They were met by an expanding wall of energy moving in the opposite direction. It stopped at about four yards from Ceri, but the spirits outside it shrieked and battered against it as though it were a solid wall. ‘That’ll repel them for a while,’ Ceri said.
‘You can’t move it though,’ Kate said.
‘No,’ Ceri replied. ‘I don’t suppose your radio works down here?’
Kate grinned at her and fished the little box out of her pocket. ‘There are repeaters through the tunnels for the Transport Police,’ she said before thumbing the key. ‘Middleshaw to Control, come in.’
High Towers
‘The Kennington loop is one of the most haunted sections of the Underground,’ Kate said. They were in the kitchen, drinking coffee despite Twill’s protestations that they needed sleep, not caffeine.
‘And Barnes knew a fair amount of necromancy,’ Ceri said.
‘It looks like you’ve learned some as well,’ the detective commented.
Ceri shrugged. ‘It seemed like a good move, defence-wise.’
‘Huh, yeah.’ A squad of tactical officers had stormed onto the train with the anti-immaterial rifles and the ghosts had scattered once they realised that the policemen were able to harm them badly. The driver of the train and two people in one of the forward carriages had not been so lucky.
‘It wasn’t enough, though,’ Ceri said. ‘That’s four innocent people he’s killed trying to get to me.’
‘There would have been a lot more if you hadn’t stopped the bomb thing at the Dragon,’ Lily pointed out.
‘Yes,’ Ceri said, ‘but I can’t just keep hiding from the widder-damned bastard. I won’t have more people dying because of me.’
Kate nodded slightly. ‘The Chief sort of agrees. We’re getting a bit more proactive about this. He’s got every diviner in the department trying to locate active demons.’
Ceri glanced at Lily. The half-succubus nodded and slipped out of the room. ‘Just so they know to screen out Lily,’ Ceri said.
‘They know her from trying to find her father. She won’t interfere.’
‘Good to hear,’ Ceri said. She was not convinced, however. Barnes was likely well screened inside his host and there were probably a number of wizards around the city summoning demons. Finding him would not be easy. ‘I’m going to get some sleep,’ she said.
Kate nodded. ‘Good idea. I think we both need our rest.’
Ceri certainly did. When she woke up she was going to do something stupid.
Mayfair
The sun was bright overhead as Ceri and Lily walked around Berkeley Square toward the Archmage Club. Getting out of the house before Kate had woken up, or been replaced by John or some other Greycoat, had been fairly easy, but Ceri was dreading the talking to she would get when she returned. She had, at least, left a note.
The large, brick-built building stretched above them as they walked up to the front door. There was no sign of anyone watching them, no twitching of the thick, red curtains behind any of the windows. Ceri reached up to the knocker on the black-painted door and paused. ‘Are we sure about this?’
‘I’m sure I’m not letting you go in there alone,’ Lily replied. ‘Are you sure you want to go in?’
‘No, but I think it’s the best chance we’ve got.’
‘Well then,’ Lily said, and Ceri raised the knocker, bringing it down with a sharp “clack!”
It seemed unlikely that the rather disappointing noise would be heard through the heavy wood panels, but it was no more than a few seconds before the door swung open and a man in a crisp, black suit looked down on them, both literally and figuratively. He was tall and thin, and had a face like an axe. He looked down his Romanesque nose at them and spoke in a voice which suggested they might possibly need to scrub the steps after the girls had been removed. ‘May I be of assistance, miss?’
‘I’d like to see one of the Masters, if possible,’ Ceri replied. ‘Failing that, perhaps Mister Sharpe?’
The man looked her up and down slowly. She could almost see his mind working; the girl was not a member, but seemed to know something about the Order. It was most irregular; he did not like irregular occurrences. ‘Who should I say is asking?’
‘Ceridwyn Brent.’
The head withdrew without another word and the door was pushed closed. They waited quietly with Ceri getting more and more impatient with every minute that passed. She had almost reached the point of deciding that it had been a bad idea and she might as well go home and let the police diviners do their best when the door was suddenly flung open.
