“Now, what would give you that idea? You’re the one who summoned me, and if you really wanted to know about vampires, you’d have asked someone like Azurial. Or did my brother forbid you from contacting that dimension?” He sniffed. “Apparently not, judging by the state of this pentagram.”
“What makes you think I didn’t speak to him?” I said. “You know perfectly well what went down a few weeks ago, and if not, you’ve had time enough to speak to the arch-demon. He’s in a worse state than you are, if possible.”
His eyes lit up with amusement. “I suppose I have… but there are a great many questions I have about the nature of those events. I only heard the demons’ side…”
“And you won’t get my side.”
He tilted his head, his eyes gleaming in the pentagram’s light. “Why, were you thinking of seeking out the one who marked you? Because if so, there’s little point. When the demons want you, they’ll call your name, and you’ll be unable to resist. That is what it means to be marked by us.”
My phone buzzed. Crap.
“Is that my brother?” He laughed quietly. “He has you dancing at his beck and call, doesn’t he? He’s just like the rest of us, you know… we can’t help but think like the demons we truly are. We recruit allies, we plan domination, and we crush those who oppose us. He’s always hated that I had the power to challenge him. You’re only an ignorant human in his eyes until he needs your magic.”
“Are you done babbling?” My phone kept buzzing, and he kept grinning at me as though I’d said something hilarious.
“I know why he chose you,” he said. “Your soul has yet to be claimed by either side. Unclaimed, you might side against us in this war. As a demigod, he can’t risk making an enemy of you. So he keeps you around, as a lackey… and you let him. You could be more than you are, Devi.”
The pentagram’s edges shifted, and shadows spilled out into the shape of a man, pushing me backwards. I kicked the pentagram, and the shadows vanished, along with Zadok himself.
He does have some of his magic left, after all.
I checked my phone. Of course, it would be Nikolas calling me.
“Hang on,” I muttered, switching on my celestial hand and burning through every remaining trace of brimstone in the alley. I’d take no chances. Then I answered the phone. “Yes?”
“You took your time,” Nikolas said. “We have a mission. The vampire in the shed escaped.”
“Shit, really?”
“It’s our job to bring him back in. With force, if necessary. As a bonus, we might find the source of his contacts. Javos beat an address out of someone, but it’s on the opposite side of town and he doesn’t drive.”
“Why doesn’t he… you know what, don’t answer that.”
Javos, being a gigantic warlock with a pair of huge horns, had considerable trouble finding chairs designed for him, let alone vehicles. As for the train…
“I’m on my way,” I said.
I was already halfway out the alley, and I ran back to my car, throwing myself behind the wheel. What a mess. To think I’d thought I was risking everything by summoning demon contacts, and none had been any help whatsoever. The shadow realm wasn’t linked to our current vampire dilemma, but I was still convinced the roots of the problem lay in Pandemonium. That realm could easily have been ours, if we’d been set on a different path. If the arch-demons had won… or if the Divinities had gone dark.
But I’d worry about fallen Divinities and demon marks later. First, we had a rogue vamp to subdue.
Chapter 8
I picked up Nikolas and Rachel on the main road, following the directions Nikolas relayed to me on the phone. Rachel called shotgun and turned my radio up to max, ignoring a disgruntled look from Nikolas.
“What have you been doing?” he asked. “You smell of brimstone.”
“I may have contacted Dienes.” I figured there was no harm in telling him, since he’d been my contact to begin with.
He scowled. “The scavenger demon?”
“Yeah. He was Azurial’s lackey. But if I’m to believe him, there isn’t anyone acting in his place. This new plan must be from someone who stole his ideas about using the bloodstones to spread demon energy.”
“Or someone who orchestrated it,” Rachel put in. “I never did think Azurial was particularly… bright. I mean, for a fire demon. I got the sense that he’d rather swipe credit for someone else’s ideas than come up with his own.”
“Hmm,” I said. “I didn’t know him well, but he struck me as… not exactly stupid, but narrow-minded. He also implied it took a while for him to find out his dad was allergic to vampire venom, too. So maybe someone else clued him in on that.”
