's outer edges; the large oval rugs had
been rolled up and pushed aside, revealing the bare floor
beneath. Even from this low vantage point, Venetia could
easily make out the design.

Inlaid into the blond wood was the symbol-immenseset in much darker wood, and expertly carved.

The Involution, she thought.

Mahogany arrows pointed inward from three comers,
while from the fourth-the southeast corner-sprouted
the corkscrew spiral which came to an end precisely in
the center of the atrium. Now that Venetia was looking at
it from the left, it occurred to her just how clearly the spiral formed the number six.

"Tessorio inlaid the floor with the Involution over
forty years ago," Dougie breathed, "but it still looks
brand-new."

He was right. The darker wood inlays that formed the
diagram's features seemed to shine beneath the old wax.

Dougie's voice resonated with awe. "Freddie would be
so proud of me...."

Venetia looked at him. "How could Freddie have gotten
into this at all? Tessorio himself obviously founded the
cult-"

"Right, and he built the prior house to the exact specifications as Boniface's courtyard. It was brilliant. See, Boniface's courtyard is a Power Dolmen."

The mad voice in her head had said the same thing....

Dougie went on, "It's the only way to have the rites occur at the same time."

Keep him talking. "Rites? Plural?"

"Of course. When I charge the Involution, an identical
rite will be underway at Fortress Boniface."

'In Hell," Venetia said, and thought, Madness. "But you never answered my question. What's the link between
Tessorio's cult from over thirty years ago and your cult
today?"

"Freddie."

"What?"

"Freddie's mother was a junkie prostitute."

..So?"

"Freddie's father was Tessorio. Tessorio left all the instructions for Freddie after he died in the mid seventiessee, Freddie was blessed from the beginning. Eventually
he brought me and Sue into the fold of Lucifer's congregation." Dougie's eyes turned bright on her. "Two
Involutions-two identical Power Dolmen's-in two different worlds."

Now Venetia was seeing firsthand just how insane Tessorio had been. The ultimate jinx-he constructed an occult
temple with Church funds ... and no one ever knew. But as
her eyes strayed along the room's long dimensions, she finally noticed....