Occam took off, my car fob in his hand, and I went to work, hunting and pecking on my laptop with my unbound fingertips. Once typing out my report was over with, I went to the conference room to research, taking the Blood Tarot and its COC papers with me. I didn’t admit aloud that I didn’t want to be alone with the deck, or that it gave me the heebie-jeebies, but it did, so being in the big room was more comforting.
On the table in front of me I placed my laptop, my tablet, my cell, and lots of pictures that FireWind had printed out for me himself. Among the printouts was the tarot instruction book I had snapped at Ming’s on our last visit there. A book that had been old and obviously valuable, and was now burned to ash. The instruction pages were in order on the table in front of me when FireWind appeared in the doorway and took a place at my side.
“Kent is on the way in. I’ll help you take background readings on the deck, so her time at the office is limited.” T. Laine was still on her weekend off, so she’d be unhappy to be called back.
And…
The boss-boss would help me take readings. That felt weird, to have theregional directorhelpingmeon a case. It was all out of order. Things out of order made me nervous, but I shoved myreaction aside and entered the case number on my devices for the reports, using only my index fingers on the tablet.
FireWind pulled on nitrile gloves and removed the deck from its protective tin. He read the cards with the psy-meter 2.0, showing a familiarity with fieldwork devices that often surprised me. In law enforcement circles, the higher someone was promoted in an organization, the less they felt they had to keep up with new innovations, and the less they actually worked beyond meetings and paperwork. FireWind was an exception.
The psy-meter 2.0 measured four different kinds of paranormal energies, called psysitopes, and the patterns could indicate were-creatures, witches, vampires, and even Welshgwyllgi—shape-shifting devil dogs that came from the family lines of God’s Cloud of Glory Church.
The readings fell solidly, though low, in the witch range, neither scary high nor mundane. FireWind set the device aside and shuffled the cards, his hands moving like a cardsharp’s, fluid and graceful.
“You know cards,” I said.
His mouth twitched, settled into that expressionless mien he usually wore. Casually, he said, “I once made a good portion of my living gambling.”
I was sure I goggled. Leaves tried to sprout on my head, and the roots in my hands quivered. “You? Were a gambler?”
“I’ve been many things, Nell Nicholson Ingram.” His tone was almost…lofty.
Yeah.He was amused at something that he wasn’t going to share, so I didn’t ask, though I held on to the information, ready to use it. Instead I asked, “Can you feel the magic in the cards?”
“No. They simply feel old, with a high cotton content.” FireWind placed the deck on the table again. “Cut the deck and ask your question.”
Bending my hands against the bandages, I cut the deck and said it: “Does FireWind have a sense of humor?”
My boss’ hackles went up with a flash of fire in his yellow eyes. “I have an excellent sense of humor.”
I laughed. “If you say so.”
Looking mildly insulted, he picked up the deck and reshuffled instead of laying out a pattern. “Cut. Ask another question.”
I cut the deck again and asked, “Is an angel involved with the changes to vampires?”
FireWind laid out the same Celtic Cross shape used at Ming’s. He turned over the center card. Again Death stared up at us. “What happens if we leave Death out of the deck?” I asked.
He didn’t bother turning the other cards over. He scooped them together, leaving the Death card to the side.
“This better be worth me leaving Gonzales in my bed on my day off,” T. Laine said, storming through the doorway, wearing jeans and a heavy jacket. “Holy shit! That’s the Blood Tarot! Oh. Sorry, Nell. Move over.” She shucked out of her heavy coat and took the tarot deck out of the boss-boss’ hands, ignoring his raised eyebrows at her temerity. She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the power in the deck. “Ohhh. Nice. Dark, but really powerful.”
She extended her hand for the Death card and I placed it into her palm. T. Laine frowned, rubbing the card between her fingers. She placed the deck on the table, the card to the side. She touched an amulet on the necklace she wore beneath her clothing, and studied the cards. Then she turned the deck face up and began to remove and organize the Major Arcana from the Minor Arcana.
As she worked I took readings with the psy-meter over each card and jotted them down. FireWind watched intently. When separated from the deck, the energies of the Major Arcana didn’t match the energies of the Minor Arcana. The minor readings were much weaker. She organized all the minor cards according to suits and numbers and laid them out in rows like a peculiar game of solitaire. To the side, she did the same with the major cards. The arcanas were very different.
The Death card redlined.
She went through each suit and handled each card, her face a study in concentration. Lainie was a moon witch with strong earth element affinities, not that I was sure what that meant in practice. She also had enough unfinished university degrees to satisfy the most university-addicted person on the planet. It was what made her so attractive to PsyLED, and had resulted in her recent promotion. A promotion that would soon take her out of Knoxville often to visit with other PsyLED units and teach themhow to use magical equipment like the new portable null rooms that were currently being built.
“Kent?” FireWind asked.
“These were definitely not made at the same time or by the same person or coven. Physically, the major cards don’t even feel like paper; they have the feel of a heavy cloth content, though that doesn’t seem to affect the way they shuffle, which is odd.
“The major cards appear to have been reinked, with modern elements added in. For instance, these pyramids and the Sphinx are from the original inking, and there are flecks of blue still adhering, as if the Nile once flowed right up to them. The rest of the card has been heavily over-inked and enhanced with new energies, some of which I think were mixed with the blood of sacrifice. Same with all the other majors. The minor cards are not nearly as old, but still, several hundred years old.
“The energies originally used in the creation of each set are totally different, but someone, probably a really powerful coven, overlaid the older energies with new workings, ones that combined apreservationworking with whatever the original makers considered important, into something new and darker. The blood sacrifice was probably not a goat.” Her lips twitched down. “It was likely a witch.”
