by T. S. Bishop
“I…see. Is that a popular opinion?”
“No, certainly not. I’ve been regarded as a dangerous radical for most of my life. Only in the past few years have my ideas slowly become more popular. What do you think of our Sanctum?”
“I think we’re doing important work,” I said sincerely. I didn’t even have to think about that answer. The Sanctum had given me something more important than money or power—it had given me a home, with Dominic and Adrian and Noah. I would be forever grateful for that, if nothing else. “I think that it’s nice to feel like there’s a purpose to my existence, that there’s a job to be done that only I can do. And if killing demons is it, I guess that’s what I’ll do.”
“A soldier at heart,” he said slowly and softly. He looked at me and smiled bleakly. “How surprising. And what about your Bloodsworn?”
“What about them?”
“There’s occasionally an adjustment period. Is there anything you’re having trouble with? As a former Bloodsworn to a powerful witch, I might be able to help you.”
“No, there’s nothing wrong…I think. Everything’s been going pretty smoothly so far,” I said, taken aback.
“Wonderful, I’m happy to hear it. Now, let me introduce you to some people who it would be useful for you to know.”
I spent the rest of the evening politely shaking hands and nodding and smiling, feeling very much like a trained monkey or a ventriloquist’s dummy, as I was introduced to members of the Sanctum who appeared to be senior and important, judging from their clothing.
Some of them had conveniently worn uniforms, if they were old enough to have fought in the last great Demon War, which I read took place fifty years ago. I seemed to have been a minor celebrity among the people my age, and I spent a fun few minutes discussing life outside the Sanctum with a blonde witch a couple of years younger than me.
“I’ve heard there are bowling alleys and malls and places you go just for make-up,” she breathed excitedly, eyes wide and awed. I choked down a laugh.
“Let me take you to Sephora some time,” I said, as Adrian tugged me away, “It’ll blow your mind.”
Adrian pulled me over to where Adele was standing and talking to a short witch with salt and pepper hair cut down to a crop.
“There you are,” she said briskly, “Here, meet my mother. Ma, this is Sophie, the one who’s been missing for a couple of decades now. We only just found her.”
I wanted to laugh at that description. It made me sound like I’d stupidly gone and gotten lost on purpose, instead of the truth which was that I’d been abandoned as a baby.
“Hello,” the lady said vaguely, pushing up her glasses and staring at me with an expression that suggested she had already forgotten my name. “I’m Amelia,” she added, which marked the end of our small talk.
Adrian was bouncing lightly on the soles of his feet with an air of barely suppressed excitement, which Adele noticed as well.
“Oh, I completely forgot,” she said, clapping a hand to her forehead and digging around in the pocket of her black dress. She and her mother were dressed plainly and without any adornment, and they looked like austere crows next to the opulence of the rest of the Sanctum members, something that didn’t seem to bother them in the least. It probably helped that they were effectively Sanctum royalty, and therefore could basically do whatever they wanted.
She handed me an envelope which had my name type written on the front, with the mysterious letters ‘ASG 001’. When I looked blankly at her and Adrian, she huffed impatiently at me.
“It’s your first assignment!” she said, throwing up her hands.
“What?” I said, clutching the paper to my chest. I looked at Adrian who was nearly dancing in place from suppressed excitement. “We get to go?”
“You do, but don’t expect anything really fun yet,” said Adele warning me with a raised eyebrow. “It’ll be extremely boring. Just something to get your feet wet before your real assignments start, and that won’t be for a few months.”
“Then why even bother sending us?” I asked, disappointed.
“It’s good for team morale,” put in Amelia unexpectedly. “My team had so much fun with our very first assignment,” she added wistfully. “It ended with all five of us covered in blood and there were some traumatized townspeople that were never quite the same again, but there’s nothing quite like your first demon.”
I looked at Adrian who swept me up into a carry, bridal-style. I shrieked and thumped on his arm to let me down, while people looked at us disapprovingly and Adele muttered something about ‘youthful exuberance’ in an embarrassed way.
My mouth hurt from smiling.
Chapter 18
“It’s supposed to be around here somewhere,” Noah said, adjusting his goggles and looking down at the GPS on his phone, “It was spotted right around this fire hydrant, in front of this shop.”
We both looked at the shopfront. It had a bright, pink-striped awning and cutesy Victorian décor, like an old lady with a doily obsession had thrown up all over it. It was Esther’s Delights, a bakery and confectionary store.
“It used to be a regular local favorite until four years ago, when they featured it on a tv show,” Dominic said, “Now they’ve completely sold out to tourists. They used to have a chausson aux pommes that I would gladly have died for. Now all they sell is cupcakes and cronuts,” he said sadly. “What?” he added defensively, seeing our collective bafflement.
“I don’t know what a chosen o’pom is,” I confessed, at the same time that Noah said, “I feel like my identity’s been stolen.”
“It’s just an apple turnover,” Dominic told me, “And nobody’s taking your title as nerd of the group any time soon, Noah.”
“I don’t mean to interrupt you guys’s session of fucking around,” Adele’s voice crackled over the walkie talkie, “But have any of you been looking for the demon we’re supposed to be catching?”
