A Line in the Sand

by K. A. Stewart

  Already, Mary Alice was shaking her head, though we hadn’t precisely read her into the situation. “No, if someone had that power, the souls would have been taken already.”

  “She was locked up for about a thousand years, maybe she just hasn’t made it over here yet.” I couldn’t believe that, though. Her minions had to have told her where that cache was. She’d been loose for months, surely she’d paid a visit already. “Maybe she can’t get to it. Consecrated ground, and all.”

  Vernon snorted, sending his mustache fluttering in a most distracting manner. When all eyes turned to him, he shrugged his beefy shoulders. “That ground hasn’t been consecrated in decades. Perhaps not ever. I found a fragment of a papal missive from the era, stating that they wished it to be unconsecrated so that all those who had been led astray could still visit, and find their way back to God.”

  “Cam?” I looked to him for confirmation, and he squirmed uncomfortably.

  “There has been discussion that the original efforts have been…fading over time.”

  “So why hasn’t it been renewed?” I’d seen Cameron, all by his lonesome, consecrate a good sized chunk of land. The spell had nearly killed him, and the protection had faded fairly quickly, but he’d done it. He’d told me then that it took multiple priests to make it a permanent effect.

  “Bureaucracy. Like so many things.”

  “Jesus Christ,” I muttered, and Mary Alice slapped my leg. I stuck my tongue out at her, and she returned the gesture, crossing her eyes for good measure.

  “All right. So, for whatever reason, Reina can’t get at those souls. Which is a good thing. And it seems like we can all agree that we need an angel, preferably one of the non-fallen variety.” Cameron stood up from his chair, handing the file back to Vernon. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Rogers.”

  “Any time at all, Father. I am glad to be of assistance.”

  We lined up to shuffle out of the office, and I paused by the bulletin board full of notecards. Glancing back at Vernon, I tapped my finger on the picture of Mystic Cindy. “You need to steer clear of this one, Vern.”

  The portly man did a good job of feigning confusion, but there was a hungry light in his eyes. “Oh? How do you mean?”

  “If you’re a praying man, pray that you never find her. And that’s all I’ll say on it. She looks like a sweet young thing, but she’s one of the few things in this world that terrifies me. Understand?”

  “Wait…you’ve met her? You mean you’ve actually seen her?”

  “Bye, Vern.” I left with him still calling out questions behind me. Truthfully, all I’d probably done was stoke the man’s curiosity, but I felt better that he’d at least been warned. What he did after that wasn’t my business.

  As we walked down the stairs, I pondered the fat lot of nothing we’d just learned. A crazy dude who could see souls, totally unrelated angel sightings, and a guy who very clearly had all the questions and none of the answers.

  I mean, I totally get the grasping at straws and scrambling for any tiny shred of information you can get. When you have less than nothing to go on, you take what you can get. Even the idea that we were probably betting my life on it didn’t really bother me. It’s what I do. But betting the lives of the other two hundred and seventy-five people I was currently responsible for was less okay.

  “So, we should go pick Ivan up and get the hell out of Dodge, right?” It wasn’t running away, it was a strategic retreat. To my surprise, Cameron growled something that sounded suspiciously like a curse word. “Whoa, man. Language.”

  In response, he thumped his fist against the wood-paneled wall. “I just… I thought there would be more here. I thought we’d at least find something.”

  “Man, do you really think the Church just ignored this guy because everybody thinks he’s nuts? I promise you, they vetted and double checked everything he had already. If there was an answer here, they’d have found it.” The priest gave me a bleak look, and I actually found myself patting him on the shoulder. “Hey, it was worth a shot. At least we can say we tried.”

  “Jesse is right,” Mary Alice chimed in. “The bit about the angel could be very important, if we can find a way to contact one.”

  I had to give the little nun credit, she was handling the weirdness rather well. “Not even fazing you, is it? The idea that there are angels and demons and souls just wandering around unsupervised.”

  She chuckled at me. “I have always believed that angels and demons walked among us, Jesse. It kinda goes with the job.”

