I was really scared now. The Devil telling you to be careful wasn’t a good sign. It was like an explosives expert telling you that the boom is going to be a little loud.
“What’s this?” Tabby asked, looking down into her lap.
“A gift.” I almost choked saying it.
“Where did it come from?”
When we stopped at a red light, I closed my eyes for a minute. No way was I getting into this now. “I’ll tell you back at the house.”
###
Once we were at the house, I told Nick I had a headache. It wasn’t a lie, not exactly. The whole “meeting the Devil” thing took a lot out of me. Tabby followed me upstairs. I was done worrying about what would happen once Vespa knew everything I was thinking. I mean, after all, he wasn’t pulling any punches.
Upstairs, I closed and locked the door behind Tabby. The ward would keep him out.
“What is wrong with you?” Tabby asked.
I was pacing back and forth. My whole body was shaking. I didn’t want to sit still. Part of me was afraid time would stop again. It had scared the shit out of me. For something to have that much power just wasn’t right. But I knew I had to tell Tabby about it somehow.
“You know your gift?” I asked.
She tossed it on the bed like a pair of socks. “I don’t know where you got that thing.”
I stopped and stared. She’d just thrown that? We didn’t even know what it did yet.
“That thing you just threw was made by the Devil.” I didn’t need her accidently blowing a hole through the wall or something.
She looked down her nose at me. “What?”
“Do you remember me stopping anywhere?”
She paused. “No.”
“Remember me going anywhere within the last few days where I could get something like that?” I didn’t have time to argue about it, but that’s what we were doing.
She blinked. “What the hell, Jimmy?”
I sat down on the bed. I was moving so much I was starting to make myself sick. “On the way back from the restaurant, the Devil paid me a visit.”
She raised her eyebrow.
“He stopped time, Tabby. You were frozen, putting your hair behind your ear. Lucy was stuck looking at the back of my head.”
“If I didn’t know you better, I’d say you just lost it.”
“And then you’d still have a weird stick thing that magically appeared.” Even she knew magic wands just didn’t appear.
“Where did the Devil get it?”
“He made it right in front of me.”
She sat down beside me. Isaac meowed from underneath the bed.
“See? He’s hiding again. Even the cat knows.” Isaac was a hell of a lot smarter than she was giving him credit for.
“Dammit, Jimmy.” She grabbed a hold of my face. “Calm the fuck down!”
I stared at her. Her eyes were wild and green.
“I need you to relax, Jimmy. I can’t understand you like this.”
She let go of my face.
I took a few deep breaths. The fact that she was worried instead of pissed woke me up a little. “Okay. I’m all right.”
“Now, run all this by me again.”
I steadied myself. “The Devil came to thank me for letting him know about Asmodeus.”
She blinked. “What did he look like?”
“It was horrible. He was a little thinner than I am, and he wore this expensive grey suit. His hair was black, long, and kind of curly. He looked like a normal business man—that is until he smiled.” Just talking about it started my hands shaking again.
“Why?”
“He had fangs, that’s why. Because I wouldn’t name something in return for my help, he made you that wand. Said something about how you might be able to use it.”
“Do you think you should contact the Order?”
I laughed. “Why bother? They haven’t answered one email asking for help. Why would they want to come in if the Devil is here?”
Fucking wimps. Oh yeah, let the defrocked one deal with it. He likes it. I rolled my eyes.
“It was just an idea, Jimmy.”
I needed to stop taking it out on her. It wasn’t her fault that the Order was made up of jackasses. “The sad thing is, the Devil isn’t what’s scaring me.”
She looked at me, confused. “Okay, so what has you so freaked out?”
“He told me to be careful.” I let that sink in for a bit.
She whistled. “Okay. Asmodeus had soul-suckers and all types of things come after us, right?”
“Yeah.” I had no idea where she was going with this.
“Well, we survived that without knowing what we were doing.”
I nodded. “Yeah, so?”
“So, if we made it through that okay, I don’t see why this would be any different.” She shrugged.
“But the Devil said—”
“Did you ever think he just meant to watch our backs? Besides, when did you start listening to the other side?”
She was right. Again. I’d gotten myself worked up over what was probably nothing. It was time to stop fucking around. My brain needed focus. All of the information was putting me in a tizzy.
“Okay. Let’s go back downstairs,” I said. “Old Nick and I are going to have a little talk.”
###
I stormed downstairs. Vespa was nowhere to be found. That figured. Tabby ran down the steps after me.
“Don’t do anything stupid, Jimmy,” she said.
Hah. Stupid was what I did best. “Vespa! Come out here right now!”
“Oh, Jesus. Jimmy, will you just listen to yourself?” Tabby was standing there with her hands on her hips.
“Nick, goddamn it!” I was close to throwing one of those pukey sofas. That would get his attention.
The boy scrambled out of his bedroom. “What’s wrong?”
“Care to tell me what the fuck this is for?” I threw back the rug that covered the circle.
“I told you, it’s where I conjured—”
I grabbed him by the throat and pushed him against the wall. “Listen, you little shit. I don’t have time for this. Stop the lies. What the fuck is going on?”
