House Infernal by Edward Lee (48 page)

Ruth's memory reached back. Yeah, I guess I did....

"Our Counter-Flux won't last long," Cassandra's im age said, "so I have to make this quick. You both fulfilled
the mission, so you'll both be rewarded as promised. I'm
going to revoke Father Alexander's condemnation now,
and Ruth, I'll revoke yours in a thousand years."

"How can you have the power to even do that?" Ruth's
asked.

The image of the face seemed to stall. "It's been granted
to me by a Celestial grace."

"Well then, if you have that kind of power, revoke both
of us," Ruth urged. "Why do I have to wait a thousand
years? You've got the power, so what's the difference?"

Alexander was rubbing his temples.

"My power has restrictions, Ruth," Cassandra answered. "Those are the rules-it's that simple. I'm only allowed to revoke one condemnation per millennium. If I
could do two, I would-but I can't."

Next, however, Cassandra's eyes flicked back to Alexander, as if in expectation. "Something on your mind, Father?"

The priest looked at Ruth, then looked back at the face
in the puddle. He stroked his chin with a large, monstrous hand. "Revoke Ruth instead."

"What?" Ruth snapped.

"Sure, why not?" Alexander reasoned. "Send her now,
and I'll be the one to wait a thousand years."

Ruth gaped at him.

Cassandra's gaze drilled outward. "Are you absolutely
sure, Father?"

The priest waved his hands dismissively. "Yeah, I'm
sure. I'll make myself useful here, help Venetia, stuff like
that." He chuckled. "A little extra redemption can't hurt,
right?"

Ruth remained speechless.

"I'll ask one more time," Cassandra told him. "Are you
sure?"

Alexander nodded.

Ruth's Tongue-Skirt and Hand-Bra flapped to the
ground while Ruth herself disappeared. The priest wasn't sure but he thought he could hear her utter a few dissipating words before she was gone altogether: "What a cool
fuckin' guy...

A wisp of smoke like glitter seemed to hang in the air
momentarily; then it, too, was gone.

"You're agood man, Father Alexander," the face in the
puddle said.

Alexander shrugged.

"I'll be in touch." Cassandra's eyes narrowed. "We have
more work for you...."

Before the priest could bid an awkward farewell, the
face had vacated the puddle.

So ... here I am, he thought with a relieving sigh. He
flexed his beastly arms for no conscious reason. By now
the entirety of Boniface Boulevard glowed white, as the
Chastitant continued her scourge of consecration. But
beyond-as far as he could see-the infernal city gushed
smoke and screams, and through the black clouds before
the black sickle moon, abominations soared on great
leathery wings. Alexander knew that this city was endless and always would be, but now ...

Now's my chance to change a little bit of it.

Overhead, directly above the former Fortress Boniface,
the smallest rive seemed to appear in the smudged, scarlet sky, like a modest tear forming in filthy fabric.

Then a ray of sunlight strayed across his face.

Alexander strode forward then, thumping on inhuman
feet, to join Venetia in her destiny.

Flashlights probed the dark wood behind the house. In
spite of all the police, little was said after they'd found the
two bodies-and all the blood-in the atrium. The only
sound were crickets and the crunch of twigs beneath
shoes.

More flashlights roved the rest of the backyard; Berns
thought of monstrous fireflies.

"So what do you make of that giant spiral on the floor
back at the house?" Moxey asked, if only to break the unnerving silence.

"It's an occult emblem. They called it the Involution."

"So what is it?"

Berns brushed a spiderweb off his face. "Wish I knew."

"And how the hell did these psychos get the blood to
follow the course of the spiral? If they poured it out of the
can, there'd be footprints."

"I don't know, sir," Berns replied, holding his annoyance. But Berns didn't think he wanted to know, either.

Moxey shrieked like a little girl when his flashlight
veered upward onto three nude bodies hanging in the
woods.

The ropes creaked.

"The housekeeper and her daughter," Berns said, "and
the guy who took care of the yard."

