will use the Name of the One on our behalf?”
“You have my word.”
“Such a blessing would bring great prosperity to my people.”
“Upon your agreement to these terms, I will place this blessing upon your people.”
“You have my word, One Who Speaks the Name."
Mitchell raised his hand once again and repeated the prayer three times. After the third repetition, the hive began to pulsate and shake. Mitchell pushed the children back and asked them not to move.
One by one, hundreds of hornets began to emerge from the nest. Each one was about the size of a penny. First, the largest sentinels emerged. Once they saw that the hive was safe, they circled the nest in a large swarm. The sentinels freed the nest from its moorings in the tree. Then the main body of the hive emerged. Guided by the sentinels, the hive hovered over the nest in a swarm. Within seconds, the swarm descended onto the nest, lifted it into the air, and flew away. As they ascended, the conical shape of the nest was enveloped by the mass of the hive. The nest climbed higher and higher into the sky. After a few moments, they were gone.
Michael and Tiffany stood in silence. Tiffany was the first to speak.
“Dad, how did you do that?”
“I asked them to leave.”
“You don’t just talk to insects and tell them to leave. That’s not possible,” Tiffany answered.
“It’s only impossible if you don’t try. By the way, Tiffany, that is what I am going to do with the ants,” Mitchell replied.
“You mean you’re gonna talk to them and make them leave?” Tiffany replied.
“Yes, in the same manner that you saw here.”
Tiffany looked at the tree and gently touched the spot that used to anchor the nest. She approached it cautiously, as if the hornets might return at any minute. She poked it gingerly and looked back at Mitchell. Mitchell nodded, smiled, and motioned for her to continue.
Tiffany shook the branch and, within moments, the whole thing was covered in a shower of leaves and flowers. There was no movement or any sign of the hornets.
Both children looked at Mitchell, looked back at the tree branch, shook their heads, and ran down the hill toward the house. Sometimes, the attention span of a teenager could be a blessing, Mitchell thought to himself. He knew that the children would regale their mother with every detail of the event.
After supper, Mitchell and Kathy sat together quietly downstairs by the fireplace so that they could catch up on the day’s events.
The Gibson home had three levels. Each floor had its own personality. The bottom floor had been designed to play host to their love of movies, meditation, and fireplaces. The previous owners had built a large wine cellar in the center of the bottom level. The room had been lined with volcanic rock and was climate controlled. Mitchell and Kathy immediately decided to turn the room into a meditation space. Directly across from the meditation room, they had installed a large movie theater and fireplace for long, cozy evenings such as this one.
“I wish that I could find the answers to these murders as easily as dealing with the nest. This string of murder-suicides has me baffled.”
Mitchell slid toward the end of the black leather couch that sat in front of the fireplace.
“Eight people in such a short time. What do you think it means?” Kathy replied.
“The first four cases all involved former mental patients who had previously attempted suicide. The Brown case was the first one to involve a non-mental patient. Doris Brown had no history of mental illness,” Mitchell said.
“But she did own a gun. Actually, she owned several guns,” Kathy remarked.
“The papers never miss a trick. She did have that particular piece of history in common with all the victims. They all owned guns. Mr. Morton, the man I just saw, was no exception. He owned antique as well as modern weaponry. Even though suicide by handgun or rifle is not the most common method employed by most people, it is not unusual. What is unusual is that so many people in such a short time, in such a small geographic area, would choose to kill themselves that way,” Mitchell answered.
“Did you see something clairvoyantly at the Mortons that might help you to find some answers?”
“Just like the other cases, there were no soul fragments present in any of the victims. It is as though the bodies were sucked dry before the angels had a chance to get to them. I have never seen that before.”
“What kind of force could do that to a human...in defiance of Angelic Providence no less?” Kathy questioned.
“Something quite powerful...and if we don’t identify it and stop it soon, there is no telling who or where it will strike next.”
“You don’t believe these people are killing themselves voluntarily do you?”
“No, I don’t. Something or someone is behind this. I picked up a faint reddish glow at each of the crime scenes. I saw the same thing at the Morton place this evening. I wanted to investigate it further, but Gerald interrupted.”
“Well, you know Gerald.”
“I do. He almost caught me before I had a chance to return to my body.”
“What do you think this reddish glow means?”
“Not quite sure. The intensity and charge of the glow seem to point to a rather potent source—someone or something that has access to the Higher Powers.”
“You mean a demon?”
“Perhaps. I will need to go back there later and check it out properly. Care to come?”
Kathy often accompanied Mitchell on his occult investigations. She had spent the last six years honing and developing her own clairvoyant gifts. Her empathic ability combined with the ability to see entities had proven invaluable on more than one occasion.
“I would come with you, but I have so many emails to catch up on, and Tiffany wants me to go over a presentation that she has for AP World History on Friday.”
“I will be very happy when she finishes that class,” Mitchell replied.
Suddenly, the fireplace began to hiss and roar. The flames changed into a brilliant blue torrent and leaped out of the fireplace. The long tongues of flame formed a spherical iridescent shape that hovered above the table in front of the couch.
Mitchell leaped to his feet and formed a protective mudra. Kathy began to draw a protective rune in the air. Bluish-gold energy shapes formed in the air around them as they feverishly invoked a protective ward.
The shape grew in size and began to take the form of a large man. The figure sprouted wings and a flaming sword appeared in its left hand. Mitchell instinctively lowered his defensive mudra posture and fell to his knees. Kathy gazed upon the figure for a moment, glanced over at Mitchell, and soon fell to her knees.
The figure grew in size and soon filled the room with a bright golden
