It’s calling and reminding her who she is. Reminding her where she belongs.
I made my way over to the cold fireplace and collapsed into the chair. There was nothing more I could do now. Rhyzkahl had warned me that it could take a long time, but I had no idea how much time Tessa had. She was already declining. A knot of grief threatened to twist my insides. It was doubtful that her body would last more than a few weeks longer.
I tipped my head back, staring up at the rafters of the basement. It was only slightly more than a week ago that I’d summoned Rhyzkahl—but it felt like a year. I still had no idea whether I would summon him again. I turned my head with a sigh and looked over at the little circle with the remnants of my aunt’s items. I knew what she would say—that I’d be a complete fool to even consider it. But I had almost three weeks to make up my mind—and that was only if I decided to call him this next full moon.
The access to knowledge was unspeakably tempting, though I could well guess that there’d be limits on it. He would dole out his information as he saw fit in order to keep me wanting more.
I pushed up from the chair. At this point, anything was better than nothing. I had a feeling I’d be needing answers for a long time.
I looked over at the diagram containing the “beacon” for Tessa’s essence, feeling and seeing the thrum of power even without shifting fully into othersight. My eyes traveled over the twined wards. Now that they were active and complete, it wasn’t as confusing, and I could begin to see how they worked. I had basically channeled potency into the first diagram, and now the wards were slowly releasing it into the other circle to create this beacon.
My heart skipped a beat as I looked at the diagram, an odd new thought skimming through my head. If this diagram was actually storing potency, could that be done at other times as well? I could feel my breath quicken as I considered the implications of that possibility. Holy shit. This would mean that it’s possible to store potency without resorting to death magic. The Symbol Man had tortured and murdered his victims in order to amass enormous amounts of power—enough to summon and bind a demonic lord. The restrictions of the phase of the moon had always chafed at me but never enough to be willing to resort to such hideous methods. Summonings required a smooth and consistent flow of potency, and fluctuations or hiccups could prove disastrous when opening a portal. But if there was a way to gradually bleed power off into a diagram and then pull it back out for use … I reached for the back of the chair, the unspeakable elation nearly overwhelming.
“Holy shit,” I whispered. Could it really work without the blood of innocent victims? I wouldn’t have to worry about the phase of the moon at all. I could store potency in dribs and drabs throughout the month and then use that stored power at any time. Day, night, half-moon, no moon. Not only that, but it would be easier to summon the higher-level demons. Summonings were exhausting. The creation of the diagram was taxing enough, plus the effort of forming the wards, and then adding summoning on top required a huge amount of effort and concentration. The main reason higher-level demons were summoned only by very experienced summoners was that you had to be highly skilled in the forming of the portal to have strength left over to control the demon.
I scrubbed at my face, trying to keep everything in perspective. There would still be drawbacks. The convergence of the spheres was always a limiting factor, and I’d still have to negotiate terms in any summoning I performed, which in itself would limit how often I could summon.
I dug a piece of chalk out of the box where I kept my implements, then I moved to an open space on the basement floor, well away from Tessa’s diagram. I didn’t want to do anything that could interfere with that one. I crouched and began slowly sketching, thinking carefully about how to adjust the ward structure of Tessa’s diagram for what I wanted.
It took well over an hour, and my back and knees were aching when I finally closed the diagram. I set the chalk down and brushed my hands off, then stood stiffly. I’d had to redo parts of it several times, going by pure I-think-this-makes-sense instinct. I could only hope that my instinct was on track. I scrutinized the diagram meticulously, looking for any remaining flaws.
Now to test it. A small test—just to see if I had any clue at all or if I was trying to do something that couldn’t be done.
I took a deep breath and pulled potency to me. The power dribbled into my control in small erratic bursts, exactly as it had with Tessa’s beacon. For a summoning, it would have been disastrous, but I didn’t need it to be steady and strong since I wasn’t relying on it to hold protections or bindings or anything else. I only needed it to go into the warded diagram. Focusing, I slowly released the potency down into the diagram, watching as it filled the structure, settling into the wards like a blend of light and water, visible as a shimmering brilliance to othersight.
I finally released the diagram from my control. I hadn’t pulled much power—there wasn’t much to be pulled—but as far as I could tell it was staying in the diagram, exactly where I’d channeled it.
“Holy shit,” I said, giddy. I made an arcane battery! And without all that messy murder and torture business!
I watched the diagram obsessively for nearly half an hour, then decided that it seemed to be holding the power. The next question was, how much would it hold? Enough for a summoning? And could I then draw that potency out steadily enough to use it effectively?
I focused and channeled another small surge of potency into the diagram, deeply pleased when it settled in, like honey poured into a half-full bowl.
This was too fucking cool. I scrutinized my “arcane battery” again, finally feeling a measure of confidence that the diagram was holding steady. It was tempting to see just how much this diagram could hold, but I forced myself to hold back, at least for now. I could sense that there was more potency after the second time I’d channeled the power and that there was room for some more, but there was no point in testing the storage capacity at this time. The big test would be whether I could use that potency.
