Seventh

by Ray Chilensky

  “I prefer to say the Vatican,” Callum said, helping himself to coffee. “The Vatican is full of hypocritical asses. But most rank-and-file Catholics are good people.”

  “If they work for the Vatican, then why did they fight us?” Evelyn asked.

  “I think Martin was telling the truth when he said that his men got confused. They weren’t expecting us and we weren’t expecting them. But they’ll interrogate the Tainted they took prisoner and they’ll find out about the scrolls. Once they do, they won’t care about how well protected or how well connected Blackwell is. They’ll hit Blackwell’s house with everything they have and they won’t care how many people they kill.”

  “Then we have to storm the house first,” Christian suggested, retrieving a bottle of beer from the refrigerator. “At least we’ll try to keep the human body count to a minimum.”

  “You’re right,” Cai said. “We don’t have any time or any options left.”

  “Maybe you do,” Josh said, leaning against the frame of the doorway that led from the kitchen to the dining room. “There’s an option,” he declared. “But I know you’re not going to like it.”

  Josh looked at each of the skeptical, questioning faces before him. “Walt Tinlin, Blackwell’s human chief of security, knows he works for a demon. The rumor is that he’s bucking to become a Tainted by doing Blackwell’s dirty work. He has a taste for hot young women. The problem is that he’s butt ugly and has all the charm of genital herpes, so he uses some kind of magical rufie Blackwell makes for him. It makes the women do whatever he wants. After he’s done with the women, he dumps them on the street with their memories wiped and brains so fucked up they can barely talk. I found out about our magical date-rapist after a couple of his victims turned up at my stationhouse and I told the members of my Hidden cell. The plan was just to kill him when he was out on one of his special dates, but now I think we can use him to get into Blackwell’s house.”

  “How does that help us?” Cai asked.

  “The important thing for us is that Tinlin takes the women he drugs back to his apartment inside Blackwell’s mansion. If we could get someone inside the house, they should be able to disable the security system and get us past the guards.” he explained further. “Tinlin has a real thing for young hotties with long, dark hair,” he added, looking at Evelyn.

  “He’s bound to have the place warded, too, though,” Clive said, from his place at the kitchen table. He had already called up a Google Earth image of the Blackwell home and was using a tablet computer to access the house’s floor plan from the city records.

  “If we could get Evelyn inside the house, Helen and I could use her as a channel for our magic and bring down the wards. I could enchant an amulet she could wear and use it as a focus for our power. It will be hard, but not as hard as bringing the wards down from outside. We could do it.”

  “If she gets inside, I can talk her through getting past any electronic security.” Clive added.

  “There has to be another way,” Eve protested. “Evelyn’s only come into her power a few hours ago. We can’t expect her to go into the home of a Nephilim alone.” “Are you a Blessed Warrior or not?” Christian asked, peering at Evelyn with hard, questioning eyes.

  “I am,” she said. “In for a penny, in for a pound, Aunt Eve,” she told her Aunt. “I’ll do my duty.”

  Christian’s mouth formed his signature, almost sinister, grin, “Pretty and tough too,” he said. “You might actually live through the night.”

  “Eve is right, though,” Callum confirmed, looking at Evelyn. “If ‘desperate, almost suicidal, seat-of-the-pants plans to save the world’ were listed in an encyclopedia, this plan would be in there as an example.”

  “Isn’t that what the Blessed are here for, protecting people from demons?” Evelyn asked. “Besides, demons and magic scrolls aside, what Tinlin is doing to those women is bad enough by itself. I’ll do it.”

  “This is weird,” Evelyn remarked, balancing herself with the aid of a hand on the back of a living room chair.

  “You’ll get used to it in a minute,” Astrid assured her, taking Evelyn by the arm to help her balance herself. “The spell lets the boys, Josh, Helen and me hear and see everything you do, but you’ll only be able to hear Cadell telepathically. No one would be able to handle the sensory overload of nine people being linked to them at the same time. Even the one-way connection with all of us has you using parts of your brain you almost never use under normal circumstances. The telepathic link to Cadell makes it even worse. I wish had time to let you get used to one spell before I cast another one on you.”

