9. Pieces Of Me.
Lil thought that Mister Evan had the Chronic Body Part Plop. And, she reasoned, the only way he could have caught this, and given it to Bill, was if he had either, A: Gone to the lower realms, or B: Been in contact with someone who had gone to the lower realms and caught the disease. She suspected option B, and that Mister Evan had been the mysterious vampire that had bought the soulstone off of Delios. She knew that Von Drais and his cronies were staying at the same hotel, and planned to march straight to the vampire’s room and confront him. With any luck, they might even find the long sought after soulstone as well.
There was one, glaring problem with this plan.
Lil sighed as he looked down at Mister Evan’s dismembered body.
“You know,” she said, “this is starting to get ridiculous.”
“Tell me about it,” said Tome. “Every time we try to talk to someone lately, they’re either dead, or get killed just as they tell us something important. Really. Some people are just so inconsiderate.”
The door of the hotel room had been unlocked as they arrived. They entered to find Mister Evan slumped in an arm chair in his hotel room. His shirt was stained with blood from a large gaping wound in his chest. Both arms lay on the floor, his head was in his lap.
“This is like the third body I’ve seen with detachable limbs,” said Lil. “I think I may actually be getting desensitised.”
“Well, hurrah for you. If that’s the case, I’ll just wait outside.”
“Freeze.” Lil looked at the corpse closely. “Mike, look at this.”
“Oh, funny. Not going to happen.”
“Stop being such a drama queen and look at the mangled corpse.”
Tome sighed, then with every ounce of will he had, turned his head and stared blankly at the body. “What?”
“What’s missing from this scene? What was in all of the others that is noticeably absent from here?”
Tome frowned as he thought.
“Blood, you moron,” Lil snapped when he took too long. “There was blood everywhere with the last killings. There’s hardly any here.”
Tome’s features relaxed. “Oh, I see.” He prodded the body with the tip of his foot. With a loud plop, Mister Evan’s leg dropped out of his pants leg, severed from the knee down.
“Well,” he said to Lil. “This covers the body plop theory. This is clearly a two week period of illness. He could have gotten it from Delios easily.”
“So he did get the soulstone. Son of a bitch! The killer was working for Von Drais all along?”
“I don’t know. Something seems... iffy.”
“Well, let’s search the place before we get company,” suggested Lil.
Tome looked at her with renewed respect, but just a little apprehension. “I’m not sure about this new you. All this sneaking around the authorities... I think you’re going to lead me astray.”
“Shut up and search.”
Tome grinned and started searching the closet, while Lil pawed through the drawers of the dressing table. She had the distinct feeling someone else had already done the same.
“So you figure someone killed him to stop him blabbing to us?” said Tome as he worked.
“Maybe. There is a remote chance he doesn’t actually have anything to do with the killings...” They exchanged bemused looks and said together, “Yeah, right.”
“Hello,” said Tome. He pulled a large square case from the closet. It was a steel cage with tiny holes along the sides. When he gave it a shake, something inside hissed. “We found our snake handler.”
“Not just that,” said Lil. With one hand, she held up a sheet of paper for him to see. It had a quick sketch of the summoning circle written on it. With the other she held up a small stoppered vial filled with a silvery fluid.
“Now that’s awfully convenient,” remarked Tome.
“Isn’t it,” said Lil. “Two days we’ve been scraping through the dark and now this?”
“Don’t suppose you found the soulstone?”
“No. Didn’t think I would. Whoever killed him probably took it.”
“Typical. No one ever considers how hard it is for us. They have to make it difficult.”
“Well,” Lil said reluctantly, glancing at the body. “I guess we ought to call Ryan...”
“Don’t bother,” replied a familiar voice by the door.
Lil made a face, then slowly looked over to Ryan standing in the doorway, flanked by Agent Santiago. “Hey, Hugh. We were about to call you... This isn’t what it looks like.”
“Uh, yeah,” agreed Tome. “He was like that when we found him.”
Ryan approached the body and swore.
“Crime scenes guys are on their way,” said Santiago. She looked over her shoulder to see Tome grinning at her.
“Hey there,” he greeted her.
“Uh, hi.”
“What happened to your hand?” he asked. Her right hand was bandaged heavily.
“Oh, nothing. Last night I was sorting through the victim’s stuff and a snake jumped out at me.”
“It bit you?” Tome looked worried.
