Blood Moon (Book Three - The Ravenscliff Series) (14 page)

“Is it the Madman?”

“It can’t be,” Devon said, but his voice betrayed his own doubts. “He’s trapped in the Hell Hole. He can’t do anything to us while he’s in there.”

“But what if he’s found a way? What if all this is because of him?”

Devon couldn’t even begin to think about that. “We’ll find out what’s causing this, Marcus,” he said. “I promise you.” He looked over at the other boy again. “Man, you are really in bad shape. Did your parents call a doctor?”

“They did last month, and he said he could find nothing wrong with me.” He made a face in puzzlement. “But they’re acting so weird, my parents. Like how they don’t want me talking to you, or anyone. They keep saying they’ll handle this, that no one else should know about what’s happening to me.”

“They’re just scared,” Devon said.

“Maybe. But I can’t go back in there, Devon. Let me come with you. I can’t stay cooped up in my room any longer.”

Devon smirked. “Then you should’ve gotten dressed first.”

Marcus looked down at his pajamas. “Can you help me there, dude?”

“I’ll try.” Devon imagined Marcus dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, and suddenly his friend was dressed accordingly, with a pair of brand new sneakers to boot. Devon grinned. “Awesome. It worked. You never know with these types of things.”

“Guess that means I’m
supposed
to go with you,” Marcus said. “Um, where
are
we going, anyway?”

“Rolfe’s. D.J. and the rest are meeting me there after school. We need to be prepared. There’s another full moon tonight, and meanwhile Alexander has to be dealt with. The kid’s already been through enough. I’ve got to find a way to break the hold over him.”

Rolfe was at his restaurant when they arrived at his house, but Roxanne was there, and it was as if she’d been expecting them. There was a spread of food for their lunch, fresh fruit and cheeses and shrimp sautéed with Jamaican spices. They chowed down fast, both of them suddenly ravenously hungry. Once again Devon wondered just who this woman was, and what her powers are. All Devon knew was, whoever she was and whatever her abilities, he was glad she was on their side.

“You know,” Marcus said, “my parents will come looking for me. Right now they think I’m sleeping, but when they look in my room and see I’ve disappeared again, they are going to freak.”

“That’s true,” Devon said.

Roxanne sat opposite them in a big round wicker chair. She smiled slightly. “Why not put his doppelganger to work for him?”

Devon made a face. “His what?”

“His doppelganger.” Her smile lengthened. “Everyone has one—a shadow self that accompanies every human being.”

“I don’t follow,” Devon said.

“Doppelgangers look just like us,” Roxanne explained, “but are usually invisible to human eyes. They almost always stand behind a person and cast no reflection in a mirror. Dogs and cats, however, have been known to see doppelgangers. Ever notice how a dog will bark for no apparent reason when someone comes into the room?”

“But what does a doppelganger do?” asked Marcus.

“Usually it offers sympathetic company. It listens and gives advice to its owners. We call it intuition.”

Devon nodded. “So the Voice inside me … my intuition. It’s really my doppelganger.”

“It’s a part of you. A doppelganger has all of your traits, good and bad. Usually a doppelganger is your ally, but sometimes it can turn mischievous or even malicious.” Roxanne smiled. “But I suspect in this case Marcus’s doppelganger will be glad to help.”

“So you’re suggesting we send my doppelganger back to my house,” Marcus said.

She nodded. “Precisely. It can sleep soundly in your bed, and your parents won’t be alarmed by your disappearance.”

“Cool,” Devon said, a thought suddenly occurring to him. “Can you also send your doppelganger to school instead of you?”

Roxanne smiled knowingly. “Ah, but we are grateful for the limitations on the power of the Nightwing. Otherwise young sorcerers like yourself would never receive an education.” She stood. “Now do it. I sense a mother preparing to open a door and check on her son.”

Devon looked over at Marcus. And sure enough, almost as if it were a double exposure on a roll of film, there was an exact copy of the teenager sitting right behind him. The contours of its body faded in and out of focus, but it was there all right, mimicking every movement, every facial expression Marcus made. Which made it even more uncanny when the doppelganger suddenly broke with that pattern and turned on its own to face Devon, as if to say it was ready to be put to work.

“Okay,” Devon told it. “Get back to Marcus’s room, and wear his pajamas.”

The doppelganger disappeared.

“You think it will work?” Marcus asked.

“We’ll find out,” Devon said.

Rolfe arrived around the same time as D.J. pulled up in Flo with Natalie and Cecily. Natalie was still shaken from her encounter with the beast last night, but she’d kept it a secret, even from her parents, until they could find out more information. Just how they were going to do that, however, remained the biggest mystery.

“It seems to me,” Rolfe said, “given the information Devon discovered at the library, we are dealing with some malevolent spirit from the past. The return of the beast after all this time, the possession of Alexander—this suggests a restless entity has returned from the dead. For what purpose, however, is unclear.”

“It’s Ogden McNutt,” Devon said. “He’s the malevolent spirit.”

“I don’t know about that, Devon.” Rolfe stood in front of the glass wall that overlooked the sea. Its waters, calm earlier, were starting to roil the way they always seemed to do whenever Devon was in this room. “My father knew McNutt,” Rolfe said. “They both worked at Ravenscliff at the same time. My father liked him, always said he was a good man. I never learned the story of his death, but I never had the sense that he was evil, or that he would be likely to carry such malevolence to the grave.”

“But if he was murdered,” Cecily said, “he could be bitter, looking for revenge.”