  “I’m all right,” Evelyn said. “My head’s beginning to clear.”

  Astrid stroked Evelyn’s cheek. “I’m afraid you’re not done with the torture yet. We have to get you to stop blocking your Truesight; you’ll need it to find the focal point of Blackwell’s house wards.”

  “I can handle it,” Evelyn said, straightening and squaring her shoulders. “It was all too much of surprise before. Like you said, sensory overload,” she assured Astrid.

  Cadell waited for his mother to leave the room, then rose from his own chair, stood in front of Evelyn and raised his hands, showing her his palms. “I’m going to let you see my sigils,” he informed her. “Hopefully my energy will make yours flare like it did earlier tonight. Just relax and let it happen. Think of it like putting on a pair of night vision goggles. You’re not seeing anything that isn’t always there; you’re just seeing it in a new way. For the Blessed,

  Truesight is really just sight.”

  The sigils on Cadell’s hands became visible. To

  Evelyn, it appeared as though an invisible tattoo needle was searing the marks into his flesh, leaving them glowing with a pulsating gold light animated with shimmers of silver. The light spread to his entire body. It was intense without being bright and gave off a familiar, comforting warmth. Instinctively, she brought her hands up in front of her, holding them less than an inch from Cadell’s. She felt a tingling in her own palms and sparks of gold, silver and blue crossed the small space between their palms. Cadell saw Evelyn’s sigils appear on her palms and her aura flare. “That’s it,” he encouraged. “This is as natural for you as breathing. Suppressing it the way you have been is what’s unnatural.”

  “It’s okay,” Evelyn said, looking wide-eyed around the room. “Why are the walls glowing?” she asked, marveling at the cascading white and blue light that emanated from the walls, ceilings and floor of the house.

  “A Blessed family has been living here for over sixty years,” Cadell explained. “The house is saturated with magical energy. The walls at Blackwell’s house will glow like that, too, but they’ll be lit with different colors. Red or purple, probably.”

  “One thing. If Blackwell’s house is warded against the Blessed, won’t I trip the wards since I’ve embraced my Blessing?” Evelyn asked, still adjusting to her new senses. “Tinlin’s aura will mask you,” Cadell told her. “When you’re entering the house, stay as close to him as you can. Touching him would be best. Once you get inside the house, you’ll be okay.”

  He took her right hand in his and led her toward the door. “It’s all right. Your power isn’t flaring, so you won’t hurt mom or Helen. I have to show you something.” He led her to a concrete pillar at the center of the house’s central hallway, passing his mother and his brothers who were waiting just outside the living room. It gave off the same magical light as the walls, only at a much greater intensity.

  “This pillar is pretty much at the center of the house,” Cadell explained. “This where our wards are centered. There’ll be some kind of central focus at Blackwell’s, too. You’ll have to find it so you can use the amulet Helen made to bring down the wards.”

  Evelyn nodded, delight having replaced her initial horror at experiencing Truesight. “You’re all connected,” she observed, looking from one Selkirk to another. “Sparks jump between you and your brothers when you come near on
e another. Your mom and Helen, too.”

  “That happens among family members, especially if the family is close,” Cadell told her with a smile. “Sometimes couples that form a really tight bond build a spiritual link that makes their auras reach out to each other as well. Mom and dad’s auras would react to each other from fifty feet away.”

  Evelyn turned to face Cadell. They had not released each other’s hands. “You were right. Now that I’ve gotten over the initial shock of it, this feels so natural. It’s like

  I’ve been half-blind up until now.”

  Cadell led Evelyn back into the living room, followed by Astrid and the others. “Okay,” he said. “Now let’s see if you can control it. It’s like tuning out a sound that you don’t want to hear. The Truesight is always on, but you can choose to ignore it.”

  Evelyn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I get it. You can sort of … turn down the power. Make all the energy that you see seem less intense.”

  “Right,” Cadell confirmed, squeezing her hand. It was only then that Evelyn realized that they were still holding hands. She returned his squeeze, smiled and withdrew her hand.

