going on?'
'Holy shit!' exclaimed Holly. She flung her spatula aside and ran over to look. Trip gasped and dropped a stack of disposable plates on the ground. 'This is way better than it should be. The ones I stitched are about closed.'
'I told you guys. Gretchen knows her stuff,' Julie said.
'No way, man,' Trip said as he examined me. 'I saw what she boiled up in that pot. It was just a bunch of weeds, dirt and some teeth. She even put a dead raccoon in it. There's no way. Just no way.'
'Screw Monster Hunting. Let's sell this and get rich,' Holly said.
'We've been trying to talk her into bottling her tribal cures for years. She won't do it. Says that they have to be specifically prepared for each person. On the spot,' Julie answered as she sipped her orange juice.
'How's your shoulder?' I asked.
'Much better. I'm sore, and I can't lift my arm above my head yet, but give me a few days and I'll be fine.' She reached into her pocket and pulled something out. She dropped it onto the center of the plywood. It was a jagged three-inch piece of stone. 'Souvenir. Gretchen pulled this out.'
'Damn,' all three Newbies said in unison. She was lucky to be alive, let alone walking around in a pleasant mood.
'Seriously. She works magic. All of Skippy's people have gifts. He can do things with that chopper that aren't possible according to the laws of physics. Wait until you meet the rest of his family. They will probably introduce themselves to you when they're comfortable.'
I pulled up a chair. 'They aren't normal people. What are they?'
'It really isn't my place to say. That's up to them.' She changed the subject. 'Eggs are burning.'
Holly cursed and returned to the stove. Trip put the plates and some forks on the table. 'What about your dad?' he asked.
'As far as I care he can eat spiders. Old house has plenty of them,' she said coldly.
'I'll take him a plate,' I answered.
'Suit yourself,' Julie stated as she returned to her juice. I did not know what had transpired between father and daughter while I was taking my tour of the asylum, but obviously it had not been pleasant.
'He didn't run off when you two were unconscious. Do we really need to leave him locked up?' Trip asked.
'My dad may seem fine sometimes, but don't let him fool you. He saw some things that the human brain isn't wired to deal with. His reality is all screwed up. He's dangerous. Doctor Joan told me that he's tried to escape a bunch of times, and he damn near beat one of their orderlies to death. We let him loose and he'll be trying to raise the dead or something stupid in no time flat.' She shook her head. 'I sure as hell am not going to let that man loose on the world. I fight monsters, I don't help them.'
'So what's the plan?' I said. My stomach grumbled loudly. The food smelled great. 'After we eat, of course.'
'Sit tight. Heal up. Stay low,' Holly said. 'That's what Harbinger told us at least. We're supposed to keep Ray safe and away from the bad guys. He's going to call us as soon as they work out the problems with the Feds.'
'And he's mad at you,' Trip added helpfully.
'What about me?' I asked. I had gone along with her after all.
'I think they think you're just a big protective dupe is all,' Holly said. 'At least that's the impression I got when he said that you were just a big protective dupe following Julie around like a dumb puppy.'
'Oh good.'
'Then the Feds were crawling all over us. They want Ray and they want him bad. There had to be like fifty of them at the compound.'
'I wonder why Earl didn't just turn Dad over?' Julie mused. 'It isn't like there's any love lost there. If the Feds just want to keep his knowledge out of the hands of the Cursed One, then they are way better equipped to baby-sit him than we are.'
'He didn't say, but I've come up with a theory,' Trip said. We waited. 'Well, who all knows about Ray Shackleford and his research? Just MHI and the Feds. It isn't exactly public knowledge, I'm guessing, what with all of this being secret and all. The professors who got attacked in Georgia were both well known for their knowledge on esoteric anthropology; vampires can read books too. Ray was just another inmate in an asylum. How did they know what he had in his head? How did they know that he was so important?'
'You think one of the Monster Control Bureau agents is talking to the CO,' Holly said.
'CO?' I asked.
'Beats saying Cursed One over and over again.'
'Yeah,' Trip answered. 'If it's only us and them that know about Ray, somebody must have told the bad guys. How else did they know who he was or even where he was?'
Julie thought about it for a moment. 'Good point. Humans have worked for evil forces before. Especially vampires-they have a way of enthralling the weak-willed.'
'And there is something else. While you were gone yesterday, Lee found some stuff in one of the old journals. Some Monster Hunter who died back during World War Two. We think it was about the Cursed One. I didn't get to see it, but the experienced Hunters were all freaked out. I mean really scared. Harbinger, Milo, even Sam. They were freaked. They wanted to show you, and that's when they found out that you had taken off.'
'Those three don't scare easy,' Julie stated.
'This journal scared them. Harbinger was talking about the apocalypse,' Holly said as she dished out the scrambled eggs.
'So that's why I think Harbinger is having us hide your dad. Something he knows is the key that unlocks the gate for the Cursed One, and it's very bad news. Like the-end-of-life-as-we-know-it kind of stuff. And he thinks some Fed is working for the bad guys. He's scared to death that they're going to get their hands on your dad.' He finished his theory and dug into his breakfast.
Holly sat down, looking slightly uneasy. She hesitated before speaking. 'There is one other thing… Trip? You want to tell them?'
My friend did not reply. He contemplated his food. Holly did not appear eager to tell us either. Julie broke the silence.
'Let me guess.' She leaned back in her folding chair. 'If the bad guys find us, we're supposed to kill my dad ourselves rather than let him fall into their hands? Correct?'
The two Newbies nodded. Finally Holly spoke. 'I'm sorry. That's what Harbinger told us. He wanted to make sure that we could do it if we needed to. He really accentuated how serious this is.'
Julie nodded. 'Yeah. I suppose so…' She trailed off.
'I'm sorry,' Trip said.
'It might be a moot point. How likely is it that the Cursed One's minions are going to find us here?' I asked. I was not particularly surprised at Harbinger's direction to kill Ray if necessary, having already decided the same thing myself. At least now the others were beginning to understand just how serious the Cursed One was.
'This is the old family place. My great-grandfather bought it way back when. It has always kind of been isolated. Legally speaking, nobody lives here. As far as the outside world is concerned, this place is pretty much a forgotten relic. It was sold a long time ago to the Heart of Dixie Historical Preservation Society.'
'Who are they?' I asked. The mansion was obviously a landmark of some kind, and somebody had been working at restoring the building.
Julie raised her hand. 'I'm the Heart of Dixie Historical Preservation Society.' She smiled wickedly. 'Since it's a non-profit organization, all a perfectly legal front, and I technically don't live here, it sure does save me a bunch of money in property taxes.'
'So you're a tax evader too?' I mumbled around a mouthful of eggs. 'Groovy.'
'There are only a handful of people who know about this house, and most of them wear a green smiley face on their armor or their last name is Shackleford.' She went back to eating. Julie appeared to be starved, and she should be considering how much blood she had lost yesterday. She paused, swallowed and continued, 'And I've got this place rigged with one hell of a security system. If anything drives, walks, slithers or lands on this property, we'll know. There's also a hidden armory in the basement stocked with stuff that would have been confiscated when we got shut down last time, and the compound is only about fifteen minutes away. If we get attacked, we'll just need to hold out that long.'
