“Nay, Peter Simon Collins, Orixnador is by far the stronger of the twain. An eight,” she lifted her hand to the top of her horns, “mayhap more.”
“Eight?” Shelby asked with a frown. “What’s that supposed to mean?” That prompted a brief explanation of Susie’s demonic danger scale and she shook her head worriedly. “That sounds like a level four threat,” she said to Prescott, who nodded silently. “It’s going to be hard to contain with just the three of us.”
“We can help you,” Mrs. Kendricks told her.
“With all due respect, ma’am,” Shelby said coldly, “we’re better qualified to deal with this.” Than a bunch of rank amateurs, she didn’t say, but she clearly meant it. Mrs. Kendricks stiffened and Prescott raised his hands placatingly.
“Let’s not fight amongst ourselves,” he said. “They dealt with Bellaxragor all on their own, Paula,” he reminded her, “with no warning and no preparation.”
“And Sadraximbril as well,” Daraxandriel said softly.
“And that hellhound Peter took out,” Susie added.
“And the skull thing in the cemetery,” Olivia said meekly.
“What?” Susie demanded. “When did that happen? Why wasn’t I there?”
The table exploded into a cacophony of questions and challenges and accusations that took forever to settle down. By the time we explained everything that happened over the last twenty-four hours – carefully leaving Amy’s role out of it – the Occult Investigations team was left gaping at us in disbelief.
“These – these kids stopped four incursions?” Shelby asked incredulously. “By themselves?”
“Fay’s going to want to recruit all of them,” Singh noted wryly.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Prescott said. “The immediate problem is Orixnador.”
“Nay,” Daraxandriel insisted, “Lilixandriel is the root of our woes.”
“She’s just a succubus,” Shelby said dismissively. “We can deal with her easily.”
“How long have you been chasing her, exactly?” I asked with no little amount of snark. I didn’t like Shelby very much and, judging from the glare she gave me, the feeling was mutual.
“That’s enough, you two,” Prescott said sharply. “We need to decide –”
“Peter! I’m home!” Melissa called from the foyer. “Mr. Franklin let me off early today. Whose SUV is that out front?” She walked right past the dining room, heading for the stairs, and then reappeared a moment later to stare at us. “What’s going on here?”
Everyone looked at her and then turned in their seats to look at me. I heaved a sigh and gave Melissa the condensed version of recent events. I tried to gloss over my adventures in the cemetery and the shadowed paths but she jumped on them like a terrier attacking a rawhide bone.
“Oh my God, Peter!” she exclaimed, “What were you thinking? You should have called me!” She punched me on the shoulder to punctuate her disapproval of my actions.
“I’m fine,” I winced, rubbing my arm. That hurt worse than anything else I’d had to deal with so far, other than Amy zapping me. “We’re just deciding what to do next. Right?” I asked Prescott.
“There’s not much we can do until Orixnador makes his presence known,” Prescott frowned. “Normally we’d set up containment wards but we can’t lay out the sigils until we find him.”
“The coven will alert us when he arrives,” Mrs. Kendricks said. Shelby opened her mouth to say something and then subsided with a sullen glower.
“Thanks, Arial,” Prescott told her sincerely. “We appreciate your help.” Their eyes met for a long moment and Melissa nudged me in the back.
“Look!” she whispered eagerly in my ear. “They’re going to get back together!”
“I think you’re reading too much into it,” I told her, but there was no denying the faint flush in Mrs. Kendricks’ cheeks when she looked away.
“In the meantime,” Prescott went on, “we’ll make what preparations we can.” Shelby and Singh nodded and got to their feet. “Is there a room we can use, Melissa? Someplace enclosed and quiet?”
“Daddy’s study, maybe?” she said doubtfully. “I’ll show you.” Merlin jumped down and padded silently after her, followed by the two women, but Prescott paused before joining them.
“Do not,” he said firmly, pointing a finger right at me, “go anywhere without telling us first. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” I gulped, shrinking down in my chair. I stayed there until he was gone. “What a day,” I sighed.