All faces stared at the corpses.

"This is a real horror show you've got going here,"
Moxey said, trying to recover after his feminine shriek.

Berns smiled. "My county, my fault? It's your state."

Moxey smirked.

A distant voice from the yard called out "Captain
Berns! Over here!"

They strode quickly out of the clearing to where several
more uniforms stood by a storage shed. Inside, a flashlight shined on an open floor panel.

"St-stairs," Moxey observed.

Berns led the way. A corridor of unadorned blocks
seemed to lead back toward the house. The worst thought
fluttered in his head. Six people were staying at the prior
house, and we've found five bodies....

Where was Venetia Barlow?

The corridor seemed to swallow them in narrowing
darkness. The sound of foot scuffs echoed hard off the
brick walls. Then-

"Shit," Berns said.

They all moved slowly into a large brick chamber. An
odd stone slab sat slightly atilt toward the back. Flashlight
beams danced around, a moving webwork of light.

Someone said, "This place feels like a crypt."

Moxey stood still, looking directly up. "You know, I'll
bet

"I was thinking the same thing," Berns interrupted.
"I'll bet this room was built directly beneath the middle of
the atrium."

"Right under the center point of that spiral-thing . .

It was Berns' flashlight that found the anteroom to the
left. He drew his gun and sidestepped in but found no
one in wait, only six cement boxes. One was empty, its lid
half-pushed off. But the other five had their lids on.

"Don't tell me those things are coffins," Moxey said.

"They're small for coffins," Berns noted. "And-"

They all noticed the odd white fragments sitting atop
each lid.

"They look like pieces of bones," Moxey declared.

Yeah. Berns approached the fifth box as a cop in the
main chamber yelled, "Hey, Captain, there's another
room out here."

"Check it later. We need some help with these boxes."
Berns removed the bone off the top of the fifth box.
"Everybody grab a lid," he ordered. "Let's see what's inside these things...."

SIMON CLARK

The future looked good for Mason until the night he
was attacked ... by someone who looked exactly like him.
Soon he will understand that something monstrous is
happening-something that transforms ordinary people
into replicas of him, duplicates driven by irresistible
bloodlust.

As the body count rises, Mason fights to keep one step
ahead of the Echomen, the duplicates who hunt not only
him but also his family and friends, and who perform
gruesome experiments on their own kind. But the attacks
are not as mindless as they seem. The killers have an
unimaginable agenda, one straight from a fevered nightmare.

ISBN 10: 0-8439-5494-9

ISBN 13: 978-0-8439-5494-4

To order a book or to request a catalog call:
1-800-481-9191

This book is also available at your local bookstore, or you
can check out our Web site www.dorchesterpub.com
where you can look up your favorite authors, read
excerpts, or glance at our discussion forum to see what
people have to say about your favorite books.

RICHARD LAYMON

Whitechapel, November 1888: Jack the Ripper is hard
at work. He's safe behind locked doors in a one-room
hovel with his unfortunate victim, Mary Kelly. With no
need to hurry for once, he takes his time gleefully
eviscerating the young woman. He doesn't know that a
fifteen-year-old boy is cowering under Mary's bed....

Trevor Bentley's life would never be the same after that
night. What he saw and heard would have driven many
men mad. But for Trevor it was the beginning of a quest,
an obsession to stop the most notorious murderer in
history. The killer's trail of blood will lead Trevor from
the fog-shrouded alleys of London to the streets of New
York and beyond. But Trevor will not stop until he comes
face to face with the ultimate horror.

ISBN 10: 0-8439-5751-4

ISBN 13: 978-0-8439-5751-8

To order a book or to request a catalog call:
1-800-481-9191

This book is also available at your local bookstore, or you
can check out our Web site www.dorchesterpub.com
where you can look up your favorite authors, read
excerpts, or glance at our discussion forum to see what
people have to say about your favorite books.

EDWARD LEE

SLITHER