by Skye Knizley
"Ray? Raven?" Aspen called. "Come on boss, we still have work to do. Drink."
Raven opened her eyes and saw the younger woman kneeling next to her. Aspen held a pouch of blood to Raven's lips and smiled. Raven bit through the plastic and sucked the contents down, for once savoring the coppery taste. Her body absorbed the warm claret and she felt her strength returning. She sat up and looked at the pixie-like young woman who was kneeling next to her.
"How did you know?" Raven asked.
Aspen smiled and offered Raven another pouch. "A witch knows a dhampyr when she sees one. And a damn powerful one at that. I had no idea Mistress Valentina was so old."
Raven took the offered pouch and drank, sipping the blood and letting her body heal.
"She's not," Raven said between sips. "I'll explain some time over a pint of beer instead of blood. It's a long story."
Aspen smiled. "Isn't it always? Anyway, thanks, Raven."
Raven's brow furrowed. "What for?"
"For being here and saving my ass," Aspen replied. "Once the Angul has been sent, someone has to die. If you hadn't responded, I'd be joining our friends in the morgue."
"It was mutual," Raven said. "You came back for me. It's what friends do. So tell me how you knew about not looking directly at him?"
"It will sound silly," Aspen said.
"Kid, I just killed a demon with a piece of old, rusty chain. You could tell me the moon was made of cheese and I wouldn't think it was silly."
Aspen laughed and spread her hands. "I remembered something I read as a girl about souls having weight and heat and that it takes at least three days for a soul to pass on from a body. I did a little digging and figured out the reason the other victims were colder and dead even without being decapitated was that they'd seen the demon. He stole their souls just by walking past them. Legend has it they get stored in his axe until released by the witch or warlock that summoned him, or by breaking the axe, which is supposed to be impossible."
"Interesting theory," Raven said, turning her head to look at the smoldering axe. She stood and walked over to the huge weapon. Most of the shaft was made of wood, only the last few feet and blade were made of iron. With a shrug she brought her foot down where the wood met iron and the shaft snapped like an old twig. She then lifted what was left and brought it down as hard as she could on the paved walkway. The blade shattered with a dreadful shrieking noise and light shot from the shaft as souls rose screaming into the night sky. "I guess it isn't a theory," she said to Aspen.
"Guess not," Aspen replied. "The coven is going to know what you did, that Angul has failed and they are going to be coming for you in some other way."
"That is how it usually goes."
Aspen took a breath. "I want to help, Ray. I think I know where they are and I can help you beat them."
Raven turned and looked down at Aspen. "Do tell."
"It isn't what you think, Raven," Aspen said. "I was working on that key you found back at the lab and was going out for a smoke when I got jumped."
"Okay, so what did you find?"
"The last victim had a copper nail in his shoe," Aspen replied. "There are only a handful of places in the city that ever used copper nails in construction and most of those were out in The Dark. That gave me the idea to track the key in the same area."
Raven smiled. "And you found a match."
"Yep, an old manor house."
Raven frowned and asked, "Off Parnell Avenue?"
"How did you know?" Aspen asked.
"It's where Rocco Riscassi hung out during my father's day," Raven replied. "How do we stop these witches? I don't want to get turned into a newt or something."
"I can cast a shield spell on you and Levac that should protect you from the worst that they can do," Aspen said. "Then all you have to do is get them to swallow some bindweed and you can arrest them."
Raven made a face. "Bindweed? Really? There is an herb called bindweed?"
"It's just what witches call it," Aspen replied with a laugh.
Raven turned and began walking back toward the main entrance. "I don't suppose you have this bindweed and shield stuff with you?"
"The shield spell is pretty simple and we can get bindweed at Marie's."
"That figures," Raven said. "Call Rupert and have him meet us at the precinct, we will stop at Marie's on the way."
