Under a Ghostly Moon (Jerry Moon Supernatural Thrillers Book 1) (22 page)

"
Getting back to our earlier subject," said Sonia.  "Why don't you use sun block?"

"
It doesn't work," said Roanne, who had entered the room like a ghost.  "It isn't ultra violet that's the problem - it's the mystical influence of the sun. It's been a potent symbol of the power of
Light
for millennia and, whatever else we might be, we are creatures of
Darkness
.  It is a part of our supernatural existence that we ignore at our peril." She took a seat beside Moon.  "Fortunately,
Darkness
isn't necessarily evil any more than
Light
is necessarily good.  They both have their place in the balance of things, which is one thing my people have never forgotten, despite the incursions of Christianity on our spirituality."

"
By your people you mean the Welsh?" asked Moon.

"
By my people I mean the British Celts," replied Roanne proudly.  "'Welsh' is a name that was forced on us in cruel jest by the Saxons.  It means 'foreigners' and in the Saxon mindset it was synonymous with ‘slaves’.  Memories of older wisdom and older truths linger on in all the Celtic fringes of Britain, where wave after wave of invaders have failed to stamp them out."

"
Roanne, don't preach," admonished Uri.  "You must forgive Roanne, my friends.  She was born in a time when the animosity between the Welsh and the English was much stronger than it is now."

Moon smiled
.  "From what I've heard of those times I can understand your feelings, Roanne.  I hate to think what it must have been like to be Welsh in the fifteen hundreds."

Roanne smiled gently and nodded in acknowledgement of Moon’s attempt to be understanding.  
"Far from pleasant, I can tell you."

Uri leaned forward in his chair
.  "You had an important question for Karen, Moon, didn't you?" he prompted with a nod.  "I think it's best to ask her now, before the children come down."

"
What?" said Moon.  Then he remembered their discussion of a few days ago.  "Oh that." He paused trying to think how to phrase the delicate question then decided the best he could do was ask bluntly.  "Mrs Maddocks, are you free to live your lives the way you choose or are you and your family somehow enslaved by Uri, Charli and Roanne?"

"
Call me 'Karen', please, Moon," replied Karen with a laugh.  "And it's a good thing Uri warned me you might ask this or it would have been insulting enough for me to insist that you leave.  Am I a slave, labouring under the power of evil vampires? You'll have to judge for yourself whether I'm telling the truth or doing my masters' bidding, but no, I am not a slave.  Am I 'free'? That is a harder question.  I would have to answer no. My family is not free and nor are Uri and the girls for we are all bound by ties of love and family loyalty that go back generations.  Does that answer your question?"

"
Very well," replied Moon.  "I'm sorry if I caused any offence, I just had to be sure.  Choosing whether or not to trust a vampire is a big decision."

"
I understand," replied Karen.  "Uri is honest, trustworthy and honourable.  Over twenty generations of Maddocks' and Llewellyn's can testify to that."

"
I'm glad to hear it.  Sonia and I may well be staking our lives on Uri's reliability very soon."

"
Ah, yes.  Uri has told us about this villain, Rurik, and the situation sounds like it could get very dangerous indeed.  All I can say is that, while life holds no certainties, Uri has been our families' protector for nearly five centuries and he hasn't failed us yet, even against supernatural threats like the one you're facing now.  And there have been a few even in my lifetime."

"
I'd like to hear about those threats sometime," commented Moon.

"
I'm sure we could arrange that if you'd like.  You wouldn't be disappointed.  Some of our family legends are quite spectacular," replied Karen, smiling and raising her eyebrows.

At that moment Charli poked her head around the door to the kitchen and said,
"It's ready, could someone bang the gong."

Roanne got up from her seat and beat a rapid summo
ns on a small silver gong that hung on an ornate oriental style stand on an occasional table by the door.  Within seconds members of the Maddocks clan began to appear, starting with a small boy who entered at full pelt and jumped into Uri's lap with a joyful cry of: "Hello Unkie Uri! Mam got me a Hahyie Pott, look!" he waved the stuffed Harry Potter toy under Uri's nose.