Susie snorted. “Lilith says if everything you do turns out badly, the problem is probably you.”
“Thank you for that insightful observation. So why did it take you so long to find us? We left this morning and it’s,” I checked my watch, “almost five now.”
“We didn’t know where you were, Peter,” Mrs. Kendricks said soberly. “You and Dara were upstairs when we left you to look for Susie but you weren’t there when we went back. We thought Lilith had taken you away somehow.”
“We tried calling you but your phone was on Melissa’s desk,” Susie added. “Here.” She pulled my phone out of her dress pocket and shoved it across the table towards me. “I needed it for the tracking spell.”
“You found us with my phone?” I looked it over doubtfully but it seemed unharmed.
“Agent Singh showed me how and Agent Shelby taught me the portal spell. That was cool,” she smiled to herself. “I can’t wait to try that again.”
“Why didn’t they do it? They’re more experienced than you, aren’t they?”
“I knew you better than anyone else. That’s important for stuff like this.” She flexed her fingers and I realized that each one bore a silver ring, some engraved and the rest adorned with gemstones.
A gasp from the foyer announced Melissa’s return. “Where did you get those rings?” she demanded. “Are those mine?”
“I needed crystals to make the portal lattice,” Susie explained, holding them up to the light to admire them. “Diamonds work really well.”
“Give those back!” Melissa lunged at her hands but Susie hid them behind her back.
“I need them!” she insisted. “I can use them to fight demons!”
“I don’t care! That one’s an heirloom!” She grabbed one of Susie’s hands and tried to pry off the rings but Susie clenched her fingers into a fist. They wrestled over them, bumping against the table and almost toppling Susie’s chair until I jumped in to separate them.
“Melissa, stop!” I had to wrap my arms around her waist to pull her away and got an elbow in my gut for my trouble. “Maybe you can just loan them to Susie until we deal with Lilith, okay? We need all the help we can get.”
Melissa struggled a bit more and then surrendered with ill grace. “Fine,” she groused, “but she’s paying for anything she loses.” I released her carefully and she straightened her blouse with a huff.
“Susie will take good care of them,” I assured her. “Right, Susie?”
“Yeah, sure,” Susie shrugged indifferently. She and Melissa glared at each other but I chose to interpret that as agreement.
“Anyway,” I sighed, “that still doesn’t explain why it took you so long to track us down. I told you where we were going.”
“We didn’t see your note until long after Ryan and the others got here to help us,” Mrs. Kendricks explained, frowning disapprovingly at her misbehaving witches.
“It was sitting right there on Melissa’s computer!”
“The screen was dark. No one thought to check it until someone accidentally bumped the desk and it came on.”
“Oh.” I’d completely forgotten about the power saving feature. “Well, I guess it all worked out okay, anyway.”
“Peter,” she chided me, “we were frantic. We had no idea where you were or what happened to you. If it weren’t for Susie, well –” She took a shuddery breath. “We were this close to telling your parents you were gone.” There was no space between he
r thumb and forefinger.
I just stared at her, my heart sinking into my stomach like a twisted lump of lead. I hadn’t thought about Mom and Dad at all. What if we had died in Hell? I thought miserably. How could anybody possibly explain that to them? “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I just wanted this to be over.”
“I know, Peter,” Mrs. Kendricks said gently, “but running off on your own isn’t the way to do it.”
Melissa slipped her arms around my waist and hugged me from behind. “We’ll figure this out, Peter,” she said. “Together.”
“Thanks,” I told her sincerely. “So what happens now?” I asked Mrs. Kendricks. “Do we just sit around and wait?”
“We could order pizza,” Susie suggested. “I missed lunch.”
“We all did,” Mrs. Kendricks said ruefully. “I’ll see if I can put something together for everyone. Do you mind if we use your kitchen, Melissa?”
“No, go right ahead.”
