Chapter 7
Once outside the castle, we crossed back into the human realm, to the sight of a pack of celestial soldiers running around the corner. Very luckily, they were headed in the opposite direction to where Nikolas had parked. But sending out a group of them meant only one thing: a demon attack, or another related incident.
I took off after them, not waiting to hear the others’ objections.
“Hey!” I said, catching the eye of Lydia, former model academy student and the single most cheerful person ever to set foot in the guild. “What’s going on?”
“Devi!” she said, her face lighting up in a smile brighter than my celestial hand. Not a demon attack, then. “We’ve had a slight issue at the guild…”
“The prisoner got out.” Bad Haircut Sammy, my former nemesis, swaggered over. He wasn’t worth my attention—and I wouldn’t let him forget he’d practically run away screaming the last time I’d seen him. Greasy dark hair flopped into his eyes, and not for the first time, he had his guild-issued weapons strapped on backwards.
“Prisoner?” I arched a brow. “Which one?”
“Damian.”
Should have known. The guy had been a bad-tempered little shit, but if he got afflicted by the virus, people might die. Of course the guild couldn’t do one thing right.
“Yeah,” said Lydia, concern flashing across her features. “He shouldn’t have been able to get the lock off the door.”
“He got bitten by a vampire,” I reminded her. “The guild should have figured there’d be side effects. Where’s Mrs Credence?”
“Inside.” She waved a hand in the direction of the guild headquarters. “We’re searching the area. Nobody saw which direction he ran in. They’re checking the CCTV footage now, but it doesn’t extend any further than this road.”
Great. Well, I could follow them and put up with Bad Haircut Sammy, or I could take a quick detour into the guild to see if our escapee had left any evidence behind.
And I’d rarely have a better chance to ensure I got some peace for the next part of my plan.
I returned to Nikolas and Rachel, who waited by the car. “Go on ahead,” I told them. “We have a rogue potential murderer on the loose—another one. It might be the guild can handle it, but I have my doubts. Besides, it’s all connected. Let me know if I need to come over later.”
To my surprise, Nikolas didn’t object. He nodded to Rachel. “We need to report in.”
That was easier than expected. Maybe he’d accepted my remaining ties to the celestials, after all. Now to make this meeting as short as possible.
I found Mrs Credence in conversation with Mr Roth, the guild’s new leader, inside Gav’s old office. Seeing him in there gave me a familiar jolt—grief and anger, and guilt that I still hadn’t figured out who’d been responsible for my former supervisor’s death. Mrs Credence held a book in her hands.
“This is all the evidence he left behind,” she said.
My gaze went to the book’s title The Beginner’s Guide to Poisons and Venoms. I hadn’t looked closely at the title when he’d thrown the book at me at the academy.
“Weird choice of reading material,” I commented. “Can I have a look at it?”
She passed it me, ignoring a warning look from Mr Roth.
“Is there something you need, Devina?” he asked.
I accepted the book from her, ignoring the question. “I’m not sure I completely understand what happened here.” I used my best give me answers voice, which I’d mastered while training annoying novices.
Mrs Credence’s expression crumpled. “It’s my fault,” she said. “I didn’t think it’d be suitable to lock him in a jail cell, so I suggested an office. Its security levels aren’t as tight.”
“Didn’t I say keep an eye on him, not lock him up?” I said. “From what I saw of him, he was pretty resentful of the whole thing. Of course he got out.”
“Devina—” Mr Roth began.
“Just being honest. Where’s this room, then?”
Book in hand, I followed Mrs Credence down the corridor, which had been cordoned off halfway. The wooden office door hung from its hinges, like someone had ripped it clean off. A human couldn’t have done it. A celestial, though? He didn’t even need demonic vampire powers, if he’d asked a friend to help.
“Did anyone else visit him?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “I asked if he wanted me to call anyone, and he said no. He’s an orphan, you know… no family. No ties, before here.”
