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Chapter 254
Earlier that same day, BSI agents Smith, Jones and Rome were enjoying a hot breakfast of eggs, sausage and pancakes in an old mom-and-pop eatery across the street from their downtown Middletown motel. The men sat on one side of the worn blue vinyl booth with Rome across from them. The food was surprisingly decent and the coffee was very good. In the middle of lifting a forkful of sausage to her mouth, Rome suddenly froze.
Both men immediately stopped eating and looked at her sharply.
“What is it?” Smith asked.
Rome lowered her fork to her plate. Her eyes narrowed as she slowly moved her head from side to side. Her eyes were only partially focused—she did not really seem to be looking at anything.
“Something has shifted,” she said after moment. She held up her hand, forestalling any further questions from her companions.
Smith and Jones watched her silently. Concentration turned her already severe features into a sharp
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Leesa's Advent Chapter 255
Leesa knew she was probably going to have to get comfortable with Jenna at some point—and now Dominic’s request was giving her a reason to try. “Okay. Should we meet back at school? At my dorm? Or the library?” “No, I have a better place. It will be safer, and it’s closer to where we must go.” “Okay. Where?” “Along Route 66, half a mile west of where we buried the black waziri.” The choice surprised Leesa. She guessed that Dominic wanted Jenna’s help in permanently getting rid of whatever remained of the black wizards. “Rent a car,” Dominic continued, “so you can drive there.” “I’m with Rave right now,” Leesa said. “I can have him carry me.” “No, I want a car, so we can all leave quickly once we are done.” Leesa knew that leaving quickly meant there would be danger involved in whatever Dominic was going to do. “I’ll have Rave meet us there, then. Is that okay?” “Of course. I do not foresee any re
Leesa's Advent Chapter 256
As Leesa predicted, her ride in Rave’s arms was all too brief, seemingly over almost before it had even begun. She told Rave to put her down at least fifty feet from the hidden gravesite—far enough, she hoped, to be safe from any lingering danger from the black magic. Dominic had done a good job concealing the spot beneath which the black waziri were buried. She could not tell exactly where the remains of the evil wizards rested, but the condition of some of the trees gave her a pretty good idea of the general location. As spring warmed the land, green buds and new leaves were beginning to sprout from the branches of most of the trees, but there was a small group whose branches remained as barren looking as in the dead of winter—the result, she was certain, of the black magic seeping through the soil into their roots. She wondered if any of those trees would ever bloom again, or if the evil magic had killed them. Using the bare trees as her marker, she made sure sh
Leesa's Advent Chapter 257
“Okay,” Leesa said. “Tomorrow’s Sunday, and I suppose I can miss a day or two of classes after that.” She looked at Rave and smiled. “That is, if Rave doesn’t mind having me hang around.”Rave grinned and took Leesa’s hand. “I think I can probably put up with you for a couple of days, at least.”“Okay, that’s settled, then,” Dominic said. “Let’s get started. The sooner we get this done, the better.”He strode toward the burial spot, stopping two paces away from a grave that was invisible to everyone but him. To the rest of them, the soil in front of him looked identical to the surrounding ground, but to the wizard there might as well have been a neon sign pointing to the grave, so foul were the magical vibrations he sensed beneath the dirt. Leesa, Rave and Jenna followed him, making sure to remain a few steps behind. Dral and Bain veered off to the left and righ
Leesa's Advent Chapter 258
BSI agents Smith, Jones and Rome gathered around a marble headstone in one of the Middletown’s cemeteries, the one closest to the Weston College campus. Beneath the marker, the sod had not yet completely grown back over the recently resealed grave, leaving narrow seams of dark brown dirt visible in the otherwise green grass.After returning from their drive across the river, they had decided to renew their investigation in the place where they had started it—at the graves of the three bodies that had been reanimated into the zombies who had attacked the girls dormitory. They hoped the dissipation of the strange spell that had been blanketing the entire area would allow Rome to sense traces of magic she might have missed the first time around.The afternoon shadows cast by the still mostly bare branches of the few trees scattered around the graveyard were beginning to lengthen as the sun began its slow descent in the western sky. The nearest tree spread a da
Leesa's Advent Chapter 259
Smith and Jones both stopped, surprised by the news.“I didn’t know there were any of that kind left,” Smith said. “I thought they had all been wiped out by their black brethren.”“Apparently not,” Rome said. She continued on toward the road, stopping on the shoulder. “He got into a vehicle here. I could try to follow, but I would have to walk. We would never catch up to him.”“There’s no sense trying to follow,” Smith said, gazing down the road. He turned back to Rome. “Let’s go back to the pit and see what you can learn.”Rome nodded. “I agree.”They returned to the empty hole. The two men again kept their distance, giving Rome space to work. She spent almost fifteen minutes circling the excavation, sniffing the air, fingering the dirt, even jumping down into the six-foot deep pit and testing the air and the dirt below the surface. When she was f
Leesa's Advent Chapter 260
High in the mountains of Romania, the Necromancer’s foul mood was evident as he sat at his magical table with the black wizard Viktor and the two remaining novitiates, Jordan and Rafael. Five empty wooden chairs pushed tight against the huge round table bespoke of the losses he had recently suffered.The Necromancer was a large man—if indeed the misshapen figure could be called a man—significantly bigger than any of his comrades, in girth even more so than height. He possessed a huge bulbous belly, and his hairless head was almost as round as a basketball. In the dimness of the room, the skin of his face and hands seemed almost white—a milky, deathly white more reminiscent of a corpse than a living human being. He had thick purplish lips, a broad, flat nose, and no eyebrows at all. As fearsome as the rest of his countenance was, his most frightening feature by far was his eyes. No eyeballs floated within their confines—no iris, no pupil, nothing.
Leesa's Advent Chapter 261
He pointed toward one of the empty chairs on the opposite side of the table.“Sit,” he commanded.No longer in control of his own movements, the servant lurched woodenly toward the designated chair and sat down. His face was a mask of horror as he realized the Necromancer had taken control of his body.The Necromancer edged himself forward in his chair. He stretched his thick arms out over the table, fleshy palms facing down, and began to chant softly. In response to his spell, the black surface of the table began to change, becoming opaque. Hundreds of tiny white ovals began to appear, seemingly floating within the dark depths of the table. As the Necromancer continued his summoning, the shapes grew brighter and clearer, until they became recognizable as pairs of eyes, imprisoned within the magical table.Viktor cringed inside at the familiar looks of anguish, despair, fear and pain that filled the eyes. What passed for a smile twisted the Ne
Leesa's Advent Chapter 262
Blissfully unaware of the grisly goings on in Romania or the dangerous discoveries made by the xenorians at the burial site, Leesa snuggled close against Rave. They were sitting in what she considered their “spot”—on a rock shelf high in the hills above the volkaane settlement. Not too far to their right, a stream bounced and splashed its way down the hillside, filling the air with its relaxing music. The sun had disappeared beyond the western horizon about twenty minutes earlier, and the sky was darkening into ever deeper shades of purple. Below them, the Moodus River was a black ribbon snaking silently through the dark woods.Leesa imagined that the evening air must be growing quite chill, but with Rave’s warmth flowing into her, it might as well have been noon on a sunny summer day.“I could sit like this forever,” she sighed contentedly.“I’m afraid we do not have forever,” Rave replied.Leesa lift
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