Devil's Throat (The River Book 6) (19 page)
Read Devil's Throat (The River Book 6) Online
Authors: Michael Richan
“I get your point,” Steven said.
“I’ll see you in Seattle,” the man said, and opened the car
door. He stepped around the back of the car and was gone.
Roy raised his head and shook it slightly. Eliza was coming
to as well.
“Maybe I shouldn’t be driving,” Roy said. “I think I fell
asleep.”
“Me too,” Eliza said. “I guess staying up all night is taking
its toll on me.”
“Let’s change places,” Steven said. “I’ll drive. I’ve had so
much coffee, I can’t sleep anyway.”
Roy took the passenger seat while Eliza took the back.
“I’m not sure we’re going anywhere,” Roy said. “The car just
died in the middle of the road! I was lucky to pull it off the freeway before
it stopped.”
Steven turned the key in the ignition and the car roared to
life.
“Well,” Roy said, “we’d better have that checked out at some
point. I’d hate to be stuck out here in the desert.”
Steven eased the car back onto the freeway and they continued
North.
◊
“You’re letting other things enter your mind,” Steven said to
Jason, who was seated in a chair in Steven’s living room, his eyes closed.
“I can’t help it, they just come in,” Jason said. “This is
harder than what Michael showed me.”
“Michael didn’t really show you how to trance,” Steven said.
“He took you to some other state, so you could stay in St. Thomas. You didn’t
have control the way you do now. You can’t stop focusing on the goal until the
trance has fully formed. You can’t think about the trance, whether or not it’s
happening – you’ll know when it’s done, and then you can stop. But you have to
stick with the goal, the original thought, until it all forms around you. Try
again.”
Jason closed his eyes. Steven and Roy dropped into the River
to observe Jason attempting to trance. They saw the outline of the trance begin
to form around Jason, then it dissipated.
“Here,” Roy said, standing up and removing his blindfold from
his pocket. “Try this.” He wrapped the blindfold around Jason’s head and sat
back down. “Start over.”
Jason attempted the trance again. This time he went further,
the trance nearly completing. Then it dissolved again.
“Nearly there,” Steven said. “I think the blindfold helped.”
Jason took the blindfold off. “I’m exhausted,” he said,
handing it back to Roy.
“You’ve only been at it for an hour!” Roy said. “I thought
you wanted to learn this.”
“I think if I took a break and tried again after a while, I’d
be able to do it,” Jason said.
“Fine, that’s your homework for tonight,” Steven said.
“Kids,” Roy mumbled. “They throw in the towel so quickly, and
then their parents coddle them.”
“Your grandfather didn’t show me how to trance for a good
year,” Steven said to Jason. “And then, he just told me a few things and sent
me off to practice on my own. Kind of like when he taught me to swim by
throwing me into the deep end of the pool.”
“As you’ll recall,” Roy said, attempting to defend himself,
“I was in the middle of building a trap to catch your demon.”
“A demon?!” Jason asked excitedly. “Did you catch one?”
“It was sort of the other way around,” Steven said. “It
caught me.”
“What happened?” Jason asked.
“I’ll tell you all about it another time,” Steven said,
unsure about giving Jason any details regarding his deal with Aka Manah. The
demon already knew how to use Roy and Eliza against him; he was hoping to keep
Jason out of the mix.
“If we’re gonna do this,” Roy said, “we’d best get a move on.
I wanna clear it out tonight.”
“What are you clearing out?” Jason asked. “Can I come along?”
“We’re going to go through Michael’s stuff,” Steven said,
“before someone figures out he’s never coming back.”
“How are you going to do that?” Jason asked.
“We broke in the other night,” Roy said. “We’ll go in the
same way.”
“You broke in?” Jason asked, incredulous.
“We were trying to find information on where he might have
taken you,” Steven said. “He’s got a workshop downstairs, full of things. We’re
going to raid it before it all gets thrown away or given to Goodwill.”
“You’re going to steal his stuff?” Jason asked, slightly
shocked that his father and grandfather would do such a thing.
“I can see you taught him well,” Roy said to Steven. “Fine
moral upbringing.”
“Just to destroy it all now,” Steven answered Roy.
“You
are
going to steal it,” Jason said.
