The Diablo Horror (The River Book 7) (13 page)

“You’re a substitute teacher,” Steven said. “You’re the one
the kids torture.”

“Not me,” she said, sipping her coffee. “I charm them. They
do whatever I tell them to do. Easy as pie. Most classes literally cheer when I
walk in. Not because they’re going to get away with things, but because they’re
going to have a good time learning. It’s incredibly rewarding. Do you miss your
job, Steven?”

“No,” he said. “If you’d asked me that a year ago I might
have answered differently. But so many things have changed since then. So much
more exciting now than when I had that job.”

“And you, Roy, you just spend your retirement fishing?” she
asked.

“I wish,” Roy said. “Since this one pulled his head out of
his ass, he’s kept me running non-stop. Hardly feels like a retirement.”

“But you and Dixon do go out once in a while, right? I was led
to believe you do get
some
fishing in.”

“When he’s not busy using his boat for other things,” Roy
replied.

They continued talking and agreed they’d spend the day at
Eximere, returning to Seattle tomorrow. Then they’d take Eliza back to the
airport.

Steven spent the rest of the morning looking through objects
for the item Victor had described, the one that would diagnose what his
markings could do. Although he had given one to Aka Manah, he was hoping there
might be another.
Wooden handle, animal bone, white twine
, he repeated
to himself as he walked among the cases in the object room, looking down into
them and slowly moving from one object to the next. He’d covered most of the
room, and it wasn’t there.
Might be one down in the project room, in the
basement,
he thought.
I’ll try there next.

He considered going out to Jason’s grave, to sit next to him
and see if he was there, able to communicate.
If he even wants to
communicate,
Steven thought.
No, I’m not ready. I don’t know what I’d
say. Maybe next time.

Roy came into the room, holding a book. “You should see
this,” Roy said, approaching Steven quickly, as though what he was holding was
hot to the touch. As he got closer, Steven could see the book had a red leather
spine, just like Victor’s book.

Roy had his finger in the book, and he placed it on top of
one of the glass cases and opened it to his marking.

“I think they’re invocations,” Roy said. “There’s a whole
section on invocations.”

Steven’s mind shifted from relaxation back to work – back to
the task of killing Aka Manah. “You found this in the library?” he asked Roy.

“There’s eight or nine of them, all by the same author. One
of the books is the same one Victor had. The others are full of stuff on other subjects.
Based on what Victor said, I’m guessing they’re rare.”

Steven looked over the page Roy had marked. He was able to read
most of it, which surprised him. “It says most invocations are specific to the
action, not an object or a person.” He flipped forward a page at a time,
rapidly scanning. “You say there’s a whole section on invocations?”

“Fifty, sixty pages at least,” Roy said.

Steven kept scanning, turning pages. “Ah,” Steven said,
catching sight of a heading. “Here’s a list!”

He slowed down, using his finger to tick off each invocation
listed in the book. They were organized by action, but not alphabetical. “Demon
appearance invocation… that sounds interesting… trance invocation… fear… paranoia…
money…”

“Money?” Roy asked. “We might want to save that one for
later.”

Steven kept scanning. After a few moments, he reached the end
of the list. “There’s nothing here for reversion, but there is one here called
‘return’. Maybe that’s it?”

“How do you make these work?” Roy asked. “Does it say?”

Steven flipped back to the beginning of the section and read.
“You draw a circle. You enter the circle. You read the words. That’s it.”

“Simple,” Roy said. “Let’s give it a try.”

They walked out of the object room to the back yard. Steven
followed him, holding the book. Roy saw Eliza sitting on the back porch,
reading a book. “Come on, Eliza!” Roy called, waving her over. “We found an
invocation!”

Roy walked through the yard until he found a section under
the banyan tree that didn’t have any grass. He took a small stick and handed it
to Steven. “You do it,” Roy said. “From inside the circle.”

Eliza joined them. “Where’d you find it?”

“Book in the library,” Roy said, beaming, as Steven drew the
circle around him. “By the same author as the one Victor was reading from.”

Once Steven completed the circle, he sat in the middle of it
and opened the book. Eliza stood next to Roy, both six feet from the circle’s
edge. Steven searched for the entry marked ‘return,’ and began to read.

“Quod meum est mihi, redite,” he said.

“What is that, Latin?” Roy asked.

“Shh,” Eliza said, swatting his arm.

