Читать книгу Lucifer's Daughter - V. J. Banis - Страница 8

CHAPTER FOUR

A ramshackle old house sat at the farthermost end of a cul-de-sac. The hour was late and the fog rolling in from the sea made the place look brooding and ominous. Julia sat in the back seat of the taxi with the little piece of paper the gypsy had given her. She glanced down and then up at the house number, confirming that she was at the right place.

“Do you want me to wait?” the cab driver asked.

“Yes, perhaps it would be a good idea. There doesn’t seem to be anyone at home...at least there aren’t any lights that I can see.” She got out of the cab and started across the crooked pavement and up the wooden steps to the porch. The flooring was sagging and warped, the fog swirled around, making every step soundless. The bushes and shrubs had advanced in such unchecked profusion they obscured any light on the lower level from view.

Once on the porch, Julia saw a dim light that burned in one of the large downstairs windows.

What was she doing here? Why had she come to this desolate place? What had she hoped to discover about herself that she didn’t know already? Elizabeth had been right. The old gypsy had just been playacting, and now she was sending Julia to some friend or cohort who would more than likely try to coax Julia into giving up more of her hard-earned money.

Julia pressed the button alongside the door. The door creaked open. Julia found herself holding her breath. At first she saw nothing, only a dim light and empty space.

“Yes?” a voice said.

Julia looked down in the direction of the voice and saw a face peering up at her. The flame of a candle flickered just below the plump chin, making the face seem disconnected from its body. She thought at first it was a child, but the eyes were old and the cheeks puffed and yellow with age. Heavy sacks of skin hung from beneath the smoldering eyes. Julia felt her blood begin to race more quickly through her veins.

“Madam Esperelda told me you might help me,” Julia managed to say. She found her voice trembling.

“What kind of help do you need?”

Julia hesitated. “I don’t know.” She couldn’t think of anything to say. She held out the slip of paper the gypsy had given her. “Madam Esperelda sent me to you.”

The face that floated in the crack between door and jamb frowned. “Come in,” the woman said quickly.

“I have a taxi waiting,” Julia said, glancing over her shoulder. “I wasn’t sure anyone would be at home.”

The eyes just looked up at her; they said nothing.

“If I send him away, do you have a telephone which I could use to call for another taxi?”

The head floating above the flame of the candle nodded.

Hurriedly, as if anxious to get away from the strange, rather frightening little face, Julia went back down the steps, paid the driver, and thanked him for his patience. When she returned to the porch, the face was still hovering there. Then Julia heard invisible fingers undo a safety chain and the door swung open.

The interior into which Julia stepped was more depressing than the outside of the old house. The hall was heavy with draperies, furniture, rugs, pictures, wallpaper, dark paneling, cluttered tables. A staircase of shiny, black ebony ran up one wall.

A pair of amber eyes stared down at her from halfway up the stairs. The eyes stayed steadily fixed on her. Then Julia saw movement and the eyes vanished. She recognized the shape of a huge cat disappearing on the upper landing.

The woman motioned Julia into a room on the right. The room, like the hall, was overloaded with too many furnishings. All of the tables wore shawls, every surface was cluttered with objects of all descriptions. There wasn’t a single inch of wall space showing between picture frames, tapestries, and hangings of all sorts. The windows were shrouded in heavy, blue-black velvet. Wax candles flickered and smoked.

The woman nodded toward a chair, complete with antimacassars, throw pillows, and footstool. Julia perched herself on the very edge of its sagging cushion.

“What seems to be troubling you, girl?” the woman asked as she settled herself on a chair with a flowered slipcover, ruffled bottom, and wide, drooping arms. She propped her plump little fingers under her chin and fixed her eyes on Julia. She resembled a hungry cat contemplating a meal. The thought made Julia shift uneasily.

“I fainted when Madam Esperelda began reading my fortune,” Julia said in a rush. She wanted to get it all out and over with. She decided she’d made a mistake coming to this strange little woman. The place frightened her; the woman frightened her. “The gypsy said she saw something evil in my fortune. When I looked into her crystal ball, it shattered into pieces.” Julia was studying her own hands; she found she could not look into the woman’s face.

