Demon's Play

by David McBride

  “Polanski,” I yelled up to him. “What’s a delicate little flower like yourself doing out here in a rain storm? You’re so sweet I thought you’d melt.”

  “Keep talkin’,” Polanski yelled back. “Maybe the sun’ll come out and we can see firsthand what it does to vamp skin.”

  I felt myself tense, my hands clench into fists, though what I would do with him way up there was beyond me. Simon placed a hand on my shoulder as he passed. “Let it go, Frank.”

  “Douchebag,” I grumbled up at the sky. “Let’s go.”

  A minute later we were on the third floor in the hospital wing. Beds lined both sides of the room, twenty in all, their pristine white sheets and pillows glaring in the wash of overhead lights. The room smelled of antiseptic and cleaning solvents. Terri and Ben resided in two beds at the far end of the room, machines connected to them beeping and dripping and doing all of the things that hospital equipment does. The curtains that hung from tracks in the ceiling had been left open. A plump, white-uniformed nurse stood between them making notes on a clipboard. A white cat with brown-tipped ears was grooming itself at the foot of a bed on the opposite wall. The nurse turned, saw the cat, and hurried over to it, waving her clipboard. “Shoo!” she hissed at it. “This is a place for sick people, not dirty animals. Go on, get!” The cat rose and lazily trotted towards us, gazing at us curiously as it evaded the nurse and her flapping paperwork. Lily smiled at the cat and it broke into a run, nearly banging into my leg in its attempt to get out the door.

  “Oh, hello,” the nurse said quietly, straightening her uniform and the papers in her hand, a warm smile spreading across her face. “Little bugger must have snuck in through the construction area. Been hanging around all morning.” The age lines in her face and the streaks of gray in her hair told me she was edging her way into middle age, but her smile seemed to take years off of her. And most amazing of all, at least as far as I was concerned, was that it seemed completely genuine. “They told me that visitors would be coming by. Benjamin is awake, but Terri’s still resting. Poor girl must have been through something awful to put her in that condition. But don’t worry,” she put in hurriedly at my and Simon’s expressions. “The healer from St. Vincent’s took good care of her. Fixed her right up. She just needs time to recuperate is all, so I’m going to have to ask you to keep your voices down.” She knelt down in front of Lily and reached out a hand to pet her hair. “And who might you be angel?”

  Simon snickered. Lily, though, looked pale and moved back so that she was partially obscured by my leg, keeping out of reach of the nurse as if she were wielding a soldering iron. “This is Lily,” I supplied. “She’s kind of shy around people.”

  She stood back up, smoothed her uniform down, and waved at Lily with her fingers. “Careful,” she told me. “She’s going to be a heartbreaker when she gets older. Try not to be too long with Benjamin, he needs his rest too,” she told me sternly and walked away, her matching white shoes gliding silently along the tiles.

  Once she had left, I looked down at Lily. “What was that about? You normally can’t wait to talk to people and play up the whole kid thing.”

  Lily watched the nurse disappear through the doorway, a look of something like awe and fear mingled on her features. “She’s pure,” she whispered. “I didn’t think I’d ever see that here.”

  “No way is she a virgin,” Simon said flatly. “I’ll bet she knew about the heartbreaker thing from firsthand experience.”

  Lily scowled up at him. “Your disgusting reproductive functions have nothing to do with purity, dolt. It’s her unity of heart and spirit, an unshakeable belief that helping others is the right thing to do that makes her untouchable. She wants to help people.” She gave a little shudder. “It’s grotesque. I’m surprised you couldn’t sense it, vampire. Although I’d imagine if you tried to take blood from her you would notice it then.”

  Ben was sitting up in his bed, snacking off of a tray that sat beside him. His old wooden staff leaned against the wall next to the bed. It seemed to be peppered with more scars and cracks than the last time I had seen it. He smiled as we approached. “Isn’t Polly great?” he whispered, pointing at the door the nurse had disappeared through. “She calls me ‘Benjamin.’ My mother was the last person to call me that.”

