It was in the midst of an area downtown that was suffering from what politicians call "urban renewal", where they spend taxpayer money trying to entice those who moved away to come back and get shot at some more. Lowenstein had won the contract to build an office building here, and by the looks of it, they were almost done. The scaffolding was still in place and a crane loomed over a neat stack of girders. From where we stood, it looked like the first and second floor were complete. The only indication that it was abandoned was that all of the windows were boarded over.
That meant that it would be pitch black inside. "Did you bring a flashlight?" I asked.
"Where would I put it?" she asked. "Besides, we're trying to avoid notice. Waving a flashlight around isn't going to be very sneaky."
"So how are we supposed to find our way around inside?"
"Can't demons see in the dark?"
"We're not cats. And even cats can't see in that sort of darkness."
She chuckled. "I thought so. Here." She handed something over to me. I turned it around in my hand until I could see what it was. It was a piece of scrap metal, but there was a crude eye etched on it, an eye with a cat's slit pupil. There was also a wavy line underneath the eye.
"The Eye of Sauron?" I asked
"Night vision, dumbass." She held a similar piece of metal up, touching the edge of it to her temple. I followed suit and winced. My vision sharpened, light sources painfully bright. Once I was used to that sensation, I noticed that several things held a tint of red, a very dark red. I looked over at Tink. Her face and hands had a faint red flush to them, almost a glow. "It increases your sensitivity to light, plus it extends your vision into the infrared a bit. This way we don't attract attention by swinging around flashlights."
I lowered my hand and the enhanced vision faded. "Sneaky."
"I thought so. Let's go in."
Yellow police tape sealed the main entrance of the building. There was no way to open the door without breaking the tape, but it wasn't as if the police were going to come around and check at this time of night. I pulled the door open and led the way in.
Inside, most of the walls had been put in place, but none of the niceties of a modern office building were in place. No paint, no artificial plants, no electricity, and no gorgeous receptionists in low cut blouses. I glanced over at Tink as if she would transform into the latter, but was disappointed. Unrealistic expectations. She just jabbed me in the side with her elbow and kept walking.
It took us over a half hour just to check out the first floor. Tangles of wires, exposed plumbing, unopened paint cans with a coating of dust on top of them, even a few fluorescent light fixtures were all we found. Tink insisted on checking out the elevator shafts. I was tempted to push her. Dragging me out of bed in the middle of the night just to wander around an abandoned construction site and look for demonic traces was so far past the terms of the contract, it wasn't even funny.
She was feeding me, at least. "You owe me breakfast."
"We'll drop by IHOP on the way back."
The second floor was even less finished than the first, and even more cluttered. The workers must have been getting everything prepared for the third floor. We took our time checking out the rooms on the second floor, but there were no signs of the murder site, or anything that even made me suspicious. For that matter, the building felt strangely abandoned. There was no human life besides us, I was sure of that. There were no stray cats, no mice, nothing alive. I was sure there weren't even cockroaches scuttling around.
We moved on to the third floor. The ceiling wasn't fully finished and the interior walls weren't all in place yet. Of course, one of the rooms was taped off. Tink started right for it and I grabbed her shoulder. "Wait."
It wasn't likely that the killer had left any surprises. The police would have found them first. I was more concerned about anything a demon might have left behind. While it might not affect normal humans, mages and halfbloods were another story. I stepped toward the tape and touched it. Nothing jumped out to bite me. I took a deep breath and ducked under the tape.
My ichor surged and I dropped to my knees. Someone had left a calling card, a trap specifically to catch demons off guard. Something had happened here, something terrible. It had left an echo in the very air, an imprint in the concrete all around me. I could feel the shadow, the echo of the murders as they happened, felt the agony, the fierce joy of the kill, the blood-
"Snap out of it!" My head hit the ground, snapping me out of the fugue. Tinkerbell stood above me, gasping for breath. "Hey. Demon! Answer me."