“No,” Santiago said sheepishly. “I fell over and knocked over a glass. Cut my hand. It was weird, though. The snake kept trying to bite me, but it was like it kept... bouncing off something before it could reach me.”
“You don’t say.”
“Then it seemed to get upset and coiled into a ball. It didn’t even try to attack the animal control guy that came for it. I think it might have been crying. Do snakes actually cry?”
“Only when they watch girly films. Or Anaconda. I don’t suppose you were carrying something on you last night? A little charm, looked like a dead mouse?”
“Now that you mention it, I did bag something like that last night.”
“Great. I was wondering where that went. Don’t suppose I could get it back, do you? I’d order a new one, but those Anasasi guys really screw you with the postage and handling...”
“Uh, Mike,” interrupted Lil. “Could you possibly have this conversation later?”
“Sure. In fact if Agent Santiago isn't busy on Saturday-”
“Mike! Much, much later.”
Tome rolled his eyes. “Fine. Work, work, work... Honestly.”
“I don’t suppose you saw this guy buy it as well?” said Ryan.
“No, like Mike said, like this when we got here.”
Ryan took the sheet of paper from Lil and looked at it. “Jesus, is this our guy?”
“I’m not so sure. This seems a little convenient. Can I ask,” Lil said carefully, “how you managed to get here so fast?”
“Our guys spotted you at de Hood’s place. You left in a hurry, so they tailed you.”
“You had me followed?” Lil asked in irritation.
Ryan shrugged. “Call it a hunch. Where you go, bad things tend to happen. Right wasn’t I?”
“Not really. Mister Evan wasn’t killed the same way.”
He looked at the body mockingly. “Really? So what, he cut himself shaving?”
Tome gaped in mock concern. “Was that a joke, Hughie? Dear God, what happened? You finally get that pole-ectemy and have the rod taken out your arse?”
“He was stabbed,” Lil said before Ryan could respond. “Look at the chest wound. That’s where all the blood came from. The rest of his limbs fell off from the plop.”
“The what?”
“The plop. You know CBP...”
“Oh, that again.”
“Right. We think, he might’ve contracted it from a half demon smuggler named Delios. Or Delia, depending on what time of the day you catch him... her. Anyway, Delios sold Mister Evan here the soulstone that the suspect is using to control the angel.”
“I’m sorry,” said Santiago. “The angel?”
“Sure. Didn’t Ryan tell you?” Lil looked at Ryan, who in turn looked away. She pursed her lips. “Well, this angel has his soul trapped in the soulstone, which should be a crystal t
hing the killer uses to draw those summoning circles. Oh, there aren’t any here, are there Mike?”
“First thing I checked,” Tome said irritably.
“Good. Anyway, whoever has soulstone can control the angel, make it kill whoever he wants. For some reason, he’s killing people with Bill’s bloodline...”
“How do you know that?” Ryan asked.
“Uh, a little bird told me,” said Lil. She didn’t want Poe to get into trouble.
“Right, a little bird with no hair,” said Ryan unimpressed.
“Anyway,” Lil went on. “Stop me if I’m wrong, but I think someone bumped off Evan here to silence him. He bought the soulstone from Delios, and he probably knew how to draw the circles. If this is his handwriting,” she pointed to the paper Ryan was holding. “Come to think of it, he was suppose to be visiting several of the victims sometime before they died.”
“And our fourth victim knew him,” joined in Ryan.
“Which doesn’t explain who did him in,” pointed out Tome.
“Maybe he wasn’t working alone,” said Lil.
“I suppose so, I mean,” Tome picked up Evan's head, “he isn’t the brightest looking fellow is he?”
“Put that back!”
“Just look at that sloping forehead,” Tome went on. “Got Neanderthal written all over him. I bet he actually threw out the dirt I gave him...”
“Tome,” warned Ryan. “Put. The head. Down.”
“Lighten up, Hughie,” said Tome grinning. He placed the head back onto Evan’s lap. “No need to lose your head...” He stopped at peered closely at Evan’s chest wound. Then his grin widened. “I think I know how we can find the accomplice. Tell me, Hughie, how do you kill a vampire?”
“What are you...”
“Seriously, mate, how do you kill a vampire? Traditional way?”
“Fire?” said Santiago. “That’s the first thing they teach us at the DSC. That’s why we get phosphorous rounds for ammo.”
“Good, good. But you never saw Peter Cushing gunning down Christopher Lee with a magnesium phosphate tipped bullet... Wow, I actually said that right. Yay for me. I meant, something to do with the chest region...”