  As he continued to praise the doctors and nurses, and went on about Polly in particular, I turned from Ben’s convivial demeanor to Terri. Her head and shoulders were propped up on overly fluffy pillows, her hands folded demurely over her stomach, giving the impression that she had simply fallen asleep reading. Her red-streaked black hair was shockingly opposite of her wan features and the white sheets that rose and fell with her breathing. A heart monitor and IV drip had been attached to her left arm. The monitor showed a steady heart rhythm that only partially reassured me.

  “She’s fine, Frank,” Ben said, as if answering my thoughts. “Vigo’s a great healer, best at St. Vincent’s. He figures that when that acolyte of Christian’s broke her shield he poisoned her with his power somehow. I’ve never heard of anything like that happening though.”

  “I have,” I said, rubbing my chest and remembering how Christian had cast his dark energy into my skin, through my body. Revulsion swept through me at the memory. The protective barrier was, in essence, an extension of Terri’s aura, her will. When her barrier collapsed, the dark energy had simply followed the path of least resistance right into her body. I rubbed a hand over my eyes to rid myself of the video footage of Terri screaming and collapsing into Ben’s arms. “We shouldn’t have that problem for much longer, though.”

  “What do you mean?” Ben asked.

  “Frank trapped the Demon,” Simon injected.

  “We trapped it,” I corrected him. “Without Simon and Jon’s help—and Lily’s,” I added somewhat sourly, “I couldn’t have done it. Even with all of us it was a close thing.”

  Ben blinked up at us, seemingly unable to understand what was being said to him. And then slowly a smile full of pride and relief rose from him, his gray eyes shining. “That’s wonderful!” he said much too loudly. Remembering where he was, he covered his mouth and said in a much quieter voice, “That’s truly fantastic! With Christian’s additional power source negated we’ll only have to deal with a mortal necromancer. Tell me, Frank, how did you do it? The Committee has never had a solid plan for dealing with those creatures, so they took a lot of the literature and items dealing with them out of circulation. They think an information blackout is the best way to handle it.” In a grumble, he added, “I’d say that Christian has proved otherwise. But don’t let me prattle on about politics. Spill it.”

  “I was lucky, really; Jon had a book that dealt with Demons—I’m guessing it was one of the banned books because I had never seen it before.” Ben gave me a stern look. “Ah, forget I said that.” He snorted and shook his head. “Anyway, there were some capture circle diagrams in there, so I used the most powerful one listed, but I knew that wouldn’t be enough to hold him forever. The book made mention of something else that could be used to hold a possessing entity: a spirit catcher. It even had the spell to trigger it in there. Really it was just a matter of tricking the Demon into the circle and then trapping him in the box.” Ben’s unwavering attention had taken on a suspicious edge toward the end of my story, and it was making me uncomfortable. I rubbed the back of my neck nervously as he stared at me.

  Ben cleared his throat and asked, “Did you get the spirit catcher from Jon as well?”

  “Um, no,” I said, unsure of why it mattered. “It was at the safe-house.”

  “The one near Mt. Diablo Park?”

  “Yeah. It was a good thing that was there or we would have been up a creek. Have you ever been there, Ben?”

  I didn’t think his brows could knit together any further without his head imploding. “I’m the one that placed the wards and stocked the weapons. Yeah, I think I’ve been there once or twice.”

  I caught Simon’s eye. He jus
t shrugged, not knowing why Ben was suddenly so upset. “Hey,” I said feebly. “Don’t worry Ben; we’ll figure out a way to banish the Demon and then we can put the box back, no problem.”

  “What? That’s not why I…never mind.” He reached over, grabbed a forkful of what I thought was meatloaf from his plate and popped it in his mouth. After a moment he decided to change the subject. “Have we heard anything out of Christian lately?”

  “He came to my house last night,” I said. “He was able to slip past the wards with some enchantment his benefactor placed on him. Hopefully that faded when his master was captured, but we can’t bet on it.”

  Ben looked thoughtful. “So he drew Terri and me out by sending his familiars with his acolytes. But what did he want from you?”

