Sins of the Demon

Chapter 18

After the others departed, I headed down to the basement and looked forlornly at the pristine floor. Even though I’d semi-promised myself earlier this year that I’d be better about concealing all signs of my summonings between rituals, my resolve to do so hadn’t lasted long. It was one thing when I’d only been summoning once a month, but when I started doing so more often it was tough to convince myself to scrub everything down when I’d only need to redraw it the next day or so. Plus, the power storage diagram kind of worked better when it wasn’t erased.

With a sigh I dug through my implements and found the tourniquet and syringe. The “traditional” way to get the blood necessary for the creation of a diagram involved a sharp knife and any of the veins in the forearm. Screw that. This summer I’d trained myself to use the same sort of equipment that phlebotomists used when taking blood. Helluva lot easier, hurt less, and I didn’t end up with scars all up and down my arms.

Luckily I only needed a couple of syringe-fulls to mix with the chalk. It took nearly an hour, but by the end of it I had both my summoning circle and my storage diagram rebuilt—and even had a bit of power channeled into the latter.

Then I went upstairs and slept like the dead.

The next morning I returned to the basement. I focused on gathering in as much available potency as I could, and carefully fed it right back into the storage diagram. Since it was only a few days after the full moon the power came to me fairly smoothly but still with enough hiccups and unsteadiness to remind me of why I used the storage diagram. I could feed potency in as unevenly as I wanted, but when it came time to use that stored power, I’d be able to draw it out in a smooth and steady flow. Glitches in the flow of power during a summoning tended to make for a dead summoner. I had enough threats to my person as it was. No need to take any unnecessary risks.

I was sweating with the effort after about thirty minutes, but it pleased me to see that I was already probably quite close to having enough for a summoning. After moving on to a quick shower and fresh clothing, I was ready to go meet the rest of our fine posse at Grounds For Arrest for a discussion of strategy.

Despite my thoroughly reasonable suggestion to test my theory by shoving the mayor into a small closet and then throwing the cat in there with him, the others overruled me and decided that it might be more prudent to simply approach him with cat in hand and watch Fuzzykins’s reaction. It was also decided that it’d be best if I wasn’t anywhere around, and that Eilahn should be the one to approach him, since, as far as we knew, he’d never encountered her.

Fine. But I still intended to watch from a distance. With binoculars. If there was any chance that I’d get to see the mayor’s face get clawed off, I didn’t want to miss it.

The plan was simple. Eilahn would have Fuzzykins in her arms and would wait for the mayor to come out of the City Administration building. She would “accidentally” walk into him, and we could then see how well my arcane-ability-detecting cat worked. Hopefully, with lots of blood. Then, once we confirmed that he was our bad guy summoner, Eilahn could somehow subdue him, we’d load him into the car, and then proceed to dig out every detail of this arcane-enhancing, multiple-stroke-inducing drug and his plan for tracking down the portals.

Really, it was a perfectly sensible plan.

Ryan and I were in his car, parked just down the street from the admin building. Zack had already done some recon and assured us that the mayor was, indeed, in his office.

I glanced at my watch. Nine a.m. Eilahn was in position, leaning against a bench with the cat draped over her shoulders like a stole. The cat didn’t seem to mind the position one bit. The demon scratched her under the chin while the cat kneaded her upper chest in ecstasy. “When the hell is he going to come out?” I muttered, impatient.

“Jill should be calling him now,” he assured me. The mayor would be getting a call from an ‘informant’ with information about the murders and my supposed part in them, with instructions to meet in the parking lot of the coffee shop. I didn’t think he’d be able to resist that.

“There he is,” Ryan said, unnecessarily since I had my binoculars locked onto the front door. I watched as the mayor tugged his coat around him and looked up and down the street, a cautious smirk on his face.

Smirk all you want, asshole, I thought with a smirk of my own as I watched through the binoculars. He started walking down the street towards the coffee shop, and a few seconds later Eilahn stepped out from between two cars and bumped into him. I smiled as I watched. It was beautifully done, and the demon shifted the cat to her arms smoothly as she flashed a dazzling smile at the mayor. He gave her a winning smile in return and reached to give Fuzzykins a scratch behind the ears…

.…and Fuzzykins acted like a completely ordinary cat and calmly accepted the proffered affection.