  “I’m glad one of us believes in the job,” Cam muttered, and the nun squeezed his hand. “If it turns out we need a man of faith for this, I think we’re hosed. Not sure mine is up to the task anymore.”

  “We still have the sister,” Sveta said. “There is no reason to believe it must actually be a man.”

  We all conceded that it was a good point. Hooray for equality in the demon slaying community.

  “I don’t know, maybe we need to go talk to Cardinal Giordano again,” Cameron said as he pushed the apartment building door open. “There’s still a chance that he himself is unaware of…”

  Five men in black fatigues were waiting in the street outside, forming a lose semicircle around the door. A white van was parked just a few yards away, two more men standing guard at the rear door.

  I poked Cam in the back. “You were saying?”

  They hadn’t bothered with hoods or masks this time, and they had night sticks to go with their Tasers No guns that I could see, but then they hardly wanted to kill us. Or at least me. Sveta cursed quietly under her breath, and I could feel her tense behind me, preparing to start the rumble herself. Mentally, I counted the odds, factoring Cam and Mary Alice in as unknown quantities. Seven visible opponents, and maybe more in the van. Four of us, provided that Cam didn’t knock himself out of the fight with his spell casting.

  “Brother Cameron.” The one in the lead, a tall, swarthy man who looked like he’d last laughed during the Regan administration, focused on the priest at the front of our awkward line. “You have been ordered to report to headquarters.”

  “And if I say no?”

  “That would be unadvisable.”

  Cameron shook his head. “What are you doing, Lorenzo? We’re friends.”

  There was no hint of softening in the dark man’s face. “One thing has nothing to do with the other.”

  Sveta’s hand rested on my back, one finger gently tapping five times. I inclined my head just slightly, to indicate that I understood. On five, we’d go. My skin tingled under my shirt, my passengers gathering themselves for whatever happened next. I eyed the pair of men on my left, marking the nearer of the two as my first target. They both looked more like mercenaries than priests, and I had to wonder just what recruiting methods the good cardinal had been employing in recent years. At my back, Sveta’s weight shifted slightly to the right. This was going to get ugly.

  “Brother Cameron, I strongly advise you not to resist.” Lorenzo flicked a hand toward the van, and the rear door opened from the inside.

  We couldn’t see any of the Knights of Doom that were surely in there, but the face that appeared in the dark opening was unfortunately familiar.

  Ivan’s jaw was clenched, his ice-blue eyes flashing angrily, but he held very still and remained silent as he was put on display for us. Something in the way he carried himself said that something uncomfortable was pressed against his ribs, just out of our sight. Sveta lurched forward, and I had to grab her around the waist to keep her from launching herself at the armed men. It said something about her mental state that she didn’t just turn around and feed me my own arm.

  “Shh…” I yanked her close, whispering in her ear. “They haven’t hurt him. They’ve got a weapon on him, but they haven’t hurt him.”

  “Jesse…” I could count on one hand the number of times that she’d ever said my name, but it was the tremulous tone in her voice that really chilled me to the bone. If Sveta b
roke, we were all screwed.

  “I know. It’s all right. I got this.” I sure hoped I was right. Catching Mary Alice’s eye, I firmly handed the distraught Ukrainian mercenary over to the much smaller nun, then stepped around Cameron with my hands raised. “Take me to your leader.”

  I always wanted to say that.

  Chapter 15

  Our reputations had definitely preceded us. The instant we were all inside the van, we got jabbed with something in syringes, and we were out like lights. I fought it as long as I could, glaring at the one Cam had named Lorenzo up until the darkness claimed the last of my vision. I doubt he was impressed.

  The sucky thing about being drugged is that you can’t drag yourself out of your nightmares. I spent what felt like two or three years stepping out of that mysterious tunnel over and over again, struggling in vain to make out the features of the figure standing across the hard-packed field. Sometimes it was there, sometimes it wasn’t, and I got to the point where I felt a bit lonely when the dark stranger was absent. He was at least someone I could see, unlike the quietly desperate pressure at my back that I could never turn to investigate.

