Jar of Souls (5 page)

“Sir?”

“I’m not even sure I should tell you anything about what is going on, but since you have seen the dead reanimated, I feel like I owe you a small explanation. Gaston was one of our most promising adepts. His work with the elements and pushing the boundaries of the gift itself have been nothing short of remarkable. When he came to me saying that he had been able to animate a dead mouse, I should have put an end to it right then. Instead I was fascinated by what he could do.”

“Controlling a mouse is hardly what I saw last night. He had control of at least eight Lycans and, when they fell, about five soldiers. I can tell you that fighting something that doesn’t feel any wound and has no fear is disturbing. If he could animate enough of them, it would be an overwhelming force.”

He looked at me with a wry smile on his face. “It seems that he has grown stronger than he ever let on.” Adam sat back into his chair and removed the pair of reading glasses he had been wearing. “In the beginning, it was about seeing what we could bring back to serve us, and for a time, that was enough. Then we moved on to trying to find any practical applications for what we had done. A mouse wasn’t very intimidating, but it could sneak around, and with just the right magic being cast, we could see through its eyes and hear what it was hearing. That in and of itself was an amazing breakthrough, but also something that was forbidden to study long ago.”

“I can see how once it was discovered, it would have been hard to stop expanding your knowledge. It is, after all, one of our tenets to never stop learning.”

“I knew I picked the right man for the job when I sent you. Not everyone would be so understanding of our trespasses.”

“I could see where many of our order would have considered it an abomination, that it would be an affront to the gift that we have been blessed with.”

“That is why we have always worked in secret. What started with a mouse moved on to other creatures, and finally a full Lycan. Gaston implored me to allow him to animate a human corpse, but the line had to be drawn somewhere. That is what started the rift between us. I pushed for more knowledge, more control before we took that next step he thought we were ready for.”

“So why is it that the reanimated seem almost mindless in their pursuits? Why do they not act as they would when they are alive?”

“That is what we needed to find out. Our powers could reanimate them—the force of our will was enough to make them move, and with enough effort, we could expand their senses. What we could never do was make them act or control them as if they were alive. After enough research, we came to the conclusion that once the soul had left the body, it was just a shell. We could control and manipulate it, but it was nothing like what it had been when alive.”

I sat back in my own chair for a moment while Adam continued to talk about some of the things they had done. The testing they had done sounded extensive, but most of it was beyond my understanding. The thought of working with dead bodies creeped me out and for some reason filled me with a sense of prolonged dread. Would someone use my body to do some dreadful act after I had moved on? As a scholar, I understood the need for knowledge; as a man, I felt a sense of loss that my order had been corrupted in such a way.

With a sigh, I asked the question that I had been dreading. “So did you try and find a way to keep the soul attached to the body at death, to make the corpse easier to control?”

“Gaston suggested there was a way to do that, that with enough time he could find a way to end a life and keep the soul in the body. That is when our relationship soured completely. I forbade him to experiment on live animals or people to bring his new ideas to fruition. That was a line even I wasn’t willing to cross. I had my doubts about Gaston, though. Even if I could never prove it, in my heart I knew he never gave up.”

“So just what was I being sent to guard? Why was he so upset?”

“I have to go back a bit further in our tale before I get to that. When I forbade his research on live victims, he continued to research into the more occult uses of the gift. He found mentions of necromancy going back a thousand years. Through all of his research, there was one powerful item that seemed to come up again and again in his research. Each telling of it shared just enough of the same facts that it had to be the same item. It was last seen in Egypt and was given the name the Jar of Souls.”

“So what did this Jar do exactly?”

“The writings indicated that it trapped the souls of the dead and that someone with control of the Jar could force those souls into empty bodies and control them.” He pushed a journal into my hand. It was titled
The Jar of Souls
and had dates and copies of text from his research documents. “The object was feared, and those who came into its possession often faced violent deaths. For everything we found, there was no mention of it ever being destroyed. Gaston told me that if I would finance his search for the object that he would drop all his other research.”

“So you agreed.”

“I did. I had hoped that with time he might come to see the error of the path he was on. Instead, he became more and more dedicated in his quest to find the Jar. I never thought he would actually succeed in finding it, but then a month ago he did.”

