“Normally, I’d say that you are old, but, damn it, they really are. So sorry she was ever raped, though. But she seems to be doing well.”
“Karen says those scars are very deep, but they don’t show.”
“So, where to next? Pick up Gould again?” Ed asked.
“We should. We should arrest him.”
“We’ve got him as an accessory on the Devin Nance case. He’ll keep,” Ed said.
“Then let’s wait. This’ll torpedo our case against Blackett.”
“That is true.” Then Paul could barely get the words out without laughing as he tried to say, “So, you’re sure you don’t want to …”
“Actually, right now, not so much. Let’s go home,” Ed said.
******
While the detectives were having a bad day, Olivia Abernethy was in her glory as she walked through Copley Place, Boston’s most exclusive shopping enclave, casually window shopping has she made her way toward her destination. Other than perhaps noting her exceptional beauty, no one she passed gave any particular notice, let alone entertained the possibility that she was both a witch and master jewel thief. Arriving at Tiffany’s, Olivia walked through the door. The sales associate looked her over, head to toe, and smiled at seeing her Louis Vuitton handbag and the telltale red heel of her Christian Louboutin shoe. Anticipating the possibility of a large sale, the sales associate greeted her warmly.
She responded with a patrician smile. She would be pleasant but by her every move and expression, Olivia would make it clear to him that he was not her equal, and that deference would be required. He responded appropriately to her silent cues and awaited her request for service. She did not disappoint, requesting their highest end product, and was escorted to a small private room off the sales floor. When the array of rings and necklaces were brought in, Olivia gave them a discerning look, rejecting every piece for inadequate size, mundane design, and less than flawless quality. She was genuinely displeased because she was a collector, of a sort, and what would seem extravagant to most, barely met her standards.
“Boston is always such a disappointment. Don’t you have anything else?” Olivia asked.
The salesman went to confer with his manager, who, after giving her the once over, himself, said, “That’s all we have at this location. We could have something shipped in. What are you looking for?”
“Beautiful, unique, flawless,” and, Olivia said with a dramatic pause, “priceless.” She stood to leave, and without having used even a hint of her craft had manipulated the manager, who, wanting to halt her exit said, “I might have a few items that would suit.”
Looking as if she were being mildly inconvenienced, Olivia sat back down on the cream satin chair. It took some time, but the manager eventually came in carrying a large velvet case. With grand ceremony, he laid the case atop the glass table and opened it, displaying a truly flawless suite of diamond jewelry.
“A total of eighty carats,” the manager said.
Olivia tried on the twenty-carat ring, sixty-carat necklace, and matching earrings. He started to give the cut, color, and clarity of the precious gems, but Olivia stopped him by putting her hand out for his loop. Putting the loop up to her eye, Olivia scanned each stone and asked for the GIA certificate. As he went to retrieve the requested paperwork, the manager was thrilled with the impending sale. The salesman had remained with her, and she immediately took control of his mind. She put him in a slight trance and suggested that he was processing her sale. There was a small pc on the corner of the table, and with the touch of her hand on the edge of the keyboard, payment for the sale was processed. Cash from one of the many Swiss accounts that Olivia had compromised over the years was transferred to Tiffany, and a slip was printed from the small machine sitting next to the computer. Taking the GIA certificate from his manager, the salesman packaged her purchase and thanked her profusely.
She opened her large handbag and slipped her ‘purchase’ inside. As instructed, her accomplice had been waiting for her in her car, and, upon receiving a text from Olivia, came into the store to escort her out. As she exited, a gentle wave of her hand, deleted her image from the memories of Tiffany’s staff and the security cameras. Another wave as they exited and her image was deleted from all of the surveillance cameras in the area.
“How’d it go?” her bodyguard asked.
“Just a fun morning. I am disappointed, though,” she said, as he opened her car door for her.
Her guard was daoine and had no idea of her powers, he did know, however, that she sometimes skirted legality to get what she wanted. Of course, with her rather extensive array of powers, Olivia barely needed a bodyguard, but she thought it best to handle most human skirmishes the human way. Thus, the young man who drove her around was well versed in weapons, and always armed.
“Why?” he asked.
“Boston really doesn’t have much that interests me. This is pretty nice though,” she said as she pulled out the massive emerald cut diamond ring and slipped it on her finger.
“It fits,” he said.
“Oh, yes, I would have had to have them size it if it hadn’t.”
Their pleasant conversation was interrupted when Olivia’s phone rang.
Looking at the caller ID, she motioned for her driver to roll up the window between them and he obliged.
“How’s your day been going?” Braden Druce asked.
“Fairly well, wrote my column, then a bit of shopping.”
“Shopping.”
“Of a sort.”
“The sort that the council might disapprove of?” Braden asked.
“I will admit, that is an annoyance. Although, I’ve always stayed on the down low.”
“But if they find out …”
“I still don’t like it. I’ve never even hurt, let alone killed anyone.”
“It’s a one-time thing, then we’re free to enjoy our lives.”
