Demon Accords 05.5: Executable (36 page)

I couldn’t find her for a second, but Caeco’s head swiveled to look down at the wood line and, lo and behold, there she was, standing on our side of the wards, facing about seven or eight corpses.  Without even a glance our way, she stepped over the line and right into the middle of the witch-controlled bodies.   At least four arms reached for her, almost simultaneously, one actually touching her shirt.  Purple light flashed out around her figure, and all seven bodies exploded into dust.

A shimmering violet figure hovered just to her side, manlike, before blurring into the woods.  A split second later, all the remaining corpses fell soundlessly to the ground, puppets with their strings cut.  Violet light flashed across the sky uphill, leaving me with a purple after-vision.

I glanced at Chris and saw his normally tan face was pale.

My aunt was watching him as well.  “How did that feel?”

“A little draining, like a sudden drop in blood sugar.  Also, my vision was sort of doubled—my normal sight plus someone else’s.  I also don’t think there will be any more attacks from that particular source,” he added a little grimly.

“So what did it do?” Caeco asked.

“Chris’s dopplegheist or shadow self, lives, for lack of a better word, in that necklace.  It is spelled to be released when the bearer of the necklace is threatened.  The dopplegheist then deals with the threat,” Levi said.

“With supreme effectiveness, it would seem.  But how can it affect such violence?” Dr. Jensen asked.

“According to the book, the spell was created for a witch to form a second self, mostly for observation and to intimidate the witch’s enemies.  But in Chris’s case, and using that God Tear thing as a base, it has much, much greater power.  But it will always draw power from you, Chris, weakening you, distracting you with whatever it sees or hears,” Levi said.

“Then we must train you to deal with both the power drain and the distraction.  We will begin as soon as we get home,” Tanya said, back again in a perfumed swirl of air.

“You just love excuses to train, don’t you,
zayka
?” Chris said.

I have no idea what the word meant, but the super vampire lit up like it meant the world to her.

“Training is vital,” Caeco said.

“I like this one, Christian.  She is a kindred spirit,” Tanya said, smiling at Caeco.

“Well, we need to be cleaning up this mess and the mess in the woods, then I’m to bed,” Aunt Ash said.

Aunt Ashling was right… there was a lot to do.  Rory and Levi disassembled the circle while my aunt put away her unused supplies.  Caeco, Chris, and I got the wonderful job of pulling the fallen bodies into our land and burning them to ash.  It was disgusting, and I couldn’t wait to draw every erg of power from the dwindling fires, effectively exhausting their fuel and putting them out.  The flash of white fire that consumed the corpses was so hot, it melted some of the rocks on the ground.

Tanya and Darci drove up the road in Darci’s cruiser to check the cemetery.  When they got back, we were just finishing up.

“What did you find?” Chris asked.

“A ritual space surrounded by twelve piles of dust.  Tanya says the dust was human remains.  We also found two rental vehicles with purses and clothes.  Addresses on the ID all down in North Carolina.”

“That’s where the book was found.  Several Circles of witches tried to get it from us down there, but I don’t remember their names… it was just before I got shot,” Chris said.

“Christian, do you remember the name that your little blonde cur laughs about?” Tanya asked.

“Stacia?  Yeah, she says there was an old lady witch with one of the Circles down south named Cercia Swallows, which always makes her laugh.”

“You laugh right alongside her, Christian,” Tanya said, her voice a little chill. 

“Well, it is an unfortunate name, you have to admit,” he said, mouth twitching in an almost smile..

“Was… it
was
an unfortunate name.  Found it on the license in a purse on the front seat of one of the cars,” Tanya said.

“Circle of the Eastern Star,” Aunt Ash said.  “They were customers.  Bought supplies through the website.”

“So you have two rental cars with money, wallets, and I.D. in a cemetery less than a half mile away, and no bodies.  That’s going to lead to questions, won’t it, Deputy?” Chris asked.

“It would,
if
the personal items were still in the cars.  I believe they are now missing,” Darci responded with a glance at Tanya.  “So the cars will be found, but nothing else.  Macomb Road is the most direct route south out of Castlebury.  Not unusual to find an abandoned car on it.”

“You have no problem with that
, Deputy?” he asked.

“I have a problem with supernatural forces attacking my family, forces that could never be brought to justice the mundane way,” she said hotly.

