Thaumatology 12: Vengeance

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘Something new?’ Ceri suggested, looking to Dolf.

  It was Freya who answered. ‘One of our people, Marco, found it. I say found it, but he’s still using. We’re trying to clean our people up, but it’s not easy. Marco keeps backsliding, but in this case it turned out useful.’

  Frowning, Anita got to her feet from her place between Alexandra and Catherine, and vanished off into the trees around the clearing.

  ‘One of his sources said he had something new,’ Dolf went on. ‘Amazing new high. You know the crap. Marco bought some and didn’t like the scent, so he brought it to us. Well, to Freya. He knew I’d kick his butt the length of the river for using, but… He did do the right thing, sort of.’

  ‘We’ve been getting a few reports about something new on the streets,’ Donal supplied. ‘Haven’t been able to nail anyone selling it yet though. What were they calling it, love? Lupo, lipo…’

  ‘Leper?’ Sharon suggested.

  ‘Lepor or lepo,’ Anita said as she sat back down. ‘Tina says it’s doing the rounds north of the river. Not much supply yet, but it’s growing.’

  Ceri snorted out a laugh, her eyes on the bag.

  ‘Something funny?’ Dolf asked.

  ‘Leporidae is the family name for rabbits. The stuff looks like rabbit droppings. Whoever’s making it has a twisted, but very educated, sense of humour. Why bring this to us, Dolf? You could have gone to the cops.’

  ‘They still don’t like us much, and they ask a lot of questions.’

  ‘We’re getting our act together,’ Freya said, ‘but it’s still fragile and our people don’t trust the police. If they start poking around…’

  ‘I’ll let the Greycoats know,’ Ceri said, nodding. Then she smiled. ‘And thank you. I know all this change has been a bit rough on you.’

  ‘Yeah, well,’ Dolf grumbled. ‘Have to get responsible at some point.’ His lips curled and he added, ‘Especially when you’ve got a pup on the way.’

  The clearing erupted into howls of glee and congratulations. Ceri tucked the small bag away into a pocket and tried to forget it was there. Something about it was bugging her, however. Something she could not, currently, put her finger on. She stopped trying and got on with celebrating; it would come to her eventually.

  Castle of Bones, Demon Realm.

  ‘You’re basically asking me to take on an apprentice,’ Ophelia stated.

  Ceri gave a slight shrug, her eyes on Jenny and Lee as they stared, wide-eyed, out across the mountains toward Dorilla. ‘You said you needed an assistant, and this way we don’t have to bring in another outsider. Jenny’s bright, good with people, a natural linguist. Lee’s her mate and he’s pretty good in a fight, plus he has a werewolf’s senses. He’ll be your bodyguard when the two of you go over to Otherworld.’

  Lee got over his awe enough to glance back at them. ‘I’m only a brown…’

  ‘Pfft!’ Ceri hushed him. ‘Anita and Michael say you’re up to scratch. Greys and browns don’t differ that much aside from colour. If we’re actually expecting trouble I can get some extra people from Alexandra, but you’ll be fine for a typical diplomatic visit. We need to get you some gold to wear, maybe some leather strapping. We’ll make you look as mean as any fae warrior, put the fear of Luperca in them.’

  ‘It could work,’ Ophelia said, nodding slowly. ‘We’ll need to teach you some Low Fae and Devotik. The fae are arrogant enough to think of you as some sort of wild animal, so they’ll talk around you thinking you don’t understand. The demons will probably think you’re some sort of monster.’

  Ceri gave a nod as well. ‘Don’t take any lip from the demons. If you even suspect they’re disrespecting you or Jen, you rip the throat out of one of them.’

  Lee blinked. ‘I don’t think…’

  ‘Demons respect power and force,’ Ophelia said. ‘Ceri regularly threatens to kill or torture them if they don’t like something she’s doing. They expect it. If you let them get away with something they’ll think you’re a walkover and we don’t want that.’

  ‘Oh,’ Lee said. ‘I’ll talk it over with my Alpha. I’ve never… well, had to kill someone before.’