His face was turning red. No sense in getting charged with murder. I let him go.
He backed away from me and rubbed his neck. He actually looked scared of me for once. Good.
He cleared his throat a few times. “This is my circle. For protection.”
Uh huh. Thanks. A lot. “Now, was that so hard? So, where did you do the dirty work?”
“In the basement.”
I looked at Tabby, then looked back at Vespa. He hadn’t moved. I was seriously thinking about letting Doc shoot him after all of this was through.
“Well?” I motioned with my hand for him to take us to his basement.
###
He led us down the hallway where his bedroom was just off the kitchen. The hallway wasn’t even noticeable from the living room. It was narrow with a wooden floor. The walls were painted a mulberry color. We passed by his bedroom as we continued down the hall. The door to it was open, and the place was a mess, like a normal teenager’s room. I even spied a game system. So, he had a TV after all.
Tabby held my hand. I think partly because she was tired of Vespa lusting after her and partly because she was uneasy. She might have been trying to distract me enough to keep me calm. The closer we got to the door, the colder I felt. Strange for Arizona.
At the end of the hallway, there was a door with an arch. No other door in the house was arched like that. Vespa opened it.
“Be careful of the steps,” he said.
He was right. It was almost like the place had been put together haphazardly. Somehow, the ceiling and the walls were covered in pieces of stone—almost like what you’d see in a castle, but I could see faint cracks in the mortar. So, they were basically tiles then. I had a sinking suspicion that the basement was not originally part of the house and that Vespa had pie
ced this whole thing together. We’d be lucky if the ceiling didn’t fall on us.
The steps were covered in the same tile too. I didn’t even want to think about how much money he wasted doing all of this. He flipped a switch on the stairway, and fake candelabras came to life with fake dancing flames. I could almost imagine the sale at the Halloween store he bought them from.
“Can you believe this shit?” Tabby whispered.
I shook my head. Vespa was showing how very young he was. A goth would have hired a designer and some professionals, that or had someone teach them how to do it properly. They would consider this a disgrace.
Finally, after a curve in the steps, we came to a large octagonal room. More of the candelabras lined the walls. Inset into the floor was another circle. This one was made of silver and looked to have different markings from the first one upstairs. In the center of the circle was a five-pointed star with what looked like the head of Baphomet in the center. Baphomet’s eyes were red jewels. Peachy.
I forced myself not to ponder what the expense was if they were real. I had a sinking suspicion that they were, and it made me sick.
“Pretty cool, huh?” Vespa asked.
I raised an eyebrow. “I think you need to reassess your views on things. A room to perform black magic isn’t cool. It’s dangerous.”
This room felt mildly creepy, but nothing compared to the attic room at Blackmoor. Vespa was playing. Mr. Black had been an adept.
“It took a lot of work,” he said.
“Oh, I don’t doubt that,” I said. A lot of work for an amateur so-called creepy design.
The edges of the room had a few bookcases, all filled with magic books. Some, I could tell, he’d bought at the local bookstore. Others were so old they looked like they were going to fall apart. Those probably belonged to Nick’s great-grandfather.
“How long do you think it will take you to get all of the stuff out of here?” I asked.
Vespa looked at me, puzzled. “What do you mean?”
I let go of Tabby’s hand and started pointing at things. “All of this. How long will it take you to make this a bare room?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I just don’t understand why.”
I stared him, dead in the eyes. “Because this is where we’ll do your exorcism.”
###
All in all, it took about an hour to haul all of the crap out of there. We put it in a storage room off the garage. I was happy for that extra storage room. I sure as hell would have minded all the crap going into an extra bedroom near the room Tabby and I had been using.
Call me crazy, but I didn’t want to be near anything a demon had used if I could help it. Stuff like that had an air about it, a sickness.
Halfway through, Vespa froze. His eyes glowed green again. “If you think this will help you, then by all means, carry on.”
It was hard to tell if it was a bluff or if the demon was telling the truth. But the subtle tone in his voice led me to believe he was trying to psyche me out. Bring it on, Bucky.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t feel like being clobbered on the head with a knick knack,” I said.
He laughed. “You are a funny one, priest.”
I shrugged. “Too bad I’m not funny enough to be a comedian.”
Vespa’s demon looked at me oddly. “What does a comedian have to do with all of this?” he asked.
I blinked. At least my bullshit was distracting him. “You said I was funny.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
Suddenly, the demon went back to wherever it was when it wasn’t in power of Vespa.
“You are so weird,” Nick said.
“Says the kid who willingly invited a demon inside his head.”
He rolled his eyes. “Now what?”
“Why don’t you find out where the hardware store is? We need a chain, a hasp that can be bolted to something. And I don’t know where you can get them here, but we need some handcuffs.” That was all I had with Lucy, well, except the mirror. I didn’t want to think about the mirror.
He stared at me for a minute. “Do I want to know why?”
I shook my head. “Not yet. We’ll hold down the fort while you’re gone.”
