Fire Me Up

  "By the fifth the spirit you hold," the second nun said, then she, too, faded into near-nothingness.

  "You want me to call a spirit?" I asked, hoping they would clarify the situation without any further rhymes. "You want me to call a demon to wreak vengeance on the person who strangled you?"

  The nuns disappeared completely.

  "Hey! Well, crap. What was that supposed to be? Jim, what do yoeeeee!"

  The first nun appeared suddenly, her white face pushed into mine, her dark, tormented eyes enough to make my soul weep. "Cast your spell, bind him well. Bright as fire glow, deep as water flow."

  Before I could blink, she was gone.

  "Now that was truly freaky," I said, rubbing my arms and blinking as I opened my eyes up to the normal world. Despite the heat of the day, I was chilled, little shivers of cold making my skin tighten. "What is it about ghosts that they all have to speak in rhyme?"

  Jim shrugged. "Revenge, mostly."

  I got up, walked over to a beam of sunlight, and sat on a broken bit of stone wall, still shivering even as I soaked up the heat of the sun-warmed stone. "What are you talking about?"

  "Revenge. The dead often get a bit testy about things, mostly the fact that they're dead and you're not. If you had to hang around a place for a couple of hundred years, trying to pass along a bit of information, or ask for help, or offer advice, but no one listened to you, you'd get cranky, too. That's why most spirits speak in rhyme. It's their revenge, to make you work in order to understand them."

  "Lovely. Like I don't have enough to do without trying to decode ghostly messages to find some four-hundred-year-old strangler."

  'T don't think they were asking for your help, Ash," Jim said, snapping at a bee that buzzed past.

  "No?" I leaned back against the wall to consider what the nuns had said. 'Thread of crime, evil in design. Cord go round, soul be bound. Call elements fourfold, by the fifth the spirit you hold. You know, you may just be on to something there, Jim. It almost sounds like a warning."

  "Or a solution to a problem." Jim rolled onto its back, kicking all four legs into the air in an attempt to scratch its back. "You're forgetting the last part. Cast your spell, bind him well. Bright as fire glow, deep as water flow."

  "Cast your spell, bind him well. Damn, Jim, I knew there had to be a reason I was saddled with you! You're right, you're absolutely right. That first part is a spell. A binding spell. The nuns were giving me a spell... to catch the murdering bastard incubus!"

  I stood up, conviction flowing strong. The nuns had given me a tool to catch the incubus—but why?

  "Why would they help me find an incubus?"

  Jim shrugged. "Why not?"

  'For starters, they don't have anything to do with in-cubi. They're ghost nuns."

  "So? Not everything is a big, dark secret, Aisling. Sometimes things just are. If I were you, I'd stop questioning why and put my mind to work on how to use the information."

  "Hmm." I thought about what Jim said. "You have a point. All right, now all I need to do is to arrange for the incubus to pay another call. If I could catch him and bind him, I'd be able to turn him over to Monish and the Oth-erworld watch, which not only would clear my name but also would prove to any available Guardians who might happen to be lurking around that I would be hot stuff, apprentice-wise. Come on, Jim-Dog."

  "Where are we going now? Can I eat, wherever it is?" the demon asked, watching as I marched off to the south end of the island.

  'We're going back to the conference, and if you're a good demon, you can have lunch. Hurry up, lazybones. Lots to do. Things to plan. Incubi to catch."

  I was in such high spirits when we arrived back at the hotel, it was a shame that my life pretty much took a turn for the sucky.

  Again.

  A glance at my appointment book showed a lamentable lack of Guardian appointments (the three Guardians I'd scheduled with had canceled after Nora's attack— falsely attributed to me—was made public), but there were still interesting workshops to attend, a dragon's brain to pick, and Nora to talk to about the plan that I'd mulled over on the walk back to the hotel.

  Monish was waiting for me at the door to the conference area.

  "Aiskng Grey," he said as I came in.

