Last Breath (23 page)

How could this happen? I had no idea what Araziel had been doing the last three days, but it seemed he wasn’t gone after all. And now, in addition to sending a demon back to hell, I still needed to deal with a killer angel.

It scared me like nothing had so far this week. Araziel, right outside my apartment building. Had the angel killed a random passerby and dumped him here, or was this this dead guy another mage from the Fiore Noir list?

“Is this a common thing for you Templars?” Raven was trying not to look at the dead body, her complexion somewhat green.

“I’m beginning to think it’s a common thing for me.” I pulled my car in one of my neighbor’s spots, making a mental note to move it later before it got towed.

It must have just happened, otherwise there would have been a crowd around the body and cops on the way. We both stood, me looking down at the body, Raven feigning interest in the vomit illusion. As suspected, the chest cavity was empty. There was also the typical lack of blood. Did Araziel somehow cauterize as he killed? Without blood it was hard to tell if the angel had whacked the guy here or brought him to my doorstep like a cat would a dead mouse offering.

“Another demon slaying or is this the angel guy?” Raven’s voice was overloud as she struggled to keep from losing her calm.

“Angel.”

She took a sharp breath. “Bliss’s angel? Bliss’s angel is still running around killing people?”

“I think he’s killing very specific people. Well, aside from two who I think may have been collateral damage.”

Specific people, which meant if my theory was correct, this dead man was on our list of Fiore Noir. I’d gone through Ronald Stull’s pockets. There was no reason for me to be squeamish about going through this guy’s, so I did.

Raven watched horrified. Or maybe fascinated. It was hard to tell, but I was betting on the first. My tough friend wasn’t so tough when it came to corpses. Not that I blamed her. I’d been trained to be a warrior and still felt my heart flip every time. My first dead body was less than a week ago and somehow I’d seen a dozen or so since then. Jaded in a matter of days.

The dead man wore his pants a little on the snug side, so there was some jostling of the body as I searched it. Plus I’d needed to nearly flip him over to get the wallet out of his back pocket. The contents of his pockets weren’t as interesting as Ronald’s had been. This man had car keys, some change, and a wallet. I pulled out the ID and read the name, then stuck it back in his pants pocket.

John Ash. I wiped my hands on my own pants and pulled out my cell phone. Sure enough, the name was on the list from Alban’s house.

“Okay let’s go. You got the Chinese food?”

Raven blinked at me. “Yeah. Are we just going to leave him here?”

“I’m working with the police on similar murders. This guy is in my parking spot. Guess how long I’ll be tied up talking to the cops?” Tremelay was probably still busy processing the Dead Run crime scene. I’d call him later. In the meantime I had work to do if I was going to be ready to summon a demon by tomorrow midnight. This was Fells Point. Someone would come across John Ash soon enough and call it in. If not, I’d do it once I got some answers.

Raven grimaced. “Good point.”

If we missed our midnight window, I wouldn’t get the answers I needed for tomorrow night. Yes, the smoke demon seemed able and willing to show up even at noon, but I wanted this to be on
my
terms. And I wanted to make sure Raven could help me. I’d screwed up two summonings so far. I might be a little stubborn about it, but I was beginning to realize my limitations and the price I’d pay for ignoring them. That demon had marked me. He could clearly come and go at will. I needed someone with experience to ensure he went back to hell without taking my soul with him.

Once upstairs, I pushed aside my guilt over leaving a dead guy on the pavement and began rolling up my rug while Raven pulled the food out and put it on the kitchen table. John Ash was a murderer. He deserved what he got. Besides, I couldn’t really judge angelic morality. Ash might not have known Bliss was angel-marked, but that didn’t excuse what he did. How many non-marked people had died at his hands, their very souls stolen away? The mood I was in tonight I was more than ready to cheer Araziel on.

Except I wasn’t sure where the angel would stop. After everyone died from the list, would he continue on to cleanse the world of some other wrong? I couldn’t allow an angel vigilante to run around.

Not that I knew what to do about it. I couldn’t banish him. I couldn’t control him. I’d need to talk to Dad and see if there were any texts dealing with this kind of situation. Or maybe I could convince Athena to put me in contact with someone at The Temple.