Then it’s not a surprise he resents you for treating him like a criminal. I might not have liked the guy, but the guild had once been all I’d had, too. After my parents’ deaths, I’d been effectively adopted into the celestials, though I hadn’t thought of them as family in a long time. Not since Rory’s death.
I turned the book over in my hands, and a slip of paper fell out.
I know what you did.
I stared at it for a moment, then turned the paper over. “Did Damian write this?”
Neither of them answered. Holding the paper, I opened the book onto the page it’d marked. From the jagged edges, several pages had been torn out.
“I can’t say for sure it’s his handwriting,” said Mrs Credence, doubtfully. “But… that’s odd.”
“No idea who this is directed at?” I held up the message. A chill raced down my back. He’d thrown the book at me before… but it might be a coincidence. Had he torn the pages out, though?
“No,” said Mr Roth. “Where did that book come from, anyway?”
“I got it from the library,” said Mrs Credence, a touch apologetically. “I let him choose one book, and that was his choice.”
“Venom and poison,” I said. “He wasn’t—looking for a cure, was he?”
They exchanged glances. “Perhaps… but there isn’t one,” she said uncertainly. “Or so I’m told. Whatever bit him had powers beyond a vampire’s.”
“Yeah, that’s the issue I’m dealing with at the moment,” I said. “Can I borrow this?”
I didn’t believe in coincidence, but right now I was stumped.
“Never mind the book,” said Mr Roth impatiently. “We need to bring him back in. If he bites another celestial… who knows what might happen.”
“I’d also be concerned about him running into a demon and catching on fire in public,” I said. “Which he must have considered and then took the risk anyway.”
I hadn’t cared for him, but unease twisted inside me at the words on the note. The book was labelled with angelic symbols, which meant it’d been salvaged from the old guild after it’d burned down. I turned back to the first page which showed who’d checked the book out… and my heart dropped.
Gav’s name was listed as the last person to borrow the book, not two weeks before he’d died.
I swallowed hard. Coincidence… or not? Had he known something? No way. It wasn’t like I could ask. Even his phone had disappeared after his death. I had a nasty feeling the inspector had removed it himself, so I wouldn’t be able to ask any more questions about his death.
My old suspicions about the guild had never truly been buried. The inspector might not be in league with demons, but someone here was up to no good. The demonglass in the west wing had never been recovered. And now…
“Can I talk to Alyson?” I asked. “She’s here, right? Please tell me you put her in jail, at least.”
“Yes, we did,” said Mr Roth. “But she’s not taking visitors. I’m going to have to ask you to leave, Devina. I’m expecting a report from the celestials out in the field.”
Worth a try. “All right. I’ll go. Just… tell me if you find him. We’ve enough to worry about without infected celestials biting people, too.”
Worry remained, a nagging doubt in the back of my head. The celestials had never been to another dimension, and there’d been no access to anything demonic in the academy. Like the guild, it was demon-free. But plainly, nobody had bothered to keep a close eye on them. They
were pushed aside, to protect the guild’s reputation. Might worse than vampire bites have affected the victims? And why had it taken until now for the effects to kick in?
I took the train home to pick up my car and ingredients for a summoning, and then drove around town, finding a nice dark alley away from prying eyes.
When I’d worked for the guild, I’d had a partner in my dealings with the netherworld. Rory and I had interrogated demons of all kinds, summoned them in safe locations, and used their expertise to track down interlopers in this dimension across six continents. Those memories seemed a long way off now I spent all my time hanging around with warlocks, especially now I was well and truly going behind their backs.
I must be losing my mind. But the fact was, all my plans had involved going onto the demons’ own territory. That put me at the mercy of the beings who knew more than I did about the forces moving behind the scenes. Drawing them here, however, put me in charge of interrogating those who might know useful information. Such as the traitorous little worm who’d facilitated Azurial’s access to our realm, for instance.
