CHAPTER 2

 

 

Roland tried to step out of the circle, but one touch of the bars and they crackled and sparked. He started back, and Rose laughed.

"You as a creature of darkness escape from the cell of demons," she told him. She walked up and tapped a cell bar with her own long fingernail, and the bar sizzled. "No dark being can break the magic in this book."

"What sorcery is this?" he questioned her.

She held up the tome to him so he could read the cover. "Does this book perhaps appear familiar to you?"

Roland's eyes narrowed. "How came you to have that book?"

Rose smirked at him and walked around the cell. "A werewolf was careless with the book, and I stole it away for a short while." She raised the book and brushed a hand over the leather cover. "I admit the spells and language were not easy to decipher, but I believe I am ready for the grand spell to finally give your soul to me."

"Didn't you get the news? He's got his soul back," I spoke up.

Rose turned to me and her smirk widened. "I had heard as much from others, but that is of little consequence. I merely intend to steal his soul from his body and place it in my own."

I glanced at Roland. "Seriously? Is that possible?"

He pursed his lips and his eyes fell on the book. "Anything is possible when the wielder holds the Myrddin Grimoire."

"The whats-it?" I asked him.

Rose held the book out to me. "This is the Myrddin Grimoire. The most powerful grimoire in the world."

"I don't know what a dire book has to do with anything," I argued.

Rose dropped her arms and glared at me. "Grimoire, not grim," she snapped.

I shrugged, or tried to. "I'm still not following."

The short vampire stomped past me to the other side of the short room. She spun around and flipped open the pages. "You will follow in a moment," she assured me. Rose's search ended at the back of the book, and her smile returned. Her eyes flitted over the room. "All the pieces are in place." She raised a hand and the book pulsed with a dark light. Her eyes flickered to Roland and her voice chanted the magical words. "By the darkness in my hand and the dark lord in the land, let our souls be born anew in the body of we two."

A swirl of wind whipped through the room. I ate dust, cobwebs, and their spider tenants. The dark light from the book rose from the pages as a thick strand and flew through the air. That end slammed into Roland's chest. He whipped his head back and let out a cry of pain and horror.

The other end rose from the pages and stabbed itself into Rose's chest. She screamed and the book clattered to the ground, its pages still open to the hideous spell.

I imitated a beaver and chewed through the rest of the ropes with the box cutter. The binds fell off me and I jumped to my feet.

My plan was simple: don't die. The execution was a little messier. I figured what Rose had said about Roland's cell was true. A creature of darkness couldn't break it. I'd been called a lot of things in my short life, but creature of darkness wasn't one of them. I threw myself at Roland's prison and prayed to God this would work.

Half of my message got through because I got through. The dark shadow bars parted for me like they were mist and I grabbed Roland's arm. That's when the last half of my message to God became a dropped call.

The dark strand that connected Roland to Rose changed directions. Rose's end took a sharp right and slammed into me. Horrible, fiery pain shot through my body like the end of the Devil's cane, but deeper. It pulled something out of me and shoved something colder and older into its place.

"No!" I heard Rose scream.

She ran up to us and tried to grab me, but the dark bars of Roland's cell filtered through me and into her. She was blown back and Ginsleh caught her. The pair could only watch the unwilling transaction.

I glimpsed the transfer of two dark shadows through the conduit of the strand. One, a white shadow, flew into Roland, and out of him and into me went a darker shadow.

The moment the two shadows completed their short trek was the moment the thick strand burst apart. Roland and I were thrown into opposite walls, and Ginsleh and Rose were tossed against the far back wall. The dark light and the candles were blown out, and the crypt fell into darkness as a dust cloud covered everything.

I coughed on the cloud and raised myself onto my arms. My eyes scanned the dark room and somehow found Roland's stiff body five feet from me. He lay face-down on the hard stone floor. I tried to stand, but my legs wouldn't hold me.

"Roland," I choked out.

There was no reply. I stuffed my phone into my pocket and crawled towards him. I winced when my body told me that was a really stupid idea. Every muscle and bone fell like it'd been placed in front of a brick wall and an entire middle school was given permission to over-inflated hard gator-skin balls at me for a few hours. I made it to Roland and shook his shoulder.

"Roland?" I whispered. "You okay?"

Roland shifted and raised his quivering head. His blue eyes blinked back at me.

"Misty." He raised his hand, but it dropped to his side. "Misty, I-" A noise from the back of the crypt told me the crypt keepers were waking up.

"No time for apologies," I scolded him. I slung his droopy arm over my shoulders and climbed to my shaky feet. He didn't feel as heavy as other times I'd dragged his undead corpse out of trouble. "We gotta get out of here before we're invited for dessert."

I dragged him across the threshold of the crypt and out into the open, clean, snowy air of the graveyard. Never did moldy grass, damp snow, and leaves smell so good. I stumbled down the white hill and Roland tried to help by walking, but his feet kept dragging over the rocks and flat stone markers. He caught his feet a half dozen times before I paused and frowned at him.

"Roland, I don't think our enemies need any help from either of us, so just go limp for a while," I told him.

"I. . .must warn. . .you-" he wheezed. "Our-" A twig behind us snapped. I looked over my shoulder, but didn't see anything except a really short distance between us and the crypt.

"Warning later, panicking now," I told him.

I dragged him to the foot of the hill and set him on a stone bench helpfully provided by one of the deceased. He held himself upright while I took caught my breath.

"You don't happen to be able to fly right now, do you?" I wheezed. He shook his head, and I pursed my lips together. "There goes the Superman escape route. Now on to the telecommunications one." I whipped out my phone and pressed a few buttons.

"Who are. . .you calling?" he asked me.

"Uncle Seward and Aunt Ma. I don't think Ralph would come to our rescue," I quipped as I put the phone to my ear. The phone rang a couple of times before someone picked up.

"Hello?" Aunt Ma answered.

"Aunt Ma, Roland and I are in a little bit of trouble. Think you or Uncle Seward could come pick us up?" I pleaded.

"Of course, Misty. Where are you?" she asked me.

"Out in Portham Cemetery," I told her.

"What in the world are you doing there?" she scolded me.

"Trying not to become a lifetime member of the Dead Club, now could you please hurry down here?" I insisted.

"All right. Uncle Seward and I will be right there," she promised.

"And tell Uncle Seward to break some speed limits. This is an emergency," I added.

"Very well, but you've got a lot of explaining to do when we get there," she warned me.

"Thanks, Aunt Ma. See you soon," I answered as I hung up the phone.

I turned to Roland. He sat hunched over his legs and clutched his chest. His breathing was labored and in the dark light his pale skin stood out like a black cat in a snowstorm. If snowstorms were black and the cat was actually white. This night was just getting better and better.