He looked at her. "Did you get it?"
She nodded. "You want me to drive you and Sarah to the hospital?
"Thanks, no. We"re going with them." He gestured toward the Aid Unit.
Ravenwood gave Sarah a hug and turned back to Kane. It was a solemn and uncomfortable moment. There seemed to be no words to make it less so. She put a hand on his arm. "h.e.l.l of a night."
One of the paramedics slid the side door open and addressed Kane. "We"re ready," he said.
Kane helped Sarah into the Unit and then turned to Ravenwood. "Talk to you tomorrow." He stepped up into the vehicle and the door slid shut.
Amidst the activity of the firefighters and a small crowd of neighbors that had gathered on the street, Ravenwood watched the Aid Unit speed away, lights flashing, siren blaring. When it disappeared around the corner she got into her SUV and headed home.
Two hours later, Sarah"s mother died.
Ravenwood opened the ornate gla.s.s door of her antique curio-cabinet and placed the Keys Of The Gatekeeper on the shelf next to her own copy of Crowley"s Book of the Law.
She closed the cabinet door and nodded. Another job, well done. Not just any job, either, she reminded herself. I saved the whole G.o.dd.a.m.ned world. Okay, so I had a little help. She smiled as she thought about Kane and all she"d put him through. She tried to push back the temptation to wonder what, if anything, their relationship could develop into. Of all the strange mysteries she"d encountered in her life, one of most puzzling was how she"d come to feel genuine affection for the man she"d once loathed. She shook her head and grinned. Grizzly bear on the outside. Teddy Bear on the inside.
After a quiet celebration with a gla.s.s of wine, she turned out the light, climbed into bed and drifted off to sleep.
EPILOGUE 1.
In the weeks that followed, Kane"s life took on a life of its own, quite different from what he"d known before. In spite of his own self-doubt and apprehensions, he was adapting well to his new role as a single dad with a daughter at home. Home, of course, was his apartment. It was too small for the two of them but the dog-eared pages of the Homes For Rent magazine on his kitchen table promised that would soon change.
Sarah, too, was adaptingslowly, painfully at times. Her inner confusion about what exactly happened on that terrible night was ma.s.saged into an acceptable, albeit very odd, scenario that her father concocted with Ravenwood"s help: The whole thing had been a home invasion burglary gone horribly wrong. The hooded stranger was a mentally deranged drifter from out of town who had drugged Sarah with a mild hallucinogen. In the midst of it all, her mother had somehow managed to call Kane, alerting him to the situation. He, in turn, alerted the police who were immediately dispatched to the scene. The hooded stranger had not "just disappeared" in the way Sarah had mistakenly perceived it. When the stranger learned that Linda had phoned the police, he was in a fit of rage. As an act of revenge, he set the house on fire and escaped in a panic. He was apprehended just a few blocks away by the police who had arrived at the scene. The book? There was no book. It was nothing but the product of the stranger"s deluded imagination.
Thanks to Ravenwood"s "resources", Pastor Pete"s death was a non-story that resulted in little more than a one-inch block of small print buried in the middle of the obituary page in the Seattle Sound Times.
Bloodhound Morran"s column in the Eye conceded that the bizarre string of preacher killings had apparently come to an end with the death of Harlan Bodine, the eighth victim. The investigation, while still active, seemed to have taken a back seat to newer, more pressing issues.
The fire that destroyed Moorehouse Manor, in which Rye Cowl had burned to death, was the result of faulty wiring.
The tragic death of the rock-star made minor headlines in mainstream papers across the country but earned some splashy 30-second spots on TV news and on pop-culture entertainment programs, enhanced by clips of old concert footage punctuated by some pseudo-philosophical comments from a random sampling of Cowl"s head-banging fans and a few mundane words of mourning from sobbing girls with running eye-liner, multiple eyebrow-piercings and bad tattoos.
Maybellene was auctioned off to the highest bidder.