“It’s possible,” Rolfe admitted. “But McNutt has been helpful in Devon’s visions, saving him from the Madman and offering warnings, not threats.”

“It can’t be Jackson Muir again, can it?” Natalie asked.

D.J. echoed her anxiety. “I hope not. I am
not
looking forward to tangling with the Madman again.”

“He’s in the Hell Hole,” Devon insisted. “It
can’t
be him.”

“I wonder,” Rolfe said. “I think your dream was real, Devon. Jackson has managed to find a way to contact you. As much as I don’t want to believe it, I think there’s a connection to Jackson Muir.”

“But what about Clarissa?” Cecily asked. “We’re all conveniently forgetting about her. A sorceress my mother kept locked away in secret rooms for the past ten years or more.
She’d
have cause for revenge.”

“I haven’t figured out what role Clarissa plays in any of this, if there’s a role at all,” Rolfe said. His face tightened. “Don’t forget I knew her. Very well. And I can tell you there is not one malicious bone in her body.”

“Not back when you knew her, maybe,” Devon said. “But Cecily’s right. Keeping her imprisoned all these years has made her crazy. I wouldn’t count her out just yet.”

Rolfe sighed, turning to gaze off across the sea. For years he’d thought Clarissa’s body had washed out there somewhere. He’d thought she was dead, and that he might in some way have contributed to her death. Now she was alive—and with powers he never knew she had. Devon realized Rolfe felt responsible for her. It made all of this so much more personal for him.

“The answer,” Rolfe said, his back still to all of them, “can be found in one place.” He paused, looking over his shoulder. “Alexander.”

“Yeah,” Devon agreed. “If we can find out what’s possessing him …”

“But you tried,” Marcus reminded him. “You tried to see what it was, but you could discern nothing.”

“This is true,” Devon admitted.

“A séance,” Roxanne offered. Her words took them all by surprise, as she was sitting across the room from them and up until now had not participated in their discussion. They all turned to look at her.

“A séance?” Rolfe asked her.

“It is a way of contacting spirits. I’ve conducted many. I think this is an obvious case that requires such a practice.”

“This is totally cool,” D.J. said, a grin stretching across his face. “I always wanted to be in a séance.”

“A séance is not fun and games,” Rolfe warned him. “I’ve witnessed several, and they can be terrifying.”

“But if it’s our only hope of finding out some answers,” Devon said, “then we’ve
got
to do it.”

Roxanne stood from her chair and approached the group. “We are missing one person, however,” she said. “One who is vitally important.”

“Who?” Devon asked.

“We need Alexander here.”

Cecily laughed out loud. “My mother will
never
allow him out of the house without asking a gazillion questions. And she’d certainly never permit him to come
here
.”

“Then Bjorn will have to smuggle him out,” Devon said. “Cecily, let me use your cell phone.”

It took some convincing, but Bjorn finally agreed to try. Whether Alexander, possessed by whatever spirit, would cooperate remained to be seen.

As it turned out, the boy was very happy to accompany Bjorn for a ride, asking no questions and agreeing without argument to keep their little jaunt a secret from Mrs. Crandall. As soon as Alexander walked into Rolfe’s house, Devon suspected he was up to no good, that he couldn’t be trusted. There was a canny, crafty look in his round button eyes, a fixed smile that seemed far too old and wise for a kid his age.

“A séance?” Alexander asked when he was told what he was there for. “Why, how fascinating. An attempt to contact the dead. How simply delicious.”

“You are
weird
, kid,” D.J. told him. “Can I just say that you’ve always creeped me out a little? Even when you’re supposedly normal.”

The boy just laughed that low, knowing, precocious chuckle.

“Oh, this is not good, not good at all,” Bjorn fretted, rubbing his little hands together. “Mrs. Crandall would be so displeased if she knew what we were doing here, and involving the boy in it. But I did it for you, Master Devon. For you.”

Devon smiled down at the gnome. “Duly noted and appreciated, Bjorn. Now join with us for the circle.”

Rolfe had set up a large round table in the middle of the room. On its center Roxanne had placed a single lit candle. The lights were turned out, and each of them took a seat.

“Offer your hand to the person next to you,” Roxanne told them.

Devon turned. Cecily sat beside him. Their eyes met, and she gave him her hand. Then the circle took shape, to Marcus to Natalie to Rolfe to D.J. to Bjorn to Roxanne to Alexander and back to Devon again. He recoiled from how cold the boy’s hand was.

The sun had dropped lower in the sky, and the waves below them had only intensified in their fury. Far off on the horizon they heard rumblings of thunder.

“Close your mind to all thoughts,” Roxanne commanded. “Close your senses to the physical world. Open your hearts to the world just beyond our grasp.”

Devon concentrated. He felt the energy in the room begin to vibrate. He looked over at Alexander. The boy was staring at him, grinning crazily. Devon turned away quickly, so as not to be distracted, and closed his eyes.

“We are here looking for some answers,” Roxanne intoned as the waves crashing against the moorings beneath the house took on an almost hypnotic rhythm. “Answers to questions we are not even sure how to formulate. Answers that we must know to keep those at this table safe.”

Devon kept his eyes closed. He had the sensation that they were spinning, round and round.

“We are here because some of us are in danger,” Roxanne said, her voice sounding increasingly distant to Devon. “We need to find out the cause of the danger, and stop it before any of us are hurt.”

Devon tightened his grip on Alexander’s hand. If the boy inside the possession could still sense anything, Devon wanted him to know that he was going to help him. After the Madman had taken Alexander into the Hell Hole, Devon had promised the boy he’d keep him safe, that he’d always be there for him.