The man standing in the doorway looked to be no older than twenty-five. He was dressed in a sharply pressed suit with a black shirt and a slim, black tie, and he was good looking with trim black hair, bright blue eyes, strong jawline, and high cheekbones. He also looked bewildered, thrust into the job of playing host and not sure how he had landed it. For a second he just stared at them and Ceri felt like she needed to take pity on him.
‘Hi,’ she said.
He actually jumped slightly. ‘Uh, morning. I’m Len, uh, Leonard. I’m afraid none of the… people you asked for are available, but I can, uh, pass on a message or something if…’
‘I need to talk to someone about Barnes,’ Ceri broke into his stream of consciousness chatter. ‘I don’t care who it’s with, as long as they can do something about him or provide information so I can.’
‘Uh… right,’ Len said. His head was tilted as though listening to someone; Ceri figured they were using a telepathy spell similar to the one she had used with Lily. ‘You’d better come in.’
The lobby of the club was high ceilinged, and decorated in dark oak and deep red wallpaper. When the door closed it felt like they had walked into a mausoleum; the light provided by a pair of rune-marked arches which crossed over their heads. The stiff man who had answered the door stood behind a reception desk at the back of the room; Ceri wondered whether he was contemplating having the carpets steam cleaned. Len, looking no more confident within the walls of the club than he had on the doorstep, led them through one of four huge, oak-panelled doors and into a room which must have taken up much of the north-east corner of the building. There were a number of big, wing-backed chairs set in groups around low tables. In the west wall was a fireplace you could have roasted a pig in, though it was unlit. As far as was immediately visible, the room was empty except for them.
‘Have a seat,’ Len said, indicating the nearest group of chairs. ‘Can I arrange for some refreshment?’
‘Coffee would be good,’ Lily said.
‘We had to leave rather early to avoid bringing the police with us,’ Ceri added. She slipped into one of the big chairs, facing the door. Lily moved to one which let her see the rest of the room.
‘I’ll be right back,’ Len said.
‘Can we trust them with drinks?’ Lily asked once he was outside the door.
‘Yes, but mostly because they’ll be expecting us not to trust them.’
‘That makes a certain backward sense.’
The door opened and Len came back in. ‘It’s being sorted out,’ he said and hurried to sit in the seat nearest the door. ‘Uh… you mentioned Barnes. The younger, dead one, I assume?’
‘The younger, returned-as-a-demon one,’ Ceri corrected. ‘He’s been using Desmond Wren’s girlfriend as a host. I know you know that. Wren had to have got the amulet he’s using on her from here.’
Len looked a little embarrassed; he was not particularly good at this. ‘Right. Yes, he did. But that’s our side of this taken care of so…’
‘Either Barnes was summoned by someone in the Order,’ Ceri said, ‘or he crossed over himself and came here. Either way, he’s using your resources for his own petty ends. He’s killing innocent people and drawing attention to the Order.’
The door opened again and a young woman walked in. She was dressed in a ludicrous parody of a maid’s outfit; the skirt was so short even Lily might have been embarrassed
and her nipples were peeking over the edge of the bodice. It was her eyes which caught Ceri’s attention, however. The woman was almost mindless, entirely enthralled. She placed a tray with cups and a silver coffee pot on the table, and then turned silently and walked out.
‘Frankly,’ Ceri said, ‘if she’s an example of what goes on here, you don’t need anyone paying attention to you.’
Len opened his mouth, closed it again, and then covered the fact that he was listening to instructions by pouring coffee for them. Ceri almost casually checked the cups for anything unnatural before taking a sip. She sighed. ‘Y’know, I could almost join this place for the coffee,’ she said.
Len grinned and then looked as though someone had kicked him. He sat down. ‘We may be able to help,’ he said. ‘What are you offering in return?’
‘I get rid of Barnes for you, you don’t get your hands dirty and upset his boss.’
‘We would need… something else,’ Len said. He was looking distinctly uncomfortable.
‘Like what?’ Ceri asked flatly.
‘You join the Order,’ Len said.
Ceri smiled. ‘Nice try. I tell you what. When I banish his arse back home I won’t tell him you people told me where to find him.’