  I froze. Names have power, and when someone who knows how to use that power invokes your full name, it leaves you vulnerable. One of the first things I noticed with people in the Otherworld society was that many of them did not tell you their full names. They used only first names. Only those people who were very self-assured gave you their full name without knowing whether or not you could use that against them.

  "Hi, Monish," I said carefully.

  He crooked his finger at me. I sighed and followed him to the same room in which he'd first interviewed me. "Why do I have a horrible feeling I'm being sent to the principal's office?I"

  Jim snickered. Monish shot it a look that shut the demon right up. He didn't waste any time before lighting into me, either, barely waiting for me to be seated. "Why did you not tell me that you had summoned an incubus last night?"

  I bit the inside of my cheek, figuring the answer everyone else gave me might just work. "You didn't ask me?"

  His eyes narrowed.

  I took a deep breath and released it slowly, trying to cling to my happy, hopeful feeling. "Sorry. The reason I didn't tell you about Jacob is because I didn't think it was important."

  "Jacob?" he asked, his fingers tightening on the chair he stood behind.

  "Jacob of the House of Balint, the incubus I summoned."

  For a moment I thought Monish's lovely brown eyes were going to pop right out ofhis head and roll across the table to me. "You know the incubus you summoned?"

  "Well, yeah. At least, I didn't know it was going to be him who came when I summoned an incubus, but it turned out to be Jacob, which was good because I don't think any of the others would have been nearly as gullible. Er... helpful."

  Monish turned into a statue, I swear. A statue that breathed in and out, but still, a statue. "The others?"

  "Yeah, the others. The ones that visited me before Jacob. He was one of the last ones before Drake put an end to the STOP HERE AND RAVISH AISLING sign that was evidently above my bed."

  "How many incubi did yousummon before thewyvern stopped them?" Monish sounded like he was having a hard time speaking.

  "I didn't summon them. They—" The second the words left my mouth, I saw what I had done—reaffirmed my potential guilt in the eyes of the committee. Here I had been disputing their claims that I had the power to summon incubi without knowing it, and what did I do? I gave them my head on a platter. "It's not like it sounds. I have this Venus amulet—"

  That made things worse. His eyebrows shot up to the top of his forehead as he eyed the chain visible against my throat. "The amulet you wear is a Venus amulet."

  "One inscribed with two pentacles of Venus," Jim said.

  I turned on my demon, not that I hadn't done enough damage, but Jim was supposed to be my servant. It wasn't supposed to suggest someone get a nice rope since there was a tree so handy. "Oh, thank you very much. Do you want them to kill me7"

  "Don't exaggerate. They couldn't kill you. Well, the committee probably could, but they'd have a war with Drake on their hands if they did, so the most they'd do is maim you."

  "You are not helping," I said through my teeth.

  Monish released the chair, walking stiffly around the table to face me. I rose from my chair, backing up a couple of steps. "Aisling Grey,I' he started to say.

  "Wait!" I interrupted, holding my hands up. "Don't say it! Look, I know you're about to say something bad, something I don't want you to say, but you've got to listen to me. Yes, I have the Venus amulet. Yes, incubi were summoned to me without my knowledge, but they were summoned to me, not to anyone else. I don't know why the one that attacked Nora said my name, but L wasn't even wearing the amulet last night, so I couldn't have summoned it. Besides, I wasn't asleep, and the ot
her times I summoned the incubi I'd been asleep or deep in meditation. I think there's something going on, something I don't quite understand, but T swear to you it's not me. I swear it, Monish. I swear on my own soul that I am not doing this."

  He just looked at me, clearly weighing my plea. Just as clearly he dismissed it, his mouth opening to speak again.

  "NO!" I shrieked, jumping forward to clamp my hand over his mouth. His eyes got huge at that, but I didn't have time to regret such a bold action.

  "You have to give me time. I have a plan—at least, I'll have one once I talk to Nora, but I have to have time to put the plan into action. I promise you I'll find who killed the Guardians, but you have to give me just a little more time. I know how to trap the incubus, Monish. I have a binding spell. I know I can hold him once I draw him in, but I can't do it if you turn me over to Dr. Koslich and his buddies. Please, Monish. I'm not bad. I'm not killing Guardians. And I'm not summoning a murderous incubus. But I can end it, if you'll just give me the room to do so."