I glanced over at Tessa’s beacon, satisfied that it was still sending out its arcane call, then climbed the stairs and locked the basement door behind me. The worst that could happen if the diagram could not hold the power overnight would be that it would trickle away, back into the normal power structure of this sphere.
And if it was still there, and usable, by morning, then this whole summoning gig would suddenly be about a thousand times easier.
Chapter 21
AS SOON AS I WOKE UP THE NEXT MORNING, I RAN downstairs to check my storage diagram. Even before coffee—which for me was a major deal. The basement was stuffy and hot, but I barely noticed. The potency still lay pooled in the diagram, thrumming softly to senses beyond hearing. “Hot damn, I am good,” I murmured, grinning like an idiot.
Now, could I use it? I rubbed my hands together gleefully in my best mad scientist impression and ignored my body’s demand for coffee and food. I took a deep breath to focus and pulled the potency from the diagram—slowly at first, then with more certainty, until I could feel the power coiling and crackling around me. I laughed as I felt the potency respond in shimmering undulations. It was only a couple of hours after dawn, at a time of the month when potency was erratic and hard to pull, and here I was with smooth and solid power at my disposal.
I toyed with the power for a while, practiced sending it back into the diagram and pulling it out again, my understanding of the wards deepening as I watched how the power flowed. I could see ways that the structure could be adjusted to hold power more efficiently or altered to allow for different uses.
I could also see why it was very likely that no one had figured this trick out before. Without that crucial component of the ward that was used in the beacon, this wouldn’t work. And how often does a summoner get the chance to glean knowledge from a demonic lord? My skill at warding was novice at best, but I could still see that this ward was the sort of thing that only someone who was a “twelfth dan grandmaster”
would be able to figure out. And Rhyzkahl had given it to me. Did he know the other ways it could be used?
I reluctantly released the power back into the diagram one more time, then broke contact with it, exhaling as the power settled into the shining wards. The next true test would be to attempt a summoning using stored power. And a dangerous test as well, I reminded myself. If I screwed up with a summoning, I wouldn’t lose only the stored power, I’d lose body parts. I’ll be sticking to a lower-level demon, that’s for sure. Just like when I was beginning to learn how to summon.
But now wasn’t the time for that. Now was the time for coffee. I hauled myself upstairs, suddenly feeling the fatigue hit me. Sure, the power was there at my disposal and it was far easier to draw it out of the diagram than out of this sphere, but I’d still been exerting effort to hold the potency, and I felt as if I’d summoned three reyza at once. Note to self: Don’t forget that this takes it out of you.
I finished getting ready for work, then poured a cup of coffee and brought it out to the back porch. It wasn’t even seven a.m. yet, but I could already feel the promise of the crushing humidity in the air. Ah, summer in south Louisiana. A season to be endured. But even the prospect of unbearably frizzy hair couldn’t dim my mood. I knew that I was on to something huge with this power-storage diagram.
I heard my cell phone ring from inside the house but felt no great compulsion to leap up and answer it. I wasn’t on call, and I wanted to enjoy my peace. I knew it wasn’t from the neuro center—I’d set that number to a distinct ring as soon as I’d had Tessa admitted there. Eventually the ringing stopped, and about half a minute later I heard the chime that told me I had voice mail.
It will wait, I thought stubbornly. I felt as if I hadn’t had a peaceful moment to myself in months. There was always something that had to be done, somewhere I needed to go. I needed to get into Tessa’s library, I needed to learn more about wards and arcane and essence, I needed to solve these murders.
I needed to relax and take time for myself. Even if it was for only a few minutes.
My phone rang again, followed by another voice-mail chime. I tightened my grip on the coffee mug, feeling my shoulders hunch up and my lip curl into a pout. Not fair. This was my time. I wasn’t on call.
Then I sighed. There were very few people who would call me for even boring mundane matters. And what if it was someone calling about Tessa from a different number?
I unfolded my legs and made my way back inside, oddly annoyed to see that the calls were from Ryan. Nothing to do with Tessa, after all. Not that I was annoyed to have Ryan calling me, but I realized that my worry about my aunt was increasing daily. I knew that I was pinning too many hopes on this ritual that Rhyzkahl gave me. I knew that I needed to face the reality that it might not work. Rhyzkahl had even said that the chances were slim. So I’m stubborn. Screw it.
I dialed my voice mail as I dumped the rest of my coffee out and rinsed my mug.
“Kara, call me.”
I rolled my eyes and pressed the delete button. Thanks for the details, Ryan.
The second message was even more informative. “Kara. Call me. It’s important.”
Great. I started to dial his number but was interrupted as the phone rang, with the caller ID showing—surprise, surprise—Ryan.
“I was calling you,” I said as I answered.
“I need you to come to North Highland Street in Gallardo,” he said without any preamble. “Murder–suicide. Supposedly.”
Gallardo was a small town just east of Beaulac, not large enough to have its own police force, which meant that the sheriff’s office handled any issues. “That’s outside my jurisdiction,” I informed him.
“I’m not asking you to do any work. But you need to come look at something. You know where North Highland is?”
“No, but that’s why I have GPS. Is this related to what I’ve been working on?”
“I don’t know yet. That’s why I want you to come out here,” he retorted, a touch of asperity in his voice.