‘We, uh, haven’t told you.’
‘He doesn’t know that. The cops will track him down soon enough. They’re searching the entire city for demons. How many do you have in the cellar? Barnes has killed four people and his attacks are growing wilder, so the Greycoats are really motivated.’ Ceri’s eyes were fixed on Len; he plucked at his starched shirt collar.
‘He’s using the body of one of our Journeymen, Andrew Chester.’ He took a notepad and pen from inside his jacket and scribbled something down. ‘He’s got a flat on Flexmere Road near the cemetery in Tottenham. One of our safe-houses.’ He tore off the sheet and pushed it across the table. ‘That’s the address.’
Lily picked up the paper and glanced at it, nodding to Ceri. ‘Thanks for the coffee,’ Ceri said, putting her cup down. ‘It’s such a shame I couldn’t persuade you to give me anything else.’
‘He’s strong,’ Len said. ‘Very strong, in fact. You’ll find him hard to stop and he’ll definitely try to kill you.’
Ceri shrugged. ‘You win either way,’ she said.
Tottenham
‘Are you sure you don’t want to call in the cops?’ Lily asked as they looked down the street toward the building Andrew Chester called home.
Ceri unslung the long bag she was carrying from her shoulder and unzipped it, pulling out her staff, Makelo’s Staff. She ran her fingers over the weird, dull blue inlay which wrapped itself around the upper third of it. ‘I don’t want anyone else hurt,’ she said.
‘I don’t want you hurt either.’
‘Well, that makes two of us.’ Ceri gripped her staff. ‘All right, he may have a demon or two in there. He’s also right beside a graveyard and he’s a necromancer, so there could be zombies.’
Lily pulled her daggers from her belt. ‘I’ve got the former covered, and I can make a mess of a zombie’
‘We’ll try to go in stealthy,’ Ceri said, and they started down the road to the house. It looked like an ordinary house on any street in London, but Ceri could see the wards on the windows and doors. Placing her hand over the lock, she tried opening it anyway. ‘Agor,’ she said softly with her fingers on the Yale lock plate. To her surprise, there was a click and the door opened an inch. ‘Crap wards,’ she muttered. ‘Ready?’ She got a nod from Lily and pushed the door fully open.
Something bat-winged with flailing claws came at them from the corridor inside. Ceri fell backwards to escape the swing of a hand, landing unceremoniously on the pavement. Lily’s blades swung upwards, slashing across the imp’s stomach and left thigh as she sidestepped. It tumbled out of the air and Lily was on it before it could recover. Dropping one of her blades, she grabbed one of the imp’s horns, yanked it upward, and opened the creature’s throat.
‘And that,’ Ceri said, holding out a hand so that Lily could help her up, ‘is why I love having you along on this sort of thing.’
‘I’ll go first,’ Lily said, ‘you back me up with the heavy artillery.’
‘We don’t have any artillery.’
Lily grinned. ‘Yes we do, you.’
‘Oh,’ Ceri said, grinning sheepishly. She summoned a ball of energy into her hand. ‘Lead on then.’
The ground floor was entirely empty and, despite finding the imp below, they went up to the next floor wondering whether there was anything there. When they found what they were looking for, it was not at all what they were expecting.
Andrew Chester was a distinctly unimpressive man dressed in a T-shirt and sweatpants, and they found him cowering behind a bed. He was also the man Ceri had seen in Cambridge. ‘Stay away from me!’ he shrieked as they entered the room. ‘I’m a wizard! I can…’
Ceri dismissed the energy bolt in her hand. ‘Shut up,’ she said.
‘There’s no way that’s Barnes,’ Lily commented. ‘You think the imp was here to guard him, or make sure he stayed here?’
‘Damn it!’ Ceri snapped. She turned her frustrated glare on Chester. ‘Where is he? Where’s Barnes?’
Chester cringed at her obvious anger. ‘He left me. He said he’d be back, but he had things to do.’
