Bare Bones (11 page)

There had been far more to the Temple than what had been visible to the naked eye. Stone might be long gone, but the Temple was still there for those with the authority to access it. Not that we made that fact generally known.

“The Temple lives on.” I smiled and placed a hand over my heart, as though I were discussing metaphysical concepts. “And there are always Pilgrims to protect.”

This time even the smile wavered. “Christians?”

“Pilgrims,” I corrected. “Whoever strives to walk a righteous path regardless of what religion, or lack of religion, they follow.”

Sean raised a skeptical eyebrow. “So who decides what a righteous path is? Sounds like something that syndicated radio host would say—the one who labels everyone who disagrees with him as sinful.”

“Templars no longer judge right or wrong,” I told him.

Templars didn’t, but I did. I wasn’t really sure where I was drawing the boundaries yet, but clearly I’d made a firm line in the sand when I’d judged Dark Iron and delivered my own, deadly form of justice.

“Aria’s not one of those people who shoves her religion down other people’s throats,” Janice interjected with a nervous laugh. “Heck, I didn’t even really know she was Christian. I mean, you
are
Christian, aren’t you?”

“Episcopalian.” This topic needed to go into the red zone along with immigration policy and universal healthcare. What to talk about instead, though? The weather? Sunday’s Ravens game? “Do you LARP?” I asked instead. “I’m a half dragon in a weekly Anderon game.”

Sean blinked. “A what?”

“So how are the police doing with that murder at the museum?” Janice chimed in, obviously realizing role-playing games were not a good conversation segue. I wasn’t sure how acceptable this topic was going to be either since the police hadn’t released the details on the murder, and I didn’t want to be the one to break it to Sean over coffee that a killer in the city was skinning his victims.

“They haven’t been able to identify the body yet. The M.E. found a knee implant, but when they traced the serial number it came up with some guy who is very much alive.”

“Typo in the record.” Janice wrinkled her nose. “It happens more often than you’d think. So no leads or anything?”

“Someone was killed in the museum?” Sean interjected. “Like a gang shooting in the parking lot or something?”

“No. Dead guy in the broom closet.” Janice seemed rather cheerful about the whole thing. “Aria opened the door and the body fell right out on top of her.”

I was glad she’d kept the gruesome details to herself, although Sean was wide-eyed at the mention of a corpse landing on top of me.

“What were you doing in the broom closet?” he asked.

Ugh. My face heated up, but before I could come up with something more plausible than the lame excuse I’d given Dario, Janice blurted it out.

“She was sneaking in there with her boyfriend to make out. Can you imagine opening the door to a closet and having a body fall on you?”

Sean seemed more disgusted by my attempted nookie in the broom closet than the idea of a dead body falling out of one.

“Anyway,” I waved a hand, frantic to change the topic again. “No leads on that one, but remember that sister who called the priest to exorcise a demon from her brother? She’s dead. Boyfriend said he saw the brother fleeing the scene, and the cops think the two cases are connected.”

Janice’s eyebrows shot up. “Amanda Lewis? Was she killed…killed in the same way as the museum guy?”

I got where she was going with this. “No, but there were similarities and apparently the brother is friends with a person of interest from the museum case.”

“Wow. Just wow,” Janice mused.

“Wait. There was an exorcism? And a woman died? And that’s somehow connected to a dead body in the broom closet of the Walters Art Museum?” Sean was equally fascinated, although confused. He also appeared more worried about the idea of demonic possession than a woman murdered in her home.

“She didn’t die at the exorcism,” I explained. “She thought her brother was possessed because he’d been acting strangely the last few days. The exorcism was a bust, and twenty-four hours later she was dead on the floor with her brother as the prime suspect.”

“Drugs,” Sean conjectured. “Brother got in with the wrong crowd, got hooked on something, and the sister got killed in a robbery gone bad. I saw a television series on that sort of thing last week.”

I shrugged. It was a possibility, but addicts and their dealers didn’t usually skin their victims. And I couldn’t see serial killers hooking up with drug addicts.