He nodded.  “Yeah, I’m told I had the same issue when I was a cop as well.”

Darci looked surprised at that, but before either could speak, Tanya interrupted.  “Christian, we need to drag this Godforsaken book back to its vault in the city.” She turned to my aunt.  “Mistress witch, I have instructed my people to transfer payment to your bank account.  You as well, Mr. Guildersleeve.”

“But we never gave you our bank information?” my aunt said.

“No… you didn’t.  Christian, I want to get home so we can check on Toni and start training,” she said, gathering up the pail.  “Thank you all so much.”

She shook hands all around except she put the pail down to hug myself and Caeco, then vanished out the door.

“She’s not big on goodbyes,” Chris said, looking after her.  He, too, shook hands, but when he came to where the Rory, Caeco, and I were standing, he paused.  “Declan, remember what I said about choices and friends.  Caeco, keep an eye on him and you—” he pointed at Rory “—keep an eye on both of them.”

“Mr. Gordon, I’d ask that you test that
thing
we created a great deal more before burdening that poor wee girl with it.  You wouldn’t want to be causing a massacre at primary school over a harsh word or something, now would you?”

“Believe me, Ms. O’Carroll, I wish I didn’t have to put this on her.  And as my girlfriend indicated, my immediate future will be nothing but testing and training.  But when I agreed to be Toni’s godfather, I put her life in immediate and never-ending danger.  It’s already been proven that I can’t always be there to protect her, and my main job seems to be closing all these damned demon portals that keep opening.”

We must have frowned at him because he took a minute to explain that random portals to Hell were popping up around the globe.  They apparently were the result of some side effect of the Large Hadron Collider in Europe.

“Ah, Chris, about the portal thing.  What’s going to happen at Samhain… er… Halloween?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Samhain is the point in the year when the barriers between worlds naturally thins the most.  Won’t that have an effect on these portals?”

He stared at me for a full three seconds.   “Wow, that’s a little ray of sunshine, isn’t it?”  He thought about it some more.  “I may need to call on your consulting services again, Ms. O’Carroll, and your nephew’s, as well.”

Looking worried, he turned and headed outside, waving one last time before climbing into the passenger side of the sleek little Mercedes.  The engine revved and the car shot out of our parking lot, turning left and accelerating up Macomb hill.

With that, the rest of us said our goodnights.  Rory would spend the night with me in the metal man cave while Caeco and her mom headed home.  Levi left for his own place, and my aunt and Darci disappeared into their room.

Rory woke me up the next morning, earlier than I would have liked, his snoring sounding like a dull chainsaw unable to cut through a thick tree.

I threw a pillow, two smelly socks, and a sneaker at him, but the noise continued, unaffected.  I contemplated levitating him up and out the door, thinking that leaving him on the roof of someone’s car would be really funny, but I noticed that it had gotten cold enough to frost overnight.  Embarrassing my buddy was fine.  Causing frostbite, not so much.

So I climbed into sweats and headed inside.  Nobody was in the living quarters, so I entered the restaurant.  It was packed.  Sometimes, when we hang out our psychic
do not disturb
sign, it has almost the opposite effect when we take it down.  Like unnaturally driving people away brings them back in droves when you stop.  Rory says it’s a supernatural return to the mean.  That’s too much math for me, but I get his point.

The place was jumping. Every table was full, and I could see my aunt across the main dining room, her back to the big picture window. She was talking to a table of people, but I couldn’t see who they were.  I snagged a mug and filled it with coffee, mixing in lots of sugar and cream, then turned to sneak back out.  From across the room, my aunt’s gaze pinned me in place.  She waved me over, a glint of something in her eyes.

Wondering if I had left a random body part from one of the revenants lying around, I crossed the main room slowly, pausing to return greetings from some of the regulars who were enjoying Sunday breakfast.

As I got closer, I could see that there were four people at the table, and then I could see that they were all women.  Young ones.  A blonde, a brunette, a bottle-bright redhead and… oh, shit… a girl with black hair.  I froze in place, unable to take a step forward, then started to pull power.

My aunt’s head snapped up and she made a short, sharp motion with her hand.  The empty chair at the table just to my right shot out six inches and banged into my shin hard enough to make my eyes water.  The power I had been gathering fled in the face of the unexpected pain. 

The couple at the table with the chair that attacked me looked startled, but not unduly so.  It probably looked like I’d hooked the chair with my foot or something. 