“Listen,” Steven said to Jason, “some of the stuff in his
workshop is dangerous. It needs to be kept in the hands of gifted people who
know what it is and how to secure it. Some of Michael’s things look innocent,
but aren’t. If they wound up in the wrong hands, they could hurt people.”
Jason mulled this over for a moment. “Can I come?” he asked.
Steven looked up at Roy, who nodded. “Sure,” Steven said.
“You can come. As long as you promise to do as you’re told while we’re in
there.”
“You’re in charge,” Jason said.
◊
Steven slowed down his Honda Accord as he passed through
Olympia, knowing exactly where the speed traps were. He’d been this route more
times in the past few months than he’d been in the last several years, going
back and forth to Eximere.
In his trunk, safely secured in padded boxes, were the items
they’d taken from Michael’s basement. Steven planned on keeping them at
Eximere, along with the other items already there. He brought a labeler with
him so he could start marking the items and cataloging what he discovered about
them.
Aka Manah had not shown up to give him the list of items he
wanted Steven to search for.
Next trip
, Steven thought.
Maybe he’s
following me this time. He said he wasn’t able to get into Eximere, but maybe
he wants to know the general area it’s at.
“COP!!” Roy yelled loudly, scaring Steven to death. Steven
instinctually slammed his foot on the brake, then pulled it off and regained
speed.
“Jesus Christ, I’m doing the speed limit! We’re fine!” Steven
shouted back. “You scared me half to death!”
“Don’t brake like that,” Roy said, “he’ll pull us over for
the sudden braking!”
“Then don’t fucking yell like that!” Steven said.
“Calm down,” Roy said, “you’re way too uptight. You were
obviously daydreaming back there.”
“I was thinking about Jason,” Steven lied. He didn’t want to
talk about the demon with Roy.
“What about him?” Roy asked.
“Just wondering if we should tell him about Eximere, you
know,” Steven said.
“Absolutely not,” Roy said. “Not yet.”
“That’s what Eliza said, too,” Steven said. “He’ll know we’re
hiding something. He’ll figure it out, eventually.”
“We’ll tell him before that,” Roy said, “but I’m still
concerned about him. The way he wandered around Michael’s place, the look on
his face at some of the stuff we took – he didn’t seem normal.”
“The further we can distance him from the remnants of
Michael, the better,” Steven said. “He’ll balance out. Michael really had his
hooks in him. We should probably never speak of Michael again around him, let
his memory die away. By the way, I don’t think I’ve told you yet, but nice job
with that shovel.”
Roy smiled. “That was one of the most satisfying things I’ve
ever done,” he said.
“I’m guessing his ghost is still there, at Devil’s Throat?”
Steven said.
“Probably,” Roy said, “in that hidden room with the other
Callers and bodies. What a parade of nightmares that room will be, if anyone
ever stumbles upon it.”
“I asked Deem to set up a warning of some kind,” Steven said,
“so innocent people don’t get hurt. She said she’d figure something out. She’s
a bright girl.”
“And resourceful,” Roy said.
“You get into a little bit of trouble with her in that mine?”
Steven asked.
“What makes you ask that?” Roy said.
“She told me she thought you were a goner for a moment,”
Steven said, “when you two were in there.”
“Oh, she’s exaggerating,” Roy said. “I was covered in snakes.
Dozens of ‘em, all sunk into me with their fangs, hanging on. They got no
poison in the River, so I wasn’t worried about that. But there was enough of
them on me I couldn’t move. She showed up and pulled ‘em off. Like I said,
she’s resourceful.”
“You were covered in snakes?!” Steven asked. “How?”
“The light went out on me,” Roy said, “and I was trapped. She
had to come around the long way to get me. The snakes would strike and latch
into me, then hold on. They were all over me. I fought ‘em off for a while,
then they got the better of me, and I went down. Overwhelmed by the sheer
number of them, really.”
“Jesus Christ!” Steven said, shocked. “And you didn’t think
to tell me about this?”
“What’s to tell?” Roy said. “I was shaking like a hound dog
trying to shit a peach pit. She showed up with the light, and they slithered
off. End of story.”
“Saved by a girl,” Steven said. “That’s it, isn’t it? You
didn’t want to tell me because you weren’t the hero, she was.”
“I’ll admit right now she was the hero,” Roy said. “It don’t
have nothing to do with that.”