  ‘Hopefully,’ Ceri told him, ‘you won’t need to, but…’

  She was interrupted by a voice coming up the stairs and obviously getting closer. ‘Shivika! Qi fatsho la oshn!’ Hiffy emerged from the stairwell and Lee’s eyes bulged in a valiant attempt to pop out of his skull. The blue-skinned demon-girl was wearing a thin tabard-like shift belted around her waist, which barely contained her expansive breasts. Her tail was looped around the front of the skirt to hold it away from her legs.

  ‘Hiffy,’ Ceri said, grinning, ‘calm down. You don’t have to come running after me whenever I come here. Don’t you ever sleep?’

  At the sound of Devotik being spoken, Jenny turned around. ‘Oh… wow,’ she breathed.

  ‘I was taking a break,’ Hiffy said, ignoring everyone else for now. ‘Vulsha came to tell me you were here. She’d have come up herself, but she wants to be formally introduced first.’

  ‘Vulsha?’ Ceri frowned. ‘I don’t remember a Vulsha on the staff list.’

  ‘Inak decided to bring on six more people when we realised the time difference might be a problem. You could turn up in the middle of the night and it wouldn’t be right if you had no one to wait on you. Vulsha takes over from me and Inak when we’re off duty.’ Hiffy flashed a bright, fanged grin. ‘She’s not as pretty as me, of course, and she doesn’t have a tail.’ The tail in question lifted and waggled itself in Ceri’s direction.

  ‘Of course,’ Ceri replied. There was no way Hiffy was going to risk another det supplanting her in the Overlord’s affections. ‘I’m not staying long, so don’t worry over it. Since you’re here though, this is Jenny. She’s an old friend of mine and she’s going to be Ophelia’s assistant, so you’ll be seeing more of her. I want you to help her brush up her Devotik. That’s Lee, her mate. He’s another werewolf and we’re going to need to get him fitted up in a gladiator harness.’

  Hiffy peered at Lee for a second, possibly trying to imagine a hulking, brutish, wolf-man. ‘I’ll get word to Lord Torn and have him send an armourer. I think pit fighter would fit what you’re after.’

  Jenny giggled. ‘Oh… yes. He’ll make a great pit fighter.’

  Lee looked between the women, his cheeks reddening as he worked out he was being talked about. ‘What?’ he said, half-grinning in confusion.

  ‘Don’t worry about it, Lee,’ Ophelia told him in English. ‘We’re just discussing your guard costume. Jenny thinks it’s funny, but she hasn’t realised she’s going to need some new clothes as well.’ Jenny’s giggling stopped abruptly.

  ‘Oh yes,’ Ceri agreed. ‘We can’t have you running around in jeans. Something involving a lot of string and beads, perhaps.’

  ‘That sounds good,’ Lee replied, licking his lips.

  Jenny tried her best to become invisible on the spot, and failed.

  Croydon, London, April 8th.

  ‘Lepo?’ Kate said, turning the bag of pellets over in her hand.

  ‘Or Lepor,’ Ceri replied. ‘As best we can tell, it’s being sold mostly north of the river. Almost nothing on the south side. None of the Royals have heard of it yet, though, and there hasn’t even been a hint in the Battersea territories.’

  ‘Okay, well I’ll hand it off to Vice. They just use us for analysis. Technically they handle drugs and prostitution, even if there’s a supernatural element.’

  John gave a grunt. ‘Except when there’s a succubus involved, or anything more than mundanely dangerous.’ He turned off the main road and down a far narrower one with a church on the corner.

  ‘Did you feel that?’ Lily asked.

  ‘No,’ Ceri said, looking out, ‘I didn’t… Oh. We must be outside the angel spell’s area.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Kate replied. ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘The church is covered in angels.’

  ‘Inter
esting,’ John commented. ‘Ziel’s hall is just up ahead. It used to be another church. A lot younger, different denomination, but a church.’

  Ceri leaned forward in the back seat of their sedan and peered out toward the building. ‘You know, I always figured those things hung out on the tallest building they could find, but that’s got that big bell tower and not a single angel.’

  ‘I’m going to ignore the theological implications of that,’ John said. ‘We’re here to interview Ziel to see what he knows about the cube. But don’t mention the cube. It’s been kept pretty quiet, if he mentions it…’

  ‘Then it probably means he’s managed to get a sympathiser into the power station. I kind of doubt this guy’s got the skills needed to make that cube.’