* * *
CHAPTER EIGHT
Levac was pacing next to his Metropolitan in his personal cloud of cigar smoke when Raven and Aspen parked next to him and the two women climbed out. Levac tossed his cigar aside and joined them between the cars.
"Aspen told me what happened when she called, are you okay?" he asked, his eyes full of concern.
Raven gave Aspen a dirty look and said, "I'm fine, Rupe. Angul is dead, but we've still got work to do."
"Did you locate Riscassi?" Levac asked.
"Yes and no," Aspen replied. "We've narrowed her location down to a possible location in The Dark."
"Oh…swell," Levac said. "Any more good news?"
Raven smiled. "Actually, yes. Our little witch here is going to sprinkle us with pixie dust…"
"Shielding dust!" Aspen interrupted.
"Pixie dust," Raven continued. "Then we're going to go find at least two witches in an old manor house and feed them binding weed so they can't do any more harm when we put them behind bars."
"This is a joke, right?" Levac said, looking between the two women.
Aspen shook her head. "Nope."
She held out three white pills that looked like lozenges. "You have to get them to swallow these and it will prevent them from using any magik against you."
Levac looked at the three pills and then at Raven. "I thought these always came chocolate coated.
"That's miracle pills," Raven replied. "Get your magik right.”
Levac gave Raven a blank look.
Raven made a face. "You have to get out more, Rupe. Come on, let's go get this over with.
* * *
The night had deepened since Raven had saved Aspen from Angul. Purple and grey clouds swirled overhead in a maelstrom shot with ball lightning and streaks of purple energy that made Raven's weird-shit meter go off the scale, especially since it seemed to be centered over The Dark.
"Oh. Drama," she muttered. "Like theatrics are going to frighten me."
Levac frowned. "They frighten me."
"Don't worry about it," Aspen said. "They are just casting dark magik."
"Oh…is that all? No problem, we got this," Levac said with a smirk.
Raven drove slowly, guiding the Bass 770 around the bouncing manhole covers and random debris that choked the streets of The Dark. Aspen had cast a spell on the car as well as on the two detectives, a spell she was certain would protect them from the effects of The Dark for at least a short time. Raven knew there was no guarantee how long the spell would last, but knew that safety was, for once, more important than speed.
It didn't take her long to locate the manor. She has been there before, after all. She parked the Bass across the street and the three investigators looked up at the old house.
The manor sat on a street lit only by flashes of lightning and a single gas lamp left over from the 1800s. An iron fence surrounded the house, but was open to a wide walkway made of granite cobbles. Beyond it stood a Victorian mansion painted black with black shingles and a deep red door. A single guard brandishing a shiny new Heckler and Koch Mp7 leaned against the railing of the wrap-around front porch, his weapon held ready in spite of his relaxed posture.
"Two more on the roof and one above us," Levac said, pointing.
"I see them," Raven replied. "It looks like they have suppressed rifles. Think you can take them from here while I get the guy on the porch?"
"No problem," Levac said, pulling a Barrett sniper rifle from the back seat. He chambered a fifty caliber round and slid out of the car, using the door as a rifle rest."
"What about me?" Aspen asked.
"You follow me in once the guards are taken down," Raven said. "Your magic might come in handy."
Aspen nodded and picked up the contraption she'd brought with her. With a snap of her wrist the oblong became a full-sized bow.
Raven blinked in surprise and looked at Aspen. "What happened to ‘Do No Harm’?"
“That only applies to magik,” Aspen replied, slinging a high-tech quiver of arrows over her shoulder.
"We've got to talk later, kid. Seriously."
Aspen climbed from the car and began walking across the street, her Automag held tightly in one hand. Aspen followed, using Raven's body to hide her bow. The guard watched the two women approach, but he just stared. The two women kept walking. Twenty yards. Ten. Five.
"Stop right there, ladies," the guard said, raising his weapon. "This is private property."
