Blood and Stone

Blood and Stone

Original Cover

## Blurb

**An Ancient Evil is Bound in Blood**

When his friend Jason Thayer disappears after heading to his hometown to attend a wedding, the only clue Alastair Stone has is a cryptic phone message about "something weird" Jason saw shortly before he vanished.

Stone travels to the picturesque tourist town where Jason was last seen and is soon caught up in a horrific web of murder, malevolent magic, and a mysterious and ancient force that's resurfaced even more powerful than ever after a long dormancy.

What is it, how is it connected to the town and its residents, and why has it returned now? What does it want with Jason?

Alone and without his usual resources, Stone must find a way to defeat the malignant entity before it cuts a swath of death across the town—and before it uses its insidious powers to destroy Stone's reputation, his livelihood, and his life.

## Plot

Jason Thayer, walking to his motel drunk from a bachelor party in Ojai, sees something suspicious. The next morning he leaves a message for Alastair Stone to call him. Unfortunately, he then disappears. A police lieutenant from Ojai also calls Stone, asking if he knows Jason’s whereabouts. Verity is away with Sharra, so Stone heads down to investigate.

## Quotes and One-liners

Stone on Stan Lopez: "And he tends to accept things much more easily than you do. It was quite refreshing not to have to deal with ‘what the hell?’ and ‘holy crap’ every five minutes.” Jason: “Hey, what can I say? I’m just skeptical like that.”

Stan to Stone: Well, first of all, you’re so pale you look like you’ll spontaneously combust in the sunlight.

Jason to Stone: Want to pull into a station one of these days so we can board your train of thought?

After some research in local papers, and questioning the groom’s Best Man about Jason’s activities, he learns that Jason is a suspect in a local murder. He needs to do a tracking ritual to locate Jason, but the motel room is too small. He rents a local house from realtor Lindsey Cole, with whom he also makes a tentative date.

At the rental house, his tracking ritual takes an unexpected turn – his seeking is intercepted by some other consciousness that is first curious, then angry. He also ‘contacts’ Jason, so he at least knows he’s alive. He locates the scene of the recent murder and meditates to see if there are any traces of Jason around. There are, but don’t indicate anger or fear. But the emotional traces of the murder are strong, along with a magical trace of who/what Stone thinks is the murderer. He follows the trace, as he would a tracking ritual, and ends up at a small abandoned barn. Inside, an eviscerated body lies inside a crude circle.

Stone determines the body is not Jason, but nothing more before he’s attacked by three ethereal entities that pummel him in a running battle until his shield fails. They stop immediately, but only because two cops have arrived. They cuff Stone and call for other officers in the area, who then go into the barn at Stone’s insistence. They find the body, and order the first two cops to take Stone in to the station.

Lt. Pete Casner interviews Stone, wanting to know why he’s in Ojai, and how he came to be at the barn. Stone says he’s looking for Jason, then stretches the truth, telling Casner he had a dream that told him to go out there to the barn. Casner is less mystified by Stone’s alleged psychic dream than by the fact that colleges actually teach the occult. He tells Stone to stay out of the way of police, and releases him.

The next day, Stone visits Lindsey Cole, who is frosty toward him until he explains why he stood her up, having found the new body and all. She’s sympathetic because he’s looking for his friend, and offers any help or info a lifelong local can lend, and they agree to meet for dinner at some point before he leaves for Palo Alto.

Stan Lopez contacts Stone and asks to meet with him. It takes Stone a moment to remember the man is a longtime family friend of the Thayers, their dad’s former partner. The meet for lunch and compare notes, with nothing new for either except that Stan didn’t know Stone was connected to the occult. As a cop, he took it in stride but immediately filed it as nonsense. They agree to contact each other if any new information comes up.

Stone finds an ‘arcane’ shop in the area - The Third Eye - and visits it, hoping to find a needle in a haystack. He finds little of interest, but another patron, Suzanne, mentions an open-air shop he should try. He goes to Bart’s Books, and finds several tomes useful to his library, a few of which are actually magical. He’s attacked from behind while browsing, by a local college boy who, once the proprietor stops the attack and the police arrive, claims not to remember even doing it. Realizing he’s dealing with something that can pop in and out of people at will, Stone refuses to press charges, and any medical treatment.