“Sorry about that,” I muttered while pausing to rub my shin.  Straightening up, I continued forward to meet my aunt and the four other faces now turned in my direction. 

All four of the Sisters Eire watched me from their table in front of the picture window, but I kept my eyes locked on my aunt’s.  Her sharply delivered chair message had my full attention.

“We never caught up on your Friday night outing with yer lads, Declan, but these fine ladies tell me they met you in Burlington,” Aunt Ash noted.  She was angry.

“Rory’s dad won a gift certificate to Katie’s for the night they played.  We had a bit of encounter after.  With your guests around yesterday, I wasn’t able to talk to you about it,” I said, trying to hold my temper.

“We were a bit shocked to meet Declan when we did, but he was actually brilliant, coming to Ryanne’s rescue and all,” Aileen said in a smooth, even tone.  The four sisters could obviously sense the tension between my aunt and me but were gamely carrying on.  “Then we were in Williston last night, shopping for some of this and that, when we felt a bloody great Crafting froom this direction.  And another and another.  So we thought to drive this way today and find the root of it, ye see,” she continued. 

“That’s right, Ms. O’Carroll.  First, to meet yer talented nephew, then to come across such a use of power.  What are the odds?” Gael asked.

“Indeed, ladies.  I can’t find fault with
your
curiosity, even a mite.  But Declan, lad, surely we could have found just a wee moment yesterday to discuss your new friends?” Aunt Ashling asked.  I got her unspoken message pretty clear. 
After all these years, how could ye fock this up so grandly, lad
was what she probably really wanted to ask.  Five female witches waited on my reply while I looked out the window at the Rowan tree that had done its best to protect us.

“Oh, I’m sure I could have done better, Aunt Ash.  But you seemed pretty tied up with your clients, and I thought it a poor time to distract you with my mistakes,” I said, unable to keep my tone apologetic.  Her eyes widened a bit, but before she could respond, Mary, the really quiet sister, spoke.

“If ye had a hand in the workings we sensed, then truly you were Crafting at a level that none of us have ever seen before.  It seemed incredibly complex and easy to bollox.”

Breaking off her hard stare at me, Aunt Ash acknowledged the complement with a nod and a smile.  She pulled a chair over from another table and sat down with the Sisters.  I started to step backward, but another chair wiggled at me, so I grabbed it quick before it caught any of the regular people’s attention. Turning to the table once more, I found a space had opened between Gael and Ryanne, both of whom were listening to my aunt but watching me with smiles.

“Here now, we’ll just split him between us, eh, Ry?” Gael asked with a smirk. 

“Bite ‘cher tongue dear, there’ll be no splitting of nothing,” Ryanne replied, giving her sister a mock glare and tugging on my chair as if to pull it closer to hers.  I was very aware of her jean-clad leg almost touching mine. 

Aunt Ash had, in the time I had taken to sit down, deftly changed the topic from the recent spell crafting to news of Ireland.

“Have ye been away a while, then?” Aileen asked.

“A while indeed,” my aunt replied.

“Ye know our mum used to tell about a pair of sisters, one named Ashling, the other Maeve, who were absolutely brilliant at the Craft.  They disappeared a long time ago,” the blonde witch continued.  “You wouldn’t be one of the same, now would ye?”

“When
I
left Ireland, the elders always took it upon themselves to tell young witches who they could or couldn’t marry.  Does that still go on?” Aunt Ashling asked without answering the question.

“No, it’s knackered out.  There’s too much communication, what with cellies and e-mails, for the old bats to keep us under their thumbs.  We pretty much have our own say now,” Gael supplied.

A deep male voice cleared itself behind me and I turned to find Michael West standing about fifteen feet away, waiting to catch my attention.  I excused myself, moving to meet him.

“Have you got a couple of minutes, Declan?” he asked, looking over my shoulder curiously.

“They’re all witches.  All four sisters,” I explained as I led him toward an empty two-person table near the wall.

“Really?  Will you introduce me?  We’re always looking for possible recruits,” he said.

“Sure, but what’s up?”

“We’ve been doing our homework, checking into the college/academy thing that Director Stewart mentioned.  During part of it, I checked your school record and discovered that by the end of this semester, you’ll have met all your graduation requirements.  You can graduate high school early and we can start the program this spring.  What do you think?”

“What?  Really?  But what about Caeco?” I asked.