“Fuck,” I muttered. No blood. No claws. No screaming.

“Either he’s not the summoner,” Ryan said, “or the cat has completely mellowed.”

I lowered the binoculars as Eilahn and the mayor parted ways and continued in their respective directions—Eilahn to the corner and the mayor to a nonexistent meeting. Ryan started the car as I slumped in the seat, annoyed and disappointed. He drove around the corner and stopped, and a few seconds later Eilahn climbed in and put Fuzzykins back into her carrier.

“I am sorry, Kara,” the demon said. “She did not react adversely at all.”

“I saw,” I said, sighing. “Maybe I was wrong about the cat.” I grimaced and rubbed at my eyes. “Though it’s more likely I was wrong about the mayor.”

Ryan slid me a sympathetic look. “It’s possible he’s simply a dick.”

“I already knew he was a dick,” I replied, then sighed again. “Oh well, thanks for all y’all’s help.” I suddenly felt insanely weary and nauseated. “I guess I need to hit the books or something and see if I can shake anything loose.”

I had a feeling Ryan wanted to suggest some course of action that he could help out with or participate in, but as much as I enjoyed his company, I also desperately needed to not be around him for a while. Too much craziness going on, and unfortunately the mysteries surrounding him made up a big chunk of it. Maybe he could sense that, because after a few heartbeats Ryan gave a reluctant nod. He drove us back in silence to where my car was parked, put the car in park. Eilahn got out of the car, murmuring softly to the cat in her carrier.

“Thanks for all the help,” I said to Ryan. I gave him a smile, but it felt brittle and forced.

It must have looked it too, because his eyes seemed to darken with a tired worry. “I’ll check with you later, all right?” I thought he was going to give me a hug, but he seemed to check himself at the last second and instead merely gave my arm an awkward pat.

I nodded, then climbed out of the car. As soon as Ryan pulled away I turned to Eilahn. “Do you know anything about the locations that Rhyzkahl pulled up on my computer.”

“I do not,” she replied. “You wish to investigate them?”

“The local ones, at the very least.”

The demon gave a slight nod. “I am curious as well. You remember where they are?”

“I do.”

“Then let’s rock.”

I blinked at her, then grinned. “‘Let’s rock’? Where did you pick that up?”

“There was a movie about humans fighting aliens on your television the other night,” she said. “And one of the female warriors shouted it right before she unleashed her mayhem upon the creatures.” A smile curved her lips. “I rather liked it.”

“Well,” I said, “if there’s anyone who knows about the proper format for unleashing mayhem, it’s you.”

Unfortunately, there was no mayhem to be had, at least on this particular expedition. The first location we checked was Leelan Park, however I had zero idea where, in the park, we were supposed to look for whatever it was we were looking for. I was going on the theory that these locations had something to do with portals, but it was equally possible that Rhyzkahl had looked them up for some other reason entirely. Hell, maybe they were places where he’d shagged a previous girlfriend. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d meant for me to figure out what he’d been searching for. If he was oathbound against telling me something that he wanted me to know, he was certainly devious enough to find a loophole.

Leelan Park was a sprawling mix of sports fields, playgrounds, and picnic areas that took up nearly a mile of lakefront on the eastern end of Lake Pearl. There weren’t too many people out and about, even though it was around lunchtime and the sky was fairly clear. But school was still in session for another couple of weeks, plus the temps were probably in the low forties—a bit too brisk for most southerners to want to sit and eat their lunch outside.

I stood by the boat launch and zipped the collar of my coat higher. Now there was an impulse decision I was happy about. I couldn’t be sure if the purchase of the coat had been affected at all by the influence of the let’s-make-Kara-nuts drug, but I was fine with it, either way. Here by the water the wind did its best to find a way beyond this black leather armor, but my coat held its ground beautifully and kept me comfortable and warm. The wind had to be satisfied with whipping my hair into my face and mouth while I fidgeted and watched Eilahn scan the surroundings for any sort of arcane signs or residue. We’d already tried several other random locations within the park and came up empty, and I had little reason to believe that was going to change now.

