Gustav did not turn around. Instead of responding, He merely held up a hand for silence.
Danny did his best to stay quiet. He moved away from the choking smoke and staggered out into the yard. He saw no sign of his mother. The yard was full of weeds and trash. A leaning, sun-bleached fence separated their property from the alley. As Danny glanced around, he noticed something odd in the alley. There was one spot immediately behind his home where his vision grew blurry. He turned his head back and forth. Every time his eyes came to rest on that one place, his vision went out of focus. He’d read about this effect at Gustav’s, had experienced it first hand when he’d discovered Martin Bedrik’s body along the Hudson—even though he hadn’t known it at the time. Hiding in plain sight—Oriental magic, more a trick of the mind than anything else. Ninjas used it, and Danny thought ninjas were cool, especially Snake Eyes on G.I. Joe. That’s why he’d remembered it. He also remembered how to overcome it.
He stared directly at the blurred area and let his eyes un-focus. It was harder than the book had made it sound. He kept going cross-eyed in the attempt. Behind him, Gustav continued chanting softly, ignoring him. Danny tried again, seeing everything and nothing. His vision blurred again and then—
—swam into focus. The hidden object appeared.
A Brackard’s Point police car.
“Hey, Gustav, did you know there’s a—”
“Nyet,” the old man barked. “Ten more seconds.”
Danny sighed in frustration, and held his tongue.
Finally, Gustav turned around to face him. The old man tried to smile, but faltered. The smoke and flames inside the grill died down, but the stench still filled the air. Danny stared at the grill, and then his mentor. He gasped, noticing that Gustav’s hands were bloody. The old man picked up a roll of paper towels and a bottle of degreaser that had been left beside the grill and proceeded to clean them. As he scrubbed his hands, he looked up at Danny.
“Now, you had questions, yes?”
“You’re damn right I have questions. One, where’s my Mom? Two, is that blood on your hands? Three, what’s in the grill? Dinner? Because if it is; then it smells horrible. Four, do you realize there’s a cop car back there?”
“Yes.” Gustav nodded his head. “Yes, yes, and yes. Your mother is not here. Yes, this is blood. No, is not dinner on grill. Is very old magic. Make fire hot enough to burn meat and bone and teeth to ash very, very quickly. I think you do not want to eat what I’m cooking. And yes, that is a police car. It is our ride later on tonight.”
Danny barely heard any of it. “What do you mean she’s not here? Where’s my Mom?”
Gustav lifted the hot barbeque lid and dropped the bloody paper towels inside it. Danny saw a mound of ash inside, and wondered what it was. Then Gustav closed the lid and stepped towards Danny. His expression was solemn, and when he answered, his voice was low and mournful.
“Bedrik has her.”
Danny tried to speak, and couldn’t. The yard seemed to spin. Swooning, he reached out and grabbed the fence to steady himself. When Gustav spoke again, the old man’s voice sounded like he was far away.
“He sent his shades. I fought two of them. A third took your mother. But I know where she is, yes? We will get her back. Will get him, too.”
Danny shook his head. His ears rang and his knees felt weak.
“You said you’d protect her…”
“I did.” Gustav’s tone was sad. “And I am sorry, Danny. I did my best. But it was three against one, and I am an old man. I think I do good, despite the odds.”
“Do good?” Danny let go of the fence and lurched unsteadily towards him. “Good? That crazy fucker kidnapped my mother. How did you do good?”
“I dispatched two of his shades. Bedrik looses power, yes? And I know where he has taken her. To the cemetery. We will meet him there. We will finish this, and rescue your mother.”
“How? If you weren’t strong enough to take on three shades at once, then how are we going to fight him? He’ll probably have a whole army up there with him.”
Gustav stroked his beard. “He may. But I have tricks up my sleeve, too. And I have you. We go together, yes?”
Danny nodded.
“But first,” Gustav turned back to the house, “we rest. You expended power on the way here. I know. I felt it. I did, too. Both of us rest and then we go.”
“Rest? We’ve got to go now!”
“No. Midnight. Those are his terms. He has chosen the location and the time. We must adhere. If we go before, he might hurt your mother. We need to be strong first. And I still need to finish cleaning up, yes?”
Danny stared at the old Russian’s hands. “Looks like you got all the blood off.”
“Yes,” Gustav agreed. Then he bent over and rummaged through a plastic garbage bag. He held up two police uniforms, along with underwear and socks. “But have not taken care of these yet.”
“Where did you get—never mind. I don’t want to know.”
“Da, you do not.”
Shaking his head, Danny went back inside the house and tried to rest. He didn’t think midnight would ever arrive.
But it did.
Before they left, Gustav slipped a salt shaker into his pocket and insisted that Danny do the same. He did not explain why.
They climbed into the abandoned police car. Gustav drove. Danny stared out the window and watched the town pass by. He thought of Ronnie and Jeremy. Chuck and Matt. Val and the other kids at school. His friends from the Hill. The assholes from Snowdrop. Everyone in between. He thought of his mother, and of his father, and wished that his Dad was here now. But he wasn’t. In the end, this place had killed him. Now it would probably kill Danny, too. He’d always hated Brackard’s Point. Had always wanted to leave. For all he knew, he might very well be doing just that tonight. Leaving. There were no guarantees that they’d return from Gethsemane. This could be his last look. Danny shivered, afraid. Gustav turned on the heater. Hot air blew gently across their feet.
They drove in silence. Soon, Danny felt better. He reminded himself that with Gustav at his side, there wasn’t anything to be afraid of. Gustav was his friend. Gustav cared. Gustav would protect him and his mother—protect them all.
“Everything’s going to be okay, right?”
“Da. You will see. Everything will be just fine. Soon, we all be back to normal.”
789
A few minutes later, after they’d grown quiet again, Gustav glanced over at Danny and gave him a reassuring smile. Then he looked into the rearview mirror. He kept his expression neutral, careful not to give anything away. The road and the town were lost beneath a sea of black. The darkness was following them, flowing after the car like a wave, just as he’d hoped it would.
The darkness wore the face of a dead man.
ELEVEN
Bedrik knelt in the center of the graveyard, carefully scrawling marks into the ground at his feet. He took caution to make sure that they were correct, every nuance and curve, every line and squiggle. He disliked this part, using his hands. He much preferred to have his minions do the grunt work. He favored magic through concentration, cause and effect through mental strength rather than physical. But sometimes, a magus had to get their hands dirty—or bloody. Or both. Like cutting up sweet Dana in his basement; or what he was doing now—scratching symbols of protection into the soil.
The sky promised more rain. Thick clouds covered the moon. He’d need light for what was about to occur, so he’d once again summoned the lightning bugs—calling them in from far away. Had there been any pedestrians on the street, and they happened to look towards Gethsemane, they’d have thought it was snowing insects. Thousands of fireflies descended on the cemetery, blanketing the treetops with their mass. Now, dazzling balls of luminous green-yellow light hovered over the graves.