That evening Stone and Lindsey have dinner, then end up at her place. After-ahem-Stone wakes to Lindsey attempting to stab him with a letter opener. While she’s possessed, she warns him to leave, that she (it) has his friend, and it will use everyone in the town to destroy Stone unless he leaves. Once the entity leaves, Lindsey is confused, scared, and yet another potential companion scared off by the arcane side of his life. He leaves as she asks.

Back at the rental house, he fights off sleep and begins journaling what he knows so far, trying to tie together the threads. He dozes off in exhaustion, but is awakened by the police pounding on his door, threatening to break it down. Lindsey has been murdered, and he is the prime suspect.

After repeated questioning by Lt. Casner, Stone is put in a cell on a 72-hour hold. Casner actually seems to doubt his guilt, but his track record of odd, inexplicable events is weighing against him. Stan Lopez visits him, urging him to get a lawyer and to tell him, for what it’s worth, that he believes Stone is innocent. Later, Casner takes him back to the interrogation room. A witness has come forward to say he saw Stone leave a good hour or more before the ME places time of death. Moreover, forensics and the autopsy are indicating that Lindsay somehow stabbed herself. Stone is released, but still despairing over yet another person dying because of their association with him.

Weighing options – basically, leave or stay to find Jason – Stone decides to go forward, and heads to Stan Lopez’s place. He fills Stan in on magic, demonstrating a little. Fortunately, the man is fairly open-minded and level-headed, though he has cause to wonder if local urban legends, like Char Man, are actually real. They discuss how the murders are being perpetrated by an entity that can possess people, and that Jason is somehow being held captive by this thing Stan proposes that Stone stay with him while they investigate, both for convenience and so Stan can alibi Stone if another murder occurs. Stone agrees to move in next day and, before he leaves, blocks Stan’s mind from intrusion.

The next day, Stan reports that the call to the police regarding Lindsey’s murder was from someone who spoke strangely – Stone had explained the entity didn’t seem able to work a human body correctly. He adds that there’s been another murder, during the time Stone was in police custody.

Wanting to find the thing, they head to the Creek Road area where the first murder took place, and hike while Stone scans for magic. He does sense something, but it’s distant, up a fire road into the woods. So they get back in Stan’s truck and drive there. On a dirt road in a remote area, Stone suddenly has Stan stop. He gets out to follow the energy he feels on foot. Quickly he realizes the ambient magic in the area is wrong somehow, and it’s affecting him, but not Stan.

An enormous tree is the focal point of the corruption, and Stan finds a shrine hidden under its roots. Stone is nearly incapacitated by it, and has Stan take photos of the tablets inside, with writing on them. Just then the entity attacks, flinging rocks and huge tree branches out of nowhere. Stone maintains his shield, at least until a really large branch causes it to fail. Stone grabs Stan and levitates them both up, and back toward the truck, where Stone collapses from the magical drain. He’s forced to try a shield again when a green aura surrounds Stan and he begins going for his sidearm, but Stan fights off the possession.

Back at Stan’s the photos come out fine and he prints them out. Thinking the markings may be related to the native Chumash tribe, they head to the local museum. The curator recognizes the writing as Chumash, but he can’t read it, so he sends them to a local professor, an expert. Dr. Garcia is very disturbed by the photos, because they don’t fit with the peaceful history of the Chumash. They amount to a malevolent curse on the people (and their descendants) who wronged the Chumash, by calling on a spirit called He of Many Faces.

At lunch, Stone uses Stan as a sounding board, much like he uses Jason, in order to review the facts of Jason’s disappearance. Something Stan says triggers a thought, and Stone insists they leave immediately and head to the motel Jason stayed at. Stone has concluded that Jason never left it, while Stan wonders how that’s even possible.

Stan uses his cop credentials to get them into Jason’s former room, and Stone searches find his trace, finding it under the bed. He then does a ritual on the bed. He manages to grab hold of Jason, but He of Many Faces sends the motel clerk and two others to break in and interrupt. Stan manages to bull them back out the door while Stone pulls Jason back onto the Earthly plane, and both of them collapse. Stan and a recovering Jason get unconscious Stone back to Stan’s place, where they fill Stone in when he wakes.

For Jason’s part, he seemed to be in a featureless white room, and just felt tired, drained. Stone perks at that, positing that Jason was held for his ‘battery’ capability. Then he and Stan fill Jason in on the murders. Exhausted, they turn in so they can recharge to confront Many Faces.

