Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
“What the hell do you mean?” Xavier asks Theo, sounding more annoyed than alarmed.
“The Reapers,” Theo says, giving us an expectant look that should suddenly make everything clear.
“You’re going to have to elaborate,” Xavier says slowly, and I get the feeling he’s acting unbothered on purpose. “What about the Reapers?”
“A bunch of them were found dead this morning.” Theo holds up his phone, showing us a news article. “It was some sort of ritualistic killing. Just like the one at that camp.”
“You could’ve led with that,” I say, pushing up onto my elbows while still being careful to hold the blanket over my bare breasts.
“You let that demon out,” Theo snaps. Before he can launch into a speech about how this is all my fault, I hold up a hand and shake my head.
“When did they die?”
“What does that matter?” Theo asks.
“It matters because that ritual was done to bring a demon to Earth. Vaelric was already here as of last night, right after sunset.”
Xavier turns and looks at me, his eyes narrowing slightly. He doesn’t have to say anything for me to know what he’s thinking. The ritual at the campground didn’t make sense either. It was different from the ritual needed to bring Vaelric to Earth. We’d assumed they’d simply gotten it wrong.
But maybe they weren’t trying to summon Vaelric at all.
“Something about this makes sense and doesn’t make sense at the same time,” I say.
I bite my lip and look from Xavier to Theo.
“Let me get dressed and get my brothers. Bring me whatever information you have about the ritual. Pull your police contacts or whatever and get me crime scene photos. I have a theory.”
Theo mutters something about me giving orders, but he leaves the room anyway.
Xavier gets up and closes the door, and I take a second to appreciate his naked body before the room dims again.
He turns on the overhead light for me, and I get up, my mind whirling as I go to the bathroom and then get dressed.
“What happened at the camp was connected to Vaelric,” I say out loud as I pull a white-and-blue dress over my head. “But it wasn’t the right ritual to bring Vaelric to Earth. They didn’t have my blood or any witch blood that we know of.”
“What are you thinking?” Xavier asks.
“That demonic encyclopedia said Vaelric commands other legions of demons. From what I know, each legion usually has some sort of general or lieutenant.”
“You think they were trying to bring forth another demon?”
“I do.” I flip my head upside down and rake my hair into a messy bun. We go downstairs into the kitchen, and I desperately wish there were someone else here to make coffee in the morning so it would be ready and waiting for me.
Antonio and Devon are in the family room watching golf, which throws me off for a couple seconds. It’s not the fact that my brought-back-from-the-dead-brother is hanging out with my former baby-daddy-to-be , but since when does Antonio like golf?
“I heard most of that conversation,” Devon says. “Are we gonna be fighting demons again?”
“What’s going on?” Antonio asks.
“The 409 Reapers,” I begin. “Have you heard of them?”
“Aren’t they like a biker gang or something?” Antonio asks.
“Yes.” I know I’m going to have to get into the details of Xavier’s coalition for this to make sense. Obviously, if there’s a demonic threat, Antonio will help because that’s what he does, but he’s definitely going to question why Theo especially cares so much.
“Well, I guess some members were sacrificed in some sort of ritual last night,” I tell him. “And according to Theo, the ritual is very similar to the one that happened at Camp Dogwood. I think it has something to do with the fact that Vaelric got out last night.”
Antonio considers my words for a second, then inhales. “I thought you couldn’t tie that ritual to Vaelric.”
“We couldn’t. Not directly, at least. The ritual that was needed to release Vaelric was vastly different from the one at the campground, so I wasn’t sure if maybe the Order had just gotten it wrong the first time.
” I pause, thinking. “But now I’m thinking they were trying to release one of the other demons Vaelric commands.
I mean, if not the Order, then Vaelric himself. ”
“Did that book say how many legions of demons he commands?” Antonio asks.
“I don’t remember.”
“Twelve,” Leo says, coming into the room. “The book said he was in charge of twelve legions of lesser demons.”
“Well, shit.”
I still need more information before I can make a call, but I’m going to guess we’re going. And there could very well be eleven more rituals like this.
“Did you also forget his specialty is necromancy?” Leo asks incredulously.
“I didn’t forget,” I say, my voice small. I know he’s a dangerous demon. And I know he’s out there now, planning who knows what.
“Obviously, whatever is happening now is probably connected to him.”
