Matt Archer: Bloodlines (Matt Archer #4) (8 page)

“Right, it doesn’t make sense. Except…you weren’t separated
from me in Africa.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt like throwing up.
Mamie had once supposed that the fallen-god in Afghanistan was feeding on
souls, and that kids packed the most nutritious lunch, so to speak, because of
their purity and energy. Maybe the coven had figured that out and used that
poor kid’s spirit to block Tink and Coach Shaw.

I was really beginning to hate these Nocturna Maura people.

Colonel Black had a confused look on his face. “I tried to
follow that…but I’m not sure I did.”

I explained it to him and as the truth sunk in, the
confusion turned to cold rage. “Make no mistake. If they’re using children to
release demons or block the knife-spirits, there will be a reckoning for this
Ann Smythe woman.”

“We have to find her first.” And that wouldn’t be easy. The
CIA had been searching for her for months on end without any solid leads. “That
has to be the priority. Since we can’t be involved, will the CIA let my dad go
after her?”

He shook his head. “He’s off their project because we asked
him to join ours. They may bring him in for consulting, but not field work.”

“But we
can
go after Carrie, right?”

“Yes,” the colonel said. “Officer Archer thinks he knows
where she is. You’ll leave in the morning.”

The next morning we were up before dawn. Dad led me and
Uncle Mike to one of the Humvees. Will and Captain Johnson waited beside the
passenger door. Johnson watched us approach, but Will faced east, like he was waiting
for the sun to come up and fix things.

“The colonel’s letting you come with us?” I asked him. “He
usually doesn’t like his wielders in one basket.”

“Don’t know about ‘letting’ me. I’m just going,” Will said.
“There’s a lot of miles between us and the witch. If we find her, I want her to
fix me right then, because no telling what could happen on your way back here.”

He had a point, and we couldn’t afford to lose Carrie before
she helped him. “Then let’s roll.”

Uncle Mike climbed into the driver’s seat and Dad sat up
front with him, leaving the rest of us in the back. Davis had rigged up a
high-powered, hand-held GPS system and Dad was punching in coordinates. “Head
south. I’ll tell you where to turn to catch the main road.”

“Got it,” Uncle Mike said. He put the vehicle in gear and we
took off.

I watched the rust-red plain flow by as we drove. The
terrain was rough, and we bounced, but I’d gotten used to it. Sad, really—I’d
almost forgotten what real roads felt like. The sun rose an inch at a time over
the edge of the world, first red, then orange and pink, before finally cresting
the sky. Within an hour, though, it burned down with a yellow-white light and
the Humvee grew hot, despite the cooler weather.

Will groaned. “Not being able to see is making me car sick.”

It must’ve been bad for him to complain and his face was a
pale green. I lowered the window to let in some fresh air. Dust came in with
it, but that was better than puke, so we tolerated it and Will’s color got
better.

“How far are we going?” I asked.

“Carrie left me a note saying to ‘find the Viking,’” Dad
said. He smiled at me over the front seat. “Pretty good, huh?”

“What Viking?” I asked, not getting the joke at all.

“Vikings were called ‘North men,’ or
Norseman
,” he
said. “As in Norseman, Australia.”

“There’s a town called ‘Norseman’ out here?” Will asked,
sounding a little tense.

“Yes.” Dad frowned. “Everything okay back there?”

“Yeah…it’s just…I don’t know,” Will said. “I feel like I
should know something about this town and I have no idea why I would.”

Tink stirred restlessly in my mind. I couldn’t tell if she
was just bored or worried about Will.

We continued to travel off-road for four punishing hours,
until we hit a large, fairly well-maintained highway. “What’s this?” I asked,
rousing out of a stupor. Concrete—it was like heaven.

“Eyre Highway. Major road through the Nullabor Plain,” Dad
said. “Turn back west. Norseman is at the tail end of this highway and we’re
too far east.”

Uncle Mike pulled over at a clump of bushes. “Okay, but there
better be a gas station there, because we’re running low and I don’t want to
have to use the reserve tanks if we don’t have to.”

“There are
three
gas stations in Norseman,” Dad said.
“We can top everything off there, but we need to hurry. I don’t like the idea
of being away from camp after dark. It’s nearly noon already.”

