The Infernal Heart

The Infernal Heart

Original Cover

## Blurb

**To face the heart of evil, don't go alone**

When a police detective approaches Alastair Stone to consult on a grisly occult-related murder, he initially considers it nothing more than an intriguing puzzle to fill a few dull late-summer hours.

But then the detective becomes a victim, and the murderer begins taunting Stone, daring him to discover the truth before more of his friends join the list of targets.

As he delves deeper into the case, Stone soon learns that the murderer isn't human—and has committed similar crimes in the past. Why has it resurfaced again after all these years, and how can Stone stop something that can move without a trace?

Aided by a devout young woman with secrets of her own, an elderly researcher, and a cat with a bizarre connection to one of the victims, Stone must call up new depths of courage as he tracks the killer to its horrific lair. But when he finds it, will he be strong enough to destroy it?

## Plot

At a construction site in Milpitas, California, backhoe operator Dennis Avila unearths a small, carved stone box. Thinking it might be valuable, he secretes it away and takes it home. He opens the box to find a carved cross and a dried human heart – which speaks to him. Raider, his tabby cat, witnesses Dennis cutting his own throat, the growth of the black heart, and the black figure that takes form.

At his office at Stanford, Alastair Stone receives a visit from San Jose police Detective Johnny Cheng regarding a recent murder that might have occult connections. The victim was bled out, skinned and dismembered, but the skin and blood were not found at the scene. In addition, strange sigils and ritual components were found around the body, and the man’s liver was missing. Stone confirms that the setup is some primitive kind of ritual, but nothing he’s seen before.

## Quotes and One-liners

“Our Alastair ’as taken up a second career as some sort of magical avenger, looks like.” Eddie

A check with Stan Lopez, via Jason, reveals that two similar murders had occurred recently, in which the two victims were missing their eyes and the tongue, respectively. Following this, Cheng tells Stone about a new murder in which the victim is missing their stomach, and is able to get Stone into the crime scene. It is similar to the others, and he determines that the ‘dirt’ used in the ritual is actually human feces, and a cross was desecrated. Stone’s psychic impressions leave him sure someone – more than one – is trying to summon something, perhaps a ‘demon’. He instructs Cheng to look for other religiously-connected crimes while he researches the sigils used.

Because Stone’s name has made it into the papers in connection with the investigation, his students are curious and distracted. He humors them with their questions, then challenges them to find the source of several sigils he draws for them, as an extra credit assignment. Cheng tells Stone he’s off the case, because the brass are getting heat from the public about the occult angle, but asks him to unofficially keep helping. He also sends Stone photos from a suicide in which a man cut his own throat, and a strange box and cross were found with the body.

The symbols on the box and cross are in Enochian -angelic – script, while the ones from the murders, he believes, are demonic. Stone doesn’t believe in those entities, but knows of other planes with beings that fit the descriptions. The script amounts to a ward, and a warning not to release whatever had been inside the box. While pondering this, Stone gets a call from someone claiming to be the murderer, who warns him to back off, and asks him why he hasn’t heard back from Cheng. Alastair calls the police department looking for Cheng and, when told he isn’t around, warns them about the call and that Cheng might be in danger. He’s told in no uncertain terms to stay off the case and quit bothering them.

He tries Avila’s apartment, finagling his way in with magic and a good cover story. There, he’s convinced the residual energy is connected to the murders – it feels the same. He also learns that Avila’s cat had witnessed the events and, having become unmanageable, been surrendered to a shelter. He rescues Raider, once again with magic and subterfuge, and enlists a student, Brandon Greene, to set him up with cat necessities.

Stone is summoned to the San Jose Police Department, where Captain Flores informs him that Cheng has been murdered in the same way as the other victims, and questions him about the call he received. Later, he finds Raider has trashed the bathroom he’d been locked in. He calms the cat enough to read him, getting his cat’s-eye view of Avila’s suicide, and the shadowy entity released from the box. When he wakes from the vision, Raider has clawed him up and disappeared under the armoire, refusing to come out. Stone leaves him to calm down while he visits the site where the box was likely discovered but, other than a mysterious figure that disappears, he finds nothing useful.

The next day he follows Brandon Greene’s advice arranges for Edwina Mortensen – as a dedicated cat owner - to visit his house and see if she can coax Raider into coming out and being reasonable, though he really has no intention of keeping him. Then he revisits the construction site when no one else is around. He’s attacked by several brick-throwing entities that nearly overwhelm him, but he escapes. But not before seeing a tall figure in black that matches what he saw in Raider’s memories.

Stone enlists a colleague and former girlfriend, Maria Alvarez, to try to track down and get him access to the carved box and cross. Then Mortensen comes to his home to meet Raider. She has no problem with him at all, using toys and catnip to entice him to her. She leaves Stone with some more necessities and advice on dealing with cats, but says she has her hands full with her three, so can’t take Raider herself.

Another murder occurs, so Stone makes time to go to Surrey via portal. His own library doesn’t help him with the sigils, so he enlists the help of Eddie Monkton and Arthur Ward. After much research into the demonic language, they conclude that the entity has been building its body from its victims, and possibly plans to use the skin and blood to write and bind a grimoire. They also interpret the sigils at Cheng’s murder to be directed at Stone, saying the detective’s death is his fault.

