Conviction

by Jennifer Blackstream

  Gordon glanced nervously around. He believed me.

  Good.

  “Are you looking for help?” I tilted my head. “Here? Among the people you abuse until they give you money?” I gestured at the bucket of quarters. “Fresh haul? And who did that come from? Do you think they’ll help you?”

  “You can’t do anything to me here,” he hissed. “What are you going to do, knock me out? Drag me out kicking and screaming? And what will you do when you break this little circle?”

  I sighed. “Just remember. There was an easier way.”

  I held the spell ready as I took a deep breath and reached my foot closer to the salt circle.

  “Somnum.”

  In one quick movement, I broke the circle, simultaneously shoving the spell into the corrupted gambler. Gordon reached for me again, but he tried to reach under my arm as I flung the spell, and his new trajectory made him strike the bucket of quarters. Coins spilled onto the floor, providing a metallic blanket for Gordon to collapse on.

  Scath stood by, ready to tackle Gordon if he moved or otherwise managed to shake off the sleep spell. It was hard to predict what gifts the corruption may have given him, and I wasn’t taking any chances. I dropped beside him, pulling out my cell phone and pretending to call an ambulance.

  Liam approached then as well, playing the part of another concerned citizen, and together we told anyone who came to close to stand back and give him some air.

  No one questioned the staff of New Moon as they entered dressed as EMS workers. They had some practice at this deception, having used it many times to retrieve werewolves who lost control, or new wolves who hadn’t had control to begin with. The presence of EMS workers made stories like “bad drugs” or “psychotic break” go down smoother with the human populace.

  In less than five minutes, Gordon was strapped to a stretcher and the werewolves carried him out to the waiting ambulance with Liam and me at their heels to “explain what had happened.”

  Liam slammed the back doors to the EMS vehicle closed. I sat beside the stretcher and brought Gordon around with a sound slap to his face.

  “What the—” His eyes flew wide and he sat up, feeling his body as if to check for injuries. “Where am I?”

  “You are at a crossroads,” I said grimly. “Now’s the part where you tell me what I want to know. Speak quickly. I need to decide if I’m taking you with me when I leave.”

  Gordon stared at me, weighing his options. Finally, he let himself sag onto the stretcher and covered his face with his hands. “What do you want from me?”

  “Who corrupted you?”

  “I didn’t get a name. She used to come into the casino. Didn’t work there, though.” He dropped his hands. “I thought she was a prostitute. Heard someone call her Trixie once, but I don’t know if that was her name, or just a pet name. I had better things to do with my money than pay for sex, but she was easy on the eyes, so I didn’t shoo her away.”

  He stared at the ceiling. “She was a tall woman. Thin, but she knew how to work with what she had. Used to curl her hair up into these little balls on either side of her head, stab them with chopsticks the way girls do. Not my thing, really, made her look too young.”

  I tamped down on a surge of excitement. Lorelei wore her hair like that. But a hairstyle wasn’t going to be enough proof for the Vanguard. “She never gave you a name. You said you weren’t interested in sex, so why did she keep hanging around you?”

  “Must have been my personality.” He snorted. “She liked to sit with me while I watched a race. Said she saw my passion for it.” He rubbed his chin. “Now that I think about it, she was a help then. She really knew how to read people. Like she could see if a jockey was having a bad day. I won more on the days she stood with me, watching the jockeys before the race.”

  “She gave you tips?” Liam asked.

  “Sort of. She told me who her favorites were. I noticed her favorites tended to do all right so I started letting her pick my winners. Then one day she stopped coming. I should have known something was up. She kissed me before she left, and it tasted like a goodbye.” Gordon’s face darkened. “After that, I started losing, bad.”

  “What happened the day you killed Gloria?” I asked.

  Gordon squirmed. If I’d been in a more charitable mood, I might have thought he felt bad for what he’d done. “I’d lost more than I usually did. I was on edge, losing my temper, shouting at people. I might have thrown a few things… Gloria noticed. She asked me about it, and I told her about Trixie. How she’d been helping me, then she just disappeared.”