“Quod meum est mihi, redite,” Steven repeated.

They waited. It was silent except for the slight rustle of
leaves in the wind. Steven looked up and saw the branches of the banyan waving
above him.

“Try again,” Roy said.

“Quod meum est mihi, redite,” Steven said again.

They waited again, but nothing happened.

“Maybe I’m saying it wrong,” Steven said. “Mispronouncing it
or something.”

“Do you have to be in the River when you do it?” Eliza asked.
“Or in a trance?”

“It didn’t say that,” Steven answered, “but it couldn’t
hurt.”

Steven dropped in and repeated the phrase in his mind while
in the flow. Then he formed a trance, and after it was complete, he repeated it
in his mind again. Then he dropped out.

“Nope,” Roy said. “Maybe ‘return’ doesn’t mean what we’re
hoping it does.”

“Or maybe,” Eliza said, “the Agimat just doesn’t respond to
invocations.”

Steven stood up and walked out of the circle. He closed the
book. “Well, it was worth a shot,” he said, walking back to the house. He let
work retreat in his mind and relaxation return. He checked his watch; it was
after two.

“Drinks, anyone?” Steven asked. “A mojito, maybe?”

“Oh, I’d love one,” Eliza said, returning to her spot on the
porch and picking her book back up. “It’s after five somewhere.”

“Dad?” Steven asked.

“An old fashioned, please,” Roy said. “I can’t drink all that
green shit.”

Steven unlocked the basement door and the three of them
entered his house, walking up the stairs and onto the main floor, Steven
flicking on lights as they went. They would be taking Eliza to the airport in a
few hours, and they intended to relax at Steven’s place until then.

As he rounded the corner at the top of the stairs, Steven
knew something was wrong. He turned on the lights to the dining and living
rooms, but the air was thick and the light wasn’t as bright as normal. When he
looked into the living room, it was so dark he was afraid it might be full of
smoke. His first thought was that something was on fire.

Eliza and Roy finished climbing the stairs and joined him,
staring into the living room with him.

“Doesn’t smell like smoke,” Roy said. “It’s something else.”

It was hard to see anything in the living room at all. The
darkness boiled through the room like a fog. Then Steven heard Eliza gasp as
she saw what they all saw – eyes, looking at them from within the swirling
blackness.

“Come in,” a deep voice said. It seemed to rattle the walls.

“Is that him?” Roy asked Steven. “Aka Manah?”

“I don’t think so,” Steven said.

The darkness lightened a little, the fog wisping away enough
that they could see the shape of a tall man sitting on the couch in the living
room. He was handsome and well dressed. His eyes were bright, shining through
the fog that swirled around him.

“Please, I’d like to talk with you,” the man said. Steven
could feel the lower registers of his voice rumbling through the floor. It was
frightening and seductive at the same time.

Eliza took the lead and walked into the living room. The man
stood. He extended his hand, and Eliza took it.

Steven and Roy followed Eliza, concerned that she’d
approached the man so quickly.

“Vohuman,” the man said as he took Eliza’s hand. He raised it
to his lips and kissed it. Eliza looked mesmerized. “Eliza,” she muttered back
at him, smiling like a schoolgirl.

“Why are you in my house, uninvited?” Steven asked as Vohuman
dropped Eliza’s hand.

“As I said, I want to speak to you,” he replied, turning to
face Steven. The darkness swirled around his body, a thin layer of blackness
that sometimes obscured part of his personage. “Please, sit.”

“I’ll stand if you don’t mind,” Roy said.

“Ah, you have some of your son’s blood in you,” Vohuman said.
“Not as charmed to see me as your friend Eliza here.”

“No, I’m not,” Roy said.

Vohuman sat back down, and Eliza moved over to a chair,
sitting quickly, focused on Vohuman with an intensity that disturbed Steven.

“Usually it’s the host who asks the visitor to sit,” Steven
said. “You demons like to run the show, don’t you?”

“And then there’s the uppity one,” Vohuman said. “You can
afford to be, I suppose. If I took offense at every stupid thing a human said,
half the planet would be dead. And we don’t want you dead, to be sure.”

“Why are you here?” Steven asked, standing next to Roy for
moral support and to show solidarity.

“I want to talk to you,” Vohuman said. “I have a proposal.”

“A deal?” Steven asked. “No way.”

“Hear me out,” Vohuman said.

“I’m done with demons,” Steven said, “and deals with demons.”

