My head snapped up. Was Rick talking aboutsuicideto save the city?
T. Laine made a sound that might have been laughter if laughter was mostly grief. “Gebo in opposition means a lot of things, boss. Greed, privation, obligation, dependence. In your case, because of who you are, because of your natural protective instincts, it also means oversacrifice unto death. You die and the demon will just take the vampires targeted by the summoning/curse spell. You can’t stop it by dying. Jason prepared for that possibility.”
Rick looked old, the lines in his face deeply engraved, his skin sallow and tired. He turned away, spinning in his chair, his back to us, staring out over the city.
T. Laine said, “We knew the local witches were scared. We knew there was a Circle of the Moon cursing, a blood sacrifice, the Angels and Demons tarot spread, and a summoning. We knew something bad was coming.”
“But not a major prince of darkness,” FireWind said, sounding wry. “Not a curse to bring all the vampires to true-death.”
“What about the Vatican?” T. Laine asked. “Are they sending an emissary or a cardinal or whatever?”
FireWind was leaning against the doorjamb, arms crossed, watching us. He said, “I’ve been in touch with them, through a PsyLED emissary. They are assembling an entire team of exorcists, but they can’t be here by nightfall. And they aren’t willing to sacrifice a few local priests to assist us and keep the vampires alive.” He shrugged. “Undead. Their plan is to deal with the demon if the rest of us are dead and the demon is free.”
Rick shook his head. Rick was Catholic. I had no idea how he felt about FireWind’s statement. “We should have called them sooner,” he said.
“Yes. But we didn’t know, didn’t guess what Jason was really doing, until we saw the hand rise from the circle.”
“We have clues, but we still don’tknoweverything,” T. Laine said. “We weren’t clueless or too stupid to see the writing on the wall. It was just too big a curse to focus on. And no one expected a Major Power or Principality.”
“I’ve had encounters with demons,” Rick said.
“There is only the one in your records—” FireWind stopped. “Ahhh. The one at Spook School, when you were present for a demon who was taken into a containment vessel, and the one involving my—Jane Yellowrock.” He had almost said “my sister.”
Rick glanced at his supervisor. “The one Jane killed on national TV was summoned by the Asheville coven leader. It was called the Raven Mocker. And though I’m sure someone has left messages with her voice mail...?” He glanced at JoJo, who nodded. “... We’re still not clear how Jane contained it or destroyed it.”
“I didn’t know you were there,” FireWind said.
JoJo, already pulling up footage of the demon’s death, said, “You can’t kill a demon.”
“Close enough,” Rick said.
The footage appeared on the screen overhead. We watched as a demon killed some humans. Then Jane, now the Dark Queen of the vampires, Ayatas’ sister, killed the demon. And the redheaded woman who had summoned it.
“Yowzers,” T. Laine said. “I had forgotten the sequence of events here.”
“Jane’s rough on her friends,” Rick said. Unspoken were the words “and her boyfriends.” “According to Jane, there was an angel present and only with that angel’s help was she able to stop it.” Rick looked as if he might say more but stopped.
“Was that demon a Major Principality?” T. Laine asked.
“No.”
“Anyone have an angel on speed dial?” Occam asked in dark humor. “Anyone try prayer?”
“Yes,” Rick said softly. “Jane’s angel hasn’t answered.”
Replaying the YouTube footage, T. Laine said, “I agree that this demon isn’t as powerful as the one Jason Ethier is calling. He’s killed two vampires and a buttload of animals in sacrificeand the demon’s still not free. If B.K.L. gets loose, we are screwed six ways to Sunday.”
I said, “The death of one wereleopard won’t be enough. How many vampires will he sacrifice tonight?”
“He’s in the lair with Godfrey and all his humans and scions,” Rick said.
“Jason would have seen the witch amulets on the prisoners they took from Ming’s. He would have known what they were. My money says Jason arranged for the local vamps to find out the address, bringing more vampires to them like lambs to the slaughter,” Occam said. Which was very twisty but made sense. “If so, then Jason plans to drain every one of Knoxville’s fangheads as sacrifice, including at least three master vampires, Godefroi de Bouillon, Ming Zhane, and Lincoln Shaddock.”
“Where’s Loriann?” Rick asked. “She was being treated at the hospital after Jason’s attack.”
FireWind said, “You are tattooed to be protective of her and her brother, so I have to ask. Why do you want to know?”
“She might be the only one in the world who could stop Jason. Or at least slow him down until the team gets to him. She and Kent could set up protections for us. Maybe something that could slow down the ascension of the demon to this plane of existence. If Kent is willing to work with Loriann.”