“Who?” Rachel frowned. “There aren’t any other big power players in that city, that I know of. I’d understand if there were, like, two arch-demons or even some demigods doing battle over the city, but it looks like he just decided his dad wasn’t a competent leader anymore and took over. Makes sense from an outsider’s perspective, but not to anyone who actually knew the guy.”
“You knew him?” I frowned.
“Not closely. Niko had more experience with the palace than I did.”
Hmm. Rachel was originally from that dimension, but she hadn’t yet told me how she’d ended up in this one. I knew virtually nothing of her history, but she was the only shapeshifter warlock I’d met from either dimension. Nikolas, though—I’d never been able to get a conclusive answer as to why he’d been in contact with the arch-demon to begin with. Again—his secret. But how long before one of the secrets we kept from each other backfired?
I tilted my head. “This confidentiality agreement of yours—does it still apply if it turns out that dimension’s behind the attacks in this one? Because I’d like to know what we’re up against if it’s from that side. I know the major demons, but my contact decided not to tell me about Azurial or Themedes until it was too late. Any others I should know about?”
“Not in that city,” Nikolas said. “Pandemonium is the only city this particular branch of warlocks is in contact with, because of the overlap with this dimension. Similar to your celestials.”
“Minus the netherworld part,” I added. Your celestials? What was that supposed to mean? “Wait,” I said slowly. “How do you get there without being summoned, if Themedes isn’t there anymore? How do you know Azurial’s still imprisoned?”
There was a pause, slightly too long to be comforting. With my eyes on the road, I couldn’t see Nikolas’s expression.
“So you have been in contact,” I finally said. “You might have told me. He nearly killed my friend, and he was responsible for murdering three of my former colleagues. I deserved to know, Nikolas. You can’t deny that.”
“It wasn’t my call to make,” he said. “I have contacts of my own in that dimension. I felt it wise to keep updated, since none of us can actually travel there and check.”
“So you left him unsupervised?”
“No, he’s under watch all right,” Nikolas said darkly. “Which means if there’s another demigod involved, it’s one I don’t know about. It’s entirely possible other demons from outside have flocked in to claim power. That’s why we voted to leave them to their own devices. Few of us have ties there—I certainly don’t. The person I asked to watch him isn’t reliable, but no demons in that dimension are.”
Thanks to Dienes, I knew that already. You couldn’t trust a demon. And warlocks? I still didn’t have a definite answer on that one.
“Hang on,” I said. “Did that vampire run away—now? In broad daylight?”
“Apparently,” said Nikolas. “I suspect it’s to do with this cure. We’re almost here, by the way. Turn left. It’s that warehouse.”
I followed his directions and stopped the car, killing the radio in the process. Rachel bounded out, her bright pink hair gleaming in the rare sunshine beaming down on the drab warehouses and litter blowing past. At least if we chased the vamps outside, they wouldn’t survi
ve five seconds.
Nikolas strode towards the few lingering passers-by. He only had to glance at them and they all turned in the opposite direction and walked away. I sometimes forgot about his subtle form of mind-control, probably because I’d only really seen him use it on ordinary humans.
“I should have warned you he’s in a mood,” Rachel said to me. “The vamp escaped on his watch.”
“Doesn’t mean he has to chide me for taking the initiative,” I muttered. “I’ve never got anywhere on a demon hunt without talking to someone on the other side. Otherwise, all you’re doing is giving them the benefit of surprise and knowledge. Even the celestials know that.”
I looked sideways at her, wondering if even Rachel was playing games with me. Javos had sent her to recruit me in the first place, and she definitely kept her own secrets. Her carefree demeanour might be as much of a mask as her human disguise.
I stopped outside the wide doors of the warehouse. To no surprise, they were barred. Still… was the vamp stupid enough to lead us right to the source? One could only hope so. The padlocks looked easy to break, but there was a faint scent around the place I couldn’t identify. Blood, yes, but…
“Wait!” I held up a warning hand. “It’s doctored with some kind of spell. I’ve seen it before. Only someone with knowledge of this particular type of anti-demon defence could know how to undo it.”
