Demon Song

by Cat Adams

  We were drifting out to sea, and that was going to mean an exhausting swim back unless we started now. “First, the crown thing is a very cool talent. Second, we need to start back or I’m going to be too tired to make it to shore. Last, do you recall what time you had the panic attack?” I’d felt that kind of panic twice in the last twenty-four hours—first when Kevin was being shot at and again while at the prison. Both times I’d been behind magic barriers.

  “It was late afternoon. Definitely not night.”

  I began to do the backstroke toward shore both so we could continue to talk and because it’s less tiring. The queen swam smoothly beside me. Her seaweed crown began to slip, but two tiny crabs crawled down and grabbed onto strands of her golden hair to stabilize it. “That wasn’t me then. I know exactly what you were feeling because I was feeling it, too. It was my mom.”

  Lopaka turned her head and one storm gray eye dipped below the waves. The remaining pupil took on the color of the dark water and I could feel the strength of her will in its glittering depths. “Tell me.”

  So I did. I stared up at the stars and swam and talked. By the time we reached the shore, I was both mentally and physically exhausted. I wasn’t sure exactly why I’d just told all my innermost secrets to Queen Lopaka, but I wasn’t sorry I had.

  As she climbed out of the water, she took off the crown of seaweed and let it float out on the tide. I watched all the animals scatter back into the water and marveled at the beauty of the ocean. She handed me one of the thick towels I’d left on the beach, a vivid blue one that reminded me of the sky above the Isle of Serenity, Lopaka’s home. She took the red one that made her eyes turn silver. As I flipped my hair over to fluff it dry, I spotted a conch shell on the beach, one of the most beautiful I’d ever seen. I collect shells but only those I find myself. I tugged it out of the sand until it came free. I let the surf wash off the remaining dirt and held it up to look at it more closely.

  Queen Lopaka stepped closer to see it in the dim light from the moon. “It is befitting a princess. The sea finds you worthy.”

  That pulled a laugh from me. “I’ve always considered finding shells luck, not design.”

  She smiled and it held a depth of knowledge that I didn’t possess. “You’re still young. Much of life, and death, is by design. Take your mother, for example. She is, by design, a siren. She carries our blood. There are many humans who carry siren blood, but not all are tied to the ocean. I believe she is, even if she doesn’t exhibit any other symptoms.”

  I wrapped the towel around me and sat down on the sand. The queen sat down beside me, perfectly at ease. “What do you mean, tied to the ocean ? I was afraid that was affecting her, but I don’t really understand how it works.”

  The queen held out her hands to the water with a beatific smile. “You feel the ocean, as do I. It lives, moves inside us, touches our hearts. You feel it more strongly now that your talent has fully manifested, but you’ve always felt it. To be apart from the ebb and flow of the ocean is to be in pain. The psychic torture you felt was the tearing of the bond between a siren and her ocean. I’ve felt it before, which is why I came to you today. While I wasn’t aware your mother had enough blood to be tied, it appears that she does. And now she’s behind walls, far from the water, with spelled barriers that sever magical ties. In effect, she’s starving to death … and she has no idea why.”

  Oh, crap. Mom wasn’t only going through withdrawal from the bottle; she had been literally cut off from a vital organ. She was being tortured, though her jailers didn’t know it. I felt a pain in my chest. “What can we do? Is there some way to prove this to a judge so she can get released?”

  Lopaka shook her head. “I wouldn’t suggest requesting her release. She’s broken the law and, frankly, her drinking has to stop. She’s endangering people and harming herself. Is it possible to simply add a saltwater fish tank to her cell? That would restore her connection, if only slightly.”

  I shook my head. “I doubt it. Even with spells to make it unbreakable, other prisoners would complain about the smell, or the lights, or something.”

