‘It’s easier to forgive someone for something that happened to you,’ Michael commented. ‘If a friend suffers, you’ve got that guilty feeling that maybe you could have stopped it… Makes it harder to forgive.’
‘That’s pretty profound, kid,’ Alec commented. ‘I should stop calling you that now you’re old like me.’
‘The only werewolf I know as old as you is Alexandra,’ Ceri told him.
‘She’s got nearly twenty years on me.’ He paused in his glass wiping. ‘Goddess, I’ll be hitting the century in three years.’
Everyone blinked at that. ‘Well,’ Carter said after a second or two, ‘I don’t know about everyone else, but I suddenly feel very young.’
Kennington, April 19th.
There were odd sounds coming from the study when Ceri, Lily, and Michael got home, and there was Twill at the bottom of the stairs.
‘It’s Lorna,’ the fairy said. ‘She’s cleaning the book shelves.’
‘At four in the morning?’ Michael asked.
‘I think you should talk to her, Ceri.’
Ceri sighed and nodded. ‘Go to bed. I’ll be up shortly.’
The tall vampire, dressed in a little camisole top which did little to hide her chest and a pair of boy shorts, was indeed dusting the bookshelves with the air of someone who wanted something mind-numbing to do. Despite her senses, which were generally better than a human’s, she entirely failed to notice Ceri entering the room. Or perhaps she chose not to notice.
‘Trouble sleeping?’ Ceri asked.
‘Not exactly. Trouble dreaming.’
Ceri sat down on the chaise, crossing her legs and leaning against the back. ‘I get that a lot. Being with Lily helps.’
The duster stopped moving. ‘I can’t talk to John about it. I don’t know whether he’s figured it out… You…’ Lorna turned and walked over to sit down beside Ceri. Her hands continued to fidget with the feathers. ‘Lo Chan had me for a couple of days before he turned me.’
‘Uh-huh, you said he… oh.’
‘I couldn’t resist him. He made me do… things. When he wasn’t there he had me chained, naked, in a corner. When he was there I did whatever he wanted, no matter how much I hated it. He didn’t make me want to do it, he just made me submit. When I’d got over being turned, it still took months to get over the degradation… And what finally made it go away was the knowledge that it wasn’t real. He’d just made me think I was doing it because he was an old vampire, too rotten to actually…’
‘But he’s an Ancient,’ Ceri whispered.
‘It was all real! Everything he did. Everything he made me do.’ Her voice cracked up and Ceri looped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in so that she had a place to cry.
‘It’s not easy,’ Ceri said. ‘I know it’s not, but you’re strong. Stronger than John likes to admit. Tomorrow I’ll see to it that he never does anything like that again.’
‘You’re going to kill him?’
‘I’m going to do something worse than kill him.’
Lorna sucked in a lungful of air, controlling her breathing, and straightened up. ‘Good,’ she said.
North Greenwich.
‘Perry’s sure he’s got this cube figured out?’ John asked as they waited.
‘He seems happy with his analysis,’ Gwyn replied. ‘Thank you for arranging his escort from the station.’
‘Technically, Hecks did that.’
Gwyn looked at the other detective in the room across the street from Lo Chan’s new home. ‘Thank you, Detective.’
‘Just doing my job. Can’t have him getting hurt if anything gets out about why he’s coming here. Where’s Brent anyway?’
‘Ceri is watching the rear of the building,’ Gwyn replied. ‘He will try to escape.’
‘Twelve-thirty,’ John said. ‘Let’s move.’
Nodding, Gwyn turned and walked out of the room. Two floors down she stepped out onto the street beside a nervous-looking tactical officer holding a grenade launcher. She smiled at him, placing one hand on his shoulder. Her other hand held a ball of incandescent, blue-white energy, but her touch seemed to steady his nerves.
‘Are we ready, Detective Radcliff?’ Gwyn asked.
‘All units are reporting ready,’ John replied.
Gwyn looked down at the man kneeling at her feet. ‘If you would, Sergeant?’
