I smothered a sigh. “All right, I’ll take on Project Vampire. Just as long as I can get a look-in at any information you or Javos might find on the cure. This is pretty damn serious if it’s true.”
“Agreed,” he said, “which is why we’ll be speaking with the vampires’ leader tonight at sundown. Once she wakes, I’ll see if I can get us a meeting with her. I’ll call you if we do.”
I blinked. “Wait, their leader? Like, the ruler of vampires in the city?”
“The very same.” He paused. “I don’t need to remind you to hold your tongue around her, do I?”
“Obviously not,” I said. My phone buzzed in my pocket. “You’re the ones who keep feuding with the vamps. Anyway. I need to answer this.” Only one person had my number who actually called on a regular basis—my best friend and neighbour Fiona, who’d narrowly escaped being a demigod’s prey when he’d kidnapped her and taken her into the demon dimension. Since then, she’d been calling me at least once a day, convinced that demons had broken into her flat.
I picked up the phone and saw it wasn’t Fiona calling, but Clover, retired celestial soldier and the only person left in the guild who I considered a friend.
“Hey, Clover.”
“Are you with that warlock?”
I frowned. She, out of everyone at the guild, knew about my new position with the warlocks. The others assumed—I hoped—that I’d gone back to working as an independent freelancer. I’d made it quite clear that I didn’t want them getting involved in my life any further, and after royally screwing me over, they’d better bloody well respect that.
“Why?” I said, in answer to Clover.
“Just checking. There’s been an incident he may want to be aware of.”
My heart sank. “What incident?”
More demon killings?
“One of the celestials who was bitten by the infected vampires appears to have killed a student.”
“What? Seriously?” The victims had been moved to the celestials’ academy for new recruits to reduce the risk of their celestial marks accidentally switching on and activating the virus. The academy was one of the most heavily warded places in town. “I thought there weren’t any other side effects.”
“Either that, or a demon got in. Or a warlock.”
I lifted the phone from my ear. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Chapter 3
After leaving the warlocks’ place, I didn’t, much as I wanted to, go back home to chill out before meeting the vampire queen. Instead, I drove to the celestials’ academy.
I was thrilled to bits to have my own car again, even if it was eating most of my earnings from my new job. This model wasn’t quite as fancy as the one I’d had as a celestial soldier and I didn’t have the luxury of free repairs either, but the freedom was worth it. I blasted the radio and sang along, out of tune, all the way through the traffic in the city centre. Mostly, it was to shut off the whispers in the back of my head telling me this was a monumentally terrible idea. Not only had I sworn not to get involved with the celestials again, they’d want me dead if they had the slightest inkling about the demon mark. Even my former tutors.
Considering the reputation I’d left behind, I expected to find my name on a ‘no entry’ poster. The academy had taken the brunt of my displeasure and disillusionment at my new unchosen life calling. I’d been sixteen when I’d joined, old enough to get a job if I wanted to, and I didn’t appreciate the school’s attempts to control my every move. After leaving and becoming a full-fledged celestial soldier, I’d rarely gone back. But the only ‘wanted’ poster outside was for Faye Carruthers, notorious ex-celestial soldier who’d gone rogue and summoned a demon inside the old guild’s headquarters, killing a ton of people in the process. Rory and I had been on assignment at the time so I hadn’t seen the wreckage, nor the aftermath. Until recently, it’d been the worst attack on the guild in one of their own cities in the last decade.
Because their former headquarters hadn’t been salvageable, the guild had moved to the old academy and the academy itself had relocated here. The plain brick building looked unassuming, but it boasted some intense security measures. Nobody could get in unless someone opened the doors from the inside, and demon-proof spells covered the place. So someone being murdered within its walls was unheard of.
I habitually checked my right wrist was covered and waited outside to be buzzed in. On the other side of the glass doors appeared Mrs Credence, who’d been one of my tutors and one of many long-suffering victims of my various pranks as a rebellious sixteen-year-old.
“Devi,” said Mrs Credence, as though I was some horrifying ghost who’d appeared from her career’s past to torment her. “What are you doing here?”
“Clover told me what happened,” I said. “Who was the killer?”
“Alyson.” She pursed her lips. “If you weren’t the person responsible for finding the cause of those other deaths, I’d be hard-pressed to find a reason to let you in. Management won’t like this.”
“Management is the reason I didn’t find the killer sooner,” I said. “As a matter of fact, I’m in the middle of investigating a potentially related death amongst the vampires.” And the cure. It’d be cruel to dangle the possibility in front of the remaining celestials who could never fight again, even if one of them was dead, and another possibly a murderer. “But tell me—who was involved?”
Mrs Credence paused before saying, “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but we had the three victims staying in the same area of the academy. The two girls—Alyson and Harlow—were roommates. The girls in the room below were woken this morning by screaming from upstairs. We found Alyson crouched over Harlow’s body—both were covered in blood. But she had no weapons. Nothing.”
“Where is she now?”
“In isolation. We aren’t equipped to hold prisoners here, so the main guild are coming to collect her later for a trial. But obviously, she can’t be around anything likely to set off her celestial magic…”
“Otherwise she dies.” I nodded. “I see. I’d like to speak with her first.”