“Here.” Raven shoved a container of noodles and a pair of chopsticks into my hands. “You eat. I’ll work on the circle.”

I did just that, watching my friend work. It was amazing the little differences I could see between what she was scribing and what I’d done last time. Just watching her made me feel like a silly amateur. Book knowledge was nothing compared to experience, and I was realizing that my scant months of experience in Haul Du hadn’t been enough. What an arrogant jerk I’d been to think myself a peer to people who had been practicing magic on a daily basis for years. I should have stuck to charms and simple spells and held off higher works until I’d put in the legwork needed to do it safely.

Of course that would mean having someone to mentor me. Difficult, since none of the magical groups would associate with me. Heck, I couldn’t even buy a candle in a magic shop anymore. There was allegedly a price on my head, for Pete’s sake.

“There. See how I looped fire and Sagittarius so there’s an overlap across the edge? That will strengthen your southern quarter. If a demon’s going to try to break out, he’ll always go for the southern quarter first.”

I set the noodles on the counter and walked over to look closely at the chalk marks. “Okay. So the demon finds the circle reinforced here. Won’t he just move around the perimeter until he finds a weak spot?”

Which was what Innyhal had done.

Raven grinned up at me. “That’s why we put a spark-spell right here.” She pointed to the tip of the arrow in the Sagittarius symbol. “The demon sees the spark and thinks he’s discovered a weakness, so he keeps working the south quarter.”

I shook my head in confusion. “Then you have a demon who isn’t paying any attention to you because he’s bashing himself against the fire rune. Why bother? Can’t you just make the circle super reinforced all the way around?”

Raven chuckled, bending her head to continue her chalk work. “Yeah, if you only want to have a conversation with the demon, then that’s fine. If you want a favor, or a gift then you have to leave enough of an opening to receive it. Circles need to be porous enough for there to be an exchange of energy, otherwise why bother summoning a demon at all? Just go read a book or something.”

I was beginning to understand. “Open enough to receive what you want, but strong enough to hold a demon. Like a chain link fence?”

She nodded. “Yep. And there’s another reason you don’t want to lock the circle down too tight. It makes you look weak. Anyone
that
paranoid is someone who is going to eventually screw up, someone who doesn’t have a whole lot of confidence in their spells so they layer them on top of each other as back up. Demons love that shit. They’ll scream and rage and cause a scene, then flatter the mage with praise of his amazing spell-work. But one day there will be a tiny crack and they’ll be on him like flies on shit. Well-crafted spells with an open weave show the demon that you’re skilled and confident.”

“The demon thinks that if he breaks through, you’ve got enough power to whoop his ass outside the circle.”

“Exactly.” Raven eyed the eternity symbol for a second, then thickened one of the lines. “You could be bluffing, but I’d suggest if you’re going to summon even the most helpful of Goetic demon, you have a backup, because sooner or later one of them is going to get out.”

I looked over at my sword. Maybe I wasn’t as inept as I thought. Other mages might have amulets, but I had a consecrated weapon. I also had my blessing, although that didn’t seem to be consistently working lately. I rubbed the mark on my side and wondered if it would ever work again. Was I forever tainted? Had some of the advantages I had as a soldier of God been revoked? There was nothing that said Templars couldn’t summon demons. King Solomon had bound them and put them to work building the Temple with God’s blessing.

You’re no King Solomon
. My father’s words rang from my memory. I wasn’t. And Templars generally frowned upon dealing with higher spirits. Librarian Templars felt summoning for information was cheating and not worth the risk. Guardian Templars got twitchy at the idea of a demon on this side of the veil, with the possible threat to the Temple and all it held. Knights in general felt the only place for a demon was in hell. And although they’d never say it out loud, they weren’t at ease at any sign there might be an angel among us. Messengers of God… well, they often carried a message no one wanted to hear.

“There.” Raven stood and rolled her neck before handing the chalk to me. “I’m going to eat while you draw the sigils. I know you’re good at that. Heck, you’re probably better at that than I am.”

