The Detective Inspectors (The Doorknob Society Saga Book 4) (25 page)

“How many?”

 “More than you can imagine. He has been working on this for a very long time.”

“Who is he?”

“All in good time, Miss Masters, first things first. If you and your friends want to live, you’ll hand over your vessels and tell them to stand down. Otherwise I will see to it personally that those who don’t die will have their own place on a shelf in this room. You remember how that feels, don’t you?” She smiled and gestured to Faith lying unconscious on the floor. Faith had used a Forget Me Not on me for months and it had nearly driven me insane.

“That’s your big threat?” I asked with a brief laugh and shake of my head.

 “You would be wise to listen to reason for once,” Ms True huffed with annoyance.

“You’re threatening to kill us or make us mindless drones. Do you really think we didn’t consider those options before we came here?” I laughed again. “Me? Listen to reason? Are you really stupid enough to believe the First Kind will keep any of us alive? Even you, you’re delusional if that’s what you think.”

“You little bug,” she spat.

 “Come on True, you can do better than that.” I chuckled as I walked forward increasing my power with every step.

“Do you have any idea what will happen to the people who are under the control of these devices if you destroy them?” She backed up, her words coming out quickly.

“They’ll be free.”

“Those under control for years will go catatonic or worse. If you destroy this room you could be killing thousands of innocent people.”

 She was backpedaling and I wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth or not. But I knew one thing for sure, she did not want to fight me. Seems I finally made an impression on Ms. True and it scared the hell out of her. I guess I got to go to the head of the class.

“If I destroy the orbs and they die, I’d probably do them a service.”

“But you’ll never get back to Storm Reach,” she warned.

“What do you mean, this isn’t Storm Reach?” I stopped moving toward her and she stopped as well. A slight smile on her lips thinking she had found something that she could use against me.

“No, this is our own personal dimension. We just use the portal from Storm Reach to gain access. It’s always been that way. We’re the only ones who even knew of its existence, those fool HVO’s had no clue. It took the Master years to get back here.” Her slight smile grew with admiration at her so-called Master’s extraordinary ability.

“Perfect.” It was my turn to smile and Ms. True’s suddenly vanished.

“What do you mean?”

I let go of my Doorknob and worked my fingers to open a small portal to my own pocket dimension. I slide my hand in and pulled out the Looking Glass. It slid from my pocket and I held it up activating it.

“Bodie, I found it,” I said with glee, and Ms. True looked from me to the mirror.

“Is that what I think it is?” She gulped.

My body stiffened as I felt the Looking Glass reach out across time and space to find its counterpart. Like two livewires touching, the result was explosive, a wave of energy rippled outward from me blasting Ms. True backwards and sending Forget Me Not’s flying in all directions.

It took all my strength to hold onto the Looking Glass, a beam of light poured from it hitting the ground next to me and coalesced into the image of Bodie who stood just like me holding his own version of the Looking Glass.

“So this is where he has been hiding?” Bodie looked around the room and I knew he was standing in the exact same spot, the Looking Glass allowing us to breach time and space and stand next to one another. Me in my time and he in his, but for the moment our two timelines had crossed allowing us to see what was happening with the other.

“I told you they were using Storm Reach for something else.” I smiled at him and he returned an even bigger grin.

“You were right. Why would they come back to it again in your time? Unless of course they needed something.”

“This dimension is where the First Kind hid, but it is only accessible from Storm Reach. Is anyone there in your time?” I asked him as he cast a quick glance around. His image flickered like a hologram as he ran his hand through his shoulder length hair.

“The Darkwatch were everywhere.”

 Bodie walked around the room looking at the Forget Me Nots from his own time that hovered like images over the shelves in my time. The room was set up the same but small things stood out as the Looking Glass allowed us to perceive one another’s time.

 “It took everything we had to make it through them to get to the Tower. If I hadn’t gotten your signal, I never would have found the right portal.”

 We knew that Storm Reach was needed for a reason, it was me who had guessed they were using it to access another dimension. As soon as I got there and activated the Looking Glass it acted like a beacon back through time for Bodie to follow and find it in his own time.

 “How about you?”