"
Isn't that wonderful, Corwin?" replied Uri, taking the proffered toy and making him swoop through the air on his broomstick.

"
Yes, and Mam says I can have a Hag'id if I'm a good boy."

"
Well, you'd better be very good then, hadn't you," said Uri, handing the toy back to the child.

"
Yes, ve'y good," said Corwin seriously, taking the doll and running off to find his mother.

There were five generations
of Maddocks living in the house.  They ranged in age from Karen's ninety-three year old mother-in-law, Sarah, who could easily have passed for someone two decades younger, to Karen's great grandson, Corwin, who was three.  The Maddocks men were represented by Karen's husband, Bedyw, the patriarch of the family, and their youngest son, Owen, who at twenty was studying law at Bristol University.  In addition to Corwin two other children were present: Bridget, Corwin's aunt, who was fourteen, and his big sister Poppy, who was eight.

Corwin
's mother, Gwynneth was in her late twenties and was taking time off from her job as administrator for the family's jewellery business to be a stay at home mother.  Her husband, Griffin, was away on business in London.  Moon was forced to change his estimate of Karen's age.  He doubted teenage pregnancies were common in this family so she must be in her early to mid sixties.  Uri's comment about the vampires' bites keeping the family young must be true.

"
This is just part of the clan," said Karen, who had been explaining who was who to Moon and Sonia.  "There are nearly two hundred of us now, including the Llewellyns and the few Maddocks who stayed in Wales.  Most of us live in the South West and Wales but there's quite an enclave in London because of the stores we opened there in the thirties.  But we're not all involved in the jewellery trade any more. There are Maddocks and Llewellyns in most of the professions."

With the help of the older children Charl
i brought in the serving dishes. These were handmade terracotta with a glazed Moorish design.  The meal was very Andalusian, starting with gazpacho soup, followed by
Madhûna
chicken with spiced couscous and sultanas, accompanied with a salad of endives, tomato, chopped boiled egg, tuna and tarragon.  For sweet they had khushkananaj - bread-like rolls filled with a sugar and almond paste, a bit like small Danish pastries.  Charli broke tradition with these by serving them with custard.

"
Is all this authentic medieval Spanish," asked Sonia, after tasting the chicken with approval.

"
With a modern twist," affirmed Charli, waving a hand to indicate the table.  "Some of the old ingredients are hard to find now and I've changed a few of them for convenience sake.  For instance we used to use a fermented barley sauce called murri naqî in just

about everything
.  It was horrible to make and when I discovered that soy sauce tasted virtually the same I gave up having bowls of rotting barley cakes in the pantry for good."

"
Yuck!" Sonia grimaced with disgust.  "How on earth does someone decide to try something like that for the first time?"

"
I'm not sure," replied Charli.  "Perhaps they were trying to make a new kind of beer."

"
Sounds feasible," chipped in Moon.  "But then you have to answer the question of why they first made beer.  I don't think it's an obvious thing to do to ferment grains and drink the results.  Hearing about this sort of thing always gives me visions of some prehistoric pioneer who went around sampling various disgusting concoctions to see what they did to him and making a list of the results that tasted good."

"
Yeah," joked Uri, "and the last one he tried killed him." They all laughed.

After the younger children had been taken up to bed, Uri looked outside into the deepening twilight and said, "Well, my friends, I think it's time we got down to business.  Karen, Bedyw, we must take our leave of you and the rest of the family." He rose from his chair and addressed Moon and Sonia.  "We need to go outside to practise our fighting skills.  There's a place not far from here where we should be safe from prying eyes and, if we’re lucky, we may also find a suitable subject for our practice."

"
A subject?" asked Moon, surprised.  "But I thought we would be practising on each other."

"
Some things can only be learnt in action," replied Uri.  "Besides, this way we can - what is the expression? - kill two birds with one stone.  I've heard rumours that there's a rather annoying little goblin haunting part of Leigh Woods. I've been meaning to do something about it for a while."

Moon
's blood ran cold.  The memories of his recent encounter with the Shadow Beast were still very fresh in his mind.  "Is it safe?" he asked.