  “He wants the Book. He knew that I didn’t know exactly where it was but he thought I could get it for him.”

  Frowning, Ben asked, “If he knew that then he must understand that I’m the only one who knows where it is. Why didn’t he attack me and try to get me to talk? Why go to you at all?”

  I rubbed absently at the red welts on my chest. They had begun itching once I had been reminded they were there. “Despite his claims, I think he was still reluctant to fight you head on, and he said he thought you would die rather than tell him where it was.” I didn’t add that Christian also thought Ben would let everyone else in the city die rather than give him what he wanted. “I was able to buy us some time; I have till sundown to give him the Book.” I felt heat creep up my neck at admission that I had struck a deal, bluff or not.

  “You bargained with him?” Ben asked, but it wasn’t in the accusatory manner I had expected. It was more like an academic matter to him. I nodded, feeling somewhat miserable despite his casual tone. “Good.” He laughed at the way my jaw dropped open. “Frank, you did what you thought you had to do in order to give us a chance to fight back. I would have done the same thing. Sometimes we have to be a little deceptive, sometimes more than a little, but in the end if you can look at yourself in the mirror and say it was for the right reason, well then that’s good enough for me.” He nodded. His smile faded as he added, “But if his spies are any indication I don’t think he believed you would follow through.”

  “What spies?” Simon and I asked at once.

  Ben nodded at the windows that lined the opposite wall. “There have been an inordinate amount of crows circling the building today. I think at least a couple of them are his familiars.”

  “Couldn’t you sense it if they were?” Simon asked, his gaze tracking a black blur that sped past one of the windows.

  “I could, but then he in turn would sense my questing. I’d rather Christian thought of me as old and frail, unable to do more than stare out at the trees from my hospital bed.”

  “Do you think he’ll know that his master is gone?” I asked.

  Ben grabbed some more food from his plate. “Oh yes. It will be to him like suddenly losing a leg.” He looked sternly at me and Simon. “But that doesn’t mean it will be easy to beat him,” he assured us. “I have no idea how much power he’s been squirreling away in those familiars of his. If anything, he may break his agreement with you in order to bluff his way through a final confrontation.” He sat up, the sheets falling away from him to reveal a light blue hospital gown that was tied in the back. “We should get moving. Desperation may drive Christian to do worse things than he already has.”

  “I’m going to see if they have any spare blood packs around,” Simon said, and walked away. The only indication that he had suffered all of the cuts and scrapes that he did were the slightly red patches of skin that mottled his tan-by-vampire-standards features. Oh, and the ripped and blood-spattered shirt he was wearing. He had used up a lot of power to heal those wounds and was probably running on fumes, even though he didn’t show it. He was still able to pull off the carelessly handsome look he had cultivated with ease. “Frank,” he called back to me. “There’s some spare ammo and clips in the trunk of my car. I had time to load a few while I was, um, in there earlier. Help yourself.”

  Ben stood and stretched, moving a little more gingerly than usual. “Let me get dressed and we can get out of here.” He stopped and looked down at Lily. “And what should we do about you in the meantime?”

  “Why whatever do you mean, wizard?” Lily asked innocently.

  “Well,” Ben began, scratching his chin, “with your hunter out of the way you don’t need our protection, but I still think it would be prudent to have someone keep an eye on you until proper negotiations can begin. However, until Christian is no longer a threat we can’t spare anyone to do that, and we’re definitely not taking you with us. And Terri’s in no condition to watch you.”

  We all stopped and looked when Terri made a moaning noise and shifted onto her side. Moving silently, I came to the side of her bed and looked down on her sleeping form. I knelt down and checked to make sure that the lines hooked up to her left arm weren’t obstructed by her new position, and checked the monitors, not at all knowing what to look for. With an unsteady hand I swept back strands of hair that were damp and oily with sweat and clung to the side of her face. I knew that the healer had said that she would be fine, and I remembered Ben scolding me for treating her like a porcelain doll, but seeing her like that brought back the reasons why I had done it in the first place. She just looked so…frail.