“Stakes,” said Santiago.
“I thought red meat was for werewolves?” said Ryan.
“No,” said Tome, rolling his eyes. “Not steaks, you pillock. Stakes. Wooden stakes.”
“Except,” Lil said, joining Tome at the body. “Not all vampires can be killed by a stake through the heart. Some of the older ones, particularly royals I’m told, just get slightly wounded.”
“Slightly wounded?” asked Ryan.
“Well, not really hurt bad enough to stop them ripping off your head and relocating it elsewhere in your anatomy.”
“Understandably, that sort of thing makes them slightly miffed,” said Tome helpfully.
“You need to completely remove the heart in cases like this,” said Lil. “Burning is preferable.”
“But even I, with my minus ten grade in biology,” said Tome, “can see that didn’t happen here.”
“So what did happen?”
“It’s called a nova-blade, or a starburst. Looks like a long piece of metal, rounded with a sharp tip. You stab it into your enemy, then hit the switch, and the whole thing opens like a flower, slicing apart your insides. Some are battery operated, and spin on the hilt.”
“Instantly pureed heart,” said Lil.
“I’m skipping lunch,” commented Santiago.
“It’s a vampire hunter’s weapon. Not many of those here anymore,” said Tome. “Not since the undead rights laws were passed.”
“But in the old countries,” said Lil. “Places where rogue vampires aren’t policed. Where bounty hunters still roam the lands and men are real men and women are real women. Places like Boravia, where a certain Prince hails from...”
Ryan looked at her. “Von Drais...”
“One of his goons was up to no good,” said Tome. “What about the other?”
Ryan went to the phone and called up the front desk. He identified himself and started spouting off his badge number.
“One thing that doesn’t play right is the snake,” said Tome. “Why did they send the snake? That one time, when we were there? It was superfluous. Unnecessary. The angel could have wiped us out in one go.”
Lil was pondering this when Ryan hung up the phone in disgust.
“He’s gone,” he said. “Checked out this morning, no one knows where.”
“Mmm. Vampires leaving in the daylight, who’d have thunk it,” said Lil.
“The front desk says he left straight after reading a message,” said Ryan dashing for the door. “And he left it there,” he called back as he made for the lifts.
“What? Hugh, wait up!” Lil ran after him, with Santiago in tow.
Tome paused to pick up the steel cage with the snake inside. On his way out, he bumped into two forensics agents from the DSC.
“What’s going on?” one asked him.
“Dead guy’s in there,” Tome said. Then he dumped the cage into his arms. “Little guy’s getting lonely. Since you’re here, you can keep him company.”
“Mike, come on!” Lil shouted at him.
Tome ran off down the corridor, yelling over his shoulder, “Give him positive affirmations. And if he gets antsy, play some music. But not Britney Spears. That will just make him eat himself. You only make that mistake once...”
The four of them rode the elevator down to the foyer, where Ryan approached the front desk with his ID out.
“Agent Ryan, FBI. I talked to you earlier. You said you still had the letter to Karl Von Drais?”
“Oh, right,” said the clerk, looking a little harassed. “It’s right here.”
She handed Ryan a yellow envelope. He opened it quickly and examined the sheet of paper inside it. His expression became confused.
“Is this a joke?” he asked, holding up the sheet. It was blank.
“No, of course not,” said the clerk, insulted. “I didn’t see what the big deal was either. Mister Von Drais came down, snooty and aloof as always, and asked if he had any messages. I gave him the letter. First he stared at it like you did. Then he got upset and started yelling. Wanted to know who left it. I told him I didn’t know. It was here when I came on. I don’t know what the fuss was about. It was just a blank sheet of paper. That’s why I kept it. Waste not want not. But Mister Von Drais and his friend...”
“Mister Evan?”
“No. I don’t like him. He’s not very nice at all. The other one, the young one. Brandtner I think his name his. He’s always polite. Always says good morning, and good evening to the staff...”
“Uh, ma’am,” said Lil reasonably. “We are currently in a hurry.”
“Just like Mister Von Drais and Mister Brandtner. They talked quietly, then just checked out and left. Didn't even take their belongings. Said they send for them. Never heard anything like it in my life...”
“What's so special about this?” asked Santiago taking the paper.
“May I?” said Tome. He plucked the sheet from her fingers, and blew some revelation dust onto it.