"
Safe? Of course it's not safe," Roanne sneered.  "What's the point of hunting something if it's safe?"

"
Gently, Roanne," interjected Uri, "remember, Moon was attacked by a particularly nasty graveyard haunt earlier on in the week."

"
Oh, sorry, Moon, I'd forgotten," Roanne apologised.  "That's enough to make anyone wary of rushing headfirst into another supernatural battle."

Uri
placed a long fingered hand on Moon's shoulder.  "Moon, the thing in Leigh Woods is a
frightener
.  By which I mean a goblin that lives off fear. The greatest danger it poses is that it might scare someone to death and it can’t do that if we are prepared.  It's nowhere near as powerful as the shadow creature we encountered but it will fight when it's cornered so prepare yourself for a few scary noises and visions and remember there are five of us and three of us are vampires.  It has much more reason to be afraid of us than we of it.”

"
Well, if you say so…" Moon wasn’t too reassured.  The prospect that they would be fighting any kind of supernatural beastie had not even occurred to him when he had considered tonight's possible activities.  "Let's go then."

It was nearly an hour's walk from the vampires' home to Leigh Woods.  Moon had declined the offer of a lift from Uri and the girls.  While it would have been quicker to fly, the thought of traversing the Avon Gorge at nearly three hundred feet supported only by someone else's arms, no matter how supernaturally strong they were, was enough to put him off flying for life.  However, when he was the prospect of crossing the Clifton Suspension Bridge in the dark he almost considered changing his mind.  Over a thousand people had committed suicide by jumping off the bridge between its completion in 1864 and the late 1980s, when the installation of a safety net had served to discourage all but the most determined jumpers.  The spiritual atmosphere surrounding the bridge resonated with generations of anger and despair.

"
What's wrong with this place, Jerry?" whispered Sonia, gripping his arm as they walked past the toll booth.  "It feels horrible.”

"
It’s the echoes of suicides," answered Moon, "hundreds of them." He put his arm around her for comfort.  "It's just the memory of all that negative emotion retained in the psychic ambience, love.  Most suicides pass on just like anyone else.  From previous experience there aren't too many ghosts here. I don't think I've ever met the spirit of anyone here who had actually taken their own life."

"
Jerry Moon," said Sonia reproachfully, "what have you let me in for? Am I going to spend the rest of my life experiencing horrible things like this?"

"
You get used to it," replied Moon consolingly.  "And it's really not too bad as long as you steer clear of places where people die regularly, like hospital casualty departments.  And, of course, places like this, where people have killed themselves."

"
I didn't kill meself,"
whispered a malicious ghost voice in Moon's inner ear. 
"Good place fer dumpin' bodies, this.  Not so many questions asked when they fishes them from the drink."

The
voice's owner - a hulking brute in shabby Victorian workman's clothes - materialised beside them and continued chattily.
"'Course I fell off one day, didn't I, gettin' rid of this old bird I robbed.  Weighed a ton she did... I 'ad an awful time gettin' 'er over the railings, then I got tangled up in 'er skirts an' she dragged me down like the proverbial millstone.  So now I 'aunts this place.  It's not too bad, decent view like, but there ain't too many people to chat wif, if yer know what I mean."

The
oppressive atmosphere on the bridge had already set Sonia’s nerves on edge and this fresh intrusion was the last straw.  "Bugger off!" she said sharply, snapping out a line of ghost energy, she caught the over-friendly murderer across the face with an edge of blue fire.

"'
Old 'ard, darlin’, there's no call for that kind o' thing.  I was only tryin' to be friendly like."

"
I'm no friend of yours so piss off, you murdering scum!  I’m warning you… there's more where that came from!"

The footpad
's ghost dematerialised with an air of injured virtue muttering,
"Bloody Livin', just 'cause I wanted to pass the time of day.  I'd give yer wot for if I was alive…"

"
So... you seem to have already learnt a little about how to use your spiritual powers," observed Uri with surprise.

"
Anna's given Sonia and me some lessons."

"
Anna? Ah, your little ghost friend.  I wouldn't have thought she'd be that capable."