Her praise did more for my self-confidence than if King Solomon had delivered it himself. I might have hidden from my Latin lessons, but as a child I could never get enough of sigil work. I’d buried my nose in books of demon and angel lore, spent hours in the null room drawing and charging. I could feel the energy as my chalk moved along the floor, the different mix of emotion and sensation that each sigil developed as the lines came together. Raven was scraping the last of her Kung Pao Beef out of the container by the time I was done. I stood. I stretched. And I knew even before I saw Raven’s nod that I’d done a good job.

“So who are we summoning?” Raven walked around the outside of the circle, surveying my work with an appreciative eye.

“I’ve got no idea.”

She jerked to a stop, staring at me open mouthed. “What do you mean? You can’t just open the veil and do a blanket summoning. That’s suicide.”

I wasn’t sure how to explain this to her without getting into my demon mark. I’d rather she not know about that. It was bad enough that Tremelay and Athena knew. Raven would think I was even more of an idiot, screwing up and getting myself marked. It was so embarrassing.

Tempest and Oak had screwed up and gotten killed. That made me better than them, although I doubted my survival had much to do with superior magical skills.

“Remember when I called you and told you not to summon Vine? That some other demon, a powerful, higher level one, had come in his stead?” I waited for her to nod. “I banished him, but not before he got out of the circle and marked me.”

I heard her sharp intake of breath. “Let me see.”

I pulled up my shirt and felt her fingers on my skin.

“Oh, Aria. Damn it all.” There was a hitch in her voice as she said the last word. Then she murmured something in Greek under her breath and the mark felt like it was on fire. Not wanting to look like a wimp, I squinted, gritted my teeth and rode out the pain.

“It’s a Sun demon.” Her hands left my waist and she walked over to the window, her back toward me. “It’s our fault. It’s
my
fault. We took you in, taught you the bare basics, then we threw you out.”

As bitter as I was about it, the whole thing wasn’t
completely
their fault. “I’m a Templar. I hid that from you. I hate that it makes a difference to the entire magical community though.”

She shook her head. “They’re afraid. Even if you haven’t taken your Oath, you’re still obligated to snatch any magical artifact and take it to the Temple. Plus there’s the whole secrecy thing. Templars
have
to share information. We have an expectation of non-disclosure, and you can’t guarantee that.”

No I couldn’t. It still hurt, though.

When Raven finally turned back toward me, her eyes were steely. “I’ll help you with this.”

“I know. I really appreciate it, too.”

“No. I mean after. I don’t care what any of them say. I don’t care if they throw me out. After we take care of the bastards who killed Bliss, I’m going to help you get rid of that demon mark.”

I nearly wept with relief. I’d been so afraid, and hadn’t known where to turn. Raven might not be a Master, but with her help I felt there was some chance of saving my soul.

“I don’t’ know this demon’s name or anything about him. He showed up today uninvited when my sister and I were trying to banish another demon.”

She wiped a hand across her eyes and straightened. “The one Tempest and Oak summoned?”

“Yeah. Innyhal. We managed to send him back to hell, but it was touch and go for a moment there. The demon that marked me appeared. He’s black smoke with red eyes. Humanoid, but kind of fluid in shape and form. He helped us subdue Innyhal, he said as a gift, then left.”

Raven chewed on her bottom lip. “You didn’t banish him?”

“The first time he came when I was trying to summon Vine. I banished him using the Templar blessing. He left immediately, but he’d already marked me by that point. The second time he appeared, I neither summoned nor banished him.”

She nodded. “The mark. It always gives them an opening. They have a tie to the human they have claimed and that way they can keep track of you.”

It made sense. That’s why Innyhal hadn’t originally wanted to kill me. He knew this other demon would be pissed, and whoever the smoke demon was, clearly he wasn’t someone to piss off lightly.

“I’m not sure how I can get him to come back since I don’t know his name or sigil. I was thinking if I tried to summon Vine again he might appear.”

“It’s certainly a better idea than just opening up a doorway for any Sun demons,” Raven commented drily.

“Vine it is. Or rather not-Vine.”

I pulled out my Grimoire and showed Raven the sigil and ritual I’d followed last time. She read it carefully then nodded.

“That’s it. Nice job, by the way. You’ve got all the I’s dotted and T’s crossed here.”