I mentally shook off the thoughts and set the papers back in their tray. Lily left her place at the window, circled around to the front of my desk and stared at me. She squinted at me as if I was out of focus, her dark eyes searching mine.
“Your silence holds weight, Inquisitor. What are you thinking about?”
Sweeping dust off my desk to avoid her gaze, I replied, “Nothing important.”
She giggled. “I know that, mortal, but what specific unimportant thing are you thinking of?”
My training came back to the surface as I looked at her. From the depths of my subconscious came a layer of mental armor that shielded my emotions and thoughts, that took uncertainty and cast it aside, and that made me truly comprehend for the first time that the girl in front of me was nothing more than an illusion. A skin pulled on over the horrible thing that it really was. It was a Duke of the realm, a monster of the worst sort, and I knew that it had succeeded in masking its true nature from me until now. The feeling was akin to when the zombies had awakened on that shadow-soaked street two nights ago. My senses sprang to life and felt the digging probes of Lily trying to press their way in. It was an altogether different sensation than the one dreamscape brought out. With the drug coursing through my veins it felt like I had a well of untapped power at my fingertips just waiting for me to caress it and bring it to the surface. My training gave me no such illusions. It took the powers I had and focused them, sharpened my senses and abilities to a higher degree, and as a byproduct it buried my doubts and misgivings beneath an instinct that was almost animal in its intensity.
The snakes tattooed on my stomach uncoiled and absorbed her magical questing. I could almost feel their satisfaction at disrupting the minor power she had been working. Or perhaps I was attributing my feelings to the enchanted serpents of ink.
“Wait,” Lily said, backing away from my desk. “What just happened? I sense something different about you, something changed, and yet when I try to look deeper all I see are snakes. What did you do, Inquisitor?”
I smiled, but it was more mechanical than emotional. “I can feel your questing, Lily. And only part of it is directed at me. What are you looking for?”
She shrugged. “Just drinking in the feel of the place. Making myself at home.” It was a lie, I was sure of it. But I let it pass. Returning to her seat, she picked up her bear and set it on her lap. Her power retreated back into her slowly, reluctantly. “You are a puzzle, Frank Goldman. The emotions you project that aren’t protected by your ward speak of frustration and anger. Most of it is directed at me. Why do you hate me?” she asked. There was no emotion behind the question; she didn’t care that I found her presence inside a little girl appalling, she was just curious about the reason behind the emotion.
“I don’t hate you because I don’t know you,” I said and sighed, feeling suddenly exhausted.
“True enough, yet you feel it none the less. I wonder is it me in particular or my kind in general that earns your ire. Do you even know?” I made no response. Swinging her short legs idly above the floor, she studied me in silence for a moment. “Perhaps it’s children you dislike.” I grimaced but said nothing. “No, no, of course not; you probably wish to have children of your own someday. Perhaps with that nice witch from the park, hmm? Such a delicious little thing she is.”
Scowling at her, I growled, “I know what you’re trying to do and it won’t work.”
Her lips quirked slightly in a half-smile, the knowledge that she was getting to me making her eyes sparkle. “Of course not, you’re much too smart for me.” She twirled her hair in a show of perfect innocence. “What are my eons of existence compared to your decades upon this world? No doubt the witch swoons at your understanding of all things.” She laughed then, the sound like the tinkling of wind chimes. “But could she ever truly love you, Inquisitor? What I see before me is a man reshaped into something different than what was meant to be; a pawn in a vast game played by powers beyond your understanding.” She pointed a tiny finger at me. “The threat of what you are, what you will no doubt become, entices her and scares her at the same time.” She clapped her hands excitedly. “What lovely games you mortals play!”
“You think that’s what this is, what we are? Pieces on a game board to be moved?” My hands clutched the edge of my desk and squeezed.