  He shook his head. “I hadn’t realized how angry I was until then, but that day it all hit me. I started shouting about Trixie, how she’d ruined me, made me depend on her. I used to be good at picking winners. Really good!” He ran a hand through his hair. “Anyway, Gloria pulled me aside and calmed me down. She set me up with a free drink, gave me a ticket on the house.”

  “I understand she did that a lot,” I said.

  He shrugged. “I guess. Gloria was…” He swallowed hard. “She was good to me, I guess. Anyway, I should have known something was wrong. Later she came to me, told me she felt bad that I’d been victimized. Said Trixie wasn’t who she seemed, wasn’t a good person. She said I wasn’t the only one Trixie had targeted. Gloria said she’d give me a tip, but only this once. Told me to make it count, and if she gave it to me, I had to swear never to ask for a tip from her again. And I was never to mention it to anyone at the track.”

  “The tip was bad,” Liam guessed.

  Gordon threw back his head and roared, with an inhuman echo to the sound that set Scath’s fur standing up, and sent Peasblossom’s wings whirring against my neck in a response I knew to be more fight than flight.

  “I lost everything. I bet my car on that race, I bet my house. I lost it all on a tip that should have been golden.”

  “So you killed her for it.” Peasblossom’s tone was scathing.

  Gordon looked around for her, but she hadn’t dropped her invisibility. “I didn’t mean to! I thought about it, I’ll admit that, but I wasn’t going to. But I was on my knees, still staring at the track, when one of the other employees came up to me, a girl from the stable. She picked me up and dusted me off. She said I should cheer up, it could be worse. Said someone had seen her boss, Gloria, giving some chump a bad tip. Said if Gloria had broken her own rules she must be really tired of seeing that loser around the track, must have wanted to be rid of him once and for all.”

  I pulled out a picture of Siobhan in human form. My hand shook slightly as I showed it to him. “Is this her?”

  “She looked more human when I saw her.” He squinted, studied the picture a few more seconds. Finally, he nodded. “But yeah, that’s her. She’s the one who let slip that Gloria set me up.”

  I looked at Liam, my pulse galloping. “I need to talk to Lorelei. Now.”

  Chapter 25

  This time when I called Andy’s cell phone, he answered on the first ring. It was a good thing too. That spark of hope I felt when he was so responsive is the only thing that kept me from despairing when he said “Hello” in the tone most people shouted “What do you want?”

  “Are you okay?” I asked, keeping my voice composed.

  “No,” Andy said shortly. His next breath sounded like a meditation exercise. “We’re at Goodfellows. I’m here with Evelyn and Oksana, and Evelyn’s helping me stay calm, but Siobhan keeps sending kelpies in and it’s just…”

  He trailed off, but I understood. I clutched the phone tighter. “She’s taunting you again, trying to keep you on edge.” Or send you into another episode. “Don’t fall for it.”

  I looked out at New Moon’s parking lot, watching as Blake and Sonar took over custody of Gordon Larkin. They were going to hold him at New Moon while I made arrangements to confirm my suspicions.

  I heard a mug sliding across a tabletop, as if Andy were trying to find something to do with his free hand. “Have you fo
und out anything that might help our case?”

  “Maybe,” I said lightly. “But I need to talk to Evelyn.”

  “Sure,” Andy said, suspicion clear in his voice.

  There was a muffled sound as Andy passed the phone to the paladin, then Evelyn’s voice. “Shade, it’s good to hear from you. How are things progressing?”

  Her words sounded sincere, but there was no mistaking the strain in her voice. I wondered just how restless Andy was getting.

  “Could you get somewhere private where we can talk?” I asked. “Away from Andy, I mean?”

  Evelyn put a hand over the phone. A minute later, she was back. “I’m on the other side of the room. What is it?”

  “I need to talk to Lorelei.”

  Evelyn inhaled sharply. “Shade, I want to help, but that’s… That’s not a good idea. Laurie is trying to find her way back to God, and seeing you… I don’t think she’s ready to handle a reminder of what she did. Not yet.”

