by Paul Ruditis
“They’re general comps,” Reed explained. “You can come back with your families. Or your boyfriends.”
Phoebe blushed, and didn’t bother to mention that her boyfriend was currently half a world away.
“But use two now,” Reed continued. “We’ll be issuing a statement about Tasha after the performance. Feel free to stick around until then.”
“Okay,” Phoebe said reluctantly as she took the tickets and followed him down the steps with Piper. She knew they weren’t about to waste time watching the show right now, but they could always come back later, depending on how the day turned out.
“Give our best to Tasha,” Piper added.
Reed left them with a sad smile as he went off toward the tents.
“So what now?” Piper asked.
“Look at this,” Phoebe said as she pulled out the calendar, holding it up so her sister could see what it was. “That was Elise on the phone. Apparently there have been similar animal deaths occurring at zoos across the country.”
“And no one has noticed this before?”
“It was happening to different animals at different zoos,” Phoebe said as she held the calendar next to the notes she had taken from Elise. “Who would notice a sick rhinoceros in Houston and then a sick monkey in Santa Fe? There didn’t seem to be anything in common except—”
“Except that the animals were dying in the cities the circus visited,” Piper finished.
“About one animal a month,” Phoebe said, consulting the calendar. “Or sometimes every other month. Until Las Vegas, that is. There weren’t any deaths reported in zoos in Las Vegas, San Diego, or Los Angeles.”
“And then the circus animals started being affected,” Piper surmised. “Two died, and one took ill within the span of a couple of weeks.”
“So whenever the zoo killings ended, the circus deaths began,” Phoebe said as she looked over the calendar.
“So, what’s our next move?” Piper asked, pushing aside the newest revelation for the moment.
“I guess I can interview the vet when Reed is done with him,” Phoebe suggested. “Until then, we can try to find a way to break into the media trailer and check out the tapes.”
“Or we could just wait for Paige,” Piper suggested.
“Wait for Paige for what?” the third Charmed One asked as she orbed in beside her sisters.
“You up for a little breaking and entering?” Phoebe asked.
“Always,” Paige said with a devilish grin.
Chapter 15
Blue and white orbs filled the media trailer as the Charmed Ones materialized in the locked room. Even though Piper and Phoebe had been inside the trailer a minute earlier, the place seemed to have gotten even smaller since they’d left.
“Man, it’s tight in here,” Paige said as she released her sisters’ hands. “We’re lucky I didn’t orb us into the table.”
“Sorry,” Piper said. “We should have warned you.”
The sisters moved away from one another to give themselves some breathing room.
“Here you go,” Phoebe said as she pulled the tape cases out of her purse and handed them to Piper, who was closest to the A/V equipment.
Piper looked at the collection of televisions and video players. She pushed the power button on the nearest TV, but nothing happened. She got the same response from every television in the row.
“Well, that’s weird,” Piper said when she couldn’t get the video players to work either.
“Maybe the power’s disconnected?” Paige suggested.
“I think this has something to do with the problem,” Phoebe said, pointing to a small metal box that was clamped on to the end of the table.
Piper examined the box. It appeared to be a touch screen with various buttons that apparently controlled the televisions and the video and DVD players. It was ridiculously complex and seemed utterly pointless, considering the machines were only a few feet away, and Piper figured it would have been much easier to turn the machines on individually instead of by this bizarre remote. “Any idea how this thing works?” she asked as she stood over the controller.
The silence in the small room gave Piper her answer.
“Okay,” Piper said as she examined the controller. “While I try to figure this out, Paige, tell us what you learned.”
“I think we have our perp,” she said triumphantly. “It’s called a Bestiari Demon. Its M.O.—”
“‘M.O.’?” Phoebe said.
“‘Modus operandi,’” Paige explained.
“I know what it stands for,” Phoebe said. “But when did you start talking like you’re on a cop show? ‘Perp’? ‘M.O.’?”
“Sorry,” Paige said. “I’ve been watching too much TV lately. But you have to admit, this is kind of like one of those procedurals—lining up the suspects and trying to make one of them talk. I think it’s kind of fun.”
“At least someone’s enjoying herself,” Piper said as she pressed a button. She was rewarded with a video player coming to life. “You were saying?”
“Bestiari Demon,” Paige repeated. “It’s a demon in human form that drains life-energy from animals.”
“Any chance we have a specific description of the human form this demon takes?” Piper asked. The Book of Shadows was often quite helpful in describing demons for the Charmed Ones. Color drawings often accompanied the passages from some of their more artistically inclined ancestors.
“Sorry,” Paige said. “There wasn’t a picture available. But I do know he’s male, for what that’s worth.”
“Was there anything in there about possession?” Phoebe asked. “Could the Bestiari Demon be forcing someone else to approach the animals for him?”
“Nope,” Paige said. “It sounds like he needs to absorb the energy directly into his body.”
“Well, that knocks Lane off the suspect list,” Phoebe mused. “But that still leaves dozens of circus staffers with Y chromosomes.”
“What does the demon do with this life-energy?” Piper asked.