“Killjoy,” Adrian muttered.
“I’m still on the line.”
“We’re looking,” I said quickly, “Oh wait—what’s that?”
They all turned quickly, looking to where I was pointing.
I could see a small, wrinkled looking figure. It was a low level demon, malevolent but not actively attacking anyone. It would probably only wake up at midnight, when the darkness was strongest. Meanwhile, it crouched in the corner, next to a shop window, and shoppers were passing it unconcernedly.
To them it probably looked like nothing, or maybe they mistook it for a shadow.
I could see the teeth that jutted out of its mouth. They were sharp and gleamed an unnatural red. It ears were horned and curly, protruding out from a thatch of straw-like black hair. Its face was grotesque, like the gargoyles you see guarding churches.
I didn’t know why, but I thought that it might be an old demon and not a young whippersnapper like you would expect when you saw a lone demon. The older ones knew that there was more power to be found in a pack, more strength to terrorize and kill people and they’d be harder to take down.
It was usually young, headstrong demons who were on their own, too proud to join forces. Luckily for us, because it meant it would be easier to take down.
“I can’t see anything,” Noah said. I could feel his confusion through the bond.
“But it’s right there,” I said blankly.
“I can’t see it either,” Adrian said, squinting hard in the direction I was pointing.
“Dominic?” I said hopefully.
“Hold on,” Dominic said, turning the dials on his goggles rapidly, “I think I’m—yes, I’m getting it.”
“How come we can’t see anything?”
“I forgot that Sophie can see demons without needing the goggles while we were tuned into the wrong frequency,” Dominic said, now looking at the exact place where the demon was crouching, “Go to kappa delta tau and you should be able to see him. Hey ugly,” he said to the demon in a friendly voice.
&nbs
p; Noah and Adrian both exclaimed with excitement at being able to see it then, but Dominic had turned his attention to me.
“We can’t do anything about it right now,” Noah said, looking around.
He had a point. The sun had set but Mag Mile was still crowded with people holding bags of designer clothing and shoes, families with kids on vacation and hipsters who didn’t really look like they were doing very much.
It was way too crowded to try any kind of operation without getting caught on camera.
Already, a white guy with dreads who smelled strongly of patchouli and weed pointed at us, went, “Hey, it’s the Ghostbusters!” and kept walking. A few people started looking at us and pointing and whispering.
“This is so not good,” I whispered to the boys, self-consciously ducking my head.
“You’re right,” Adrian said, “We’re not exactly inconspicuous.”
“Especially not you,” Noah pointed out, “You’re the only one of us carrying around a flashy sword.”
“My sword is great,” Adrian said flatly.
“We all know you love your sword very much,” Dominic said soothingly.
“Yeah, and it’s the biggest sword I’ve ever seen,” I said, batting my lashes at him innocently.
I heard Noah choke back a laugh. “They’re right,” he continued, “It’s sharp enough to cut the throat of an A class Fire Demon and send it back to the Hellfire.”
“Uh…”
“It’s all right, buddy,” Dominic said, “You tried.”
“What? Did I not do it right? I thought I was doing the same thing as the rest of you!” Noah complained.
“Anyway,” Adrian said, rolling his eyes, “We should go somewhere…quieter.”
“That’s a good idea. I think that guy’s recording you,” I said, jerking my head toward a guy in a black hoodie who was holding his cell phone up blatantly.
“Stop that!” Adrian called, waving his sword at the guy.
“Don’t come at me, man!” the guy yelled back, seemingly unfazed by a six-foot-something hunk of muscle with a real sword threatening him with it.
“This is hopeless,” I said, “We have to go. But how do we make sure the demon can’t move until we’re back?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Dominic said casually, and dropped his backpack on the ground. He rummaged inside for a few moments and emerged with a packet of something.
“Iron pellets,” he explained to the rest of us, “With some lavender. Puts them right to sleep.”
“Brilliant,” I said admiringly.
“I helped,” Noah said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
“It was my idea,” Dominic said, with a gleam of amusement in his eyes.
“And I had nothing to do with it whatsoever,” Adrian said impatiently, tapping his foot on the ground, “Guys, let’s move.”
At some point he had stowed the sword away, so he looked like any regular very tall, very handsome man with wavy dark brown hair that fell into his eyes like he was a mode in a renaissance painting. Which was to say, like an inhumanly attractive guy, and now the looks we were getting were less because of the insane weaponry we held and more because of the insane good looks of the guys I was with.
“All you need to do is drop these around the demon in a circle,” Dominic demonstrated. I held my breath, ready to yell out if anything happened, but nothing did. The demon didn’t react, as Dominic laid out the pellets in a circle around its body.
“The smell’s awful,” he said conversationally.
“I’ve read that they smell like burnt cheese,” Noah said very seriously.
“The truth is the smell’s more like old socks,” Dominic said as he finished and walked to stand next to us again.
“There you go, Noah. Don’t say we never taught you anything,” Adrian said, smirking. “Now, I’m starving—“
“Me too! Who wants to go to Shake Shack?”
I was met with three blank expressions.