“So if he found the Jar, why are the corpses he reanimates still so lifeless?”

“I said he found it; I didn’t say he had it. When he came to me with the news, I knew I couldn’t trust him to retrieve the Jar himself. He was overeager to test it, to use it. Knowing just what could happen if he did, I sent a team to retrieve it. When he found out, he was livid, and when I wouldn’t tell him where it was being stored, he overreacted.”

“So that is when I saw him leaving your office?”

“No, this was about two weeks before that. When you saw him leaving the other day, he had come to me and begged me to let him have the Jar one last time. I refused. I told him that once the Jar had been moved to a more secure location that we could test it together, that we needed to approach this as scholars, not with our emotions. He laughed at me and said that one way or another, the Jar would be his.”

“So you expected an attack.”

“I did.”

“And yet you only sent me to guard it.”

He let out a long sigh. “I didn’t think he knew which location the Jar was en route to. I also didn’t think he would go to such extremes to get it when I had already promised him access to the artifact. It seems all of my estimations of him were wrong. It also seems that two of our other locations were attacked that same night. Both of those locations reported attacks by animated corpses. That means not only was I wrong, but over the last year, he has recruited followers. Now with the Jar in his possession, he will be a formidable foe.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“That is truly the question, now isn’t it? How do we stop him?” He seemed to sit back into his chair and think, leaving me wondering why I was still there. “I can’t bring this to the order as a whole—it could shake us to our very foundations—but if you and I were to handle the problem . . . Yes, that might just do it. If we could retrieve the Jar, then no one would have to know.”

“Sir, are you asking me to keep this from my brothers, to follow you in search of a madman in possession of a weapon we know almost nothing about?”

“I believe I am.”

“It seems as if that might likely lead us to our premature deaths.”

“Indeed it does, but I’m not ready to give up living just yet. Are you?”

“Not at all, sir. I would be honored to join you.”

“First things first. A promotion will be in order for you. Once we have that out of the way and have gathered a little intelligence, we will hunt down Gaston and put an end to the Jar of Souls once and for all.”

“Sir?”

“Yes.”

“Just how much does running into the face of certain death pay?”

“I would think that if we are successful, you would never have to work again.”

“Ah, then it seems I am indeed the right man for the job!”

Adam let out a little chuckle. “Get cleaned up and order some additional traveling clothes. We won’t be riding in style, so make sure they fit and can take a beating from the elements.”

“I will do my best.”

“See that you do.”

S
arge was really pounding
us into the ground this morning. I was on hour three of my elliptical session and still had a sparring session to look forward to. The puddle of sweat under the elliptical seemed to have grown to epic proportions. My legs burned, and my arms had started to feel like dead weight an hour ago. At least if I worked myself into complete exhaustion, I might be able to finally sleep through the night.

Ever since my birthday, the dream about my parents’ death seemed to haunt me almost nightly. It had to be more than me feeling bad about not being able to stop the people who killed them. I’d never had the same nightmare so many times in a row my entire life. Even now I could relive the entire nightmare without having to close my eyes. I wasn’t sure what I could even do about it. How would I ever find the killer when I was tied to this place? Maybe if there was time, I could ask Adam about it. It was always possible he might have some insight into the dreams. Until then, I would have to find a way to cope until they went away.

Sarge walked over to my elliptical. “Jackson, you’re done for the day. Hit the showers and head to Adam’s office.”

“Any idea what this is about?”

“Above my paygrade.”

“Thanks, Sarge.” I looked over at Britta and gave her a wink before I took off. I felt bad leaving her. We had plans for lunch, but those were going to be on hold now. She smiled at me, and I knew the missed lunch would be forgiven.

* * *

W
hen I walked
into Adam’s office, it was the same as I remembered it from the end of last semester. It was a comfortable room with a desk and two chairs as well as a sitting area with a couch and a fireplace. It reminded me of a cozy cottage or something I would expect some professor to have at a smaller college. Books lined the walls, and in one corner there was a small bar built into the wall. Adam was sitting at his desk, and there was a man I had never seen sitting across from him.