In the morning, they find out there has been another murder – a triple homicide. The three had to Casner’s office, and Stone convinces him that, even if the occult isn’t real, someone believes it is, and is murdering these people, and he can help. Floored that Jason is back, alive and well, Casner is just grateful to take that off his plate, and agrees to let the group see the new crime scene.

At the scene, Stone opens his magical sight and tells Casner the family killed each other. He then says someone else is in the there, on the scene. They find a little girl hiding in a playhouse out back – she witnessed her family killing each other. Back at Stan’s later, Stone is deep in the reverie he uses to piece things together, and Jason tells Stan to leave him to it. The two head to the library where they find a string of events – one murder and two attempts – that seem to fit the current pattern, but twenty-seven years prior. Jason then asks if Stone has a plan. He says he plans to talk to Faces.

The group head back to the first book shop Stone visited, looking for a ley line map. The proprietor doesn’t have one, but Suzanne, a regular there, does and loans it to Stone. He fills out more of his plan, which requires Jason to keep him powered up while he summons Faces to a place of power that’s remote enough to keep their activities secret.

At a remote place called Matilija Hot Springs, Stone sets up his circle and powers it, only to find that Faces was there waiting, somehow knowing he’d be there. Faces belittles and insults Stone, while the mage exhorts it to leave, its vengeance having been complete long ago. Faces refuses, saying that its resummoning by an unnamed woman was incomplete, so it is now free to do what it pleases. It attacks Stone who tries to fight back, but Jason’s battery power isn’t working. Faces batters all three men, breaking the circle as well. Both Jason and Stan are knocked unconscious and Stone tries to reach them, to get them into the truck, but Faces possesses a bear and attacks Stone physically, giving him major wounds after breaking through his shield. In the haze of pain and battle, Stone hears a woman’s voice call the bear off.

The woman and the two men get Stone to her nearby house, where she heals him, as well as Stan, whose leg had been injured. Hours later when Stone wakes, she says she nearly lost him, though he’s incredibly impressed by her healing ability. She also seems to not care for mages much, calling Stone an arrogant fool. She introduces herself as Edna Soren – one of Faces’ victims from 27 years past. She’d actually been banishing it when she was injured then, though now she says either she didn’t do the job well enough, or someone else summoned it back again.

After some rest, the group puts their heads together to figure out next steps. Stone parses out what Faces told him – it’d been summoned by children the last time, who’d grown in age but not wisdom when they called it this time. Stone recalls Lindsey telling him about her babysitter’s ‘witch club’. Feeling like they’re grasping at straws, they decide to consult the local yearbooks to find her. She’d been Japanese, which would be unusual in the area.

They first visit the corrupt shrine, with Edna helping to block its influence on Stone. She doesn’t think they can do much about it right now, but it does seem to be blood-tied to the summoners and their descendants. Next, at the library, they find the Japanese babysitter in the yearbooks, along with Suzanne Washburn, who’d loaned the ley line map.

Stone contacts Michiko Isaka, the babysitter, who is now a dentist in the Bay Area. She reluctantly fills him in that, yes, they did a ritual 27 years ago, as well as two weeks ago, during a class reunion. She names the members of the group, including Suzanne, the leader. She then asks not to be involved any further.

Stone and Stan Lopez interview Suzanne Washburn next. She’s nervous about Stone, given his arrest, but cooperates, confirming and adding to what Michiko had told him, saying that someone named Carly had joined their group their sophomore year, when the earlier murders occurred. Then she suddenly grabs a cheese knife, her eyes go orange, and she speaks in Faces’ voice, telling Stone he’s done interfering. It tries to make Suzanne stab herself, but Stone grabs the knife away with magic. Stan grabs her arms.

Once she’s herself again, she tells them she’s calling the police, but Stan convinces her to look at the video surveillance recording – he’d noticed the camera. She does, and is shaken that she apparently tried to kill herself. Stone soothes her and tells her they need her help, does she recall any of the rituals her group did… Better than that, she wrote them all, and still has them. She recited the Latin phonetically from one, not believing any of it was real.  Unfortunately, it was an actual ritual to summon an unspecified entity, guided by will. Stone believes one of the girls did have something specific in mind.