“A couple of First Kind, but not their mysterious leader. They call this the Room of Memories. It’s where they keep all the Forget Me Not’s.” I walked to one of the shelves that contained the orbs that had caused me so much trouble. My hand slid over one and its hum of power tickled my fingers.

“The same here,” Bodie called out, a sound like a pin popping a balloon echoed around the room.

“What was that?” I asked and light exploded all around me. Bodie screamed and I saw his image flicker and fly across the room. “Bodie?” I ran toward him and slid to a stop next to his image on the ground. Blood dripped from a gash on his head and he moaned in pain.

“Well, well, well, you finally found me Ichibod. How the hell did you pull it off?”

 The voice was thick with frustration and sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. The Looking Glass was distorting everything ever so slightly. I imagined it was from the explosion in his time. Here I was watching a fight that happened over a hundred years ago and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to help my ancestor.

“Gatekeeper, did you really think you’d get away with this?” Bodie struggled to his feet, the Looking Glass still in his hand.

“Of course I did. You Old Kind are all fools, look how easily I have manipulated each of your Societies. You’re a smart one, Masters, you should have joined me.”

 The man’s footfalls grew closer; he was approaching Bodie.
Keep coming so I can get a look at you
, I thought.

“Sorry, I don’t fall in with people like you.”

“You mean First Kind?”

“Lies, the First Kind are gone; there are no more.” Bodie spat and turned away from him as if in disgust and glanced at me.

I picked up on his warning right away and backed away from him, so the man wouldn’t see my holographic image. I concealed myself behind a series of the shelves.

“No, some of us survive, and we will finish this war,” The footsteps stopped abruptly. “What is that?”

“What Gatekeeper?”

 “You dare to use one of the Artifacts against me?” He seethed and I wondered just what he was talking about.

“This old thing.” Bodie held up his version of the Looking Glass. “A family heirloom is all.”

 “Don’t play games with me, Masters, that’s the Looking Glass of the HVO. It’s been missing for generations.”

“Well, what do you know,” Bodie said shaking his head.

 I glanced down at the Looking Glass. I knew from the moment I first touched it that it was powerful. I just had no idea it was an Artifact. No wonder Bodie and I could communicate like this. We controlled an Artifact.

“Enough of this,” the man shouted and a bolt of blue energy raced toward Bodie, but he swung the mirror up deflecting it.

“You think I came all this way to get finished off so quickly.” Bodie pulled out his Doorknob while continuing to hold the mirror in his other hand. Energy flowed from both hands and I knew he was preparing to fight.

“You came to die, Mr. Masters.”

 The stern voice cut through me like ice, I’d heard that tone before. I knew exactly who the hell was behind everything.

Status: Holy sh@!

My grip tightened around the Looking Glass. How had I not seen it all this time? I’d been a fool not to have realized it. Now it all made sense.

Bodie circled around the room. I had to smile. My ancestor was attempting to position himself so that I could finally get a look of the reflection in the Looking Glass.

 Sure enough, there he stood looking not much older than he was in my time; tall and with that hawkish nose, tufts of grey hair sticking out above his ears. Mr. Tower the head of the Council and Paladin Academy.

“The Old Kind will fall and the First Kind will rise again,” he cried out as if a king proclaiming an edict while holding his Doorknob in his hand like a scepter.

  Mr. Tower, as far I knew, was a Guilder, so if he could use a Doorknob that meant he was either a Polymorph or a true First Kind. Either way I had to warn Ichibod.

“Bodie, he’s a Polymorph!” I shouted, Mr. Tower turned and ripped off a blast of portal energy in my direction.

“You didn’t come alone, I see.” Tower sneered and Bodie jumped him from behind the Looking Glass letting loose a torrent of energy that shredded half the shelves in their time and completely shattered the shield that Tower tried to use to block it.

Mr. Tower scrambled backward, his hands seared from the pure ferocity of the attack. I glanced down at the Looking Glass realizing just how powerful a tool it was.

“You bitch!” Energy slammed into me from behind flipping me over and smashing through a series of hanging shelves.