As expected, after a few moments Eilahn sighed and shook her head. “I cannot detect anything untoward,” she said, “but that does not mean nothing is here. If there is a concealed portal, I would need to be nearly atop it in order to sense its resonance.”

I gave a thoughtful nod. “Which is likely why our bad guy is using people to pinpoint it.”

I already knew about the portal underneath the Beaulac PD parking lot, so I didn’t bother wasting my time going there. The only other site within reasonable driving distance was east, near the parish line, which was also in the middle of the swamp. We went ahead and drove out there, but soon realized that without a boat there’d be no way to get within a mile of where Rhyzkahl had indicated.

I stood on the side of the road and hugged my coat around me, frowning out at the swamp. “Bodies are found out here all the time,” I said, as much to Eilahn as to myself. “I mean, not all the time,” I corrected, “but it’s not unusual at all for people to die out here. Hunters or hikers who get lost or have accidents. And the occasional murder victim gets dumped as well, of course.”

Eilahn hiked herself up to sit on the hood of my car, crossing her legs tailor-style beneath her. “Tell me your thoughts.”

A low breeze ruffled the grasses by the edge of the road, bringing with it a moist scent of algae and mud. “I’m aware of these last three victims, mostly because I was on call. But what if there’ve been others?”

“But would not those have been mentioned by whoever is seeking to frame you?”

Pursing my lips, I considered that for a moment. “I guess so. If they were connected to me.” Then I sighed, rubbed my eyes. “I dunno. I’m stuck. Let’s go see my aunt. Maybe she has some ideas.”

The demon hopped nimbly off the car. “And I think you should contact the others and have them meet you there. At this point you need as much input as possible, as well as people around you in whom you trust.”

My spirits lifted slightly at this reminder that I did have people around who I could trust—which was most likely Eilahn’s intent.

“Sounds good. Let’s rock.”

She paused with her hand on the passenger door, gave me a quizzical smile. “You are teasing me?”

“A little,” I said.

She chuckled. “Now we unleash mayhem.”

I wasn’t terribly surprised to see two Crown Vics and a Beaulac PD Crime Scene van parked in front of my aunt’s house. I made the appropriate greetings and expressions of thanks—which earned responses that were variations of, “Don’t be stupid. You need help. Of course we’d come.”

With that out of the way, our posse trudged up the steps of the house. I gave a desultory knock, waited for the answering yell, then pushed in, with the others following behind.

Tessa was in the front room in practically the same position she’d been in when I last saw her, though today she was dressed in a bright red caftan and the book in her hand was Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. She took in the sight of us, eyes finally resting on the carrier in Eilahn’s hand. “You’re bringing me a cat?”

Shaking my head, I flopped into a chair and pulled the cuff off. “It’s my cat. Well, technically it’s Eilahn’s since the cat hates me.” The others took seats as Tessa moved to crouch by the carrier. It was small consolation to my mood that the cat snarled and tried to claw her.

“Lovely creature,” she said with an arched eyebrow as she resumed her seat.

I stood up from the chair and shifted to sit on the floor on the other side of the room. “She seems to hate people who have arcane ability,” I told her. “I thought that the mayor might be my big bad summoner since he seems to have such a hard-on for me, but the cat loves him.” I glared at the cat.

“Kara,” Ryan said, frowning, “why did you just get up and move?”

I opened my mouth to answer, then closed it. “I’m not sure,” I replied, abruptly unsettled. There were seats available on the other side of the room. Jill and Zack had taken up the loveseat on that side, while Ryan, Tessa, and Eilahn occupied the available seats on the side that faced away from the lake. But there were two armchairs facing the other way that stood empty.

My throat felt oddly dry. “It feels more right to face this way,” I said.

“And you sat in the chair you don’t like at your house,” he pointed out.

“Moreover, you changed seats after you removed the cuff,” Eilahn added.

Tessa set her book down and tilted her head. “Perhaps this summoner wants you to find something for him,” she said.

I got to my feet. “I need a map!”

“I have one in the kitchen,” Tessa said, and scurried off.

Closing my eyes, I pivoted very slowly, trying to feel which direction felt the most right. “There,” I said, opening my eyes. “It’s super faint, but now that I’m looking for it, there’s definitely a…pull, so to speak.”

