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
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
“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
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
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
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.
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
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
Leesa awoke to her favorite sight in the whole world—Rave’s smiling face just inches from her own. Enough pale light leaked in through the cavern entrance for her to see him clearly and to show her that a new day was well underway. Rave’s head lay upon his bicep and his left hand rested softly upon her hip. No wonder she had slept so warm and soundly.She had long ago gotten over being uncomfortable knowing he watched her while she slept. Bending her head forward, she kissed him lightly on the forehead.“Good morning,” she said.Rave lifted his head and propped himself up on his elbow. “Did you sleep okay?”Leesa stretched her arms languorously above her head. “Like I was sleeping on a cloud. “I’m guessing you didn’t sleep at all, right?”Rave’s smile widened into a grin. “Why on earth would I want to sleep when I could spend the time looking at you?”L