Death Magic (49 page)
Authors: Eileen Wilks
Lily swallowed and slugged down some Diet Coke before answering. “We know they want to duplicate me. We know they can duplicate Ruben and Ida. We know they’re thinking big, since the end result if they win is lots of dead lupi and the country in chaos—martial law, riots, the president and vice president dead, the government splintered.”
Rule went along with her by adding to her list. “We know they didn’t plan on Ruben turning lupus. We know they’re using death magic, which means there are bodies somewhere.” He glanced at her. “We know someone in the Bureau’s involved.”
“Yeah.” She brooded on that a moment. “We’re pretty sure Parrott is, too. He’d be a suspect even if we didn’t know he’s tied in with Chittenden. First, he’s Gifted, and he hides it. Parrott could’ve been lying about Bixton knowing about his terrible taint. Or Bixton might have known, then found out Parrott hasn’t been staying on the wagon, magically speaking.” She flipped her hand. “Two birds, one stone. Take out Bixton and frame Ruben.”
“Or Bixton could have learned something about Friar or Chittenden that made him dangerous to the movement.”
“True. I wish I knew if Chittenden was Gifted. I’m betting yes, but we don’t know. It would help if we knew where he was.”
“Unfortunately, my people lost track of him last week.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Which people—ghosts or lupi?”
He smiled grimly. “Lupi, in this case, though they’re acting in accordance with Ruben’s plans. We’ve been keeping an eye on both Chittenden and Jones. Chittenden managed to slip away.”
“Huh.” There’d been a lot going on she hadn’t known about, hadn’t there? She glanced at what was left of her lunch. “Anyone want the other half of my sandwich? I can’t eat the whole thing.”
“I’ll take it,” Mark said.
She passed it to him and took another sip of soda. Living with lupi meant never having to worry about wasted food or leftovers. She looked at Rule. “Anything else I should know?”
“Perhaps.” He considered a moment, then said, “The president knows about Ruben’s visions.”
She choked on a swallow of Diet Coke. “The what? She what?”
“You knew she and Ruben have had a close working relationship.”
Yes, but... “How much does she know?”
“Nothing about the Shadow Unit specifically, but about the Great Enemy, Friar’s transformation . . . she has the basics. The White House has been quietly observing heightened security this past month.”
“And no one’s noticed? There hasn’t been anything about heightened security in the news.”
“She cancelled her visit to Mexico last week.”
“Because of the vote coming up on—oh. You mean that wasn’t the real reason.” Lily chewed that over. “Congress doesn’t know any of this, do they?”
“No. I’m not sure she’s told any of her cabinet. What could she say? That her pet psychic has had bad dreams?”
“They’d freak. At least half of them would think she’d lost it. Someone would leak it to the press, and before you know it the whole country would be debating whether the president was non compos or if everyone should be buying guns and stocking their bomb shelters.”
“And possibly getting rid of the Gifted in their midst.”
Thereby doing part of the enemies’ work for them. “I guess Ruben didn’t have one of his hunches to
not
inform the president.”
not
inform the president.”
“He felt sure that was the right thing to do.”
“Shit. I just thought of something. We don’t know if Ruben’s still a precog, do we? I mean, normally lupi don’t have Gifts. Cullen does, but he’s the exception. I should’ve touched Ruben before the two of you took off.”
“You’d have lost a hand,” Rule said dryly, “so I’m glad you didn’t try. I suspect Ruben’s still a precog, but you’re right, we don’t know for sure. And I hadn’t thought of that until you mentioned it.”
He didn’t look happy to have thought of it now. “I guess we’ll find out. Do you—” Her phone cheeped like a baby bird. She grimaced. When she first heard the ring tone she thought it was cute, but it was already driving her crazy. She took it out and checked the number. It was the Etorri Rhej. Lily had left a message for her while they waited on lunch. “This is Lily.”
“Hi, Lily. I was so sorry to hear about your recent trouble.”
