Guardian of the Moon Pendant (29 page)

Granny floated out of the farmhouse, ectoplasm and all. Plumface and Skullsplitter waddled behind her, coming to greet us, carrying a chalice of green foam and a handful of sterile bandages.

Skullsplitter’s eyes beamed at the smoldering motorcycle, his tiny hands gliding along its steel frame. “Nice ride,” he said delightedly, nodding repetitively with a bit of swag.

Roxy’s head popped out of the sidecar excitedly, wiggling her tail fiercely, spying on Skullsplitter’s tiny frame, his body covered in a leather jacket and silvery spiked boots. She sprung from her seat in one quick swoop, bouncing her frail skeleton body onto him, tumbling him down to the ground, flat on his back as she licked his Trow face repeatedly.

Plumface slowly peeled back Anabel’s gooey shirt, revealing her shredded upper body, still oozing with blood.

“You poor thing,” said Plumface, applying some green foam onto her wounds.

Anabel winced in pain.

“Where have you been?” shrilled Granny, her wispy finger gesturing to the MääGord standing stones. “Lainahwyn and the Màrmann are here!”

My eyes skidded up toward the MääGord standing stones still glowing with a magnetic blue mist from the stone faerie’s energy, Lainahwyn and her posse of Màrmann poured into the circle of stones, standing on the inside ring. Vyx followed along, dragging Fergus, Hamish, and Edgar behind in a thick metallic linked chains, their feet scuffling along the grass. Blane was outside the stone circle, held back by a handful of Màrmann.

“She has the Dragon Spell,” I warned Granny.

Granny’s cloud-like eyebrows furrowed, wailing, “I have the Dragon Scroll!”

My head dropped low as I lifted up my shirt, revealing the Dragon Spell tattoo, inked into my body.

“Izzy!” cried Granny, flashing her eyes up toward Fergus, Hamish, and Edgar.
“And now she three mortals to boot!”

“What do we do?” I asked.

“This changes everything,” stated Granny, pivoting around me as if she were pacing back and forth. “If she opens that Portal with the Dragon Spell, Anabel won’t be able to close it.”

“I thought the Moon Pendant controls the Portal?”

“It does,” Granny continued, “but once fully opened, it stays open for nineteen years.”

I gulped.

I heard a loud ruckus coming from the edge of the standing stones. Quickly, I whipped my head around to see what it was. A handful of Màrmann were fighting aggressively just on the outskirts of the standing stone. It was Blane. He’d escaped and was battling the Màrmann off bare fisted, snapping necks, twisting limbs, kicking the undead Màrmann down to the ground.

“Let him go!” bellowed Lainahwyn to the remaining Màrmann.

The Màrmann did as they were commanded to do, releasing Blane as he trotted down the grassy hillside toward us.

Lainahwyn stood before the center slab of stone, the one etched with the double-winged dragon on it, her body bathed in the silvery moonlight. “Place the mortals before the MääGord ceremonial stone.”

“Yes, My Love,” Vyx replied, pushing the scraggly trio of Fergus, Hamish, and Edgar toward the ceremonial stone.

“And remove any iron!” ordered Lainahwyn to Vyx.

Vyx stopped abruptly, sneering at me from afar, ripping off Fergus’ iron necklace and tossing it into the thick underbrush.

“Can you hear me MacAlpins?” Lainahwyn’s voice boomed, her pearly eyes radiant and narrowing in on us. “Now you will watch me open the Portal.”

Vyx kicked the hollow of each man’s knee hard, one by one, starting with Fergus, each one buckled to the ground, crumpling down onto their knees, kneeling before the MääGord ceremonial stone.

Blane rushed to Anabel’s side, scooping her up in his beefy arms, stroking her matted hair, wiping away the dirt from her porcelain face.

Anabel’s body lay limp in his hand, her emerald green eyes barely open.

“The moon is getting closer,” squealed Plumface, clasping her tiny palms to over her mouth.
“Oh, dear!”

“Five minutes,” Skullsplitter reminded us, gazing at his skull and crossbones watch.

