in a spookapalooza building. And that’s where we were heading.
I was surprised when Caliel and Chuck Pettis – Clockman – met us just inside the Old Jail walls. “We’re the cavalry,” Chuck said. I could hear him ticking from a few paces away, which meant he wore hundreds of watches sewn into his military-issue Kevlar vest. He once had a premonition that if his clocks ever wind down, he’ll die. From the sound of it, he was pretty safe tonight.
“Lucinda told me what happened at the exhibit,” Caliel said with a nod in my direction. “Bad stuff.”
“This place is hotter than usual,” Chuck grumbled, and I knew he meant supernaturally, not temperature-wise. Although the grounds around the Old Jail were empty except for us, I felt as if I were suffocating in the press of a large crowd.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Let’s get this over with.”
Caliel opened the lock with a flicker of magic, and the door swung wide. We used the tour entrance, and it led us straight into one of the Jail’s narrow stone corridors. The temperature inside was noticeably colder than the warm evening air, and the hairs on my arms and neck rose with the sense that we were not alone.
Down the hallway, a door slammed shut. A flash of light zipped through the darkness just at the corner of my vision, and I glimpsed a greenish yellow orb in the distance down the long corridor, bobbing up and down in midair as if daring us to chase it.
It sounded like the spirits of the Old Jail were waking up. I could hear the sound of chains dragging across the floor above us, while in the distance, a metal cell door rattled violently as if shaken by a prisoner desperate to get out. Sorren led the way. Teag and I were right behind him, while Chuck and Caliel brought up the rear.
I felt something brush against my arm, but no one had passed by. The Old Jail’s shadows crowded around us, and our flashlights did not seem up to the task of pushing away the unnatural darkness. Off to one side, I thought I glimpsed a woman standing next to one of the narrow windows, but when I turned my head she was gone.
More thumps sounded above us, sending my heartbeat racing. Since we had no idea of what – or who – we might encounter, we came well-armed. I had my athame in hand, and Bo’s ghost already walked beside me, head down and hackles up as if he expected trouble. Teag and I both wore our protective woven vests along with our amulets, and he had both his staff and his urumi. The chakram Colonel Donnelly had given me hung in a scabbard at my belt. I didn’t want to set the place on fire, so I had left my walking stick at home tonight, but both Teag and I carried Josiah’s dueling pistols. I noticed that Teag had his jack ball out and was twirling it to fend off unfriendly spirits. I pulled my jack ball from my pocket and did the same.
Chuck depended on technology for protection. He had an EMF grenade in one hand and an odd homemade weapon in his right hand that looked like a ray gun out of an old-time science fiction movie. Sorren had a sword in each hand. He had healed already from the wounds he had taken at the Briggs Society. Teag and I still sported bruises.
Caliel was dressed in a black shirt and dark jeans, but when he removed a charcoal scarf from around his neck, I could see that he wore a large necklace made of pieces of mirror set into metal that made a wide collar. I knew it protected him against spirits and witches, who could become trapped within the mirror and lose their power. Around Caliel’s left arm was a black band with the veve of Baron Samedi, the keeper of cemeteries. I picked up the scent of rum and cigar smoke, and I bet Caliel had made an offering to the Baron for our protection before he set out this night.
The closer we got to the room with the chains, the more active the Old Jail’s spirits became. For an empty building, the darkened corridors were full of footsteps, the sound of chairs sliding across bare boards, clanging metal and rattling chains. Some startled us, but most were muffled, as if just making themselves heard taxed the strength of these