Chapter 35

[Four hours later—Massachusetts Turnpike just east of Pittsfield, MA]

After everyone had a bite of lunch, the mini caravan had made its progress along the state road through Eagle Plain and Albany. With a left turn, Brother Tony led the police van and canary-colored Subaru onto Interstate 90 and their date to the east…..

Irving followed the old truck anxiously. He'd come to expect the unexpected…the strange…the weird…. He maintained a poker face and watched the black top rolling under the wheels. His heart beat faster than normal. He felt his palms getting sweaty. I have to return. Little Bean needs me. I can't leave her again!

"Not so easy as it looks on the sidelines, is it?" Jennifer supposed with a smirk from the passenger seat.

"Nor was it for you, Jenny," Abbie interjected. She checked her weapons to make sure each was clean, worked well and was loaded. "Those creeps will be waiting on us."

"You can be certain of that, Leftenant," Ichabod affirmed. He looked out the window toward the passing countryside. Even if the buildings had changed along with the electrical lines stringing from them, he remembered the progresses he'd made along this route when it was the Boston Post Road….

"Must be quite a switch for you to be riding there like this rather than by horseback like the last time?" Irving presumed.

"Actually, Captain Irving, we had a magical assist. He glanced at Katrina. "The sisters wanted to save time and potential troubles along the path," Ichabod replied dryly.

"Cybelle mentioned a special nun who assisted you," Katrina recalled.

"Yes. Sister Clarise. Quite unique actually. Unique indeed…." With that Ichabod's mind flashed back once more….

[1778—Sunset on the Evening after the Last Flashback]

Ichabod paced about the dining room feeling akin to a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. At Captain Dubois' invitation, he'd taken target practice along the back of the field to work on his aim during that afternoon. He'd visited with Cullensech after that to ease his own concerns about the alliance with the latter and his braves.

Katrina had vanished again much to his chagrin as well….

Bloody blazes! We should be preparing for war not having a smoking circle! The idea! He stiffened and inspected his musket for the dozenth time. Then he looked over his bayonet and inspected its edge's sharpness. He hefted the powder bag and the other for shot to insure he still had plenty for the night ahead.

"It hasn't changed since the last time, ya know," Xena informed him with a bit of satisfaction in her voice.

"Pardon me. I wished to insure I had plenty," he retorted with a bit of impatience in his voice. He glanced toward the clock. The hours had passed inexorably by for his liking. "I thought we were leaving today." He noted the sun setting in the west.

"We are," she noted while watching the door. Her eyes narrowed as they flitted toward the window. "They're brewin' up a storm for us. Check the clouds to the southeast."

"But the storm would come from the northwest," he supposed.

"It would unless our not so dear coven's brewing it up in Rowenshire," Dubois disagreed while opening the cellar stairs. He lugged a quiver full of finished shafts and his bow out of the cellar. "Dahak won't give us an easy time of it. Count on that. She arrive yet?"

"She? We're expecting someone else?" Ichabod queried with exasperation. He'd long tired of the twists and turns in this campaign.

"No sign of her and…wait." Xena nodded sagely. "Dark carriage with shades drawn? I see it. I'll get the others if you wanna greet her." She hustled toward the back door and the fields beyond.

"And who are we expecting? Our company's chaplain?" Ichabod supposed.

"That is not bad guess, Captain," Nyoki complimented as she descended the stairs. She wore her dark gi and had her kitana and weapons in their sheaths on her person. "Sister Clarise is a special nun."

"A nun? Captain Dubois, she is joking, correct?" Ichabod doubted.

"Nyoki never jokes at a time like this," Dubois affirmed. "I'll be back." He unlocked the front door and stepped outside onto the porch. He eyed the curtains and windows to make sure everything was covered. He watched the sun disappear behind the western hills entirely and the last colors streak the sky.

As he did so, a simple oaken carriage turned into the driveway. A driver snapped the reins over the four white steeds pulling them forward. He glanced at the curtains over the windows below to insure nothing moved. He felt anxious about his passenger. Reaching the porch, he pulled up on the reins and stopping the horses. "Good evening, Sirrah. Tis the Dubois Farm?"

"Aye. Thou hast Sister Thibidoux, Good Coachman?" Dubois walked over and reached up with a healthy tip for the driver.

"Aye. Ah do. Thank thee," the driver expressed while pocketing the colonial coinage. Then he climbed down to the ground and walked up to the door. "The lady hath no luggage. Tis strange."

"Mah wife an' Ah will provide. Trust in that," Dubois replied frankly. He kept his eyes peeled on the road in case of a stray British regiment should come looking for trouble.

The driver opened the carriage's door and bowed dutifully. "Milady, we hath arrived."

"Merci, Monsieur." A tall and almost elegant woman stepped out of the conveyance and onto the dirt driveway at her feet. She drew her dark head dress close to her face. For a brief instant, a faint puff of smoke seemed to emanate off of her person. "Bon soir, Dubois."

"Bon soir. Please come in," Dubois invited while motioning toward the open door. "We will be underway shortly."

The nun cracked a brief smile before hurrying up the cobblestone walk toward the house.

"She be a strange one, Sirrah," the driver assessed. He climbed back up on his perch atop the carriage and urged the horses back toward the road.

Everyone's a critic. Dubois rubbed the back of his neck. He felt the stiffness there and the numbness creeping across his scalp. He knew it wouldn't be long before the Child would make an appearance.

The full blood moon peeked over the darkening eastern skies.