  She nodded. “You may be correct. Perhaps there is a more elegant solution. We have a detention center on the island. I could petition the court to have her transferred to Serenity’s jail for health reasons. I have no doubt that her state of mind is affecting everyone in her present facility. If there have been more fights or suicide attempts, the judge will surely see it’s in the interest of all parties to move her. But if they refuse—” She touched my arm and her face looked truly stricken. “Then she will die. Not quickly and not kindly. And even if she is released when her condition becomes clear, the damage would be done and I don’t know if she could be saved.”

  I looked out at the wide ocean and felt my eyes well. “I should have done something.” I didn’t know what I could have done, how I could have known, but I felt responsible.

  “Celia, no. You have no part in this. You’ve already borne more burdens than most should have to suffer. I believe your mother can be helped, can be brought back into balance. I’d like to try, if you’ll allow me.”

  Did I trust Lopaka to make my mother a whole person? Hell, yes!

  She laughed because apparently I’d broadcast that thought.

  I let out a slow breath. “Yes. I would be thrilled, and honored, if you could help her.” Gran would be thrilled as well. She might finally feel confident that Mom could get the help she needs, with people who understood why she’d turned to alcohol to mend herself.

  “I’ll contact the authorities in the morning. Now I must go. I’ve kept several people waiting on board my vessel.” It made my eyes go wide. She’d interrupted a meeting to come see me? She stood easily from her near-yoga position and I realized once again that she looked really good for her age. Hell, for any age.

  But she was more than beauty. She was mercy, too. I was completely sincere when I touched the glittering gold and pearl ring on her hand. “Thank you, Your Highness. I would never have expected the kindness you’ve shown me, and now my family. I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

  She smiled almost sadly and lifted my chin. “You have my brother Kalino’s eyes. How could I see them in pain and not help?” Her hand pulled away from mine and she turned, walking into the sea. She dived into the water without so much as a splash.

  I sat there, feeling both happy and sad, happy I had an answer to the question about my mother and sad because she was suffering. I stood up and realized my muscles had stiffened; fleetingly I wondered if Lopaka was feeling the burn, too.

  I grabbed the clothes I’d left folded on the rocks and hobbled slowly back to the guesthouse that had been my home for the past few years, feeling muscles pull that I hadn’t felt in months. I really needed to swim more often. I probably should drive back to Gran’s house—it would always be Gran’s house in my head, even though I now owned it and had been living there since Gran had moved out—but I honestly wasn’t positive I could work the clutch right now.

  So I went into the house and checked the fridge. Nothing. Nothing in the freezer or cupboards, either. Well, hell. I was going to have to drive to town for an energy drink or walk up to the main house and beg for kitchen privileges. David and Inez certainly wouldn’t mind. We’d always been close. But I’d been working so much that I hadn’t seen much of them lately. Maybe I should call first?

  Nobody answered. Well, I couldn’t expect them to be home every night of the week. They probably wouldn’t mind if I went up and used my key, but it felt … weird now that they owned the place. Vicki’s probate wasn’t done yet, but her former employees had a valid lease.

  I was just going to have to stop whining and suck it up to drive back to town. At Birchwoods, I’d drunk the last of the shakes I was keeping in the car. So, after a few minutes of stretching, I forced my aching joints back into clothes, stowed my weapons, and gingerly duckwalked out to the car. I’d left my cell phone in its holster; it registered three missed cal
ls, all from the same number and all in the last few minutes.

  Alex.

  That was a call I definitely wanted to return. I started the car and slowly pushed in the clutch to put it into gear. Ow. Sharp little shooting pains coursed up my thigh, bringing sparkles to my vision.

  I was reaching for the phone when it rang. I answered immediately: “Celia. What’s up, Alex?”

  “Oh, thank God!” Her voice was low and panicked and all of my senses went to high alert. The pain in my leg disappeared as if by magic. Adrenaline is a wonderful thing. “Celia, I did what I promised. I brought a priest out to the zoo. You’re right; something weird is going on. There have been reports of people going missing for weeks, but nobody’s followed up. I don’t know if it’s because of jurisdictional bullshit or if somebody’s suppressing the reports inside the department. But … shit! There’s screaming coming from inside now. They won’t let me in to check on Father Joseph. I’m going to go back and get help, but in case they follow me I want you to get the photos I’m about to send you from my cell phone back to my lieutenant. He’ll get the right people out there.”