“I know that,” I add, tension rising in my voice. Devon looks apprehensively from me to Leo. He wasn’t here last night when everything blew up.
“Is there any way we can get more information on this demon?” Devon asks.
“That was pretty much everything that was in the book,” Antonio answers. “Unless Wren’s witch friends can help.”
“If anyone has information on him, it would probably be them,” I say and rub my forehead with my fingers.
“I need coffee.” We regroup in the kitchen a few minutes later after I start a pot of coffee.
Theo and Xavier join us, and Xavier puts an iPad on the table so we can look through the crime scene photos.
“It is almost exactly like the ritual at Camp Dogwood,” Theo says. “Which is making the public go crazy. They think there’s another serial killer on the loose, or that someone is copying the first one.”
“Is there any way you can get us there?” Antonio asks Xavier. I can tell he hates asking, but he knows how well connected the Malus vampires are.
“Right now?” Xavier asks.
“Yes. The sooner, the better,” Antonio says. “There are certain things we can look for that would give us clues the police would miss. They don’t know how to look for demonic evidence.”
I watch Xavier’s face, looking for any sort of clue about just how bad this is for the coalition. Part of the reason all these different groups follow him is because he promised to keep them safe. He promised order. Peace. And this is the exact opposite of both.
If a significant portion of the Reapers can be slaughtered like this, then what exactly is Xavier offering them anymore?
“I’ll put in a call,” Xavier tells Leo. “But I can’t make any promises that I can get all of you there.”
“Anything is better than nothing,” Antonio tells him.
Xavier nods and then disappears from the room.
I go through the crime scene photos slowly, taking my time to examine every piece of evidence I can see.
The bodies are arranged in a circle, and there’s some sort of sigil drawn in blood across the wooden floor where they were found.
“What is this place?” Leo asks. “Was it their clubhouse or something?”
“Yes,” Theo tells him. “The report says the deaths occurred around four-thirty this morning.”
“Okay, so after Vaelric was loose,” Antonio thinks out loud.
“And before the sun came up,” Leo adds, flicking his eyes toward Theo before swiping to another photo on the iPad and zooming in.
“They drained the blood before arranging the bodies, didn’t they?”
“Yes,” Theo says. “It’s all in the crime scene report you obviously haven’t read yet.”
“We obviously haven’t had time,” Leo snaps back. I’m getting really annoyed with my brother’s attitude. I can only take so much sass from Theo. I don’t need it from his human counterpart either.
The fact that the bodies were drained of blood is bad for two reasons. Blood magic is always dark.
Whatever this ritual called for involved blood magic, which means it’s most likely old, ancient, and scary powerful.
But it’s also a very bad look for vampires.
There’s already tension between Xavier and the Reapers.
One of them accused me of being up to no good, and Xavier had to put him in his place during a very public meeting.
That small fact is not lost on me. And it’s definitely not lost on Theo.
“Wait,” I say as Leo swipes to another photo. “Go back.”
“What is it?” Antonio asks.
“A clearer picture of the sigil.”
I grab a piece of paper and copy it down. Once it’s drawn, I take a picture with my phone and send it to Marie, asking if she knows what it is. Leo continues swiping through the photos, and we all practically hold our breath as we look.
“Oh, shit,” I say when he lands on a photo showing a scorched mark in the middle of the clubhouse floor.
“What’s the significance of that?” Theo asks.
“Scorched earth usually means a demon came through successfully,” Antonio tells him.
“So the last ritual wasn’t successful,” I say. “At least not as far as we were aware.” I rest my elbows on the countertop, thinking.
“Because we stopped it,” Devon says. “It would’ve worked if we hadn’t intervened.”
“Most likely,” I say, remembering Camp Dogwood and how terrifying all of that was.
Xavier risked himself and allowed the demon to possess him so I could kill it. Was that one of the generals? Are there only ten more rituals to worry about now?
Antonio slides the iPad closer to read the police report. I watch his face, trying to pick up on anything before he speaks.
“There’s surveillance footage,” he says, then glances up at Theo. “Any chance you could get that?”
“Do you need anything else, Your Majesty?” Theo replies sarcastically. “And yes, of course I can get that.”
