CHAPTER NINETEEN

Dean

After getting lost twice because of crap signage we finally made it to the unit.

"Two forty nine, this it?" I asked and dropped an old blue and white duffel bag on the floor then took the pair of bolt cutters out.

"Yep." Sam nodded and took a folded up piece of paper from the back pocket of his jeans, the instructions Zak had given him for the spell to unlock the door.

I clipped the padlock off the door and tossed it into the duffel then waved Sammy forward to do his thing.

Sammy took a nervous breath, stepped up to the door, said some stuff in Latin and then took a step back. Nothin'

"Did you do it right?" I asked and leaned in to take a look at the paper.

"I did exactly what he said!" his eyes not leaving the door, then looked down at the paper, flipped it around a few times then looked back at the door, brows pinched in confusion.

I grabbed the paper from his hand, "Well, obviously no—" Then, there was a 'shimmery' sound that made us both look up from the paper. A huge, golden orange circle had appeared on the door, with two smaller circles inside it. The largest circle had runes and symbols that ran along the inside border, inside of that was a smaller circle that seemed to be made up of the same runes as the outer, largest circle and inside that one was just a circle, about the size of a hand.

"Whoa." I blinked and took a step back, "That was cool."

"I told you I did it right." Sam muttered, as he snatched the scrap of paper from my hands and shoved it back into his jeans. He pushed back his jacket and pulled a vial off the belt clip Zak had loaned him. Blood. Zak's blood to be specific. Because you really can't have a spell without some sort of bodily fluid, can you?

Sam pulled the stopper out and smeared the blood on his left hand then pressed it to the innermost circle. As soon as he took his hand away, the two rune circles started spinning rapidly, then stopped just as quickly when five symbols from the outer circle paired up with matching symbols on the inner circle. The ten symbols flared for a second, then the whole thing shimmered out of existence.

"Magical padlock," I smirked and nodded, "cool." I looked to my right where Sam was standing with his mouth hanging open, and eyes 'agog'. "Dude," I backhanded his shoulder, which seemed to break the trance, "part two man, part two!"

He cleared his throat and shook his head, "Right, right, yeah…part two." He squatted in front of the door then took another vial from the belt clip, this one filled with what looked like Pepto Bismol, and proceeded to pour the pink gloop along the floor at the base of the door. The Pepto Bismol worked a lot faster than the other lock, and as soon as he re-clipped the vial, there was a pink shimmer across the door followed by what sounded like a vacuum seal being broken.

"Damn," I grimaced and lifted the door open with a grunt, "that was a lot easier than usual." I smiled back at Sammy, and pushed the door up over my head.

"Well," Sam bent to pick up the duffel, "we don't usually have the key."

"Huh. Fair point."

The door clicked into place to reveal a wall of ply board attached to industrial style shelves, which blocked the entry except for an opening on the left, just big enough for one guy to go in at a time.

Sam reached across me to the inside wall and flicked the light switch revealing another wall of ply board that stretched to the far left side of the unit, and while the unit had fluorescent lighting only one and a half of them were working, add to that the height of the shelving, the unit was dangerously dim.

"Guess we go right." Sam sighed and stepped into the narrow hall, adjusting the duffel bag thrown over his left shoulder.

I sighed, shook my head and stepped into the hall after I sighed, shook my head and stepped into the hall after him. The hall was only just wide enough for the two of us to walk in single file. Shit, this place had 'trap' written all over it. I drew my gun and cocked it, just in case. "Did he happen to say where these books are?" I whispered as I came up behind Sam at the second opening.

"He said they'd be in the very back, on the right." He whispered back and took cautious step into another very narrow hallway. This one was lined with shelves on both sides though.

Humans?

"Did you hear that?" I asked, straightening and looking around for where the slimy sounding voice was coming from.

"Yeah….But not, really?"

We took a few more cautious steps to the final opening.

Thieves. The voice snapped again.

"We're not--" Sam stopped short in the doorway making me bump into him.

"What? Eyech." I grimaced and wrinkled my nose. We'd made it to the inner sanctum, which was full of crazy shit. The wall next to us and at the back had more industrial shelving, and they were both full of, what could only be curse boxes and some serious evil artifacts. What the hell had Zak's master been into? What was Zak into?

On the right wall was a simple wooden table with a mortar and pestle sitting neatly on top, plus, an equally simple wooden chair, all covered in a layer of dust. Above the table (also covered in dust and grime) were two shelves of books, exactly where he'd said they'd be. And in the center of all that was one of the weirdest, fugliest critters I'd ever seen. About the size of a fat corgi, it looked like a lizard crossed with a scorpion. He (she? Idk) had a scorpion-esque tail, short little back legs and tall front legs with nasty sharp claws on all four of them. Completing the weirdness, a little lizard like head.

Sam put his hands up and sidestepped to the right so I could step inside.

"We're not thieves, Zak," he paused, stuttering a bit, "the Crystal Druid sent us."

Lies. The scorpio-lizard replied in our heads and skittered back and forth across the floor, his long claws click-clacking on the cement.

The apprentice has not deigned to visit my humble abode but twice since I fell into his service, and unlike his master has never sent me tasty treats.

"Treats?" I looked quickly between Sam and the scorpio-lizard. "Did he just say 'treats'?"

"Yeah." Sammy grimaced.

Therefore, the nasty little lizard continued, I have decided that you are, indeed, thieves, so it is my duty and pleasure to eat you.

"Eek!" I shrieked as scorpio-lizard launched itself at me, knocking me on my ass.

Hmmm, you smell good. It whispered in my head as it opened its mouth to reveal dagger like teeth that were way too close to my face. I grabbed it around its middle and tried to shove it off my chest, it was a lot stronger than I expected, but that just seemed to piss it off and it dug its claws into the shoulders of my leather jacket.

"Sammy!"

Sam's fist collided with its ugly ass head, stunning it for just a second. It hissed and spit as he tried to pull it off, while also trying to avoid getting stung. "Agh! Sammy!" I grunted as the stinger came dangerously close to his arm.

"Got him!" He yelled as he gave one last tug, the claws scraped across my chest and put a gash or two in Sam's shoulder as he whipped it across the room into one of the fuller shelves, taking some of the curse boxes with it as it flopped to the floor.

"Son of a bitch." I gasped as I stood up and took a look at my slashed chest, - not bad – then wiped my forehead with the back of my hand, which came back bloody. The little shit got my face too? Great. "Is it dead?" Splayed out on the floor, the thing didn't move as I stepped closer.

"I hope so." Sam grimaced and winced as he looked at his bloodied shoulder. "You should check."

"Me? Uh, no thank you. Zak can deal with whatever that is." I shook my head and turned back to the bookshelves. "These had better be worth it."