Cold air blasted my face. The night was lit up like a spotlight, though what illuminated the earth, I didn’t know. Craig lay a few feet from me. Bright red blood poured from him and sunk into the ground.
I registered it, but couldn’t process the rising agony and disbelief because standing over him was the freakiest thing I’d ever seen.
It had to have been twenty feet. Standing upright, it had legs like a goat. The arms, instead of ending in hooves, each with four-inch talons. Its body was black, pebbled like a snake, and it had wide leathery wings.
There were no eyes, only empty sockets that glowed red. It screamed.
I slapped my hands over my ears. The sound drove me to my knees.
Saliva dripped from its fangs. It howled again.
Serge fell beside me. Blood ran from his ears.
I grabbed and pulled him into my arms, trying to shield him with my body.
The thing howled once more.
My stomach dropped. It wasn’t just screaming. It was calling. Calling for Serge.
“Maggie.”
I could barely hear Serge above the creature’s scream.
The Thing stopped screaming. It sniffed the air with its pug nose, then dropped on all fours. It began to circle, but from the winding trail it took, I knew it didn’t know where we were.
“It can’t see,” I whispered to Serge. “Stay quiet. As long as you’re quiet, we’ll be fine.”
He mouthed the word “go.”
I shook my head.
He tried to push me away.
I held him steady and shook my head again. “Me and you.” I mouthed the words.
He started crying.
I pulled him closer.
The creature’s long pointed ears perked like a bloodhound and rotated in our direction. Growling low in its throat, it crouched on its haunches and waited.
Don’t cry.
It moved in the opposite direction, snuffling the ground. The scent of it—burnt rubber and sulphur—assaulted my nose.
Leave me. I deserve this.
No!
Maggie, go!
I didn’t say anything. He tried to break out of the field but the close proximity to the creature had weakened him, and I was able to hold tight. We stand together.
He looked at me and everything he needed to say was in the tears that streamed down his cheeks.
Another voice sounded in my head: Craig’s. Stay still, both of you.
We froze and looked at each other.
You think I’m bleeding for the fun of it? There has to be a blood sacrifice. Neither of you move.
Are you okay? I asked.
If I lose too much blood it won’t be good. Talking to you is taking my concentration.
I got the message: shut up.
The creature howled and the trees shook.
Serge jerked back.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Serge, said Craig, call to it.
The ghost met my gaze. I shrugged.
“Uh, here kitty.” Serge frowned. “Who am I kidding? Hey, Ugly! You want a piece of me? Try your best!”
The Thing screamed, high, piercing, and pounded towards Serge.
“Geez, Serge. He said call to it not challenge the thing’s masculinity.”
Stand in my blood.
Aware of the demon-seed thing pounding its way to us, saliva dripping from its fangs and spraying the night air, and too freaked out to be squeamish, I grabbed Serge’s hand and did as commanded.
The thing rushed closer and the air carried the scent of its mouldering breath.
“Grab my hand,” Craig whispered.
We did. Light exploded from the contact, mushroomed out like a nuclear cloud, and sped to the thing.
The creature howled in pain, brought its claws in front of its face. It couldn’t stop its momentum and ran into the cloud of light.
The force field obliterated it, seared its body and left nothing but floating ash.
Sudden silence descended. The night grew dark again. Leaves rustled in the stillness.
Beside us, Craig stirred. His blood reversed flow and seeped back into his body. The bruises and mangled pulp of his nose knit together.
I crouched closer to him, but Serge pulled me back.
“Do you see that?” he whispered. He nodded in Craig’s direction. “He’s got leather wings.”
My heart stuttered. “Like the creature’s?” I squinted towards my boyfriend.
Serge shook his head. “No…but similar.”
What was going on? “Come on, let’s see if he needs help.”
Serge held me fast. “He doesn’t—don’t you see her?”
“No,” I said irritably. “I don’t.” What I did see was Craig rising to a sitting position.
My ears twitched as he began to talk. My skin went ice cold. “That’s not English.”
Serge stood and pulled me up with him. “It’s ancient Egyptian.”
I heard the frustration and anxiety in his voice as he asked, “How do I know that?”
“Can you understand what he’s saying? Who’s he talking to?”
“There’s a woman in white. They’re talking about what just happened. I think.” Worry tinged his words. “I don’t understand all the words but it’s not good.”
“Great.”
“He’s saying that they should have told her—you. I think they’re talking about you.” He paused. “Craig says they could have killed you—you should have known and he should have been given the update on the…” He shook his head. “I don’t know—I can hear the word but I can’t repeat it—the thing. He should have been told about the thing. She’s saying the plan had to unfold as it should or—” He stopped.
“Serge?”
“—or I’d fail the test,” he finished quietly.
Test?
Craig jumped to his feet.
I blinked.
This guy could not be human. No one could have lost that much blood and hop around like a rabbit. I calmed my frantic pulse and tried to tap into the conversation. But it didn’t work. All I felt was frustration and anger…and a whack-load of terror.
Serge had gone quiet, which meant no help.
I closed my eyes. Instead of trying to see and hear them, I just concentrated on hearing.
“You knew he would pass. This was unnecessary,” said Craig. His voice rumbled, thrummed as though a dark band of electricity ran through his body. In my mind’s eye, he seemed bigger, a gigantic creature of lava and leather, fire and iron.
“No, we theorized he would pass. Until he was willing to sacrifice himself to protect Magdalene, we could do nothing.”
The female had a soothing voice, the kind I’d imagined perfect mothers have when they rock their kids to sleep.
“How did the—”
Craig said the creature’s name and I knew what Serge meant about hearing but not understanding. It sounded like a mix between “bellabok” and “Nybbialas” but there were “r” and “ph” sounds and my braid couldn’t sort the syllables. I got the gist, though: ancient evil.
“It shouldn’t have been released from its cage.”
“Because we cannot foresee every action of human, we cannot prevent their energies from loosening the gates between their realm and hell.”
“The plan should have changed as their actions changed,” said Craig.
“You know that cannot—”
“She almost died! And Serge—he barely made it! As it is, the”—he spoke the creature’s name—“will be back.”
Instinctively, I grabbed the ghost’s hand. My eyes snapped open. “How do I protect him?”
Craig’s head whipped in my direction.
I blinked and squinted, unsure of what I was seeing. It seemed as though there were images superimposed on images. There was his human form, but something else—the shadow of wings blocked the view of barren trees and moonlight—mixed with the sense of a giant who had stuffed himself into a human form fifteen sizes too small.
I stepped back, but I held my courage. “Where does Serge have to make it?”
“Come on,” he said. The red glow dimmed from his eyes, turned them from ruby-amber back to brown. “Let’s go home and I’ll tell you about it.”
“Tell me about what—what are you?”
The shadows left him as he walked to the car, turned him fully human. “A ferrier.” He glanced back at me. “I transport the dead.”