  “I need to talk to Lorelei, not Laurie. Please. It could be the difference between life and death.”

  “May I ask how?”

  “It’s a long story. Please, Evelyn. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.”

  The deva descendant hesitated. “Even if I agreed, I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to leave Agent Bradford right now. He’s…struggling. I’m afraid Siobhan has been relentless.”

  “I’ll stay with him,” Liam said from the driver’s seat.

  “Is that Detective Sergeant Osbourne?” Evelyn asked.

  “Yes. He said he’ll sit with Andy while you take me to see Lorelei.”

  She considered that. “Being corrupted isn’t the same thing as being a werewolf. What makes your alpha think he can…help him?”

  “Both situations require similar techniques to control your mood and your physical reactions,” Liam pointed out. “And if worst comes to worst, I can stop him from hurting anyone.”

  I’d told Liam the details about Andy’s corruption while we were waiting for his pack to canvas the local casinos. He knew about Andy’s…altered state. But I didn’t think it was bravado that made him think he could still take the FBI agent. Not only did Liam have the experience to give him an edge, he was also an alpha. His power was fed by his link to his pack.

  I’d have bet on him too.

  “All right,” the Ministry agent agreed finally. “If you’re sure it’s absolutely necessary.”

  “It is, I swear it is. We’ll be there soon.”

  I didn’t want to give her time to change her mind, so we ended the call there, and Liam took us to Goodfellows. My mind raced ahead to the upcoming conversation with Lorelei. It said something about the severity of my concern for Andy that it was easier to think about a bargain with a demon than to let my mind wander to the kelpies that were tormenting my friend.

  “I could have a word with a few of the kelpies?” Peasblossom offered pointedly.

  “We can’t let them distract us,” I said. “That’s what they want.”

  Telling Peasblossom not to go after any of the kelpies taunting Andy was easier said than done. I couldn’t help looking in the windows of the cafe, searching for signs of the malicious equines. I couldn’t attack any of them inside Goodfellows without risking the ire of the witch who ran the place and had declared it neutral ground. But if any of them wandered outside…

  Thankfully, Evelyn was waiting outside the cafe door, negating any reason I might have had to go inside. She raised a hand as I approached.

  “It might be better if you don’t go in,” she said. “Agent Bradford is…stressed. He wants to come with you to see Lorelei and he was not pleased when I refused.”

  “Not pleased?” Peasblossom echoed.

  “Angry,” Evelyn admitted.

  I stared at the doors. “How bad?”

  “Oksana can handle him.” She cleared her throat and looked at Liam. “Perhaps you could go in? Now?”

  Liam took the hint. I felt the swell of his aura as he drew more power to him before heading inside. It took a lot of effort not to follow him in. Assess the situation for myself.

  “You’re right though,” I said, forcing myself to face Evelyn. “Andy can’t confront Lorelei right now. Not yet. If he thinks the kelpies’ taunting is hard to take…”

  “Then he’s nowhere near ready for a demon.” She gestured toward the parking lot. “On that note…”

  I don’t know why it surprised me that Evelyn had her own car. I supposed even paladins had to get around somehow. Her little four-door sedan smelled vaguely of incense and mint chewing gum. An odd combination, but not unpleasant.

  She handed me a blindfold, and I raised my eyebrows.

  “It’s a precaution the Ministry of Deliverance must take,” she said apologetically. “For your safety as well as those of my colleagues. Demons can be very tempting as well as deceitful.”

  I took the blindfold and put it on, more to hurry things along than because I agreed. The idea that I’d ever get the urge to visit a demon prison for funsies was ridiculous, but I’d wear whatever she wanted if it would get me to my witness faster.

  Peasblossom groused when asked to get into my waist pouch, but it didn’t take her long to remember that’s where all the honey packets were.

  “Thank you for doing this, Evelyn. I really appreciate it,” I said honestly.

  She started her car. “I want to help, and if this is how I can do that, then I’m happy to. Well, not happy. The Abyss really isn’t a good place to visit for the un-condemned.” She paused. “Where’s Flint?”