The remaining members of Mega Therion held a press conference during which they promised their fans they would carry on with their music. The response of the fans to this announcement was underwhelming at best.
The infamous cinerary urn that once contained the ashes of the Beast, and which was securely sequestered away in the evidence locker of the SPD, was found to have mysteriously disappeared.
Kane and Ravenwood met casually, off-duty, at least twice in the weeks following the incident. One occasion was dinner at a nice restaurant on the waterfront, a situation that Kane found a bit disturbingnot because he didn"t enjoy it, but because he did enjoy it. In spite of his self-imposedyet quickly diminishingskepticism about their future, he found himself looking forward to their next date: a movie followed by dinner at the s.p.a.ce Needle. It was a far cry from his normal weekend with a beer and popcorn and a ballgame on TV. But nothing, since he"d met Ravenwood, seemed normal anymore. Things were changing, seemingly beyond his control, and he was slowly warming to the idea that it just might be for the better. Stranger things had happened. Besides, she promised she would finally tell him the origin of the old saying, "Colder than a witch"s t.i.t." He grinned and marked his calendar for Sat.u.r.day, the 14th.
EPILOGUE - 2.
Midnight, Friday, the 13th...
Ravenwood glanced up at the mansion, it"s windows glowing red in the night like the eyes of an angry, helpless beast. The real Beast, of course, was inside... burning. She allowed herself a congratulatory grin.
Kane stood beside her, holding her hand.
"Ashes to ashes," she said softly as she watched the old home dying.
She turned to Kane. He looked down at her. His dark eyes warm, inviting. He put his arms around her and drew her close. She felt his breath against her lips but the antic.i.p.ated kiss was interrupted by an unfamiliar voice.
h.e.l.lo, my dear Rowena. It"s so good to be in you.
She awoke with a start, sat straight up, terrified. With a swift, instinctive move, she scooped her service weapon off the nightstand but then realized she was alone in the room. She"d been dreaming. The pounding in her chest slowly receded. She set the gun back on the nightstand but her sigh of relief was cut short by the unexpected return of the voice.
Yes, rather astonishing, isn"t it? I certainly never expected to be here, I can tell you that. But I know you will make an excellent host.
The voice was coming from inside her own head. "No!"
Oh, yes. It"s my time, don"t you see? In spite of your wasted effortalthough, ingeniously conceived, I must saythere"s really nothing you can do to stop me. I"m here. Simple as that.
Ravenwood"s eyes darted toward the little book in the curio-cabinet. She tore out of bed, rushed to the cabinet, flung the door open and grabbed the book.
Wait, the voice commanded. What are you doing?
She opened the drawer of her nightstand, pulled out a box of matches and set the book on fire.
f.u.c.king b.i.t.c.h! Stop!
She let the burning book fall to her feet. It flared up with an unnatural brilliance. The carpet caught fire. The flames crackled and spread like a wave across the floor. The drapes ignited. In mere moments the entire room was ablaze.
What have you done? I won"t let you die here! b.i.t.c.h! I"ll transport you from this inferno and see to it that you live to regret this! I"ll be with you forever! Alhem-amech-selah! Aum-ha!
"I don"t think so," Ravenwood said. She grabbed her service weapon from the nightstand. "Vete al Diablo, again, a.s.shole." She released the safety and shoved the barrel into her mouth.
Simple as that.
A personal note from the author:.
Thank you for reading Ash: Return of the Beast. I hope you enjoyed the ride. You may be interested to know the solution to the Messenger"s riddle, presented to Cowl in this story, was derived from a discovery I made during the course of my work with English gematria. If you"re curious to know more about my work in this area, please visit my website (The Secret of Nine) at www.secretofnine.com.
Thanks again.
About the author:.
