An Act of Hodd Read online

  An Act of Hodd

  The Mysteries of Bell & Whitehouse - Book 9

  Nic Saint

  Puss in Print Publications

  Contents

  An Act of Hodd

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Excerpt from Between a Ghost and a Spooky Place

  About Nic

  Also by Nic Saint

  An Act of Hodd

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  When Felicity Bell gets a surprise visit from a man dressed in a golden skin suit, threatening to destroy Happy Bays and all of its inhabitants if she doesn’t return the ring she stole, she can only assume it’s a prank her friends are playing on her. But then soon people start disappearing and strange happenings take place, and she discovers both the man of gold and his threats are very real indeed.

  The Ring of Hodd has fallen into the wrong hands, and as Felicity and Alice dig deeper, they discover the shocking truth behind Bell’s Bakery’s inception, and the old rivalry between Fee’s grandfather Peter Bell, who founded the bakery in 1938, and Marcel Le Corbusier, Bell’s biggest competitor.

  Now it’s up to Felicity and Alice and the other members of the Happy Bays Neighborhood Watch Committee to find the lost Ring of Hodd before it’s too late, and both Happy Bays and its sister realm of Allard are permanently destroyed and its citizens enslaved…

  Will Felicity and Alice save Happy Bays and the Asgardian Realm from destruction?

  Will police officer Virgil Scattering finally find love in the arms of an Asgardian royal?

  Will Chazz Falcone secure his bid for the presidency and move into the White House?

  Find out in An Act of Hodd, the ninth Bell & Whitehouse.

  Chapter 1

  Felicity looked up with a frown. She’d been deeply engrossed in the latest Jennifer Boiler book. Called Hunky Dory, it told the story of Vivianne Dory, illegitimate daughter of Rich Cash, billionaire owner of the New York Giants, and her passionate yet vengeful tryst with Taylor Hunk, the Giants’ roguishly handsome linebacker, who just happened to be married to Rich Cash’s legitimate daughter Fanny Cash. So far the story was extremely riveting, but that was before odd whirring sounds intruded upon her reading experience.

  “Alice? Is that you?” she yelled.

  When no response came, she returned to her reading and was soon deeply identified with the charming yet flawed heroine of Miss Boiler’s latest romp.

  When the same whirring sound reached her ears once again, she clucked her tongue in annoyance. It couldn’t be her fiancé Rick Dawson, for the reporter was in New York right now for an assignment. And it couldn’t be Alice’s fiancé Reece Hudson either because he was in Vancouver shooting his next blockbuster.

  “Alice?” she called out once again. “Is that you, honey?”

  It would have surprised her greatly if it had been her best friend and housemate, for Alice had sent her a message only one hour before to let her know she was running late, as she was putting in overtime at the mortuary.

  As far as she knew, she was alone in the house, or at least she was the only human present. She was actually glad to have this rare moment of peace and quiet. She’d put in a full day at the bakery, which was always a genuine beehive, and since she and Alice shared the house with Rick and Reece, it rarely happened that she had the place all to herself. She’d soaked for the longest time in the tub, spritzing scented oils with abandon, had done her nails, and now, taking the occasional sip from her glass of vino, reclining on the couch, her feet up on the footstool, she was really unwinding.

  She darted a quick look over at Gaston, her big, red tomcat, but he was ensconced on the other couch, taking a leaf out of his master’s book by resting peacefully. Spot, the ghost dog they’d adopted, was lying in his basket next to the bookcase, and Tony, the ghost pony Reece had been gifted by an old friend, was out in the garden, probably chewing on an imaginary blade of grass and thinking about nothing in particular. And she knew that out in the backyard their two chickens Eugenie and Beatrice would be scurrying about as usual, working up the energy to deliver another egg into this world.

  The entire menagerie, in other words, was at peace and not in the mood to produce odd whirring sounds and disturb Felicity’s rare alone time.

  She shook her head, her red curls dangling about her cherubic features, and sighed. She was reluctant to put the book aside, for Vivianne Dory had just told Taylor Hunk she’d only seduced him so she could wreak vengeance upon her father, who’d refused to recognize her as his daughter after impregnating her disabled hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold mother.

  With a frown creasing her brow, she rose from the comfy couch and made her way to the hallway, where the sound seemed to be coming from.

  “Anyone here?” she called out, feeling a bit silly to be talking to no one. But then again, she and Alice had recently gotten involved with a team of ghost hunters, so she knew that even when you thought you were alone, some ghost might be there. Ghosts were not a shy breed, she had discovered, and had a habit of popping up when you least expected them. They’d even had the gall to show up in her bedroom, waking her up in the middle of the night.

  “Show yourself,” she now said, her voice forceful enough to draw out even the timidest wraith. Felicity was a full-figured young woman, and both her voice and carriage indicated she wasn’t one to be trifled with.

  As if in response to her statement, the whirring intensified, and she followed it into the corridor, deciding to figure out its source once and for all.