Steven let it drop. He knew it partly did have to do with
that, but he suspected Roy didn’t want to alarm Steven that he’d had a brush
with death, either. Roy was a stoic. He didn’t like to admit weakness or that
he might have been beaten.
“The real problem down there,” Roy said, “is all those fucked
up creatures. Deem told me the mutations from the radiation mean everything you
run into might be different. You can’t assume anything. At least up here, when
we’re dealing with a ghost, we know what we’re dealing with. Down there,
anything can happen.”
“I hope they stay safe,” Steven said, turning onto Highway
101. “Both Deem and Winn were great. We owe them. I don’t know if we’d have
Jason back if they hadn’t been there to help us.”
“Well,” Roy said, leaning back in his seat, “they’d best keep
their wits about them. Things seem crazy up here sometimes, with all the shit
we run into. It’s a damn sight more fucked up down there.”
Steven thought about this for a moment, and he silently
wished Winn and Deem the best.
They need all the help they can get
.
Author’s Note
Although
Devil’s Throat
is a work of fiction, there
are real places and events referenced in it. The book takes some liberties with
both, but the following are true:
- Mormons settled
St. Thomas in 1865 but abandoned it in 1871. Others moved in after them. They
were not the first people to live in the area; Anasazi ruins, called the “Lost
City,” are nearby.
- St.
Thomas was covered over by the waters of Lake Mead when the Hoover Dam went
into operation in 1938. All the residents moved, and the graves of the town
cemetery were reinterred in Overton.
- Due to
drought conditions in 2002, Lake Mead receded. St. Thomas has been uncovered
ever since. It can be toured as part of the Lake Mead National Recreational
Area. Only foundations remain, but the remnants of the old Gentry Hotel can
still be seen.
- From
1951 to 1992, the US government conducted tests of nuclear bombs at the Nevada
Test Site, about 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Radioactive fallout from the
tests blew east, with southern Utah and northern Arizona taking the brunt of
the radiation. The mushroom clouds from the testing were visible from St.
George, Utah.
- In 1990,
the US Congress, recognizing the damage that had been done to “downwinders,”
passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The law was meant to reimburse
people living in the fallout areas who had suffered “increased incidence of
cancers, non-cancerous thyroid diseases, and congenital malformations.”
###
Michael Richan lives in
Seattle, Washington. He was born in California and raised in Utah.
You can contact Michael at
www.michaelrichan.com
.
Receive a FREE Steven and
Roy novella when you
sign up for Michael’s email list
!
◊
The next adventure
awaits!
Downwind: the area of the United States that received
the brunt of the fallout from nuclear testing. As a result, humans developed
cancers and congenital malformations… and so did the creatures in the River,
the place where people with “the gift” see things others cannot.
In Blood Oath, Blood River, the River adventure
continues, with Deem and Winn battling the twisted ghosts of Southern Nevada
and Utah.
Twenty-year-old Deem is gifted, but she is on her own
without her mentor, her late father. Deem’s family is tormented by a strange
creature that climbs on their roof at night and infects the house with poison.
With help from the charismatic Winn, Deem tries to stop the attacks, but this
is only the beginning, with more ghosts, Callers, and mutated creatures to
come.
Deem met Steven and Roy when she helped save their son
from the ghosts at St. Thomas. She was impressed by Roy’s use of their
ancestors’ journals to assist with their work. Deem is confident her father
left behind a journal for her somewhere, but her dangerous search becomes
riddled with menacing secrets and revelations, putting people’s lives at risk.
Deem and Winn are not alone; they are helped by Awan,
a handsome Paiute who knows Native American tradition and can explain the
strange forces targeting Deem. They also meet Carma, a friendly soul with a
fantastic and valuable secret buried in her house.
Blood Oath, Blood River
is a fast-paced paranormal adventure where the
mysteries of the River continue!
Pick up your copy at Amazon today!
A complimentary first
chapter has been included for you to enjoy!
◊
Please
leave your review
of
Devil’s Throat
at Amazon!
And don’t forget to pick up
the next volume of The River series,
The River
series:
The Downwinders
series
:
The Dark River series:
All three series are part of
The
River Universe,
and there is crossover of some characters and plots. For a
suggested reading order, see the
Author’s Website
.