  ‘You’re probably right,’ Kate agreed, tapping her notes up on her phone. ‘Born out of wedlock in… fifty-two in London…’

  Ceri frowned. ‘He’s sixty?’

  ‘According to this. No record of a father… Bright, but not interested in academic stuff. He dropped out of school as soon as he could, and then he dropped off the map. No information about him until he registers the Watchers of Saint John as a charity in ninety-seven.’

  The car pulled up outside the red-brick building and John said, ‘Well, let’s go ask him how he stays so young.’

  There were three people waiting on the steps of the small church. Ceri flicked her Sight over the doorway, seeing none of the wards common to consecrated buildings. There was no sign of anything magical about the three people either, but there was a twisted arch of laurel wound over the door.

  ‘Detective Inspector Radcliff,’ John said as he walked up the short flight of steps to the portico. ‘We have an appointment to see Mister Ziel.’

  ‘We were told police would be coming,’ one of the people said. He was in his late twenties, heavily built, with cropped, blonde hair and a sour expression. ‘There was nothing about harlots.’

  John glanced back at Ceri and Lily, the first in her MIT T-shirt and jeans, and the other in a short jersey dress which did not disguise her figure. ‘Doctor Brent and Miss Carpenter are advisors on supernatural affairs with the Greycoats.’ He looked back. ‘Please allow us to enter.’

  It looked like the man was going to argue when a voice came from inside. ‘Daniel, you forget your Matthew. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. Chapter twenty-two, verse twenty-one.’ Daniel’s mouth closed and he stepped aside allowing them to enter.

  Kate’s nose twitched as they walked in. ‘Laurel over the door, and they’re burning thyme.’

  ‘Protection against demons and witches,’ Ceri added.

  ‘Not used like that.’

  Aside from the scent, the room looked like an old church. The walls were whitewashed brick with a couple of crimson drapes hung from rails near the ceiling. The pews had been removed, now replaced by rows of chairs set before a raised stage with a lectern, which was where Ziel had stood for his conference. Now he was standing at the foot of the steps leading up to it. Behind him was the cross Ceri could still not quite see as a cross.

  Ziel was smiling. Up close he looked no older than he had on TV. There was no grey in his black hair, but a little magic could take care of that nicely and he certainly was a practitioner. A religious man would normally have been a theurgist, but there was no sign of a spirit pact; his medians were clear and quite strong. Ceri wondered whether his followers knew their leader was a magician. Looking around at the ten or so people in the room she decided they would not have believed it if she told them. Actually, she had only ever seen development of the medians like that in one other person…

  ‘Welcome to the House of the Lord, Detectives,’ Ziel said. He did not have the best of voices for public speaking, but he had obviously been trained to use it, or he had natural talent. ‘I must say, Doctor Brent, I am surprised to see you here, given that you are responsible for the abomination of science at Battersea.’

  Ceri felt Lily tense, but did not need her demon’s senses to know the people around them had just got a lot more belligerent.

  ‘Perhaps we could go somewhere more private to talk?’ John suggested.

  ‘I have nothing to hide from my people,’ Ziel stated, smiling warmly. ‘He lifted himself up and said unto them, “He who is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” John…’

  ‘Chapter eight, verse seven,’ Ceri finished for him. ‘You’re very fond of quoting the Bible, Mister Ziel. Try this one. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Genesis six, verses one through four.’

  He was good, Ceri had to admit it; his smile never faltered, not even for a second. ‘Perhaps the tension in the room would be alleviated by us taking our meeting in private,’ he said. Then he turned and walked up onto the stage, turning right and through a door there which had, presumably, once led to the vestry. Ceri’s eyes flicked over the sigils carved into the frame as she followed John and Kate through. There were no wards on the church building, but Ziel’s private offices were warded, quite strongly.

  Ziel sat down behind a simple office desk, leaving two chairs in front of him. His smile had not shifted and Ceri was starting to hope he had done something bad enough that she could wipe it off his smug features. John waved Kate to a seat, and Lily nodded at Ceri to take the other. Lily took her place behind Ceri, as she was rather fond of doing, while John propped himself against the door.

