Page 56 of Missing Moon
My son’s stride falters. He crashes down on his knees and slides to a stop, clutching his heart. His fiery sword slips out of his grasp as he struggles to breathe.
“Ant!”
My attention is locked on my son, who gives one last moaning gasp of pain and collapses on his chest. I let out an incoherent scream. The next thing I know, I’ve launched a fireball of magic. Haven’t done that in a while, but it seems the only thing I can do. The ball whips through the air, leaving behind a trail of black, oily smoke. Like a heat-seeking missile, it finds its way to the vampire Hans. Unfortunately for him, he seems to be fairly combustible. Fire erupts on his clothing... then elsewhere as his skin gets in on the fun.
He screams in agony, withering down to his knees while covering his face with burning hands.
I ignore his suffering and dash over to my son...
Chapter Twenty-three
A Little Bit of Experimenting
Anthony groans...
I cradle his head in my arms and lap.
“I’m okay, Ma, I swear. I’m an angel now, remember? Few things can kill me.” He grimaces while and rubs his chest. “But yeah, that hurt.”
I hug him and maybe cry a little. Okay, cry a lot.
“Sorry for scaring you.” He squeezes me with one arm. “Took me a little while to get back here.”
I open my mouth to speak but pause as the meaning of his words reaches my brain. “Back here? What do you mean?”
“I went on an astral walk or something. That amulet basically knocked my soul out of my body, even if briefly.”
“Scary.” Tammy shivers. “Glad he didn’t point it at me.”
“Wouldn’t have done anything to you.” Anthony play-punches her in the shoulder. “It worked on me only because I should have technically died when I was little.”
That makes me squeeze him harder.
“So it knocked your ghost out? Like Grandma?” asks Tammy.
“Not quite.” Ant rubs his face. “I really think she did that to herself, somehow. Or at least she didsomethingand the result wasn’t what she wanted.” Anthony stands. “The amulet tried to throw my soul into the realm of the dead, but the angels wouldn’t allow it.”
“Nice to have angels who have your back,” I say, and can’t help but think of Ishmael.
“For sure, ma, but no one beats you having my back.”
“Aww.”
I want to tousle his hair, but resist. Instead, I find myself looking down at the headless vampire once known as Hans. It’s impossible to tell how much of that fiend was the original mortal’s personality and how much came from the dark master. No clue if ‘Hans’ was the former mortal or the dark master inside him. I’m going to assume it was the dark master, since they almost always end up taking over the host after enough time’s passed, and if that dude was old enough to have once been a legit knight, there probably wasn’t too much trace of the mortal remaining.
One thing is for sure, I can’t leave the Eye of Anubis simply lying around.
“Anyone know if touching this thing is going to be bad?” I walk over to the vampire’s remains.
“Simply touching it is safe.” Anthony nods at me. “I think you should be careful doing anything while holding it, though. In case it thinks you’re trying to invoke it.”
I pick the amulet up by the gold chain. It’s pretty simple to remove an amulet from a headless corpse. Visually, it is relatively unimpressive. Simple black stone with a gold eye pattern, like someone knocked a hieroglyph off the wall of a tomb somewhere. A subtle sense of power emanates from it. Seems on the weak side but only because it’s hiding, I think. Holding it makes me feel like I’m standing at the base of the Hoover dam by a tiny crack that’s likely to become a serious collapseat any second. The notion of ‘massive power ready to be unleashed on a whim’ is real and a bit unsettling.
“Hmm. So, what should I do with this? Give it to Max? Hide it away somewhere?” I stare at the innocent looking stone eye.
A psychic hit comes to me out of seemingly nowhere: this thing will be a key to a doorway that will lead me to Mom.
“Teleport to the Moon and leave it there,” mutters Tammy.