The summoning circle appeared on the sheet. The name on this one was Prince Karl Von Drais.
“Crap,” said Lil.
“Oh, that was clever,” said the clerk mildly. “But Mister Von Drais didn’t need to do that. He seemed to see that easily enough by himself. I think it’s because he was a vampire, you see...”
“Yes, thank you, ma’am,” said Santiago. They moved away from her.
“You think he realised what it was?” Tome asked.
“Probably that’s why he left. Shit.”
“So someone’s after Von Drais. Why?” asked Ryan.
Lil shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know? You know everything.”
“Aw, shucks, Hugh, thanks. That means a lot to me. But in this case, I’m a little stumped.” She shru
gged again, then walked off.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“To the office. All this running round is giving me a headache.”
“We need to take your statements,” Ryan called after her.
“So send some guys to follow us and do it later. I need to think.” She went through the door and disappeared.
Tome gave Santiago his card. “There’s a snake upstairs in need of a home. Just send him to this address.”
“Uh, I’m not sure...”
“That’s my home number there, by the way,” Tome pointed out, nodding at the card.
Santiago raised an eyebrow. “Really...”
“Just thought I’d mention it. Well,” he turned to Ryan, and grinned. “Happy hunting.”
He ran after Lil before Ryan could stop him. Ryan fumed silently for a few moments. He was almost to the elevator when he realised Tome had taken Von Drais’ letter with him. It was by the fifth floor that he realised that the piece of paper Lil had found in Mister Evan’s room was gone as well.
“Santiago, do you still have Tome’s card with his address?” he asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Because when this is over, I swear to god, I’m going to hunt down and kill that annoying little prick.”
Santiago just felt the card in her pocket, and smiled.
Lil tapped on the desk restlessly with the small card with Von Drais’ phone number on it. She listened to the phone on the other end ring continuously with growing impatience. Finally a gruff voice answered.
“What?”
“Von Drais... Your Highnesship, sir?”
“What?” the voice asked again shortly.
“This is Lil Shreiber...”
“I was about to call you? Why weren’t you answering the phone earlier?”
“I was out,” said Lil. “Why didn’t you call my mobile?”
“I don’t have the number. Evan had it, but we don’t know where the idiot’s got to...”
Lil was about to say, in his room in pieces, when it occurred to her that Von Drais didn’t know his man was dead. Didn't they check? She decided not to tell him, not sure why, just having the feeling that it was the correct course of action.
“Uh, Sir, I just came from your hotel... I saw the letter,” she said instead.
“I take it that means I’m not going to be in this world for long, doesn’t it, Miss Shreiber?”
“I wouldn’t say that for certain.”
“But that symbol on the paper is the one that is calling to this creature. The killer.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know who is controlling it yet?”
“Not yet, as such, no.”
Von Drais exhaled loudly on the phone. Lil was glad she wasn’t giving him the news face to face. Angry vampires were just plain freaky.
“Alright,” said Von Drais calmly. “Here is what I want you to do. I want you to find out who is writing out these symbols, and I want you to tell me. Before sundown. If you do that, I will pay you and you idiot partner one hundred thousand dollars, and will be forever in your debt. Do you understand?”
“I do.”
“Then get back to work, and don’t call me unless you have some proper information.”
“Um, right. Just one thing. What happens if we don’t find the suspect by sundown?”
“I’ll be paying you a visit, and you can explain your failure in person.”
Lil didn’t need a hyperactive imagination to realise that would be a very bad thing to happen. “I thought as much,” she said as cheerfully as possibly. “Don’t worry. I’m on the case.”
The phone went dead. She hung up and swallowed.
“So,” asked Tome. “We dead?”
“Yep.”
“Ah. Figures.” He went back to work studying the two letters he had swiped from Ryan with a magnifying glass. “Hmmm,” he hummed thoughtfully.
She came over to his desk. “Please tell me something good.”
“Well, I’m no expert. I would prefer it if Derrick O’Reilly, iconograph master were here. Well, maybe not in the flesh, because he really was an overbearing waste of skin. But maybe in a less corporeal way, unable to speak except for matters of importance...”
“Mike! In a few hours time, a pair of rather scary vampires are going to find us and show us what our internal organs look like on the outside. A little more focus would go a long way.”
“I know. I know. Sorry. My organs would look terrible externally. Well, like I said, no expert, but it appears to me, that these two circles were drawn by different hands.” He pushed them across his desk to her. “One on the right is from Evan’s room. One on the left is from the letter to Von Drais. You can see the difference right?”
