Pandora's Box: Book 3 of the Crystal Raven Series

“What is it?” April asked, looking from the upturned table to the retreating back of Ember.

“I’m not sure,” Cantara stood up, flipping through the stack of papers. “At first glance, I’d say its account numbers and passwords for offshore accounts. There’s a note here addressed to you.”

April took the envelope from Cantara and opened it with shaky fingers, afraid of what she would find.

My Sweet Little Witch,

If you are reading this, I am dead, and the Brotherhood has had a falling out with the Church.

The papers here are the accounts we set up as a contingency fund. At the current budget levels, the balance should meet the operating expenses of the Brotherhood for ten years.

Control the purse strings and control the Brotherhood. Use this gift wisely.

Yours Eternally,

Jean-Claude Beaucour

There were tears in her eye when she had finished reading.

“Alvaro will know more about such things than I do,” Cantara offered, helping Crystal right the table. “But we have a problem. The Hand has Alvaro. They are holding him in exchange for information.”

“I thought we put paid to those creeps,” Crystal grated.

“We only cut off one finger,” Aiko replied in a deadly calm voice. “A Hand has four fingers and a thumb.”

“I have an idea how to turn this to our advantage,” Cantara began.

Aiko swept down and snatched up a piece of cloth. “Where did this come from?”

“Ember dropped it,” Gwen offered.

“It is a piece of a Hand’s shinobi shozoku – their fighting uniform. Where would the girl have gotten it?”

“Someone go fetch her,” Cantara ordered.

“I guess I am someone today,” Alex sighed, removing her ring and sinking through the floor.

She came across Ember arguing with a shadow in the corner of their room. For a brief moment, she thought she had seen a grinning old man standing there, but when Alex looked again, he was gone.

“Cantara wants you upstairs to tell us about that cloth,” Alex interrupted.

“Why?” Ember demanded. “It’s not like anyone will believe me anyway.”

“Hey, girlfriend,” Alex chided. “I always believe you.”

“Great, another ghost,” Ember whined. “Why did he have to choose to haunt me?”

“Because, ma petit couer,” Jean-Claude replied, “you’re the only one who can see me.”

“Well, you silly little ghost,” she shot back. “I still don’t believe in you!”

Jean-Claude’s chuckle followed her out of the room. Ember knew he would already be upstairs when she got there. Could you report a ghost who was stalking you to the police? The ghost police maybe? Upstairs she entered the room with a hard-done-by sigh.

“Where did you get this?” Cantara asked.

“Jean-Claude and his god friend drove me out to a warehouse district down by the harbour somewhere, and he almost killed me driving there, and then the hounds took off after these two men, and Strawberry started eating one, and he was a vampyre, so it was okay, and that was all that was left of him that I could get away from Strawberry, and then Jean-Claude told me I had to bring it to Akio on account of Alvaro being in trouble, only April started to yell at me before I could tell her. And I am not a liar!” Ember turned to Alex, fixing her with an I-told-you-so glare.

“Did anyone follow that?” Crystal asked with a laugh.

“I am confused,” Gwen admitted. “Did Strawberry eat the man or the vampyre?”

April crossed the room and swept Ember into her arms, softly stroking her back. Sometimes it was difficult being a special child. “Never mind teasing her. Do you think you can take us back there?”

“You hug her after she insults my driving?” Jean-Claude asked in mock outrage. “You young women are hard on a man!”

“Your driving sucks,” Ember spat at an empty space, “so no. But Huckleberry can.”

“Okay,” Cantara decided. “Someone go get Angel. I’ll call Brother Jerome at the school. He’s going to need your documents to mock something up for the exchange. It’s all going to come down to timing, and we are going to be tight on time.”

“Time is infinite within Dream Time,” Wandjina offered. “Is it now, Jean-Claude?”

“Soon, my friend, soon.”

Within minutes Gwen was closeted with Angel and was busy picking apart his initial plan.