  A glimpse of a woman who wasn’t Terri, on a bed, her blond hair fanned out across the pillows behind her. A gun in my hand. A flash and the crash of thunder.

  I came back to myself with a start and stood up slowly. “Get better soon, Terri,” I murmured, and touched the back of her hand that was clinging fervently to the bed sheets. Ben was staring at me, blinking quickly, an unreadable expression on his face. “What?”

  “Nothing,” he croaked. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Nothing. What are we going to do with Lily?”

  “I’ll ask Lou if she can stay here for a while.” I glanced at Lily who shrugged. “He might not be too excited about it because of what happened last time, but I think he’ll agree to it.” Something in Ben’s expression nagged at me, like something half-remembered. My hand sunk into my coat pocket and grabbed the priestess’s necklace. It seemed to pulse with an inner energy, but unlike those bracelets that the acolytes wore to simulate life this felt pure, like the elements of the earth. Walking over to Ben, I drew it out and held it out to him. “I almost forgot. You left this at my house. I thought you might want it back.”

  With a trembling hand, he took it from me. He held it in front of him and watched the dangling sigil spin back and forth. His voice was thick with emotion when he said, “Yes, thank you.” Turning his back on me, he strode over to his pile of clothes. “Tell Simon that I’ll meet the two of you out front in thirty minutes. I have a couple of things to take care of before we leave.”

  “Sure thing,” I replied. Lily started past me and, before I could say a word, she entwined her tiny hand in mine. A gut-deep instinctual revulsion crashed over me before I quickly squashed it, not allowing her to feel the shudder that desperately wanted to sweep through me from head to toe. Allowing her to guide me out of the room, I chanced a glance back at Ben over my shoulder. He was alternately fussing with his clothes and wiping at his eyes.

  28

  “This doesn’t exactly make me want to rush to get your office fixed up, Frank.”

  Lou had caught up to me and Lily as we made our way back to the ground floor. I had asked him if it was possible to let Lily stay here while Ben, Simon and I took care of our necromancer problem. Considering what happened last time Lily was here I could understand why he was reluctant to allow her to stay without supervision. We stood in the hall outside the call center which was bustling with activity. More people were on the phones than I had ever seen. A cold sensation of dread wormed through the pit of my stomach as I listened to the weary voices of overworked operators. It was midday, just after noon, if things were this bad now
what would happen at night?

  Lou leaned against the wall, hands thrust in his pants pockets, his oversize belly threatening to pop the buttons off his shirt. His tussled hair and the bags under his eyes told me that he hadn’t been home to sleep in a while. “We’re stretched to the breaking point as it is, even with the people they sent from L.A. We’ve got fights breaking out in the merge between humans and paras, and the Guard is staying put in the First City so we’ve got to deal with it. I’ve even heard about something big happening out at Jon’s Magic Shop.” He eyed me suspiciously. “A couple callers said they saw you there. So what was it?”

  “It was the Demon assassin that attacked this place the other day.” I held up a hand to stop him from interrupting me. “Don’t worry it’s been taken care of. At least I’m fairly certain it has. This sort of stuff is all sort of theoretical.”

  “Theoretical?” he sputtered.

  “It’s pretty rare for a Demon to come here of its own accord, and nobody that I know of has ever tried to capture one once it was here. Usually it leaves on its own or is banished through an exorcism. This one had no intention of leaving until its mission was complete, and the dark magic that it was putting out might explain the sudden surge in violent crime.” I looked down at Lily for confirmation.

  She mimicked Lou’s casual stance. “Most likely. Having a willing host meant that there were no restrictions on his powers, unlike with me and the deal I struck to get here. Humans have always been sensitive to our power. It would make sense that his presence here over a number of days would affect those that were more susceptible.”

  Looking back to Lou, I said, “So as his power grew over that time it spread out…”

  “Like a cancer,” Lou put in.

  “Just like,” I agreed. “It spread and got stronger, eventually spilling over the merge and further east. Those with a predisposition towards the dark, or people that are mentally unstable would have been more susceptible than most. But now that it is contained the effect should fade. I think.”