  “One thing to remember, dear,” Eve said, facing Evelyn and taking her lightly by the shoulders. “You’re still new to the Truesight and there are things that it will let you see that aren’t beautiful and warm. It will let you see through glamours and cloaking spells. Some demons use glamours to hide their true forms. Grigori and Nephilim can have true forms that are more hideous than you can imagine. The first time you see one of those demons with Truesight, it can be a terrible shock. There’s no way to prepare you for that in the time we have, but I wanted to at least warn you.”

  “I’ll have to deal with that when it happens,” Evelyn said, hugging her aunt in an attempt to ease the older woman’s concern.

  Eve touched her niece’s cheek. “Such a brave girl,” she said. “I’m so proud of you.”

  “One more question,” Evelyn said. “You said that I only killed the bodies of the demons I killed at the university, that their spirits would survive and tell their master about me. What’s keeping me from being

  recognized?”

  “You killed those Tainteds with a rune blade,” Astrid said. “That wouldn’t have destroyed their spirit forms, but it will have disrupted them badly. It’ll be another day or two before they’ll regain enough cohesion to take a new body or even communicate psychically. The boys killed those other Tainted with trueblades, so they were completely destroyed. ”

  Evelyn’s right eyebrow arched. “Are you sure about that?” she asked.

  Cadell put his hands lightly on her shoulders. “That’s the way it’s always worked before,” he said. “But you can still back out of this now. No one would blame you.”

  She shook her head. “No. This has to be done and I’m the best one for the job.” Cadell smiled and touched her cheek.

  Helen appeared at the doorway. “The amulet is ready,” she announced, holding a metal disk the size of a fifty-cent piece suspended on a thin gold wire. “It won’t become active until you put around your neck, so it won’t set off Blackwell’s wards if you carry it in your pocket or purse until you need it.” She came into the room and handed Evelyn the medallion. “This is one of Astrid’s potions,” she added, offering a small plastic bottle to Evelyn. “It’s supposed to help you stay awake for a long time, but I modified it so that whatever compulsion drug Tinlin is using won’t work on you. You can drink it now if you want to. It’ll last for a whole day.”

  Helen took a pearl necklace from a pocket of her jeans. “These pearls will go well with the dress you’re borrowing. Astrid put a spell on them that will keep any demons from seeing your Blessed aura with their Truesight,

  but that magic isn’t powerful enough to set off any wards.” Evelyn took the amulet and potion and smiled at Helen, “Thank you,” she said.

  “Just make Tinlin pay for what he’s done to those women,” Helen replied, stepping behind Evelyn to put the pearls around her neck.

  “You can count on that,” Evelyn confirmed.

  The dress she had borrowed from Helen was slightly small on Evelyn, but that only made it hug her curves in a way that served her current purpose. Royal blue, its hem ended just above her knees. It was sleeveless and left her shoulders bare. A wide black belt called attention to her slim, flaring waist and the pearls she’d borrowed from Astrid hung about her neck while a small matching purse completed the outfit. She had been deftly turning away advances from the male patrons of the bar that Walter Tinlin was known to frequent. Cadell watched her from a corner table as he chatted idly with a woman who had invited herself to join him.

  Are you sure Tinlin will come here tonight? she asked Cadell through their telepathic link.

  Josh says he shows up like clockwork on Wednesday nights, Cadell replied. If he doesn’t show soon, you’ll be fighting off every single man in this bar.

  Does that mean you like the way I look? she asked, turning down another patron’s request to buy her a drink. You look fantastic, he told her. Helen did a great job with your hair and makeup, and that dress is just close enough to being too small.

  When this is all over, maybe we could go out and get to know each other like normal people, she said.

  I’d love to get to get to know you better, he agreed, but normal is going to be in short supply for the both of us.

  Evelyn was about to reply when Walter Tinlin entered the bar.

  He’s here, Cadell announced. Remember, the potion he uses isn’t like a normal rufie. It only makes a victim drowsy for a minute or two, and after that they’ll act and feel normal. They just have to do whatever Tinlin tells them to. I’ll tell you when he slips you the potion. Just play along after that. I’ll be with you all the way, and my brothers and Helen are already in place at Blackwell’s house.