  He pried my hand off his mouth, giving me a good, long stare before rubbing a hand over his face. "I must be mad to even consider allowing you freedom in the face of such overwhelming evidence, but I have consulted the high spirits about you. They counsel patience."

  "Bless the high spirits! And thank you. You won't regret your trust in me."

  His eyes grew hard. "You had best make sure I will not. You have until midnight tonight, Aisling."

  I did some calculations in my head, sorting out what Vd need to do, whom I needed to talk to, and said, "Two days. Forty-eight hours."

  He shook his head. "Twenty-four. That is as much leniency as I can give you, and for that, I will have to spend hours convincing the committee I have not lost my reasoning."

  I swallowed back my fear. "Tomorrow night. Give me until tomorrow night. Midnight. Please, Monish. I won't fail you, I swear."

  He opened his mouth, then closed it again, turning to open the door, "It is your own destruction that you hold in the balance, Aisling. Be sure that you remember that. You have until tomorrow evening."

  "I won't let you down! And thank you!" I called after him as he left the room, then collapsed on the chair behind me.

  "You have a plan?" Jim said, coming around to face me. I used its drool bib to wipe its slobbery lips.

  "Yup. I have a plan. It hinges on me being able to pull a rabbit out of a hat, so to speak, but all in all, I think it will work."

  Jim shook its shaggy head. "We are so doomed."

  24

  “There are times when I think I just can't get a break."

  "'And then there are times when we know you're cracked"

  I pointed to the lawn at the end of the verandah. "Go. Now. Sit. And don't give me that look. You've been fed, watered, walked, and if you're feeling well enough to make smart-ass comments, you're well enough to lie twenty feet away in the shade."

  Jim, wise enough to know when it had pushed me beyond the limits of sympathy and understanding for the night it spent in the doggie hospital, lumbered off to lie in the grass. I gave Nora an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that. Both the whining on my part and the demon's comments."

  Nora looked after Jim, a thoughtful look on her face. I was pleased to see that a reapplication of Gabriel's fix-it gel (the source of which I did not share with Nora) had healed the abrasions and scratches to the point where they were easily covered by a little judicious application of cosmetics. "That is a very interesting demon you have. It's not like any other I have seen."

  "A pain in the butt, you mean?"

  "Evil," she corrected, giving me a mild look.

  "Oh. Yeah. Jim's not that. I think that's why it was banished from its former demon lord's legions, to be honest. It never really has talked about why it was kicked out, and since it gets kind of embarrassed whenever the subject swings that way, I've let it go."

  A variety of emotions mingled in her eyes, but in the end humor won out. "You have a unique relationship, one that you should value. I can't think of another demon that demonstrates such loyalty as Jim does to you."

  "Loyalty? Are you kidding? Do you know what it did? It blabbed to Monish that the Venus amulet was inscribed with two pentacles, and while it's true the damage was already done when I slipped up and told Monish about the incubi visiting me before Drake and I did the oath thing, Jim definitely did not help the situation by mentioning just how powerful the amulet was."

  "On the contrary," Nora said, leaning back so Zac-cheo, with many fervent and poignant looks at me, could clear away the lunch plates. "Jim telling Monish that indicates the demon's belief in you. It knows, as does Monish, that if you were destroyed, it would suffer the same fate. For a demon to present such a damning piece of information—damning at first look, that is—when it knew you were at risk showed that it knew you were innocent. I'm sure you plead most eloquently, Aisling, but I suspect Jim's show of loyalty gave Monish pause for thought and is likely what changed his mind."

  "Well, how do you like that?" I said, glancing fondly over to the big black lump stretched out on the lawn. "And here I thought it just liked to see me in hot water."

  Nora laughed. "I'm sure it does. It is a demon, after all. Just not a terribly effective one, so to speak."

