Midnight's Angels - 03 Read Online Free PDF Page A

moving smoothly on her hands and feet -- was possible.
    The approaching, crinkled mouth came stretching open, wider than it should have done. Effie tried to scream.
    And never got the chance. The aged figure sprang at her, covering the remaining distance in a single bound.
    Narrow limbs, incredibly strong, wrapped themselves around the younger woman’s body. Connie pressed her wizened lips to Effie’s own.
    And began sucking, drawing out her consciousness.
    A gust of wind sprang up outside, a short while after that. It made the front door swing back and the latch click shut. And silence fell across the Bancroft house.

CHAPTER 4
    When I got home, my place was darkened. Cold and quiet, like a tomb. It’s been that way since magic -- wielded by a maniac -- went completely wrong and made my loved ones disappear. My wife, Alicia, and my kids, Pete and Tammy. That had been more than two years ago, but it’s not exactly something you get used to.
    Even before I switched on the hallway light, I saw the little red bulb was flashing on my answering machine. And when I played the message, I jolted with astonishment. Of all the voices that I might have expected to come out at me, Lehman Willets’s was the last.  He was a hermit, keeping himself largely to himself. And so far as I knew, the guy didn’t even have a phone.
    He had a lot of power, though. A lot of sorcery at his disposal. So I listened carefully. His tone was normally hoarse, but it sounded almost breathless on this occasion, like something had startled him badly.
    “Devries,” he was telling me, “we have to talk, and sooner rather than later. Remember that discussion we once had regarding hierarchies of power? Well I’ve been doing some exploring, tracing ancient magics to their roots. And I believe that I’ve discovered something very strong and very bad, right at the top of the scale. I don’t believe that it can get at us right now. But some of its agents might be headed here tonight.”
    He paused to clear his throat. Which gave me time to wonder what in hell’s name he was babbling about. I couldn’t make the slightest sense of what the man was trying to convey to me.
    But it was clear that he was seriously rattled, and that is unusual for Willets.
    “You know where to find me,” he finished up. “As quickly as you can, Ross. I’ll be waiting.”
    Why didn’t he come here, if it was so all-fired urgent? Dr. Lehman Willets -- the doctorate was in philosophy -- was not born in Raine’s Landing, which is strange for such a powerful adept. He came to us from the outside world, ignoring the curse that drives most normal folk away. It turned out that he had a natural aptitude for witchcraft, and he learned it really fast. But then it got too much for him to handle. And whenever I go out to meet him, I bear that in mind.
    I glanced at my watch, then ran a palm across my face. It was already one thirty in the morning. And I felt hungry, and pretty tired in spite of my impromptu nap. The street was completely silent out beyond my front door. If it had been anybody else needing my presence at this hour, I’d most probably ignore them.
    Willets, though? The whole time that I’d known him, he had never mentioned anything like this. Something could be on its way here. Something terrible, perhaps.
    It occurred to me those meteors might be a part of this deal after all. And that made my mind up.
    My stomach was still growling, so I went on through to my kitchen first. Fished a donut from a box of them and chased it down with juice straight from the carton.
    That would hold me for a while. I checked my gun, and then went out again into the streetlamp-punctured dimness.
    * * *
    Something else occurred to me, about five minutes later. I’d never been into the commercial district in the dark. Not that it bothered me particularly. But I was seeing the place from a new perspective.
    It covers the whole northeastern edge of the Landing, and a good number of the