Firstly, I used my celestial light to burn the shape of a pentagram onto the bare brick wall. Then I set up an extra layer of defence in the form of various herbs. Finally, I tossed the fabric stained in the vamp’s tainted blood into the pentagram and waited.
Dienes’s small head appeared, horned and scaled.
“Devi!” he said. “What a nice surpri—”
I grabbed his throat, yanking him forward with my right hand and holding his face next to the pentagram’s burning edge. The little demon wailed hysterically. “Stop! Please!”
“You deserve worse,” I said. “You traitorous little bastard.”
He squealed in pain, cringing away from the bright lights.
“I’ll tell you anything!” he wailed. “He gave me no choice. Our city is dying.”
“Tell me what Azurial is planning,” I snarled. “He’s still involved in this, right? He still has his people targeting vampires.” The fact that the tainted blood had definitely come from that dimension left me no doubt.
He shook his head. “I haven’t seen him since you defeated him.”
“But you do admit you worked with him. This is all on you, demon. You deserve the consequences for trying to kill the celestials in my realm, including me.”
He began to sob. “I was only the messenger, Devi. I never wanted to see you hurt.”
“And the vampires? Just how close were you to them? Did he ever ask you to carry the bloodstones?”
“The what?”
I gave him a shake, and he squealed. “The vampires. You knew he was using them as weapons, with demon energy. Where did he get them from?”
“I don’t know, Devi, what—”
“Where did he get the vampires from?” I snarled in his ear. “Tell me the truth or I’ll end you. You’re no use to anyone alive now.”
He shook his head, his body trembling. “I don’t know… you’d have to ask the vampires here. They were… with him. With Azurial.”
Well. That was something. Of course, there was the slight issue of Pandemonium being a city that was pretty much celestial-proofed. Someone like me was an enemy of all the locals by default—all the more because I’d killed their would-be leader and was also responsible for Themedes taking up residence in another dimension. The first time I’d been there, Nikolas and I had been permitted to enter due to an invitation at the hands of their leader. Otherwise, I’d have to knowingly break the contract I’d signed, which would be far more likely to backfire on me than anything else.
Time to go with Plan B.
Nikolas is going to kill me.
I’d never directly said I wouldn’t speak to his brother, nor was I forbidden to go into the shadow dimension—I just wasn’t allowed to use my demonglass power to do it. Which still left some other options. Ones that would protect me, and put me in the interrogator’s chair.
After tossing Dienes back into the pentagram and switching it off, I doubled up on the protections around it before throwing in a handful of dirt I’d picked up near the castle in Babylon yesterday. Normally I wouldn’t be able to summon a demigod with a homemade pentagram, but if his powers were as weakened as Nikolas claimed, he’d be powerless to resist.
“Answer me, Zadok.”
The demon mark tingled, and foreboding rushed over me.
Then shadows filled in the pentagram, as though an invisible hand spilled ink across its surface. I’d debated stealing the gold-plated pentagram from the guild but after it hadn’t worked on Nikolas, there seemed little point in risking it. Besides, if Zadok’s powers were really bound, he wouldn’t be able to do a thing while I questioned him. Of course, getting him to answer was another story entirely.
“Devina.” He arched a dark brow, disconcertingly like his brother. They weren’t twins, but had the same visible signs of demon heritage. Dark red hair curled over his tanned forehead, while his eyes were deep burgundy flecked with gold. Attractive, but somehow… cold, in a way his brother’s weren’t. I didn’t know their history, not really, but I couldn’t help wondering how one brother had come to live in our realm, and the other in the demons’. I didn’t find him attractive either, though unlike his brother, he’d tried to throw me off a bridge. I mean, that was reason enough to put me off someone.
“Hey, Zadok,” I said.
He laughed darkly. “You really pulled out all the stops. I can’t move, so you succeeded. I’m very curious to know why you didn’t bring my brother. Or… does he not know you’re speaking to me?”