Now that we could travel at highway speeds, Dad said we’d
make it into town in about an hour. Thank God; I was starving and needed to
move around before I went crazy. Will looked worse. He fidgeted in his seat,
turning his head this way and that, even though he couldn’t see a thing.

The Eyre highway met another one right on the outskirts of
Norseman, out by a golf course, of all things. There were more trees here, too,
as well as miles of tailings, leftovers from the huge mines that operated in
the area. Because that was the reason Norseman had sprung up in this spot:
gold.

Despite the fact that I felt like we were at the beginning
of the end of the world, Norseman was a pretty nice town—hotel, restaurants,
and, yes, gas stations. Mike insisted on stopping there first, just in case we
had to make a quick escape. We got more than one puzzled stare from the locals,
and why not? Five men dressed in desert camo, filling up a military-grade
Humvee with U.S. markings on it, would make any civilian look twice.

I nodded and waved at a few, muttering, “We come in peace,
Earthlings.”

Johnson snorted, but Dad didn’t react. Instead, he was
checking a map of town he’d snagged from the gas station attendant. “Carrie
didn’t say exactly where she was, and Norseman’s bigger than I expected.”

“Maybe she’ll find us,” I said, “You told me she found
you
in Perth, to give you intel on the coven before you even started looking
for a contact.”

“True.” He folded up the map. “There’s a diner down the
road. Let’s grab lunch and think through how to search.”

I doubted we’d have to. Our appearance had caused a reaction
around here; if Carrie lived in Norseman, all she’d have to do is go to the
store for a little gossip and find out exactly where we were. But I wasn’t
about the argue with the idea of food, and I climbed into the vehicle with the
others.

Ten minutes later, we were settled at a table at an older
diner. After weeks of eating MRE’s, I almost couldn’t decide what to order for
lunch, and the menu wasn’t that long. Finally deciding on roast beef and
“chips”—the waitress had giggled when I asked for French fries—I excused myself
to hit the men’s room. It was around back, this tiny closet with a single stall
and a sink. When I was done, I headed down a narrow wood-paneled hallway to go
back to the main dining room.

A hand, pale in the dim lighting, shot out of the ladies’
room and grabbed my wrist.

I reached for my knife, but the door swung open and a pretty
girl, maybe nineteen or twenty, put a finger to her lips. Her eyes were huge
and dark, contrasting with her fair skin.

“William?” she whispered. “William Cruessan?”

I decided not to correct her until I knew for sure who she
was and what she wanted. “Carrie?”

She glanced down the hallway, then nodded. “In here, quick.”

I ducked into the ladies’ room, feeling kind of weird about
it, and shut the door behind me. Carrie blinked her big eyes and smoothed light
brown hair over her shoulders. She was gorgeous—and that surprised me. I don’t
know why, but I didn’t expect a witch to be beautiful. I was looking for a wart
on her chin and a hooked nose, not perfectly straight teeth and high
cheekbones.

“William, listen, I don’t have much time.” She paused,
frowning. “Wait, you’re not—”

“I’m Matt Archer,” I hurried to say, showing her my wrist.
“I’m another wielder.”

“Erik’s son, okay. I was hoping for the other one, but
you’re good enough. I can’t stay—I think Ann’s figured out I didn’t complete
the ritual with the others.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” I asked.

“You’ve obviously been to the compound if you’re here, and
you didn’t come quietly, so the spies will suspect who you’ve come for,” she
said in a rush. “There were supposed to be five of us in the circle, but I
didn’t follow through so I could run. Tell your father Ann’s on the move. I’m
trying to track her, but it’s hard to follow someone who’s following you, if
you get what I mean.”

I didn’t, but I needed her to keep talking, so I didn’t ask.
“Do you know where she is?”

“Not yet. But I’ll try to contact him when I do. Tell him…”
Tears filled her eyes. “Tell him I’m sorry about the boy. I couldn’t save him
and still hope to escape. Tracking Ann is the most important thing.”

“What’s one more child after all the others you’ve killed,
right?” I growled.

“It’s not me,” she snapped back. “And that’s why I came to
your father in the first place. Because I know what they are trying to do and
they need to be stopped.”

“What
are
they trying to do?”

“They’ve called legions, understand?
Legions
. At
least I broke part of this last chain, otherwise it could’ve been worse. It’s
going to be bad enough, though.”

