Demon magic, p.6
Demon Magic, page 6
part #4 of Brimstone Magic Series
“That includes you,” he continued. “So I suggest you stay out of my way or I’ll arrest for you contempt.”
He pivoted on his heel and left the room, taking the cloud of tension with him.
“Believe it or not, this isn’t the worst of Lady Vera’s parties I’ve been to,” Silas said. I glared at him. He shrugged. “Just saying. There was the year she did a carnival theme with games and…” I narrowed my glare. “Well, it wasn’t pretty.”
“Silas, this isn’t funny. It’s not going to take Conor long to figure out that bloodied sword is mine. And once he does, he’ll have a good reason to haul me to the dungeon. Unless the vampires get to me first. I guess at least then I won’t have to spend the rest of my life in a dank cell.”
“The cell is the better outcome. You could escape,” Silas said.
I looked at the game board abandoned by the vampires. “This isn’t one of your tabletop campaigns. This is my life.”
“I know that,” Silas said, a little sharply. “But you haven’t been arrested yet. I suspect if that man really wanted you in the dungeon, he’d already have you in cuffs, locked in a room where he could keep you out of his way.”
I sighed. “I have no idea what Conor wants, other than nothing to do with me.”
“So let’s not focus on him. Let’s finish talking to everyone and get a list of suspects rounded out. We can go from there.”
“Good plan.” I smiled a little despite myself. I didn’t hang out with Silas a lot, and I was pleasantly surprised at how grounded he was keeping me.
I checked the time. It was a little after midnight. That gave me about seven more hours to find a killer and get the hell out of here before sunrise.
Chapter 8
The mood in the ballroom was somewhere between tense and bored. Some party guests stood in groups chatting in near-whispers, while others sat on the chairs at the sides of the room. Everyone seemed to be giving the parlor a wide berth, as if whatever had killed Rothbury might be contagious.
I noticed the group had thinned, too. Like Christopher and his friends, a lot of the guests had gone off to the other rooms, or perhaps upstairs to their own rooms. I wondered just how many people on Lady Vera’s guest list were staying in the house and had their own rooms upstairs to escape to.
Adam was on the first veranda hanging out with a group of vampires and I gave him a wave. He waved back distractedly. He was smiling and appeared to be in the middle of an animated conversation. At least someone was having a good time.
Silas spotted Allison in her bright pink dress. She sat with Robert on one of the sofas and we headed over there while I gave the bar a longing look. My stomach growled. Nachos sounded better than a whiskey on the rocks, but sadly this bar didn’t have an appetizer menu. At least not for humans. If we were locked in for a few more hours, I was going to have to find the kitchen and raid the fridge, and I really didn’t want to know what kinds of things I might find in a vampire’s chill chest.
Allison and Robert both perked up at our approach.
“Tell me this is over and we can leave,” Allison said. Allison and Robert’s masks were on the coffee table in front of them, along with two red-stained glasses that I guessed hadn’t been holding wine.
“Not yet,” Silas said, taking a seat next to her. She groaned and flopped back against the sofa.
“If I’d known we’d be trapped here all night, I’d have brought a Gameboy. Or at least a deck of cards,” Robert said.
“I don’t suppose you guys saw anything earlier,” I said.
“Like what?” Robert asked, squaring his shoulders.
“I don’t know. Anyone acting cagey or trying to get into the coat closet. Anyone going in and out of the parlor looking like they didn’t want to be seen?”
“No,” Allison said. She raised her chin to indicate I should look behind me. “But that guy is glaring at you hard.”
I turned, expecting to see Conor or even Philip. But instead, I saw Neil, Lady Vera’s right hand man. He was standing a few yards away watching me. When I glanced in his direction he shifted position, turning his attention elsewhere. He pretended to see a friend and marched off in that direction.
I frowned. “What’s that about?”
“Who knows? This crowd is touchy as hell,” Robert said. “One wrong move and suddenly you’re on a shit list.”
