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“I’ve got Yugi running a check on it,” he said, then stopped. “Just a minute.” He pressed his hand against his ear, and I realized he was wearing a Bluetooth earpiece. “It’s him. Give me five.”
Camil e held out her hand and jumped. “I can feel it from out here. You can’t tel me that something horrible didn’t happen here.”
Morio snapped out of his trance at that point. “This entire area is a beacon for Netherworld activity. The energy reads like a cloud of gaseous green pain. I don’t know why, but I think this district has become the gathering place for malcontented spirits al around the city.”
“We can’t take them al on—not at once.” Camil e pointed toward the building. “We’l have to focus on the ones in there.”
“Did you bring the Black Unicorn horn?” I was hoping she’d say yes, but once again, wishes don’t always play into reality.
“No, tonight’s the new moon and it needs to finish charging. It took a long time to recover after my night with the Hunt.” A haunted look crossed her face, and I knew she was remembering. When you sacrifice an Immortal, even if he’s to be reincarnated and chose you as his executioner, you don’t just forget it and go along your merry way. Camil e had been emotional y scarred by the experience, even though it had earned her the mantle of priestess. “You’re going to have to make do with Moon and death magic.”
“Better the death magic,” I mumbled. Camil e’s Moon magic went astray al too often. Although now that she was working under the dark of the moon more, she seemed to be doing a little better.
She’d been assigned the wrong phase since childhood, and it had caused her powers to short-circuit, perhaps more so than her half-human heritage. We weren’t sure yet.
I motioned to the others. “Fal in behind me. Shade, you can walk in the shadows. Wil you slip up ahead and find out what’s going on?”
He nodded—once—and seemed to vanish right before our eyes. Actual y, it wasn’t like a light going out, or like he’d turned invisible, but more a slow fade til he was translucent. Then he just went poof in a quiet way and was gone.
“I’d like to know more about the Stradolan,” Morio said. “I can’t find any mention of them in any of the books.”
“You won’t, either.” Smoky shook his head. “The Stradolan inhabit the Netherworlds, and they partner with the black dragons to create a unified team. My guess is that somewhere, a linked pair fel in love or lust or something, and boom, Shade was born. His mother would have to be the dragon, though, and his father the Stradolan, or he wouldn’t walk in physical form at al .”
We al turned to him. “Why did you never tel us this before?” Camil e frowned and smacked him on the arm.
He arched his eyebrow. “No one seemed particularly interested.”
“I think Delilah wil be,” I said.
“He’s probably told her. I’m pleasantly surprised by how honorable he’s turned out to be. Of course, as you know, we dragons are a cagey lot, so I advise keeping watch on him for a while.
He’s probably listening to every word we say, by the way.” Smoky let out a long huff. “I suggest we get in there if you hope to rescue the humans in one piece.”
I’d been hoping Shade would come back first, armed with information, but Smoky had a point.
The longer we waited, the more dangerous the situation was becoming. “Okay, let’s head in.
Shade wil find us.”
I swung toward the building, motioning for Vanzir to move up front with me. Morio and Camil e were next, with Tril ian and Smoky taking up the back. We were about to head in when Chase came running over.
“Okay, I’ve got some info for you. Place used to be a diner, but before that it was a smal tavern and card room. Real hole in the wal , and a hangout for thugs. This was back in the 1940s. The owner, one Randy Smith, found out his wife was leaving him for his brother and that they’d been having sex in the basement while he was out running errands. Randy didn’t let on he knew, just sneaked back to the bar when one of his buddies gave him the heads-up they were both here, and he caught them. Guy went apeshit. Tied and gagged them both, then closed the bar early, after which he returned to the basement, where he made his wife watch while he bludgeoned his brother to death.”
I had a nasty feeling the tale didn’t end there.
“He had something extra special planned for his wife. Left her tied up, rubbed some of his brother’s blood on her, then brought in a pack of rats and set them loose. They swarmed her and ate her alive.” He grimaced. “Yugi saw the photos of what was left. Not pretty.”
“So, we have at least two angry spirits.” One spirit—trouble. Two—a hornet’s nest.
“Not so fast,” Chase said. “I’m not done yet. The guy then kil ed himself by rigging a sawed-off shotgun to shoot his brains out. Nobody found them for three days. Bar was sold to an older mom-and-pop pair who turned it into a diner. Couple who’d been together forty years, happy as clams.”
“Why does my gut tel me this is going to get worse?” Camil e said.
“Because it does.” Chase consulted his notebook. “Within a year, the old guy went nuts and pushed his wife down the basement stairs. She hit her head and died. He must have realized what he’d just done, because he cal ed the cops to turn himself in. By the time they got here, he’d hanged himself right over her fal en body.”
“Is that the end of the body count?” I glanced at his face.
He shook his head, his expression grim. “No. The diner sold twice more and there were five more unexplained deaths. No more couples, but odd accidents that never ful y added up. Never enough evidence to cal them homicide. The building was last vacated in 1981 and has stood empty ever since.”