The silent night was broken by two quick booms that rattled Raven's teeth. The guard yelled, "What the hell?" and craned his neck to the see the roof above him. Two bodies slid over the edge to collapse on the ground.
"Guido? Nunzio?" the guard asked.
Raven shot him in his pie hole as he gaped at the bodies. At the same moment Aspen spun and fired an arrow, neatly perforating the sniper on the roof opposite. A moment later Levac appeared at her side, his rifle gone and Raven's katana in his hand. He held the sword out to her.
"A little birdie told me you might need this tonight," he said.
"Yeah…people keep telling me that," Raven said, glancing at Aspen.
She slung the katana across her shoulder for a cross-body draw and led the group to the front door. She was about to kick it down when Aspen stepped forward and tried the key they'd found with Shevlin's belongings. The door opened on silent hinges to reveal a foyer carpeted in royal purple. A single gas lamp lit the room, its light reflected by the leaded glass in the three windows that overlooked the porch. A pair of double doors led deeper into the house. Raven tested them and found them unlocked. She pushed them wide open and stepped through into the grand hall and rotunda. Doors led to the left and right while the corridor continued straight. A semi-circular staircase framed the rotunda and led upwards into darkness.
Raven and Levac quickly cleared the rooms to the left and right, finding a den decorated with antique weapons and a variety of stuffed animal heads that had probably been purchased from a mail-order catalog and a dining room that hadn't been used in quite some time. Dust covered the dining table and the remains of a meal that had started to rot sometime before Raven had been born. With a nod of his head Levac indicated he wanted to check the double doors leading from the kitchen, but Raven shook him off, pointing upwards. Levac nodded, but followed Raven into the rotunda. The circular room was tiled in a pattern that depicted the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in detail so perfect the blood spatters and brass looked real. The walls, covered in heavy red drapes, held paintings of the Outfit from Al Capone all the way through the years to Franco Giotti.
"These are some seriously disturbed women," Levac observed.
"What, you don't want a place like this?" Raven smiled.
"Oh yeah, a few throw pillows, maybe a nice colorful rug to cover up the dead guy mural and it would be home sweet home."
"Can we get on?" Aspen asked. "Something bad is happening, we have to move!"
Raven looked at Aspen and then headed up the stairs, her back pressed to the wall as she shuffle-stepped up the stairs like an old-time fencer, all the while her Automag covering the floor above.
The stairs emptied into a wide circular balcony that overlooked the fresco below. Windows opened up onto the stormy night sky and Raven could see that the strange clouds were swirling around an old tower a few blocks away. She ignored that for now and continued around the rotunda using the same shuffle and cross step method as before.
Six doorways and a hallway led from the rotunda, doors hiding bedrooms full of antique furniture and choked with the dust and cobwebs of decades. The last doo however opened to reveal a well-appointed bedroom complete with a queen sized, four-poster bed, antique armoire, writing desk and a pair of side tables that Raven would gladly have killed for. Black candles flickered on every surface, bathing everything in a beautiful golden glow.
"We're getting close, partner," Levac said. "Bet this is where DeGrey has been holing up."
"Just another rat," Raven replied.
"With lots of money," Aspen chimed in. "Dibs on the bed."
Raven and Levac looked at her in confusion.
She blushed under their gaze and shrugged. "Sorry, gamer-girl moment. You call dibs on any treasure you really want."
Raven shook her head and continued around the corner, finding herself nose-deep in the chest of a burly security guard.
"What are youse doing here?" he rumbled.
Raven stepped back and looked up at the huge man.
"Chicago police,” she said, holding up her badge. "We're looking for Maria Riscassi and Rayne DeGrey."
"Youse got a warrant?" the man asked, his glower deepening.
"No, sir, we don't have a warrant," Levac said. "But we can get one. Where can we find the two ladies, please?"
"Sorry, no warrant, no entry," the man said. "Youse go get one and I'll ask them to wait right here."
"You're impeding a criminal investigation," Raven said.