I pushed myself up to a sitting position. My chest burned, as if I hadn't been breathing. Maybe I hadn't been. "I don't want to do that again. This is definitely demonic in nature. They left a trap for any demons who investigated."
"I felt it." I looked over at her. Her arms were crossed and she shivered, as if it was thirty degrees colder. "When I touched you, it felt like something had actually turned you to stone. Then I felt something moving under your skin. I thought I better get you out of there before something happened."
I shivered too. My body had started to change, out of my conscious control. Whoever did this wanted other demons to keep away. That sort of trap would overwhelm any demon almost instantly. The only reason I hadn't lost it right there was because of my halfblood status. I didn't rely on ichor alone. "Do yourself a favor. If that ever happens again, run away. Keep running until you're home, lock your doors, set whatever tricks and traps you have, and don't fall asleep until high noon."
"Why?"
"Don't ask stupid questions, human. Listen to me for once."
"I'm not afraid of you coming after me, you know."
I laughed. "You shouldn't be afraid, except if something makes me completely lose control. Like that. If you hadn't pulled me out, you'd be dealing with an uncontrolled demon. No self-control, no outside control, no control at all. An enraged demon, one who's bound in a contract and knows it."
"I-"
"Know how it would end?" I pointed at the room. "That's how."
"Don't-"
"Threaten you?" I brushed myself off and got to my feet. "I'm not, Tink. I'm telling you how to keep it from happening. Besides, if I lost control and killed you, I'd be in breach of contract. The Malefic Consortium would wreck me. Kibs would take a pound of flesh himself. He takes contracts he witnessed very personally. It'd be a hundred years before anyone would consider my word binding without a co-signer."
She didn't say anything else, for which I was grateful. It gave me time to collect my thoughts, and to start converting ichor to blood. The less ichor in my system, the less of an impact that trap would have on me. Even then, it'd be painful to spend too much time there. "Do we need to hang around? It was a demon, I know that much."
"That just confirms that a demon was involved," she said. "That doesn't mean they acted alone. I want to check it out myself. Let's go."
"I was afraid you were going to say that."
"You're a bit of a coward, aren't you?"
"Lucifer's beard, woman! You should count yourself blessed that you don't feel what I feel in there!" I put a hand on the wall as the world tilted. My body needed to adapt to the relative lack of oxygen.
"Does he have a beard?"
"Lucifer?" The oddity of the question broke my concentration. "I don't know. I never met him. It's just a saying."
"Aren't you concerned about offending him?"
I held my tongue. Offending the dead was not something that worried me. "Not especially, no. I'm sure he's got better things to do than get upset over someone taking his beard in vain."
"You're afraid of the dark, but you're not afraid of the devil himself. Whatever. Come on." She ducked under the tape. I followed her in.
With the effects of the trap muted, I was able to look around the unfinished room without losing my mind. The ceiling wasn't in place over this part of the building yet, leaving the moon hanging right over our heads. The police hadn't bothere
d to scrub the room down. While the rumored heads and other body parts were gone, the bloodstained pentagram was still smeared across the floor. The scent of blood still hung in the air, rich and bitter.
Tink walked around the perimeter of the symbol. "You know, depending on where you stand, this isn't necessarily evil."
"An occult symbol drawn in the blood of murdered people isn't necessarily evil?"
"The symbol itself, not the means of drawing it. It's generally only used by masters since it's so difficult to balance properly. When you see a star inscribed in a circle with one point upwards, it's considered proper. Two points upwards is considered to be demonic, used for unethical purposes. Does it mean anything to you?" She paused at one of the points and looked across at me.
"Symbolism's a human conceit, not demonic. I think it's pretty easy to figure out what the meaning is, though."
"What do you mean?"
I walked back to the doorway. "Look at it from here. Two points up, one pointing right at the doorway. Whoever drew it oriented it with regards to the door. It's the only way in."