Lil looked closely. There was something amiss about the two circles. The one she had found in Evan’s room looked just like all of the others she had seen in crime scenes. The script was neat and flowing. Graceful, even. The second, however, while at first glance appearing to be like the first circle, was different, though Lil could not place why.
It was the lettering at the bottom, where the victims name would be written. The writing wasn’t as neat on the second circle. The last two letters of “Drais” were in linked letters. The first circle, however, had the text “Jerry Howard” in simple but delicate print.
She pointed this out to Tome who nodded.
“All of the others were printed,” Tome said. “At all of the crime scenes. In that girly handwriting too.”
“So whoever wrote this one, isn’t the same person who wrote the others.”
“No. But still, he knows how to draw the summoning circle.”
“Oh, for the love of... So now there are two people?”
“Seems like it.”
“But one of them,” Lil said thoughtfully, “killed Mister Evan. And the other one wants to kill Von Drais.”
“Is it wrong to be rooting for him?”
“Don’t hold your breath. If Von Drais is going to go,” Lil said somewhat nervously, “he’ll probably do his best to take us with him.”
“Just to be awkward. Don’t see why he’s so upset. It’s not as if we asked to be paid in advanced. I’m sure if he read his contract, he’d realise we have that no life no pay policy. Not,” Tome added, “that I’ve ever been fond of that. It’s softness on your part that prevented us from getting paid when Ms Lewis karked it.”
“If I told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times. I don’t like resurrecting the dead in my office. They leave worms everywhere. Besides, what am I suppose to say? Excuse me, Ms Lewis. Sorry to drag your soul out of blissful existence in paradise and for depositing it back into your now decomposing body, but we have the small matter of three weeks plus expenses to work out.”
“You never know,” replied Tome. “She might have gone the other way.”
“Oh, then she’d be really pissed. Dragging her away from the fluffy clouds and puppies is one thing. But they have spas and hot tubs in hell.”
“Yeah,” Tome’s eyes misted over. “It is nice there.”
Lil sighed. “This is getting us nowhere.”
“Let’s start from the beginning.”
“Alright. First, Evan buys soulstone.”
“Right,” said Tome.
“He visits the local vampires, scoping out his victims.”
“With you so far.”
“Then he enters the place...”
“No,” interrupted Tome. “He doesn’t. His accomplice does. Mister Girly Script.”
“Whom we have the sneaking suspicion, may be Von Drais’ bodyguard... Brandtner?”
“Now that’s a stupid name. Sounds like a German sausage. Excuze me, I vould like three Brandtners with zat.”
“Mike.”
“Sorry, I’m with you.”
“So,” Lil went on, “he uses the angel to kill Smith, Olson, Philips and his friends, and then Howard. But then he sends a snake to Sabrina? Does that make sense?”
/>
“The snake was on the summoning circle. It was drawn on a piece of paper underneath,” said Tome.
“But that’s what’s bugging me, why the snake? Why would someone send a snake?”
Tome thought this over. “Well, either he wanted to give the angel a helping hand...”
“Which he never did before.”
“Or,” said Tome slowly. “Maybe he wanted to send a message. Maybe the snake is like a symbol. A marker.”
“He didn’t leave one before.”
“This sausage guy... Brandtner, he didn’t. But maybe he didn’t send us the snake. Remember, he was with Von Drais when we left. Mister Evan however...”
“Was running errands,” said Lil. “We thought the snake in his room was a plant, to make him look like the killer. Like the ink and the circle. But what if it was his? He has to deliver the summoning circle to Sabrina's room. He hasn’t had a chance to draw it there yet, but now he has to rush, because she’s about to show us the connection between the victims. His partner in crime Brandtner is indisposed, so he takes a circle already written out for Sabrina, and sends it up to her room in place of her room service order. But for whatever reason, he decides to add a personal touch. He sends up the snake. Maybe, like you said, he doesn’t trust the summoning circle. He hasn’t used it yet. Or maybe, he just wants the credit for this one.”
“But,” Tome takes over, “the snake adds a new element. A snake can be tracked. Particularly Ripley’s Shadow Vipers. Mister Evan cocks up big.”
“So, Brandtner takes the initiative, and takes out Evan, plants the evidence to make it look like he’s the killer.”