Like… the celestials.
No way. We’d thought they were evil before and turned out to be wrong, but the vampires were a whole other issue. I’d seen how the guild treated the two bite victims: with zero sympathy.
Unease spiked, and I pulled down the cuff on my wrist to direct my celestial light at the padlock. It fell, sheared in two, and I caught it in my free hand. The demon mark tingled like I’d put it in stinging nettles. Not great. It meant significant anti-demon defences—possibly invisible ones. Like the celestial guild’s.
“I think I’ve got it,” I whispered. “Let me lead the way. If something hits me, it probably won’t do much damage. But if this is the sort of thing that sets off alarms when there are demons present, then we might have an issue.”
“Then go in alone.” Nikolas’s gaze swept the warehouse, his eyes narrowing. “The defences alone are proof there can’t be demons inside the place.”
“Do the vamps not count?” asked Rachel.
“Apparently not.” I glanced at the others. “Watch out. They might be setting us up.”
Nikolas briefly rested a hand on my arm. I jumped, not expecting the contact. “Be careful.”
I pushed the door open and held my left hand high, walking into the dark.
My celestial light flared, showing bare concrete floors and metal walls, with a high ceiling disappearing in shadow. My footsteps echoed, and a chill breeze blew in, magnified by the empty space. The darkness made this room a perfect vampire’s nest, but who had set the defences up? And how, for that matter, had our prisoner got inside? He carried the essence of a demon inside him, cure or no cure, if he’d used one of those damaged bloodstones. But the celestials’ own defences hadn’t reacted against the bite victims. Maybe the virus was too subtle to be detected. Not good.
I walked carefully, using my light to show every inch of space, and it finally settled on a trapdoor in the corner. Of course they’d be underground.
Gritting my teeth, I wrenched open the trapdoor, holding my celestial light like a torch.
Several people screamed. “Put the light out!” they wailed.
A number of vampires hunched away from the light, all looking terrified. They ranged from teenagers to twenty-something adults, all with the pointed canines of vampires, their hands raised to shield themselves. No visible weapons.
This wasn’t exactly the death trap I’d been expecting to find, but I remained tense, half convinced one of them would jump at me. I kept one hand on the nearest stake at my waist, but these people didn’t look threatening at all.
“What in the world is going on here?” I demanded.
“Don’t kill us!” yelped an Asian girl with red-tinted eyes. Blood cravings. They all had a similar look—vamps who hadn’t fed recently, if at all. And I was a warm-blooded human, for all my celestial powers.
“Give me one good reason not to. You’re fugitives, right?”
“It’s not illegal for us to be here,” said the girl who’d spoken first. “This warehouse isn’t inhabited and doesn’t belong to anyone.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” I said. “I’m searching for a runaway vampire who was seen near here.”
I spotted his blond head, hidden at the back, and leaned over, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck. Alec yelled and kicked, and I tossed him onto the concrete.
“This guy was in the same house as a demonic summoning and murder,” I told the others. “You’d better start talking, fast. Who are you, and what are you doing here?”
“We ran away,” the girl said quickly. “We’re not part of the vamps’ inner circle, and it’s downright brutal for us out there now. The warlocks think we’re killers.”
“There’s not much evidence to the contrary,” I said. “Especially when you’re skulking around an old warehouse covered in anti-demon defences.”
“We’re all newly turned,” mumbled the blond vampire. He avoided eye contact with me. “We stick together. Please don’t hurt us. We haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Then what’s with the defence system?” I asked. “That’s not something just anyone could learn how to do.” I scanned the group again, and saw another familiar figure at the back, leaning casually against the wall of the underground cellar. Damian, the celestial runaway.
“You,” I said. “So this is where you’ve been hanging out? With vampires? You’re not one.”
But if he’d been affected like Alyson, he might be something else entirely.
