Grim Rites

by Bilinda Sheehan

  “You’re making no sense,” I said with an impatient sigh.

  “Neither is your friend,” Lily said, a cold smile sending a shudder racing through me.

  Turning to face Sonia, I stared into her face as her eyes rolled back in her head and she dropped to her knees.

  “What are you doing! Stop it!” I said, grabbing Sonia. The shock of Lily’s power as it raced across Sonia’s skin and up through my arms drew a string of swears from my mouth that would have made any sailor proud.

  Sonia started to convulse, her head snapping backwards hard enough that for a split second I was certain I heard the sound of her neck breaking. Drawing her in against my body, I wrapped my own energy around her still-jerking body and drove Lily’s power out without enough force to send the bitch stumbling backwards.

  “What are you doing?” she hissed as she pushed back, her energy coating mine like venom.

  “She’s pregnant, you can’t hurt her. We don’t need to hurt her…” I said between the breaths that I fought to draw in through my chattering lips. Sonia wasn’t convulsing anymore, and thankfully she wasn’t even conscious, but Lily’s power was beginning to wear on mine. I wasn’t strong enough to hold her off from both of us.

  Lily stopped, her power washing away from mine like a wave receding across the sand. “She’s willing to expose you and you want me to leave her be? That makes no sense.”

  “I’ve done enough to her. She’s pregnant and I’m the reason her boyfriend is dead…” I said, guilt lacing every word.

  “I take it the god-awful smell is the dead boyfriend?” Lily asked, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

  Nodding, I shuffled around until I could get a better look at her. “We don’t need to hurt her, she just wants Steve back and….”

  “And I can give her Steve,” Lily said, planting her hands on her hips.

  “You can bring him back?” I said, unable to keep my surprise to myself.

  “Yes.”

  The word hung in the air between us and it felt far too easy. I wasn’t doubting Lily and her abilities, I’d felt the strength of her power and it had been enough to steal the air from my lungs. I could already imagine her bringing Steve back, but why would she?

  “I don’t understand, Lily, why do this?”

  “I never said I would….”

  “Well, if you won’t, then I will. I don’t want her death on my conscience, too, and if that’s the only way to get her to erase the phone messages, then I’ll do it,” I said, pushing up onto my feet.

  My body felt stiff and bruised as though I’d gone several rounds in the boxing ring with Lily.

  “Fine, I’ll bring him back, but she deletes the message first.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re in no fit state, and I told you, I need you around. If you’re exposed, they’ll execute you, and I can’t take that risk.”

  “And if you’re exposed?”

  Lily shrugged, but there was something lurking in her eyes that told me she had a plan for every possible outcome already in place. And I just couldn’t imagine it involved her allowing herself to get caught.

  Lily snapped her fingers and Sonia jerked awake with a gasp. She clutched at her chest and stared up at me with an accusatory glare.

  “You tried to kill me,” she said, her voice hoarse as though she’d spent the last few minutes screaming on the top of her lungs.

  “Not her, me,” Lily chimed in, drawing Sonia’s glare with a small wave.

  “You bitch,” Sonia said, climbing awkwardly to her feet and launching herself in Lily’s direction.

  With one flick of her wrist, Lily sent Sonia flying back into the wall, the plaster cracking and collapsing around her body as dust plumed upwards.

  “Stop it! I said I don’t want her dead!” I said, racing across the room to drag Sonia out of the heap of rubble she lay dazed in.

  “Yeah, yeah, so boring…” Lily said, lifting her hand to examine her nails.

  “Who is she?” Sonia asked, pain evident in her face as she took my hand and let me pull her to her feet.

  “She’ll bring Steve back, but she wants the message deleted first…” I said.

  Sonia shook her head. “Not until I have Steve…” she said.

  “I don’t have time for this. Either you delete the message or I turn your lover into charcoal.”

  Sonia bit down on her lip and shook her head. “How do I know you’ll really bring him back otherwise?”

  “Because I promise she will,” I said. “If she doesn’t, then I will.” I shot Lily a dirty look over Sonia’s shoulder.

  “Go then,” Lily said, waving Sonia away dismissively.

  Sonia jerked out of my grip and made her way with a limp to the door. Pausing with her hand on the door, she glanced back and said, “If you don’t, I will kill you, both of you.”

  She disappeared out through the door as Lily’s laughter filled the apartment.

  “Some people are just deluded. She does realise she’s talking to two Shadow Sorcerers, right?”

  Shaking my head, I brushed my hands across my face and sighed.

  “So, let’s have a look at this body, then,” Lily said, her voice fading, and I jerked my hands away from my face in time to watch her disappear into the bedroom.

  If I called Jason now, all of this would be over. Lily was powerful, but there was something about Jason—I’d heard stories of the witch hunters but nothing could have prepared me for what he truly was, and part of me knew Lily wouldn’t have expected it either.

  Following Lily, I paused in the doorway and stared at her as she sat on the bed next to Steve’s body. Her fingers danced across the mottled and swollen flesh of his chest, sparks of her magic appearing for a second only to be swallowed up once more and disappear completely. They moved so quickly I couldn’t make out the symbols from where I stood.

