Chapter 12
The psychopathy of his madness, his hatefulness, had lessened since last we met. Certainly, he was holding his true thoughts back, the vile tone of his crazed rage. But I wouldn’t complain since it often sent a bone-piercing rattle through my mind.
He wore clean clothes, unlike the last time I stumbled upon him.
Though this outfit was a simple loose-fitting shirt and plain breezy pants.
Nothing like Theodore’s style. His hair had grown longer, stringy and dingy, but it must’ve been by choice since he kept his face clean-shaven.
His wrists were shackled with thick chainlike bracelets that had carved warding symbols.
A similar collar was around his neck, and the warding symbols glowed with warning.
“Careful, friend.” Theodore’s haunting blue eyes searched the room for my presence. “These enchantments don’t just detect my casting. If you’re not cautious, they’ll know you found me.”
I backstepped, skirting the wall of the cellar. It did the trick. All but one symbol stopped glowing. That single symbol must’ve sensed Theodore’s casting. Not that it prevented him from channeling.
“Those goodie witches really did a number on the area.” Theodore’s mind scoured the city, searching for something as he channeled his magic. “Miles and miles away, my friends delay.”
He chuckled to himself, still scanning the room, still searching for me as if he’d ever see my intangible phantom form. I recoiled when his eyes landed on me. He couldn’t see me. I knew this, but I believed, perhaps, to some extent, that he sensed me. Sensed my subtle psychic presence as he worked.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he said, not to me. No, he reserved his thoughts to speak with me. This comment was directed at the demonic energy he funneled into the cellar where he worked. “I beseech you, demon dogs. Do my bidding.”
Wisps illuminated the room, their flashing white lights smacking into each other until those flickers turned into black ooze.
Slime and filth that bubbled and popped with blistering heat.
Fiends swelled around the pentagram, each roaring and clawing at one another, devouring each other until only one remained.
It grew and blossomed and erupted into a new demon.
A vampire.
Was Theodore specifically summoning vampires? Did his power allow him the precision to control the type of demon ascended? And why vampires? Was it truly just because of their strength and ferocity?
The demon’s elongated arms stretched wide, testing the perimeters of movement undoubtedly.
There was musing and rage in those glassy red eyes that locked onto Theodore.
This vampire was a pale yellow and had dark patches of golden body hair.
Its claws were as bright as sunshine, and its teeth snapped as the vampire leapt forward.
“Foolish.” Theodore held a hand up, compelling the demon to behave.
It resisted Theodore’s grip, digging its clawed feet into the pentagram and tearing through the concrete flooring to reach the warlock.
“You waste your time, demon.” Theodore snapped his fingers.
The vampire wailed, bones shattered, its knees buckled, and the beast bowed before Theodore.
“I control hundreds of you at a time with ease. Did you honestly believe you could resist my absolute authority?” Theodore smirked. “I am the demon prince, the Heretic of Hell.”
“You are just another collared beast,” the vampire hissed. “We may be bound by your leash, but I see the strings on you.”
“The Celestial Coven prefers tame, scheduled chaos,” Theodore said, confiding this to me, not the vampire who held no true understanding of the situation.
“I could snip those strings,” the vampire insisted, a pleading expression on an otherwise mangled face of jagged teeth and frown lines.
“Free me?” Theodore laughed. “You think I’m trapped? Oh, no, friend.”
He snapped his fingers, turning out the light in the vampire’s eyes. Its expression went blank, and the demon obediently walked out of the cellar and crept upstairs.
“I’m as free as a bird.”
According to his thoughts, the ones that leapt out joyfully around the room, searching for me, Theodore really didn’t see himself as confined. Much like his time behind bars, Theodore patiently waited for an opportunity.
“And what opportunity are you waiting for now?”
“You, my sweet psychic.” Theodore tilted his head, locking his haunting blue eyes onto me. “You’re here to bring down the Celestial Coven, I presume.”
“And The True Witch,” I added. “Your mother.”
Theodore sighed, long, dramatic, and bored.
“She’s so much more than that.”
“Yes, an ancient witch who opened the Gate of Hell so she could free magic to all, then somehow removed it from everyone?”
“You’ve been studying.” Theodore adjusted his position, sitting forward on his hands and knees. “Just don’t buy into the propaganda too much. Liberation of magic may be the goal, but control and authority and order always remain high on Mother’s to-do list.”
He slinked ahead, crawling to the outermost part of the pentagram. As his fingers tiptoed on the edge of his confined space, the wards on his shackled wrist glowed.
“What I wouldn’t give for a little bit of human contact.” Theodore looked up at me, giving the phoniest of puppy-dog stares.
“Maybe you should ask your mommy for a hug.”
