"Everything the Order knows about celestial magic," Hailey explained, "they learned from this grimoire."
"Hailey," Annabelle said, pointing at an inscription on one of the grimoire's pages. "Take a look at this."
Hailey picked up the grimoire and examined it, tracing her index finger beneath some of the words. "It's in Latin, so give me a second. I can read it, but you know, it's not a language I read frequently."
"Let me see it," Cain said.
Hailey held the book in front of Cain and pointed to whatever sentence she and Annabelle had identified.
"The defensive properties of celestial power," Cain said, translating the words out loud.
"I thought it said that," Annabelle said. "What else does it say?"
Cain cleared his throat. "This next paragraph is basically a theological explanation for why celestial power can overcome all forms of witchcraft. There's nothing there we can use. But this next section."
"What does it say?" I asked.
"I think we've got it," Cain said. "It's essentially a prayer, but you might think of it as an incantation. It has to do with how to create a shield of faith and breastplate of righteousness."
"They weren't carrying shields or wearing breastplates," I said.
"I think we can surmise that, seeing that the section above is quoting profusely from the book of Ephesians that it isn't the kind of armor, itself, that is essential. The shield and breastplate are merely illustrative. I imagine this incantation could be applied to anything that might be used as armor."
"Like a golden robe?"
"Precisely."
"And it's just an incantation?" Hailey asked. "Most spells require more than that to be effective. Even the spells I cast had to be imbued into my wand, drawn from a cauldron."
"A chalice," Cain said. "In this case, it appears, one must bathe the breastplate or garment, in this case, in consecrated wine freshly squeezed from the vine and fermented for forty days."
"That's it?" I asked.
Cain shook his head. "The incantation must be spoken while wearing the items at a number of holy sites. Bethlehem, where Christ was born. While bathing in the Jordan, where John baptized Jesus. In the upper room, where Christ celebrated the Passover. Finally, at Golgatha."
Hailey snorted. "How does anyone know where any of those places are, exactly?"
Cain shrugged. "There are traditional sites ascribed to these events. But you're right. No one knows the precise location of most of these events."
"It may not matter," Annabelle said. "I don't know if any of us can say for certain how celestial magic works, but in Voodoo, when we make offerings to a Loa, it's more about the intention of the Mambo or Hougan than the particular gifts left on the altar."
"That makes sense to me," Cain said. "Before I killed my brother, I'd made an offering to God. A token of the fruits of my labor, an offering of wheat because I worked the fields. My brother, however, sacrificed one of his herd. When my offering was rejected and Abel's was accepted, I was so angry. It took me years to sort out why my offering wasn't good enough. It's not that whole-grain offerings, in and of themselves, are detestable to God."
"Maybe God was doing Keto at the time," I piped up. "When my roommate, Donnie, was on that diet, she'd get pretty pissed when I brought carbs home."
Cain chuckled. "Good guess, but that wasn't it. It took me a while to sort out, and, truth be told, I'd be lying if I said I didn't still struggle with the very same resentment I had back then. All I can figure is that my brother, Abel, sacrifices from his passion. He loved his herds and flocks, almost as if they were his children. It wasn't that I was dispassionate about my work, but what's a percentage of my grain when I can grow more just like it the next season?"
"So Abel's offering was a painful sacrifice," I said. "But your offering was easy."
Cain nodded. "What was offered didn't matter. It was the significance of the act, what the offering showed about the heart of the person who made the sacrifice. I was simply going through the motions. I was jealous of my brother, not just because God approved his offering but also because Abel loved his work. For me, my labors were exactly that."
"It seems you've found your passion now," Annabelle said.
Cain nodded. "I have. But I tell that story for a reason. If the members of the Order who enchanted those robes were not pure of heart, if those who wear them have motives unbefitting of the incantation that was used, there may be a vulnerability that can be exploited."
"Smart," Hailey said. "Most of the spells I cast can be performed by any witch who has incanted her wand properly. But not every witch has the same focus of will, the same confidence. Say that two witches both had a spell that could turn someone into a newt."