I shrugged. “He can talk to you any time he likes. I want to speak with you alone.”
“You never answered my question,” he mused. “That means you’re going behind his back. If you’d like to stay allies with him, then you’re making an unwise decision. Unless you want to ally with me, instead. With that mark of yours, you can do anything.”
“Please.” I rolled my eyes. “You tried to kill me multiple times. I wouldn’t side with you if it came between me and that dying arch-demon.”
A calculating look entered his eyes. “Or me and Azurial?”
“This isn’t a quiz, dickhead,” I said. “Unless you want to tell me the two of you were BFFs, so I can come over and put you out of your misery the same way I did him.”
“I’m no friend of the fire dimension, Devi,” he said. “But I’m curious… does my brother give you any guidance about your powers, or does he keep you in the dark? I take it he has you in an important position, rather than a menial one. You’re valuable to him… important.”
I thought of the vampire in the shed. Maybe he had a point, but Zadok’s use of taunting to get me to side with him was so blatant as to be yawn-inducing. I wouldn’t be bargaining for information with this guy.
“Yeah, I am,” I said. “More so than you, anyway.”
“Then I assume there’s a good reason you didn’t use your power to come and see me in person,” he said softly.
“Try again. That’d put me on your turf, and you’ve tried to kill me on it twice.”
“It didn’t stop you sneaking in to talk to Niko’s little arch-demon pet, did it?”
“Someone has entirely too much free time on his hands,” I responded, though I was sure we hadn’t been spotted. Nikolas had the same way of disconcertingly knowing things he shouldn’t, but evidently Zadok’s prison provided more freedom than I’d thought. I shrugged it off, having been prepared for him to screw with me. Since he couldn’t physically touch me, his words did the work for him. But—shit. Did that mean he’d overheard our conversation in the castle?
He just grinned in response.
“So,” I said. “What do you know about cures for vampirism?”
He blinked. Good. Let him try being the one at the mercy of word games.
“There isn’t one,” he said.
“I’m disappointed in you,” I said. “I heard you were an expert in the effects of all kinds of demon ve
nom on humans or otherwise. Why would vampires be any different?”
“Vampires and demons are not alike,” he said. “There’s no cure for what we are.”
“That’s not what I’m hearing,” I countered. “Tell me the truth.”
“I am.” He frowned a little. “This so-called cure does not exist in the shadow realm. If someone in your dimension has found one, then it must be a very recent development. I can’t say I’m in contact with anyone there aside from my brother… and you.”
He might well be telling the truth. After all, while our dimensions did have things in common, there were startling differences, too. But I’d hoped for some clue that might lead to more information on how the demon-infected bloodstones worked. Wait, did even they exist in his dimension? I chewed the inside of my cheek, debating how to phrase the question.
“Your magic,” I said slowly. “Is it possible for someone else to use it on your behalf? Like a proxy?”
He subtly moved forwards as though to get a closer look at me. I held myself still, resisting the urge to lean out of the way. At least he’d never used a lure on me, which presumably meant he didn’t have that ability. Good job, really, because he was annoying enough as it was. “Mine? Perhaps. Anyone’s might be usurped, if the usurper knows what they’re doing.”
Like Azurial had stolen his father’s power. I’d already known some demons could steal one another’s magic, if they were strong enough. What I didn’t know was how it was possible for a vampire to do the same. But putting that idea into his head wouldn’t do me any favours. One dimension of demonic vampires was one too many for me. And if he found out how much damage they could do to celestials, the information would make it halfway to hell by tomorrow. It wasn’t worth the risk.
“If you’re waiting to ask me the name of the demon who marked you, get on with it,” he said. “I expected a scintillating conversation.”
“I expected a bunch of demonic mind games, but you’re not making your best effort,” I said. “You’re hardly the only person who thinks they can blackmail me into signing over my soul.”
Celestial Fire (Celestial Marked Book 2) Page 7