Pt. 29

Jenkins leapt back to his feet and stared at the bare wall with anger. "You FOOL! You arrogant Fool!"

"Jenkins, what just happened?" Baird asked trying to wrap Stone's injured arm.

"That madman has closed the door between realms! He's trapped himself and his sister with that creature and we can't get to them." He slapped the wall in frustration.

"But there has to be another way to get to them!" Cassandra picked herself up off the floor gingerly. "Maybe we can get another copy of that photo?"

"The photo is just a token, a way to channel the spell's energy to open the door. Without the spell attached to the photo nothing will happen." Jenkins looked down at the cowering form of Abby Tanner. "She'll be no help."

Stone looked at the older man with a frown. "Give the kid a break. She's just seen something that's terrified her."

"Yes and my oldest friend and his young sister are trapped with that thing in a place where I can't get help to them." Jenkins started back down the darkened corridor to the main room in the Annex. "But I think I know someone who can reach them."

"Who?" Baird called to him.

"The man who started this nightmare in the first place. Mathias Lewis."

In New Orleans

Mathias Lewis walked quickly down the misty New Orleans streets, nervously looking down the streets to make sure no one was following him. The streets of the French Quarter were usually crowded with tourists but the weather was keeping most of them indoors. The beauty and magic of the city had always entranced him but today something was off. Abby hadn't called in as she normally did after a strike. And his normal contacts in the magic world wouldn't return his calls. Something (or someone) had warned them all off. "Stupid girl" he groused to himself, kicking a can out of his way. "Just like her sister. She's done something to attract attention to us. Good thing I won't need her anymore. After this last kill the Master will be able to reach through and drag her into the Darkness and I will be free."

Across the street a pair of dark eyes watched the little man stroll quickly around the Quarter, picking up the last items he needed before returning to Florida. A dark-skinned beauty stood hidden in the shadows, a small doll in her hands, a doll that bore an uncanny resemblance to the old man the woman was watching. It was even wearing a strand of his hair, surreptitiously gathered when the old man visited a barber in the Quarter. She murmured something quietly in French holding the doll gingerly in one hand while she motioned over it with the other. The doll burst into flames, burning quickly as she dropped it in to the alley. "There, ma petite belle that should please you." She laughed as the sound of a man's terrified screams filled the air.

At the Annex back door

Jenkins walked out of the Annex door onto the streets of the French Quarter with Baird following closely behind him. "Why are we here?" Baird asked.

"Rowan found Mathias Lewis was in New Orleans. It's possible he is still here." Jenkins started across the street to the spice shop he had noticed from the last time the door had opened.

Baird followed him quickly across the street. "Jenkins, stop! What good is this going to do?"

"Arthur said Rowan had friends, maybe friends who can help us get that door to open." Jenkins stopped in front of the spice shop, jiggling the locked door in frustration.

"Jenkins, even if we did find someone to open that door there is no guarantee we can get help to Arthur and Rowan in time."

"He'll survive. That's what he does. And he'll make sure she survives – he won't risk loosing her again." Jenkins looked down the street with a frown. "What's going on down there?"

Baird looked down the street as an ambulance screeched to a stop. "Someone's been hurt."

Jenkins hands clenched into fists. "I have a bad feeling about this."

They walked to the end of the block, trying to blend in with the few visitors and locals that were walking about and watched as a body was loaded into the ambulance. "What's going on?" Baird asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Some tourist had a heart attack and dropped dead" a street performer said with a bored tone. "Some retiree from Florida."

Baird felt her stomach drop. "Wow, that's sad. Listen, a friend of ours told us he was taking a stroll down here. He's had some medical issues lately – hope that this wasn't him. Don't suppose you happen to hear his name?"

"Yeah – one of the cops found his id in his pocked. Said the guys name was Mathias Lewis."

Jenkins sighed then turned on his heel. "That was our last hope, Col. Baird. Without Lewis there is no way to get the door open."

"I wouldn't worry about it, mon amie" a cheerful voice drifted out of the alley. A woman strolled out of the darkness, her jewelry tinkling in the silence. "There is nothing worth seeing behind that door, not anymore."

"Madame Marie Leveau?" Jenkins bowed slightly, his face stony.

"And you are the chevalier my petite ami told me about. I am honored sir." She curtseyed slightly and smiled brightly at Baird. "And you must be the formidable lady soldier she also spoke of."

"I don't suppose you know anything about what happened back there?" Baird jerked her head back at the ambulance.

"Just a little unfinished business that my friend asked me to deal with" Marie shrugged, unconcerned. "It was a small thing easily finished."

"Your friend, Madame Leveau, and her brother are trapped in a nightmare world and that man was their only hope." Jenkins pointed angrily in the direction of the crowd. "Without him and his spell we can't get that door open to help them."

"Maybe you can help us?" Baird asked, watching the woman's face closely. There was something off, something Madame Leveau wasn't saying, something that Baird suspected Jenkins wasn't going to really want to hear.

"No, sadly, I can not." Marie replied regretfully. "And even if I could, I would not. I am a small player in a larger world of magic and it would not be profitable for me to take a side in this larger battle."

"Profitable?" Jenkins voice had turned cold and deadly. "She was your friend."

"And her brother was yours" Marie agreed, turning to walk back down the alley. "But friendship is a fragile thing. My petite and I have traded favors in good faith for many years. But I have known them both long enough to know that nothing is EVER as it seems. They may, in fact, be already dead. Or they may still fight the creature they found in that dark realm. They might even have escaped. Who can say? Either way, my part in this has come to an end as has yours. Accept that, chevalier, and you will be better off." The woman walked into the shadows and disappeared, leaving the scent of flowers and burning candles in her wake.