During which, Lorelei Price sees phantoms...
52
He took them back to the station, which one she could not be sure as she'd lost all sense of direction in this place long ago.
On the way there, she'd silently tried dialing her cellphone, trying to get through to Zeus Machado. She'd been met with a loud busy signal and that annoying “all circuits are busy” lady.
Frustrated and confused, not knowing what the hell to think, she tucked the phone back into her jacket and followed silently along with the others.
There was a lot about this Blackmoon that needed answering. At first she'd thought him a mage or a sorcerer, a man who dabbled in the mystic arts, a worshiper of that oh so mysterious and frightening thing called magic. That notion had changed when he'd killed that last vampire. He'd moved with uncanny speed to finish that monster off. It wasn't exactly like the way the vamps moved but it sure was close enough.
He was one of them, one of the others, not a vamp probably or else he wouldn't be helping a group of humans, but most definitely not a man, not at all. No man moved like that and no enchantment that she'd ever seen could make one move like that either.
She had to reach Zeus, the big bastard, he'd know something. Because he wasn't human himself, he was accepted by people and places she'd never been and thus tuned into the happenings and the wherefores of the other side. Blackmoon was something else, something she hadn't encountered yet. He was something that looked like a man, carried weapons forged by God knows what and moved in a manner like the vamps but not like them at exactly the same time. She needed to know if this guy was friend or foe, and if he was 'friendly', how far that friendship would go. Was he leading them because he honestly wanted them to live or was it because he was just going to turn them in to something else, something somehow worse than a couple hundred vamps.
She'd seen enough high strangeness tonight to know that whatever was going on was big and ugly as all hell and she could only guess what was even now happening above. The end of the goddamn world for all she knew.
Struck with an idea, she pulled her phone back out of her jacket and tried another number, Doctor Turnquist this time, and as she did so the strangest thing happened. Up her eyes went and for a second, illuminated by the light coming from Blackmoon's blade, she literally saw him, Doctor Turnquist himself, dressed all in black robes, his eyes drilling into her.
“Stop!!” She called out to Blackmoon as she lost sight of the psychiatrist.
Blackmoon turned back to her, his face alarmed, his eyes searching around her for another enemy.
“What??” His voice actually trembled a little with the surprise, maybe he was human after all. “What is it?”
She pointed ahead of him towards where'd she seen the robed doctor, in her ear she heard the same busy signal she'd gotten from Big Z. “There, I saw someone, a man I know, right there. Shine your sword thing over there.”
Blackmoon swiftly did so, turning his blade back towards where she pointed. He whispered something to it and it's light sharpened, becoming a funnel of illumination, like a magical flashlight.
There was no one there and there was no sign or sound to tell that someone had even been there.
She stalked up to Blackmoon, the cellphone going back into her jacket.
“Turn it to the left.”
He did so, nothing.
“To the right.”
He turned it that way too, still nothing.
“You saw nothing, girl,” Blake's voice came to them from right behind her. “You're seeing things just like the rest of us. Let's just get to this fucking station already.”
Behind him one of the children whimpered softly.
Poor things, she thought as a pang of ache hit her in the stomach at the thought of any future these two kids might have. They'd be seeing things the rest of their lives after this.
They'd be just like her.
End Part 52
If you find yourself interested in the whole damnedable thing and wanna throw me a few bucks, here's a link to it on Amazon.