He looked at me for a minute, then went upstairs. Tabby and I didn’t move until we heard the sound of him starting his car.
“Okay. We need a chisel and a hammer,” I said.
“Garage?” Tabby asked.
“Probably.” We ran up the stairs and started looking for tools. We found the tool chest easily enough. It was a big red case in the garage. Bad part was, it was locked.
“Shit. What do we do now?” I asked.
“Silver’s a soft metal, right?”
“Yeah…”
She looked at me like I’d just tried to stand on one leg while doing the Macarena.
She tapped her temple with her finger.
“Okay, get a butter knife from the kitchen,” I said.
She exhaled and then left the garage. I grabbed a small piece of a two-by-four. If I didn’t break my fingers, this was going to work out nicely.
I headed down to the basement. Not long after I got down there, Tabby joined me.
“Okay, Mr. Fixit. What’s the plan?” she asked.
“All we need to do is break the circle, right?”
“Theoretically.”
“Okay.” I sat down on the floor in the area that seemed the thinnest. It was going to take a bit. The outer edge of the circle was over an inch wide. But since this was all I had to work with, it was going to have to do.
“Put the butter knife here.” I pointed to the center of the line of the circle.
Tabby got down on the floor and held it.
I held up the piece of wood I was using as a hammer and took a deep breath. “Okay. I’m going to try to be careful, but if I hurt you, I’m sorry.”
“Just get on with it. We don’t know how long he’ll be gone.” She wiggled a little to get a better balancing point on her knees.
I positioned the two-by-four over the end of the butter knife, aimed, and then I slammed the wood down on the end of the butter knife. The sound was something between a clang and a screech. Enough to give you a headache.
“Did it work?” I asked.
Tabby started laughing. “It’s flake! All he did was use glue over the design and hold a piece of paper with a very thin layer of silver over it.”
I couldn’t believe our luck. Finally, something went our way. I probably should have known better than to think that he actually had bought silver and paid to have someone make the bands to fit into the floor.
She began scratching the floor with the knife. Soon there was a space about an inch wide that no longer had silver. Who knew it would have been that easy?
“That works. I’m glad we didn’t have to pound our way through like I thought we would,” I said. With a butter knife, that would have taken hours.
She wiped the floor with her hand. The stone was a little scratched, but the circle was clearly broken.
“So, put that wood away. I’ll put the butter knife in the sink,” Tabby said.
We both headed upstairs. I went to the garage and put the two-by-four back where I found it. I wasn’t stupid enough to think he wouldn’t notice, but if he’d been here, we’d have had to fight the demon. It’d be a big mess, and I didn’t want the bother. I’d already almost killed him anyway. No need for a repeat performance.
I met Tabby back in the living room. She was sitting on the couch and had a smirk on her face.
“What did you do?” I knew that look.
“Pick up the rug.”
I walked over to the edge of the rug and picked it up. The circle here was scratched out down to the wood. It smelled foul.
“While I approve of being extra careful, what is that smell?” I wanted to gag.
“Isaac decided to help.”
I snorted. “Where is he now?”
“Went back upstairs. I
think he’ll be happy when we go back home.”
No doubt. I’m sure he was tired of all of this shit too. “He’s not the only one.”
“One question, though.”
I looked at her. “What?”
“What if he messes with the chain and stuff?”
I sat down next to her on the sofa. “Have faith, kemosabe. When he brings them back, I planned on storing them in our room until we needed them.”
“What if he messes with them before that?”
I laughed. “What do you think we’ll be doing before we go to bed tonight?”
“You sure do know how to romance a girl.”
I grinned. “You know it.”
###
It took Vespa over two hours to get back. I’m not kidding. He came in through the front door. His face was red, and he looked exhausted.
He walked over and set the bags down next to my feet. “You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find handcuffs if you aren’t a cop.”
I laughed. “Where did you have to go, Timbuktu?”
He threw himself down on the opposite sofa. “Tucson. But man, you wouldn’t believe the weird looks I kept getting.”
Tabby laughed. “It could be worse. They could have been pink fur lined.”
He froze. “No way.”
“Yes, way. So, be thankful you were able to find some normal ones.” She crossed her legs.
“People are fucking weird,” he said.
“I couldn’t agree more,” Tabby replied.
“Out here, most folks are pretty normal.” Vespa rubbed his eyes with his hands.
“Present company excluded, of course,” I said. In no universe was he normal. I didn’t care what bullshit he was trying to pull.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry,” Vespa said. If I didn’t know better, I would swear he was pregnant. All he ever wanted to do was eat.
“Want to go get something to eat?” I asked.
“Hell yes.”
###
We ended up at the Mexican restaurant. I didn’t care what we ate at this point. It was all starting to taste the same. Every place used some sort of Southwestern rub. At first, it had been kind of nice. Now, I just wanted a plain old hamburger with American cheese.
Vespa ordered enough to kill a horse. Enchiladas, burritos, a quesadilla. It was nuts.
“It’s almost as if you’re eating for two,” Tabby said. Yup, she nailed it.