‘Yes, ma’am.’ The policeman aimed his weapon at one of the windows on the ground floor opposite them and fired off two quick rounds. The window held up to the impacts well enough, even if it allowed the projectiles through. It gave up when the two stun grenades actually went off and Gwyn launched her own weapon in through the gap. For a second it seemed like nothing was happening and then the ball of light expanded, tearing through the building’s interior. There was a rumbling sound which turned into crashing, and dust billowed out through the broken window as sections of the upper floors collapsed into the evacuated space below.
‘Holy shit!’ John breathed.
‘You can come on more of our ops, ma’am,’ the Sergeant said, looking at his grenade launcher and shaking his head.
‘I suggest you move in, Detective,’ Gwyn said, ‘though I expect that our target is already making a run for it.’
‘Yeah…’ John thumbed his radio and said, ‘All teams, move in.’ Then he released the key and added, ‘Remind me never to piss you off, Miss Price.’
Gwyn smiled. ‘I don’t believe I’ll ever need to.’
~~~
‘John definitely got the better job,’ Kate muttered as she waited in the darkness.
Ceri gave a grimace of empathy, not that Kate could see it. ‘I’m going to need about three showers before work tonight.’ The sewer did not contain a lot of liquid, thankfully, but what there was smelled bad.
‘You’re sure this’ll work? I mean, you’re sure he’ll come out here?’
‘Pretty sure.’
‘And the circle will work?’
Salt was, obviously, pretty useless in a sewer, but there were other ways to mark a circle, especially if you had access to draconic and demonic glyphs. Still… ‘Pretty sure,’ Ceri replied.
‘And if it doesn’t? This guy uses fire. He may be resistant.’
‘I’ll use raw thaumic energy. It’s not quite as good on vampires, but nothing much resists it.’
Kate fell silent as a deep rumble came from above them. ‘It’s started,’ Ceri said.
‘We should really have a tactical team with us…’
‘No. Not for what I’m going to do. Fewer witnesses the better.’ Something pinged at her senses and she whispered, ‘Hush, he’s coming.’ She waited until she saw the odd mixture of thaumic energy coming from a body which had just crawled out of a hole in the sewer wall, waited for him to take a step out and get upright… ‘Now,’ she said, as she released power into the ring of rune-scribed tiles sitting under the water around where Lo Chan was standing.
Kate flicked on the big search-and-rescue torch she was holding and the Ancient was revealed standing in the sewage. He was not especially tall, but above average, with a muscled body, shaved-back, black hair, and dark eyes which flashed in the light from the torch. He raised his arm against the glare and spoke, sounding surprised. ‘Shénme?’ Then he gave a snarl and reached out an arm, light flickering around his fingers. The spell flared against the wall of the circle.
‘What have you done?!’ Lo Chan spat at them as Ceri stepped forward, a shadow in the torch beam.
‘You’re a demon,’ Ceri replied. ‘Partially anyway. That is a containment circle for a demon. Dragon magic. Sorcery.’
‘Dragons… Ha!’ He opened his mouth and flame poured out of it, blasting into the circle as though there was a wall between them. The flame cut off. He was trying not to frown. ‘You can’t keep me in here forever.’
‘I have no intention to,’ Ceri replied. She raised her arms and the staff in her right hand shone almost along its entire length with blue light.
<
br /> ‘What are you doing?’ Lo Chan asked, backing away as far as the circle would let him.
Ceri ignored him as she formed the necessary power complexes in her mind. She was not sure what banishment would do to him, but she was fairly sure it would do something. Her Sight had shown her the twisted complex of elemental, demonic, and undead energies which made up Lo Chan’s body and mind. The Fallen who had created him had made a real mess. It was no wonder he was unbalanced.
‘You can’t do this to me!’ Lo Chan screamed. ‘I’ll burn you all alive. I’ll kill you and bring you back as my slaves. I’ll…’
And Ceri said, ‘Mynd i ffwrdd i chi fab i ast,’ and the vampire just began screaming. Ceri winced at the rush of power flowing out through her. She had banished Matthew Barnes easily enough, but this was far different. The magic burned through her and she staggered when it was gone.