Gary Val Tenuta, a native of Washington State, is a former contributing writer for FATE Magazine (U.S.) and BEYOND Magazine (U.K.) and the author of The Ezekiel Code (www.ezekielcode.com) which was an amazon.com "bestseller" in two categories for over 57 weeks. He has been a guest on numerous radio programs including Dreamland, hosted by best-selling author, Whitley Strieber, and The X-Zone hosted by Rob McConnell. Ash: Return Of The Beast is his second novel.
Tenuta"s award-winning short story, A Bite Out Of Time, is available on Kindle for just 99.
Enjoy the exciting book trailer at www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9tZb3OOL_0 A Bite Out Of Time is set primarily in Los Angeles in the late 1960s. Blind Man"s Bluff (an up-and-coming folk/rock group) is playing a New Year"s gig at the Backstreet Ballroom, an historical old building on the outskirts of the city.
Many years ago, or so it"s said, the members of something called the Blood Cult held bizarre, depraved rituals somewhere deep in the bowels of the old building. It"s just an urban legend, of course. Isn"t it? Well, no matter. Vince Blaylock, the lead singer with the band, couldn"t have cared less. A full-fledged hippie, a poster child for the Love Generation, and a rising young rock star, Vince was just thrilled to be playing the Ballroom, the hottest venue in town.
Everything was just groovy until he stepped out back to grab a smoke between sets. But you know, a dark alley behind an old building in the middle of the night is probably not the best place to hang out... alone. I mean, something"s gotta happen and it"s probably not going to be good. Right? And you know the ironic thing? His friends used to tell him it would be the cigarettes that would kill him. You"re probably guessing that"s not what killed him and you"d be right about that.
You"re probably guessing it was a vampire and you"d be right about that too.
I don"t think I"m spoiling anything here because it is a vampire story, after all.
But that"s just the beginning of a tale that takes a most unusual turn. You won"t see it coming any more than Vince saw it coming. This is a story of a reluctant vampire"s revenge. This is a vampire tale with a time travel twist.
December 21, 2012 holds the promise of a window of opportunity for the next step in the evolution of human consciousness. But a catastrophic event of global proportions looms on the horizon, prior to that date, threatening the annihilation of our planet and the end of civilization.
12/21/2012 is coming...Or is it?
The planet is in peril...The clock is ticking...The code must be deciphered...
From its cryptic prologue to its dramatic conclusion, THE EZEKIEL CODE is a blend of fact and fiction with likable, vividly developed characters: Zeke Banyon is a handsome Catholic seminary dropout who now runs a homeless shelter in Seattle"s old waterfront district. Angela Ann Martin is an attractive young widow who just wants a simple part-time job at the shelter. But a single twist of fate turns their simple lives upside down when together they stumble onto a mysterious code and a rumor about a lost scroll penned by the prophet, Ezekiel, thousands of years ago. They soon find themselves tumbling down the rabbit hole into a world of secret societies, synchronicity-run-rampant, high strangeness, metaphysics, mystery and murder as they jet across continents in a race to understand the code that will lead them to an ancient artifact of profound importance. Dodging rogue Jesuit priests at every turn and unaware that the Illuminati are ever-present in the shadows, Zeke and Angela soon discover it"s not just their own lives that are in danger but also the lives of everyone on the planet.
Is Zeke Banyon the Chosen One of an obscure ancient prophecy? And if so, can he successfully accomplish the mission fate has in store for him? Nothing in seminary school could ever have prepared him for this.
NINE IS THE KEY = 144 = THE SECRET KEY.
www.ezekielcode.com.
"The plot is intriguing and interesting to the point of being bestseller material."
Red Adept"s Kindle Book Review Blog "Entertaining and enlightening. A course in high strangeness."
Jay Weidner, doc.u.mentary producer and co-author of Mysteries of the Great Cross of Hendaye.
"High-concept fiction. An unforgettable book."
Rai Aren, co-author of Secret of the Sands.
"An impressive feat."
Peter A. Gersten, editor, PAG eNews.
"Highly Recommended."
Michael Tsarion, internationally recognized divination scholar, author and lecturer.
end.