  In case they follow, my ass! “Don’t be a hero, Alex. I’m on my way.”

  Now her voice went hissing and harsh: “Don’t you be an idiot, Celia. They’d be expecting you. I don’t plan to play hero. I’m driving away from the facility right now. I don’t like leaving the priest, but he’s a warrior class two. He can handle himself. Hopefully. But if you don’t hear from me by morning, get the files to Lieutenant Blanchard. He’ll know what to do.”

  I didn’t know her lieutenant all that well and the thought of having to talk to him made me uncomfortable. We’d met, like, once. I didn’t like it. Not one bit. But Alex is as tough as I am, maybe more so. If she said “don’t come,” I had to respect that. “You call Vicki if bad things start to happen. Okay? Promise me you’ll call on Vicki.”

  I didn’t doubt for a second that no matter how exhausted Vicki was, she would help Alex. There was a sigh of relief in her voice when she responded: “I don’t think I’ll need to. I just passed through the farthest perimeter barrier. I should be home free. But we need to talk in the morning. I’m headed back to the station to turn all this in and file an official request for investigation. Get some sleep, girlfriend. I’ll be okay.”

  “How about I stay on the phone with you until I know you’re okay and back in the city? I’ve been ambushed out there before, and there’s nobody around to hear you scream. Vicki would haunt me forever if I let anything happen to you.”

  There was a long pause; the only sounds were the crackling of static and the roar of wind past two cars. Finally she responded: “Okay. You’re right. That makes sense. Let me plug in the car charger and put the phone on hands free.”

  So we talked. For the next twenty minutes we talked about the reports she’d discovered of guards going missing and escapes that had never made the news. “Then I dug deeper,” she explained. “I wanted to see if there were any workers’ compensation claims against the private corporation that runs the facility. If people were going missing, then getting hurt was the next step. There were almost a dozen claims in the last year. And though I couldn’t find any record of a budget increase, there seem to be more guards on duty than are on the payroll. I saw dozens of guards, but the facility’s website only shows a standard complement of fifteen for the overnight shift. If they’re secretly hiring more staff, there are definitely problems there.”

  A hideous thought formed in my head. Did I dare tell her about the guard with the glowing eyes? He’d moved almost too … fluidly. Almost as though— “There may be another explanation, but you’re not going to like it.”

  Her voice grew wary, with an edge of fear. “What?”

  “When’s the last time anyone did a head count of prisoners ?” She didn’t respond, so I kept going. The red light gave me a chance to flip over to the Internet on the cell. I typed in demonic possession & werewolves . Six pages of results came up, including three from the major churches. “What if … and this is only an if … demons were possessing the prisoners as well as the administrators, but not the guards?”

  She began to follow my reasoning while I scrolled through websites. But the light turned green, so I couldn’t spend much time reading. “There are too many guards and someone would raise a fuss if they all started acting weird,” Alex mused. “But one or two administrators could order the release of prisoners.…”

  “Who could then come back as ‘new hires.’ There would be no paperwork because they wouldn’t be on the payroll. And nobody would be the wiser.” It was a conspiracy theory of the highest order and no small feat. But the demon who had tried to claim me was both patient and smart, and since the disk with the spell to bring him forth had gone missing during the fight with Eirene, I couldn’t guarantee that he wasn’t already in this realm.

  “Yeah. We’ve got to get someone in there. Immediately. Okay, I’m just coming up on the QualMart at Terrance Drive. I should be fine from here. Thanks, Celia. Really. This gave me a chance to think and I really do feel better talking to you.”

  We’d never been very close. It was more a matter of vying for Vicki’s time than any actual animosity. I’d always hoped we could be friends. I figured if my best friend loved Alex, then I should try to like her or at least get to know her. But we’d never managed to get beyond the superficial.

