“We probably will, if Ryan can’t locate him his way.”
“Did anyone call Lacey to ask her?” Baba Yaga suggested.
The three woman stared at each other with blank expressions.
“D’oh!” Lina said, smacking herself in the forehead. “I’m on it.” She raced for her phone.
Elain watched as a pleased smirk filled the former Immortal’s expression.
“You’re enjoying that far too much,” Elain softly said.
Baba Yaga shrugged. “So sue me. I get my amusement when I can. Considering there’s very little amusing about this whole situation, please allow me my diversions.”
* * * *
Baba Yaga felt excitement roll through her for the first time in…
Since before her endless pain started.
As she watched them scurry around and try to track the man down, all the pieces slipped into place for her. She knew the truck was parked somewhere near where the old cockatrice woman lived, but she wouldn’t be able to find it by herself. Not with her diminished powers.
She could, however, take a little trip.
“I shall go look for him.” She disappeared to her home and stood, eyes closed, calling up the Ether.
One of the things she’d been able to do was look into the past. She’d held back from Lina, Elain, and Mai the scope of her abilities.
No use giving them hints. They needed to earn their powers slowly, so they didn’t misuse them. No sane person gave a loaded gun to a baby and allowed them to play with it.
She hunted down the energy signature for Carl Shupe and found him in Georgia, except…
It was…
Muddied.
Baba Yaga made the connection.
The rock pile.
Aliah’s energy had made it back through, even though her body still lay elsewhere, off-Earth, and she was now inside Carl.
Now having locked onto his signature, and Aliah’s, Baba Yaga traced back down the timeline and smiled.
Clever girl.
Aliah had no idea what Carl’s mother held back as a secret. Even Carl’s mother didn’t know what she had.
Yet.
If allowed to go forward, Baba Yaga wouldn’t even have to do anything but misdirect the Triad for a little while. Syrena would avoid detection all on her own due to the inherent mistrust cockatrice held for each other.
Baba Yaga sighed. Unfortunately, events had already been set into motion. There wouldn’t be time to tell the Triad about the other items. They would have to deal with that issue themselves, and she didn’t even have time to try to see what the future might hold for them.
Not if she wanted to take advantage of this opportunity without Hades or Ryan interfering with her plans.
After quickly penning two letters, Baba Yaga returned to the Lyalls’ house. “Today,” Baba Yaga told them. “The bomb will go off today. Soon, if not stopped. In less than an hour.”
“What the hell?” Lina screamed. “We thought it wouldn’t happen for at least a year!”
“The timeframe has changed,” Baba Yaga said. “With the blockage gone, I, too, have now seen things. You need to go to New Madrid immediately and stop the woman. Her name is Syrena, and she’s a cockatrice. You were right. Carl Shupe gave her a cell phone. She calls the number and it triggers the bomb.”
“Fuck!” Lina turned to Elain and Mai. “Well, road trip?”
“Elain,” Ain said, pushing through the others. “Take a gun with you.” He held out his, grip first.
Baba Yaga noticed how exhausted Elain looked. Understandably so, since she was now trying to handle all her powers at once instead of having time to grow used to them.
In time, she would become awe-inspiring.
For now, she had to be misdirected.
“You must go now,” Baba Yaga urged. “Quickly, to that corner, the parking lot. Wait for her there. She won’t know who or what you are. You can take her by surprise.”
Elain took the gun from Ain and tucked it into the back waistband of her shorts. “You’re sure?”
“Time grows short,” Baba Yaga said. “You must stop her or the bomb will go off.”
Lina looked a little skeptical. “Why aren’t you going with us?”
“I’m retired. This is no longer my fight. I’ve told you all I know. I don’t have the powers you do, and I’d only be in the way and a distraction. If I discover something else, I will tell you.”
“Come on,” Elain said. “Let’s go.” She grabbed Lina and Mai’s hands and they disappeared.
Before Ryan could return and sense her lie, Baba Yaga disappeared to her house again. Looking around, she didn’t feel anything but peace filling her.
This would work.
Except…
She headed to Lacey’s. The old Seer was in her kitchen.
Lacey didn’t even turn. “Coming to say good-bye?”
“Please, do not tell them.”
Lacey finally turned. “As long as that bomb isn’t going to kill innocent people, my lips are sealed.”
Baba Yaga nodded, then finally stepped across the kitchen to hug her. “Thank you, my friend,” she whispered in Lacey’s ear.
“You’re welcome. Go in peace, and may you find what you seek.”
“Oh, can I have two stamps?”
Lacey smiled and walked to her desk, giving them to Baba Yaga. “Want me to mail those for you?”
“No, thank you. I shall do it.”
Lacey stared at her for a moment. “Good luck.”
Baba Yaga nodded and disappeared, appearing at the thinking spot. She had about five minutes before she had to leave. Inhaling the sweet, salty air for one last time, she hoped whatever lay ahead included moments like this beyond measure.
Peace, only without the stabbing pain that never left her soul.
She appeared at the post office in New Madrid, dropped the letters in the outside collection box, and then looked around. Casting a barrier around herself, she shed the persona of Baba Yaga.