“You don’t shoot the horse just before it crosses the finish
line,” Vohuman said. “You’ve nearly won the race now, so don’t be stupid.”

“Race?” Roy said. “What are you talking about?”

Vohuman sighed as though he was irritated with having to
explain. “I understand you’d like to do away with a certain demon that’s been
pestering you.”

“Not at your price,” Steven said.

“As I asked, hear me out,” Vohuman said, his voice becoming
more insistent, rumbling at a deeper level that demanded respect. “You stand to
achieve your goal, with my help.”

“What are you proposing?” Eliza asked. Steven looked at her;
she seemed as interested in Vohuman as she’d be in an old friend.
Did he
make her ask that?
Steven wondered. It reminded him of Evie, and the
influence Vohuman had on her, the look in her eyes when she’d first told them
about Vohuman and how he’d planned for Aka Manah to take her son, Robbie. That
event had started this whole ball rolling. Evie seemed completely controlled by
Vohuman, willing to do anything for him, and a little of Evie’s vibe was
present in Eliza’s tone. It made him nervous.

“I believe you can kill Aka Manah, now that you have the Agimat,”
Vohuman said. “I suspected it was a possibility when I first saw you at June
Williamson’s house.”

“We don’t have the Agimat,” Roy said.

“Oh, yes you do,” Vohuman replied. He turned to Steven.
“You’re wearing it right now.”

“I have half of it embedded in my arm,” Steven said. “But
you’re wrong about the necklace half. Aka Manah has it.”

“No, he does not,” Vohuman said. “It reverted to you the
moment you left your little hideout on the peninsula. That’s why I’m here.”

Steven raised a hand to his chest and realized he was still
wearing his jacket. He unzipped it and was shocked to see the Agimat dangling
from his neck.
The return invocation must have worked,
he thought,
but
it couldn’t physically come to me until I left the protection of Eximere!

“You have both halves now,” Vohuman said. “I believe that
your power combined with that object can kill him. You can finish him off,
forever.” Vohuman smiled.

“You’ve been planning this,” Roy said, “haven’t you?”

“From the moment I first saw you at June’s,” Vohuman said. “Aka
Manah took the child bait, and since then I’ve been tracking him. I know
exactly where he’s at. I initially intended it as a trap that would
incapacitate him for a while, but once I saw what your son was capable of, I
decided to gamble on something else. Something more permanent. What do they
say, ‘bigger risk, bigger reward’? Something like that. So I changed my plans.”

“Evie, at Bill’s house,” Roy said. “I never understood why
she came out of hiding to talk to us. I didn’t buy her story about feeling
sorry for us, either. You put her up to it.”

“I did,” Vohuman said. “She didn’t want to, but I insisted. I
knew you’d probably be skittish about making a deal with me at that point, so I
instructed her to tell you it was because she felt concerned for you, which of
course, she didn’t. You two showing up at June’s house presented an option I
couldn’t pass up.” He turned to Steven. “I knew Aka Manah would latch onto you
once he saw your markings. He always had a thing for rooting out threats before
they understood what they were capable of. I was just hoping it would be long
enough for a vulnerability to emerge, for the bigger risk to pay off. And now
it has.”

“The Agimat?” Steven asked.

“Yes,” Vohuman said. “It didn’t have to be an Agimat, just
any object with the right properties. He took an unbelievable risk asking you
for it, like asking someone doused in gasoline to smoke a cigarette. It might
have worked, but the dam threw him. His fear of water slowed him down enough
that you were able to figure it out.”

“So the deal he forced on me,” Steven said, “was that real?”

“Partly,” Vohuman said. “His primary interest was determining
if you knew what your capabilities were. Getting you to give him anything that
you might be able to use against him killed two birds with one stone. It
demonstrated that you didn’t have a clue what your powers were or what you were
handing over. It’s a trick I’ve used myself, many times.”

“So the objects weren’t really his?” Steven asked. “The
planchette?”

“You didn’t really believe they were, did you?” Vohuman
asked. “Deep down, you knew it was all a lie. He realized that in your hands,
some objects were a threat. He got you to give up everything that could hurt
our race, the Agimat being one of the most dangerous. Normally I’d have done
the same thing, but this time I’m more interested in seeing if you’d like some
revenge.”

“How?” Steven asked warily.

“I lead you to him,” Vohuman said, “and you kill him.”