  "I see what you mean." We fell quiet for a moment, enjoying the summer breeze as it caressed us, the afternoon air heavy with the scent of jasmine, Around us, people talked and laughed and ate, as many different languages audible as there were voices. Everyone seemed to be having a wonderful conference—but then, they weren't once again cast in the role of murder suspect number one, I hated to ruin such a peaceful moment, but the clock was definitely ticking, and I had a lot to talk over with Nora. "Tiffany said something today that had me thinking, but I'm not sure what to make of my deductions. There is a very wise woman in Paris who, when I was having difficulty seeing the obvious, told me that I wasn't looking at all the possibilities."

  "Ah. Yes. That is an important part of being a Guardian, and one of the hardest elements to learn." She hesitated for a moment, her fingers tracing the edge of her iced tea glass. "I feel as if I know you well, Aisling, so I hope you will not take offense if I speak frankly."

  "No, of course not." Uh-oh, She looked serious and uncomfortable. That didn't bode well.

  "I... the truth of the matter is that I am not sure why you are desirous of seeking a mentor. You know much of the things that apprentices do not learn for several years."

  "But there's more that I don't know," I pointed out, warmed by her praise despite the fact that I knew she'd definitely wiped me off the candidate list. "I couldn't close that portal that opened during the dragonsI lunch. And I don't know a lot of the stuff that the rest of you guys seem to have learned when you cut your teeth. I had no idea that incubi really existed until one of them showed up in my bed!"

  "Yes, but you dealt with them well. Almost instinctively, you solved the problem before it became too great. With the incubi, you sought refuge in a place you knew they would not follow. With the demon at the lunch, you had it held hostage before it could harm anyone. I don't doubt that had you had an appropriate grimoire, you could have returned the demon to Abaddon and closed the portal."

  "I'm not very good at controlling Drake's fire. And I don't feel like I have a handle on even a tiny fraction of the Guardian stuff. And I don't know how to draw wards."

  "All things that will come to you with practice, Aisling. The elements of knowledge are there within you— you simply have not recognized them."

  I thought about that for a minute, but decided that was a conversational path that I really didn't wish to go down. "Thank you for the cheerleading, Nora. Given the ineptness you've witnessed, I appreciate it."

  She smiled and kindly changed the subject. "What did Tiffany say?"

  I gave my lower lip a little nibble as I worked out how best to explain something I didn't fully grasp. "She said that maybe the things that have been happening aren't really connect
ed after all, Maybe they were meant to look like they were, but really weren't."

  "Hmm." Nora looked thoughtful. "I see why that made you stop and think."

  "Yeah.Monish is ready to swear that Moa and Theodora, the two Guardians, didn't know each other. He said you told him you'd never met them."

  "I hadn't. I saw Moa talking to you that first evening here, but there are some seven thousand registered Guardians worldwide—I know only a very small fraction of that number."

  "Right. And yet you three were attacked by the same incubus, and every other Guardian here was left alone. Which means that if there was no connection between the three of you, you were random victims."

  She pursed her lips a little as she thought that over. "I see your point, but I don't understand how that is going to help find the incubus."

  "Well, I did a little opening-myself-to-the-possibilities exercise before lunch, and what I came up with was this: Imagine you want to kill someone, but you have a connection to the person you want to kill—a former lover or companion or even a master. If you kill that person, everyone is going to know that you have a good motive for doing it, and since you're on the premises, the odds are probably pretty good that Monish and the watch are going to come after you."

  "Yeees," she drawled, her confusion evident.

  "But now imagine that you're one of a couple of thousand people at a conference, and whammo! Someone dies—someone wholly and completely unconnected with you, someone you randomly picked out because you had never met her. Attention immediately is centered around the victim's past, who she knew, who had appointments with her, etc."

  "Ah," she said, enlightenment dawning in her eyes.

  'Then a second murder victim is found. Yes, the watch now has your means of destruction—in this case, they know you're an incubus—but once again there's nothing about the second victim to lead to you."