The man had short black hair that was done in a current style. He must not have been here long because he still had his coat on. I wondered just where he had come from. It didn’t seem cold enough here to need the scarf he was wearing. Adam’s eyes moved to mine, and the man sitting in front of him turned slightly in his chair so I could see his face for the first time. He looked foreign, maybe from somewhere in Europe originally. There was a serious expression on his face, but at the same time, his eyes sparkled with mischief.

“Ah, Jackson, you made it. Let me introduce you to Inspector Lapointe.”

Inspector was a title that I had never heard used before. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“I can assure you the pleasure is all mine,” the inspector said, his eyes watching me with an intensity that was contagious. Something about him just said that he enjoyed what he did. “You may also call me Jean.”

“Thank you, Jean.”

“Jackson, why don’t you take a seat.” Adam pointed to the open chair. “The inspector was just filling me in on a few details of a case he has been working on.”

“Yes, I had been telling Adam that I could use a little help out in the field, a fresh pair of eyes to maybe pick up something I missed.”

“I’m not sure how much help I would really be. I’m still learning about our world, and there is so much I still don’t understand.”

“That’s exactly why I thought you would be perfect, Jackson,” Adam said. “We could use a fresh take, and no one else will look at it the same way you do. This might be a shock for you; some of the things you see may be a little more graphic than you are used to.”

“Adam, don’t try and scare the boy. Normally when we get to a scene, there is no action. Just a few dead bodies to keep us company while we poke around.”

I was a little confused as to what was going on, but if they wanted me to go out in the field with the inspector, I would do it. Maybe it would be exactly what I needed to break out of the funk I had been in. “I’d like to go. Hopefully this will teach me a little bit more about what we do.”

“Jackson, this will be a little outside of what the Ascendancy normally does. The inspector works outside of our normal scope of activity. When something just doesn’t add up, we send him in to see if he can make sense of it, and then we act on the information.”

“Don’t make what I do seem so important, Adam. What he means is they send me in to poke around and rile things up until something shakes loose. Its gritty work, but sometimes I get the chance to find out what happened when no one else could.”

“It sounds like it will be fantastic, but what about my training here?”

Adam watched me for a moment before he spoke. It seemed as if he was looking to find any hidden reasons for me not to want to go. I had a few, and one of them was Britta, but I would never say no to Adam. “Jackson, the good news is these will be small trips out into the field and then you will return while the inspector follows up on what you find.”

“Awesome, I’m ready whenever you are, Inspector.”

Adam and the inspector both gave me a look before Adam spoke again. “Why don’t you go change into something besides those workout clothes and meet the inspector outside of my office.”

I looked down at my clothes, not really understanding what was wrong. I had on my Adidas pants and a long-sleeved Nike shirt. It seemed like an ok outfit to me. Around the arena, we tended to only wear our workout gear. Our lives here, at least for now, centered on training, and when we weren’t training, we all liked to be comfortable.

“Just something a little less casual. Grab a pair of jeans and an actual coat. That should be sufficient,” the inspector said. His eyes seemed to hold a barely contained laugh as if he was enjoying that I was a little out of place.

“Will do. See you soon.”

* * *

I
met
the inspector in a tunnel by the arena floor. It was still raining, so I was thankful we weren’t meeting out in the open. The water came down just outside of the entrance and was echoing around us.

He gave me a once-over as I approached. “Nice coat.”

“Thanks.” I smiled, thinking about when I had unwrapped my birthday gift from Britta. My first thought was that she spent way too much money on me. My second thought was that it was a bitchin’ coat.

“All right, here are how things are going to work. It’s just like when you were a kid. Speak when spoken to. Otherwise just follow and listen. If you see something that requires attention, point it out to me. This should just be a quick in and out for us. No resistance is expected, but keep your eyes open. Any questions?”

“Seems simple enough. Follow your lead, keep my mouth shut, and pay attention.”

“I knew I liked you for a reason. You got the gist of it right away. Now let’s see if you can do it.” He walked forward to a door set in the side of the tunnel. I felt a little tug as he called on his gift. When the door opened, it looked out into an alley. He motioned for me to step through, and I did. There was a familiar sense of my stomach falling, and I was out standing in a trash-strewn alley. I pulled the collar of my coat up as the light wind seemed to be sending the rain directly down my neck. The door closed as the inspector stepped out, revealing a door to a building behind him.