Later, at the Dancing Dragon, Stone is morose. Eddie and Ward eventually beg off and go home. Shortly after, the tall dark figure joins Stone in his booth. The demon, whom Stone dubs ‘Archie’, after a school bully, warns Stone that he can’t stop him. If he continues to interfere, others may pay the price – Archie knows entirely too much about Stone’s friends and activities. He also tells Stone that he’s got plans for him, when he’s ready. Then he disappears.

On his way to the Tube, Alastair is accosted by a strange one-eyed woman, then some young toughs. After more terrifying events unfold, Stone catches on that Archie is feeding him illusions, and awakes in the pub, safe. He goes home and sleeps for hours in exhaustion, waking to find Raider cuddled up with him.

On Maria’s advice, Stone visits St. Joseph’s Cathedral Basilica and interviews Fr. Reed about the Milpitas land and the box discovered there. The Father agrees the land likely once belonged to the Church, at least informally. He also recognizes the type of box, and the symbols on it, though he can’t read it. He begins to chafe when Stone (overheard by an unobtrusive woman also in the room) tells him the box was intended to contain a demon. Not getting much from the discussion, Stone decides Maria getting him access to the box may be his best bet.

Back at Stanford, he receives a voice message from a Grace Ruiz, warning him not to pursue demons. Angry, he speaks to her, assuming it’s Archie playing games. But she seems on the level, and concerned. He agrees to meet with her at a street market. Before he can leave his office, a student brings him his extra credit paper. He’s found information on the symbols used in the murders at the Rosicrucian Museum library, a resource Stone hadn’t considered.

He meets Grace, who is a very devout Catholic, and warns him against pursuing demons, even though he assures her they aren’t real and he’s just researching. Becoming very upset, Grace tells him demons are real; her brother had been possessed. Feeling he doesn’t believe her, she leaves, but with his direct number.

At the Rosicrucian Library, Stone researches his student’s sources and other books, but isn’t making headway. The librarian, though, recalls another scholar researching the same subjects. He gives her his contact information so they can get in touch and compare notes if she can reach him. Then Grace calls and says she’s seen his demon. They agree to meet at a diner.

Her description of what she’d seen matches Archie’s shadowy minions. It told her she shouldn’t have talked to Stone, and tried to kill her, but she rebuked it with a prayer and fled. She then remembers Fr. Reed also spoke to Stone, and he’s not in the safety of the church, but ministering to an elderly parishioner.

The two race to the old man’s home and bedroom, to find Fr. Reed badly wounded, still trying to protect the old man, and Archie’s minions attacking. Stone begins flinging magic, but the minions are becoming overwhelming, and the noncombatants in the room are in danger. He retreats, beginning a running fight through the house as the minions follow. Then Grace screams – another has broken into the bedroom. Stone manages to defeat them, with Grace’s prayers slowing them down, though he takes a knife wound. He retreats to his car to hide and heal while Grace calls 911 and deals with the police, claiming a home invasion.

They regroup to talk at Grace’s home and check on her grandmother. Her *Abuelita* is grumpy and suspicious of Stone, but then insists on giving him tea, as a guest. Realizing that talking now would be difficult, they arrange to meet for lunch. Intending to ward the house before leaving, Stone discovers it’s completely enveloped in warm golden wards unlike anything he’d seen before – except in a church back east. Stone suspects that Grace – and possibly *Abuelita* – have magic.

At lunch, Grace says the old man has died of heart failure, but Fr. Reed, while not injured as badly as first thought, will recover. Then she asks how Stone did the things he did. She actually accepts his explanation of magic, but reinterprets it to be a power gifted from God. She relates the story of her brother’s possession, and how she cast out the demon herself.

They begin to argue, with Stone pointing out the wards on the house, Grace expelling a demon, and Fr. Reed’s partially-healed wounds as evidence that Grace is a mage. She counters that all she does is God’s will, with His power, not her own. She shuts him down and goes back to work. In his car, Stone learns on the radio that Archie’s minions have struck again – at Stanford.

Found in a little-used lecture hall, these victims – two – are not dismembered, though otherwise fit the pattern. All over the room’s whiteboard, the symbol for ‘stone’ is repeated in blood. Despite using disregarding and invisibility, Stone is nearly caught on the scene. As a return insult to Archie, he disguises himself as the demon, taunts the men who spotted him, then vanishes.

Later, Stone fields calls from Grace, reassuring her he’s fine; Simon Beal, the demonic language researcher who says he’s flying up to San Francisco ASAP; and Jason, who’s heard of the Stanford murders. The next is Capt. Flores. He relates details of the latest murders – a brain and two kidneys missing – and the sighting of the red-eyed man in the long black coat. He essentially invites Stone back on the case, unofficially, and agrees to let him have copies of the crime scene photos.

