“Fuck. I’m stuck,” Jake groused as he tried to follow me.
“Lose the armor or teleport inside.”
Jake’s armor folded away, exposing his well-muscled body. “This better be worth it.”
“I don’t want to look at his junk,” Uncle Jesse griped.
Giving him the one finger salute, Jake squeezed through the opening and hit his head on the ceiling. “Fuck!”
“Hunch,” I instructed.
“I’m hunching. I’m hunching.”
Uncle Jesse wriggled in, took his place near the firepit, and poured peyote laced water on the rocks. Steam filled the sweat lodge. “Ancient Mother awaits us.”
I let the flap close and darkness engulfed us.
“It’s like being buried alive,” Jake grumbled.
I rolled my eyes. What had happened to the fearless warlord? “This is supposed to simulate a mother’s womb and your rebirth.”
“If you say so.”
Jesse beat on a drum and chanted, “Ancient Mother, we hear your call. Ancient Mother, we hear your song. Ancient Mother, we hear your laughter. Ancient Mother, we taste your tears.”
“Mitayuve, oyas, lecham, welo omakiya yo,” I intoned repeatedly.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.”
I exhaled a long breath. “What’s wrong now?”
“I’ve got a Charley horse,” Jake answered.
“Uncle Jesse can you fix it, please.”
“If I must.” Uncle Jesse threw more water on the stones. “Hozhq sitsiji shivaagi.”
“Sonovabitch! It stopped,” Jake exclaimed.
“Good. Now open your mind to the Ancient Mother.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Mitayuve, oyas, lecham, welo omakiya yo,” I recited and concentrated on finding Jia Stanka. A blue Italian road sign appeared in my mind. It read San Gagliano 8 and had a white arrow pointing west. Good. Jia was still in Italy. I frowned as my vision shifted to a fancy restaurant. Our drop-dead gorgeous assassin was wearing a slinky black dress and could put that super model Cindy whatever to shame. Oh, my God. Fate was a twisted bitch. Her date was none other than my cousin Giovanni Dragos. He had the evil scientist vibe going with the wild, white hair, thick bushy eyebrows and a spiffy white suit that could double as a lab coat. A shudder shook me. He was studying Jia as if she were an interesting but odd specimen he wanted to dissect in his lab.
Jake exhaled sharply. “I think I’m hallucinating.”
My vision vanished. Resisting the urge to smack him upside the head, I linked with Jake and to my surprise he had connected with the esoteric plane. It was an eerie, shadow-filled void. The utter silence always gave me the willies. I knew as soon as the wraiths felt our presence, they would come for us. “Excellent. You used your budding shaman abilities to cross the veil that separates the planes of existence. Think of it as traveling to another universe.”
“Fucking creepy.”
“It can be.”
The quiet was abruptly shattered by the hideous howling of the damned. Out of the shadows hundreds of tormented spirits rushed us.
“What are those?”
“Lost souls that were unable to cross over.”
“How do we help them?” Jake demanded.
The apparitions swarmed us. Horrific scenes of their deaths rushed across my mind. I drew on my power and a crackling white energy barrier formed around me.
A groan tore from Jake. “Too much.”
“Strengthen your mental shields and open a portal. You know the chant.”
Walls of pure energy surrounded Jake. “Miraculin sepulcrum ibidem solus novum. Domum rotundam vivtorie construxit!”
A portal appeared.
The doorway’s iridescent glow drew the lost souls like a magnet.
“Go into the fucking light!” Jake growled.
All but two of the spirits obediently crossed over.
Jake stared at them in disbelief. “Mom? Dad?”
Huh. Jake was a spitting image of his dad. His mother resembled Kaylee.
Jake mentally hugged them. “What are you doing here?”
“Ancient Mother has a message for you,” his dad answered.
I strengthened my shields and whispered to Jake, “Hang on, you’re about to get your mind blown.”
His mother patted Jake’s arm. “The spirits have called you to this place. You and your mate are the only ones who can stop Giovanni Dragos. See what the future brings.”
A kaleidoscope of images spun across our minds. Rome’s historical treasures had been reduced to rubble. Charred skyscrapers rose like freakish skeletons from the once bustling city. Rotting bodies littered the streets. Suddenly, we were at an elementary school. The gutted corpses of children and their teachers were everywhere. Bile rose in my throat.
Jake rasped, “How did this happen? The Tai-Kok were exterminated.”
“Giovanni Dragos wants to create an army of super soldiers by injecting Tai-Kok and Rodan DNA into human males,” Jake’s dad replied. A picture of the guinea pigs formed in our heads. They were no longer human. Their bodies had been transformed into hairless, white skinned monstrosities with an elongated snout filled with sharp crocodile teeth. Blood-red eyes and claw-tipped fingers completed the horror show. “You must destroy his lab before he can create more of these creatures.”
A wave of horror swept over me. “Is he insane? The Tai-Kok live to eat and the Rodan aren’t much better.”
“Giovanni is quite mad,” Jake’s mother responded. “He thinks his soldiers can defeat Central Command and drive the Coletti from our world.”
“How does Giovanni plan on controlling these eating machines?” There was a hard, angry edge to Jake’s voice.
Fury flared in his father’s eyes. “He doesn’t. The bastard’s going to release them on the population.”
“And while we fight to stop them, Giovanni hits his real target. Central Command,” I said.
His mother beamed at me. “Exactly.”
“Do you know where his lab is?” Jake asked grimly.
His dad nodded. “You’ll find it in the catacombs underneath a medieval church in San Gagliano, Italy.”
“Jia Stanka is in San Gagliano, Italy too,” I interjected.
Jake stiffened in surprise. “Fuck. How is she involved in this?”
“I’m not sure, but she was dining with Giovanni.”
“Is Jia planning on assassinating Giovanni or is she his partner in crime,” Jake mused.
I gave a mental shrug. “Don’t know, but I don’t think Trayon will care one way or another.”
“He won’t. Once he takes Jia off planet, she’s his problem not ours.”
“Jia Stanka is the key to stopping Giovanni and the Rodan,” Jake’s mom advised.
“Of course, she is,” I grumbled.
Jake’s dad added, “She is death