  I realized I was waking up when I glanced to the side and found Sveta there with me, her face set in a scowl. She didn’t belong in this place, this dream of mine, but before I could point that out to her, she drew back her hand as if to slap me in the face. “Jesse! Wake up!”

  I snapped awake, and just stopped myself from crushing the bones of Sveta’s wrist in my grip where she had indeed tried to wallop me one. I relaxed my hold just a bit, but kept her trapped there for a moment, blinking my eyes until the rest of the room came into focus. Sveta herself had been victim of some bad wakings in her time, so she just held very still until I nodded and turned her loose.

  “How long?” Long enough that my voice croaked when I said it, and I spent a few minutes trying to work the taste of something mossy out of my mouth.

  “The sun is going down,” Cameron announced, and I craned my head to find him peering out a window. His back was mostly to me, but I could read the line of tension in his shoulders, the hard clench to his jaw.

  My head, I realized, was resting in Mary Alice’s lap, and I felt myself blush as I heaved myself upright. “I’m the last one up, hunh?”

  “We were starting to get worried.” At some point, the little nun had removed her headpiece, revealing strawberry blond hair, cropped in a cute pixie cut around her face. It suited her.

  I shook my head, but slowly, waiting to see how much residual dizziness I was dealing with. “I don’t do well with sedatives. We’re lucky I’m not puking.” Immediately, both women scooted back, giving me identical looks of wary disgust. “So where are we?”

  The room was just a room. It could have been someone’s office or den, the hardwood floor covered with a rich looking rug. Someone had propped my feet up on an old throw pillow while I was unconscious. A desk was stationed in one corner, though it bore no signs of personal possessions, and the walls were covered with empty bookshelves, just waiting to be used. Cam’s gaze was still all for whatever was happening outside, and from the angle of his head, I was guessing we were on at least the second floor.

  “Vatican City,” Mary Alice supplied. “In one of the unused offices, we think.”

  Leaning heavily on Sveta’s shoulder, I shoved myself to my feet and teetered there, waiting to see if my body was going to rebel. When I stayed up, and my food stayed down, I counted it as a win. “Anybody try the door?”

  “Locked and warded.” Sveta displayed her left hand to me, showing a blistered sigil across the palm that conveniently matched the pattern on the doorknob.

  “You all right?”

  She nodded. “I used my left hand. I am not stupid.”

  “Guards?”

  Mary Alice pointed at the bottom of the heavy door, where we could just see the light broken by a pair of feet. Maybe two. “They traded out about fifteen minutes ago. Right after I woke up.”

  It suddenly occurred to me that we were missing one. “Ivan?”

  “He wasn’t here when we woke.” Cameron finally left his post and rejoined us. “I didn’t see them inject him, in the van. I don’t think they put him out.”

  “If they’ve harmed him…” Sveta snarled softly, and Mary Alice took her uninjured hand, squeezing it gently. To my amazement, Sveta allowed it.

  “They can’t hurt him. They need him to control us.” I took a few steps around the room, and was pleased to find myself steady and pretty much back to normal. “Any chance of getting out the windows?”

  Cam shook his head. “Bars.”

  “Of course there are. Because who doesn’t put bars on windows in the Vatican?” I glanced around the room, knowing that my companions had likely already searched it. “Weapons?”

  “They found everything I had.” I raised a brow at Sveta, knowing just what kind of thorough search that would have entailed. No wonder they’d knocked us out. Someone would have definitely died, if they’d have tried that on her while conscious. “And they have removed the chairs from this room.”

  Once she pointed it out, I could see the indentations in the rug where there had previously been furniture. “Guess they decided the desk was too heavy for us to throw.”

  I ran a hand through my hair, giving a sharp tug on the length like that might jump start my brain. “Wonder if I could unweave that ward…” I’d destroyed intricate spells before, using my borrowed power, but it had cost the life of one of the souls I now carried. I wasn’t quite willing to go that far, just yet, but I knew it might still come to it.