“How exactly is this vampire case you mentioned connected?”
“I don’t know yet,” I said. “But a vampire who might have had contact with the same virus which infected the celestials was killed.”
Two murders in a day both vaguely related to the same vampires certainly looked suspicious. Especially as both victims, and the murderer, might have been carrying said venom. Who knew if it had any other side effects which only manifested later?
She sighed and beckoned me forwards. “Come with me, and try not to scare the students.”
“I would never.”
“Devi, you used to tell gruesome stories before you were out in the field.”
So I had. Like the guild HQ, the academy was like a cross between an old-fashioned boarding school and a prison, both in appearance and atmosphere. Only the terminally dull wouldn’t have ghost stories on the mind after spending a night in one of the towers.
“I got bored easily.”
“The evidence of your boredom is still carved into the guild’s walls.”
I grinned. “Mr Roth never told me that. You mean they never managed to remove it?”
I hadn’t been back to the guild since Mr Roth and I had parted on less than pleasant terms. I’d blamed him for letting Inspector Deacon swoop in and remove me from the murder investigation, not to mention letting Gav get killed on his watch. I sincerely hoped he’d have more sense this time.
“Unfortunately not,” she said. “I take it you’ve found someone new to torment?”
“You wound me. Where’s the victim, then?”
“This way.”
Poor Mrs Credence. Really, I’d gone easy on her. She was one of those downtrodden department heads on the perpetual brink of a nervous breakdown. I’d only gone out of my way to annoy the most cruel and sarcastic members of staff, the ones who’d picked on other novices or been dicks for no reason. E
ven I had a limit.
“Why put you in charge of this investigation?” I couldn’t help asking as we reached the office, and she unlocked the door with a key.
“There weren’t many volunteers, and I’m the girls’ head of year.”
I grimaced. I could read between the lines. The guild hadn’t known what to do with the victims at all, because most celestials either retired at an old age or died in the field. Few did what I had, and left entirely. And because of the dangers of using their celestial magic, the victims had been shoved out of sight to avoid accidentally triggering the spell that had killed the last ones. It couldn’t have been pleasant for them. But enough to turn one of them into a killer? I couldn’t say.
Alyson sat hunched in the corner of the empty office.
“I didn’t kill her.” Her mouth looked bloody, and she avoided eye contact with me.
“The room was locked,” said Mrs Credence. “You were the only person inside, and you were standing over her body.”
Alyson’s eyes focused on me and widened. “Devi?”
“That’s me,” I said. “I’m prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt, which is more than I can say for the guild. So tell me what you know.”
“That’s just it. I don’t remember. I fell asleep, woke up to the sound of her screaming, and I was—I was standing over her body. I don’t remember how I got there. I assume I sleepwalked. But I swear, I didn’t kill her. I don’t even know how she died.”
“She was clawed to death,” said Mrs Credence, who hovered by the door, looking faintly nauseated.
I could understand why. The girl’s fingernails were crusted with blood. As though she’d dug them into something fleshy. Her clothes were splattered, and so was her face. Not to mention the blood between her teeth. She might as well have been a dictionary illustration of the word ‘guilty’.
“A demon,” said the novice. “It must have been.”
“If it was a demon, the security would have gone off,” said Mrs Credence.
“Not to mention your celestial light would have activated, killing you,” I added.
“You don’t know that.” Her voice rose, hysterically. “You have to let me out of here. The killer’s still out there. I know they are.”
“All that blood came from somewhere,” I said. “Maybe you communicated with a demon through some other means.2
She shook her head. “How can I? I’ve been watched almost all the time since I came here, in case I accidentally used my celestial magic.”
I looked at Mrs Credence for confirmation. “All right. We’re going to need to look at the body.”
I backed out of the room, leaving the despondent ex-celestial behind.
“Do you believe her?” asked Mrs Credence.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I think she was the killer, but perhaps she’s telling the truth when she says she doesn’t remember. It might be a demon… or it might be a side effect.”
“Of the demon venom?” Scepticism tinged her voice. “She did bring up a good point. Normal vampire venom doesn’t affect us, but it usually runs its course within a day or two. If a person is going to change, they’d have been through the process by now.”
“Only if they drink their sire’s blood,” I reminded her. “Which obviously isn’t an option here. Anyway, a celestial can’t turn into a vampire. Unless… unless she’s some kind of demon vampire?”
Just imagining what both the vampires and the warlocks would say to that made me shudder. Not to mention Azurial, who’d started all this. He was locked up in another dimension, but if anyone was sneaky enough to implement another plan to attack the celestials in this realm, it was him.
“You want to see the body?” she asked. “It’s unpleasant, but I’m sure you knew that.”
“Then let’s get it over with.”
The academy didn’t come with a morgue, for obvious reasons, so the body was locked in a spare room. A foul smell wafted out when she opened the door, decay mixed with blood, fresh and otherwise. The girl lay sprawled on a table, blood soaking into her clothes. Horrible wounds crossed her chest and neck. Like a monster had bitten chunks out of her. Bile burned the back of my throat. If I hadn’t seen the state of the body, I wouldn’t have believed a human could have done it. But maybe the demon mark had caused her to lose her memory of the attack.