“I’d rather have pizza,” Susie grumbled, but she followed Mrs. Kendricks out of the dining room. Daraxandriel and Olivia got up as well and Melissa and I trailed behind them, until Melissa grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the stairs.
“This way,” she insisted.
“Where are we going?”
“I got you a surprise over lunch.”
“I don’t like surprises.”
“You’ll like this one,” she promised. She pushed me into her bedroom and closed the door behind her as she kicked off her shoes. “I’ve been dying to get out of these clothes.”
“Um, why?” I watched her nervously as she walked past me to her closet, unzipping her skirt. She stepped out of it and shook it out, clipping it to a hanger. She was wearing panties, thankfully, hip-hugger briefs that were barely up to the task, but I gasped when she pulled her blouse over her head. “What happened to your back?” A wide bandage was taped across the top of her butt.
“That’s the surprise.” She hung up her blouse and then twisted around awkwardly, trying to peel off the bandage. “This hurt like hell,” she grumbled. “I hope you appreciate it.” She sucked in her breath as the tape reluctantly pulled away from her skin.
“Oh my God,” I breathed. “Those are Lorecraft sigils.”
Three circles lay in a row across her lower back, each about two inches across. The first was black with a pentacle in the center, the second was gold with a stylized eye, and the third was red with a pair of crossed daggers: sorcerer, cleric, and rogue, Melisandre’s demiurge classes.
“Yeah, they turned out pretty good,” Melissa mused, trying to position herself in the mirror to get a better look. “My skirt was rubbing against them all afternoon, though.” The skin around the tattoos looked like a bad sunburn.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I protested.
“Of course I did. That’s one more checked off the list.” She turned to face me with a wicked smile. “So what’s next? Number twelve, maybe?”
I was afraid to ask what number twelve was. “Let’s worry about that later. We’d better get back downstairs in case something happens.” I edged towards the door and Melissa rolled her eyes.
“Fine,” she sighed, “but you’d better not get yourself killed before we do it.”
“I’m trying my very best,” I muttered to myself as she returned to her closet to peruse its contents. She shimmied into a black cotton shift and then rooted around the floor for suitable footwear, demonstrating exactly how well the fabric clung to her bottom. “I’ll, uh, I’ll just head downstairs,” I told her, hoping to escape before Little Peter got any ideas. Melissa waved a sandal at me in silent acknowledgement and I retreated to the hallway just as Olivia called me from below.
“Peter?” She stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at me with wide, anxious eyes. “Your phone’s ringing,” she said breathlessly, pointing back to the dining room. “It’s Lilith.”
I didn’t make it in time to pick up the call but all nine of us – plus Merlin – gathered around my phone as I played back her message.
“Peter Simon Collins,” Lilixandriel said unctuously, “I trust my dear clutch-mate returned to thine embrace whole, if not wholly unharmed. I hope she found the greeting I arranged for her entertaining, despite that she chose not to linger for its proper conclusion.” Daraxandriel wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.
“Alas, Orixnador demands recompense for his slain pets,” Lilixandriel went on, “and his price is steep. Yet thou hast the coin with which to bargain for her life. Bring thy soulstone to the Atlas Shipping warehouse within the hour, an thou truly values Daraxandriel’s blighted existence. Elsewise, listen for the baying of his hounds. They have her scent now and she cannot hide.”
The recording ended and we all looked at each other but no one wanted to be the first to say anything. Finally, Daraxandriel hunched her shoulders.
“Thou canst not accede to her demand, Peter Simon Collins,” she said quietly. “Do not forfeit thy life for mine.”
“I’m not going to let them kill you!” I retorted but she shook her head vehemently.
“Didst thou not hear? The hellhounds know my scent, they will find me here and slay all of us. I needs must go, lest all are lost.” She looked scared and miserable.
“No,” I told her firmly. “None of that matters if we get them first, right?” I looked around the table but I didn’t see the level of resolve and support I’d hoped for. “They told us where they are,” I pointed out to Prescott. “You can set your wards or whatever and capture them!”