“Caeco doesn’t have any form of a high school record.  We’re creating one based on her training and education.  Based on where she tests out, she would have likely graduated high school last year.  So we’ll just mock up a transcript and she’ll be ready, as well.  I already spoke to her and her mom this morning.  Her answer was that she’ll go if you go,” he said, grinning at the last part. 

My head was reeling.  First I find the Sisters Erie in my dining room and now I had the chance to blast out of high school early and start college.  

“Mr. West, a fine good morning to you.  What brings you here today, sir?” my aunt asked.  I turned and found her approaching our little table.

“I had some rather exciting news for Declan, which I’ll let him explain.  I’ll just introduce myself to the young ladies over there,” he said, holding his chair for my aunt.

He fished a business card case out of his suit pocket and approached the Sisters Erie while I explained his news.

My aunt looked a little stricken, like it was bad news or something.

“What’s the matter, Aunt Ash?  I’m sorry I messed everything up with the Sisters, but I honestly thought they were just an Irish band and then I thought that guy was going to assault Ryanne.  I’m sorry, Aunt Ash, but I can’t ever sit by and watch that sort of thing without interfering.  I don’t think I ever will.”

“Oh, it’s not that, lad.  I know why ye did what ye did, and I wouldn’t want ye to change a thing.  But this news, well, I know it makes you happy, but it’s so fast… so unexpected.”

“Ha. You’re not ready for me to move out?  You don’t want me to go far away to college, do you?” I guessed.

She shook her head, eyes glimmering with unshed tears, and my heart caved.  “Aunt Ash, they gave Caeco and me the choice of where to go, you know that, right?  Well Caeco doesn’t care, so I’m the one who gets to choose.  I’m choosing UVM, right in Burlington.  It meets all their criteria, and they’ll just set up an additional training and living facility nearby.  So I’ll be all of about twenty-five miles away.”

Her eyes widened at that and she lunged across the table to hug me, which greatly amused the two tables of guests eating nearby.  I could feel my fair skin burning bright red, but I sucked it up and hugged her back.  Truth be told, I wasn’t all that excited to completely leave my aunt… aunts, and Levi far behind.  Burlington would be just fine.

Mike West came back over about five minutes later.  Aunt Ash and I were talking about finances when he arrived at our table, so I turned to him for clarification.

“Mike, there’s a scholarship thing, right?”

“Yes, Declan.  It covers tuition and books at the University.  Room and Board is at our facility, so that is covered by our operating budget.  Basically a free ride for you and Caeco, as well as some others,” he said, glancing quickly over his shoulder before looking back at my aunt and me.

“See, Aunt Ash?  It’s covered,” I said.

“So it seems to be, but what I was saying, lad, was don’t think you’re stuck with this program.  If it doesn’t work out or if you’re not liking it in other ways, we can afford alternatives,” she said.

“How?  I’d need a scholarship from somewhere,” I said.

“Ye got one, and its name is Demidova.  The money that girl put in our account is more than enough to cover yer schooling,” she said.

“Oh, so two weeks ago, it looked like I’d have to go to community college and now I’ve got choices coming out the wazoo,” I said.

“Timing is everything, Declan, remember that.  Anyway, no rush on your answer.  Just let me know when you decide,” Mike commented.

I glanced at my aunt, who nodded.  “That’s okay, Mike.  I’ve already decided.  Graduating early sounds awesome.  Let’s do it.”

His face lit up in a relieved smile.  “Oh thank God.  I was really hoping you’d say that.  Okay, lots to do.  I’ll be in touch and you have my cell number, right?”

We both nodded, and he turned and headed out.  An older couple who come every Sunday stopped to speak to my aunt, and I used the interruption to sneak away.  I made it halfway across the dining room when a pretty face appeared before me.  Ryanne, looking cute and uncertain in faded jeans and a light gray sweater.

“Declan, did that West man tell you?  I’m going to University with ye,” she said in an excited voice.  “At least if me application goes through.” 

“Er… what?” was all I could come up with. 

“Well, Mr. West explained his organization, Oracle, and said he could tell we were witches and the like.  Part of his gift, ye see.  He said they had a special program like, and that you and some others were in the program.  Then he asked if I was interested like.  I never got to University, what with touring with me sisters, but I could go in the winter when we’re not busy, then catch up with the others for the summer.  I could start in January, like you, right?”