  Her eyes first flitted to the hallway credenza, laden with knickknacks and other paraphernalia and the very nice key dish Alice had picked up when they were over in England. It depicted Queen Elizabeth II, though whether the monarch would appreciate having her face act as a key receptacle she could only surmise. Then her eyes darted down, and she saw to her surprise that a small disk was hovering an inch above the doormat, neatly obscuring the face of Gaston, in whose honor Rick had had the doormat custom-made.

  The first thought that entered her mind was that the disk was part of Rick’s collection of Star Wars memorabilia. It looked like a small spaceship of some kind, though why she thought this was hard to put into words. Perhaps because a closer scrutiny brought home the fact that the disk was… spinning.

  She stared at the object, and wondered why on earth Rick would have left it out, and why on earth he would have left it on, for if this Starship Enterprise or Endeavor or whatever the spacecrafts on Star Wars were called kept on spinning much longer, the batteries would soon be dead.

  So she stooped down to pick up the toy and switch it off. And it was then that the disk startled her by suddenly zooming up into the air as if yanked up by an invisible string, and practically knocking her on the chin.

  She yelped in surprise, and abruptly stumbled back, landing on her tush.

  She stared at the object, transfixed, and when a disembodied voice suddenly intoned, “Greetings, Felicity Bell. I’ve co
me to collect what is rightfully mine!” she yelped again, and this time more forcefully so.

  Chapter 2

  “Greetings, um, Han Solo,” she said, figuring this was probably one of Alice’s little jokes. And if it wasn’t, her mother had always taught her to be polite and return a greeting with a greeting, so there was that. Then the import of what the voice had said came home to her, and she added, “Wait, what do you mean you’ve come to collect what’s rightfully yours?”

  “I am Severin Lobb, Allardian guardian, and I’m on a retrieval mission.”

  “Retrieval mission for what?” she asked, thinking that they made these toys so incredibly real these days. She wondered where the voice was coming from, though, as it sounded too robust to be coming from the disk’s no doubt tiny and tinny speaker system.

  “I am on a mission to reacquire the Ring of Hodd.”

  “Oh, you lost your ring, huh? Happens to me all the time. The secret is to keep it in the same place. Like a jewelry box? That way you’ll always know where to find it.” She eyed the disk amusedly, deciding to play along with the joke.

  “The Ring of Hodd has been missing for close to eighty years and is presumed to be in the possession now of the fiend Mortdecai, whose sole purpose it is to destroy Allard and turn it into a living hell. If he’s not stopped before it is too late it will be the end of the world as we know it.”

  “Isn’t it always, though?” she asked with a wide grin. She was darting anxious looks around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. It was almost as if it came from inside her own head!

  “You are a known associate of Mortdecai, Felicity Bell!” the voice boomed, clearly not amused, “and your day of reckoning has now come! You will denounce your dastardly ruler and surrender to me, or you will perish!”

  She giggled. This was so neat! “Look, buddy, why don’t you just show your face, huh? I mean, it’s not very nice to talk like that to a lady and hide out in that, um, spaceship of yours, if you know what I mean.”

  There was a momentary lull in the conversation as the owner of the voice seemed to contemplate this. “You are right,” the voice came back. “I will show myself to you.”

  She giggled again. Now this was going to be interesting.

  But then, before her astonished eyes, there was a sudden shimmer distorting the air before her, like asphalt on a hot summer day. Suddenly the air was alive with dancing particles of light and swirls of a purplish mist. And as both particles and mist solidified and formed a definite shape, she scrambled back. Amazing, she thought. And right on the heels of this, a second thought: no way Alice is behind this. This thing has Hollywood written all over it.

  And since there was only one Hollywooder on her list of acquaintances, namely Reece Hudson, it was obvious who was playing this little trick on her.

  And as she watched, eyes wide and peeled, her lips parted in astonished rapture, like one watching one’s first IMAX feature or a New Year’s Eve fireworks display, the air was alive with shifting colors and shapes, until they morphed into the figure of a man. He was dressed in a gold skin suit with a billowing blue cape, straight out of some corny old superhero movie. He was handsome, with long platinum hair, a serious expression on his noble features and cool blue eyes locked on hers with an unwavering intensity. If she had to venture a guess she would have pegged him a youthful thirtyish, and definitely one of Reece’s more weird actor buddies.

  “Wow,” was the only thing she managed as she stared at the apparition. Then, to make sure he got it right, she repeated, “Wow.” Then she glanced around. “Reece! Come out, come out, wherever you are!”

  “I don’t know who Reece is,” intoned the man, his tone grave and deep. “But I do know one cannot venture into an alliance with Mortdecai without harboring a deeply villainous disposition. And yet you seem so very wholesome, Felicity Bell. Wholesome and well-nourished, I might add.”

  She frowned at him and planted her hands on her wide hips. “If that’s a fancy way of telling me I’m fat then you better apologize right away, buster.”

  “You would do well to apologize to me!” he suddenly roared, sweeping up his arm in a threatening gesture. “As the official emissary of Allard’s House of Hodd I’m sanctioned to use any means necessary to reacquire the Ring of Hodd!”