He nodded slowly. “That’s true. She finally made a mistake. Where’s Atlas Shipping?” he asked Singh. She pulled out her cellphone and tapped for a minute.
“West of town, across the highway,” she reported. “It’s for sale, according to this. It may be empty.”
“Perfect for hiding out during daylight hours,” he mused. “All right, we’ll head over there and scope it out.” He picked up Merlin and he and the other two agents headed for the front door. I started to follow them, but Prescott stopped me. “When I say we, Peter, I mean the three of us.” Merlin meowed and Prescott rolled his eyes impatiently. “The four of us. The rest of you stay here where it’s safe.”
“It’s not safe here,” I argued. “Didn’t you hear Lilith? They can track us here.”
“Assuming she wasn’t bluffing,” Shelby countered.
“You and I both know how well hellhounds follow their prey, Ryan,” Mrs. Kendricks reminded him quietly. “You still have the marks to prove it.”
Prescott touched the triple scars across his temple with a troubled look but he shook his head. “It’s safer here than it is there,” he insisted. “We can’t fight a demon and protect all of you at the same time.”
“Fine,” she said tersely, “but I’m coming with you.”
“Arial –”
“You need five to form a proper binding circle. I can help.”
“It can be done with three,” Shelby insisted. “Adding a fourth won’t make that much of a difference.”
“I’ll call Anastasia and have her meet us there. She knows what to do.” Prescott hesitated. “Ryan, please. You need us.”
“This is very irregular,” Shelby warned.
Prescott let his breath out in a sigh. “All right, but the two of you have to get out of there if anything goes wrong. Understood?” Mrs. Kendricks nodded but I doubted anyone in the room believed her. “Stay put, the rest of you,” he said firmly. “Stay out of sight, stay alert, and stay by the phone. Call us if there’s any sign of trouble.”
“Yes, sir,” I told him. He eyed me closely and then nodded.
“Let’s go,” he ordered. The four of them – plus Merlin – trooped out the front door, although Mrs. Kendricks paused on the doorstep.
“Be careful, Peter,” she said somberly. “This isn’t a game.”
“I know,” I said. “Good luck.” She nodded and turned away, closing the door behind her. The five of us stood there i
n silence until the SUV’s engine roared to life and then faded away.
“So,” Susie said behind me, “how long do we wait before we go after them?”
“About five minutes,” I said.
17
Something that just irks me is that hypothetical question friends are prone to ask at random moments: If you could pick one superpower, what would it be? Since I’m not likely to be bitten by a radioactive arachnid, struck by cosmic rays, or find a ring imbued with mystical energy anytime soon, it’s a pointless exercise. Even if such a thing did happen, I doubt I’d get to pick from a menu of available superpowers. I’d just get whatever I got and deal with it.
Everyone wants to be special in some way, to stand out from the crowd and be admired. Most of us will never have that chance but that doesn’t stop us from dreaming. What if I could fly or stop bullets or turn invisible? What would I do with an ability like that? I’d like to believe I’d use it to help other people but let’s face it, the temptation of taking advantage of someone else with impunity would always be there.
Supervillains without superheroes to hold them in check would be mayhem, but superheroes without supervillains to combat would be boring. Life is only interesting when there’s balance, somewhere between strict order and total chaos. I don’t need a superpower to get all the excitement I can stand, although I have to admit that invisibility and access to the girl’s locker room at school could spice things up a bit.
I went first, using Teleportal to send myself to the back entrance of the police station. This was the riskiest part of the entire plan, since everyone at the station knew me by sight and I had no plausible reason to be there, but this was the closest I’d ever been to the industrial district.
I looked around anxiously, waiting for the fifteen-second cooldown timer to expire, but thankfully Sergeant Finney wasn’t taking his regular cigar break and no one else was in sight. I crept down to the corner of the building, found a likely spot beside an insurance office across the way, and tapped Teleportal again.
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