My heart began to race. I had to get Anabel up and at ‘em, before the full moon passed through the standing stones. I crouched down beside her, flinging her arm around my neck, trying to hoist her body up off the ground.

“Hurry, Anabel,” I said wincing from the strain of her body weight on my shoulder. “You have to stop her!” Anabel slipped from my grip, sliding back into Blane’s arms.

Anabel’s eyes were glazed over, barely responsive.

“She can’t do it!” hollered Granny, poking her ghostly eyes into Anabel’s face. “Look at her!”

“Glorious!” Lainahwyn cried out again from the MääGord standing stones.

Our heads spun around quickly.

“All the MacAlpins are here!”
chortled
Lainahwyn.

Mother appeared, running out of the farmhouse, her powerful shotgun slung across her back.

“My baby,” mother wooed, her fingers bracketing Anabel’s face.

“
Mah
?”
I whined, rolling my eyes.

“I couldn’t let my baby be alone,” mother said teary eyed, kneeling beside Anabel, her shotgun sliding onto the ground, nearly shooting my head off.

“For years, MacAlpins,” Lainahwyn bellowed in her grandeur, a slip of parchment paper pinched between her pointy fingers, her lips curling into a disdainful sneer. “I was tortured by your family, imprisoned within Dunvarghan Castle as your family used my powers for your own personal gains. It is time to seek my revenge on you and all of mankind. My sister lies on the other side of the Portal, and when I open it we will join forces, and then I will hunt each one of you down and kill you slowly, draining your bloodline forever!”

Lainahwyn flicked out one of her razor sharp nails, pricking the palm of Fergus’
s
hand, spilling his blood onto the ceremonial stone. It splattered onto the frosty slab, his blood slowly absorbing into it as if it drank it in. Lainahwyn continued her ritual, stabbing Hamish and then Edgar, her hypnotic voice chanting the words to the encrypted symbols etched into her copy of the Dragon Spell.

“I’ve sent for Leigheas,” stated Blane with Anabel still cradled in his lap.

“It’ll be too late,” Granny argued. “She’s not strong enough!”

A slow moving mist swept eerily between the MääGord standing stones, the stone faeries had begun dancing within their stone tombs, writhing wildly, urging Lainahwyn to open the Portal and to free them from their stone pillars.

The full moon inched along the horizon, shimmering moonbeams cut against the dark towering monoliths, casting light and shadows within the MääGord standing stones as it approached the main two vertical stones, preparing for its final alignment.

“Lainahwyn will be in control of the Portal once the moon passes through the stones,” stated Blane. “It’ll be too late.”

“No, it’s not,” stated Granny, “there’s a small window of time, after the final charge, to close the Portal for good!”

Anabel gurgled up a mouthful of blood, choking on it violently, her head turned to spew it out. She was regaining consciousness.

“Say the oath, Anabel
,
” urged Granny sternly. “Pass it over.”

“No!” mother cried. “My baby isn’t dying. She’s the true Guardian!”

“Not this way, Granny,” I said shaking my head. “Anabel will be fine.” My eyes cast down onto her blood-spattered body. “Damn it, I need a cigarette,” I cried, plunging my hand deep into my inside pocket, whipping out my golden cardboard box. 

Blane caressed Anabel’s face, her eyes slowly opening up. “We could finally be together, love,” he whispered sweetly into her bloodshot eyes.

“Izzy has earned it, Anabel,” Granny said.

I earned it? How do you earn the most powerful necklace known to mankind, or at least known to me? I stared at my pack of cigarettes, tempted to inhale all of them at once, sending me into a sweet and early death.

I knew I couldn’t let that happen – I had too much responsibility now, taking care of Anabel, spending the rest of my life with Fergus, fighting off all these damn demons!

“Aww…hell,” I said, tossing the sinful pack of cigarettes over my shoulder, chucking them away for good. I didn’t need them anymore. I needed to be here and to live!

“Let her finish the last task,” urged Granny.

A wild hailstorm erupted within the MääGord standing stones, a dark vortex of wind swirling around Lainahwyn as the cold ceremonial stone began to rise out of the ground, with two vertical stones pushing it upward, raising the Portal above the earth’s surface. 