“Drat, I was going to run that human interest piece this week, too.” Janice turned to Sean. “The exorcism? I was doing a story on mental health services. Father Bernard, the priest who did the exorcism, gave me some solid background on how the church is often the basis of referrals for psychiatric care.”

Sean’s smile reached his eyes as his fingers wrapped around Janice’s. “Sounds like a great story. Maybe wait and see how the murder investigation concludes? Could be that there’s a mental health angle instead of drugs. ‘Brother snaps and kills his sister, in spite of her efforts to get him assistance’?”

“Oh, what a good idea.”

And now both of Janice’s hands were laced with Sean’s, the pair of them looking into each other’s eyes. I totally felt like a third wheel again. Totally.

But the mention of Father Bernard had given me an idea. “How did Amanda Lewis manage to find a priest who did exorcisms? I’d assume it’s kind of a specialty.”

Janice shrugged. “I think she asked around and one of the priests referred her to him. From what I can tell, he’s the guy who gets all the demonic possession referrals. Doesn’t that suck? Imagine you’re trying to guide your flock, but every month or so some parish out in the county dumps a crazy in your lap?”

It did suck, but if this priest was the go-to guy for possession, even if the majority of those reported incidents were mental health cases, then he was probably the go-to guy for demon marks. I might not be Catholic, but the priest had seemed knowledgeable about the Templars in history as well as in the modern world. He would probably believe me when I told him about Balsur and the mark. And, although it was a long shot, he
might
be able to save my soul. It was worth a visit. And it was the only idea I had beyond waiting for my parents to come up with something or rereading my reference books for the nth time.

“Do you have Father Bernard’s contact info? Can you share it with me?” I asked.

“Sure.” Janice released her hands from Sean’s and quickly shared the contact from her phone.

I slugged down my coffee then made my excuses, leaving the awkward threesome early after giving Janice an uncertain thumbs-up on Sean. He seemed nice, weird fascination with my Templar heritage aside. He clearly was smitten by her. She’d been wearing the bracelet I made for her, and it hadn’t given off any warning signs about Sean’s possible sleazy intentions. He was professional, attractive, available, but something about him set off my warning bells. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something about Sean Merrill that wasn’t right. I got the impression, unfounded though it may be, that he wasn’t
exactly
what he seemed.

Or maybe I was wrong. I hadn’t been all that successful with my own dating life. And I clearly made a lot of bad choices when it came to men, otherwise I’d be snuggled up with Zac tonight and not about to call a certain vampire and see how things were going up north.

It was well after midnight by the time I got home. I hesitated, my finger over the call button, not wanting to interrupt him in the middle of something that might require his complete attention. Knowing Dario, he’d answer in the middle of a deadly battle just because it was me. I rarely called him unless it was an emergency, and I doubted he’d realize this was just a “checking-in” sort of call.

So I texted instead.
Doing okay? Found the group of renegades yet?

He called right away. “We’re in Townson right now. Haven’t found anything but a couple of solitary vampires trying to lay claim to some pubs near the college. I’m heading over to an apartment complex where there’s been a spike in assault claims to see if there’s anything there. How’d your meeting with Janice’s boyfriend go? Did he pass your exacting tests and gain approval?”

“Yeah. I guess. He seems like a nice enough guy. I think I’m just being overprotective. So tell me about these solitaries near the college. What happened with them?”

The vampire grumbled something under his breath. “Leonora sent us out with a zero tolerance policy. She’s paranoid without the scepter, and there was a time when we didn’t allow any rogue vampires within five miles of our territory line. It’s a reasonable course of action. It sends a message to anyone thinking of making a play for the territory that we’re strong and ruthless.”

“But…?” I got the feeling that Dario was more likely now to directly disobey Leonora than he had been in the past. It scared me. He was strong. He had a solid group who would side with him if there was a fight for leadership. But would it be enough? And would Dario, who’d never wanted to lead, actually take control of the
Balaj
as Master? Leonora would have to do something absolutely unforgivable for him to willingly step into the leadership role.