“Yeah. There’s a reason I tend to avoid other vampires. All of the rules of etiquette and everyone has their own little quirks,” Allison said. “Everyone is so high-strung and uptight, trying hard to offend our dear leader.”
“That’s not true.” Silas folded his arms over his chest. “Some of us are reasonable and even-tempered.”
“Sure,” I agreed.
“Honestly, I’m so sick of this ridiculous made-up hierarchy,” Allison continued. “Vampires shouldn’t be beholden to people just because they give themselves a fake title.”
Robert gave Allison a hard look and nudged her in the side.
She sighed. “Sorry. I really didn’t want to come tonight, can you tell?”
“That makes two of us,” I said. If I hadn’t been obligated, I definitely would have skipped out the moment I learned my CSI costume wouldn’t cut muster. “Any idea who’d want to kill Rothbury?”
Allison tensed slightly. Robert swallowed uneasily and then glanced around to make sure no one was lurking nearby. “A lot of people from what I hear.”
“Did you know him?” I pressed.
They both shook their heads. “I met him a few weeks ago,” Allison said softly. “He was with this other guy. Lord Sullivan, I think? They came into the Drowned Rat.”
“That place is still open?” I asked, surprised. The Drowned Rat was a vampire dive bar that catered to mortals who liked vampires. It was a relic from the 1990s when vampires were the popular monster du jour, and got a boost again in the mid-2000s when Twilight was all the rage. It was a good place to go to find humans who were obsessed with the supernatural, something that came in handy in my line of work, but the business had been struggling to stay afloat and last I’d heard, it wasn’t long for this world.
“There are always curious mortals,” Allison smiled.
“Why would visiting representatives from a vampire coven visit a bar like that?” Silas asked, his brow furrowed.
“Who knows? They want to see all of the sights, I guess,” Robert said, checking his phone again. “We were just there because the owner pays us to show up once a week and look immortal. It’s easy money.”
“And free blood.” Allison stood. “Speaking of, I’m going to get another drink. Can I get you guys anything?”
I was so tempted to ask for a whiskey on the rocks. Instead, I shook my head. I could have a drink or two—and a giant pile of pizza rolls—when this was all over. I stood, too. “I’m going to walk around the room. Clear my head.”
“If you find anything interesting, be sure to share,” Robert said. “My phone’s battery is almost dead. I’m getting desperate.”
“Will do,” I promised, though I doubted I’d find much. My plan was to take a spin around, listen in on conversations, ask a few questions, and maybe see if Maria had found anything yet, assuming she was willing to share.
Sitting still made me itchy. I wanted this solved and I wanted to get out of here, sooner rather than later. Not least because I wanted to avoid any more confrontations with Conor.
I made my way slowly across the ballroom, shamelessly eavesdropping. Most people were discussing the murder but some were more worried about where they’d sleep if Lady Vera wouldn’t let them go before sunrise. Some talked about mundane things: the weather, upcoming parties, that sort of thing. One group of about five vampires were talking about the annoyances of having mortal “servants” in their houses. I moved on quickly before I said something that would get me in trouble.
A woman in a giant black and white ball gown large enough to rival Lady Vera’s was having a hushed conversation with a small group of vampires in elegant but smaller gowns. They all still wore their masks, as if refusing to concede the party was over.
“I heard Rothbury insulted her decor,” the woman in black and white said. “I’d have killed him, too, knowing how much effort she puts in.”
Her group tittered, basking in the gossip. But the woman next to her gently slapped her shoulder. “Please, Millie, the Lady would never deign to ruin her own party. She’d have him done in after it was over.”
More titters and laughter.
I kept walking. I suspected Lady Vera, too, but their conversation was just idle gossip. And while gossip could be useful, it wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard already.
I took a gander out on the first veranda. The doors were wide open and people milled about near them, half-inside and half-out. Adam was still there, still engaged in conversation and holding a half-empty drink. At the far end, I saw a couple of older-looking vampires, who’d been turned in their fifties or so, smoking cigars.
