Random Acts of Sorcery (24 page)

Everyone stared at Cassie when she walked into the central hub of the suite.

“You look like a skank,” said Hunter solemnly, then he blanched when half the room gave him dirty looks.

“Blame Miri. I asked for a different dress, she brought me this,” she said, gesturing to her all-too-exposed body. She looked around the living room; the redhead was nowhere to be found. “Where is she, anyway?”

Sam shrugged. He was very studiously not looking at her. “Around,” he said.

“Figures,” she said, sitting down on a couch and taking a kaiser roll off of a loaded bread tray on a side table. Food just seemed to appear in this suite, as though from nowhere.

Everyone was milling around, looking nervous. The humans were wearing their badges, bright yellow squares of plastic that identified them as human servants, while Ethan was wearing the purple badge that identified him as a familiar. The vampires were wearing dark red badges, which were not for vampires per se, but “security.” Cassie had thrown her own purple badge on, even though it was kind of pointless in her case; everyone already knew who she was.

In addition to Miri, Jay was also missing. Cassie figured that he was already downstairs, watching the early morning proceedings. For some reason, he found the particulars of demon court fascinating.

Hunter bounded into the chair next to her, wearing the suit he’d worn to her cousin’s wedding last year. Seeing him all dressed up, wearing his yellow badge on his thin chest, hurt a little bit somehow. “Is this going to be boring?”

Cassie finished the roll she was eating. “Have you ever been to a school board meeting?”

He frowned.
“Once, with Mom.”

“It’s like that, only a million times worse,” she said.

Hunter looked puzzled, like he was trying to imagine how anything could possibly be worse than a school board meeting, let alone a million times worse.

“Why don’t I stay with the boys up here for a while?” said Eugene. “Ethan should be present for the hearing, but they won’t get to that for at least a few hours yet. And Hunter’s presence is purely optional.”

Cassie looked at Eugene and nodded gratefully. Ethan was used to sitting quietly at court for hours, but her brother wasn’t, and she was worried about what might happen if he got fidgety. If Hunter was with Eugene, she could feel confident that he was about as safe as he was ever going to get.

Ethan, who had been tapping his foot nervously, jumped out of his chair. “Great, we can play Sorcery!” he yelled and Cassie winced. Sometimes, he got loud when he was excited.

Hunter looked less than thrilled. “I have some cards, but I didn’t bring ‘em,” he muttered. Ethan was undeterred.

“Don’t worry, I brought lots of cards.”

As the two boys began discussing the particulars of their game, Cassie walked over to a table laden with large carafes, and filled a clear glass mug with black coffee. She bolted it down like she was doing a shot.

“Uh, you want to eat anything else before we go?” asked Khalil. “You can order waffles with caviar here.”

If I eat anything else, this dress might just pop off.

“No. Let’s just go,” she said.

As they filed out of the suite, Sam maneuvered so he was next to her. He looked especially handsome in the black suit, which showed off his long, lean build to good advantage, but Cassie had seen him in it before and the effect was somewhat dulled.

“Are you sure there’s no shawl or something that goes with that? Something to cover you?” he asked, daring a look down at Cassie’s barely-there dress. Normally, a look like that would have sent her pulse hammering, but she was too worried about what awaited them at court to feel much of anything at the moment.

“Everybody’s going to be staring at me anyway, what does it matter?” she said. It annoyed her that she sounded whiney, but he had asked.

“Point taken,” Sam said quietly.

They rode the elevator down to the main floor in silence. The lobby was a maze of activity, filled with men and women in suits flipping through programs as they walked.

“The real dental convention, those poor bastards,” Khalil said quietly. Cassie couldn’t help but notice that some of the dentists had strange looks on their faces, like they’d just seen something that they couldn’t quite process, but it could have been her imagination.

She was expecting court to be held in a large ballroom, like last time, but was surprised when they reached Conference Room B and saw a completely different setup. The cavernous room sloped downward like a huge college lecture hall, with members of the court sitting at a long table where the lectern would normally be. The room looked chock-full and Cassie wasn’t sure where to go, until she saw Jay furiously waving at them from down near the front.

About two hundred people turned around to look at the new arrivals after Dmitri closed the heavy double doors with a soft
thud
. Cassie cast her eyes down and began making her way to the far left stairway, towards Jay; she didn’t want to look at them, didn’t want to wonder what they must be thinking about her.

Jay had only saved two seats by throwing his coat over them, but several of the people sitting in his row muttered and began moving away as Cassie’s group approached; apparently, they did not want to be sitting right next to the Son of Sammael’s party. Everyone ended up getting a seat except for Liam, who leaned against the wall, where several other men with red badges were gathered. Cassie had a feeling he probably felt more comfortable on his feet anyway.

Cassie could see Miri’s red hair out of the corner of her eye; somehow, when she wasn’t paying attention, the vampire had rejoined the group.

Arrigio had been in the middle of a long statement when they arrived, and hadn’t faltered for a moment.

“—and be certain the secretary receives the payment on time, or else there will be additional charges. Is there anything further?”

“No, Chairman,” said a small bald
man in a grey suit who was standing in front of the table. Even though Cassie was sitting near the front, the main table was still pretty far away; fortunately, the room had excellent acoustics, so she could hear everything.

“Good. Case 11101-7 dismissed. Please take your seat.”

Once Cassie felt that enough time had passed for half the room to stop staring at her, she took a look around the hall herself. She recognized some faces vaguely from court last year, but didn’t see Nathaniel Lewis, or Andrea; she did, however, see Miranda, the dark-haired witch who had insulted her last night. Miranda was sitting right in the front row, which was curious.