Now she was Jadwiga, part archdemon, daughter of Hades, and she drew from that heritage.
It had to be enough. Had to be. She had to distract the girls so they didn’t find the truck too soon.
* * * *
Elain, Mai, and Lina stood there, frantically looking around.
Elain didn’t even care what a sight they must look like. All she cared about was finding that woman.
“Where the fuck is that goddamned cockatrice cunt?” Lina muttered.
Elain felt shimmers of heat washing off Lina. “Easy, girl,” Elain warned. “Don’t blow anything up too soon. You don’t want to give her advance warning and scare her off.”
It felt like an invisible clock ticking down in Elain’s brain. They searched the parking area, the street, ran across to the corner looking at the bank, then back to the parking area.
No sign of the woman.
“Fuck!” Lina screamed, stomping her foot. “What the hell! Get that old fucking bitch back here to talk to us!”
Elain couldn’t waste time on that now. “Lina, focus.” They were down to less than five minutes. She grabbed their hands and dragged them south, across the street and down to the park from where they could see the parking area. Elain knew she could poof to the parking area as soon as they spotted the woman.
But first, they needed to see her.
“What if we can’t find her?” Mai said. “We’re almost out of time!”
“Maybe we can find the bomb and send it to the cornfield,” Lina said. “I don’t give a crap if it fucking blows up shit somewhere else where it can’t hurt someone. We have to get it off this world.”
“Join hands,” Elain ordered. They formed a circle and Elain immediately began raising power, the wasabi-in-her-veins sensation appearing, hot and heavy and filling her immediately from the ground up.
She closed her eyes and started chanting.
“Goddess above, Goddess below,
Our quest reveal, our quarry show.
We search high, we search low,
Reveal it now and MAKE IT SO!”
In her mind, she saw a box truck parked at a truck stop. A man—the man, Carl Shupe—had parked it and left it sitting there.
The vision disappeared.
Elain’s eyes popped open. “Did you guys see that?”
“Yeah,” Mai said, “but where was it?”
They all stared at each other for a moment, then turned to the southwest, where in their visions the fireball always arrived from.
“Marston!” they all screamed, grabbing hands again so Elain could poof them there.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jadwiga grabbed her amulet and silently muttered, taking her to the truck. She didn’t know how long until the others figured out her deception, realized the cockatrice woman had spotted them and run, and then tried to follow their visions to the truck.
Hopefully, not until after she’d done this. She didn’t know exactly how large the device was inside the truck and didn’t want to risk appearing inside with it for fear of accidentally triggering it too soon. That would be her last resort, if necessary.
The back of the truck was locked, of course. After trying the cab and realizing it was locked, too, she spotted a nearby rock and grabbed it, smashing in the driver’s side window and opening the door. Scavenging through the cab, she found a tire iron behind the seat and hurried around to the back of the cargo area. The lock was no match for the lingering supernatural powers she possessed, and it snapped when she wrenched at the hasp on the door itself.
She threw the door open, and there lay the bomb.
Peace settled through her. She dropped the tire iron, climbed in, and stared at the timer counting down.
Exactly as in her own visions.
Just seconds left.
00:10
It was about four feet by four feet in total, large enough she could lay on it.
00:09
She smiled, wrapping her arms around it, embracing it.
00:08
Sensing Elain and the others were approaching, Jadwiga closed her eyes and started chanting, tapping into her archdemon bloodlines and the extra power provided to her by the amulet Ryan had given her.
00:07
As the world around her faded and she appeared in the front yard of her little cottage in her special private bubble, the device still lay under her.
00:06
00:05
She rolled onto her back, pulled off the amulet, and sent it back to the truck.
00:04
Closing her eyes, she drew in a long, deep breath, and slowly let it out again.
00:03
00:02
“Good-bye, Zachary, my love,” she whispered.
00:01
00:00
Bright, searing light filled her world, even through her closed eyelids, as Jadwiga returned to the Ether that had called to her for so, so long.
* * * *
Gigi had been reading on the lanai, enjoying the afternoon when a horrific, searing pain blasted through her brain and made her scream in agony. Oscar came running, on full alert as he knelt next to where she’d ended up on the ground.
“Love? What’s wrong?”
With the heels of her hands pressed against her forehead, she couldn’t even bear to open her eyes at first, until, as quickly as it’d come, the pain disappeared. “I…I don’t know…”
He scooped her into his arms and carried her inside, gently laying her on the couch. “What happened?”
“It…It was…” Horror slowly grew inside her. “Please get me my phone.”
“What?”
“Please!”
He ran for it.
* * * *
One second, Callie had been washing dishes.
The next, she was writhing on the kitchen floor, the plate she’d been washing shattered on the tile next to her as an agonizing pain slammed into her head with the force of an asteroid hitting the moon.
Blackie, hearing the commotion, ran into the kitchen and tried to pry her hands away from her head, where she was cradling it.
“Pet? What’s wrong?”
“It huuurrrts!” she sobbed.
“What hurts? Talk to me!”
