"Don't mind her, she's as stubborn as the day is long," Sarah said, tucking away her notepad. "There's just one thing I'm curious about."
"Just one?" I asked.
Sarah gave me a look that said she didn't appreciate the sarcasm in my voice, turning a sunny smile on Theo when he politely asked what was her question. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but these Hashmallim guys are the same ones that you said were dangerous when we first met, right?"
Theo nodded.
"You said you were saving our lives by getting us out of their way."
"Hashmallim are more or less the police force for the Court of Divine Blood, but their job encompasses more than just policing citizens of the Court. They are also used by the sovereign to exact retribution on mortals for sins committed against members of the Court."
"We didn't do anything to anyone, let alone a Court member," I pointed out. "We were just standing around on the hilltop when Hope appeared, and she left under her own power."
"I didn't know that at the time," Theo said with a slight twist of his lips. "As soon as you said you were mortal, and yet were clearly a virtue, I reckoned something was not right. When I felt the Hashmallim on their way, I knew it wasn't anything good, so I tried to get you away from them."
"That's so romantic," Sarah said, sighing happily.
"It is?"
"Yes, it is. Don't you see? These Hashmallim people are the police in the Court of Divine Blood, and by going against them, he was risking his own reputation, if not life."
I was shaking my head even before she finished. "Theo isn't a member of the Court."
"Not yet. But when he does become one, won't that sort of thing be frowned on?"
We both looked at Theo.
"Assuming the Hashmallim know I helped you escape earlier, and that's a pretty fair assumption given their scope of knowledge, yes, it will be one of the issues we will have to overcome in order to get the exculpation granted," he said calmly. I decided if it wasn't something he was worried over, I didn't need to worry about it yet either.
"All right, then. How do we find the Hashmallim?" Sarah asked him.
"They can be summoned."
"What makes you think that even if you get one to be summoned, he will talk to you?" I asked.
Theo frowned. I wanted badly to forget all the woes of the world and kiss the frown right off his face. "There is no reason for them not to. So long as the questions are phrased properly, we should get the answers we seek."
"Great! Let's get to summoning," Sarah said, grabbing her purse as she rose. "I'll take care of our lunch bill. You guys get your coats."
"I believe she's the only person I've met who is actually looking forward to meeting with the Hashmallim," Theo said thoughtfully, watching Sarah as she toddled over to the pub counter and handed over her credit card.
"She's not normal. She was dropped on her head several times as a baby. It left her mentally deranged. We all just pretend she's sane."
"I heard that!" she shouted, glaring at me from the counter.
"She also has very good hearing," I said, sighing as I gathered up my things.
"It'll be all right, sweet. I'll be with you this time," Theo reminded me.
It took some doing, but Theo's powers of persuasion proved to be too much for the Guardian named Noelle who had previously summoned the ill-fated demon.
"Now what happens?" I asked several hours later, as we sat huddled on a fallen tree trunk that edged one side of an empty gravel parking lot for an abandoned fish factory at the far side of town.
Noelle rubbed out the markings she'd drawn in the gravel and dirt with the toe of her shoe. "Now you wait. The Hashmallim has been summoned—he will show up whenever he wants. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"No, thank you for your time," Theo said, rising to shake her hand. "Er…you didn't tell me what payment we owe you for your help."
"Oh, don't worry about that," Noelle said, giving us all a bright smile. It was dark in that corner of the parking lot, long flickering shadows stretching across it from the feeble light attached near a corner of the building, but Noelle's down-to-earth appearance and cheerful personality did much to eliminate the serious case of the creeps I'd had ever since I resigned myself to the thought of having to speak with one of the ghostly Hashmallim. "I get a stipend from the Guardian Guild to be used on such cases as I deem needy. You lot look like you could use a bit of good news, so this one will be complimentary."
We all thanked her. Theo escorted her across the parking lot to where her little blue Mini sat.