Olivia was far from convinced, but her family had insisted that she help him. And while she had long ago distanced herself, Olivia knew that her family was not to be trifled with, so she would reluctantly help Braden with his plan.
“Why can’t you just let them be?” Olivia asked. “You’ve got plenty of money.”
“Because, eventually, they’ll come after me. And I’m not going to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.”
“I don’t know. If you just called a truce, I think they’d go for it.”
“I’m not chancing it.”
“I don’t get aggression from them, and I’ve been listening in on Finn Bell and his family at the restaurant for weeks now. No mention of you, at all.”
“So, you’re willing to give up using your powers?” Braden asked.
“No, I’m small time. No one’s ever paid me any notice.”
“You’re a jewel thief. My brother told me that you have more diamonds than DeBeers.”
“I’ve got a few,” she said laughing for the first time.
“Well, they wouldn’t like that.”
“I’ve never heard of them interfering with an independent contractor.”
“No. That’s not their thing, but if we get them out of the way, we can just act with abandon.”
“Are you here, yet?”
“Yes, but I’m not going to show myself until after it’s done.”
“Coward,” Olivia said and hung up.
She was right about his being a coward, as Braden had been quite content to sit out The Battle of Unst, and even though he’d taken over the leadership of An Dubh, he’d done everything he could to keep that fact a secret.
******
Olivia wasn’t the only Buidseach enjoying a beautiful fall evening in the city. Faith and Beth had ditched their significant others and had been enjoying a leisurely meal at one of the many bistros on Newbury Street when they both sensed imminent danger.
“I wonder what’s going on,” Faith said. “I don’t see anybody I know.”
“We should go,”
Beth said.
“Why? I don’t want to. We’ve barely finished, and I’m enjoying myself.”
Beth ignored her friend, called the waitress over, and said, “I’m so sorry, but we need to leave right away.”
“Everything all right?” the waitress asked as she gave them their check.
“Fine, just family stuff,” Beth said as she signed it, and handed her a credit card.
“I didn’t know this was your treat.”
Beth didn’t respond. She just kept a weather eye on everyone in the restaurant, as well as those walking by the large bay window.
The waitress reappeared, and one quick signature later, they were out the door.
“What has you so spooked?” Faith asked.
“That,” Beth said, as looked across the street.
“What?”
“Look at the third-floor window.”
What to the untrained eye would have appeared to be an innocuous man looking out the window of his apartment, appeared to Faith and Beth to be evil incarnate. They, like everyone else, saw his human form, but only they could sense his black soul.
Using her newly acquired mental telephone, Faith called out to Finn with the words, ‘I need you now.’
This was a bit of a dilemma for Finn. He couldn’t travel in human form like Duncan. He could, however, travel in spirit form but that presented a couple of problems; first, it was as a streak of light, and second, his clothing would not survive the trip.
‘I can be right there, but I’ll be naked,’ he replied telepathically.
‘Take a cab,’ Faith replied to him, then laughing she told Beth, “Finn was going to streak here.”
“God, no. He at Finley’s?”
“Yes.”
“Tell him to hold on, and you wait right here,” Beth said.
Beth, like her Uncle Duncan, could travel in human form, and she stepped into the alley so as not to be seen leaving. She arrived at Finley’s to see Finn outside waving down a cab.
“Your ride’s here,” she said, her sky-blue eyes twinkling.
“Cool,”
They found a discrete spot, and the petite, five-foot-six inch Elspeth Harris, put her arm around the vastly taller, more massive Finn Bell and whisked him away. They landed in the alley from which she’d taken off and found Faith waiting where Beth had left her.
“So, what do you think that’s about?” Faith asked looking towards the window.
Finn said, “Jesus, it’s a fucking god of the underworld.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know, but you two go home.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Faith said.
“You want to take on a god. You really think you can do that?”
Faith actually thought that she might, but a look from Finn told her that discretion was the better part of valor. Although, she still didn’t want to leave him to fight alone.
“Don’t you think the two of us would stand a better chance than you alone.”
“Think Erebus, and leave,” Finn said as he headed across the street.
“I’m not going home,” Faith said to Beth. “You can leave if you want to.”
“Hold on,” Beth said, “the both of you come with me. And you’re wrong, it’s not a god, it’s a demon.”
“A demon. And how do you know?” Finn asked.
What neither of her friends knew was that demons were almost play toys for familiars. When Beth first sensed the demon, she had planned to send Faith home and fight him herself. Faith contacting Finn put a wrench in her plans, but she would still take the lead. This was her fight, and she wasn’t going to give it up. But, how, she wondered, could a battle take place in front of so many daoine?
That question was immediately answered when they stepped off the elevator on the third floor of the building where they’d seen him. The demon was there to greet them, standing just this side of another dimension. Within an instant, the demon had moved them into his realm. They hadn’t really moved, but no one on this plane could see them.
“So what are you up to?” Finn asked but before the demon could answer, Beth gave Finn a mighty push out of the way.
“I’m here for her,” the demon said pointing at Faith.
While they were speaking, without Finn noticing, Beth had dispensed with her clothing and transformed into her aggressive form of a vastly oversized lioness. She strode up behind Finn and gave him a massive push.