“Smart-ass. Fine. I’m on my way.”
I was tempted to dawdle to get back at him for his unwillingness to part with information, but my curiosity won out. About forty-five minutes later I pulled onto a road running through a neighborhood that could only be described as “seedy.” Or perhaps “every other house a crack house,” if you wanted to get specific. There were a number of sheriff’s-office vehicles there, marked and unmarked. I parked my Taurus behind Ryan’s dark-blue Crown Victoria, then walked up to where the most sheriff’s deputies were clustered. I could see now why Ryan hadn’t bothered to give me a specific address. There was only one house on the street that bothered to have a house number displayed—and it was simply spray-painted on the black tarpaper that comprised the exterior. I gave nods and smiles to the deputies and detectives I recognized, then picked Ryan out of the crowd near the street and made my way over to him.
“So? What’s the deal?” I asked.
He jerked his head toward the house we stood in front of. It wasn’t the one with the spray-painted number on it, but that was about the only difference. The exterior was tarpaper, the roof was patched with a faded and tattered blue plastic tarp, and more than half the windows were broken. “Come and see.” He ducked under the crime-scene tape and I followed, after scrawling my name onto the scene log. He led me up to a porch of dubious stability, then we entered a gloomy interior. Ryan flicked on a halogen lamp that had been set up in the corner, giving me my first look at what he wanted me to see.
My first reaction was, Okay, two bodies shot in the head, both white, man and a woman, on the far side of middle age. Then recognition hit me. Shit—it’s the Galloways. Dismay filled me as I looked down at the couple.
The sense of wrongness slammed into me without warning. I pressed my hand to my stomach before realizing I’d done so, coffee in my belly abruptly feeling like roiling acid.
“They’re gone … but worse than the others,” I said as soon as I could work moisture back into my mouth.
Ryan nodded gravely. “Zack thought it felt … off. I’m not as sensitive as you, but even I can feel that there’s something bad going on here.”
Probably anyone with arcane sensitivity would be able to feel it. They wouldn’t know specifically what was wrong, but they’d have a lingering sense of unease about the two bodies. I made myself move closer, cautious of where I was stepping, not only to avoid contaminating evidence—though I was fairly confident that the scene had been recorded and swept already—but also because I didn’t trust the floor to support my weight.
I crouched beside Sam Galloway. He’d been shot in the side of the head, and I could see stippling and scorch marks near his temple. I glanced over at Sara. “What’s the explanation? That he shot her and then himself?”
Ryan nodded. “Gun’s already been recovered. In his hand.”
“I can’t say that’s not what happened,” I said slowly as I shifted into othersight to deepen my assessment, “but I don’t think that’s the truth.” I stood, shifting back to normal vision, unable to keep the shudder from crawling over my skin. “I … think that someone else killed them by pulling their essence away, and then made it look like a murder–suicide. They might have still been breathing when they were shot, but they weren’t alive anymore.” I put a hand to my stomach, sick. “Ryan, this means that some person, either with the ability to consume essence or controlling a creature with the ability, is using it as a weapon.”
“Fucking shit,” Ryan said, nearly growling the words. “You said this was worse than the others. What did you mean?”
I swallowed harshly. “The essence was … ripped out, before they died.” An icy shiver rippled down my back. “I don’t know much about what could be doing this, but I can’t help but think it had to be insanely powerful to be able to rip it out before death, before the body had loosened its hold.” I shuddered, then looked at him. “What were they doing here?”
He scowled, jamming h
is hand through his hair. “I told you that they used to be restaurant owners, right? Well, that was before a significant stash of meth was found in their freezer during a raid several years ago.”
I frowned. The Galloways hadn’t struck me as the meth-dealing type at all.
“The restaurant was seized,” Ryan continued, “and they didn’t contest it, most likely to keep their son—who was known to be the occasional meth user—from spending the next umpteen years in jail for production and distribution.” His scowl deepened. “Even though there was nothing to point to a lab or any way to make that much meth.”
I waited for a few seconds more, then threw up my hands. “Ryan, you’ve completely lost me. What does this have to do with why they were killed? I thought you were trying to convince them to testify in your corruption investigation.”
He exhaled. “I can’t talk about it here. Let’s go back to your aunt’s place and I’ll explain.”
Chapter 22
MY STOMACH WAS DOING QUEASY FLIP-FLOPS AS I pulled into my aunt’s driveway, a combination of shock and no food other than my morning coffee. And, since I took my coffee thick and sweet, I now faced a serious comedown off the caffeine and sugar high.
A headache indicated that it wanted to take up residence behind my eyes, and I squinted against the noonday sun as I walked up the stairs to the porch. I heard a low rumble from the west and I glanced up, seeing the dark mass of clouds on the horizon that promised afternoon thunderstorms. About time. The harsh weather could be a shock to people who weren’t from this area, but the near-daily thunderstorms were about the only thing that made the summers bearable. The temperature would drop about ten degrees, and even though the humidity would climb up into the sodden figures, it was still better than the relentless heat. And I could handle the humidity just fine. I’d dry up and flake away in a desert climate.