"You got yourself a winner this time," Sarah said as she watched them walk away. "What does it feel like being a Dark One's Beloved?"
Theo's mind touched mine, warm and reassuring, filled with tender emotions that made my stomach flutter with happiness. "It's…indescribable."
She peered closer at me. "You love him, don't you?"
"Yes." I smiled, unable to keep the happiness from spilling out of me. "More than any other man. We had a less-than-sterling start, but I know now that he's the man I was meant to be with."
"That's so romantic," she said with a sigh. "Does it hurt when he bites you?"
"Just for a second, then it's really…well, to be blunt, it's pretty darn erotic."
"Oh, man." She pursed her lips and looked at Theo as he stood chatting with Noelle. "You have a gorgeous, drop-dead-sexy man who clearly worships the ground you walk on, you're never going to age, never face sagging boobs and menopause and grey hair, and you get your jollies every time he needs to eat. Do you have any idea how lucky you are?"
"As a matter of fact, I—holy cow!"
Some sort of a shimmering portal opened up directly in front of me, so close I felt static from the little snakes of electricity that sparked off it. I fell backward off the log as an empty black shape formed almost directly on top of me, the sudden skin-crawling wrongness of the Hashmallim bursting to life in my brain.
Theo! I screamed as I crawled backward, trying to avoid contact with the Hashmallim. Panic filled me, threatening to send me teetering over the edge of control. "Theo!"
"I'm here," he said, racing over to me, stepping between the still-approaching Hashmallim and myself. Somehow, his body seemed to block some of the horrible sensations the Hashmallim's presence was causing, leaving me able to dampen the rest enough so I could get to my feet.
"Wow," Sarah said, her expression a mixture of curiosity and terror. She grabbed my arm and clung on with a grip that would no doubt leave bruises. "OK, I see what you mean about them being unpleasant to be around. They look…wrong somehow. Just wrong. Like they're empty black shells of what people are. I think I'm going to forgo my interview."
I swallowed down a thick lump that made my throat ache, moving closer to Theo. I'm sure the picture we presented—the three of us clumped up together in a tight bunch—was amusing, but that was the furthest thing from my mind at the moment.
"Hashmallim, you honor us with your presence," Theo said in a strained voice, his usual elegant bow coming out a bit less than perfect.
"Why am I summoned, champion?" The Hashmallim's voice matched its image—flat and devoid of all emotion, yet awful at the same time.
"Oh my god, it has nothing, absolutely nothing in it," Sarah whispered in my ear as she clung to my back. "Not a face, not a shadow, not even a glimmer of depth."
I held onto Theo, silently drawing comfort from his broad, strong back.
"This is so amazing. I've never seen anything like it. It would be a bad idea to take a picture, wouldn't it?"
"Very." I struggled with the impossibility that was the Hashmallim, aware that as it had before, its very presence seemed to fill the surroundings with despair.
"We seek answers that only you can give us," Theo said, his voice steady. My awe and appreciation of him went up another few notches. "We would like information about the virtue Hope."
The Hashmallim's shape seemed to shimmer for a moment, then moved to
the side to look at me, if such a thing was possible. Sarah gasped, and hid behind me. I knew just how she felt—at that moment, I would have just about given anything to close my eyes and hide from the Hashmallim. "What do you seek, Portia Harding?"
I swallowed down my fear, pulling strength from the comfort Theo silently offered me. "We seek the name of the murderer of Hope. I don't suppose your investigations have led you to a conclusion about that?"
The Hashmallim seemed to swell, blotting out the night sky around us.
"I think I'm going to be sick," Sarah muttered, and ran for the grassy verge beyond the parking lot. I fought down the bile that rose in my own throat, struggling to keep control of my emotions.
"That of which you speak does not exist," the Hashmallim said, its form twisting and turning upon itself in an endless dance of horror.
"Are there any suspects?" I asked, trying desperately to remember the list of questions we'd agreed to ask.
"Portia Harding."