  ‘What is it you wished to discuss, Detectives?’ Ziel said, all reasonableness.

  ‘We know that one of your… followers told you about the materialised angels,’ John said. He glanced at Kate who had her phone out to take notes.

  ‘John David Malcolm Cove,’ she supplied. ‘The ambulance driver for the one we first took out.’

  ‘A loyal member of my congregation, yes,’ Ziel stated, still smiling.

  ‘He must be. I understand the hospital is starting disciplinary procedures for breach of their confidentiality rules.’

  ‘But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail. Jeremiah, chapter twenty, verse eleven.’

  ‘What else do you know about the effect?’ John asked, his frown deepening.

  ‘God has turned His face from this city of whores and idolaters. And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods. Deuteronomy, chapter thirty-one, verse eighteen.’

  ‘Wouldn’t your god have got his angels out of the city before he did this?’ Lily asked, her expression looking genuinely perplexed.

  ‘They are fallen. He has cast them from His sight.’

  ‘Presumably why they go back to him when they leave the area of the spell then,’ Ceri said. ‘It’s a spell. I even know how it was done.’

  Ziel’s eyes narrowed. ‘And you wish to see whether I have cast this spell. I have no knowledge of magic, nor could I even consider…’

  ‘The Lord detests lying lips,’ Ceri interrupted, ‘but he delights in men who are truthful. Proverbs twelve, twenty-two. But you’re right. The person who constructed this spell was a genius. I highly doubt a man with your education could have done it.’

  Ziel’s expression grew fixed. ‘I lack a formal education, but I travelled extensively when I was younger. I learned much in that time.’

  ‘People are always telling me that experience is the best teacher,’ Ceri agreed, smiling. ‘But this… This requires a knowledge of magical theory I’ve seen in very few. I could probably have done it. There was a man in America… What was his name, Lil?’

  ‘Gadriel?’ Lily supplied.

  ‘That’s the one. He exhibited knowledge ahead of the field, but he wouldn’t have wanted to keep angels ou
t of London.’

  ‘And he’s dead,’ Lilly added.

  ‘That too.’ There had been no reaction to the name; either Ziel was a phenomenal actor or he had never heard of the angel.

  ‘So,’ John said into the silence, ‘aside from your belief that God did it, you have no idea how this happened, Mister Ziel?’

  ‘I have, as you point out, given my answer,’ Ziel replied.

  ‘I think we’re done here then. Thank you for your time. Oh, your people protesting at the generator?’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Make sure they stay outside the fence, especially at night. There are werewolves guarding it, their alert has been stepped up, and we don’t want people bitten, do we?’

  ‘Very true, Detective,’ Ziel replied and John turned, opening the door.

  Ceri heard the Inspector grunt as he walked out of the front of the church. The reason became obvious as she followed him out and discovered that their car now had four flat tyres.

  ‘Local kids,’ Daniel supplied from his position on the porch. ‘They don’t seem to like cops. Must’ve opened the valves while we were inside.’ He was not the actor his boss was; the irritating man was smirking.

  ‘Well,’ Ceri agreed, ‘it certainly was childish.’ She raised her hand and each of the tyres re-inflated in turn.

  ‘You would work witchcraft on hallowed ground!’ Daniel snarled.

  ‘Air spell,’ Ceri said. ‘More often associated with wizardry. And this ground isn’t consecrated.’

  ‘The Lord will turn His face from those who…’

  ‘Don’t,’ Ceri said. ‘You’re not as good at it as Ziel is. Your Lord doesn’t pay me any attention at all unless he wants something, and then he…’

  She stopped as she saw Daniel’s eyes widening. At the same time she heard Kate’s voice behind her saying, ‘Holy crap!’ When she turned the reason became obvious: there was an angel standing on the pavement beside the car. He looked familiar.

  ‘Jehoel?’ Ceri asked. It was a little difficult to tell, what with the halo and the glowing skin, and the ten-foot wingspan.

  ‘Ceridwyn Brent,’ Jehoel said, ‘I am to accompany you into the city. He wishes to have someone who knows His Word within and I have been chosen.’