Aaron blinked and stared down at his forearm as if he’d never seen it before. “I don’t remember. But….”
The words drifted away into the air, and Caleb sent a sideways glance at Ty, who hitched his shoulders but didn’t appear ready to offer any explanations.
Pru, on the other hand, didn’t seem too worried about stepping in. “But…what?” she said. “Do you remember maybe a little bit?”
Brow furrowing, Aaron said, “It’s really hazy….”
“We don’t mind a little haze,” Caleb told him. “Even the smallest piece of information could be helpful.”
A second or two passed while Aaron stood there, forehead still furrowed in thought. “I remember a room. There were other people in it.”
“Demons?” Caleb asked, recalling the group he’d seen gathered around while August Sellers painted that sigil on Aaron’s arm.
“No…other people like me.”
“Other vessels?” Ty demanded. He, too, was frowning, so it seemed as if this piece of news wasn’t a welcome one.
But Aaron only sent him a blank look. “What’s a vessel?”
Prudence released an audible sigh of exasperation. Ty, however, only kept his gaze fixed on the other man. “Someone susceptible to demon magic, like you.”
“Oh.” Aaron hesitated, and his shoulders lifted ever so slightly. “Then I guess they were like me. Some of them had a mark like this on their arms.”
And he tilted his head down toward the sigil imprinted on his flesh.
“That’s not good, right?” Caleb said, looking over at Ty.
“Not really.” The half angel had kept his gaze fixed on Aaron the whole time. Now he asked, “Do you know how many of them there were?”
“Um…four or five?”
He didn’t sound very certain, but Caleb had a feeling that if they pressed him on that particular point, he wouldn’t be able to provide much more information than he already had.
Ty also seemed to realize further questioning wouldn’t be very helpful, because he also let out a breath and said, “So it seems we’ll have some vessels to worry about, on top of however many demons or demon-controlled humans August Sellers has in his cabal.”
Pru didn’t even blink. “Are they going to be a problem?”
“Maybe.” The half angel rubbed a hand against his chin, expression now thoughtful. “It depends on how strong a hold Sellers has on them. We were able to break the spell on Aaron, so it’s possible we might be able to do the same for the rest of the people he has in his thrall.”
“What, by throwing my blood bombs at them?” Caleb definitely didn’t like the sound of that. Yes, getting the few drops they’d needed to disrupt the sigil on Aaron’s arm hadn’t been too big a problem, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to do the same thing over and over again.
Especially since he was pretty sure that Sellers would figure out what they were up to and do whatever he could to stop them before they were able to unenchant more than one or two of the other vessels.
“If necessary,” Ty replied. Before Caleb could say anything in response, though, he went on, “Although I’m not sure that’s going to help much. Sooner or later, Sellers will realize that Aaron is no longer under his control, and I’m sure he’ll be able to guess why — and alter the existing spells so they can no longer be broken by part-demon blood.”
“Then that means we need to work fast,” Pru said, then returned her attention to Aaron. “Do you know why you were guarding this door?”
He blinked. “Um, no. I just got the idea that I should be here for a while.”
A truly insidious spell, Caleb realized, since it seemed designed to make its target believe that all their actions were of their own choice, rather than suggestions implanted there by a demon with his own motivations.
“But it’s okay if we look inside that door, right?” Pru persisted, and the frown returned to Aaron’s brow.
“I don’t know…this is Aquarius Hotel property, isn’t it?”
She set her hands on her hips, dark eyes intent on the man’s face. Caleb decided it would be better not to interject, since it seemed as if she knew what she was doing. For all he knew, she was using the skills she’d burnished while getting confessions out of men who’d cheated on their wives or people who were out perfecting their golf game when they were really supposed to be on bed rest, thanks to a workman’s comp injury.
Or maybe not. He still didn’t know exactly how hands-on Prudence was when working on one of her cases, although she’d already amply proved that she could handle herself in a crisis.