Jill stood and handed me her smartphone. “Compass app,” she said. “Point where you think you need to go. You can’t actually go look for whatever it is, but we can triangulate. Right?”

“Jill, you’re a fucking genius.” I took the phone from her and allowed her to note down the bearing. “My house, the PD, and here are all places where I either tried to rearrange the furniture or I changed my seating preference. And, in some welcome good news, they’re all warded.”

Zack frowned. “Can you get into the PD?”

“Sure,” I said with a breezy assurance I wasn’t sure I felt. “I’m on leave, not fired.”

Jill carefully marked the points on the map where the three bodies were found, and then took a pencil and drew a line from my aunt’s house with the bearing she’d just taken. “All right, saddle up, folks. Time to do some triangulatin’.”

Zack, Jill, and Fuzzykins stayed behind at my aunt’s house while Ryan, Eilahn, and I sped back to my house to take a bearing. It felt weird to close my eyes and let myself feel which way was “best” but when I opened my eyes I was once again facing my back door. Ryan took note of the bearing and texted it to Zack.

“Next, the PD,” he said as we all piled into his car again.

Even though I knew I was allowed back into my office, I still felt a silly fluttering of nerves as I stepped through the door marked Investigations Division. With Ryan by my side I walked down the hall to my office, breezing past my sergeant’s door without glancing in. I didn’t want to put him in an uncomfortable situation, plus, the sooner we got these bearings, the sooner we could figure out what all this was about. At least I sure as shit hoped so.

I slipped into my office and closed the door as soon as Ryan was all the way in, then moved behind my desk—mostly since that was the largest “clear” area in my tiny office, and that was only if you defined “clear space” as about two feet by two feet. I pulled off the cuff, closed my eyes and slowly turned, relaxing and allowing myself to feel which direction felt right.

I finally opened my eyes, took the phone from Ryan and told him the bearing. I put the cuff back on and waited for him to send the text to Zack. At least now I knew why I’d been struck by the urge to rearrange furniture in here.

“Okay, done,” Ryan said. “Jill’s factoring in some margin for error, so even with three readings we’ll still probably have a good sized area to search.”

Grimacing, I nodded. Even one or two degrees would probably make a big difference over such a large area. “All right. Well, let’s head back and see what we have.”

We left the office to make our escape, but my sergeant was standing in the hallway by his door, a cup of coffee in his hand.

“Hi, Sarge,” I said brightly. “Forgot a couple of things in my office. Just came by to collect them.”

He gave me a slight nod that told me he wasn’t fooled one bit. “Everything all right?”

“Sure,” I said. “It’s been a perfectly lovely day. How’s everything going here?”

He snorted. “Well, gee, my best detective is on leave, and somehow Pellini and Boudreaux haven’t been able to pick up the slack.”

“You know I’d help you if I could,” I said.

He took a sip of his coffee. “I figure whatever it is y’all are up to will help out. Then he gave me a sour look. “Please tell me that you’re close to figuring all this shit out?”

I shoved my hand through my hair. “I don’t know if we’re close, but I think we’re on the right track.”

“Well, hurry the fuck up,” he grumbled. Then a whisper of a smile crossed his face. “Oh, by the way, you might be interested to know that the mayor went to the emergency room a little while ago.”

I gave him a guarded look. “Um. Why?”

“Somehow, the mayor accidentally ingested a substance he thought might be poisonous.” His eyes lit with a fierce amusement. “And when I say ‘ingested’ I mean ‘inhaled through his nose.’”

I allowed my eyes to widen. “How awful. How on earth did he accidentally snort what he thought might be poison?”

He shrugged. “It’s a mystery. I’m sure that the fact that the alleged poison was a white powder is completely beside the point.”

“Gosh! That’s so odd!” I started to grin, then sobered. “Is he going to be all right?” That was actually a serious question. As much as disliked the man, I didn’t want to see him hurt. Would snorting powdered sugar be dangerous?

“He’s completely healthy,” Sarge assured me. “But I’m not sure his tenure as mayor will be doing as well. Twitchy fucker. I’m not surprised he’s a cokehead.”

“I’ll be sure to send him a get-well card,” I said. “Maybe even a Christmas fruitcake.”

“Remind me to stay on your good side,” he said with a wink, then he stepped back into his office and we continued on out.