“He collects it,” Paige said. “And then he uses it to make himself stronger. The more power he absorbs, the more powerful he gets. And he starts to adapt the animals’ attributes as well.”
“So we’re talking about a demon with the strength of a tiger, a horse, and an elephant?”
“And all the other animals from the zoos across the country,” Phoebe added. “We don’t know how many animal spirits he’s collected. Or how powerful he has become.” Phoebe quickly filled Paige in on what they had learned about the circus tour schedule matching the dates and locations of the zoo deaths.
“But that still doesn’t explain why he stopped attacking animals in the zoos and moved on to the circus,” Piper said. “It doesn’t make any sense that he would go after animals that were all in one place. It would be too easy for people to notice what was happening.”
“Maybe the demon didn’t have a choice,” Phoebe suggested. “Maybe the Bestiari doesn’t just collect the animal spirits and strength as a fun pastime. It’s possible that he needs to do this to live. He’s been traveling with the circus so he can go from town to town without being noticed, and all the while he has a fresh supply of animals on hand in case of an emergency.”
“But there are animals all over the place,” Piper said. “Why does he need to confine his attacks to zoos and the circus?”
Phoebe was using her newly developed journalistic instincts to pull together the story. It was exciting to see how all the pieces fit into place. She thought about writing a real article for practice. Not that she’d be able to show it to anyone, of course, since it would be about a demon attack.
“Because that’s where the biggest and strongest animals are,” Phoebe said. “Tigers, elephants. Maybe it’s like a drug. As he collects more spirits, he needs increasingly more powerful animals to keep feeding his need. Rats and sparrows don’t give him the same boost anymore.”
“And when he wasn’t able to feed off the zoo ani
mals in Las Vegas or San Diego—for whatever reason—he was probably going through some serious withdrawal by the time he got to Los Angeles,” Piper reasoned. “Which is why he’s attacked three animals in such a short time span.”
“You’d think he’d just move to Africa,” Paige said.
“And give up the circus life?” Phoebe replied. She tried to wrap her head around the fact that the Bestiari Demon was living among the circus folk. It was beginning to look like everything she had read or seen in the movies about circus workers being a tight-knit family was true. It was hard to imagine that one of them was a demon secretly living among them. Then again, her coworkers at the paper would probably be just as surprised to learn that there was a witch working among them.
“Then, is Tasha beyond saving?” Phoebe asked. “Has the demon already drained her life-essence and now it’s just a matter of time before she dies?”
“No,” Paige said. “It takes three attempts for the demon to fully drain an animal’s life-force. Each time, the animal will get weaker, but it isn’t fatal until the transfer of power is complete. But the Bestiari won’t have access to Tasha’s strength until she’s dead. It’s sort of kept in reserve until the final draining is absolutely complete.”
“But still, that’s one powerful demon,” Phoebe said.
“Wait,” Paige said. “Remember, it gets worse. The Bestiari doesn’t just take an animal’s strength, he also takes its abilities.”
“So it’s a really powerful demon,” Phoebe said.
“And it’s possible that he can camouflage himself like a chameleon and use any number of defensive techniques that exist in the animal world,” Paige added.
“Any clues on how to vanquish it?” Piper asked.
“A Power of Three spell,” Paige replied, simply.
“That’s it?” Piper asked. She was still figuring out the controls to the televisions. She’d inserted the first of the tapes into the functioning tape player, but the television screens were still blank. On the bright side, she was halfway there.
“Have I missed something?” Paige asked. “Isn’t the Power of Three the most kick-butt thing in our arsenal?”
“Of course,” Phoebe said, ignoring her sister’s “kick-butt” phraseology. “Piper just meant that it seems a little anticlimactic. Puck pulled us into this thing to test us. He’s pit us against a crazy powerful demon. I would have thought there would be more to the solution.”
“Nope,” Paige said. “Just the Power of Three.”
“Well, I’m not going to complain,” Piper said. “Besides, I think I’ve got this thing figured out.” She pushed one last button on the control unit, and the five TV screens in the small trailer came to life simultaneously.
“I think one screen would be enough,” Phoebe said.
“You figure out how to turn on just one and we’ll use it,” Piper said. “In the meantime, I’m ready to watch a movie.” She pressed play on the control.
It took a moment for the image to kick in, then the blank blue screens on each of the five TVs were replaced with blackness again. But this time, it wasn’t the emptiness of an inactive TV screen, it was the darkness of a recording taken in a room with no lighting.
“Well, this is useless,” Phoebe mumbled.
After about ten seconds of empty air, a spotlight cut into the middle of the screen. It revealed a man dressed like a ringmaster, standing in the center ring of—presumably—a three-ring circus. Most likely, the Fletcher Family Circus.
The ringmaster wasn’t in a dark room. He was in a huge, darkened arena. Behind the ringmaster, the outline of the audience could be seen. This was definitely not a recording of Zeus’s last night of life.
“Ladies, gentlemen, and children of all levels of maturity,” the ringmaster said, “welcome to the Fletcher Family Circus.”