Legions? “Wait, are you talking about the eclipse? Are there
going to be more demons? Or just lots of monsters? Should we break cover and
evacuate the area?”

Before she could answer, Johnson called, “Archer? Where are
you?”

“No more names,” she hissed. “Leave town and don’t let
anyone else know you were here, understand? Tell Erik not to contact me.
I’ll
find
him.
”

She made to move past me, but I blocked the door and jammed
it closed with my heel so she couldn’t tug it open. “You can’t leave, not yet.
I need to know two things. One, why did you think I was Will?”

“Why did I think…” She looked at me like I was stupid. “The
Norseman, of course.”

That made zero sense. No, it made less than zero sense.
“What?”

“Ugh, I don’t have time to explain it, but you wielders need
to do some research. Your pasts are your presents.” Carrie put her hands on her
hips. “You can ask one more question, then I’m leaving. It’s too dangerous
here.”

Johnson knocked on the men’s room door. “You in there, man?”

The look Carrie gave me was pure panic. “Fine, okay,” I
said. “Will’s blind. We freed him from the demon, but he can’t see.”

She gasped. “I was hoping the demon wouldn’t rise since I
didn’t close the circle.”

“Well, it did,” I said. “So, how do we fix Will?”

Carrie grabbed a bag she’d hidden behind the sink and dug
around inside. “He needs to see his past to know his present. He’s blocked. The
demon fragmented itself and cut him off from his fathers, which are the source
of his strength.” She pressed a bunch of fragrant leaves into my hand.
“Eucalyptus. Crush it, soak it in boiling water and have him breathe the steam
while you remind him who he is.”

“Will doesn’t have a cold—he’s freaking blind!” I reached
for her arm. “He’s right outside. I know you can help him. Just come with us.”

“No chance, mate.” She took a step away from me. “If I come
with you, I’m as good as dead. They called them all, don’t you understand?
You’re the only defense between them and Perth. They’ll come for you, following
the trail we laid, but they won’t stop there unless
you
stop
them.
I’m leaving while I still can, in case you fail.” The glare she gave me was
cold enough to freeze a guy’s balls. “Tell Will the story of his past. Talk
about his fathers. That’s all he needs to know.”

“Besides his dad, I don’t know any of that stuff!”

“Then find someone who does,” she hissed. “I’m out of here.”

Before I could blink, I’d flown across the bathroom and
smacked into the wall, thrown by a gust of wind. Or maybe it was a small
cyclone. When I turned around, rubbing my face, Carrie was gone.

“She just left?” Dad asked for the tenth time as we hurried
out of Norseman like the Vikings were chasing us down.

“Disappeared,” I insisted. “She…threw me somehow and, poof,
she was gone. You’d think she was a witch or something.”

Nobody laughed. Not even me.

“And she said to remind me who I am?” Will’s face was
scrunched up in frustration. “What does that mean?”

“I have no idea,” I told him, equally frustrated.

“My dad doesn’t even know what his great-grandfather’s name
was,” Will said. “I asked one time for a school project, and he said his
parents died before he thought to ask them.”

If his own dad didn’t know, who could remind him about his
fathers? It’s not like we could do this big ancestry search in the middle of
the desert…

Then again—maybe someone else could.

“Wait,” I said. “When we get back, we need to ask Davis if I
can email Mamie.”

Uncle Mike nodded. “Good idea.”

“Why?” Dad asked.

“Because Mamie is good at telling stories,” I said.
“Especially if they’re true and involve research.”

Will leaned back in his seat, already looking more relaxed.
“Okay then.”

“Seriously, though, why were you so uptight earlier?” I
asked him after the others started discussing routes back to camp.

“Other than being blind?”

Ouch. “You seem to be dealing with that sort of okay…but
when we mentioned ‘Norseman’ I could practically see your blood pressure rise.”

He rubbed his arms, like he was cold. “My hair stood on end,
and Coach Shaw perked up. It put me on edge.”

I remembered that Tink had stirred some, too. There was
something about that town. “Maybe Mamie will find some answers for us.”

“If not…” He groped around and rested his hand on his
knife’s handle. “You need to send me home. I’m a liability out here.”

“Says the guy who killed a mob of Dingoes blind.”

