Li looked like a little girl on Christmas morning. “Oh, hush.” To Charity, she asked, “Do you think a demon will appear? Maybe you’ll have to bargain with it before it will help you!”
Not wanting to disappoint her friend, Charity responded, “I think there’s a very good chance. In fact, all of our souls could be in peril.”
Li crinkled her nose with delight. “Oh, goodie!”
“Let’s have silence, please.” Mitchell dimmed all the lights, leaving only a single flickering candle to illuminate the room. “Charity, please put your mask on.”
“Why?”
“Just in case you do end up summoning a demon. It’s my experience that they’re sometimes a cowardly lot.”
“You think I’ll spook one of them if I wear my mask?”
“Couldn’t hurt, luv. You scare the hell out of me with it on.”
Cedric nodded. “Me, too.”
With a crooked smile, Charity pulled the mask on and then yanked her hood into place. In the dim light, it seemed like her eyes glowed from beneath the covering.
Everyone stood stock-still as Charity opened the spell book and began reciting the required words. Her voice was strong and sure, with enough challenge in it that the walls themselves seemed to shift and move in response. “Dwellers of the dark places, lurking just out of sight and mind, I call upon you! I seek the owner of these items, which were of great importance to them. Please come before me and help me find their location! In return, I promise you the freedom to leave. You shall not be bound to this place or to this person.”
The candle suddenly went out as a tremendous wind swept across the room. Li gasped loudly and took hold of Cedrick’s hand, squeezing it so tightly that he thought his fingers might crack.
And then a light returned, though it did not emanate from the candle. A figure stood before Gravedigger, within the confines of the pentagram. It was a nude male figure surrounded by tiny yellow and red flames that danced along its skin. Atop its bald head were two massive curved horns and every time it opened its mouth, tiny bursts of smoke accompanied each syllable. “I stand before you, beauteous one. Your beseeching has touched my heart and I am willing to help you.”
“By what name may I call you?”
“I am Druaga. I know you by your title, which is enough for now. You are Gravedigger.”
Unable to hide her surprise, Charity asked, “You know about Gravediggers?”
“You are agents of The Voice. All the denizens of the dark places know of your ilk. Many of them have been vanquished by members of your order.” Druaga laughed and the sound was like rumbling thunder. “There are many of my brothers who would like to feast upon your entrails.”
“But not you?”
“Nay, I have no quarrel with you or yours.”
“I guess I was lucky you heard my call then,” she replied with some doubt in her voice.
“Indeed! Now, how may I help you? You say you seek the owner of these weapons?”
“Yes.”
Druaga knelt down and ran the flame-covered tips of his fingers over the weapons. “A powerful woman held these and killed many. She is partially obscured now, though, as if her body has changed.”
“She’s occupying another person’s form.”
“Ah. A common enough practice.” Druaga paused and then looked up at Gravedigger. “I have located her. Do you wish me to give you the images that I have seen?”
“Yes.”
Druaga stood up straight and reached out with a single finger. He placed it between Charity’s eyes and she stiffened, expecting it to burn. In truth, it felt warm but nothing more.
Images seemed to ooze from his fingertip, seeping into her mind’s eye. She was surprised to see that she recognized Pandora’s location: 1931 Gibson Avenue, the same house where Josef Goldstein had set down roots in Sovereign. It was there that Charity’s life had ended, leading to her eventual resurrection. The property had been bequeathed to Charity and Mitchell following Josef’s death but it had stood empty since the group had moved their operations to Hendry Hall.
There she stood, however, in the very room where Charity had died: Pandora. She wore a strange set of clothes that seemed to be a perverse twist on Gravedigger’s own and though the vision was completely silent, Charity somehow got the impression that Pandora was engaged in some sort of conversation, but with whom?
Other things flitted by at the edge of her awareness, sights and sounds that could only have come from the deepest pits of Hell. Charity heard the screams of the damned and she knew that there was a chance that she could be among them if she failed in her role as The Voice’s champion.
The contact was severed as Druaga pulled back. Charity suddenly felt a void inside of her and she realized that while she’d been looking into Druaga’s mind, he had been looking into hers.
“You are such a sweet thing,” he said, his voice so low that it almost sounded like a purring in her ears. “We relish the suffering of those like you most of all. The truly damned relish their sins but you… you’re so wounded by all of your failures. You strike against your own soul and do more damage than a demon like me could ever manage.”
Charity looked down at the book and said, “Begone, back to the foul regions that you call home. Our business is done and your soul is cast back down to the shadows. Never darken my home again and I swear to leave you be.”
Druaga laughed as he began to fade away. “That may prove to be a hard promise to keep, my Gravedigger….”
The candle suddenly flared to life once more just as the demon vanished completely.
Mitchell was at his lover’s side within seconds. “What the hell did he mean by that?”
“I wasn’t sure anyone else heard it,” Charity responded, setting the book down on the floor.
“I couldn’t make out most of what he was saying but I heard that last bit. You shouldn’t have let the bugger touch you.”
“I think you’re right. He was in my mind. I have no idea what he saw or what damage he might do with it. Maybe he’s just a voyeur.”
“I doubt that.”
“Me, too.” Addressing everyone in the room, she said, “I saw where she is. I want everyone dressed and ready for action in no more than ten minutes. Li and Cedric, you’re on car duty again. If she tries to escape on foot, you’ll do everything you can to keep track of her. Mortimer and Mitchell, you’ll both be on the ground. If you can engage her and bring her down, do it. Neither of you takes any action unless you see her get away from me. Understand?”
Mortimer nodded but asked, “So where is she?”
Charity wasn’t looking at Mitchell but she sensed his surprise at what she said. Gibson Avenue hadn’t been his home for very long but it had been where both his friend and his current lover had died. “She’s at 1931 Gibson. She’s in our old house.”
“WHY ARE WE still here?” Locke asked.
“I told you why. This is where Tamaki said she lived in the months before Josef Goldstein died.”
“How did he know so much about Gravedigger anyway?”
“His research into Pandora led him to other stories about immortal warriors. He found Gravedigger particularly interesting since there were reports of someone by that name operating here in the city. He put his considerable resources to finding out about her.” Pandora frowned. “Why do you ask these things? You’ve been inside my head the entire time.”
“It took me some time to get my bearings. Having somebody take over your body can give a person a real shock, you know?”
Pandora recognized the sarcastic tone but ignored it. She had come here because she wanted to get a feel for her opponent. Despite the fact that virtually everything from Charity’s time here had been removed, Pandora felt the trip had proven worthwhile. She could envision the woman walking these halls and sitting in these rooms. She had located a bedroom that had to have been hers.