Free Matt Archer: Bloodlines (Matt Archer #4) by Kendra C. Highley Page A

me.
     
     

Chapter Nine
     
     
    I reached for my knife, then stopped when Mike turned
around, frowning.
    Only a drawing. It was only a drawing on the wall. Not the
real thing.
    But it was so much like what I’d seen in my nightmares that
I was sure the person who drew it knew the Shadow Man well.
    The image was more than seven feet tall, stretching from
floor to near the ceiling. A smeared man, made of swirling charcoal that seemed
to bleed from the edges of the drawing. Not real, but the very sight of it made
my knees tremble.
    Clenching my teeth, I said, “Guess we’re in the right
place.”
    “Never any doubt of that,” Uncle Mike answered. “But this
tells us something.”
    “That Nocturna Maura worships the Shadow Man? Yeah.”
    Surrounding the figure were dozens of pentagrams, with the
single point aimed at the floor. Just like the pentagrams in Africa, the ones
that depicted the dark brothers each wielder would face. These pentagrams were
as inky as the shadow they worshipped, and at his feet, humans knelt with their
foreheads pressed into the ground in adoration. The whole thing gave me a
serious case of the heebies.
    Especially when I realized I’d seen something like it
before.
    “Uncle Mike, does this remind you of anything?”
    He squinted at the drawing, then nodded slowly.
“Afghanistan. The cave drawings where we found the Zoorastrian’s fallen god.”
    “They had a picture of the Shadow Man rising out a fire,
holding a spear with a hooked tip. And the humans were worshipping the fallen
god, but…” It wouldn’t quite come together for me, what this meant. “Who knows,
maybe the fallen god and Shadow Man were friends or allies or something.”
    “The fallen god is dead…and we decided it was the entity
associated with Air on Zenka’s pentagram,” Mike said. “If anything, it was a
servant of the Shadow Man. Just like the Gators, and Ga-Gorib in Africa.”
    Air, Water and Earth. Only two points left unbroken—Fire and
Light. “There’s that fire-breathing lizard thing still out here somewhere.
And…” I waved at the drawing— he’d been one of the prime monsters on
Zenka’s list. “Do you think that’s what they were doing? Calling Fire for the
eclipse, using the Shadow Man’s image to bring something big?”
    “God only knows. But they’d have to call it at some point,
right? We only have one more eclipse after this next one—and that’s on our side
of the world.” Mike froze. “You don’t think…you don’t think the Shadow Man will
go to Peru or Montana do you? If Fire’s coming here, then all we’ll have is the
final “point”—the darkness.”
    A shudder ran through my middle. The Shadow Man, in Montana?
Everyone I cared about was there. I couldn’t let that happen. No matter what I
had to do to stop him.
    With more confidence than I felt, I said, “No. He’ll come at
a time we don’t expect it. He’s building power through all this somehow, so he
can spring a trap.”
    Mike looked relieved. I wished I could believe my crap as
easily as he did.
    Unnerved, I backed out of the room. “We need to get going.
There’s nothing here that’ll help Will.”
    “No, doesn’t seem like it.”
    We left the building and from the slump of Mike’s shoulders,
I gathered he felt as defeated as I did. All we gained from this trip was a
vision of just how terrible these covens could be. Dorland and Blakeney came
behind, each carrying two of the kids. Elske’s smile was huge and she turned
her face up to the stars, like a flower needing nourishment. Little Mai cried
on Dorland’s shoulder, and Ayax looked shy and kind of scared of the soldiers.
    Dat was broken.
    I’d seen kids—and adults—like him before. Face enough
terrors, and soon some people just go numb. He slumped against Dorland, staring
at everything and nothing. Lanningham came over and offered the little guy
another protein bar. Dat didn’t seem to notice, but Ayax reached out for it,
his face lit up in