Blane sat Anabel upright, gazing into her eyes lovingly. “Sometimes, ‘tis not what we should
do,” he said sweetly to her, “‘
Tis what we need to do.”

Anabel traced her fingertips over the Moon Pendant and then her eyes met mine. “Izzy, take it,” she said, gasping for breath.

“No,” I said firmly, with one eye on the firework show, exploding behind me. “You can do this!”

“Izzy, no,” Anabel whimpered. “I’m a failure.”

“No, you’re not,” I argued.

“Yes, I am,” Anabel wept. “I didn’t get into any of the medical schools.”

“Who cares?” I roared, pointing my finger toward Lainahwyn’s silhouette. “Get your arse up and send that demon back to hell!”

“I didn’t tell you why,” Anabel sobbed.

A loud rolling thunderclap jerked our heads back to the MääGord standing stones. A doorway emerged within the circle. Its ceiling had become the ceremonial stone while two new monoliths formed the Portal’s frame, a silvery liquid rippled within the Portal, glistening with purple waves.

“Anabel,” cried Granny, “get to the point!”

“I didn’t get in, because I was arrested,” Anabel wept into the palms of her hands, her head tilted up for a brief moment, blurting out, “for decking Hilda the Gorilla.”

“That’s why you didn’t get into medical school?
Because you were arrested?”
I replied, arching an eyebrow, little Ms. Perfect had a rap sheet, and the delinquent one, that would be me, was an upstanding citizen. Oh, the irony.

“Oh, my baby,” wooed mother, smoothing out her disheveled hair, “it’s Ok.”

“I turned into the thing I hated the most,” Anabel blubbered, realizing who she had become, another version of Hilda the Gorilla.
“A bully!”

“You’re not a bully,” I said calmly with a note of sarcasm in my voice, knowing that the truth hurts. “Maybe teetering on the edge of control freak and self-absorbed, but
you’re
not a bully.”

“Yes, I am,” she whined, a waterfall of tears gushed down her cheeks. “I’ve been so horrible to you. With me trying to control everything and even with what happened to you that night with your manager. Not believing you and all.”

“Girls!”
Granny wailed louder, her silvery eyes darted back and forth to the MääGord standing stones.

“Anabel,” I said in a matter-of-fact tone, kneeling beside her, pinching her chin, “life is not perfect and it will never be. We are all flawed beings. Sometimes,” holding out my bare wrists for her to see, “we all have to show our scars and be proud of them.  It’s Ok. You finally showed your scar, it’s going to be alright.”

Anabel nodded in agreement, wiping away the tears rippling down her face.

“Now stop this nonsense and go kick some demon arse!” I yelled.

Anabel giggled, her hands bracing onto Blane’s shoulder as she fumbled to her feet. “You were right all along, Izzy.”

Granny prodded mother with her vapor finger. “Now, that’s what I call heart,” she smirked brightly.

Anabel slipped back down to the ground, a look of dread crawled across her face. “I can’t do it alone,” she sighed, gazing into my eyes, her hand shot out to me, wanting me to grab hold. “Help me, Izzy.”

“We’ll do it together!” I affirmed, clapping my hand into hers, our fingers intertwining strongly.

Anabel’s fingers flickered softly in the air, waving them above the Moon Pendant. In quick majestic swoosh, the Moon Pendant unclasped, slipping off her delicate neck, levitating through the air like a feather, descending onto my tattooed neck.

My eyes closed, whispering, “Wind of MääGord, lift me. Earth of MääGord, build me. Water of MääGord, wash me. Fire of MääGord, bind me!” I felt the Moon Pendant’s threadlike tendrils prick at my skin, its roots burrowing deep into my body, making itself right at home.

My fingers clenched into a powerful fist. My body surged with pure energy.

I was empowered. I was strong.

I was pissed…

Chapter 26

♦♦♦

Izzy

My stormy eyes burst open.

I was Izzy MacAlpin, Guardian of the Moon Pendant.

“Go!” hollered mother, a frantic look brewing in her crazed eyes, clutching her shotgun tightly,
her
knuckles blanched, spitting impatiently. “Teach that demon who she’s dealing with!”