“Geez, that was on the news up in Canada?” She couldn’t believe her arrest had made even the national news, much less gone international.
A moment of silence. “No, I heard about it from others in the clan. Is your arm improving?”
Oh. Right. She was talking about the shooting. It made Lily want to laugh or groan. That news was a whole month old, and plenty of new troubles had replaced it. “It’s healed really well. There’s more to the story, but I’m pressed for time. Can I owe you the details for now?”
“Sure. Your message said something about a ghost that’s been bothering you.”
Like all the Rhejes, the Etorri Rhej was Gifted. She was a medium—a powerful one—plus she knew a lot about ghosts and death and all that, and was able to put it in language that mostly made sense. “Not bothering me exactly, but I have some questions. Killing people to make death magic tends to throw ghosts, right?” It had to do with what the Rhej called transitioning and the power involved in that process. Lily didn’t really want to hear the explanation again, so she hurried on. “That may be where my ghost came from, plus there’ve been other ghosts seen in the city recently. And I know someone’s been making death magic.”
“Ugh. Nasty stuff.”
“It is. There may be a lot of it involved, too, so—”
“How much?”
“Ah—I don’t know how to quantify it.”
“I see your point. I asked because . . . well, mediumship runs in my family, and has for a very long time. Mothers and grandmothers have passed down the Gift, the lore, and the stories for many generations. When you talked about a lot of death magic, I thought of one of the oldest stories. This would have been pre-Purge, probably by several hundred years.”
“That’s a long time for a story to keep its shape.”
“It is, but bear with me. The story tells of how an evil magician put a small village to death ritually to fuel a Great Spell.”
“How many in the village?”
“Fifty-five, I think. I can call my grandmother to make sure of the number.”
Which could have changed a hundred times over the years. “No, that’s okay. I was just wanting a ballpark on how many deaths we’re talking about.”
“Anyway, the evil magician ended up being killed by a rival magician—the Bán Mac. There are a lot of stories about him. You can find some in most folklore compilations. Apparently he rode all over Ireland on his ‘horse of flame’ seducing matrons, rescuing maidens, defeating evil magicians, and drinking enough ale to kill most men. Also tricking the little people and getting tricked,” she added, “because this was Ireland, after all. Most of the tales focus on Bán Mac, but the story passed down in my family tells about what happened after the battle. The area near the sacrificial site was plagued by instabilities.”
“What kind of instabilities?”
“Oh, the usual—water turning to blood, animals born malformed, cows going dry. And of course a lot of ghosts. But there were also reports of ‘divvil beasts’ and frequent earth tremors, and something about ‘time gang awry.’ I can’t say how accurate any of this is,” she said apologetically, “but there’s probably some truth in it. The solution is the point of the tale, to those in my family. The neighboring villages brought in a priest to lay the ghosts. He did that, but he also ‘poured Spirit onto the land to knit up its break,’ and the odd occurrences stopped.”
“Hmm.”
The other woman laughed. “You sure can pack a lot of skepticism into a single sound. I think you need to talk to a priest.” She laughed again. “I didn’t mean it to come out that way. What I mean is that the Church may know more about these odd occurrences at sites of death magic than I do. But even aside from that, you need to let the Church know. The Catholic Church is very good at laying certain kinds of ghosts. The souls of those killed may need the power of the Church to replace what was stolen in order to complete their transitions.”
That made two people who wanted Lily to talk to a priest. “A priest Cynna knows is supposed to call me about some stuff related to the case. I’ll ask him about it.”
“Good.”
“The other thing I wanted to ask was if there’s any way I could talk to that ghost if he shows up again.”
“I can’t help you with that. If you were a medium, I could offer suggestions, but mediums and non-mediums experience ghosts so differently that my training doesn’t really apply to you.”
“Is there any way you could come to D.C.?”
A moment’s silence, then: “I’m afraid not. I have a prior obligation I have to honor.”