“Of course,” she answered blandly, as if I was a slow student. “The question isn’t if it’s a game, but whose game it is. I have a feeling that if you ever found out the answer to that question your world would crumble and you’d be lost, adrift in a sea of doubt and regrets.” She almost looked sad as she continued. “We all have our parts to play, Inquisitor, our moves to make. Even me. The only thing you can do is try to make the game more interesting by doing the unexpected. But perhaps I’ve said too much.” With that she began playing with the bear on her lap, making it dance a little jig as she held its arms out to either side.
Turning my chair around, I looked out the window to see the last dregs of sunlight slipping away, pale orange giving way to dull gray. I got up and closed the blinds to keep from seeing the encroaching darkness. My control seemed to go with the sunlight as a sense of melancholy seeped into my soul. Knowing that the little Demoness was the cause of it made it that much worse. My training, without the threat of imminent death looming, had apparently gotten bored and fled. “Maybe that’s what life is like in your realm, but that’s not how it works here,” I said, anger suffusing my voice, making each word clipped and acid-etched. Lily looked at me, her bear stuck in mid-dance between her outstretched arms. “I joined the Inquisition because I wanted to help people. I’ve made sacrifices for them and I’m sure I’ll make more in the future, but that was my choice when I signed up. Your unending wars simplify things for you, Duke. The game, as you call it, is easy for you because you don’t have to worry about enforcing laws and keeping peace. Killing your enemies is simple; making them your allies is what’s really difficult. Yeah, sometimes I wish things were easier, but that’s life on our planet. It’s not a game, it’s a struggle. The straightforward clarity of the Vampire War, as brutal and horrific as it was, is nothing compared to the tightrope we walk called peace. We’re always in danger of falling off, but I’m glad that I play a part in keeping us on that path. And if Terri’s feelings for me are another sacrifice I have to make, I’ll be immensely saddened, but I’ll make it nonetheless.” My breath was coming in ragged gasps. I felt empty, hollowed out, yet somehow stronger for all that I had said and admitted.
Lily lowered the bear back down on to her lap and sat in silence for a minute. Then she smiled and whispered, “Bravo, Inquisitor.” She stood from her chair and looked towards the door. “Unfortunately we’ll have to wait to continue this conversation—and I do so wish to continue it—because my would-be assassin has found me.”
And then the lights went out.
16
It should have been a minor thing, the lights turning off. The sun had just set after all. It wasn’t as if the world plunged headlong into blackness as soon as the sun dipped below the horizon. At least it didn’t normally. A few moments ago my window had still glowed with the last vestiges of the day, but now it was if someone had tossed a thick wool blanket over the outside of the building. Stepping to the window and pulling aside the blinds, I looked out to see a world that ended only a few feet in front of my eyes. Midnight blackness had engulfed everything inside and out. The lights in the parking lot had not switched on as they were on a timer and it was still too early. The moon and stars were nowhere to be found in the sky above. It was if the building had been plucked from existence and placed in its own realm of nothingness.
The emergency lights kicked on, bathing my office and the hallways outside in weak light. “What’s happening?” I asked, dropping the blinds and heading back to my desk. I opened one of the drawers and began rummaging around.
“He brings the darkness with him now.” Lily moved up beside me. “His powers have grown fas
ter than I expected. We have to leave now.”
Pulling out a small vial filled with black dust and a sheathed knife, I turned to look at Lily. “I won’t leave all these people to face that thing. Bringing you here put them all in danger.” I strapped the knife to my belt and dropped my shirt back over it.
“Don’t be stupid,” she snapped. “You can’t fight him. With or without your help they’ll all die.” I snarled at her and went for the door. She ran up behind me and grabbed my arm. “Wait! There is another way.”
“Talk fast,” I said, and opened the door. The hallway was filled with sounds of confusion and panic. The flickering beams of flashlights danced in the lobby. The emergency lighting seemed to do little to relieve the suffocating gloom.