“Who was the third person who got bitten?” I asked.
“Damian Greenwood. He was in the boy’s dorms, on the opposite corridor, and didn’t see the attack. I brought him downstairs anyway. He’s in my office.”
“I think we should speak to him,” I said. “Her story has holes in it, but assuming the demon mark was responsible, it might be that something similar will happen to him. We need to be ready.”
“Nobody mentioned a demon’s mark,” she said. “I thought they were invisible.”
Ah. I’d forgotten they knew so much less than I did about how demons operated. It wouldn’t do to make them suspect I had up-close-and-personal experience with demon marks—not to mention, it’d make life even more difficult for the last victim.
“I meant the vampire’s bite,” I said. “Have there been any more reported side effects?”
“No,” she said. “That’s why we let them stay here. They’re too old to retake classes, but if they’re unable to return to the field… there are a few other options for them within the guild. Academia, for instance.”
I nodded, quelling an unexpected twinge of guilt. I’d spent most of the investigation thinking the deaths were connected to the death of my partner, Rory. I guessed he’d died in the same way, though I’d never found a conclusive answer as to why, when there’d been two years between his death and the more recent murders. And my own demon mark hadn’t been the result of a bite.
“He’s here, if you want to talk to him,” she added, beckoning me towards another office. Unlocking the door, she opened it to reveal a young man with jet black hair and a pale, almost vampire-like complexion.
“Hey,” I said.
“Devi Lawson?” Damian raised an eyebrow. “They’ve got you investigating? Didn’t they learn their lesson from last time?”
Well, that was nice. “What, when I saved your ungrateful necks?”
“Ungrateful?” he snapped. “I lost everything, while you didn’t even bother to come and tell us in person that we can never go out into the field again. You left everything to the guild.”
“Because it was their fault.” The guild hadn’t believed me when I’d told them the cause of death, and in any case, he and the others were lucky to have survived. “Besides, you’re the one who got bitten by a vampire.”
“You never even bothered to ask how it happened,” he said.
“I was in the hospital with severe burns from demon magic.” I’d always have scars, however much of a miracle warlock healing remedies worked. “Besides, it’s not like I even work for the guild. Maybe you should talk to them about your issues. They kicked me off the investigation before I even figured out the vampires did it.”
“My life is over.”
He’d make a great vampire, considering he had the dramatics down already. And the acting skills. His high-pitched whining tone was a little too on point. I wouldn’t be fooled. Not like I had the authority to let him out—or the inclination.
“No, it isn’t,” I said. “Not unless you turn into a bloodthirsty killer, too. I hear the academy’s looking for new positions.” My gaze fell on an open book on the desk next to him, which looked like it’d come from the library. “Researcher?”
“It’s boring as shit.”
“Maybe take up a new hobby rather than whining about how awful your life is. You’re not the one who got mauled to death.”
He threw the book at me. I dodged and caught it in one hand, while Mrs Credence gasped behind me. Rolling my eyes at him, I tossed the book onto the desk and left the office. “What a prick.”
“Devi.”
“The guild isn’t spre
ading rumours that it’s my fault, are they?” I asked suspiciously.
“Of course not,” she said. “He’s just… not taking his new role well. The girls were, until now. That’s why we weren’t watching them closely.”
“Look, if you have an epidemic of vampire-demon-celestial hybrids, you have a problem,” I said. “For that reason, you might want to keep an eye on him. Two eyes, if possible. He’s a melodramatic prick, but that might be a cover.”
“You know how the guild is,” she said. “If we pre-emptively judge him guilty, it’s not a stain that will wash away easily.”
“Neither is murder, even by accident,” I said.
“I will talk to Mr Roth about the situation. I’ve already updated him.”
“Good.” I hoped he wouldn’t overreact, unlike a certain inspector. Not only had Inspector Deacon labelled me the villain rather than going after the bad guys, thanks to him, we’d been almost too late to stop the killer. To avoid a repeat of that scenario, I was prepared to involve the warlocks… but the guild’s hatred of preternaturals made it impossible to imagine them working together without a fuss. Especially given that they’d recently provoked Javos by arresting several warlocks, and the vampires had been partly responsible for the murders in the first place. But it was nice to imagine some sane, sensible people taking care of the problem in a diplomatic manner. Preferably before someone else ended up dead.
Unfortunately, it did look like Alyson was guilty. And unless she was a hell of a lot more vindictive than she’d seemed, the vampire’s venom must have been at least partially responsible. But it wasn’t like there was an established method for dealing with victims of demon-infected vampire bites. The guild was doing what they did best—hiding their problems from public view and hoping they could sweep everything under the rug.
Like Rory’s death.
Nobody had mentioned it since. But I couldn’t help wondering if he’d been yet another victim of the same attack. Rory had died in a raid on a demon’s nest over in Cornwall two years ago. Nowhere near Haven City. And every time I recalled that mission, I didn’t remember either of us getting bitten by anything.
Celestial Fire (Celestial Marked Book 2) Page 3