  “What are you doing?” I said, crossing the room and grabbing Lily’s arm in my hand, jerking her up from the bed.

  “Preparing him. You don’t just raise an unprepared body,” she said angrily.

  There was a kernel of truth to what she was saying, but ultimately it was still a lie—and, as I gripped her arm, I could see the lie winding its way around every word that left her mouth.

  “Get out,” I said as my cellphone started to buzz.

  “There are things I need to do,” she protested, but I could still see the lie.

  “Get the hell out before I change my mind and kill you myself,” I said from between gritted teeth.

  “Don’t make promises you cannot keep, Amber.”

  Anger flared in my core, bubbling in my veins as it sent my blood pressure through the roof. I could see myself slamming her into the wall, ripping her throat out with my bare hands. The image was enough to shock me and I jolted, ripping my hand away from her.

  “There’s something different about you,” she said, narrowing her eyes as she studied me.

  The demon mark on my shoulder itched and I fought the urge to brush my fingers against it. I didn’t need to look at it to know what it was doing; it was becoming a part of me and I could feel the symbols shifting on it, the words disappearing and reappearing….

  “Get out,” I said again, but this time even my voice was different.

  Lily studied me for a second more before whatever she saw in my eyes had her change her mind. She pulled away, moving around me as she hurried to the door. Pausing, she stared back at me, and I could still see the curiosity in her eyes. She had no idea what it was that made me different, and for the first time in a long time, I actually began to feel as though I might actually have the upper hand.

  Lily ran, leaving me to stand alone in the centre of my bedroom with Steve’s dead body still spread across the bed. Grabbing the sheet that lay tangled at the end of the bed, I dragged it up over him before my stomach flipped once more, sending me dashing for the bathroom.

  Chapter 18

  Jogging down the street towards the st
range apartment block, I stared down at Victoria’s message in an attempt to verify the address.

  Grabbing a shower while Steve’s dead body lay in the bedroom had been a weird but necessary evil and one I hoped I wouldn’t have to repeat anytime soon, but I’d needed it; spending any more time than I had to wearing clothes soaked in blood hadn’t been funny the first hundred times it had happened, and it sure as hell wasn’t getting any funnier.

  The message Victoria had sent only contained an address, one I didn’t recognise. There was no name attached either, just to make it even more confusing. Pausing next to the apartment block, I spotted Victoria’s SUV parked across the street and crossed over to where it stood empty.

  Clearly, she hadn’t thought it worth her while to wait for me. What we were even doing here was beyond me. Dialling her number once more, I pressed it to my ear and listened to it ring.

  “What took you so long to get here?” her voice against my ear made me jump and I nearly dropped the cellphone as I spun around to face her.

  “I’m not even sure what I’m doing here,” I said, glaring at her as I slid the phone back into my back pocket.

  “I thought you would have wanted to investigate the witch hunter’s apartment,” she said.

  “An apartment? How long has he been here?” I asked, nervousness making my stomach churn uneasily.

  How much had he known?

  “According to the lease, he rented it three weeks ago and planned to stay for at least six months….”

  Nodding, I stared up at the apartment block. He’d been here for three weeks—what had happened in that time to draw him here?

  “Well, let’s go then,” I said impatiently. The longer we hung around outside, the more time I wasted. Getting back to my own apartment was imperative—I couldn’t allow Sonia to change her mind and back out of the promise she’d made. It didn’t help that I didn’t trust Lily not to do something stupid.

  Victoria nodded and started towards the building. Either she hadn’t noticed the impatience in my voice or she simply didn’t care enough to ask me what was wrong; either way, I didn’t mind. Especially if it got this over and done with fast.

  We took the stairs as Victoria muttered something about enclosed spaces being evil. I couldn’t say I blamed her; the thought of ever getting caught out in a space as cramped as an elevator didn’t exactly fill me with joy either, and, well, we had no idea about what we were about to walk into.

  Reaching the tenth floor, Victoria paused and cocked her head to one side before gesturing for me to follow her silently down the hall. We moved simultaneously, each step as silent as the grave, and part of me wondered if perhaps Victoria had glamoured our movements. I didn’t really know the extent of her abilities, at least not beyond her obvious strength and short temper.

  Pausing next to one of the generically marked apartments, Victoria tried the door handle but it wouldn’t budge. Flexing her hand, the door popped open, the lock coming away in her grip with an almost inaudible pop.

  Dropping it to the floor, she crept inside, staying low to the ground as I brought up the rear with my athame drawn. It wasn’t perfect, but it was as good as it was going to get, considering Jon had confiscated my Elite issue gun.

  Light spilled across the hall floor, emanating from what I assumed was the living room beyond, and we crept towards it. Clearly someone was home, and it wasn’t the guy who was supposed to be living here. Well, not unless he had the ability to come back….

  Victoria paused and her low intake of breath brought me up sharp. She dropped her arms, lowering her gun until it was back at her side once more, and strode forward, all pretence of creeping around gone.

  “What are you doing here?” she said as I rounded the corner and came face to face with the man she was referring to.