"
There's more to her than meets the eye," replied Moon.  "She's bound on Earth to help work out someone else's unfinished business, not her own, so she's more aware of the world of the living than most ghosts."

"
Interesting, her contribution should make this night's work much easier."

As t
hey neared the end of the bridge they felt a sense of relief, like they had just run an emotional gauntlet.  "Who's the guy in the topper?" asked Sonia pointing to a lone figure that she sensed was standing in the mist rising from the River Severn as it swirled around the entrance to the bridge.

"
It's old Izzy himself," whispered Moon, "Isambard Kingdom Brunel, no less.  I've seen him a few times around Bristol.  He often visits his past triumphs like the railway station and the Great Western but he's supposed to like it here the best.  You could say it's his 'unfinished business' because he died five years before it was completed."

"
Evening, Mr Brunel," said Sonia with a wave.  "Nice bridge."

"
Most gratified,"
replied the great engineer, removing a half-smoked cigar from his mouth with one hand while doffing his famous stovepipe hat with the other. 
"And a very good evening to you too."

"Now, for safety’s sake we must assume that the creature we're here to hunt is ancient and very cunning," warned Uri, as they walked towards the A369 and the entrance to the Ashton Court Estate.  "So we must be alert for tricks.  It'll probably try to either frighten or lure us into danger so it's very important that we stay together and keep a close rein on our instinct to run either away from apparent danger or towards our quarry.  I don't want any legs or necks broken tonight.

“It’
s possible that our quarry could be connected to Stonleigh Camp, which is the name of the old hill fort that's situated on the ridge over there to our right.  It may even have been psychically tethered here by the local tribe to prevent their enemies from attacking by the lower slope to the west.  The old Celts were quite well versed in the art of sorcery and it wouldn’t be first time we’ve encountered a dark spirit they’ve used as a guard dog.  If it is bound here by Celtic magic it’s likely that they could have planted one or two more spooky surprises in reserve against the possibility of their guard dog being muzzled.  So we should be prepared for the worst.  If it looks like things are getting nasty I'll yell: 'To Me!'.  If I do this I want you two to close in behind us." He indicated Charli and Roanne.  "As for you and Sonia, we have the experience in dealing with the big supernatural nasties, so your job is to stay out of trouble and let us handle it, okay?"

"
Okay." Moon and Sonia nodded in unison.

They took a right turn up a side road
.  The street sign read 'Church Road' and Moon recognised the neighbourhood. He and his friends had parked their cars up here on their visits to the Ashton Court music festival in previous years.  As they walked past the high value properties on either side of the narrow tree-lined road Uri briefed them further.

"
Your friend Anna seems to have given you a good basis in how to reach out with your spirit and deal minor damage to supernatural beings but I need to teach you how to take that a step further so you are able to do real harm.  To do this you don't just strike at the surface.  You have to reach deep inside your target, seizing the very heart of its being, and literally tear its life out.  That way you can neutralise a supernatural foe like our goblin.  You won't be able to kill it but you can deplete it enough to prevent it from doing harm for a very long time."

"
So, how do we do that?" asked Sonia.

They had now reached the junction of
Church Road and North Road, which ran along the southern edge of the woods.  "The entrance to the woods is just a few yards down on the right," replied Uri.  "We'll stop when we get there and I'll show you what to do.    It is much easier to demonstrate than to explain."

It was only
a couple of minutes walk before they reached a gateway that allowed access to the main footpath through the woods.  "I don't fancy going into that," commented Moon, regarding the thick darkness under the trees with suspicion.  It reminded him all too clearly of the darkness that had shrouded the Shadow Beast on Bird Cage Walk.

"
None of us do," Uri answered grimly, "but nevertheless we will enter.  Now, let us get to business." He looked around and then gestured to a small pile of rocks at the side of the path.  "These should do."

"
What're they for? Are we going to throw them at the goblin?" asked Sonia, incredulously.

"
No, we will use them for target practice.  Let me explain… everything has its own spiritual field or aura, even things which aren't actually alive like these rocks.  A thing's aura provides a sort of framework that maintains its presence in the material world, which makes it physically vulnerable to psychic attack.  Watch..."