He opened the door, giving me the brief flash of a kitchen before closing the door again. “It’s always a good idea to make sure the gateway is actually shut before you leave. Last thing you want is something nasty to pop out because it didn’t seal properly.”

“The gateway?”

“Ah, so you haven’t made it that far in your studies yet. Well, a gateway is a portal that links two areas together by magical means. It lets us travel great distances in the blink of an eye.”

“Kind of like the portal?”

“Almost, except it takes much less power to do it this way and is much more likely not to leave a trace.” He gave me a once-over and then motioned for me to follow him as he walked by. We stepped out of the alley, and I felt my breath catch for a second. There was no way we were still close to home. It was hard to say exactly where we were, but I would have put us somewhere in Washington or Oregon. It was going to take me a while to get used to this new form of travel. Just a few minutes ago, we had been in Arizona.

I kept an eye out, trying to figure out where in the Pacific Northwest we were, but nothing really stood out to me. The light rain and dark clouds kept most of the people at bay and bathed everything in an inky greyness. I almost walked right into the back of the inspector when he stopped. He had his head up and was looking around the street. It was as if he sensed someone watching him. After a few seconds, he stopped scanning the street and kept moving. We ducked from alley to alley before coming out on the edge of town. He walked toward a building set a little ways back in the pine trees.

The building was nothing special, a traditional craftsman style home that could have been found in either location. The inspector walked around to the back of the building and stopped just as he rounded the corner. This time I was ready for the sudden stop, but not for what I saw beyond the inspector’s shoulder. I tore my gaze away from the carnage for a quick second to cast a furtive glance behind us. I hoped whatever had done this wasn’t still around.

The inspector moved slowly around the edge of the building, and I crept out behind him. The scene in front of us was one of utter destruction. The storm doors to the basement were ripped off their hinges. One of them had been used to somehow nail a man to a tree. The shattered door was sticking out of his midsection. Thankfully he was slumped over, but I could still imagine the look of anguish that must have been on his face. A few limbs dotted the yard. A leg here, an arm there.

From what I could tell, outside of the man attached to the tree, there wasn’t a lot of blood anywhere. It seemed odd that there wouldn’t be more blood than there was. Even in the near-constant rain, I would have thought there would be at least some trace from all of the carnage. The inspector kept his head on a swivel, taking in the entire area while looking for any new threats. I tried to stay as close to him as I could and watch behind us as often as I could spare a glance. He walked into the trees, and as grateful as I was for the shelter from the rain, it didn’t make up for the two dead bodies left in front of us.

I wasn’t a doctor, but I didn’t think it was possible for bodies to decay that quickly. It was easy to see why they were dead, though. Each of the bodies had multiple gashes across the pale, almost grey flesh. The wounds didn’t look to be bleeding, and I still couldn’t get over how gross their skin looked. For a moment, I was thankful for the rain. The wet smell of the forest kept most of the rotting stink the bodies gave off from my nose.

The inspector looked at me and asked, “Tell me what you see.”

I scanned the scene around us one more time before answering. “Ok a couple things I picked up on. The doors from the basement or cellar were either blown outward with enough force to rip them off the hinges or they were ripped off afterward. Either way, the pattern of debris means that the damage went from inside to outside. If it was afterward, someone either used magic or was damn strong to do that.” I pointed to the body impaled to the tree by one of the doors. “A couple other things stood out as odd. I don’t see anywhere near as much blood as I would have expected, and these two bodies”—I indicated the two in front of us—“look like they could have been dead for weeks.”

“Very good, Jackson. Normally I would tell you there is never as much blood as we think there will be, something TV and the movies tend to get wrong, but in this case, you are right. There isn’t nearly enough for all of this damage. These two bodies have been dead for quite some time, although I am not sure if they were being stored in the cellar or if they were brought here intentionally.” He waved his hand, and the bodies burst into an intense blue flame. Within a minute, they were nothing but ash. He used the same spell on the man impaled on the tree and all of the body parts in the yard.

“Did you notice anything else?”