  “They’d know, the moment it broke. And we have no idea how many are actually out there.” Mary Alice was right, but I desperately hated just waiting. Waiting made me feel useless, which made me antsy, which was probably going to lead to me doing something colossally stupid.

  Fortunately for public safety, we didn’t have long to wait. A low hum of voices on the far side of the door alerted us to incoming company, and without a word, the four of us spread ourselves in a semi-circle, ready to defend ourselves if necessary.

  The knob turned and rattled just like an old horror movie, but as the door creaked open, the first person to step through was the one they knew we wouldn’t attack. Ivan’s ice-blue eyes swept the room, doing a mental headcount, and he held up one hand, silently telling us to stand down. I obeyed instantly. It took Sveta a moment to comply. She barked something at him in terse Ukrainian, which he answered in his gravelly voice, as quiet as I’d ever heard him. Reluctantly, she shifted her wait off her toes, relaxing out of her fighting stance.

  Ivan looked all right. Still haggard, still pale, but he was standing upright and not moving like he was hurt. I was fairly certain that if he’d shown signs of damage, nothing would have held Sveta back. Just to be safe, I asked, “You okay?”

  Ivan inclined his head a fraction of an inch, his eyes warning me to keep my big yap shut. Yeah, okay. Ixnay on the ancer-cray.

  Immediately behind our venerable leader came the Cardinal, now dressed in more formal attire, which I’d always thought looked like a giant specter of death. I mean, really? A long black dress and blood red sash? How is this supposed to be comforting?

  We cleared a path, allowing Giordano into the room, but when his attack dogs would have followed, Sveta stepped into their path. There was a moment of bristling and snarling, but Giordano motioned to his merc-priests and they reluctantly withdrew. The door boomed shut with some finality, and my skin tingled as the ward sealed again. There was going to be no quick exit, even if we managed to take the Cardinal hostage.

  “Let me first apologize for the abrupt manner of your arrival.” Cardinal Giordano seated himself on the edge of the desk. “I wish it had been done differently.”

  “Must be that nasty rogue faction. Pesky things.” Hey, my first defense is always sarcasm. The old clergyman nodded his head in acknowledgement, while admitting to nothing.

  “Why?” Cameron’s vo
ice was choked, and I couldn’t tell if he was holding back tears, or rage. “Why have you done this?”

  The older man sighed. “The treasure that Mr. Dawson bears within him is too precious to risk it falling into enemy hands. It has been decided that he will be placed in protective custody until such time as a solution can be found.”

  “Oh hell no.” I didn’t trust the Church any further than I trusted Reina and her flunkies. “I’ve seen your protective custody, and I’ll pass.”

  “I am afraid this is not a discussion, Mr. Dawson.” The Cardinal fixed me with an emotionless stare.

  “You can’t hold him here against his will! He’s an American citizen!” Cam took two steps forward before Ivan caught him with one restraining hand and a stern look. “The media will have a field day with this.”

  Giordano nodded his agreement. “Which is why none of you will be allowed to depart. Information of this nature is too sensitive, too volatile to be released to the general public.”

  “You will have to kill me first.” Man, there were just times when I wished Sveta knew when to keep quiet. It’s probably how most other people feel about me.

  The Cardinal inclined his head to her. “Regrettable, but if necessary.”

  “When I don’t call home, they’ll know.” I hadn’t even called Mira since we’d arrived. Hadn’t been able to bring myself to. If I never spoke to her again, there were things I wasn’t going to get to say, and that more than anything else was pissing me off.

  “It is a sad truth of this world, Mr. Dawson, that Americans go missing in Europe all the time. I hardly think that your family and friends will be surprised.” He offered me a small smile, and I wanted to punch it down his throat. “At the very least, they should be safer for your absence.”

  “I’m not giving you these souls.” Even if I knew how, I wasn’t about to give that smug bastard control of the two hundred and seventy-five lives living in my skin. Across my shoulder blades, I felt my tattoos grow warmer, my passengers supporting my decision whole-heartedly. “And they won’t come to you willingly.”