Stone convinces Suzanne that they need to speak to the others as soon as possible. She calls Karen, who is closest, only to have Faces answer and tell her to warn  that his previous agony is nothing compared to what is coming. They head to Karen’s – Suzanne included – to try to stop her from harming herself. They’re too late, and Casner nearly explodes to find them at the scene. Stone and Stan finally convince him to let them continue their investigations, since Casner admits the police are getting nowhere.

Back at Suzanne’s, Stone asks her to call the remaining women to check on them, starting with Carly. He suspects she was the catalyst for Faces to appear. But Carly won’t speak to any of them, and sounds very inebriated. Stone and Jason head up to Carly’s a couple hours’ away. On the drive. Jason expresses some of his frustration at being the third wheel with Stone and Verity, especially now that his power isn’t working. Stone is worried, but Jason shuts down further discussion.

At Carly’s apartment, a breaking window alert the pair to trouble inside, and burst in to stop a man from raping Carly. After the police have left, Stone tries to get Carly to help them, but she wants nothing to do with her former girlfriends. Stone takes a different tack, asking about the window. Apparently, Carly is a low-level mage, never identified or trained. Things just ‘happen’ when she’s stressed or threatened. Jason breaks in to tell Stone that Stan says to get back ASAP, Faces has killed five more people.

Rushing now, Stone convinces Carly that she has magic, and that’s what gave the summoning power, and she’s a descendant of the ones who originally summoned it. He even demonstrates his own magic, and promises he can help her control hers.

Once the make it to Stan’s house, Edna tells them more murders have happened, especially at an open-air concert downtown, and a near-riot situation is taking place. On the radio in Stan’s truck, they hear that some of the people are refusing to disperse, and acting irrationally. They make it to the site, and Jason cautions everyone, because mobs of people, even unpossessed, are dangerous.

Several of the hundreds of people in the park are possessed. Edna diverts two who attack, while Jason disarms a third. Stone reaches Lt. Casner, who tells him get out or be arrested, he has enough to deal with. Suddenly, Sgt. Aguirre aims his pistol at Casner, his eyes glowing orange. Stone shields him in time, and Casner is an instant believer, while Aguirre is dumbfounded at what he’d just done. Unfortunately, Casner is then possessed by Faces, who tells Stone they will all die – except Carly, who it’s just spotted. He also says that while she’s safe from it, she also can’t stop it. Then Faces exits Casner.

There is too much chaos in the park, so Stone and crew decide to take Faces on where he lives, back at the original tree shrine. When they get there, Stone begins to draw his circle, while the others keep watch. Something is trying to get into his head, telling him a bear is coming, reminding him of how he’d nearly died last time. Then a branch comes down and destroys the circle, barely missing Stone. Jason is injured. Small tornadoes spring up to attack them, one attempting to carry Carly away until Stone grabs her and levitates her back to the group. Once more, the voices are telling him the bear is coming, he can hear it… Edna slaps him and tells to get it together.

With Edna shielding, Stone tells Carly to concentrate on telling Faces to go away, go home, while he reads an invocation to send Faces back. When it’s time for Carly to speak, she’s mesmerized, suddenly seeing the magic all around. She blasts a small tree, then accuses Stone of lying, that he never planned to teach her about the magic. Faces is feeding her power and telling her lies to thwart them It also send a blast of power out, scattering the group except Carly. They all get back into place except Stan, who’s missing.

Faces tells Stone he can’t send it back in any case, that he’s forgotten how it came to be. Stone and then Edna both realize a sacrifice is required. They and Jason all volunteer, tell Carly they’ll be the sacrifice, but she needs to send Faces back. Instead, she magically grabs Jason’s machete and impales herself with it, yelling at Faces to go home. As she dies, Faces is sucked into a rift at the tree, the power building up. With no time to run – Lopez is under a tree, but unconscious - Stone and Edna fling up shields, but Edna’s fails; she’s out of power. Jason yells at Stone to take power from him, and this time it works, just as the rift collapses and the tree explodes.

A couple of days later, Verity arrives to help out, with Stan banged up, and Jason with a broken arm. But what Stone really wants is for her to meet Edna, whose magic style is much more in line with Verity’s strengths. She and Edna hit it off, and Verity decides to stay to train with her. Jason then announces he’ll be staying in the area too, with Stan, to finally get his life on track with a purpose: He’ll be taking classes and shadowing professionals, in order to get his Private Investigator license. The thirty-two deaths in the town are never successfully explained, and the people of Ojai will be a long time healing from the trauma.