Lo Chan was still standing there. The screaming had stopped, and he looked as though he had just had someone knife him in the guts. He turned slightly, looking at Ceri, and his mouth opened as if to say something. She could see light coming from his throat. He almost seemed to melt, his body changing as he sagged to his knees. His cheeks hollowed and his features became more feminine; to Ceri it almost seemed as though his hips swelled and his shirt was distorted by a pair of breasts, but then his head reared back and he screamed, and flame poured from his mouth. A second later his, or her, entire body was burning.
Ceri dropped the circle around him as his body collapsed into nothing more than a pile of ash which began to drift away in the sewer water.
Part Six: A Conference With Demons
Kennington, London, April 19th, 2013.
‘Unusual, perhaps,’ Mei commented, ‘but not impossible, given that we are dealing with metaphysics.’
‘The Yin-Yang thing,’ Lily said. ‘Lo Chan was a woman, the Fallen somehow gave her so much Yang energy that she became a man, and the demon then stabilised that form. Take it away…’
‘The male energy was released,’ Mei said, nodding, ‘he became she, but burned to death in the process.’
‘I still think it was extremely weird,’ Kate stated flatly.
‘And I’m going to concur with my colleague,’ Ceri said. ‘Given that I’m the Overlord of All Demons, if I think it’s weird… Well, I have a different view on weird to most people.’ She frowned. ‘I was kind of expecting Ed to be here by now.’
John got to his feet from where he had been sitting with Lorna. ‘Can I use your phone? I’ll call the office and check on the escort detail.’
‘Sure,’ Ceri said. ‘In the study, yeah?’
He nodded and walked out, and Lorna turned to Ceri. ‘Thanks,’ she said.
Ceri gave a tiny shrug. ‘He needed ending. Someone would have had to put him down even if there wasn’t… a personal reason for doing so.’
‘Thanks anyway. I feel like… like a weight’s been lifted.’
Ceri nodded, but there was another matter to deal with at some point. ‘Have we heard anything about Hildegard?’
Kate shook her head. ‘She hasn’t shown her face anywhere. We’ve got people watching her known haunts, but she could be anywhere.’
‘Someone’s going to have to talk to her when she’s found.’
‘Uh-huh. Probably you.’
‘Well don’t find her too soon. Banishing Lo Chan took me uncomfortably close to my limit. My staff’s full and it takes ages to shed its load.’
‘You’re okay though, right?’ Lily asked, suddenly worried.
Ceri looked down at her hands, seeing the bands of energy shifting under her skin. She blinked her Sight off. ‘I’m okay, but I’m not going to be doing anything big in this dimension for a few days.’
‘Speaking of big,’ Kate said, looking at Gwyn, ‘I heard you demolished a building.’
‘It was condemned anyway,’ Gwyn replied, waving the comment away.
Any reply was stopped by John coming back into the room. He did not look pleased. ‘Something or someone attacked the train Perry was on,’ he said. ‘It was derailed. Three dead, thirty-seven injured. He’s okay, basically. Broken arm, but alive. They’re driving him down from Birmingham under police escort.’
‘Attacked how?’ Ceri asked, her brow furrowed.
‘Fire, they think. Someone hit the side of the locomotive with a fireball? There was an explosion and no one’s found evidence of a bomb.’
Ceri’s frown grew deeper. ‘The cube’s enchanter, probably, but how did he know Ed was even on his way here?’
Soho.
‘He’s all right?’ Cheryl asked, concern on her face as she sat at the bar.
‘Broken arm,’ Ceri replied. ‘Gwyn offered to fix it and he said he deserved to suffer.’
‘Idiot.’
‘Uh-huh. He’s most pissed off that he lost his notes when the train crashed, but he’s got it all in his head. He’ll be getting his arm fixed tomorrow so he can write down what he needs again.’ Ceri allowed herself a grin. ‘I think he was rather enjoying being fussed over. Even Twill and Ishifa are being solicitous.’
Cheryl’s grin was broader. ‘He’s coming with us on Sunday, right?’
‘Oh! I hadn’t really thought about it.’
‘Ceri, he’s one of the best thaumatologists in the country and he already knows about… well, you. And I think he speaks Devotik. We’re going to need all the translators we can get. Gwyn and Mei will be there some of the time, and there’s Faran and Lily, but Gwyn’s handling the conference stuff while I’m away and I don’t want to tax her on this too.’