“These guys aren’t hurting anyone. They get into a scuffle if one tries to poach in the other’s area, but that’s it. They’re both so suspicious that they’re barely taking enough blood to survive. They probably won’t make it another month at this rate. I gave them a warning and let them be.”

The longer I knew this vampire, the more I liked him. “So what happened with their
Balaj
? Why are they on their own?”

“We don’t ask those sorts of personal questions, Aria. Usually they’re on their own because they had a disagreement with the Master. They could have poached a brother or sister’s blood slave, killed a few too many humans during feeding, brought unwelcome notice to the
Balaj
somehow. Lots of times it’s just because of a general incompatibility. We’ve all got brothers and sisters who don’t really fit in. Usually the group works around them, but with some
Balaj
s, a disruptive influence is cast out.”

I thought of what Sarge had told me, about how their former Master had cast Dario out for turning Shay, for standing up to protest behavior he disagreed with. Maybe that’s why Dario had more sympathy than Leonora for these solitary rogues.

“One guy was scared half to death before we even grabbed him. He said there was a human girl who he’d picked up the night before that attacked him. She tried to break his neck.” Dario laughed. “Not that it would have killed him even if she’d succeeded. Can you imagine? What human girl trolls the bars for guys, then tries to break their necks with her bare hands? The vampire said he threw her into the wall and got the heck out of there as fast as he could.”

“I doubt he filed a police report.” It
was
kind of funny. Had the girl been watching too many action movies? Decided to take her rage out on random bar pickups? I couldn’t imagine she’d have been successful even if her intended victim
had
been human.

“No, of course not. The guy hadn’t eaten for two days he was so shaken.”

“Maybe you should be hunting for killer co-eds instead of rogue vampire groups,” I teased.

My words were greeted with silence. I heard a car honk in the distance. “Gotta go.”

And disconnected. My heart raced and I stared down at the phone, worried about the abrupt end of our conversation. Had he found the rogue group? Did he have back-up? I envisioned Dario on his own, taking on five or six vampires.

He’d call back. He’d let me know as soon as everything was resolved. He’d know that I’d worry.

And worry I did. I sat up all night, trying to distract myself with research, television, anything to keep from obsessively looking at my phone every five seconds. Finally about an hour before dawn I got a text message.

Got one. Need to find a place to go to ground for the day. Talk to you tomorrow.

My fingers hovered over the keypad wanting to reply with… What? That I was glad he was okay? That I hated the thought of him sheltering in an unfamiliar place while the sun was up? That I had stayed up all night worrying about him?

I clicked the phone off and set it on the coffee table. That was something I didn’t want him to know. It was bad enough we were meeting each night, that on the one night we hadn’t met I’d still wanted to talk to him. He had a blood slave. I was dating. I could never have what I wanted from Dario, and he couldn’t have what he wanted from me. It was best for me to reel this in, cool my jets, and start acting like just a friend—a business friend.

Business friends didn’t sit up all night staring at the phone, waiting for a text. And if they did, they didn’t admit to it. So instead I went to bed, hoping to get in enough sleep that when I made my way to church tomorrow I was somewhat well-rested.

S
LEEPING IN LATE
made me feel like a princess. No work today. Nothing to do in the morning but laze around in my pajamas drinking coffee, eating cereal from the box, and watching talk shows. I managed to get showered and dressed around noon for my meeting with Father Bernard. I had no real confidence that the priest would be able to help me, but I didn’t have anything better to do with my day off. When he’d suggested we meet this afternoon, I’d agreed. At this point I was willing to explore every option, no matter how farfetched, to get this demon mark removed.

I was just about to roll out when I heard a knock at my door. Opening it I blinked in astonishment. The man standing across the threshold from me was model-pretty, with high cheekbones and a perfectly angled jaw. Blond hair drooped dramatically over one of his sapphire blue eyes. Full lips curved into a nervous grin and the man shifted his weight, adjusting the stack of books he held in his arms.

“Reynard.” I hadn’t seen Raven’s on-again,off-again boyfriend since I’d been thrown out of Haul Du, yet here he stood at my door, looking like he’d stopped by to cram for finals.