I went back inside and continued down the ballroom. I saw Philip a few yards away. He saw me looking and glared back. I smiled brightly. A woman I didn’t recognize was speaking to him and looked annoyed at his momentary distraction.
In front of me, a young woman leaned against the wall and stared into the distance. She was dressed in an old fashioned gothic-era Victorian dress that hugged her frame and fanned out only slightly at the hips. Her mask, an elegantly designed black and silver piece, was still affixed to her face. Even with the mask, she looked young. Seventeen, eighteen. Too young to be a member of the newly undead. And yet she wasn’t alive.
“Hi,” I said.
She gave me a withering look. “Who are you?”
“I’m a private eye. I’m trying to find out who killed Rothbury.” And the coat check woman, whose name I’d yet to learn, but I didn’t know if her death was public knowledge so I kept it to myself. “Who are you?”
She sized me up and then pushed off the wall, straightening. She was shorter than me by several inches and glared up with contempt. “I thought the Watchers were doing that.”
Given her goth attire, attitude, and the fact that she didn’t sound aggrieved to have the Watchers around, I made a guess. “You’re Lilith.”
She shrugged. “So what?”
“So nothing.” I shrugged back at her. “I’m just trying to find out what happened. Did you see anything?”
She shifted uncomfortably. “I saw the body. Rothbury’s, I mean. Before they covered it. I saw through the doors.”
“Did you see who killed him?”
She rolled her eyes. “If I saw that, I would have told someone already. Trust me, this party can’t be over fast enough.”
“I agree, which is why I’m asking. So if you see or hear anything, let me know, okay?”
“Whatever,” she said and walked away.
She was still a teenager and I wondered who had turned her at such a young age. Most of the vampires I met had been turned in their mid-twenties or older, and Lilith was maybe eighteen, if that.
I was about to go back to Silas when I noticed the doors to the second veranda were shut almost all the way, although one was open a little and cold air came through. Cold, fresh air actually sounded like a good idea. Hoping no one was smoking on this veranda, I opened the door and stepped out.
I wished I hadn’t when I saw the body.
The body had fallen oddly on its arm in a position that no living person would keep. The head was gone, leaving only a bloody stump above the white suit. I searched the veranda and spotted the head at the edge, near the railing, as if it were trying to escape.
Neil. I couldn’t see the face but the outfit was obvious enough. No one else had been dressed in a white suit with red accents. I stepped closer for a better look but there was nothing much to see. Neil’s shirt was unbuttoned at the top, and his mask had fallen somewhere between his body and head. It seemed impossible he was dead when he’d been glaring at me twenty minutes ago.
A dagger lay near his corpse. It was small but presumably sharp if it was the murder weapon.
Footsteps shuffled behind me. Someone screamed and shouts erupted.
“Hey, the witch killed someone!” I turned and saw Philip grinning from ear to ear, proud of himself for announcing my guilt.
“I didn’t kill anyone,” I said sharply.
But panic rose in my middle. Here I was, standing over a body. No doubt the dagger was enchanted or it would never have removed a man’s head. Vampires couldn’t enchant weapons themselves but they could buy them from witches so it might have been in the coat closet, like my sword, but it had no claim tag.
“Move aside.” Maria pushed through the crowd and stepped up beside me, face falling as she looked over the corpse. “Well, this is bad.”
She turned and ushered the crowd away, ordering one of Lady Vera’s employees to keep the area clear and another to go find Conor.
I turned to leave but Adam appeared, blocking my path. “I heard there was a body,” he said. He was a little tipsy, his eyes slightly glassy and his tongue a little thick, but he was probably the only thing resembling a medical examiner at this party.
“You heard right,” I said, and gestured for him to go look.
“Wow,” he said, as he got a clear view of the corpse. “This is grotesque.”
Without touching the body, he knelt down on the opposite side and put on gloves. He bent close to the neck and frowned. “Someone did a hack job on the neck.”