  Jason greeted us both with the barest hint of a smile, but he didn’t lift his gaze from the sheaf of papers he held in his hands.

  “I’m staying here,” he said.

  “It’s not your name on the lease,” Victoria said, her anger causing the hairs on my arms to stand to attention as her power crept outwards like an ever-encroaching flood.

  “I wasn’t aware it had to be. The Vatican rented the place originally for DuVal and he hasn’t checked in lately,” Jason said, finally lifting his gaze. The second his eyes fell on me, he shifted uncomfortably, his expression hardening.

  “What are you doing here? You don’t even work for the Elite,” he said.

  “Victoria asked me to come, so here I am.” I spread my arms wide and grinned at him, keeping the same level of ice in my gaze as he had in his.

  “Did you contact the witch and tell her to meet you yet?” he asked, the weight of his gaze uncomfortable against my skin.

  Nic wasn’t like this; he didn’t make my skin crawl and he certainly didn’t make me feel uneasy. Had this always been Jason or was it just the weight of his responsibility that made him such an enormous douche?

  “Not yet,” I lied. No way was I telling him what the real plan was. The less he knew about Sonia’s involvement, the better.

  “We need to look around,” Victoria said, cutting across the conversation.

  Jason’s expression turned thunderous and I bit my lip hard in an attempt to keep my laughter to myself. It was nice to see him so uncomfortable for a change; giving him a taste of his own medicine was ridiculously satisfying.

  “Look around for what?” he asked suspiciously.

  “We need to know what DuVal was here investigating,” she said. “The Elite can’t exactly have witch hunters running around in our territory, investigating preternatural beings without our consent. It’s just not how things are done.”

  “For a second I thought you were going to admit you knew DuVal was dead, but I guess we’re going with more lies,” Jason said, his tone suggesting he was bored. “Be my guest, look around, but from what I can tell he was looking into some church….”

  My stomach flipped and I took a step forward before I even realised what I was doing. It seemed a little coincidental that this DuVal character would be investigating a church in King City at the same time I’d get a frightened phone message from Mia.

  “What church?” I asked, trying to keep the interest out of my voice as I moved towards the piles of pictures and scraps of papers scattered around the large dining table in the middle of the room.

  As I came level with Jason, he grabbed my arm, his power prickling along my skin. Clearly, he wasn’t done testing me yet, but the demon mark flared to life beneath my clothes. The feel of it burning beneath my skin had me gritting my teeth, but I refused to let Jason see that his actions were having any effect on me.

  “If you try anything…” he warned.

  “Yeah, yeah, you’ll execute me,” I said, forcing as much irritation into my voice to cover my pain as I possibly could. Jerking out of his grip, I rolled my shoulders and slipped my athame back into my weapons belt as I grabbed the first picture sitting on the edge of the table.

  The second my hand closed around it, I realised my mistake. Images crashed through my head, the smell of sulphur burning the back of my nose as my eyes started to water from the heat.

  I had just enough time to see St Anne’s church before the photograph I was holding burst into flames.

  “Shit,” I swore, dropping the picture as the flame consumed it within seconds.

  “Get away from them,” Jason ordered as a spark from the photo I’d been holding caught the edge of the nearest paper.

  “I didn’t do anything,” I protested. He pushed me out of the way and started to pray in Latin. Or at least I thought it was Latin—strange languages weren’t exactly my area of expertise.

  The fire died, grey plumes rising from the rest of the untouched paperwork as Jason turned on me once more.

  “What were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking I was going to have a look at the pictures,” I said. “Look, what is your deal with me? I’m not the enemy he
re.” It was a lie, but only because he was a prejudiced, pompous asshole. I had no intention of creating armies or murdering innocent victims so I could practice my black arts. Of course, as far as he was concerned, my kind may as well have been cavorting with the Devil Himself.

  “You’ve got a demon mark. DuVal wasn’t an idiot, he was hunting demons, and he cursed the evidence so no one could trap him using it.”

  My eyes widened as I stared down at the table covered in scribbled notes and pictures he’d taken in the area surrounding the church.

  “You can do things like that?”

  “Of course. We need some way of keeping our stuff out of the monsters’ hands.”

  The way he said the word “monster” had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. This was the man I was going to hand Lily over to. There was no forgiveness in him and I couldn’t help but question his ethics…. He had the gall to call my kind monsters when he and the other witch hunters were willing to kill first and ask questions later.

  “You keep calling them monsters because they have power you don’t understand,” Victoria interjected, “but you seem to forget that you have a power yourself.”

  “My power doesn’t come from somewhere evil. It’s not corrupted by the constant desire for more the way theirs is. Mine is a divine power and I am merely its conduit.”

  “That’s horse shit,” Victoria blurted out, her hands calling into fists as she faced off against Jason. “I can remember a time when the witch hunters didn’t believe their own hype, when their interest lay in protecting those who were weaker than they. With you, all I see is a man desperate to prove he has the biggest balls in the room.”

  Her tirade surprised me, and clearly I wasn’t the only one it surprised. Jason stared at her as though she’d just sprouted a second head, righteous indignation practically dripping from his pores.