Page 32 of Mardi Gras Murders & Midnight Masquerades
We reached the spot where one of the bodies had been found. It was now marked only by a small piece of police tape. The square was deserted. The tourists had been driven away by the weather.
"If the maps were right, there should be an access point nearby," Dani said.
"Found it," Noah called softly. He was crouched beside an ornate metal medallion embedded in the cobblestones. It looked decorative but had almost imperceptible symbols around its edge.
"Don't touch it," I warned. "It could have a spell on it."
Too late. Dani's fingertips had already brushed the metal. Her psychometric gift was clearly activated. Her eyes went distant, and her body rigid like it always did when visions flooded her consciousness.
"Shit," I muttered and knelt beside her. Noah was on her other side. Dre, Phi, Dea, and Lucas formed a protective circle around us.
Finally, Dani gasped and jerked back. "It's a door," she said hoarsely. "A magical one that was activated with blood three nights ago."
"Can you open it without blood?" Dre asked as she scanned for observers.
Dani nodded uncertainly. "Maybe. The mechanism responds to magic. Let me try."
She placed both hands on the medallion. Her eyes closed in concentration. A soft click echoed beneath the cobblestones. The medallion began to rotate. It moved until it revealed a narrow staircase descending into darkness.
Dre went first. She was always our unspoken leader in moments of danger. Dani followed close behind. I could feel her protective magic joining Dre’s. I hesitated at the entrance, sharing a quick glance with Dea before she nodded and descended. Taking a deep breath, I stepped onto the first ancient stone step. The temperature dropped immediately. The ancient stairs spiraled downward. Each of them was worn smooth by centuries of secret passage.
The medallion sealed itself behind Noah and Lucas with a soft hiss. We were entombed in complete darkness. I created a ball of witch fire to light our way into the tunnel system. The air grew heavier with each step and smelled like old stone, stagnant water, and filth. Our breathing echoed in the tight space as we descended deeper beneath the city.
"These tunnels are old," Dea observed as she ran her hand along the stone wall. "Civil War era, maybe older."
"The magic is older still," I added, sensing ancient power pulsing through the foundation.
We moved cautiously through the corridor, following the trail of magical residue. The tunnel branched repeatedly. The maps hadn’t told us where to go, so we headed toward the strongest concentration of energy.
"There's something ahead," Lucas murmured. His enhanced shifter senses picked up what we couldn't yet see.
The tunnel widened into a circular chamber with five passageways branching outward like spokes from a wheel. In the center stood a stone altar. Its surface was carved with symbols pulsing with sickly green light.
"This isn't Society work," Dre noted as sheexamined the markings without touching them. "These sigils are much older. Ancient Mesopotamian, mixed with Enochian and what looks like something demonic."
"It’s a magical cocktail that spans millennia of occult knowledge," Dani summarized grimly.
I circled the altar carefully. As I reached the far side, my foot brushed against something partially buried in the dirt floor. Crouching down, I cleared away soil to reveal a small, tarnished badge. "Guys," I called out. "Look at this."
Dre used her telekinesis to lift it from the floor. Her eyes widened as the wind she conjured wiped away decades of grime. "It’s an NOPD badge and it's old."
Dea shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. "There was death here," she whispered. "It wasn’t recent, but it was incredibly violent. Someone died fighting against whatever was happening in this chamber."
Dani gestured to the five tunnels. "I bet anything that each path leads to one of the murder sites. This underground network channels power back to this central location."
Everyone went alert when footsteps suddenly echoed from one of the tunnels. They were steady, deliberate, and heading our way. "Hide," Lucas hissed, pulling me behind a fallen column as the others scrambled for cover.
My sisters and I extinguished our witch fire, plunging the chamber into darkness. It was broken only by the altar's faint green glow. A beam of light swept across the chamber, and my jaw dropped open. How in the hell was Detective Payne down there with his gun drawn?
"I know some of you are in here," he called, voice echoing off stone walls. "I saw you go down here."
Dre shot me a questioning look. I nodded reluctantly. "Detective," I said, stepping out with hands raised. I tried to project a calm facade but inside I was wondering how hemanaged to follow us when the way closed behind Noah and Lucas. "Fancy meeting you here."
His flashlight beam found my face. "Ms. Smith. Why am I not surprised?" His gaze swept to my sisters, then Lucas and Noah who were emerging from hiding. "The gang's almost all here. Care to explain what you're doing in a sealed tunnel system beneath a crime scene?"
"Would you believe we're urban explorers?" I tried with a weak smile.
"No," he replied flatly. "Try again."