“How can you tell?” I asked.
Adam pointed to the skin on the stump. “See how it’s jagged?” I bent down to get a closer look. Sure enough, the line of the cut wasn’t even. “It wasn’t a clean cut, but several hacks.”
“How? Wouldn’t a vampire with a knife in his neck fight back?” I wasn’t really asking Adam, more posing the question out loud, but Adam shrugged. I couldn’t imagine Neil standing there and letting someone chop at his neck until they got his head off.
Maria walked the perimeter of the veranda and apparently found nothing of interest. “You didn’t see anyone out here?” she asked me.
I shook my head. “The door was closed and no one was here except… you know.”
A scream pierced the air behind me and my heart leapt into my throat. Lady Vera swept onto the veranda, still in her massive yellow dress, mask affixed stubbornly to her face. “Neil!”
She rushed to the corpse’s side and hugged it close to her, cradling it as if an act of love might bring him back to life. “I’ve been looking for him all over.” She wiped a tear and then her expression twisted, turning murderous and landed on me. “Who did this? I’ll have their head. I’ll drink them dry and toss their husk in to my fire pit.”
I held up my hands. “I don’t know. I’m trying to figure that out.” Whoever had done it was callous and cocky as hell. Maybe a little stupid. Killing someone right next to a crowded ballroom for a second time tonight was risky as hell. If someone on the other veranda leaned over, they could have seen. Or if I’d come out for air ten, fifteen minutes sooner, I might have caught the killer red handed. Whoever had done it was playing with fire, asking to be caught.
“You’d better find the fiend.” Lady Vera stood, dropping the corpse like the lifeless husk it was. She marched up to me and leaned close, speaking in a harsh whisper. “Your sword is still bathed in Rothbury’s blood and I have no doubt you could have killed my Neil.”
I swallowed uneasily, heart slamming against my ribs so hard I thought they might break. She moved away, and I dared inhale. Then she left, heading back to the ballroom to simmer with rage somewhere else.
Maria stared at me. “That’s your sword in the parlor?”
I sighed. The headache behind my eyes had turned from minor annoyance to constant pounding. “I had to check it at the door. So did anyone with a weapon. The killer broke into the coat closet and stole it after they killed that poor woman.”
“I see,” Maria said. She didn’t sound convinced, because of course she didn’t. She picked up the dagger—the Watchers did not bother to fingerprint things, much to my annoyance—and whistled. “This blade’s enchanted too. You like enchanted blades, don’t you, Warren?”
“The woman in the closet was exsanguinated,” I pressed. “I couldn’t have done that.” I opened my mouth to demonstrate lack of fangs.
“No, but you have vampire friends,” she said.
I glared.
“Not saying you’re guilty, Warren. Just saying I can’t rule out the possibility. Everyone here is a suspect for now.”
I got a few ibuprofen from Adam’s bag and swallowed the pills dry. “I’m going to go find out who wanted both Neil and Rothbury dead.”
“Just don’t leave,” Maria said.
I shot her an angry look. “You know I can’t.”
At least not until I found the killer. Or the killer found me…
Chapter 9
“Who wanted Neil dead?”
Christopher had gone up to an empty guest room upstairs to avoid the crowd, and I’d tracked him down by threatening his cohorts until they told me where he was.
Christopher still wore his collared shirt and slacks, but he’d removed his shoes and suit jacket, and now lay on the big queen bed, propped up on pillows.
“How should I know?” he asked. “Really, I don’t see why you keep harassing me. I didn’t kill anyone. At least, not tonight.” He smiled wickedly.
He was trying to intimidate me but it wasn’t going to work. There were greater threats to me at this horrible party.
“Because you know everything about every vampire within fifty miles of Seattle.” I folded my arms over my chest. This guest room was cold and my arms were covered in goosebumps. “It’s what you do.”
Christopher sat up. “I know many vampires who’d want the person closest to Lady Vera out of the way. After all, it’s easier to seize power when one is close to it.”