“Which brings us back to the letter to Von Drais,” Tome sighed. “Who wrote it? Mister Evan?”
“Why? To what purpose? If he wanted to kill Von Drais, he could have drawn a summoning circle anywhere in his hotel room.”
“Well, if Mister Evan didn’t write this one, and Brandtner sure as hell didn’t, then that means we have yet another unknown suspect to add to our list.”
“So what’s his involvement?” asked Lil. “And why, oh why, do these three want to wipe out Bill’s bloodline? I mean, if it was someone from Bill’s past trying to get him, then why go after Von Drais as well.”
Tome exhaled in resignation. “Oh sod it. Enough talk. You still have that bottle of ink you got from Evan’s room?”
Lil rummaged through her coat and held up the small vial triumphantly. “Got it!”
“Whoa!” snapped Tome. “Easy! Do you know how volatile that stuff could be? That’s made from the soul of an angel, with a helping of the Divine Light thrown in for good measure. It could very well be the most dangerous substance ever seen on this plane.”
Lil gave him a look. “How dangerous?”
“Would you shake a bottle of nitroglycerine? Because that’s bad. Shaking this thing would be like drilling a hole in a thermonuclear warhead.”
“You’re telling me I’ve been carrying the mystical equivalent of an A-bomb in my pocket for the past hour? Any reason you felt the need not to warn me about this?”
Tome took the vial from her and held it reverently in his hands. “I didn’t want you to worry. At least if it went off, you’d have been surprised.”
“Yeah. Because that’s what I want my last thoughts to be: Whoops, did I do that?”
“Better than, bloody Tome.”
“I’d be thinking that as well. So what are you going to do?”
“Well, I was trying to put this off,” said Tome. “Scrying for something this powerful is going to put me on the receiving end of a whole lot of magical feedback.”
“Can you do it?”
Tome gave her a bemused look. “You’re talking to the guy who once swindled Lucifer out of his wing feathers. And lived to brag about it. I think I can handle a simple scrying spell. If this has part of his soul in it, I think I just might, stress might, be able to use it to locate where he is, and if we’re lucky, where the soulstone is. What worries me is how this Halaphael is going to react when he finds us poking around his aura. He doesn’t strike me as being the most understanding or stable of people.”
“What’s the worse that can happen?” asked Lil nervously.
“Depends on how you define worse. He might just send some feedback which, if you’re lucky, only fries my frontal lobes into a thick gooey sauce. If you aren’t lucky, it might kill us both. And if we’re really unlucky, he might just decide to pay us a visit, if he’s feeling in a hands on mood.”
“Oh, well, if that’s all, I don’t know why I was worried.”
“Yeah, the way you carry on sometimes, Lil...”
From the rather dusty stationary cupboard in the corner, Tome took out all the implements he needed. Several crystals for focusing his aura, larger pendulum that hung from a tripod and two maps of Chapter City. One was a new street map bought at any tourist stop, the other was drawn intricately in black ink on a worn piece of cloth two metres high by three metres long.
This map was Tome pride and joy. The ultimate tool for a scryer. Anyone with half a brain could swing a pendulum. A few could get lucky and even find something useful with it. This map was tuned to Tome’s own aura, and linked it to that of the city itself. Few people could understand how important Chapter City was as a place of power. It extruded its own presence.
What Tome wanted to do was use the map to link himself to the city itself, and scry for the presence of the angel using the ink as a guide. Tome had had some success with the map before. He had successfully managed to track down several missing persons, and once a prized alsatian that had been dog napped. The clarity with which he could sense his target depended upon how good the object he used as a guide was. It needed to have a strong aura of its owner. The alsatian’s favourite chew toy had been surprisingly useful. But nothing could be as good as using an object imbued with the target’s own soul itself.
But, as he had explained, being able to form that good a link was dangerous. A magic user, or a being of power could sense his scrying and take action. It was easiest to just send a bolt of energy along the line of connection back to him. That could be downright nasty. At best, it could give him a pounding migraine. At worse... Well, Lil had a park bench picked out. He would have pigeons for company when he spent the rest of his life sitting in blissful ignorance, lobotomised and drooling.
Lil stuck the street map to the whiteboard on their wall, while Tome stretched out his cloth map gently on the floor, each side aligned perfectly north, south, east and west. He placed a crystal on each corner of the compass exactly. Then he opened up the tripod and set it over the map so that the pendulum hung exactly over the centre of the city from between the three legs.
