Viper Moon Read Online Free Page A

go into the ruins, either. I know a lot about the Barrows. What I don’t know could fill an encyclopedia. Did it appear suddenly or was it created when the earth was formed? Every time I go there, I see and learn something new. Things that should be fixed in time and place often change. People change. The Barrows epitomizes the bizarre.
    According to Abby, there is a place in the Barrows where the distance between worlds is thin. It is a doorway to the universe. A doorway to multiple worlds. I see science programs on TV speculating about the existence of other worlds, other universes. Abby says they need to keep on speculating. The Barrows is a seething cauldron of forces that do not belong in this world. All it takes is the right time, the right place, and something or someone can walk through into our world. In the Barrows, I’m usually the one who gets to deal with those walkers.
    The worst thing about the Barrows is the windows where dark power seeps in. Windows where intelligent evil creatures can watch and influence this world. It is from one of these windows that the Darkness spreads his influence, and has been spreading for some time. The Earth Mother holds her ring of power around the Barrows, a ring upon which he constantly pushes. That ring is the only protection we have against those who do not belong here. Abby says See but don’t see is the Mother’s doing. She wants to keep people away as much as possible. Once inside, they make an easy transition into the service of evil.
    Unlike the sewer monsters, who are nothing more than animals, the Darkness has no physical form in the Barrows, at least none that I know of. There are a lot of things I don’t know. I keep myself honed in on the moment and on my job—on what I can change. I try to leave the big questions to those with bigger brains. I do know that the Darkness’s power is real. It’s like being in an empty room, but knowing in your gut you aren’t alone. Sometimes it’s watchful; sometimes it’s filled with rage. It terrifies me. But I don’t let it control me.
    Ten years ago, when I first came to Duivel, Abby told me I had to rescue special children, get them out of the Barrows. To me, all children, then and now, are special. To Abby and the Mother, all are precious, too, but apparently some are . . . different. I keep looking for the why. Why are these special and others ordinary? No one, neither Abby nor the Mother, has ever enlightened me. I have, over the years, learned to feel a difference in some of them, though. It’s as if some carry a link to the Darkness that makes them powerful in some way. Sometimes this power leads to evil, especially if they lead troubled lives. I don’t believe any kid is a hopeless case, though. If you remove a child from an evil place and raise that child with kindness, love, and good discipline, he or she can usually be saved.
    Detective Flynn, like most people in Duivel, gaze across the deeper Barrows without seeing it. His Barrows consists of only the businesses that line River Street and the docks. The spell holds him, so he doesn’t believe the multitude of wild stories about me. Or he believes they’re a cover for criminal acts—which they sometimes are. Apparently it’s against the law to beat the hell out someone abusing a kid when you catch him in the act.
    If Selene is in the Barrows, I’ll find her. Getting her out might be a little harder.
    I needed to talk to Abby. I could probably mooch supper, too, if I hung out long enough. In deference to the heat, I pulled my hair up in a ponytail and dug out shorts and a pair of sandals.
    Now that booze-free blood surged through my veins, I rationalized a bit. I’d probably realized I was too drunk to get home safely, so I parked the car before I hurt someone, including myself. The car keys lay on the kitchen counter where I usually dropped them. Horus, Nirah, and Nefertiti would keep each other company until I returned.
    I headed down the stairs, out