In response, the accursed man felt chills and burning pin pricks buffeting his limbs. He spasmed while stumbling toward the door and up the stairs with great effort. His knees clicked with rheumatism. He ground his teeth while pulling himself into his sanctuary and slamming the door shut. "Nice night. This is going to be a bitch."

"Stupid is more like it," Xena disagreed from just inside the door where she talked with the nun. "You really should stay here."

"I wish. Don't get in his way, Xena," Dubois disagreed.

"You are the stubborn one!" the nun protested.

"Says the nocturnal nun. Right," the host shot back as he limped into the dining room to find the leaders assembled there. "We're ready. Good. Our last guest hath arrived. May Ah present, Sister Clarise? She hath joined us from New France."

Cullensech offered the newcomer a bow of the head out of respect. "You have my gratitude as well as that of my tribe, Dear Lady," he offered in French.

"As you do mine, Brave Chief, for standing with us," Sister Clarise replied with equal gratitude. She strode purposefully across the room.

"Want a drink, Sister? I have some fresh in the barn," Dubois offered.

A drink from the barn? Really? Ichabod watched as the host disappeared into the kitchen. He considered the newcomer who stood silently in the corner. Despite her manner of dress and the crucifix she wore around her neck, he detected a sense of power and almost regality flowing from her person. He almost shivered from a notable chill billowing forth from her direction.

"It is rude to stare, Monsieur," Clarise chastised Ichabod evenly. She let her eyes glow faintly yellow at him. "I am much more than I seem. You have no right to judge me."

Dubois shook his head at Ichabod while handing a chilled glass wine bottle to his latest guest. "Be careful, Captain. She can rip you apart." He headed back to the table and surveyed the room. "A bonny evenin', mah friends! Tonight danger burneth in the damn'd place. We go forth ta deal w' it! The usual brigands an' their pets wait below. Dogs, demons, ghosts and damn dark sorceresses! Tonight it is finished!" He slammed his fist on the table and growled low in his throat. "Are we together on the errand?"

As one the group nodded their support.

"Verrah well!" Dubois affirmed while hefting his quiver and bow. "Tis time!"

On cue, the mists congealed in the corner forming into a pillar.

"Step through an' find the Valley!" Dubois urged.

"Art thou mad?" Ichabod protested.

"Nay, Captain. Ah ain't lettin' them damn'd villagers git us." Dubois motioned with his head purposefully. "Git in there. Ah'll be behind thee."

"Follow me," Nyoki urged while yanking him into the mists after her.

As Ichabod's vision clouded over, he saw the nun's glaring eyes. He hoped he could trust her and Dubois' demon…..

[Modern Day]

"What the Hell's the deal with the nun, Crane?" Abbie wondered.

"The good sister was a vampire, Leftenant," Ichabod revealed. "She would prove her mettle later in that hellish place." He grimaced.

"Yeah that's one front yard I don't want to mow," Jenny interjected half-seriously. "But seriously, British? She's a vampire nun?"

"Yes. What you saw-that was just the front, Miss Mills. Tonight you will see Hell itself. I promise you," Ichabod pointed out. "Compose yourselves. We will have quite the fight on our hands."

"Wonder if we can trust Dubois?" Irving wondered in doubt.

"We have to hope the Child can control himself," Katrina suggested. And pray that there are not any further surprises!

[Subaru]

Dave sat in the passenger's seat and brooded about the scenario unfolding in front of himself. He felt the numbing bliss of the St. John's Wart blunting his alter ego's emotional storm surge. He wondered about the individual adversaries and how they'd try to attack him and the others. He worried though about his beloved wife who drove them toward their appointment with destiny.

"Have faith, David," Nyoki advised sagely.

"You know how that place is. I don't like this," he insisted morosely while shaking his head.

"All the more reason to have every hand on deck, Dave," Angie cut in.

He sighed and leaned back. "And what happens if Lichtenfeld hits you or Xena with blue fire? I really don't want a repeat of what happened to Dee Dee. Okay? I love you. So sue me."

"I know that. This is what we're supposed to do," Angie countered.

"If not for Talia, you would have been hit, okay?" he countered back. "Look I know you two aren't made of glass. I don't want anything to happen."

"And we're worried you and the Big Kid are going demonic nuclear. All right? It works both ways, Dave. We have to deal with Grace, that coven and Dahak. No choice on that one. Remember too, Deirdre and I were nowhere near here when Lichtenfeld showed up. Besides we have Ichabod and his friends too. They know what demons are like. They survive this stuff. Ichabod accompanied the Big Kid and Xena into that place back in the day! Katrina Crane's working with Althanor on our behalf! We have our best chance right now! We just have to get through it," Angie argued. "As we heard earlier today, if it's not in Rowenshire, it'll be Wabash."

"And they will strike there. We have seen," Nyoki reinforced. "You have fought creatures in all corners of world. We have no choice."

"I know. I'm tired of losing. I want something to go right for a change," he complained although he knew it wouldn't get him any points with the two women with him.

"We're prepared, Dave. In most of the cases involved, we let our guard down. No such luck this time. We're going in with our eyes open. We have fire power you didn't have in high school. All right?" Angie soothed. "As Nyoki said, we have to believe."

Wish I could. If anything happens, I don't know what I'll do. He leaned back in his seat and shut his eyes. Trying his very hardest, he willed the old nightmares away from his consciousness.

Problem was—a new set of nightmares potentially waited in that valley. That's what he feared…