He stood still over the map, breathing and trying to focus his aura. Amy peered through the door impassively to see what the fuss was about.
“You not doing that again?” she asked.
“Quiet,” Lil hushed her.
“It’s just that, I was the one that had to put the fire out last time,” whispered Amy. “And his eyebrows never really grew back did they? It was almost as bad as that thing with the rabbits...”
“Excuse me,” said Tome angrily. “I’m trying to centre myself here. Would you please not bring up that thing with the rabbits?”
“Sorry, Mike.”
Tome shuddered. “Bloody rabbits,” he muttered.
“Well, as much as I would like to stick around for the show,” said Amy. “My drama club’s meeting tonight. Can I knock off for the day? I don’t feel like dealing with giant flaming bunnies right now.”
“Alright, alright, go!” said Tome. “Just. Stop. Mentioning. The bunnies!”
“Thanks, guys. Bye.”
Amy disappeared. Lil reflected that it was a stroke of luck getting someone as indifferent to her employer’s unusual work as Amy was. She didn’t even seem to care that they’d hired her after her predecessor had gone on sick leave after a mild case of demonic possession. They never had
gotten out all the projectile vomit stains from the ceiling...
“Ready?” she asked.
Tome sighed. “No. But what the hell. Success or copious saliva awaits.” He popped open the stopper on the vial, held his finger on the end and then inverted the vial once. It left a small drop of silver ink on his finger.
He stared at it with trepidation. “You know, no mortal has probably ever experienced something like this.”
“Yeah, I’m dying with envy,” lied Lil.
Tome rolled his eyes, and raised his finger to his forehead. “I just know I'm going to be drooling...” he said, then pressed the ink to his forehead.
His eyes glazed over, and a violent shudder passed through his body. He fell back against his desk.
“Mike!” Lil darted forward.
“No! I’m okay,” he waved her away. “It’s just that was.... Whoa. I could bottle this stuff and make a fortune!” His eyes were still blank and stared into space.
“Mike, are you sure...?”
He waved her back, then took a tentative step forward. He dropped his hand onto the top of the tripod, and the pendulum began to swing. It was a small cone shaped piece of cold iron, its end was filed to a wickedly sharp point. At first the circles it made over the map were small, but slowly it began to swing with a wider and wider radius until it was encompassing the entire city. Then it began to speed up.
“Alright,” Tome gasped. His eyes had rolled into his head, so only two white orbs stared blindly out. “I think I see something. It’s like seeing a bright light when your walking through the fog... Here...”
The pendulum changed its orbit. It was drawn to a certain area of the map, and began revolving in small fast circles over it. Tome felt for the switch on the top of the tripod and flicked it. The length of string holding up the pendulum unwound from the tripod until the sharp pointed tip made contact with the cloth map. Tome rewound the pendulum back to its original height.
“Where is it?” he asked.
Lil peered closely at the map, being careful to avoid the dangerously swinging piece of metal near her head. A small dot of silvery light the width of a pin head glowed on the map. She checked the location twice, then put a pin in her own map to mark the place.
“Somewhere in West Park. Street.... Hilton Avenue.” She paused. Why did that sound familiar?
“Damn it,” said Tome. “That’s where the first murder was. I’m picking up the other summoning circles. That’s the problem with using something like this. Too sensitive.”
“Try not to focus on the weak ones,” Lil told him. “Find something big.”
“Alright. This is giving me a headache...”
Tome concentrated, straining so hard sweat ran down his face. The pendulum continued to make its slow circles around the city. Then suddenly it shot to one side of the map, and Tome’s legs buckled. He gave a cry of shock and fell to his knees, but held tightly to the tripod.
“Mike...” Lil gasped with fright.
“Stay back!” he snapped at her. He fumbled with the switch. The pendulum dropped as if drawn by a magnet. It hit the map with such force it went straight through the cloth and into floor underneath. “If that’s not the angel,” he said weakly, “I’m a cross dressing half-demon.”
Lil took a pen and circled the area on her map. “I think that’s enough...”
“No,” Tome replied. “I’m going to try and find the soulstone. I don’t think that will bite back...”
“Mike, just let go.”
“Hey, trust me.” He grinned his trademark Tome grin. With his eyes all white, it looked haunting.
The pendulum moved out again, swinging around and around the black lines of the city map in steady circles. Then it shot into the South west corner, and Tome slumped down against the tripod.