Lily sighed. “You would really stay here and die to protect them?” I didn’t bother answering. After a moment she continued. “We could draw him to us. If he knows where I am he won’t bother with the humans.”
“Will you be able to hold him off?”
She laughed without humor. “Not for long. We’ll have to make a fighting withdrawal.”
“Fighting withdrawal?” I asked, pulling the stopper from the vial. Kneeling down, I poured out the black dust along the edge of the doorway. The crackle of energy along the hairs on my arms told me that the seal had been effective. It was a temporary solution at best, but it would slow the Demon down at least. “That does sound better than running away.”
“I’m glad you approve,” she grumbled. “I’m really beginning to hate this plane of existence.”
The newly erected barrier would draw the Demon’s attention, but I wanted to make sure he knew right where to go. Since Lily seemed less than enamored with her own plan, I decided to do it myself. My power burgeoned to life, the magic in my blood sending tendrils of my awareness snaking out through the corridors of the building. The darkness seemed to have its own weight, as if it sought to smother us and envelope us in nothingness. Pushing through it with my mind was like walking through waist-high mud. It sought to deaden my power like it did the light, but I pressed on. I could sense the fear and uncertainty moving through the collected officers like a virus. And then, on the very edge of everything, was a presence. Something was watching and waiting, enjoying the chaos that it had created. I focused on that presence and pushed as hard as I could. Trying to dig my way through its defenses was pointless I knew, but I pressed until it turned a metaphysical eye in my direction. My mind was suddenly filled with an image of black, depthless eyes and row upon row of silver fangs. It was smiling at me.
I was roughly tossed back into my body and fell on to my back. Sweat covered me and I was gasping for breath as if I had just breached the surface of the ocean. I sat up and looked down the hall. Lily was pulling on my arm, trying to get me to stand up, but I couldn’t make my legs move yet. The flashlights dancing in the lobby like fireflies died one by one. The emergency lights in the hallway dimmed and then cut off abruptly as all-consuming darkness swept towards my office. Something began to coalesce in the midst of that emptiness, shadows flowing along the edges of the weak light spilling from my office. They came together in the center and resolved themselves into the shape of a man. He stepped forward, a giant in a leather vest and black jeans. He had the look of a biker; covered in prison tattoos, long gray hair pulled back into a tail that fell over his left shoulder down to his stomach. In his right hand was a double barreled sawed-off shotgun. He smiled at me with brown stained teeth that were all too human, not the rows of fangs I had seen in my Second Sight.
Adrenaline surged through me as he raised his gun. I got up, lunged for the door, slammed it shut, and pulled Lily to the side. The sound of thunder boomed in the hallway and the door shattered apart under the spray of pellets.
“Come on!” Lily yelled. She grabbed my hand with hers and pulled me towards the window. She gestured at the window and it exploded outward taking a good chunk of the surrounding wall with it.
“Get to my car,” I said, shaking free of her grasp. “I’ll be right behind you.” The gun was in my hands before I even realized I had reached for it.
Tucking her bear under her arm, she leapt out of the gaping hole her magic had left in the wall. The remnants of the door were blasted aside by a second volley from the assassin’s shotgun. The far wall was peppered with pellets and wooden shrapnel. The massive man stepped into the doorway and was stopped cold by the blue sheet of energy that was created by the alchemical dust—gifted to me by a shaman—that I had placed on the threshold. At that moment I couldn’t help but think of what a great thank-you gift the dust was for getting the shaman’s daughter into a human college. I’d have to remember to send a card. Even though it didn’t protect against bullets, it was fairly effective at keeping out evil. I knew it wouldn’t last long. My gun tracked him as he was pushed back to be shielded by the wall. I fired five times at where I gauged his body would be, turned, and leapt out the window. Thank God they had decided to keep me on the first floor.
I hit the soft ground, lost my gun, and rolled onto my side. Feeling around blindly in the gloom, I searched for my gun. A small hand settled on my shoulder and another pushed something in front of me. “Lose something?” Lily asked innocently.