"I'm sorry bout tha…" the guard said. He was stopped by Raven's gun planted firmly in his crotch.
"You're also pissing me off," she said as he crumpled to the floor. "We don't have time for this shit."
Levac leaned down. "You have the right to remain silent. I suggest you stay that way," he said. "You also have the right to an attorney and several other things that I am certain you already know, a big strapping lad like you. But most importantly you have the right to stay right there on the floor. You might want to invoke that one too, or my partner will probably shoot you in the face." He straightened and looked at Raven, who was frowning. "What?" he asked.
"I'm rubbing off on you," she said, stepping over the groaning man.
"So?" Levac asked, following her with Aspen bringing up the rear.
"I'm not sure I like it," Raven replied.
* * *
The group continued down the corridor, finding nothing, but rooms full of sheet-covered furniture and antique paintings dating back to the 1920s. Outside, the storm continued to worsen, with the epicenter spreading out from the building Raven had noticed earlier.
"Maybe they aren't even here," Raven said, looking out a large window.
Aspen shook her head. "They're here. I can feel them, doing something dark. We have to hurry."
"Fuck this room to room shit," Raven said.
She blinked and brought up her vampire sight. The world went blue. She could see the different shades indicating the rooms around them and sense Levac and Aspen's hearts beating nearby.
She also detected two hearts full of warm, viscous blood in a room near the end of the hallway. She blinked again and looked at her companions. "They're at the end of the hallway on the right. Just the two of them," she said. "It looks like they are kneeling. Are you two ready for this?"
Aspen and Levac nodded. Aspen pulled a small corked vial from her pocket and blew the contents over the two detectives, making them sparkle for a moment, much to Raven's annoyance. The girl then handed them the pills she'd made.
"Remember, they have to swallow the bindweed or they will still be able to cast," she said.
"Wait, you're not coming?" Levac asked.
Aspen shook her head. "I will keep the hallway protected, but I'm not a fighter. This is your show."
"She's done what she can, Rupe," Raven added. "Come on, let's go bag some witches."
Levac exchanged his 93R for his Automag. "Lead on, Gretel."
Raven laughed and led the way down the corridor, her footsteps almost noiseless on the marble floor. She leaned against the wall and peeked into the room. The chamber was much like the one in DeGrey's apartment. Bones, chal
k and sigils covered the floor around a black well made from obsidian glass. The walls had been painted black and then covered with symbols Raven vaguely remembered as being big no-no's in the magikal community. Only one wall had been left bare and it held a wide glass window that looked out on the storm now raging across The Dark.
The two women, naked to the waist, knelt before the well, their arms raised. Strange words, heard, but quickly forgotten poured from their lips and the room was growing hazy with thick, sulfurous fog.
"Piece of cake," Raven said with a smile.
Levac looked at her, not sharing her bravado. "You were right, it can get worse."
In unison they stepped through the doorway, weapons at the ready.
"Rayne DeGrey and Maria Riscassi, you are under arrest for the manufacture, sale and distribution of the narcotic known as Thirst, murder, attempted murder and violation of the Witchcraft Act of 1735," Levac said.
"Witchcraft Act of 1735?" Raven asked. "Where did you find that?"
"It's still on the books, Ray," Levac replied. "Can we talk about it later?"
Raven shrugged and turned her attention back to the two women kneeling on the floor. They had glanced at the two detectives, but continued their ritual, now writhing and squirming in the blood and chalk dust on the floor.
"Stop rolling around like you work in the champagne room and put your hands behind your backs," she instructed.
Again neither woman paid any attention, though they appeared to have finished their ritual. They slithered away and knelt on the far side of the well, their hands clasped together.
"Close enough," Raven muttered, stepping forward. She was almost to the well when it began to spill black blood and sulfurous smoke. A familiar blood-soaked figure began to rise from the well, ichor dripping from its limbs and spilling into the floor.