  “What if I don’t get Tinlin’s attention? She asked.

  Then he’ll be the first straight man in here tonight that didn’t notice you, Cadell assured her, watching Josh enter the bar wearing a blue sport jacket and matching

  Dockers. Josh is here, too. We’ve got your six.

  It was only minutes before Tinlin made his first pass at Evelyn and invited her to a table. While Evelyn would not have called him ‘butt ugly’ as Josh had, he wasn’t particularly attractive. He was very tall and heavyset. His expensive leisure suit did nothing to offset the off-putting effect of his narrow, cold-looking eyes and a long, narrow nose that appeared to have been broken many times.

  His handshake was cold and mushy and he had held Evelyn’s hand in his for an uncomfortably long time.

  Their conversation quickly became Tinlin’s assessment of Evelyn as a potential victim. No, she had not been here before. Yes, she was new in town with no family in Boston. She had just moved here from Philadelphia for a new job. She told him that she was supposed to have met a friend from work here, but that friend had not arrived and was now two hours late. After twenty minutes of less-than-sincere flirting, Tinlin went to the bar and ordered drinks. The little bastard just put the potion in your drink, Cadell said, watching Tinlin return to the table. Stay cool, we’re with you.

  Minutes later, Evelyn had feigned brief drowsiness and was leaving with Tinlin. As they passed by him, Cadell saw the evil, confidently smug grin on Tinlin’s face. For the first time in his violence-filled life, he found himself actually wanting to kill another human being.

  The Blackwell house was located on the south slope of Beacon Hill. It was a three-story red brick home built in the late nineteenth century, surrounded by a wrought-iron fence that was covered with climbing ivy. The ample snow-covered grounds were well-tended and park-like, with abundant trees and shrubbery. Two gates, one front and one rear, provided access through the fence and each was protected by a small guard booth manned by two uniformed security guards.

  Cai and Clive Selkirk had been parked within sight of the Blackwell mansion’s northeast corner for thirty min
utes, while Colm, Christian and Callum watched the southwest corner from another vehicle. “Okay, I’m into the house’s Wi-Fi,” Clive said, his face bathed in the glow of his laptop. “Give me a few minutes and I should be able to access the security system. It’ll probably be too well protected for me to shut down remotely, but I can monitor its activity and know if it’s tripped. They only have camera coverage on the doorways, but I’ll be able to access those feeds. If Evelyn can get inside, I should be able to talk her through disabling them.”

  “That would be good.” Cai said. “But we can handle the security system if we have to. I’m more worried about the wards. Evelyn seems pretty tough and she’s proven that she’s brave as hell, but she’s so new to being a Blessed that she may not be ready for what she finds in

  Blackwell’s house.”

  “What choice do we have?” Clive asked. “The only other way I know of to get past the wards is brute force. Look at how long it took Blackwell’s warlock to break the wards around the church. We have to assume that the wards around the mansion are even stronger than that. Blackwell has had decades to build them up. It would take days just to gather enough mages for us even to try it.”

  “I know,” Cai said. “But if Evelyn gets caught before she can bring down the wards, she won’t have chance of getting out of there alive. Even after the wards are down, she’ll be on her own for at least a minute or two while we fight our way to her. She might be dead before we can get to her.”

  “She embraced her Blessing,” Clive said. “Death is something we all live with day to day. It’s the way of things.”

  Evelyn used all of her willpower to not cringe each time Tinlin pawed her. After leaving the bar, he had taken her by the waist and led her to his car, a Mercury Cougar that reeked of some unidentifiable, acrid odor. Throughout the ten-minute ride to the Blackwell house, he drove with one hand and groped her with the other. Pretending to be under the influence of his potion, she sat impassively as his hand clumsily explored her thighs and more intimate parts. As they passed through the mansion’s rear gate and Tinlin spoke to the security guards briefly, she decided that Tinlin would die before the night was out. She would kill him. Slightly frightened at how comfortable she was with that decision, she made sure to let her eyes linger on the gate guards and the interior of their booth, knowing that Cadell and his brothers would see what she was seeing and be able to use that information in their assault on the mansion.