Moon saw a faint line of blue fire thrust forward from Uri
's forehead and strike the topmost rock.  The rock seemed to glow slightly for an instant and then the line snapped away to one side, dragging something faint and vaguely rock-shaped with it. The rock itself vanished in a puff of dust.  "Jesus!" whispered Moon in awe.

"
Did he just do what I think I saw him do?" asked Sonia, gazing at the slightly diminished pile of rocks with a shocked expression.

"
What I did was remove the rock's spiritual substance," explained Uri.  "Without which it could no longer exist.  Well, not as a rock, anyway."

"
Could you do that to a person?" asked Moon, horrified at the possibility.

"
Theoretically, yes you could, but it would require more energy than is usually available to a human or even a vampire.  However, just by using a moderate amount of power one could affect another person’s internal organs, which would hurt them or even possibly kill them if the attacker were to focus upon their heart, for example."

"
I feel like you've just thrust a loaded gun into my hands and I need to be extremely careful where I point it." Moon shook his head.

"
Power and responsibility are old bedfellows, my friend." Uri nodded at the rocks.  "Now it is your turn."

Moon concentrated on a smallish stone near the top of the pile and snapped out at it with a psychic tendril like Anna had taught
them.  The stone wobbled slightly but was otherwise unharmed.  "That was pretty pathetic, wasn't it?" he commented, crestfallen.

"
Not bad for a start but you need to build upon what your little poltergeist friend has shown you.  You need to reach out with your spirit inside of the rock and grasp its very essence, then you take a firm hold and yank it out."

"
Like this?" asked Sonia. A strand of glowing blue leapt from between her brows into the centre of a medium sized rock in the pile then snapped back like the tip of a bullwhip. The rock seemed to hang there undecided for an instant and then it crumbled into a small pile of sand and gravel.

"
Yay!" said Roanne, slapping Sonia on the back.  "Chalk one up for the girls, Charli."

Moon
's confidence went down another notch.  "Ignore them, Moon.  I know you have it in you," encouraged Uri.  "Give it another go.  Try that big one on the top."

"
Are you sure?" asked Moon, eyeing the five kilogram rock with trepidation.

"
Sure, I'm sure," Uri grinned at Moon.  "It's not a matter of size, just application.  You could do it to one of the rocks from Stonehenge if you wanted to."

"
Okay," said Moon uncertainly.  "Here goes." He reached out with his ghost sense, feeling the size and weight and density of the rock and sensing the faint, gently pulsing energy that was its life force.  Grabbing that luminous core with all his spiritual might, he wrenched it out of the rock itself and watched in astonishment as the rock collapsed in on itself and vanished entirely.

He suddenly felt utterly wretched
... what he had done was wrong.  It may have been only a rock but he knew somehow that he had just abused the entire matrix of life by leaving it missing a small but irreplaceable piece.  "That was horrible," he muttered, covering his face with both hands.

"
I'm sorry, Moon.  I should have warned you but I was worried that if I did you wouldn't want to practise.  This is the only way I know that does such little damage."

"
What's up?" asked Sonia, staring at Moon with concern.

"
You only took part of the life force from your rock, Sonia,” explained Uri, “so most of it still exists as sand and debris.  Moon, however, wrenched his completely out of existence so he has to cope with the emotional backlash from having altered the whole web of nature.  Such destruction, no matter how small or insignificant it seems, harms Gaia, the great Spirit of the Earth, to whom we're all connected."

"
Will it be like this when we take on the goblin?" asked Moon.  "If it does I don't think I can go ahead with it."

"
No, it won't." Uri's white-blond hair whirled around his head as he shook it emphatically.  "You can't destroy a spirit the way you destroyed the rock. All you can do is injure it enough to prevent it from doing more harm.  Don't be fearful on that count my friend."

Sonia
insisted on trying another rock to make sure she could ‘do it properly’, despite Moon's protestations. When she succeeded in eradicating the small boulder that she had chosen, she really wished that she hadn't when the inevitable impact hit her psyche.  "Ooh, that's bad!" she complained.