“According to this,” Antonio goes on, tapping the screen, “sixteen people were in this clubhouse around two in the morning, when it officially closed, as seen on the cameras.” He pauses and keeps reading. “And sixteen bodies came out.”
Leo, Antonio, and I all look at each other, thinking the same thing.
“What am I missing?” Devon asks.
“The demon didn’t possess anybody,” I say.
“What am I missing again?” he repeats.
“Whatever demon they brought through is corporeal,” Antonio tells him. “Which means it might be easier to kill, but it also most likely means…” He trails off, making a face.
“It could be a chaos demon,” I finish.
“And I’m guessing the name implies exactly what they are,” Devon says. “Chaos.”
“Yes.” I swallow. “Vaelric is bigger and more powerful, but he plays everything strategically. He has an endgame. He thinks ten steps ahead.” I let out a breath and shudder. “Chaos demons don’t.”
I look back down at the scorched mark on the screen. “They just cause chaos.”
“Bad news,” Xavier says, coming back into the kitchen. “Since this is the second case, the FBI is getting involved. I don’t have anyone on my payroll there yet.”
“We might be able to work around that temporarily,” Leo says, looking a little cocky.
“I don’t think your Order-issued fake badges are going to cut it,” Xavier says, with no emotion on his face. “If the Order is behind this and working with Vaelric, they’ve probably already flagged you.”
“And I think the rumor that Antonio is a vampire might still be alive and well within parts of the Order,” I remind them. “Even for the people who know it isn’t true, I’m sure they’re perpetuating it just to make us look bad.”
“So what’s the plan?” Devon asks.
“I need to find out exactly who this demon is,” I say. “If it’s corporeal, we can kill it.”
“Well, not easily,” Antonio corrects. “I mean, maybe we get lucky and one stab to the heart does it, but this thing needed a ritual like that to come through. It’s going to be packing some serious power.”
“Right.” My mind goes straight back to walking through the large double doors of Crescent Moon Academy.
Now it’s my turn to be careful not to get too cocky.
Having magic gives me an advantage over every other hunter in the Order.
I have the same skill set and the same knowledge they do, but I also have an entire arsenal of abilities they don’t.
I can kill demons without even touching them.
“Am I late to the party?” Mabel asks, coming downstairs. She’s wearing an ivory-colored nightgown and a flowing matching robe, complete with feathers on the sleeves. “All I heard was something about a chaos demon. What exactly do they do?”
“We’ve never come across one,” Antonio starts, taking the lead like he normally would in any hunting situation. “But we’ve heard of them. Saying they cause chaos sounds vague, but that’s literally what they do.” He shrugs.
“They might target a single person or a whole group. I don’t know what the plan is here, but they’ll do anything to disrupt normal life. That could mean starting fights between two random people in line at the grocery store or causing power outages. Literally anything that creates disorder.”
“Great,” Theo grumbles. “As if we didn’t already have one supernatural menace on our hands.”
“We’re going to find him, and we’re going to kill him,” I say, ignoring the anxiety rising inside me, threatening to take over every cell in my body.
My phone dings with a text. “It’s Marie,” I say out loud. Nerves grab at my spine from the inside, rattling me so hard my fingers tremble as I unlock my phone.
Yes, I recognize that, but I can’t tell you the demon’s name off the top of my head. I’ll run it by a colleague. Does this have to do with what happened yesterday?
Most likely. Google the 409 Reapers and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
She likes my text, and I set my phone down, letting out a shaky breath.
“Marie is going to find out the name of the demon,” I tell everyone. “In the meantime, let’s treat this like any other job.” I look at my brothers.
“What does that entail?” Xavier asks.
“We cover all the bases. Get weapons ready. I’ll work on vanquishing potions. Anything that might help. And then, as soon as we find out what it is, we go after it.”
“Like tonight?” Mabel exclaims, her brows going up.
“Yes,” Leo, Antonio, and I answer at the same time.
“If there’s one thing about demons,” Antonio continues, “it’s that you don’t give them advance notice or time. You have to strike immediately, because the longer they have to plan, the worse it gets.”
“I might have found out one other minor detail from Marie last night,” I say, wincing slightly as I speak.
“What is it?” Xavier asks.
“Certain demons go after witches because they have a way of taking our powers. I guess because they have their own type of magic, they’re able to separate a witch from her power, unlike vampires, who have to kill the witch to turn her.”