  I couldn’t see anything past the blindfold, so I tilted my head in the direction of her voice. “I went to see Anton Winters earlier, and he asked Flint to stay. I thought it best not to intercede.”

  “You went to see Anton Winters?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  I felt bad for not sharing the details, but part of me was afraid if I told Evelyn about the SD card, then she might be less inclined to help me. I had no doubt she’d do whatever she could to help me prove Andy was innocent, but I had less confidence she’d approve of blackmail. And I wasn’t sure how much Lorelei would be able to help me yet.

  The drive felt like it took hours, but I knew it couldn’t have been more than thirty minutes. I was guessing Evelyn was taking a few extra turns, just in case I was trying to remember the way. Which I wasn’t. Even if I’d been so inclined, I didn’t have the presence of mind. It took all my mental energy to stop thinking about Siobhan’s glee at the prospect of taking possession of my friend.

  Evelyn helped me out of the car and took me deep inside the Ministry of Deliverance headquarters building before removing my blindfold. A series of grey hallways met my eyes, the dull paint periodically broken up by surprisingly rich paintings depicting religious scenes. Angels and shining lights. Gargoyles and sprawling churches. Fierce warriors and blessed saints.

  She led the way down the winding hallways until she came to a door with symbols carved around the frame. The runes glittered in the light, and I realized they’d been plated with gold. Evelyn placed her hand on the door, palm flat, murmuring a prayer in a language I wasn’t familiar with. Then she touched several of the symbols in what I guessed was a specific order. The runes glowed at the brush of her fingertips, and soon the frame was so bright, I had to squint to look at it.

  Then the light faded, and she grabbed the doorknob and twisted.

  Cold air rushed out at me, almost making me stumble back a step before I caught myself. I leaned into the breeze, pushing my way into the room. It was bare except for a circle of stones around a pit. Evelyn approached, then nodded to the pit.

  “That’s the entrance. There are rungs on the wall of the pit, but it’s not very far down if you’d rather jump.”

  “Why would she rather jump?” Peasblossom scoffed, poking her head out of the pouch. “She’s not a graceful witch, you know.”

  The paladin gave her a small smile. “The entr
ance is spelled to discourage both coming and going. You’ll feel enchantment spells blocking your way, a general itch at the back of your mind urging you to turn around. Keep pushing through. The same is true when you try to leave, the spells will discourage you from moving forward and try to make you go back, but I’ll be here to make certain you can get out.”

  “This is the entrance to the Abyss, or to Lorelei’s cell?” I asked.

  “The Abyss. But the entrance is enchanted, so I can make sure you come out near Lorelei. I assume you don’t want to be inside her prison?”

  “No,” I agreed.

  Evelyn hesitated. “One more thing. The Abyss has an energy all its own. It’s designed to make its inhabitants reflect on their sins, with an eye toward redemption. When you get inside, you’ll hear whispers. Voices in your head that remind you of any choices you feel guilty about, any wrongs you’ve done to yourself or others. It can be overwhelming if you’re not used to facing up to things you’ve done. Or if you feel particularly guilty about something.”

  “Fantastic,” I said weakly.

  A snort behind me made me turn, and I saw Scath staring at me. Slowly and deliberately, she sat down against the wall.

  She wasn’t coming with me.

  “Peasblossom, maybe you should—”

  “If you go, I go. End of story.”

  I knew better than to argue with her. Or maybe I just didn’t want to go down there alone. Gordon’s words rang in my ears. Proof or no proof, I felt it in my gut that Lorelei had been the one to corrupt him. But if it was going to make a difference to Andy, then I needed to prove it. I hadn’t wanted to get my hopes up, so I hadn’t even shared my suspicion with Liam. But if I was right, Lorelei was the key to everything.

  I groped for the rungs, and when I found them, I threw one leg over the stones. My foot found purchase, and I started down.

  Evelyn’s warning was accurate. Every step filled me with the urge to reverse course, climb back up to Evelyn and abandon my attempt to enter the cells. I kept forgetting why I wanted to enter in the first place, why on earth would I be trying to get inside such a place?