She did catch the eye of Bennet Marcus, who rewarded her with a friendly grin. Next to her, Sam leaned forward to make eye contact with Bennet, mouthing the word “Why?” But the other demon had already turned his attention back towards the action up front.

“Why in the world did he cede me his territory?” Sam whispered in her ear. It was probably meant as a rhetorical question, but Cassie thought she might have an idea what the answer could be.

“The court was reall
y mad at him three months ago. Maybe this is his way of showing that he’s not a threat anymore?”

“I know that,” he said, irritated. “But why did he have to give it to me? It would have been better to give it to the court directly.”

Cassie had no answer to that, so she gave a subtle shrug and directed her attention back to Arrigio up at the front.

While the slate of cases was relatively light for this session, in order to allow plenty of time for the hearing, there were still several cases that required the court’s attention before they could begin the main event. One case concerned a familiar that had run away to another demon’s territory, since his original master had not been feeding him enough; the court ruled unanimously that if the demon had failed to maintain the familiar properly, he had forfeited his claim, and the new master was awarded custody. Another case concerned whether or not a violent battle for territory between two demons in Louisiana had been conducted in accordance with the Charter, but that quickly got too technical for Cassie to follow.

Finally, after Arrigio dismissed a case, he studied paperwork in front of him for some time before calling the next one, and Cassie had a feeling the lesser cases were done. “In accordance with section 108 of our Charter, the court calls Samuel Andrews, the Son of Sammael, to the front. Please take a seat in front of the dais. This body will now determine whether or not the subject may be treated as a full-blooded demon under our laws, or whether he should maintain his default status.”

Cassie gave Sam a hopeful smile, but she didn’t know if he even saw it; he seemed to have tunnel vision, only seeing the dais where Arrigio and the others sat. As she watched his back retreat down the stairs, a terrible feeling of regret welled up inside her.

If they rule that he’s full-blooded, will I ever see him again? I should have kissed him goodbye…why didn’t I think of this before now?

When Sam was seated, Arrigio continued. “For its first witness, the court calls Thaddeus O’Donnell. Mr. O’Donn
ell, please approach the dais.”

O’Donnell made his way down the stairs with a languid, relaxed gait that made Cassie want to strangle him,
then he took a seat in front of the dais as well. Both Sam and O’Donnell were sitting in front of the dais, but on opposite sides of the table. It wasn’t unlike how the defense and prosecution were arranged in human court, though Cassie knew this was different; for one thing, there were no lawyers.

“Mr. O’Donnell, please state for the record the date and location of the last blood status hearing that you attended.”

“May 4, 1767, Venice. The hearing of Umberto D’Alessandro.”

“I didn’t ask for the name, but very well,” said Arrigio grumpily. “As an expert witness, do you agree with the court’s belief that this situation, regarding the Son of Sammael, is similar to that last encountered in 1767, and thus requires the same procedure used at that time?”

“No Chairman, I do not,” said O’Donnell. A surprised murmur ran through the audience. Arrigio, an irritated frown on his face, held his hand up for quiet.

“In that case, please explain the reason for your disagreement,” Arrigio said, his tone arch.

Cassie looked at Tad O’Donnell, curious.

Tad went off the script. He was obviously supposed to say yes to that question, and now Arrigio’
s wondering what’s up.

“D’Alessandro was part fae,” the jovial vampire began. “I believe his maternal grandmother was some kind of…tree spirit?
Water nymph? I apologize, it’s been a long time. In any case, his abilities were always strange and unpredictable.” He crossed his legs, looking perfectly at home up in front of the dais. “Worse, the fae in him didn’t like being bound by the rules of demon magic. At the time of the hearing, his Wordlock was failing.”

That set off a chain of murmurs throughout the audience. Wordlocking was what gave demons some modicum of control over their powers, so they didn’t just set people on fire at random. A demon who couldn’t be Wordlocked sounded like a ticking time bomb…on a very short timer.

“That, by the way, is the reason why that hearing was rather sparsely attended,” Tad continued with dry humor. He was clearly enjoying being in the spotlight. “Obviously, the hearing was held under duress; without any reliable means of control over his powers, the demon was literally too dangerous to live; it was not hyperbole to say so. The witnesses were even rushed through their testimony.

“But in this case,” and here Tad stood up, gesturing to Sam with his left hand. “There is no indication that his Wordlock is failing, or that anything of that nature will ever come to pass. He is only a half-demon of uncommon strength, which was not a crime in 1767, and is not a crime today either.”

“Sit down, Mr. O’Donnell,” said Arrigio. Cassie knew he wouldn’t tolerate anyone standing up without his permission. “An interesting position, but not one you chose to share with the court when I first consulted you about the possibility of holding this hearing several months ago,” he said, his red eyes glittering with a contained anger. “If you did not think a hearing was appropriate, why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Tad shrugged apologetically. “Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a while to realize which choice is the right one. Initially I did what I thought was best, but the more I thought about the case, the more I realized that the two circumstances were, in fact, quite different. I realize it would have been more convenient if I had come to that conclusion initially.”

Or, you wanted to find out what you could get from Sam, and you think you can get the Lupine Project. Why does a vampire want werewolves so badly anyway? Or is he after something else, and the werewolves are just the first step?

She also wondered if what he had said counted as lying; supposedly, no one could lie to the court without a witch detecting it, but no one objected after Tad had spoken. Perhaps he had simply mastered the art of lying by omission, because nothing he had said was technically false, as far as she could tell.

After all, the circumstances of this case
were
different: Tad had something to gain from it, this time.