“Come on! You must know Shake Shack!”
Adrian looked at Dominic, who looked at Noah. Who looked at his phone.
“You guys are really lucky you have me around,” I said, taking Adrian and Noah by the sleeve and dragging them along, leaving Dominic to follow us, “And boy are you in for a treat.”
A few hours later, we were back. Luckily, the street was now deserted, tired shoppers had presumably left for their apartments and hotel rooms.
There was still plenty of light from all the stores and their window displays. For some reason, they never switched the lights off even if the store was closed, which annoyed me because a) it made you think the store was open when it wasn’t, and b) what a waste of electricity!
The demon was still there, but it was awake. And angry.
Oh boy, was it angry.
It was clawing at its cage, which looked like a hexagon of energy each vertex at the point where Dominic had laid down a pellet. It saw us and emitted a roar that made the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stand on end.
I shuddered as it switched to a blood-curling wail and put my hands over my ears.
“I think it wants us to let it out!” I yelled, over the tornado or wind and crackling energy that was surrounding it. I couldn’t see, and I was getting hit in the face and eyes with dust and sand.
“The cage isn’t going to hold for very long,” Dominic said grimly, shielding his face with his forearm.
“We need you to do it now, Sophie,” Adrian said, pulling his sword out.
“Sophie,” Noah said urgently, as the demon emitted an unearthly roar that seemed to shake the ground we were standing on.
“I know!” I said, looking away, “Just give me a minute to concentrate, okay?”
“Er, I don’t think we have a minute,” Noah said timidly, seeing a crack in the cage form, “This cage isn’t going to last long.”
“Just buy me some time!” I said, resolutely turning away and pressing my hand to my temple, eyes closed.
All right, I just had to do what we practice. Visualize, visualize…
I tried to ignore the chaos that was happening around me and just focus…
“Give me the grenade!” Adrian was yelling to Dominic. I resisted the urge to go back and confiscate the grenade immediately, and continued to focus…
Deep into my consciousness, into the cool, dark cave that held my dormant magic. There was a lake, black as midnight and deeper than could be measured. I imagined a stone, dropping into the center of the lake.
“You just made it angry, Adrian!” That was Noah. But I had more important things to do.
The stone landed in the water with a melodic plink, and I imagined it sinking, sinking, sinking until it fell into a darkness so complete that no light could find it.
The ripples from the stone slowly formed, and travelled outward until little waves lapped at the edges of the lake and wetted the shores of the cave.
I imagined the waves growing larger, little by little, until I felt the gentle waves of power lapping at the edge of my mind and my skin crackled with the magic.
“Guys,” I heard Dominic say suddenly, “Do you feel that?”
I looked down at my hands. They were glowing. Tendrils of magic wrapped themselves lazily around my fingers. All mine. Mine to command. I felt powerful, and unstoppable.
With this, I would be able to do anything to anyone. I wasn’t just a cowering little orphan girl anymore. I could strike fear into the hearts of my enemies.
Speaking of which.
I turned to the boys. I could feel them, pulsing at the edge of my mind. I could feel their emotions, feel what they felt for me, down to the minute variations.
I could feel Noah’s fear, choking him and telling him to run before the demon ate his soul. I could see him thinking about his parents, about how sad they’d be if he died tonight, and how he was really glad his last meal on earth had been a milkshake.
I gave him power.
It made him gasp as the
power flooded his body and made him glow just like I did. He looked at me, and his eyes were an electric blue. I smiled at him.
He smiled back.
Adrian, meanwhile, was unafraid. He was ready to face death, ready to go down fighting. I saw myself, as I’d never seen myself in real life before. I was beautiful and seductive, mischievous and playful and powerful, and he…wanted me.
But there wasn’t time to focus on that. I gave him a little nudge, enough power to take down the demon before it hurt my boys, and turned to Dominic.
Who blinded me the moment I looked into his mind. He was shining like a beacon. It filled him up to his fingertips, screamed every moment he breathed and stabbed him when he tried to sleep.
It was pain. It radiated from his leg, but his whole body ached with it. If his entire body ached with the pain of a million stabbing needles, his leg felt like it had been set on fire.
“It’s all right,” Dominic said gently. I turned to face him, but he was looking away.
He was speaking to me in my mind, I realized.
“How is it okay?” I replied, horrified, “How are you alive?”
“Come here,” he said, and somehow pulled me into a different place. A hidden place, where even I couldn’t have found him. It reminded me of my cave. A dark, peaceful place with no roiling pain or hurt or regret.
“It’s not so bad here,” he explained. “I come here when it’s too much,” he added, mouth twisting bitterly.
“Don’t do that,” I ordered, filling our bond with command. “You’re my Bloodsworn.”
“Then tell me,” he said, face tight with longing, “Tell me what to do.”
I shoved power into his body, overloading it until he was finally numb—the parts that felt pain had to make way to hold the magic. His body was thrumming with it, I could feel it through him.
“This,” he said, and stopped.
“Go get him,” I said, smiling, and stepped back.
He went and joined Noah and Adrian, who looked a lot less like punks with weaponry and much more like soldiers. Like my Bloodsworn.