It was the brief pause that made Lily suspicious. “Some kind of mysterious Rhej business?”
Another pause, then a chuckle. “You could say that.”
“It’s what the Leidolf Rhej said when she hit me up for five hundred dollars before heading for the airport.”
That seemed to make the Etorri Rhej’s day. She laughed and repeated it, then said goodbye in high good humor.
“I’m begining to think,” Rule said as the car slowed, “I should call my father and see if the Nokolai Rhej has also departed for an undisclosed location.”
“Surely not.” The Nokolai Rhej was blind. She couldn’t jet off on mysterious Rhej business ... could she? “Maybe you should. Not that it will do any good, since we still won’t know what they’re up to. I’m starting to have some sympathy for Cullen’s attitude about Rhejes.”
“They do know how to be silent.”
The car had stopped for a light. So had a couple dozen other cars. As backed up as they were, it would take a couple of light changes to get through the intersection. They were only a couple blocks from Sjorensen’s place. Lily tapped her foot, considering getting out and walking the last bit.
“Assholes,” Scott muttered.
“What?” Rule said.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. The bumper sticker on that gray SUV bugs me.”
Lily couldn’t see it until their own lane of cars crept forward—then there it was. A shiny gray Nissan SUV with three kids in the back—two boys and a cute little girl in pigtails—and two bumper stickers on its rear window. One read “Humans First.” The other said, “Honk If You Hate Weers.”
Lily couldn’t believe it. “Jesus. Honk for hate. They think they’re being cute.” One of the boys threw something at the other. The mother turned around and said something to them. She looked like a nice woman, not yelling or anything, just wearing her Mother Face.
“They’re probably here for the Humans First demonstration,” Rule said. “The big rally is tomorrow.”
She’d lost track. With everything that had happened, she’d pretty much forgotten about the demonstrations Humans First had planned. “Rule. Tomorrow. Are you thinking what I am?”
“I don’t think it’s coincidence, no.”
Their eyes met. He looked as grim as she felt. If whatever Friar was cooking up was scheduled to coincide with the demonstration tomorrow, they didn’t have much time. And they still had no idea what Friar was planning.
Anna Sjorensen was staying in an ESH studio suite, with ESH meaning extended stay housing, and “studio suite” meaning it was basically a hotel room with a kitchenette. It was the sort of place the government parked clerks, agents, and other human miscellany when it wanted them in D.C. temporarily. Sjorensen was still technically part of the Nashville office, temporarily assigned to D.C. for training, so she qualified for ESH.
Unless Croft had gone ahead and pulled her into the Unit. Lily would ask about that.
These ESH units weren’t bad; the location was decent, if noisy, being on a busy street. No parking, though. Scott dropped her, Rule, and Mark off in front. He’d have to circle the block until they came out again.
On the sidewalk, the two men flanked her. Lily sighed and decided not to make an issue out of it. At least Rule was on her right. He knew better than to get in the way of her gun hand. “We aren’t all going to fit going through the door this way.”
Rule slanted her a smile. “Mark will go in first.”
“Good grief.”
“It’s standard practice,” Mark assured her. “The Rho never goes through a door first.”
“I’m not a Rho. I’m the one who makes sure the area’s safe for the other people.”
“Not this time,” Rule said.
“I’d like to argue, but that’s Arjenie’s ring tone.” She took out her phone as they reached the revolving doors that led to the lobby. With a sigh, she waited beside Rule while Mark went first. “Hey, Arjenie. Does this means you’ve got something for me?”
“I’m not interrupting, then? Good. I e-mailed you the files. You didn’t ask me to call, so I wasn’t sure if I should, but I had a hunch you’d want to hear about this.”
Lily had asked Arjenie for the complete personnel files on Sjorensen, Mullins, and Drummond. She was absolutely not entitled to see those. Even if she’d still been Unit, she would’ve needed Ruben’s written authorization to see the complete files. But Arjenie had the highest clearance possible now, Rule had said. She could access anything.
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