“No,” she stomped her foot. “There are only four of them left – two will stay behind to guard Alvaro and two will be at the exchange. And we need a second team to kill Aiko after she hands over the plans.”

Angel raised an eyebrow at her in a decidedly disapproving manner.

“Do you want them to try something like this again? Well, do you?” Gwen demanded. “So we need to make them believe we killed her when we discovered Aiko’s betrayal.”

“What have you been teaching this girl?” Angel accused Cantara.

“Don’t blame me,” Cantara returned. “She came like that…”

“This is what we are going to do,’ Gwen interjected. “We are going to need some black dye and eight bags of flour. Oh, and a butt load of those smoke bombs Aiko loves.”

And that’s how Ember came to be sitting in the back of a crowded van with her three dogs, Crystal, Cantara and the boys. They were waiting until Drake sent word that two of the vampyres had left to make the rendezvous. She wished he would hurry up about it because Strawberry had a bad case of the farts. The air in the van was growing fetid, and she did not know how long she could keep blaming it on the Brit. Once more and she was pretty sure Jaime would slug her.

Drake had positioned himself in a darkened alcove directly across from the abandoned warehouse the vampyres had chosen as their lair. Ideally, he would have liked to go in through the roof, exactly how the vampyres were entering and exiting. Above the street in the shadows of the roof, there was less chance of being spotted, and you did not have to worry about being conspicuous as you did standing in a dark doorway in the middle of nowhere. In the end, they did not have that luxury. They would break in through a door one up from where he was hiding and trust the hounds to find Alvaro and the vampyres before they found them. Not much of a plan, but the best they could come up with under such short notice.

Something stirred in the shadows on the roof, ending his reverie. He waited, wanting to be sure. Some of these old warehouses were plagued by bats and pigeons, and he did not want to look like a fool by crying wolf – or pigeon in this case. Too much was at stake. Yes, it was them. Three, not two, which left only one guarding Alvaro. Drake sank deeper into the shadows, waiting another five minutes to give them ample time to clear the area. It would be exactly like a vampyre to lurk behind, waiting to check their back trail.

The others were choking when he opened the rear doors of the van. “My God, what died in there?”

“It’s one of those bloody hounds of hers,” Jaime complained. “It’s got some serious ass leak.”

“I’m going to be tasting that for a year,” Razor complained.

“Strawberry can’t help it,” Ember wailed. “The vampyre she ate upset her stomach.”

“Man up!” Crystal hissed. “Vampyres have mad listening skills. You want it alert and waiting for us?”

Chastened, they fell silent and followed Drake and Crystal out of the alley and into the street. They paused, listening to the night. Somewhere a cricket was complaining to the night. Was that natural in the city? None of them had ever taken the time to notice, and now with so much at stake, they could not help but wonder if it were a signal. Alex and Cantara moved up to take the lead as they approached the door. Removing her ring, Alex ducked inside. Beyond the door was a large, open room, dark and dusty. She stood in the shadows for a long time, listening to the darkness and emptiness that echoed in the depth of the building. Only a cricket then. Satisfied, she slipped through the door to rejoin her companions.

“Bloody hell,” Jaime complained. “It creeps me out when you do that, girl.”

“It’s a skill,” Alex shrugged. “It’s clear.”

As Jaime and Cantara stepped up to the door with a pair of crowbars, Alex stood thinking about her life, and her death, and the life she now lived. A metal sheath filled with wood, the interior of the door was rotten by weather and hard use. Was it much different from her? Sometimes she felt as empty and rotten inside. Its hinges gave before its lock and jamb, and she watched as they pulled it open with a little effort and a creaking sound. They paused in the doorway, waiting, wondering how loud their break-and-entry had been. Would someone or something do the same to her one day, and would she remain as quiet as the inside of the building, or scream in pain like the alarm they all waited for in dread.

The three hounds would lead the way. Ember knelt down beside them, whispering ‘sneaky, sneaky time’ into each of their ears. Huckleberry dropped down, crawling through the door on his belly. The other two mimicked him with questionable success, following his lead with wagging tails. Ember stood, shrugging an apology to her companions. What could she say, they were still pups? They liked to play.