At this last bit of information, the woman’s hand went away from her chin. Her plump little head came straight up. She pushed herself erect and leaned forward, staring hard into Julia’s face. “The crystal shattered, you say?”

“Yes. I saw a man’s face reflected dimly in it...at least I think it was a man’s face...and then it broke into pieces. That was when I fainted. Madam Esperelda fainted, too,” she added, almost as an afterthought.

“Hmmmmm.” The woman’s head lowered and she studied Julia from under her drooping eyelids. “And you want to know what made the crystal shatter?”

“I want to know why the gypsy said she saw evil in me. The face and the man who stood beside me could have been some sort of trick...I don’t care about them, I only want to....”

“A man stood beside you?” the woman asked, frowning with interest.

“Yes. I saw the face in the glass, and there was a man standing just behind me. I think it was his face that was reflected in the crystal ball.”

The woman put a plump little finger into her mouth and began chewing on it. She thought hard for a moment, then nodded and rolled her eyes. “I see. I see,” she mumbled.

“What do you see?”

“Nothing, girl. Nothing.” She went silent.

“I really don’t like someone calling me evil,” Julia said a little boldly. “She had no right to make such terrible accusations. I’m an orphan, you see, and I know nothing about my past. Things such as this upset me, I’m afraid. Knowing nothing about one’s origin—”

“I understand, child. I understand,” the woman mumbled, waving a hand to silence Julia. She thought for a moment, then said, “You must return after I have been able to make the necessary arrangements for a séance. That is the only way we will be able to find out whatever is to be found out.”

“What does it all mean?” Julia asked.

“Well, from what little you’ve told me, I would suspect you had a visitation.”

“Visitation?” Julia frowned. “From whom?”

The woman shrugged her stocky little shoulders. “It might have been anyone,” she said. “But in view of the crystal ball shattering and Madam Esperelda’s vision of evil and trouble, I would say you were visited by Satan himself.”

Julia gasped. “Oh, I just can’t see how such a thing is possible.”

“It is not nonsense, child, you can believe me...I know. You are not the first the Lord of Darkness has deigned to honor with a visit.”

“Honor? I want no part of demons or devils.”

“But the Master is no one to fear, girl. Not many people are as fortunate as you have been, as much as they wish for it.”

Julia’s stomach tightened. Surely the woman wasn’t serious, she thought. No one in their right senses would welcome a visit from Satan himself. She said as much to the woman seated across from her.

Surprisingly, Julia heard the woman laugh softly. “But why shouldn’t it be an honor to be visited by one of such esteem? After all, he is an angel...a supreme being.”

“A fallen angel,” Julia corrected. “He’s the personification of evil.”

“Ah, but there are many kinds of evil, just as there are many kinds of goodness. Goodness can sometimes be evil. Lucifer has the power of doing much good for his worthy disciples. He has the power to grant happiness, health, prosperity, joy. There is nothing he cannot grant. We who are knowledgeable in the world of the black arts do not look upon Lucifer as evil. He is a spirit just like any other, but he is an extremely powerful and magnificent spirit, deserving of every courtesy and sacrifice.”

“But I am not one of his disciples. Why should he choose to appear to me, if that is what you believe he did?”

“That is something we must find out. I will hold a séance. Perhaps he will reappear and make his desires known. Perhaps not.” She put her hands on her knees and pushed herself up out of the chair. “You will return tomorrow night at eight o’clock. Wear no jewelry and put on a simple black dress if you have one, otherwise anything plain and of a dark color will suffice, but black preferably. I will have the others present.”

“Others?”

“The Devil’s number is four and four. We will have six souls combine with ours tomorrow evening. You and I are not powerful enough alone to make the journey to the other side.”

Julia got to her feet. “I’ll be here at eight tomorrow night.” She hesitated and frowned. It was almost as if someone else had spoken for her.

“Good,” the woman said, nodding her head slowly.

Julia glanced down at the slip of paper she still held in her hand. “I’m afraid I don’t know your name,” she said. “Madam Esperelda supplied me with only your address.”

“That is as it should be. Remember, I do not know your name either. We will be introduced if it is necessary.” She turned and started out of the room. “The telephone is here in the hall. You’ll find the number of the cab company written on the pad.”

I won’t come back, Julia told herself—but another part of her knew that was not true.