 I’d completely forgotten about Faith and Ms. True and that had given one of them time to recover. I groaned as I rolled out of the wreckage of shelves and scrambled to my feet. I looked around and realized that I had lost the Looking Glass in the attack. It sat a few feet away in the rubble of broken shelves and Forget Me Nots. The image of Bodie and Tower fighting played around the room as I faced my own enemy. I backed up seeing Faith heading toward me, a glowing azure mace dangling from her Doorknob. She swung it in circles and I pulled out my own Doorknob.

Faith moved in swinging her mace at me with such force that I had to jump back to avoid it. I flicked my wrist out activating my energy whip and brought it around snapping toward her arms. But she twisted, slapping it away with her own weapon.

“I don’t know what your little light show is all about, but it isn’t going to distract me.” She gestured toward the flickering images of Tower and Bodie fighting around the room.

 She had no idea that she was witnessing a real fight that had taken place over a hundred years ago.

 “Whatever.” I had no time for this. I needed to wrap this up, get the Looking Glass, and get back to my friends. Mine and Bodie’s plan had worked. I’d gotten him where he needed to be and he had helped me figure out just who the hell it was I was fighting.

“You and your damn friends always walking around like everyone owes you something,” Faith cried out, her voice trembling with anger.

 “Is that what you think, Faith? Damn, you never really got us at all.” I smiled and cracked my whip at her side, forcing her to sidestep. I was pushing her away from the Looking Glass so I could get my hands on it.

“You’re dead, Masters!” Tower shouted distracting Faith for a moment.

 I jumped to the side, grabbed the Looking Glass, and rolled over, coming up with it in my hand. Faith was on me in a split second, her mace about to connect with my head. The Looking Glass was my only option and I brought it up to block the blow.

Her mace hit the surface and exploded, throwing her head over heels backwards. She rolled to a stop twenty feet away. The force of it tossed me around, knocking the wind out of me. I landed on all fours and took deep gulping breathes, trying to catch my breath.

Bodie and Tower were still at each other. Blood poured from the wound on Bodie’s head and Tower’s face looked like my ancestor had scored a few choice shots to his mouth.

“You can’t hope to win.” Tower laughed.

“Maybe not, maybe I can only hope to keep you in check.” Bodie smiled. “But I’ll take what I can get.” Instead of aiming his energy at Tower, he twisted his arm and released his energy into a forming orb that grew outwards and washed over the entire room.

“What the hell are you doing?” Tower screamed.

“Locking you out.”

 Bodie’s power seeped into the walls around us and I realized that the reason this dimension could only be accessed from Storm Reach was because of what he had just done. He locked Tower out of his own dimension. It would probably take him a hundred years to break the locks, unless he had direct access through Storm Reach.

“You!” Tower twisted away from Bodie. Dropping his Doorknob and yanking out a Skeleton Key, he aimed it directly at Bodie’s chest and fired. It hit him right in the heart and knocked him backwards.

“Bodie!” I screamed and raced toward him.

“What’s this?” Tower walked toward us looking down at me.

“Your future,” Brodie choked, through a bubble of blood. “I stopped you here and she’ll stop you forever.”

“Is that what you think?” Tower lifted his Skeleton Key, aiming it at us. “You locked my dimension, so what. I can still access it from Storm Reach and still have the Darkwatch.”

“Wrong.” Bodie lifted the Looking Glass, humming with power. He aimed it right back at Tower who backed up nervously “If you’re right and this is an Artifact, what will happen if I let loose with all the power I have left?”

“You wouldn’t, it’ll kill you.”

“And burn every Forget Me Not in this place. Your Darkwatch is done and so are you.” A thin line of blood dripped from his mouth.

“You’ll pay for this,” —he looked from Bodie to me—“both of you.”

“You first!” Bodie screamed releasing his power through the Looking Glass.

 The room filled with immense light and everything around him was consumed. The shelves shattered and turned to ash and each of the Forget Me Nots turned to dust, small wisps of energy escaping from them.

After the light dissipated, only Bodie remained lying on the ground still clinging to the Looking Glass that hummed with subtle power. My own version quaked in my hand, the connection between the two so powerful that his was affecting mine through space and time.