Part XL

Part XL

The truth was I felt a little guilty cashing in all the chits my Uncle had amassed. The only thing that kept me from feeling really bad was that I knew I was doing it all for him, but that just sent my mind reeling wondering if maybe he'd collected all the debts knowing I'd need them one day.

The pages were brittle and I winced a bit as one of the corners cracked off as I tried to flip the page. I took the piece and laid it aside. I'd have to cop to it once I was finished, but it taught me very quickly how to turn the pages.

I couldn't understand everything, it was an odd mix of Latin and Greek, with English, German, French, Italian and Russian marginalia. I think I even recognized a few notes in Farsi. Luckily I was looking for a diagram, not an instruction manual.

I found it fifteen minutes later. I turned the page and it hit me like a pissed off ex girlfriend. It was powerful, even on the page. I had to look away as it tried to pull me in. I took the cotton glove off my right hand, mumbled under my breath and waved my hand over the page slowly. Yeah, it was a Xerox spell. Sue me. I shut the book.

I sat there for about ten minutes, gloves off and book closed, waiting for Shin Lee to return. When I showed him the corner he frowned for a moment then called the Librarian. The Librarian scuttled over and gave me a “tisk” under his breath. He the licked his finger, opened the book, mumbled under his breath and reattached it.

Shin Lee laughed as the Librarian carried the tome away,

Happens all the time.

Yeah, but I felt like shit when I did it.

He'll be fine. It's a very rare volume. He becomes...possessive. Did you find what you needed.

Yes I did, and thank you.

We shook hands and Shin Lee led me back to the elevator.

My great grandfather likes candles to be burned in the windows at night.

I'll keep that in mind.

You should. He can be a handful.

The elevator doors opened and I stepped in. I didn't think about what Shin Lee had said until the doors shut again and I was traveling upward. The doors opened and there was the kid again. This time he took my hand and I gave him a look of confusion.

Don't let go of my hand, or they'll try and kill you.

As we walked back through the domino parlor, I almost shit my pants. Something had changed, and as the kid lead me through the room, I looked around. All of the guys playing Domino had changed. They weren’t human now, demons of some sort, and they all looked at me like I was a meal.

I leaned down to the kid as we hit the front door.

What was that all about?

You have grandfather Lee in you now. They want him very bad.

The kid led me all the way back to my van and waited outside until I climbed in. I rolled the window down and looked down at him. He smiled and then looked toward Shin Lee's. Pushing through the door were thirty or forty of the nasty bastards, all heading in my direction.

You go now.

The kid hit the side of the van twice, like I was a bazooka soldier and he was my loader, letting me know it was time to fire.

You going to be OK?

The kid smiled at me.

I'll be fine.

I turned the van over and pulled out, The Old Man freaking out in the back of the van. I mumbled under my breath and touched the rear view mirror. The hidden world opened within its gaze and I watched as the kid arched forward, leathery wings splitting his shirt in the back and pulling forward. He grew five times his previous size, now a small dragon who blocked the advance of the demons as I escaped.

Back on the road, heading to Portland, and the Old man finally calm enough to clean himself in the passenger seat,, I finally felt the adrenaline die and I almost fell asleep at the wheel. The Old Man stuck a claw in my leg and I crossed a lane screaming at him. It worked though. An hour later we had a hotel room and I was going on my third scotch trying to figure out what the best thing to do with the symbol I had stored just under my skin. I was afraid to look directly at my hand, even though it would be inverted, I wasn't taking the chance.

The spell I had used was like a tattoo for lack of a better term. It needed living skin to work, but I needed to get it off me. By the fourth scotch I was eying the Old Man's belly as he lifted his leg and licked his balls. He stopped mid lick, feeling my eyes on him. He looked at me and hissed. I poured another Scotch and turned on the TV. Suddenly I wished Carl was still here, the chuckled maniacally to myself.

I woke in the morning with the Old Man doing his best to clean my ear. I rolled over and he just crawled on top of me and kept going. It was truly disturbing. I got up out of necessity and took a shower then we found a diner and I let him sweat it out in the van while I cured my ills with a full breakfast of carbs, protein and grease. Don't know what it is about Oregon, but even the diners have good coffee.

We reached Portland by mid afternoon and I pulled into a mall parking lot and opened the laptop. The third dot was somewhere just outside the city limits, but for some reason I couldn't bring myself to care. Maybe it was Destiny and what had happened in Venice, or maybe it was the mark sitting under my skin, or maybe I was just tired. I got us a nice hotel room and I went into a three-day funk, where all I did was drink. Portland has a lot of nice bars and a lot of good micro brews. It was a shame I was going to have to leave.

By the end of the third day my colon was trying to worm its way out of my body and my kidneys hurt. Normally beer doesn't do that to me, but normally I drank swill and not nice hoppy artisan IPAs. It could have been the fifth of Jack I downed at night watching TV too, who knows. Either way the maid, who entered my room because I forgot to check out on time, called 911 when she saw me. I tried to explain to her I wasn't dead, but I was slurring pretty bad. She wasn't convinced.

Before the ambulance and the cops arrived, I grabbed my bags and the Old Man and checked out.

I drove the van very poorly to another strip mall down the street, mumbled a conceal spell under my breath and passed out in the back. When I finally woke up, the Old Man was growling over me, and he'd started to change. He was the size of a bull warthog and I think if he hadn't kind of known me he'd have already taken a bite.

I mumbled under my breath and was lucky I wasn't slurring anymore. The Old Man went to sleep and I went into the closest grocery store and bought him a London Broil and marinated it in potion. I left it for him and stepped outside. The sun was too bright and I mumbled under my breath waking the Old Man up. He hit the walls for a few minutes before he found the meat. I could hear him tearing up the inside of the van, and it rocked like it had been stolen by high school kids on Prom night. It finally settled, but I still had a headache.