"Other than me," I said, clinging to Theo, drinking in the warmth of his body.
"That which you seek does not exist."
That's the second time he's said that. What does it mean? I asked Theo.
It means something is up, he answered slowly, his mind busily sorting through ideas. I gave him full marks for being able to think while confronting the abomination before us.
I mentally girded my loins, and ventured another question. "Exactly when was she killed?"
"That which you seek does not exist."
If I wasn't at the point where I could quite possibly die of fear, I'd be annoyed at that.
Hmm. Interesting. Theo's words were thoughtful. "Do you mean that Hope was not murdered, that she died from other causes?"
The Hashmallim continued to face me, violating every rule of physics, its flat nothingness sucking the gaze in and holding it. "That which you seek does not exist."
An idea bloomed in my head. I could tell by the dawning enlightenment in Theo's face that it occurred to him, as well.
I cleared my throat. "Are you saying, then, that Hope has not died?"
"Confirmation," the Hashmallim said.
She's not dead, I said in stunned disbelief. Why does everyone think she's dead if she's not?
I don't know, but I intend to find out.
"Where is the virtue known as Hope?" Theo asked the Hashmallim.
"The answer you seek does not exist. The summoning is at an end." In front of Theo, the portal sparked to life again. The Hashmallim drifted toward it, clearly intending on returning to wherever it had originated.
"Wait a second," I said, moving around in front of Theo. The resulting wave of revolting nausea left me staggering against him. "You can't just leave like that. You're the Court police! There has to be something you can tell us about Hope."
The Hashmallim flickered for a moment at the edge of the portal. "In order to succeed, you must first destroy."
Both the Hashmallim and the portal disappeared without any further ado.
"What in the name of Stephen Hawking is that supposed to mean?" I asked Theo.
"I have no idea. This Hashmallim wasn't particularly inclined to give answers, it appears."
Slowly, the horror within me began to fade. Anger quickly replaced it.
"Sweet mother of sanity," I swore, looking at the spot the Hashmallim had occupied. "So help me, once I have your soul back, and this thing with Hope is cleared up, if I ever want to get involved in anything to do with the Court, you have my full permission to beat me senseless."
Chapter 17
"This is downright creepy."
"Meh." I made a half-hearted shrugging motion to accompany the word, trudging along behind the group of people who chattered in excited whispers, occasional startled gasps punctuating their conversation.
Sarah stopped to give me a gimlet eye. "Meh? Meh! This is not in the least bit meh!"
"You're talking to someone who has been to hell itself, and had a chat with the man in charge, not to mention facing down a gauntlet of Hashmallim, which in my humble opinion is a thousand times worse than the aforementioned demon lord. Something so simple as a haunted house holds no fear to the likes of me."
"I almost liked you better when you were a pigheaded skeptic," she answered, making a face.
"Oh, I'm still a skeptic…about most things I am. There are some I won't dispute fall well out of the bounds of what can be explained by existing science," I answered, obediently stopping when the ghost-hunting group leader waved everyone to a halt. "I haven't seen any proof yet that this house is anything other than extremely old and"—I sniffed the air—"evidently inhabited by a very large family of rodents. I wish Theo was here."
"That's the third time in an hour you've said that—ooh, what was that?"
"Sorry, that was me," one of the men in the group called out, sheepishly answering a cell phone that had made an odd buzzing noise.
"Fine, I'll take it back. I don't wish Theo was here—I wish I was with him, instead."
"We'll wait here for the two missing members," the group leader announced in a loud whisper. "They're just outside the building. I'll go meet them at the door and escort them here. While we're waiting, let's take a few baseline readings of this upper floor. Those of you on the communication team may want to get into your meditative states and see if any entities contact you."
"People in a new relationship are always so cloying," Sarah said as she sank down gracefully into a lotus position, adopting a peaceful look on her face despite the cold, damp, and rodent-infested ambiance of the three-hundred-year-old mill we were presently occupying. "You don't see Anthony and me clinging to each other."
