Hunger...
“No,” I whispered. I shoved my bloodlust deep inside, tied it down and locked it away in the deeps of me. I could still feel it. Impossible not to with this much blood. Three young steers. All dead. Sacrificed. This was the first time Jason had sacrificed such large creatures. And so many. All outside the circle.Why?I moved on.
“Hedge of thorns,” T. Laine said, “still active, double layered, one on the outside of a talcum powder ring to keep people out, one on the inside to keep... the sacrifices in.”
Sacrifices. People.
Even without the warning, I’d have seen the circle. A wagon wheel of twelve spokes, with pale things half-buried in each wedge opening. There was a pile of bodies in the center, at least three, visible in the low-light-vision headgear, naked so far as I could tell. Fear shot through me like being drenched with icy water.Rick’s blood? Rick is back at HQ. I switched to infrared to see the bodies were cold, nothing warmer than the ambient temp, except for a small blot of red on top, fresh and warm-blooded. Adeathworking? I had heard of them in Spook School. Humans were no good for such a sacrifice. But vampires would be just dandy.
“Vampires,” FireWind said. “Jason Ethier sacrificed vampires.”
“Except for the warm-blooded thing on the top of the pile,” T. Laine said. “That’s a black cat.”
Rick had been tattooed with vampire blood. And cat blood.
A demon was being summoned. Rick was being used in the curse. Was Rick’s part of the curse simply that he would die? And the sorcerer raced away because... I looked at the sky. No moon, not until nearly dawn. The timing didn’t feel right.
I focused on the pieces of white tissue buried in the earth in the space of each spoke. I remembered the sight of Rick’s crashed car. And the blood on the seats. Easy enough to have someone follow the car and, as soon as Rick left it, collect samples. “Dagnabbit,” I muttered.
“Ingram? Explain,” FireWind said.
I explained about the blood, and Occam said, “It’s possible. I was first PsyLED on scene but not the first law enforcement or civilian. The blood was fresh enough for some to have been swabbed out from the puddles in the upholstery without leaving evidence of it.”
“Kent. Can you close the circle and stop the curse?”
“Not alone. Even with a full coven, this is gonna make a mess.”
“What kind ofmess?” FireWind sounded amused at her choice of words.
“Livestock center could explode. Witches hurt, maybe second-degree burns, hair loss, damaged lungs. That sort of thing. Alone, I’d die.”
“I see. I’ll handle contacting the local coven. Jones, please see that the contact information is sent to my cell phone. And see that the sheriff’s department sets a perimeter around the property. Ethier got away, but something still feels wrong about this place.”
“It’s the demon,” I said. “It’s close. It’s clawing up here. Right there.” I pointed. “In the center of the circle.”
“How long?” FireWind asked.
I hesitated and when I spoke there was no certainty in my voice. “Tomorrow night? The next?”
FireWind said, “Jones, update the APB on an armed anddangerous paranormal. Do not approach. If possible tag and monitor.”
“Got it,” JoJo said, sounding slightly tinny through the earpiece. “Going out in ten.”
“How is LaFleur?” he asked.
“Cat. Out cold. Bloodied and burned at jaw and claws from scratching and chewing on the silver. The grindy’s curled up sleeping on Rick’s ass.”
I smiled at the visual.
“Margot Racer just drove up,” she said. “From the look on her face, she knows about the op, and she knows that she wasn’t asked to join. I gotta wonder how she knows. You folks be safe. I’ll put on fresh coffee.”
“Withdraw. Keep your eyes open,” FireWind said. “We’ll discuss this at HQ.”
We backed away slowly, retracing our trails through the tall grass.
•••
Back at HQ, my weapons were secured, my body and clothes picked clean of ticks, and I had looked in on Mud, who was sound asleep in the sleeping room with Cherry curled up beside her. No one was shot, no one was injured, no one was missing, Rick was human again, and the demon was still trapped in the earth. We didn’t have the bad guy yet, and the demon was still a threat, but it wasn’t an awful ending to a nighttime op.