"A newt?" I asked.
Cain rolled his eyes. "A Monty Python reference."
Hailey giggled. "Right, but just follow me here. A lesser witch might cast the exact same vex as another accomplished witch or I do. The initial effect would be the same. Our subject would become a newt. But if a witch less practiced in the arts incanted her wand weak of will, the subject might return to human form in a matter of minutes. If I change you into a newt..."
"You'd better go terrarium shopping," Annabelle said, finishing Hailey's thought.
I scratched my head. "So, just because the robes worked for them last night doesn't mean that they'll work indefinitely."
"The Order of the Morning Dawn is populated by hypocrites," Hailey said. "Their magic might work to a point. But whatever celestial power might be capable of granting to one who wields it pure of heart, they're far from it."
"You're suggesting that their magic, the spell from the grimoire that they might have used, has limits," I said. "Even if they did follow the ritual precisely, even if they did speak the incantation at each holy site?"
"A ritual is just a ritual," Annabelle said. "The precise location of those sites is beside the point. It's the will of the one who does it, the condition of the heart."
"Or to put it in Biblical terms," Cain said, "if they had but the faith of a mustard seed, they might be able to move mountains."
"I remember that verse," I said. "I don't think any of those disciples actually moved mountains."
"No," Cain said. "But they did spark a movement that ultimately overtook an Empire. Call what they did a miracle, or magic, or whatever. It's a distinction without a difference. The point is, as Hailey put it, their will and intention were focused."
"The Order of the Morning Dawn is fueled less by faith than hate," I said.
Cain nodded. "Which is precisely their weakness. I believe you're right, Hailey. The magic in their gowns is not infallible. It can be overwhelmed."
"How?" I asked. "By just casting enough spells at it that it weakens?"
"Not exactly," Hailey said. "I used blood magic when I fought them last night. There is a particular form of magic, also attested to in the grimoire, that celestial power is meant to balance. But if their magic is sustained by a weak will, a weak resolve, I suspect that they'll be vulnerable to it."
"Infernal magic," Cain said.
"In every respect, it is the opposite of celestial magic," Hailey explained
Cain traced his finger across the book. "Faith, hope, and love," Cain said. "The grimoire dictates this spell must be performed on such a condition."
"You're saying that to use infernal power, we'd have to be more like the Order?" I asked.
"Wielding it with disbelief, despair, and disdain," Hailey said. "The book says that, too. I'm not sure I can do magic like that."
"Stick to your strengths, Hailey," Cain said, placing the grimoire back on Annabelle's desk. "We don't need to wield infernal power with any more potency than that with which the order uses celestial power. I'd already planned to ask Julie Brown to join me at the asylum tonight to help protect our vampires during the witching hour."
"You're suggesting that she use her flambeaux to attack the Order members if they attack?" Annabelle aske
d.
"She can cast hellfire directly from it," Hailey said. "That might work. It should be enough to at least neutralize the power of their gowns."
"And to force me to shift," Cain said. "I'd rather not kill them. We still need them to help lead us to wherever Malinda might be."
"They wouldn't attack you," I said. "You said it yourself. If they did, they'd be cursed."
"They'd run from me," Cain said. "And if we have a mighty blood witch in waiting, well, once they aren't protected by those robes, I'm sure you could handle them without much trouble."
"I can get Julie," Hailey said. "But how do we know for certain that the Order will come back to the asylum? They already got Malinda. Maybe that was their end game."
"You're right," Cain said. "Two youngling vampires, even one the wife of a deceased member of the Order might not be enough. But Malinda is weak in her present condition. I don't know that she's strong enough to do what they intend, to waken her parents."
"To sacrifice a powerful witch, as a whole burnt offering," Hailey said.
Cain nodded. "And a witch who wields the kind of power they require. They need a blood witch."
"So you want to use Hailey as bait?" I asked.