When Beal arrives, they set up in a conference room, and Beal relates the tale of a demon in Malpitas that corrupted a priest and began corrupting the flock. Another priest and another man said to have magic vanquished it. The man, Robert Goodwin, supposedly recorded the details for his descendants – in case. Beal is delighted to help, and have a fellow with the same interests, and shares his papers with Stone.

Moving fast now, Stone enlists the Rosicrucian librarian to find Goodwin’s house. Jason calls with information on the location of the reliquary box, at San Jose State, and Stone calls Maria to try to get him access to it. Beal calls, and is thrilled to learn that Stone may have a way to find Godwin’s legacy.

With Grace as lookout, and with a great deal of difficulty, Stone breaks in to Goodwin’s former home and locates a wrapped book he’d hidden for his descendants. After retrieving the item, he’s attacked by Archie’s minions, and Archie himself, trying to get the book. Archie gets into Stone’s head with illusions, and infers he has plans for Stone, but Stone manages to drive them off, while Grace – astonishingly – confronts Archie and he flees. The minions remain, but Stone finally destroys the last of them. Injured, but still retaining the book, he goes with Grace to her place. Grace – or God – heals Stone’s bruises and broken ribs, then *Abuelita* insists he leave, *pronto*.

Behind wards, Stone opens the package and finds two items. The first is a detailed account of Goodwin’s battle against the demon, along with a priest. They had to settle for imprisoning its heart because he couldn’t discover how to travel to its domain to kill it outright. The second is a stack of sheets of human skin, inscribed with blood. Stone’s can’t read them, but he knows Archie wants them back. He can use them as bait – and travel to the demon’s domain to kill him. He falls in to hours of research, to find information on that plane, and how to get there.

Beal asks him to lunch, and shows him more papers he’d forgotten he had. On examining them, Stone discovers one hold the True Name of a demon who’d betrayed Archie in the past. He conceives a plan to confront Archie on his home plane, with the assistance of his betrayer, since he has the name to bind it with. He asks Grace’s help, but she refuses to have anything to do with calling demons. She does give him a crucifix, though, to protect him.

Stone’s summoning succeeds, and he convinces the demon he’d called to take him over to his plane so he can kill Archie. The demon agrees, and even provides him with an illusion of the landscape his human mind can grasp – the English countryside and his old school, Barrow, a hell-forged weapon – and a disguise. It’s all a ruse, though. The helpful demon works for Archie.

Stone is captured and stripped of his ‘protections’, including Grace’s crucifix. Stunned unconscious, he wakes naked, in a suspended cage. Archie tortures him by heating the cage bars. He wants Stone’s skin and blood for the cover of his book, and threatens Grace and all his friends if Alastair doesn’t cooperate. Knowing he’s running out of time to get back to his body before it dies, Stone uses Harrison’s magic to blast out of his cage, retrieve the crucifix, and snap back to the Earthly plane.

Grace is there, in his home, begging him to wake up. He fills her in on what’s happened, minus the really nasty bits, but she infers them. He also thanks her – her crucifix saved him. Then he hurries to destroy Archie’s book, knowing he has to find Archie fast, and try to destroy him on the Earthly plane.

He and Grace break into the office where Archie’s box is locked away, steal it, and do a ritual to track Archie. He’s back in Milpitas, in a church. Looking angelic, he’s exhorting the parishioners – who all seem entranced – to follow him and they’ll take over the world. Then he sets them on Stone and Grace, the ‘blasphemers’. A battle ensues, and Archie nearly has Stone, but Alastair uses his waning energy to impale Achie with a cross. The demon collapses into a pile of clothes and rotting organs.

However, before Stone can grab the heart and imprison it back in the box, Simon Beal arrives. He’s been Archie’s acolyte all along, feeding Stone bits of information to manipulate him into confronting Archie, as well as retrieving the first book Archie had made. He shoots Stone and makes off with the heart. When Alastair wakes again a short time later, he’s weak from blood loss, but his wound is healed, thanks to Grace.

Stone is determined to find Beal and retrieve the heart, but Grace, now committed, says it’s not enough – he has to end Archie on his own plane, permanently. She and Abuelita finally persuade him, and *Abuelita* gives him a cheap souvenir sword she’d prayed over – it glows with golden light.

When Stone arrives on Archie’s plane, he’s confronted by a large group of Archie’s demons in front of a strange black building. Archie appears and orders them to take him, but the sword and crucifix keep them from trying. Alastair taunts Archie, and tells the gathered demons he already defeated their master the previous night, and he’s weak. He blasts Archie, to no effect, and points out to the gathering that their boss isn’t even there in thee flesh, he’s an illusion. Archie disappears.

Stone uses the sword to cut through into the building and finds Archie in his true form, but pale, and flabby, twisted and broken. Despite the demon’s last-ditch effort to trap Stone and render him powerless, Alastair kills him, permanently.

Back on the Earthly plane, Stone and Grace go to Beal’s hotel to retrieve the heart, but the place is surrounded by police and milling hotel employees. Talking with a couple of them, Stone finds out Beal has apparently – exploded. About the same time Stone killed Archie. Captain Flores is there, and Stone tells him Beal was the murderer and the killings will stop now.

Alastair decides Raider isn’t so bad to have around, and he’ll keep him.