One by one, the others slipped inside, fanning out to form a wedge behind the hounds. Tangerine caught the scent of vampyre and stood up, pointing. Ember patted his head encouragingly.

“Good boy,” Ember whispered. “Find the critter.”

The dogs were still in the lead as they crept towards a second door on the far side of the room. Its wood was so dry and brittle it shattered as Tangerine poked his head through it. Ducking the spray of splinters, the other dogs leapt through in a tangle of snarls and teeth. Whatever waited for them at the other side was as angry as the hounds who broke in on it. Snarls, barks, hisses and a tumult of breaking- well, furniture they hoped. Drake looked at his companions, shrugged, and ran on through. Any pretence of stealth had been shattered with the door.

Ember sprinted by to catch up with her hounds. Already they had crossed half the room and were pulling away from the others, Ember in their wake. In seconds they had disappeared into the darkness. Crystal cursed. A maze of small offices and storerooms filled this half of the warehouse. If they lost sight of her, they might never find her, and then she disappeared. Cantara pointed to the tracks in the dust, and Crystal nodded. It was the best they could do.

Alone, Ember and her dogs followed a scent deeper into the warehouse. She could smell it too – had been able to taste, smell and feel whatever her two puppies did for so long she no longer noticed. Something foul was waiting up ahead. And then they came to another doorway, one without a door. On the far side of the new room, Alvaro stood chained to a steel pipe. She was so relieved to find him alive that at first she did not see the diminutive Japanese vampyre. Her hounds did. Ember and the other woman were about the same size. They paused, eyeing each other up speculatively. The vampyre struck first.

Ember and the three dogs moved as one. As she rolled out of the vampyre’s path, the two largest hounds darted in to nip at either side, and Huckleberry circled around behind. Rolling to her feet, Ember spun, meeting the vampyre’s leap with a flying kick. With enough contact to throw her off balance, the vampyre was forced into a tight roll to avoid Huckleberry’s snapping jaws. The two sprung apart.

As the vampyre rolled to her feet, the two women circled each other. Ember’s companions arrived, but between her and the hounds, there was no room to come at the vampyre. They were forced to become spectators in a complicated ballet. The vampyre was fast, raining blows at Ember, which were either met by the girl or one of the hounds. From time to time, the girl would throw a punch or a kick of her own, always driving her opponent towards the jaws of one of the hounds. It was exciting to watch, a dance of impending death that neither vampyre or human seemed to be able to end.

It had to end. While her companions were betting on the vampyre, they underestimated the extent the girl had trained with the hounds. With friends like these who needed enemies? She shouted something in Japanese, and all four leapt simultaneously. Jean-Claude was right. The vampyre’s blades did not even slow down the two Hellhounds. As she twisted from the jaws of one, Ember’s foot caught the vampyre in the chin. Huckleberry dodged in, latching onto her hamstring and pulling her off her feet. As she fell, Strawberry ripped off the top of her head. Powerful jaws crushed it like a ripe coconut.

As the body disappeared in a long plume of dust, the head plopped down the hound’s gullet with a meaty slurp. All Ember could think of was that Strawberry’s farts that night would see the four of them sleeping on the roof. There was definitely a fart storm in her immediate future.

“Well, well, well,” Crystal teased as she crossed the room to Alvaro. “Wait until Aiko finds out you did not come home last night because you were tied up with some little Geisha girl.”

“I’d rather she heard my version of events,” Alvaro commented dryly.

“And that would involve?” Cantara prompted.

“Several Demon Lords,” Alvaro replied glibly, “and two or three scores of elder vampyres.”

“All beaten off single-handed,” Drake suggested.

“I was chained to the wall, after all,” Alvaro suggested. “It took some time to fight all twenty off with only my toes.”

“A minute ago it was sixty vampyres and three demon lords,” Gwen teased.

“I believe I can carry it off if I bat my eyes just the right way.”