  “Yes, well, that’s all very well and good,” she said, wondering who’d written this guy’s script. It was a little heavy on the sudden plots twists, she thought, and though the guy was definitely a gifted actor, he was chewing up the scenery like there was no tomorrow. “But I don’t have your ring, buddy. In fact I’ve never even heard of this Mortdecai character, except for the Johnny Depp movie, of course, which I thought was hilarious,” she quickly added, in case he’d get all worked up about that as well.

  The man was now lowering his head, glowering at her from beneath his brows. The effect was disconcerting to say the least, but she still felt he was overdoing it a tad, and was making mental notes on his performance to discuss with him later on, when all this was over. “We’ve long suspected that you were in cahoots with the nefarious Mortdecai and now I’m certain.” He suddenly thrust out his fist, then spread his fingers. “Give me the Ring of Hodd or face the wrath of Allard, Felicity Bell!”

  She stared at the empty hand, wondering why this ring was so important, but then figured the screenwriter hadn’t had a lot of inspiration. So, with a sigh, she grabbed the first ring she found from Queen Elizabeth’s face and placed it in the man’s hand. “Here you go, buddy. Knock yourself out.” It was a ring Alice had recently won at the Happy Bays carnival, she saw. Some piece of plastic junk with pink colored glass for a stone. She wouldn’t miss it.

  He eyed the ring seriously. “Do you vow this is the ring you have stolen? The ring with which you have helped set up Mortdecai in his own realm?”

  “Sure,” she said with a grin. “Whatever you say, bud.” She now wondered if this was one of those cosplay things. She’d heard a lot about it but had never been in one. “Now why don’t you go back into that tiny spaceship of yours and return to Ashtray to free your rulers, huh? I’m sure they’re awaiting your return anxiously.” She uttered these last words in the same overly dramatic tone he employed, deciding to have some fun with it.

  “I am glad you have decided to give up the Ring of the House of Hodd without a fight. Now you must renounce Mortdecai once and for all.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I renounce Mortdecai. This is so cool! How do you do it?”

  He ignored this outburst, balling his fist and trapping Alice’s key inside it. Then he shook it. “Don’t repeat this foul and repellent behavior, Felicity Bell. Association with Mortdecai is punishable by death, and next time you entertain his presence in your realm, I will not hesitate to crush both you and your realm with an iron fist. There will be no mercy on my part!”

  This took her aback a little. “Destroy my realm? With that silly spaceship of yours? I’d like to see you try, buster.”

  “Don’t let the size of my vessel fool you! It is a weapon of destruction so powerful and sinister it could wipe out this realm in a heartbeat!”

  Felicity wondered how he’d manage that, but then figured the guy was just grandstanding. She decided to call his bluff. “I don’t believe you, buddy. You and that spinning casserole couldn’t put a dent in this realm if you tried.”

  He stared at her with a deep frown creasing his brow. If he wasn’t careful that thing was going to create a rut so deep even Silly Putty wouldn’t fix it. “I see now why Mortdecai has chosen you,” he growled. “You are a brazen one, Felicity Bell! I’m starting to wonder if your renunciation of Mortdecai was but a ploy to throw me off your scent.” He held up the ring. “Is this even the Ring of Hodd or have you foisted some old detritus upon me? Speak, mortal!”

  “I, um…” she began.

  “By the powers vested in me by King Hodd, ruler of Allard and head of the House of Hodd, I issue a first warning!” he roared, raising his fist high.
/>   Suddenly, it was as if a lightning storm broke out in the middle of the hallway. The ceiling opened up and dark, purple clouds swirled, flashes of light slashing the air, and then just as abruptly the world was plunged into darkness, a vortex opening up above her with a deafening roar, and then she was pulled up, sucked up into the swirling mass of dark clouds. And as she felt her body rising ever higher, it was almost as if she was being swallowed up into an entire galaxy that was housed right there in her ceiling. The moment she passed through the vortex, she could see stars twinkling, and then she was soaring, moving higher and faster with every passing second.

  She yelled, “Reece, this is so great!” but it was as if her body had been sucked into a void, her own voice sounding distant and far away, and just as suddenly as she’d been cast away into her very own milky way, the bottom dropped out from under her and she was falling faster and faster, her stomach churning as if she were on a rollercoaster going down. She laughed and whooped at the familiar sensation of tumbling down from a great height and then, when she thought things couldn’t get any weirder, she heard Reece’s actor friend’s voice booming in her ears.

  “Will you halt all your associations with Mortdecai?!” he roared.

  “Yeah, sure!” she yelled back. This was even better than Jennifer Boiler!

  A hush fell over the world as silence suddenly returned, and as she fell to earth, her hair whipping in the wind, her cheeks fluttering, she thought this must be what it felt like to jump from an airplane! And as her body tumbled through the air, twisting and turning, she laughed loudly, then screamed with mirth. She didn’t know how Reece had pulled this off, but it was way cool!

  “Very well, then,” the voice boomed in her inner ear. “Consider this a warning, Felicity Bell. A small demonstration of my power. If you thwart me again, or harbor the evil slayer Mortdecai, your realm will be annihilated!”