Fire Within

“I’ll work on locating him, and bring Andreas up to speed.”

“That’s another thing.” Ryan turned a suspicious face toward Ari. “Why’s this demon after Andreas? Is there something your boyfriend hasn’t told us?”

Ari managed not to squirm under his scrutiny. She’d been wondering the same thing. “Good question, and I intend to ask. It’s either personal or the demon’s on a job. That’s what they do when they aren’t rampaging just for fun. They’re mercenaries, hired guns. That makes it really odd he’d contract his job out to humans in such a clumsy shooting attempt.” She cocked her head. “Unless he was trying to divert Andreas’s attention. Or ours.”

“A distraction. From what? The murders?” Ryan asked, picking up the thread of thought. “It has muddied the investigation.”

They talked for almost an hour, mostly about the public panic they would have if the suspected demon came out of hiding. In the end, they decided they couldn’t worry about the ‘what ifs.’ They would start where they could: containment of information. Then they’d focus their efforts on locating the creature. Anything else took second place.

By the time Ari slipped out the door, Ryan had already made arrangements with the jail to isolate the suspect. She went home to collect the equipment and ingredients for the scrying attempt. On route, she called Club Dintero to warn Russell and Lilith and to have them pass her suspicions along to their employer. She figured the demon wasn’t done with Andreas, and the werelions needed to know what kind of enemy they faced. They took the news in stride, but Russell said he’d be calling in reinforcements. Ari’s second and third calls went to the Magic Council President and to Gillian at the OFR lab. She didn’t want anyone caught by surprise.

Urgency hurried her pace. Her blood tingled with remembered terror from years ago. Before she did anything else, she needed her notes from St. Louis. Her first and only confrontation with demons.

* * *

Ari’s journal was in a box shoved under the bed. When the Book of Shadows had not returned to her by the time she’d achieved full witch status at age eighteen, she’d begun keeping her own records of the spells and potions she made with Great-Gran and the lessons learned during the four years in St. Louis studying witchcraft under Moriana, a practicing witch. The journal was the only written account Ari had. All the years with Great-Gran prior to that time were unrecorded. Until her eighteenth birthday passed, she and her clan had assumed the Book would somehow return by the initiation ceremony. Without it, she felt incomplete.

Ari opened her journal and thumbed through the meager pages. They brought back vivid memories of those eye-opening years with Moriana. The older witch’s long, black hair, swirling around her in the wind, Moriana had whisked from one crisis to another, never once doubting she was equal to the challenge. Ari had soaked up and recorded as much of that time as possible, including the fight with the demons.

It didn’t take Ari long to find the notation and the scrying spell she sought. It wasn’t a family spell, because Moriana wasn’t a Calin, but it was the best Ari had. Moriana had used it to locate four demons who had invaded her city. Ari read through the scribbled instructions, gathered the objects and ingredients required, and set the room for the ritual. A year ago she hadn’t had much luck locating a pack of wolves by scrying, but a demon would emit so much magical energy that she had much greater hopes this time.

As Ari closed the magical circle around her, a familiar vampiric energy touched her. Andreas tapped on her apartment door. She called for him to let himself in and, when the door closed again, motioned him to silence with a raised finger. He looked at the circle drawn in ashes, nodded, and dropped gracefully into a chair at her oak table.

Ari returned her attention to the ritual and determinedly shut him out. The magic required total concentration. She lit the four candles and spoke the words of invocation. When she was prepared, she focused on the water bowl, called the picture of a demon to mind, and repeated the spell three times, as she had seen Moriana do.

Take the image in my mind; Set it free to seek and find; What it finds, let me see; As I ask, so mote it be.

At the end of the first recitation, the water began to swirl and grow cloudy. By the end of the second, an image formed across its shimmering surface. During the third repetition, an overview of Olde Town appeared, pinpointing a pulsing red light.

Gotcha.

The image zoomed closer; the tops of buildings appeared. Then, without warning, the red light winked out. Ari gasped. “No!”

Andreas leaped to his feet, hovering near the circle’s edge, ready to break it if necessary. Ari shook her head to let him know she was in no danger. She continued the ritual. Whatever had happened, the fault wasn’t with the scrying ceremony. Ari still had to thank the goddess. The spell had worked, but somehow the demon had concealed itself.

She said the final words, opened the circle, and turned on a lamp.

“What happened?” Andreas demanded.