I plopped down next to her with considerably less elegance. "You've been married sixteen years. I assume by the time Theo and I have been together that long, I won't mind if he spends the evening off doing mysterious things that he refuses to tell me about except to say that he hopes it will give us some direction regarding the whole Hope situation."
"Hush. I'm meditating."
I hugged my knees as I sat next to a softly humming Sarah, shivering slightly in the cold midnight air. We were on the top floor of one of the oldest standing mills in England, a notoriously haunted mill which had a checkered past that supposedly included several murders, three suicides, and during the 1970s, a rash of Satanic rituals. The interior of the mill wasn't anything special to look at—for the last hundred years it had alternately been used as office space, apartments, and, finally, storage. Although I didn't have the paranormal radar that Theo assured me would come with time, I didn't sense anything in the building that felt remotely different.
"Hey, look," I said softly, nudging Sarah with my elbow. The group leader, puffing slightly at all the stairs, emerged from the staircase with the two latecomers in tow. "It's Milo from the séance."
"Mmmhmm. They belong to the group, I believe."
"I'm going to say hi." I got up and went over to the newcomers with a smile. Milo introduced his wife, who gave me a curt nod before exclaiming that she wanted to spend a few minutes communing with the spirits of the mill.
"The wife is a believer," Milo said to me in a quiet voice. We moved to the other end the room, perching ourselves on a rickety metal table that lurked in a corner. "I've tried to reason with her, but…" He shrugged.
"I know how that can be. I'm not saying I can't accept that there are some things that seem to escape logical explanation…" That was pretty much a given now that my life had become something outside of logic. "…but most people don't even try to look for a reason that things happen. If they see a light in the sky, it must be an alien."
"Exactly," Milo agreed, watching the group as they sat in a circle for a group meditation. "Logic, that's the key to it. You seem like a very logical person."
I smiled. "It goes with the territory. I'm a physicist, you see. Logic is more or less my forte."
"Really?" He turned an interested face on me. "You don't happen to like p
uzzles, do you? The brain teasers? I am mad for them, but seldom have anyone to share them with, since the wife doesn't like that sort of thing."
"Logic puzzles, you mean? Car A leaving Los Angeles at thirty miles an hour, and a train leaving Chicago at sixty, that sort of thing?"
"Well…somewhat. I used to belong to a logic puzzle group in university, but have lost touch with most of the members."
"Ah. I'm not much of a puzzler, but those things seem to me to be set up to be easily solved if you just take the proper steps."
"That they are." He looked thoughtful for a moment, then a smile spread across his face as he nodded toward the group in front of us. "Would you like to try one out?"
"A puzzle?"
"Yes. One to do with this group?"
I looked at the six people in front of us. "You're kidding. Logical ghost hunters?"
"Something like that," he said, laughing. "Look, there are five members there, plus your friend Sarah. That's the makings of a logic puzzle."
"I'll take your word for that." I sat back on the table, pleased there was something else to do other than watch ghost hunters communing with spirits. "I don't know if I can match someone who used to make puzzles, but I'll give it a shot."
"That's the ticket! Let's see…you know their names, don't you?"
"Actually, I don't. I missed the introductions because I was in the restroom when everyone met at the local restaurant."
"Perfect. I've known these folks for the last eight years, and I can tell you that each of them—this is excepting your friend, of course—live in different towns. Now, let me see, we need a third element, something you can't tell by looking at them…hmm. Ah, got it. Each one of these teams has members with a different supposed psychic specialty."
I raised my eyebrows, looking them over again. With my newfound knowledge of things paranormal, I didn't see any signs in them that they were also "in the know," so to speak. "OK. So I'm supposed to guess who has what psychic ability?"
"Supposed psychic ability," he said with a wink. "Name, psychic ability, and town, how's that sound?"
The Last of the Red-Hot Vampires Page 18