“But the eclipse will be worse. I’ll just be in the way.”

I reached out to grip his forearm. “You won’t be. I promise.”

The question was, could I keep that promise?

* * *

We reported in to Colonel Black as soon as we got back and
he gave Davis the order to let me use one of his precious computers to email my
sister. Without much left to do but wait, we spent the next few hours musing
over the rest of what Carrie had spilled.

“We were right about the gap,” Dad said, after I’d explained
her remark about there being five in the circle. “She was supposed to sacrifice
herself with the others, but didn’t. Once they were dead, she ran.”

Uncle Mike frowned. “And left the kids?”

“That’s what I said,” I told him, still a little pissed off
about it. “She said finding Ann Smythe was the priority and something about
being followed while following.”

Funny enough, Dad seemed to understand what that meant.
“She’s on Ann’s tail, but she’s being watched by Ann’s people. She was right;
we shouldn’t have come. I’m glad she wasn’t seen with us.”

Will, who’d been quiet a long while, asked, “What did she
mean by ‘break the chain’ and the legions and all that, do you think?”

“My guess is that the eclipse is going to be rough,” I said.
“She said they ‘called them all’ and that we’re the only line of defense.”

“I didn’t think there was any doubt about that in the first
place,” Will said. “But here’s a question. Those pentagrams around camp were
really far apart, right? They covered what, more than twenty square miles?”

“Something like that,” Uncle Mike said.

“We didn’t have to drive too far to escape their power, did
we?” He shrugged. “I was possessed at the time, so I don’t remember that well,
but it didn’t seem like we were on the road long enough to break free.”

Everyone froze. “How far apart where the pentagrams, in a
straight line?” I asked.

“Five miles,” the colonel said, pulling out a copy of Aunt
Julie’s notes. “They found four of them.”

“There should be five then, right?” Will asked. “If Carrie
was supposed to be part of the ritual? Five points, five miles, five
pentagrams. Where’s the other one?”

“Davis!” the colonel called.

A few seconds later, Davis strode into the tent, casting all
of us a pinched look, like our very presence was screwing up his electronics.
“Yes, sir!”

“Pull up the map Captain Tannen was working on before she
left.”

“One star chart, coming right up, sir.”

“Star chart?” I said. “We’re not telling horoscopes,
Sergeant.”

Davis paused in his typing to glare at me, then flipped on a
monitor and spun it to face us. Four dots, at perfectly regular intervals,
formed a grid across the desert floor. Our camp had been right on top of one of
those points—the lowest one. As I looked closer, I realized what we’d been
missing.

“There should be a fifth pentagram.” Dad caught it too. “And
it should be close by.”

Because the dots, if you added one a few hundred yards away
from our current camp, made a perfect pentagon.

 “Johnson, take a few men and go find it for us,” the
colonel said.

After he left, I asked, “But if we’re on top of one, how was
Tink able to come back online?”

Dad took a ruler and did some quick measurements on the
screen, ignoring Davis’s watchful gaze. “So imagine that each of these
pentagrams can send waves of…something.” He traced a circle around one with a
finger. “Its influence would extend in a radius, right?”

I nodded. “And they would overlap, covering the entire
pentagon and part of the area outside of it.”

“Right…but Carrie didn’t complete the ritual, so…”

He gave me an expectant look, totally like Mamie would when
she wanted me to make a connection. I almost laughed at the irony, but told
him, “The final star is dormant. It’s a dud.”

“That has to be it,” Uncle Mike said. He smiled at Will.
“Good thinking, Cruessan.”

Will nodded, staring straight ahead, and Mike’s smile
drooped. The tent went quiet and we sat waiting for Johnson to come back. It
took everything I had to keep from clenching my fists in desperation. I’d make
this right if it killed me.

When Johnson returned, he confirmed what we thought.
“There’s a pentagram there. Looks just like the others.”

“Tink, are you getting any readings from it?” I asked.

So now I’m a Geiger counter?

“Stop kidding around. You know what I meant.”

Nobody appreciates a good joke anymore.

“It wasn’t a good joke,” I told her, then smacked my hand to
my forehead as she gave me a love-tap between the eyes. “Okay, enough. I got
slammed into a wall by a witch earlier today. I paid my dues for snark
already.”