Ceri was across the room, her free hand gripping the front of Chester’s shirt before he could respond. ‘I’m going to ask this once more,’ she said, her voice low, her face almost pressed against his. ‘Where. Is. Barnes?’ Her skin was shimmering slightly, light flickering across it. That seemed to scare Chester more than the words.
‘The girl,’ he said. ‘The girl he took at the club. That model. He needed her.’
‘She’s wearing an amulet to stop her being possessed,’ Ceri growled. ‘Where is he?’
‘He’s attuned to us,’ Chester wailed. ‘We’ve got almost no resistance to him. There’s nothing can stop him entering people like us.’
Ceri dumped Chester unceremoniously on the floor and turned to look at Lily. ‘Wren,’ she said.
‘Shit!’ they said at the same moment and bolted for the door.
Southbound Train, South Tottenham
Kate was distinctly unhappy. Ceri held the phone away from her ear until the shouting had stopped and then lifted it back tentatively. ‘Yes, Kate, I know,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry I snuck out on you, but it was important and I got some information.’
‘The Chief is absolutely furious,’ Kate said. ‘You’d better have something damn good.’ Technically Ceri knew she was not under arrest and if she wanted to slip her watchers it was on her head, but she still felt bad about it. Kate would likely have caught a fair amount of flak from her boss.
‘We found the other host Barnes was using,’ she said. ‘His name is Andrew Chester, he’s in a house in Tottenham. I’ll text you the address when I get off the line. You need to get him into a containment cell as soon as possible.’
‘Was using?’ Kate asked.
‘Chester said that Barnes is back in Shields. He said that pretty much nothing can stop him from inhabiting one of the hosts he’s attuned to. You need to get a squad around to Wren’s place. He’s in danger.’
‘You think Barnes might kill him for trying to save the girl?’
‘I think Barnes would kill him for breathing, but if he knows about the possessions then he’s no use anymore. He’s a dead man.’
‘All right,’ Kate said and there was a pause, the sound of muffled conversation in the background. ‘You’re to go back to High Towers and wait. We’ll take care of it from here.’
‘But…’
‘This is police business,’ Kate snapped. ‘You go home and wait.’
Ceri sagged into the dilapidated carriage seat. ‘Okay,’ she said and hung up. She looked around at Lily. ‘So much for keeping everyone safe.’ Remembering the address, she started punching it into her phone.
‘They’re profe
ssionals,’ Lily said, ‘and they have those guns they don’t have. I know it’s a little cowardly but I’d prefer they take the risks than you.’
‘Yeah,’ Ceri said, but she could not help the sense of failure which lumped at the pit of her stomach and made the train journey back to Liverpool Street that much worse.
Kennington
Two sullen figures walked out of the Oval tube station and headed across Kennington Park Road at the leisurely pace of people who did not really care. The sun was shining and there was the sound of people messing about on the grass at the north end of the park. They had walked into the trees, starting along the path which would lead to High Towers when Lily stopped, her hand going out to Ceri to bring her to a halt.
‘What?’ Ceri asked, her voice indicating mild irritation.
‘Listen,’ Lily said.
Ceri listened. People laughing, traffic on the road behind them. ‘I don’t hear anything,’ she said.
‘The birds.’
Ceri listened again. ‘I don’t hear any…’ There was no bird song, no sound of any kind from the trees. Lily pulled her daggers.
Ahead, on the path, something moved. It came toward them at a walk, but there was something odd, slightly shambling about it. Ceri swung her bag around and unzipped it quickly, pulling her staff free. She looked up and recognised the figure; it was Wren. ‘He’s dead,’ she said as her Sight showed her the nothing where his Median lines should have been and the faint stream of negative thaumitons cascading from his body. It showed her something else too, but Lily was already moving, past Ceri and toward the zombie.
A bolt of flame erupted out of the bushes toward Lily. Barnes was not worried about harming his tool, just about killing Ceri. Disabling or killing Lily with her demon bane daggers was the first step. Lily dropped and rolled, the bolt passing over her head and erupting against a tree. Then she was on her feet, her daggers slashing at Wren’s walking corpse.
Thaumatology 04 - Dragon's Blood Page 22