‘Put like that… Did you manage to get the equipment together?’
‘Everything’s ready. Carter’s going to pick it up from my place tomorrow.’ Cheryl grinned again. ‘This is going to be so much fun!’
‘A thaumatology conference with demons,’ Ceri said. ‘Yeah, there’s absolutely no possibility of problems there.’
Kennington, April 21st.
‘Is everyone ready?’ Ceri asked as she stood in the hall of High Towers, her staff in her hand. It was still basically useless, but being in a high-thaumic-level dimension for a few days would speed its recovery and it was a useful prop.
There was a rumble of affirmatives in reply, though some of them sounded more enthusiastic than others.
‘Has everyone got everything they need?’ More rumbling. ‘Has everyone been to the toilet?’
‘Ceridwyn, dear,’ Gwyn said, ‘don’t be silly. Open the portal.’
Grinning, Ceri turned around and exerted the small amount of power required to reactivate the gateway through to the Demon Realm. Setting up a permanent gate had been a really good idea, even if a night’s rest had reduced her thaumic load considerably. She stepped through, her skin tingling at the touch of the magic, and then she was in the portal room of the Castle of Bones and Hiffy was there, smiling broadly.
The blue det was dressed in one of her most revealing dresses, her large breasts barely concealed by the thin, silky fabric. She bobbed a quick curtsey. ‘Shivika Ayasha, welcome back to the Castle of Bones. Your guests’ rooms are all prepared.’
Ceri stepped forward to make room for the people coming through behind her and raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re just hoping I’ll invite you to a foursome tonight, aren’t you?’
‘I would never presume, Shivika,’ Hiffy replied, almost selling it until Michael stepped through the portal and she licked her lips.
‘Uh-huh. When are the Guandosh arriving?’
‘In about an hour, Shivika.’
Ceri nodded and turned to look behind her. Everyone was through. Alec and Ed were looking around in vague amazement though Alec’s nose was wrinkling. He had been persuaded to come over because Carter and Cheryl were, but he was not entirely happy.
‘Okay… Lily and I need to get changed. Gwyn, if you’d get Hiffy to show everyone their rooms?’
‘Why do you need to change?’ Alec asked, frowning.
‘I’m the bloody O
verlord,’ Ceri grumbled. ‘Maybe later I can get back to jeans, but I’ve a reputation to keep. I’ll get someone to come get you when the other delegates are going to arrive.’
Alec gave a bark of a laugh. ‘I’m a delegate,’ he said, grinning.
Castle of Bones, Demon Realm.
Five demons, each seven feet in height with horns, a pointed tail, claws, a mouth full of sharp teeth, and greenish-purple skin, stepped through the portal and stood there before Ceri and the other ‘conference’ delegates. They looked distinctly nervous and, given that they were physically more than a match for everyone except perhaps Alec and Michael in wolf form, that seemed distinctly odd.
One of them, presumably the most senior, took a hesitant step toward Ceri and executed a stiff bow. ‘Overlord, I am Cagol,’ he said in Devotik. ‘Lord Ignash regrets that the power requirements of the spells keeping us alive here have made it difficult for him to attend personally. He hopes that this does not offend…’
Ceri waved a hand dismissively. ‘This is an academic proceeding, not a state visit. The idea is that you explain your ley line spells and we see whether we can do anything about your leakage problems. However, if you can explain the spells you’re using to keep you from exploding, I’ll see about powering them myself. I can easily manage it and there’s no point in you exhausting yourselves.’
The demon’s eyes widened slightly. Whether it was from the generosity or the demonstration of power Ceri was not sure, but he was surprised. ‘That would be… most generous. We were not expecting… uh, such a large retinue of… uh…’
‘We’ll get to the extensive introductions later. Some of these people are just guests, and some are here because they speak Devotik and my own language.’ She turned and indicated the two people standing just behind her: Cheryl and Ed. ‘However, this is Cheryl Tennant who is an expert in the science of magic, and beside her is Ed Perry, another expert. They’ll be helping me with your problem. Ed speaks Devotik, but Cheryl is looking dumb right now because she doesn’t have a clue what I’m saying.’
Thaumatology 12: Vengeance Page 16