  Until now. “Me, too. Don’t bother about sending me the photos. Give them to your lieutenant personally. Oh, and before I forget, what’s the scoop on the sniper who tried to take off my head at the Will reading?” Alex had been there and had seen John Creede use damned impressive magic to stop the bullet before it reached me. He’d won a lot of points that day.

  “Crap! That’s right. I never told you about that. Guy’s name was Selik Mahrain. He’s a professional hit man and INTERPOL has been looking for him for a long time. They were more than happy to come collect him. Last I heard he was in a Turkish prison, awaiting trial for the murder of a Shiite leader. He’d been hired by the queen of a Grecian island to remove you before you met with the siren head queen.”

  “Ah yes. The lovely Stefania. Did I mention she was Eirene’s mother and the one who’d put a death curse on me and Ivy when we were little kids?”

  Alex let out a noise that was close to a raspberry. “Charming woman. Is that the one you killed?”

  “No. I killed Eirene, the daughter. Mommy dearest was killed by Queen Lopaka, who didn’t take kindly to Stefania trying to kill her brother’s only remaining grandchild. Meaning me.”

  “Okay, the station is in sight. Go home. Get some rest and we’ll talk tomorrow. I should know more after I make my report.”

  Conveniently enough, by the time I hung up I’d arrived at one of my favorite restaurants. La Cocina y Cantina is a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican place that was the favorite hangout of me, Vicki, Emma, and Dawna. We’d held Vicki’s wake there. It served the best food in the world. As I pulled into the parking lot, the main lights flicked off. What time was it? I’d forgotten to put on my watch, so I checked my phone display: 10 P.M. Why was the restaurant closing? They normally stayed open until midnight or later.

  I got out of the car and knocked on the front door. A woman’s head poked out from the kitchen. Her face exploded into a smile and she rushed forward, rubbing her hands on the ever-present snow-white bar towel. She unlocked the door with a flourish. “Celia! What you doing here at this hour? Huh? Come in and sit down. Come. Come.” Barbara was part owner of the restaurant. She ushered me in like there was a storm outside and locked the door again, being careful to pull down the blinds. “You want a late dinner? Pablo will make you a ‘sunset smoothie.’ ”

  Ooh. That did sound good. It was a concoction they’d come up with after my vampire attack. As long as I didn’t think too much about the cow blood in it, it tasted wonderful. But at least the blood was cooked. So it was sort of a beef fajita shake, without the beef. “Sure. That sounds g
ood. What’s up, Barbara? Where is everyone? I was surprised the door was locked.”

  She looked around as though afraid. “Bats. A whole flock of them. One old vampire showed up about a week ago and turned three of the boys in the neighborhood. They were bad boys, always into something. Stealing, drugs. But they’d never hurt anybody until he found them. Now people are scared. They’re not coming here after dark and I can’t blame them. If we didn’t have to clean up, we wouldn’t be here after dark, either. But for you … we’ll make an exception. Anytime. Day or night. You come and we’ll make you dinner.”

  That was sweet, but I hated seeing nice people being terrorized. This business was all the family had. I felt my brow furrow and anger rise. “You fix me a shake. I’ll be right back.”

  I stood up. She clutched at my sleeve. “Oh no, Celia. Don’t go out there. They’re not like you. They’re bad, bad vampires. I don’t want you hurt.”

  My smile probably had a dark edge. “Barbara, I was putting vampires in their place before I was turned. Now I’m a lot harder to hurt, and I’m a lot smarter than them. I got to keep my brain.” I patted her arm. “I’ll be fine.”

  Her face was wary, but she let me leave, then locked the door behind me. Every third streetlight was out. I’d heard some parts of the city were doing that to save money, but it made the sidewalks dark for long stretches.

  I started walking, jingling my keys, anticipating that I’d soon be followed. It didn’t take long. There were four of them hiding in the darkness. I could just make them out because of my vampire vision. Two of the boys were growling, which made the small hairs on my neck rise. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. It was one thing to take on one or two bats, but taking on four might be biting off more than I could chew. Maybe one of them would be willing to listen to reason.