“I’m not sure. I had him located somewhere in Olde Town. Then, he was gone.”

“Gone. To where?”

Ari lifted her shoulders. “He just disappeared. Like he winked out. Demons can move fast, like you can, but nobody moves that far, that fast. Not to get completely out of my scrying range. He should have showed up somewhere else.” Ari was stumped. Maybe she had done something wrong after all. She let her mind run over the elements of the ritual, finding nothing wrong in its execution.

“Interesting.” Andreas walked to the bay window and stood, looking out at the night sky. “What if the image changed? Would that explain what you saw?”

“Have you seen something like this before?”

“Perhaps. When I was new to vampirism.” His thoughts seemed far away, his voice pensive. “I was in France. A creature was terrorizing the villagers. There one instant, gone the next.” He turned to face her, his eyes dark as ink. “Your demon may be an image changer. Not an ordinary demon at all.”

“Image changer? Is that like a shape shifter?”

“In some ways. But it does not go through a metamorphosis like a werewolf. It merely assumes the outward appearance of another being.”

“And since my scrying spell was based on his image, the picture in my mind, I lost him when he changed!” Ari exclaimed. “He must have recognized the magical probe. Damn, that means the creature knows we’re looking for it. So how did you kill it?” She’d unconsciously switched to “it” but demons could be any sex or every sex.

“I did not kill him. I was only a nestling at the time and too self-absorbed with my new circumstances to make the effort.” He gave his characteristic shrug. “Besides, I would have been seriously outmatched.”

Ever pragmatic. “Could this be the same demon? Hunting you?”

“That was a long time ago. I am sure it paid no attention to an inexperienced vampire. I did nothing to draw its attention. What reason would it have to hunt me, then or now?”

“You tell me. Some demon is after you.” Ari bit back the urge to accuse him of keeping secrets again. This was hardly the time for another fight.

“I wish I knew the answer, Arianna, but I do not.” He cocked his head as if he knew what she’d been thinking. “I am quite certain I have had no dealings with any demon, except the occasional halfling. And this is no halfling. This is an assassin working for someone. Although I have no idea who that would be.”

“It’s strange an assassin would hire such worthless help.” Ari related the day’s events in detail, including the interview with Philby, ending with the demon’s threats to avoid capture. “Ryan and I thought it might have tried to distract us from the murders.”

“Possible, I suppose. Even for a demon, his actions seem erratic. I assume that, in itself, is a way of misleading us.” Andreas sounded more interested than alarmed.

“If the demon is trying to fool us, that raises different questions.” Ari sat at the table, doodling on a corner of a journal page. When she realized she was messing up her notes, she closed the notebook. “What did he gain by attacking you?”

“Divided our focus. Ryan began looking for the car. We became involved in club security. But mainly, he gained my attention,” Andreas said. “Almost as if the creature is taunting, wants me to know it is coming after me.”

“Which sounds personal.”

“I have to concede the attack on me does not appear random. It must be tied to the murder investigation in some way.”

“If the demon is our vampire killer, that would explain how each victim died. The first two were killed by bolts of demon fire, mistaken for gunfire. The third victim was beheaded by a demon sword.”

Andreas nodded. “If we knew why, we might figure out who is behind this. Why has a demon chosen to target vampires, especially these three vampires? What is his interest in me?”

Ari had been thinking about Philby. “You know, I don’t think he, uh, it expected us to learn he was a demon. He set the shooters up so they’d resist, avoid capture, or be killed trying to escape. He wanted us to think humans were behind it all.” Ari looked at Andreas. “If I'm right, he's not as clever as he thinks he is. This thing made a mistake. Maybe he’s made more. Ryan and I can go back over all the evidence.” She turned to look up at him. “Finish your story from France. Did the demon kill all the villagers?”

“No, they chased it away with torches.”

“So it’s vulnerable to fire,” Ari said. “Witch fire might destroy it, if I could get a direct hit. With his speed, he’d have to be immobilized. Provided he doesn’t kill us first,” she added.

Andreas regarded her with a cynical eye. “How do you propose immobilizing this creature while you set it on fire? No vampire is going to offer to hold it for you.”

Momentarily diverted, Ari’s lips twitched in response. “You’re not interested in becoming a crispy critter for the cause?” Fire was the great equalizer. Andreas was faster, stronger, and could snap her in two or rip out her throat in an instant. But if she used the crimson witch fire, he’d burn like tissue paper. It made for a precarious relationship.