Cain nodded. "It's just come to my attention that a certain blood witch, breaking all protocol, came to the asylum last night and interfered with the treatment plan of one of my patients, not to mention, someone let the wolves out, leading to the death of a nurse and another patient."
"Seems to me enough cause to commit the said blood witch," Annabelle said.
Hailey snorted. "You want me to go with you as a patient?"
"I was involved, too," I said.
Cain nodded. "What better reason could we have to have this emergency meeting with the Voodoo Queen than to get her approval to commit you?"
"Don't you need me to go get Julie first?" Hailey asked.
"We'll take care of that," Annabelle said. "We need your committal to be public. If the Order members who infiltrated Violokan are still here, we need to make sure they know where we're taking you. We'll have to be more discreet about bringing Julie in. If they see her come to Vilokan, they might get suspicious."
Chapter twenty-nine
Annabelle's original plan was to have Pauli bring Julie in—teleport her there as a rainbow snake. It wasn't like we could text him or Devin. Something about being underground, below sea level, separated from the civilized world by a magical firmament, screws with cell service. Still, Annabelle had a communications system in Vilokan. Apparently, some of the infrastructures were still under development, but she directly connected to Pauli's place.
He and Devin either weren't there, or they were busy, you know, doing the sort of thing that two people might do that would cause them to ignore phone calls. I sighed. I wasn't sure if my worries were warranted or if I was just insecure. Neither conclusion, though, was particularly satisfying. If Devin was cheating on me, well, that would suck. It would break my heart. If I was jealous and insecure, well, that wasn't exactly a flattering character trait. It also wasn't one I was accustomed to. Never, in my brief human existence, had I been that way. Of course, I hadn't ever fallen in love before, either.
Love is a bitch, and then you cry.
Cain didn't seem too worried about it. Annabelle was resourceful-Pauli was hardly the only asset she had that could be used to sneak a materialized ghost of a caplata into Vilokan Asylum.
What did it mean that she was a materialized ghost, anyway? She was corporeal, in some way, but her body wasn't the body she'd had in her human life. According to Cain, while she appeared as human as anyone, her body was actually an intensely focused bundle of energy. The energies she'd used to take her form appeared human because, as a human soul, that was the shape she naturally chose to manifest. Technically, speaking, she could take any form. A shifter extraordinaire. But to change her shape would require a massive release of energy. It was different from Cain or me since our shapeshifting abilities were powered by internalized forces. Julie couldn't just dematerialize. Cain said to release that kind of energy would be the equivalence of dropping an atomic bomb in the middle of the city.
There were secret paths in and out of Vilokan and in and out of the asylum. Hidden entrances that only Annabelle knew about. Not even Cain know where they were. It did strike me, though, that there was a distinct possibility that it was through one of these supposedly secret pathways that the Order might have infiltrated. It was a theory, though, that Annabelle had indeed considered already. No point in bringing it up. I knew to stay in my lane. Suggesting something so obvious would be sort of like showing up to the doctor with WebMD print-outs to diagnose something as common as a cold. It would be like someone who watched a few Buffy episodes telling me how to slay vampires. Or, an American Idol reject criticizing my show at Nicky's-something that actually happened, by the way. Trolls are real. They don't live in caves, though. They don't have colorful hair and sing mashups of pop songs. They dwell in a dark and insidious place known as Twitter.
Annabelle had a plan. I was sure of it.
We paraded through the streets of Vilokan, Hailey and I in straight jackets to make it clear to any onlookers what was going on. Most everyone had heard, by this point, about what had happened at the asylum. News travels fast in a contained, underground community like Vilokan.
It was all for show, of course. If I shifted, I could squeeze out of the straight jacket. Hailey probably had a few spells at her disposal she could use, too, if she wanted to Houdini her way out of it. But based on the judgy stares directed our way as we walked from the Voodoo University to Violkan Asylum, the ruse had its desired effect. We could only hope that wherever the Order members might be hiding, if they were still in Vilokan at all, they'd see it, too.