“What?” Finn yelled as he went flying against the wall.
The demon who up until that moment had been anticipating a battle with rank and file Buidseach suddenly knew that he was in serious trouble.
Seeing Beth bounding toward him, the demon threw balls of fire, one after another, her way. With a thought, Beth shielded herself from his attack. The fire fell off to either side of her until she stood directly in front him and let out an ear-bursting growl. He went to disappear further into his dimension, but with one swipe of her oversized paw, Beth pulled him right back.
Both Finn and Faith watched in silence as Beth wrapped her jaw around his throat and tossed him first one way and then the other. The demon wasn’t dead, but he was critically injured. She dragged him over to her friends and dropped him at Finn’s feet. Then moving back and standing directly in front of Faith. She would always protect Faith to her own death, and they both knew it.
Finn looked at the now blood covered cat, and said, “Thanks Bethy, that was helpful. So, who sent you?”
The demon hesitated, and Finn looked over at Beth.
“No,” their foe said weakly, “wait.”
Beth approached him and stared him straight in the eye.
“I’m supposed to subdue her, he said pointing at Faith and bring her to ...”
“To?” Finn asked.
The demon was once again silent, and now aware that Faith was his intended target Beth became enraged. Without awaiting consensus, Beth bared her knife-like claws, ripping deadly stripes down the demon’s torso. He screamed in agony as blood poured out of him.
“You know,” Finn said. “I can fix that. Tell us who sent you.”
The now a pathetic and impotent adversary looked at him but didn’t speak.
“Or not,” Finn said as he turned to leave.
The demon weakly lifted his hand and Faith called Finn back.
As Finn looked down, the demon tried to speak but was clearly dying. Finn put his hand on the demon’s arm. The demon moaned because Finn’s power came from God’s grace and that was almost as painful to this creature of darkness, as Beth’s claws. It did, however, have the intended effect and brought him back from the brink of extinction.
“Alastor, my name is Alastor,” the demon said, gaining strength enough to speak but still too weak to move.
“And?” Finn said beginning to lose patience.
“Bring her to Braden Druce,” Alastor said.
“No way,” Faith said.
Alastor just looked at her.
“How did he summon you?” Faith asked.
The demon was once again silent.
Finn was about to eliminate him, when the demon pleaded, “I don’t know. I just do what he tells me. He owns my soul.”
“Who?” Faith asked.
“Phthonus.”
“God of Jealousy and Greed,” Finn said.
Faith walked over to him, and when she did, the large cat, tried to keep her back.
“All right, all right, I just want to read him.”
“Oh Faith, that’s not a good idea. There’s a boatload of darkness there,” Finn said.
Faith, as was her way, ignored him and proceeded to read the demon. Finn was right. She’d never read a dark spirit, and she’d definitely never been exposed to that level of evil. After she finished, Faith vomited. Pulling a bottle of water out of her handbag, she took a sip and asked, “If we let you go, will you serve Druce?”
“Have to. If I don’t Phthonus will kill me.”
“Can you help him?” Faith as
ked Finn.
“Even if I did, Faith, he’s a demon.”
“Can you do it?”
“Of course, I can.”
“Of course, you can,” Faith said with a slight grin. “I read him, he wants no part of this, but he has nowhere to go.”
Finn cleansed Alastor’s soul from all encumbrances, and then opened a window into a third dimension.
“No one from the underworld can get to you there, but if you continue on an evil path, you can be thrown back,” Finn said.
Alastor’s eye’s welled. He couldn’t believe that he been saved, such as it were. Before he stepped through, he looked at Faith and said, “Thank you. I will make myself worthy of your forgiveness.”
Faith nodded, and the demon disappeared. As Alastor vanished, so did his realm and they were once again on Earth’s plane.
“You know,” Finn said, “your forgiveness is gonna to get us all killed someday.”
Beth transformed back to her human form and as she dressed, said, “Maybe, maybe not. Remember, I’ll always have your backs.”
“Who knew you could do that,” Finn said.
“Anybody who reads the lore, that’s who. You two need to do your homework. Now let’s go home,” Beth said.
Faith’s phone had been ringing, and she finally picked it up to see multiple missed calls from her mother. She smiled and held up the phone.
Seeing all the calls, Beth said, “The downside of having a psychic mother,” Beth said.
Faith let her frantic mother know that they’d dealt with the issue.
“No, you haven’t,” Faith’s mother said. There’s still danger out there.”
“I feel it too, but at least we handled this guy.”
Back at Faith’s, they debated what to do next. Clearly, something else was going on.
“Who knew there were so many gods,” Beth said.
“Read the lore,” Finn said.
“Touché,” Beth said grinning at him.
“God you’re cute,” Finn said as he pulled her close to him on the couch gave her an affectionate kiss. “I’m heading back to work.”
“Want a lift?” Beth asked.
“It would be much appreciated.”
“Let’s go up to the roof,” Beth said.
The Power of Faith: Science Fiction Faith Ferguson Series Book 3 Page 22