He grinned crazily. “Found it!” He flicked the switch. The second the pendulum landed, his smile vanished. His mouth opened wide in horror.
“Oh, shit. It’s so deep...” He gripped the tripod tighter. His knuckles went white. “And so huge...”
Lil hasty noted the place on her map. “Alright, Mike let go.”
“But...”
“Michael, let go!”
Tome didn’t move. He made a strange wheezing sound, like the air was being sucked from his lungs. He sank against the tripod but maintained his tight grip.
Lil leapt across the room. She threw an arm around Tome’s neck, and tried to prise his fingers from the tripod as she pulled him back. His grip was like a vice.
Then the vision hit her. All she could see was black. It was darker than the darkest black she had ever known possible. But there was something there. It pulled at her, dragging her downwards. Sucking both of them into it.
With one last heave, she tore away Tome’s hand, and then lost her footing. Suddenly the dark was gone, and there was only light. It was so bright it was painful to look at. She thought, this was what it was like to see a nuclear weapon explode. The light seemed so powerful it could burn straight through you. It was the most glorious thing she had ever seen, and the same time, it was the most terrifying.
Nothing but light. Forever and ever.
Then she hit the floor and the air was knocked out of her. She gasped. Tome lay on top of her, shaking. With the last of her strength, she reached out, and kicked away the nearest crystal atop the map. The connection severed, Tome collapsed.
He took a few shallow breaths. “See?” he gasped. “Nothing to worry about.”
The door to their office opened.
“Hey, guys?” said Amy, “I don’t suppose you’ve seen...” She looked down at them on the ground, drenched in sweat, and rolled her eyes. “Jeez, guys,” she said with infinite patience. “I told you this would happen.”
Tome sat on the ground leaning against his desk. He was still freaked out.
“That’s one for the books,” he said. “I bet no one in living history has had a scrying experience like that. That was complete contact. Usually only high level telepaths can do that. I’m even better than I thought I was.”
“We almost died,” replied Lil.
“Nah. Not even close. That thing was the soulstone. A real beauty by the looks of it. Like a hoover on steroids.”
“You’re saying it would have sucked out our souls?” asked Lil.
Tome nodded solemnly. “It almost had me too,” he said. “Uh... Thanks by the way.”
“Don’t mention it. Ever. People would never look me in the eye if they knew I saved your life.” Lil paused. “What was that light? Was that... the Divine Light?”
He nodded again. “A bona fide piece of the Highest Realm itself. How many mortals have ever seen that?”
“Maybe people have, they just don’t talk about it. I mean... it wasn’t anything like I expected.”
“What were you expecting?” Tome asked. “Choral singers? Harps? Puppies?”
“But how can something so... beautiful, be so horrible at the same time. That light...” she shivered with the memory. “It was the worse thing I’ve ever seen,” she admitted.
“I know the feeling,” said Tome. “I ever tell you about the Lowest Realm? No one really goes there. The journey alone takes ages. You travel through long dark caverns, lower and lower. Finally you step out, past the last of the torches, and you’re standing on the edge of the universe overlooking the Lowest realm. There’s just a rickety looking wooden jetty hanging out over nothing but black. No walls, no ground, no sky. Just black. No light penetrates it. And if you stand there long enough, you can hear the things inside, whispering, slithering, calling you down.”
“And if you descend?” Lil asked.
“Nothing but darkness for all eternity. The Highest and Lowest realms are just the opposites of one another, made when time began. So, if the Lowest realm is the ultimate dark, then the highest would be nothing but the blinding ultimate light. Good, evil... at that point it doesn’t matter. They're just the most extremes of both.”
Lil sighed. “No wonder Halaphael came back out.”
“Speaking of which,” said Tome, pulling himself wearily to his feet. “Where did the pendulum land?”
“I couldn’t be sure,” said Lil. She pointed at the place she had circled on the map. “Around here somewhere. South Whitegrove.”
“What’s there?”
“I’m not sure. Nothing I’d have thought an angel could hide in. Maybe he was just flying over on his way to Von Drais.”
“No, he only goes out at night, after sunset,” said Tome. “He craves the dark remember? He’d probably want something like a warehouse, or a boarded up building.”
“Well, there’s nothing like that down there,” said Lil irritably. “Except for...” She looked at the map. So did Tome. They exchanged glances.
“That seems so obvious when you think about it,” remarked Tome.
“Yeah. Where is an angel going to go on this plane? If he feels homesick...”