Worst case scenario, if the Order didn't take the bait, Cain would release her later, and Annabelle would make something up to explain whatever had come over her. Hailey, after all, while not a vodouisant, was nonetheless a noteworthy person in Vilokan both as Annabelle's closest confidant, aside from Pauli, and as a member of the Vampire Council.
Even if the Order members were no longer in Vilokan, based on my experience, they tend to find things out if it pertains to any recent or current targets. And, if Annabelle and Cain were right that the Order might need Hailey to restore Malinda's power, they'd surely be watching one way or another.
As for me, while I wasn't likely a person of interest to the Order since I'd helped Hailey the night before parading me straightjacketed alongside her would help the narrative that Hailey's committal had to do with what happened at the asylum.
Hailey was given her own room, next door to where Debbie and Leroy were staying. Cain was still concerned about the vampires' safety. Since Hailey was both a vampire and a witch, it might have made sense to put them in one room together. If we were right, though, that the Order was more interested in abducting Hailey than either of the other vampires, keeping them separate reduced the chance that Debbie or Leroy might end up as collateral damage.
Cain was visibly nervous about the whole thing. He took his responsibility to keep his patients safe. Luring the Order back into the asylum was risky, especially after the chaos that ensued the previous night. But there was a decent chance that the Order might come back, regardless. At least, now, we had a plan.
I spent most of the day hanging out with Debbie, Leroy, and Hailey. Talked about a lot of nothing. I came to learn that Leroy had no idea how he'd been turned. He remembered an attractive female eyeing him on the street, vaguely. Then, the next thing he remembered was waking up in the swamp with an unconquerable craving for blood.
Debbie told us all about growing up in the church in the Midwest. How she'd married a young man, Tom, who was studying for the ministry at the time-before she learned about the Order of the Morning Dawn. She talked about how odd it was, seeing Tom preach on Sundays when knowing he'd been killing witches and vampires the night before. She always felt the pressure of t
rying to live up to the expectations the congregation had for what a pastor's wife should be. She played the part well, but it was clear that she'd started to realize that despite being something that she'd always hated and thought to be evil, she had a sense of freedom now, too. At the very least, she had a chance at a new life. A new beginning. It was either that—take a positive attitude about her now semi-eternal existence—or persist in self-loathing.
Hailey talked a bit about how she grew up learning the craft as a hedge witch-studying grimoires, picking up what she could from conversations with other witches here and there. And, she mentioned how hard it was after she was turned to leave her old life from before. Technically, the human girl, Hailey Bradbury, was a missing person. She'd changed so much, though, that she doubted even her own parents would recognize her. While she was confident, powerful, and mostly happy, a part of her missed her old life. She always wondered what could have been, what sort of life she might have had if she'd never been bitten.
I didn't know how to begin explaining my past.
"I used to eat people," I said. "Not much more to say than that. What I was, the things I did, my memories are more like dreams barely recalled after waking. You all have these rich, vivid pasts. I feel like I have a history of just a few years. Perhaps that's why I'm still a child, in some ways."
Hailey cocked her head. "How are you a child? You don't give me any impression of immaturity."
I shrugged. "This whole situation with Devin and Pauli, I can't stop fearing the worst."
"That they're screwing?" Hailey asked.
"Oh, stop it," Debbie interjected. "Devin wouldn't do that to you. The whole reason he and I haven't spoken much at all since his father died was that all he wants to do is talk about you, Nicky. I highly doubt he'd throw all that away for a cheap thrill."
I sighed. "I know, you're right. That's just why I said I feel like a child, sometimes. I feel like a jealous teenager in love. And I certainly don't want to be some kind of controlling girlfriend who is always checking his phone for messages, worried every time he goes out with people other than me."
Bat Shift Crazy: An Ex-Shifter turned Vampire Hunter Urban Fantasy (The Legend of Nyx Book 2) Page 16