Darkest Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

get this show on the road."
    Malfeis nodded and produced a number of candles, bottles of oil, pieces of black chalk, and bags of white powder from the Gladstone bag he carried. Sonja swallowed and stepped inside the meat locker, drawing the heavy door closed behind her with a muffled thump.
    Malfeis lit the candles and began to chant in a deep, sonorous voice, scrawling elaborate designs on the outer walls of the locker with the black chalk. As the chanting grew faster and more impassioned, he smeared oil on the hinges and handle of the door. There was an electric crackle and the door glowed with blue fire.
    Malfeis' incantation lost all semblance of human speech as it reached its climax. He carefully poured a line of white powder across the threshold, made from equal parts salt, sand and the crushed bones of human babies.. Then he stepped back to assess his handiwork.
    To human eyes it looked like someone had scrawled graffiti all over the face of the stainless steel locker, nothing more. But to Pretender eyes, eyes adjusted to the Real World, the door to the locker was barred by a tangle of darkly pulsing VéVé, the semi-sentient protective symbols of the voudou powers. As long as the tableau remained undisturbed, the entity known as Sonja Blue would remain trapped within the chill darkness of the meat locker.
    Malfeis replaced the tools of his trade in the Gladstone bag. He paused as he left the warehouse, glancing over his shoulder.
    "Goodbye, girly-girl. It was nice knowing you."
    "I'm looking for Mal."
    The bartender looked up from his racing form and frowned at Judd. After taking in his unwashed hair and four days' growth of beard, he nodded in the direction of the back booth.
    Judd had never been inside the Monastery before. It had a reputation as being one of the sleazier - and most uninviting - French Quarter dives, and he could see why. The booths lining the wall had once been church pews. Plaster saints in various stages of decay were scattered about on display. A Madonna with skin blackened and made leprous by age regarded him from above the bar with flat, faded blue eyes, an equally scabrous Baby Jesus, cradled in her rotting arms.
    Judd walked to the back of the bar and looked into the last booth. All he saw was a paunchy middle-aged man dressed in a bad suit smoking a cigar and reading a dog-eared porno novel.
    "Excuse me... ?"
    The man in the bad suit looked up at him, arching a bushy, upswept eyebrow, but said nothing.
    "Uh, excuse me - but I'm looking for Mal."
    "You found him."
    Judd blinked, confused. "No, I'm afraid there's been some kind of mistake. The guy I'm looking for is black, with dreadlocks..."
    The man in the bad suit smiled. It was not a pleasant sight. "Sit down, kid. He'll be with you in just a moment."
    Still uncertain of what he was getting himself into, Judd slid into the opposite pew.
    The older man lowered his head, exposing an advanced case of male pattern baldness, and hunched his shoulders. His fingers and arms began vibrating, the skin growing darker as if his entire body had

    Create PDF files without this message by purchasing novaPDF printer ( http://www.novapdf.com ) suddenly become bruised. There was a sound of dry grass rustling under a high wind and thick, black dreadlocks emerged from his scalp, whipping about like a nest of snakes. Judd was too shocked by the transformation to do anything but stare.
    Mal lifted his head and grinned at Judd, tugging at the collar of his turtleneck. "Ah, yes. I remember you now. Sonja's renfield."
    "My name's not Renfield."
    Mal shrugged indifferently. "So, what brings you here, boychick?"
    "I'm looking for Sonja. I can't find her."
    "That's because she doesn't want to be found."
    "But I have to find her! Before she does something stupid, like kill herself, maybe."
    Mal regarded the young human with a look of mild amusement in his dark eyes. "Tell me more."
    "She sent me this letter a few days ago." Judd fished a much-folded envelope out of