“My—” And as suddenly as it’d hit her, it stopped, like a balloon popping.
Blinking through her tears and gasping for breath, she looked up at him. “I…don’t know.”
“What happened?”
“It was like…I…I really don’t know. It was like something just…”
He picked her up and carried her out to the living room where Elise was sitting up in her playpen and beating on a toy. Blackie gently set Callie on the couch.
“Pet, you’re scaring me.”
Her tears still flowed. “I’m sorry, Sir,” she whispered. “I don’t know what happened. But something’s wrong.”
“Wrong how?”
“I don’t know!”
He folded her into his arms as she sobbed while on the kitchen counter her cell phone began to ring. It stopped, then started again almost immediately as whoever had called must have hung up to end the voice mail and try again.
“That’s…that’s Gigi’s ringtone. Please, answer it, Sir.”
He finally stood and grabbed it. “Yeah?”
“Where’s Callie?” Gigi asked without hesitation. She sounded…horrible.
“Right here.”
“Is she okay?”
He handed her the phone.
“Gigi?” she whispered.
“Sis, are you okay?”
“Did you feel that?”
“That’s why I’m calling. You felt it, too?”
“Yeah. What does it mean?”
On the other end of the phone, Gigi let out a long, shuddering sigh. “I’m not sure I want to know.”
* * * *
Elain, Lina, and Mai appeared outside the truck parked at the truck stop in Marston, Missouri.
“What the fuckity fuckballs?” Lina screamed, running toward it. “It’s fucking empty?”
Mai ran her hands through her hair, spinning around, frantically looking at the other trucks in the lot. “That’s the truck, it has to be! It’s the one we saw! Where the hell is the bomb?”
Elain hauled herself up into the back of the truck and froze when she spotted the amethyst amulet laying on the floor. She reached down and picked it up, fingering it.
“What’s that?” Lina called.
Elain lifted her head, listening, closing her eyes and feeling. A bright, hard screaming thunderous pain flashed in her head, making her gasp and stagger back to lean against the wall of the truck’s cargo compartment for a moment before the pain completely dissipated.
From the shrieks Lina and Mai let out, they’d felt it, too.
“What…the…fuck?” Now bent over, Lina screamed as she stomped her foot, her head in her hands. She finally straightened. “What the shitballs unholy fucking hell was that?”
Lina was doing a lot of screaming and swearing today, even by her usual standards.
Not that Elain blamed her.
Elain reached for her own amulet and whispered, “Ryan, appareo.”
He appeared immediately in front of her in the truck, an unreadable expression on his face.
“Yes, dear? Did you find him or the woman?”
She held up the amulet.
He snatched it from her, staring at it for a moment, undeniable horror dawning in his expression. “Stay here,” he snapped. “Do not leave.” He disappeared.
Lina turned and peered into the dark interior. “Was that Ryan?”
“Yeah.” Elain turned to face her.
“Did that fucker just show up, or did you call him?”
“I called him.” Elain walked to the back of the truck and carefully climbed down.
“What the hell?”
“I don’t know.” Elain looked around, already knowing in her heart what had happened.
She
walked around the truck, to the driver’s side. Lina and Mai didn’t follow her.
Taking that brief moment alone, Elain motioned, calling up the Ether.
One bright, new shining soul had just emerged into the mix. A familiar soul.
“No!” she whispered.
But the strength of it couldn’t be denied. She knew even without dipping her fingers into it who it belonged to.
Hearing Lina and Mai approaching, Elain waved it closed and turned to face them as they rounded the back of the truck.
Lina spotted the shattered driver’s side window. “Did they—hey, why are you crying?”
Elain wiped at her eyes. “The pain we felt.”
“Okay, how are we going to find this motherfucking bomb? Where did it go? Who the fucking hell has it? We’re almost out of time!”
And Elain knew. She knew without needing to know the details.
She knew.
“It’s no longer a problem,” Elain softly said as her knees gave out. She sank to the dirt, tears rolling down her face.
* * * *
Ryan first returned to his Atlanta condo and grabbed his sword. Yes, he could have summoned it to him and done this there in the truck, but he didn’t want the women possibly witnessing what he suspected had come to pass.
If there was anything left to witness.
Casting a barrier around his condo, the strongest possible to contain anything physical or metaphysical and repel any attempts to enter, he opened a small portal, just large enough to view Baba Yaga’s little bubble inside of Sheol where her house lay.
There was…nothing. The conduit that should have allowed him to at least see into it was no longer there.
Gone.
Jadwiga was the conduit, even with her diminished powers.
Nothing but blank, empty void stared at him. The vast expanse of Sheol.
Dammit.
He opened the portal a little wider, giving him a larger view, and still…nothing.
Void.
Oh, Jadwiga.
Swallowing back the lump in his throat, he held the amulet up and stared into it, searching for any sign of her energy.
Nothing.
Waving his hand, he closed the portal and dropped the barrier. Setting his sword back in its usual place in the corner, he closed his eyes, sought out his father, and appeared in his parents’ living room on their island house in Boca Grande, Florida.