"Good point. All right, so it's obviously demonic, and it's symbolically evil. Now, let's see if we can figure out who's behind this."
"How are you going to do that?" I asked.
She walked around to the gap opposite the doorway. "Symbolic conjunction. Every mage uses blood to power their runes. One of the requirements to pass from apprentice to journeyman is to learn how to extract the unique signature, the blood and style, from a spell. If a mage did this, I'll know, even if I don't know exactly who it is. I can take it to the conclave and see if anyone else recognizes it. It'll spread and we'll get the bastard."
"What if it wasn't a mage?" I asked.
"Then we just have a demon to worry about."
"You're still a little too cavalier about facing a demon."
She grinned across the pentagram at me. "That's what I keep you around for. This will take a couple of minutes to set up. If you're scared, you can wait outside."
I declined to argue the point and stepped outside to breathe. If she expected me to face off with a demon, the best she could hope for is for the demon to enjoy taking me apart long enough to let her escape. That was probably her intent. Damn mercenary girl. However, I still had a few tricks up my sleeve, so to speak. "Hey, Kibs?"
The imp phased through the floor and yawned at me. "I was wondering when you'd figure out I was here, dipshit."
"I assumed you showed up to keep an eye on things right around the time I nearly lost it. Professional or personal interest?"
"A bit of both," the imp admitted. "I've been keeping an eye on sweetcheeks more, naturally. She's got some ass, let me tell you."
"Yeah, you're a voyeur, I knew that. Could you do me a favor?"
"What's in it for me?"
Damn mercenary girls, and damn mercenary imps. "The usual."
Kibs did something I had never seen him do before. He looked around, adjusted his suit collar, rubbed his hands together, and didn't reply. He'd normally jump at the chance to knock back a beer or two, or I'd give him an hour at the computer to check out some porn. It didn't take much to keep him happy. "I'm not sure about this one."
"I haven't even asked yet!"
"You're going to ask me to go check out who that's connected to, aren't you?" Kibs brushed off his suit, then pulled out a tiny handkerchief and started to polish his horns.
"Just give me a hint of how scared I should be."
"I can tell you that right now. Scared, Zay. Really fucking scared."
I stared at the imp. He looked all around, up and down, anywhere but at me. If he was scared, that meant it was someone who made the Malefic Consortium nervous. That was substantial power. "I'm not looking for a name, Kibs. I just want a general sense of their power or rank. I wouldn't ask you to break confidentiality, you know that."
Kibs still seemed unconvinced. Naturally, Tink ducked under the tape just as he looked like he was about to say something. She took one look at the imp and kicked. He phased just in time and her foot swept right through him. "Whoa there, sweetcheeks! What did I ever do to you?"
"What's that molester doing here?" she demanded. "Did you call him here, demon? Let him have some fun while I'm distracted?"
"I was asking him to check out what demon that thing is connected to," I said.
Her scowl faded, just a little. "Oh."
"But he's scared."
"Fuck yes, I'm scared," Kibs snapped. "I already told you, you should be scared too. Don't believe the imp, I know, we're a bunch of damned lawyers, can't believe anything we say. Well, believe this, motherfucker. You better get out before you get dead."
"You can track down which demon is connected to this?" Tink asked him.
"Of course. No, I won't tell you who. Confidential. I'd lose my license."
"Like I said, I'm not asking for that. I just want a rank, not a name. Come on, Kibs. I'll buy you a six-pack and throw in a couple hours on the computer."
The imp crossed his arms and shook his head. "No way, Zay. Not for a year's subscription to Hustler."
Tink glared at me. "You encourage him?"
"Believe me, he doesn't need any encouragement."
She sighed. "Imp. Kibs, right?"
"That's my name, baby." I ground my teeth. If she threatened him, that would be it. He'd be gone and I'd have to figure it out on my own. Maybe I could lean on a family connection to get some info.
She pointed at herself. "Private strip show."
"Excuse me?"