“He helped us when nobody else would,” said the girl in a defensive tone. “The other celestials didn’t want to know.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” I said. “But someone close to that guy murdered someone in a similar way to the vampires who keep attacking people. Does anyone want to explain?”
The blond vamp attempted to sidle over to the trapdoor again, and I grabbed him, holding him back. “Not so fast.”
“We’re dying,” he whimpered. “The cure—it turns one in five of us, but it’s too late once we’ve taken it.” Bloody tears dripped down his face. “So far, none of us have turned yet. When one of us does, they get thrown out.”
“You’re saying the cure is what’s turning people into murderers?” I asked. “Just where are you getting it from?” I eyed the group of them. “What about the other celestials who got bitten? They took the cure, too?” My gaze caught the celestial runaway in the corner, who gave me a defiant look.
“Yeah, they did,” he said. “Congratulations, O Great Detective. You managed to catch a bunch of innocent people.”
“Innocent my arse,” I said. I couldn’t forget the note that’d fallen out of the book he’d been reading… the book Gav had checked out of the library before his death. What was the link? I didn’t want to ask him about the missing pages in front of the other vamps, especially when it seemed insignificant compared to the other crap going on. “I was sent here to find this guy. But the celestials are looking for you, too, Damian.”
Damian snorted. “Yeah right. They don’t give a shit about us. They’re just trying to save face.”
“You know the other bite victim murdered someone, don’t you?” I said. “The cure. If that was responsible, how did you get hold of it in the first place?”
“We gave it to him,” said a couple of the other vamps. “We didn’t know—it was all over the market.”
He nodded. “The cure’s not permanent, but it’s the only way to survive. My celestial powers will destroy me otherwise. So don’t you act all high and mighty because you never had to make that choice.”
Damn. Of course the guild woul
d have offered him nothing. But still, he was a prick. And while his tone was defensive, there was something calculating in his expression which raised my suspicions.
“Are you sure it’s the cure that’s doing it?” I asked. “Isn’t it a cure for general vampirism, not the venom?”
“Both,” said the blond vampire. “It’s powerful stuff. But once you take it, you can’t go back. We really didn’t know it’d have permanent side effects.”
“It’s some zombie apocalypse movie shit,” the girl put in. “We lose at least one person every day. The authorities don’t care—we sent a group to speak to Madame White, and she kicked us out.”
“She’s not a fan of bloodstones,” I said. “Demon or otherwise.”
“What she doesn’t get is how hard it is for us to find fresh blood,” said the girl. “She has a bunch of human blood slaves. We don’t. Attacking random humans… it’s a last resort. We didn’t know the bloodstones were infected.”
“Where’d you get them?” I asked. “The bloodstones? That’s what I was originally sent to track when I found this guy.” I indicated Alec.
The girl shrugged. “It’s a trade thing. People pass them around in night clubs. Go to any vamp bar and you’ll find bloodstones.”
“But the demon-infected ones,” I said. “If you don’t know where they came from, can you at least tell me where you ran into them?”
A dozen people spoke at once. “You’ll have to slow down.” Wishing I’d brought a pen and paper, I pulled my phone out, typing names and addresses to check later. “All right. And the cure? Who gave you that?”
Similarly, all of them had different answers. Enough, however, to know we were in trouble. Both the cure and the bloodstones had appeared on the market in the last few weeks. Maybe even at the same time, from the same source. But with different distributors, none of which I knew.
The real question was… was the source in this dimension, or Pandemonium?
“All right.” I looked up from my phone. “I’m not going to have you arrested for dealing with the situation in any way you could, but I have two angry warlocks waiting outside and a third back at the guild who wants to torch the whole place. Pretty sure the celestials would, too. And the vampire queen is indifferent. I can’t promise I can help, but I need some cooperation. You’re on the run from the law, and if more people die, then fingers will point right at you. Let me help. Tell me if you learn anything new. And I won’t tell anyone about you.”
Celestial Fire (Celestial Marked Book 2) Page 8
