Obsidian Curse by Barbra Annino

Author:Barbra Annino [Annino, Barbra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction, Horror, Occult, United States, Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, Supernatural, Witches & Wizards, Women Sleuths, Cozy, Suspense, Paranormal, new
ISBN: 1477820124
Amazon: B00GNK1Y10
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2014-05-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

Blade appeared doubtful. “Me? I was just a kid. What would they want to do with me?”

“I’m not sure, Blade, but none of this adds up.”

I didn’t tell him what I was really thinking. That I had a feeling about him. Partly because I didn’t want to spook him and partly because I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea.

“What about the stuff that was taken? Are you sure it was only to make it look like a robbery? What about the artwork? I know you said it wasn’t valuable, but is there a possibility it could have been? Or the computer? Anything on it that someone would want to kill for?”

Blade shook his head. “It was my computer that was taken. All that was on the hard drive were a bunch of stories I had written and a few games.” He chugged some more water. “As for the art, I couldn’t tell you. I don’t even know what the paintings looked like. I always had my head stuck in a book or in a notebook.”

“And the books were just commercial fiction, you said?”

“Yes. Those I remember. A few Stephen King novels, The Maltese Falcon, and—” He stopped short, met my eyes. His voice took on an air of excitement. “The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg.” He grabbed the report, flipped through it. “It just says books under items taken. I didn’t even remember that until just now.”

“What’s the book about?”

“It’s about four college students who discover an ancient manuscript called The Book of Skulls that promises immortality. The manuscript is guarded by an order of monks who agree to grant the young men immortality as long as they agree to a ritual.”

“What’s the ritual?”

“Two sacrifices for two everlasting lives.”

I let that sink in for a moment. Obviously, the book itself couldn’t have been what they were after, because they could have just bought a copy. But what if the manuscript it talks about was real?

I mentioned this to Blade.

“I guess it’s possible, but I never heard my father talk about anything like that.”

“What did your father teach?”

Blade swallowed hard. “English lit.”

Could it have been a student? A fellow teacher? An old college roommate of his father’s, perhaps? Or just a psycho who read this science fiction book and thought it was real? I voiced all of this to Blade. He didn’t have any answers, didn’t know his father’s curriculum, but at least we had a start. There were two very connected pieces to the puzzle now. We just had to do a little more digging to determine if either of them actually existed, in legend or otherwise.

“Show me where you found the skull,” I said, nodding toward the photographs.

He pointed out a spot in one of the pictures near where his father lay.

I studied the spot, input it into my memory, closed my eyes, and grazed my hands over the photograph.

When I was finished, after the heat of that spot he had pointed to sizzled

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