“And how would I do that?” Steven asked.

“You’d use what’s inside him against him,” Vohuman said. “You
have that power.”

“How do you know that?” Steven asked.

“I wasn’t a hundred percent sure,” Vohuman said, “until I saw
you kill your son.”

Steven stared at Vohuman. Though he’d thought the same thing
many times, Roy and Eliza were far too kind to say anything that blunt to him.
“That was a mistake,” Steven said. “An accident. I didn’t intend to.”

“You don’t realize how you killed him, do you?” Vohuman
asked. “Most humans are so egotistical; it’s refreshing to meet one so naïve.”

“If you know how I killed him,” Steven asked, “tell me.”

“You were swinging an incorporeal ax,” Vohuman said. “It passes
right through normal people with no effect, like a ghost. But your son wasn’t completely
normal, was he? He had something lethal in him, something someone put in him,
and your killing ability used it against him. That crazy religious nut saw it
in the boy. He used it to keep your son still while you did the deed. You swung
the ax in your altered state, but your physical body completed the act, using what
was inside your son to kill him. You turned it on him, stopping his heart.
That’s why you can kill Aka Manah. He has the same lethal ingredient, buried
deep inside. You can do the same to him. You can stop his heart, too.”

Steven reached up to his forehead, rubbing it. He decided to
sit down. He felt sick.

“So I
did
kill him,” Steven said. “I had hoped it was
something else that had done it, something I didn’t see.”

“No, it was you,” Vohuman said. “I believe you’ve been told
more than once that you’re lethal. This is why. The ghost in Diablo manipulated
you – and he was strong enough to do it because he had the Agimat. I doubt a
normal ghost could have controlled you or your son that way. It’s a powerful
device. That’s why Aka Manah wanted it. Your ability plus the Agimat will be
powerful enough to end him.”

“So you saw… ” Steven paused. “You saw me stop his heart?”

“I wasn’t there,” Vohuman said. “People I trust saw you. They
reported to me.”

“So you’re afraid of water, too,” Steven said.

“The reason any demon becomes ancient,” Vohuman said, “is
because we’re smart enough to not take stupid risks. It’s Aka Manah’s stupid
risk in asking you to give him the Agimat that’s going to be his undoing. If he
hadn’t asked you to give it to him, and then insisted that you go to Diablo to
retrieve it, your son would be alive now, wouldn’t he?”

“Yes,” Steven said. “That’s true.”

“So I expect you’d like to avenge your son’s death, then,”
Vohuman said. “And kill the person most responsible.”

“That would be me,” Steven said. “I’m most responsible.”

“No,” Vohuman said, standing up. The dark fog swirling around
his body rose with him, trails of it streaking back down to the couch. “You
were manipulated. You would never have killed your son if you’d known your own
power and realized what was inside him. Forces outside of your control
manipulated those facts and forced you to do it. You’ve already dispensed with
one of them, the filthy dirteater. Now it’s time to finish off the other
responsible party, Aka Manah.”

“That’s what you’d like,” Roy said. “That’s your whole agenda
here.”

“He and I do have a long history,” Vohuman said. “But I think
you can put that history to an end, if you choose to.”

“So I kill him,” Steven said, rolling things around in his
mind, once again looking at the floor, “and you get what you want. What about
what I want?”

“You get vengeance!” Vohuman said. “That’s what every wronged
human wants. Imagine seeing him die, knowing it was you that did him in! Hard
to resist! It’s so rare to get that kind of satisfaction. Most people never do.”

“The other thing that I’ve heard over and over,” Steven said,
“is that demons lie. You are probably lying to me right now. There’s some
trick, something you get out of it that I don’t know about.”

“I freely admit that I want Aka Manah dead,” Vohuman said.
“You’ve known that for a while now.”

“Only because Evie told us that,” Roy said. “She was lying
for you, so that might not be true, either.”

“The only way I’d consider it,” Steven said, “is if there’s
some iron-clad protection for me and my family and friends. It’s a one-time act
and we’re forever protected, in this life and the next.”

“Son,” Roy said, “you’re not seriously considering this, are
you? He’s a fucking demon for Christ’s sake!”

“And I’d have to have it in writing,” Steven continued. “This
was a big risk and reward for you, as you said, so I expect a good payback. All
my guarantees engage whether or not I can kill him. If I fail, or even if I
walk away, I get everything we agreed to.”