"Two minutes with me, without clothes."
"Ten minutes, hands on, and you've got a deal, sweetcheeks."
I covered my face. They settled on five minutes, hands off, but with Kibs directing. She also glared over in my direction. "And he's not invited."
"I wasn't even dreaming of intruding on your private time." I wouldn't mind seeing her naked, of course, but with Kibs for company? No way. I didn't even want to think about it. That imp had some strange tastes. I had checked my browser history once after he was done. Once was all it took.
"You got yourself a deal, sweetcheeks." Kibs extended a hand, Tink extended a couple of fingers, and they shook. "Give me about ten minutes."
"Take your time," she said. "It'll take me about that long to finish my work."
"You got it." Kibs walked past her, slapped her ass, and phased before she could do more than yelp. The expression on her face was priceless. I made sure I wasn't looking at her by the time she glared at me.
I followed her back into the bloodstained room and leaned against the wall near the doorway. She had drawn a chalk circle around the pentagram, with a dozen small runic inscriptions spaced around the perimeter. I watched her prick her finger, then touch one of the runes. The rune started to glow, and the glow slowly spread around the diameter of the circle, proceeding clockwise. "It takes a few minutes for the power to spread evenly," she said.
"Why don't you just put a drop on each inscription?"
"That would be faster, yes. It would also be much more obvious."
"Obvious? As in, whoever did this could sense you doing this?"
"If they're a mage, it's possible. Not all mages are paranoid enough to maintain a constant binding to a symbol. You can't keep it up forever, or watch too many of them at once. It takes a lot out of you and it's usually a waste of time."
"So you're betting on this being done by someone who is not a mage, or if they are a mage, doing something this horrific and then not keeping an eye on it? That seems like a sucker's bet to me, Tink."
She looked over her shoulder at me and grinned, all teeth. "I'm betting that they are keeping an eye on it. That's why I'm doing it this way. If I did it the way you suggested, they'd sense me before the spell finished and trigger their countermeasures, which could be anything from cutting off their connection to bringing the building down. Doing it this way shouldn't tip them off, unless they're seriously paranoid."
"So you're bettin
g on them being paranoid, just not seriously paranoid."
"Like I said before, that's why I keep you around."
I sighed and we both fell silent. I pulled out my phone and checked the time. Quarter to four. I yawned and put the phone back in my pocket, rubbing against the shard that she had given me earlier. Out of curiosity, I pulled it out and touched it to my temple. The moonlight became painfully bright and I had to squint to see. After a minute, my sight adjusted and I squatted down to look at the floor. The pentagram glowed red, the blood noticeably warmer than the surrounding floor. Maybe it had something to do with the magic she was using. The chalk circle was glowing too, but it wasn't red.
Something wasn't right about this. Why was it warmer than the environment? It hadn't been too sunny during the day. Even if it had been, would the blood have absorbed so much more heat than the concrete? The killings had happened a couple days ago. My instincts were screaming that this wasn't right.
I stood up to mention it to Tink, but the words froze in my throat. There was another glowing red line, about waist level on the wall. I turned my head. It went all the way around the room, to the edges of the doorway. I followed it with my eyes. It touched the police tape. The police tape was glowing. "Oh, shit."
"What?"
"Tink, we're in trouble. Take a look at the wall."
She touched her own rune to her temple. She turned to the doorway and took a sharp breath. "That's odd." She stood up and walked over to the wall near me, then pressed her finger to the faintly glowing red line. "That's bad."
I followed suit. There was a groove in the wall, invisible to the naked eye, but warmer than the surrounding concrete. "That's a runic etching, isn't it?"
Tink started to laugh. "We have been well and truly suckered."
"Should we start running now?"
She shrugged. "They know we're here, and they probably know who I am now. If we can hold out long enough for my rune to complete, at least I can find out who the mage is. If they were going to stop us, they'd have done something about it by now."
The Demon Inside Me Page 5