“Look,” Paige said as she pointed to the date burned into the upper-right-hand corner of the screen. If it was correct, it meant that the recording had been made more than a year ago. It was unlikely that this tape had anything to do with the death of the tiger.
“That doesn’t match the date on the outside of the case,” Piper said.
“Fast-forward,” Phoebe said. “Let’s see the tiger act.”
Piper pushed a button and sent the images scanning forward.
“I’m no film expert, but for some reason, I don’t think this is the right tape,” Piper said.
She hit play when the tiger act came on.
Whoever had been operating the video camera had had a good position to catch all the action that was taking place in the center ring. The tiger tamer was putting the animals through their paces in a large cage. Each of the tigers was running up and down ladders, crossing bridges, and jumping through hoops.
As far as the Charmed Ones could tell, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary about the performance. Zeus was obviously the star of the show. He was the largest of the tigers and performed the most challenging tricks by far, receiving the lion’s share of both the spotlight and the applause.
There didn’t seem to be anything suspicious about what was on screen. The tiger looked perfectly healthy, which made sense since he wouldn’t get sick until about ten months after the performance they were watching, assuming the date on the screen was to be believed.
“Look for the case with this date on it,” Piper suggested as she ejected the tape out of the machine and slid the one marked SABRA in its place.
Paige, being closest to the wall of tapes, confirmed the date and began searching through the rows of cases. Since the tapes were in chronological order, it wasn’t hard to find the one she was looking for. It was on the third row, near the center.
While Piper once again fiddled with the media center controls, Paige opened the tape case. It was empty. She showed her sisters, who were disappointed, though not surprised, by the discovery.
Piper hit play to start the Sabra tape. The three sisters were treated to yet another circus opening. This one was dated the day after the date posted on the previous tape. While she fast-forwarded to the horse act, Paige pulled the corresponding tape case from the wall and opened it. That case was empty as well.
The horse act was just as useless as the tiger act in the previous tape. Sabra went through her routine flawlessly. She seemed strong and vibrant, with nary a stumble as she circled the area, bowed to the audience, and reared up on her hind legs. There was nothing at all to indicate that she would be dead within the year.
“This is getting us nowhere,” Piper said. “The tapes have obviously been switched.”
“Do you think the Bestiari knows we’re investigating?” Paige asked.
“Maybe,” Phoebe said. “And maybe the demon thought to cover his tracks.”
Piper hit the stop button and ejected the second tape. The television screens went blue for a moment, then they burst into a crazy swirl of colors. It was like the televisions had all decided to go on a psychedelic trip together. Once the trip ended, each of the screens displayed a full-size image of Puck’s face.
“Good morning, Angels,” the face said with a giddy grin.
“What?” Piper asked.
“I said, ‘Good morning, Angels,’” Puck repeated. “Now you’re supposed to say, ‘Good morning, Charlie.’ Come on, let’s do it again.”
His image blinked off the screen for a moment, then reappeared on the televisions, without the preceding light show this time.
“Good morning, Angels,” Puck said.
The Charmed Ones just stared at him.
“You three are no fun,” Puck said. “You have no appreciation for the classics. I can’t even get a simple ‘Good morning, Charlie.’”
Piper checked her watch. “It’s after noon.”
“And correct me if I’m wrong,” Phoebe said, “but in that particular classic, the one pulling the strings was heard, but never seen.”
“Touché,” Puck said, before changing the subject. “I was just dropping by for a progres
s report. How are we doing? Have we solved the mystery and saved the day yet?”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Piper said. It was one thing to be going along with his little test. It was quite another to have to report to him as if they were his employees.
“Come on, come on, come on,” Puck said, tapping his finger against the television screen from the inside as if he were actually physically encased in the sets. “Time is money.”
The Charmed Ones looked at one another, confused.
“I take it you’ve found your Innocent?” Puck asked, trying to pull the information from them.
“Like you don’t already know,” Phoebe said.
“And what are we doing to protect her?” he asked from the TV screens. His tone was like that of a kindergarten teacher talking down to his students.
“We’re trying to find out who had access to Tasha,” Phoebe said, drawing a look from her sisters. “What? He’s not going to go away until we tell him something.”
Piper shook her head, accepting what her sister had said. “We’ve got some suspects,” she finally said, using Paige’s cop lingo. “But there are too many people with access to the animals to narrow down the list.”
Puck stared blankly at the Charmed Ones for a beat. “You do realize you’re dealing with a demon?” he asked, still using his condescending tone. “It’s not like you can put him in a lineup and point him out among the humans. It doesn’t work that way.”
Piper rolled her eyes. “We’re not amateurs,” she said, then rattled off what they already knew. “It’s a Bestiari Demon. It can take human form. And if we can stop him before he visits Tasha again, we can save her.”
“Well, at least you’ve gotten that far on your own,” Puck said. “I was beginning to worry. But just because the demon can take human form doesn’t automatically mean that it uses human ways to do things. Now stop clowning around and live up to those reputations that have gotten the Underworld buzzing.”