From the sound that Tink made, you’d think she was grinding
her teeth. Except she didn’t have teeth.
Fine. The answer is no. We can go
out there tomorrow to check, but I don’t feel anything unusual. Not like
before, when I was cut off from you.

“Tink says the last pentagram is clean. Sounds like you were
right, Will.”

“For what good it does us,” he said softly.

A faint trill broke the awkward silence that had descended on
the group again. Davis pulled a sat-phone from a canvas bag at the end of his
equipment table. After answering, he said, “Sir? We have a call.”

“I’ll take it in here,” the colonel said, holding out a hand
for the sat phone.

“My apologies, sir, but it’s for
him.
” Davis cut me a
glance. “It’s a young lady who says she’s his sister. Do you want to speak with
her first?”

Colonel Black’s eyes went wide. “Not a chance. The last time
I spoke with her, she had called me nineteen times in nineteen hours to wear me
into submission. Give Archer the phone.”

Grinning, I took it from Davis. “Mamie? Is it really you?”

“Hi!” she said brightly and my grin widened. “I’m sorry to
call so late, but I thought you might still be up even though it’s past ten.”

“Yeah, and it must be like seven in the morning at home.”

“I’m an early riser, you know that.”

Yeah, and seven was
late
morning where Mamie was
concerned. “Still wearing that ratty pink bathrobe?”

She sniffed. “
Please.
It is
not
ratty. It’s
well loved.”

“Archer?” the colonel said. “You know we pay about five
dollars a minute for these calls, don’t you?”

Right. “Sis, I don’t have long. I take it you got our
email?”

“Sure did. And I already have some answers for you.”

“You’ve been up since five, haven’t you?”

“Well, yes. That’s when I get up. But…” She paused, and I
could almost see her crafty smile through the phone. “I had this thought I
should start looking into wielder-genealogy over the last few weeks…you know,
just in case. Good thing, because I finished up with Will’s family a few days
ago.”

“Just in case…right.” Seriously, my sister was more curious
than a cat. Somehow this “extra” research didn’t surprise me. “And what did you
find out?”

“I’ll send you more details in an email later, but here’s
the main thing. Will’s related to Andre d’Cruessan. He was a Knight Templar in
the Crusades. And a pretty prominent one at that.”

“What’s she saying?” Will whispered.

“Viva le France,” I said and Will punched me in the side.
“Ouch, asshat!”

“What did you call me?” Mamie asked, giving me her
schoolmarm voice.

“I called
Will
an asshat. Anything else? Davis is
trying to melt a hole in my forehead with his eyes because I’m still on the
phone.”

“Need me to talk to him?”

She was serious. And he wouldn’t like that much. “Colonel
Black, Mamie wants to talk to Davis about glaring at me.”

The colonel winced. “Davis, outside. You want no part of
that.”

After he left, Johnson chuckled. “That’s our girl.”

“I have one more thing, and I’ll send you all the articles
in an email, but here’s the kicker. Andre d’Cruessan left the Templars after
the first crusade, settled back in France and—get this—married a duchess.
Will’s distantly related to Charles V.”

“Get out! Are you serious?”

“What?” Will asked, looking nervous. “What’s she saying?”

“Completely serious!” Mamie screeched in delight. “But
there’s more!”

As she finished off the report, my eyes popped open so wide,
my eyelids hurt. “Oh, now that’s…amazing.”

“It fits, doesn’t it?” She laughed. “I’ll email you
everything I have, but this was just too much fun not to tell you in person.
Besides, I wanted to make sure you were okay, Will’s eyesight aside.”

I paused. I couldn’t tell her about Dad, and I wouldn’t tell
her about my nightmares, which were happening more often. So I settled with,
“We’re fine.”

“Well, you be safe. Hopefully you’ll get to come home soon.”

I didn’t count on it, but I said, “Hope so, too. Give Mom a
hug from me.”

“I will. Love you!”

We hung up and Colonel Black raised an eyebrow. “How’d she
get this number?”

“Uh…” I scratched my head. “You know, I’m not sure.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Will said, sounding impatient, “but
I’d really like to have my sight restored. What’d Mamie tell you?”

“Somebody go boil some water,” I said, warming up to the
idea of making this a production. “It’s story time.”