I grabbed the pistol from her, holstered it and got to my feet. From behind me came a flash, as short lived as a camera flash and just as blinding to eyes that had been struggling to acclimate to the dark. Wincing and covering my eyes with my hand, I tried to move through a blur of watery after-images.
“Come on, Inquisitor, I’ll guide you.” She grabbed my elbow and pulled me along at a run. Spots danced in front of my vision as the ground beneath us changed from soil to concrete. A roar of inhuman anger came from behind us, followed by gunshots, too many to be the Demon shooting at us. “Here,” Lily said, and shoved me into the side of my car. The council hadn’t put too much of a damper on her strength, it seemed. I opened the door and she bolted in, climbing over the gear shift and into the passenger seat. “He’s almost here. Now would be a good time to get moving.”
The car revved to life. I turned on the lights and was disappointed at the weak beams that came from them. They shone on the blacktop for about ten feet in front of us before being swallowed by the inky depths. Wheels screeched in protest as I pushed the pedal to the floor. The back end came loose as I turned towards the exit and I felt the jarring impact as my bumper clipped someone’s car. I hoped it wasn’t Lou’s. He’d never let me live it down. Tapping the brakes before I turned on to the main road, I glanced in the rearview. The Demon-possessed man stood behind us, shotgun raised, his body bathed in the crimson glow of my taillights.
“Down!” I yelled, and grabbed Lily, forcing her small body as far down in the seat as it could go. I shielded her with my body as I turned blindly onto the street, hoping that there was no one else out driving this night. A small part of my mind found humor in the irony of me protecting a Demon from one of its own. Had I the time and Lily not been a human child possessed to save her life, I would have had a good chuckle. My hatred of all things demonic, however, didn’t extend to the people who were possessed against their will. And Lily, the human Lily, had been brought to this point by cancer and a father willing to do anything for her. The least I could do was try to live up to his example and protect his daughter.
The unmistakable sound of a shotgun boomed behind us, but it wasn’t followed by the sound of tearing metal and shattering glass as I expected. Instead there were a number of wet slapping sounds, like a major-league pitcher throwing hamburger meat against my car. I sat up and brought the car steady before we went off the road and into a ditch. The darkness dissipated as we left the STS building behind, as if we had crawled out from under a rock back into the twilight of the surface world.
Wondering what those weird, moist sounds were, I looked in the rearview. Large pink slug-like things crawled along the rear window leaving slimy trails in their wake. “What the hell are those?” I asked, swinging aro
und in my seat to get a better look and then turning back around when I remembered I was still driving. There were more of them on the trunk. Small spider web cracks formed beneath the ones on the window.
Lily looked back and said, “Leeches. It seems they find this world more palatable than I do. Would you like me to get rid of them?”
“Please.”
She stretched out her arm and I felt more than saw the magic rolling off her fingers. It swept through the car and engulfed the small segmented bodies. They burst into flames as the magic hit them, turning their pink bodies black. One by one they burst, painting the window in a mosaic of guts and smoldering fluids. The smell of offal and death drifted in through the holes they had chewed in the glass. Suppressing a gag, I rolled down my window to let in the cool clean air. I leaned my head out the window like a dog and gulped down the chill breeze.
Lily giggled as I resumed my driving. “That was fun,” she said. “Mr. Bear thinks you did well, at least for a mortal. I however remain unconvinced as to the efficacy of my new champion.”
The sputtering choke that came from me was not caused by the atrocious smell this time. “Champion? I think you’ve got me confused with someone else, Duke. The only reason I helped you get away from that thing was because of the body you’re hiding in. Other than that I have no interest in what happens to you.” Shifting my gaze between her and the road, I asked, “What could that assassin have done anyway? I was under the impression your kind was immortal in the truest sense, not like the vampires who are just corpses that don’t know to stay down.”
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