A wicked smirk grew on his face. “You’re different, Dorian. Even the pulse of your telepathy holds more certainty, more strength.”
“What is the Celestial Coven planning?”
“I’ll tell you everything for a kiss.” Theodore leaned to the edge of the pentagram.
“Not happening.”
“Sigh.” Theodore flailed, holding his arms out and collapsing onto his back with as much drama as he could muster. “Suppose it’s for the best, though. I’d prefer our first kiss to be special. When it’s just me and you and Evergreen in a pool of his own blood.”
Flashes of red filled his mind. Milo’s corpse lay before him. Theodore danced in bloody rain, and when he reached me, our lips met. Only, I still had long hair in his mind. I buried his sadistic fantasies. It made my skin crawl and my stomach queasy.
“We can revisit our romance after you defeat the Celestial Coven,” Theodore said, breaking the silence of his thoughts.
“When is the Celestial Coven going to strike, and where?”
“Where else?” Theodore quirked a brow. “Chicago, of course. Anything to take away my joy. That, and she wants poor, tragic Tara.”
“She truly believes Tara is a god?”
Theodore scoffed. “A god of incompetence. Seriously, the whole chosen one thing is so overrated. I should’ve slit her throat years ago.”
There was no hesitation in his words, no malice either.
It was just a fact. He could and would live without Tara.
Killing her wasn’t on his agenda; his desperate desires were things like burning Chicago to the ground or slaughtering his father.
But he’d gladly kill his sister to remove any inconvenience she’d bring.
“You’re a fucking monster.”
“Why thank you.” Theodore batted his lashes. “I try my best.”
“Why is the Celestial Coven always summoning vampires instead of other demons?”
“They’re stronger than most.” Theodore shrugged. “Good at blending, too.”
“They aren’t the strongest, though, and none of yours have been blending whatsoever.”
“True.” Theodore hummed a bit, moving his fingers to cast dancing shadows with the flicker of candlelight. “They’re also the best and strongest when it comes to possession.”
I trembled.
“I could be fishing, though,” Theodore said. “Mother tells me nothing. It’s like she doesn’t trust me just because I refuse to bend to her will.”
A flicker of a memory danced on the surface of his thoughts, where he attempted to break free from the cell his mother locked him in.
He used a bone from one of his friends’ corpses—the three warlocks who were killed as punishment for Theodore’s misbehavior—to fashion a makeshift blade.
He stabbed The True Witch in the shoulder and bit down on another witch accompanying her.
He nearly ripped out the other witch’s throat before The True Witch confined him.
As quickly as the joyful musing blossomed, it wilted away to nothingness just as fast.
“All I do know is she’s searching for the best and brightest among the vampires I summon.”
“Why?”
Theodore shrugged. “Presumably because Chicago is crawling with powerful witches and annoying bitches.”
I glowered.
“I thought it was funny,” Theodore teased. “The point is, Mother only wants the best and brightest among the vampires I summon.”
“I didn’t realize you could control the specific type of demon you summon.”
“I can’t, but they learn after a while,” Theodore explained. “When I control the demonic energy, building it up to summon a demon, if anything other than a vampire crosses through, I’m to banish it immediately.”
“I see.” I cleared my mind, preparing to take an immediate leave. “How long will you be here?”
“She never keeps me in one place more than a night,” Theodore said. “And no, I don’t have any ideas where I’ll be moved next. Not even sure where I am now.”
“London.”
Theodore scoffed. “At least I’m not missing anything exciting. I’ve always found the masked vigilantes who act too cool for fame so much more irksome than the annoying enchanters clamoring for attention.”
I wanted to pinpoint this location, to offer it to the Global Guild. And I still could, but by the time I connected with my core self, Theodore would be gone. The trail would be cold again.
“You know, if you want to know where I’ll end up next, you could always tag along.”
Doubtful. Last time, The True Witch sensed my presence and expelled me immediately.
“And if you’re worried about mother’s little traps sniffing you out, I know a way to hide under the radar.”
“Really?” I crept closer, cautiously.
“Dive on in, friend.” Theodore held open his mind, revealing the gnarled tree of his twisted thoughts. “I promise to play nice.”
“Not happening.”
“Shame. I was hoping we could braid each other’s hair while divulging all our secrets.” Theodore flicked his gaze at me. “Maybe even play a round or two of Seven Minutes in Hell.”
I’d learned all I could from Theodore, so I took my leave without so much as a goodbye.
It was unlikely the Global Guild would gain much intel from this encounter, but perhaps they’d make some sense out of it.
Mostly, I hoped this meeting would spark Milo’s clairvoyance.
His visions always worked best when in proximity to a threat, even by extension.
Expelling what remained of my manifestation’s energy, I floated through the psychic plane and returned to my core self to share all I’d gathered.