that why I’d
been sent ? Had Lou or Baalth
suspected?
My gaze drifted back to
the footprints. Jack clearly hadn’t expected anyone to find his
little abattoir. However, something nagged at me while I examined
the prints. They hovered near the closest wards, toes facing the
wall, but that struck me as strange seeing how he would have drawn
the wards first. Why then were there
bloody footprints near them? The sigils
were an early part of the ritual process, placed and forgotten.
Maybe Jack had checked them after not getting a response to
his message .
But if Jack had been worried about his
work enough to double check it, what other mistakes had he made? I
looked to the prints near the bed once more and noticed something I
hadn’t earlier. A quick scan of the others confirmed it. There’d
been more than one person in the room.
The prints that encircled the
apartment were broader across the toes than the ones beside the
bed. That’s why the blood had been dragged about the room. It
wasn’t Jack who was worried about the wards, but someone else with
him. We weren’t just looking for one killer, but two. That
realization sunk into my stomach like a stone.
I glanced back at Scarlett. She paced
in a tight circle, her eyes always avoiding the apartment, her gaze
dropping to the ground as she turned past the open doorway. It was
one thing to let her know we were facing someone with magical
ability, but it was something entirely different to mention the
ritualistic nature of the murder or that we were chasing more than
one suspect.
People didn’t spill blood and draw
pentagrams to draw the favor of God or the Choir. No, they only did
that to curry favor with Satan, good ol’ Uncle Lou, or one of the
other lieutenants of Hell. Scarlett might not be the brightest star
in the sky, but she would understand exactly what all this meant…if
I were to tell her.
Before she could work her nerve up to
come inside, I went out and pulled the door closed behind
me.
She stopped her pacing to watch me.
“We need to inform the authorities.”
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
She started toward the apartment. “But
you can’t just leave her there.”
“ Scarlett.” I blocked the
way to the door. “She’ll be found soon enough, I promise. There’s
nothing we can do for her, but if we raise the alarm, the bobbies
will shut down the area and we’ll never find
these… this guy,”
I corrected. “We can’t have that. He needs to think he’s in the
clear.”
Knuckles popped as Scarlett clenched
her fist about her hilt.
“ We got lucky stumbling
across the killer and forcing his hand.” I gestured to the sigil on
the outside wall. “He drew this in a hurry to keep people from
finding the body. He might not know who’s on to him, but he clearly
suspects someone is.” The fact that I’d caught a whiff of his
presence meant he probably sensed me in return.
“ Won’t he just hide;
hunker down until we’re gone?”
“ I don’t think so.” What I
didn’t tell her was why I didn’t think Jack and his buddy would
disappear. Like with most beliefs, the Devil’s Laws were passed down from
practitioner to practitioner, the idiocies and blatant falsehoods
becoming canon as time went on. According to the lore, you didn’t
start the process and walk away. If Jack was looking to summon
Uncle Lou, he needed to stick around until he got an answer, not
that he ever would, least not with parlor tricks. You didn’t summon
the Devil, he summoned you.
But if that’s what was going on, why
did Jack run off when we were in the bar together? Even the most
amateurish of wannabe Satanists couldn’t be so dumb as to think
Lucifer himself would pop in for a chat. He had to know my uncle
would send a minion if he bothered to respond at all. Then again, I
couldn’t be sure it was Jack I’d run into. It could well have been
the second guy; the one pacing about the room as Jack did the deed.
It’s not like I’d had time to measure his
been sent ? Had Lou or Baalth
suspected?
My gaze drifted back to
the footprints. Jack clearly hadn’t expected anyone to find his
little abattoir. However, something nagged at me while I examined
the prints. They hovered near the closest wards, toes facing the
wall, but that struck me as strange seeing how he would have drawn
the wards first. Why then were there
bloody footprints near them? The sigils
were an early part of the ritual process, placed and forgotten.
Maybe Jack had checked them after not getting a response to
his message .
But if Jack had been worried about his
work enough to double check it, what other mistakes had he made? I
looked to the prints near the bed once more and noticed something I
hadn’t earlier. A quick scan of the others confirmed it. There’d
been more than one person in the room.
The prints that encircled the
apartment were broader across the toes than the ones beside the
bed. That’s why the blood had been dragged about the room. It
wasn’t Jack who was worried about the wards, but someone else with
him. We weren’t just looking for one killer, but two. That
realization sunk into my stomach like a stone.
I glanced back at Scarlett. She paced
in a tight circle, her eyes always avoiding the apartment, her gaze
dropping to the ground as she turned past the open doorway. It was
one thing to let her know we were facing someone with magical
ability, but it was something entirely different to mention the
ritualistic nature of the murder or that we were chasing more than
one suspect.
People didn’t spill blood and draw
pentagrams to draw the favor of God or the Choir. No, they only did
that to curry favor with Satan, good ol’ Uncle Lou, or one of the
other lieutenants of Hell. Scarlett might not be the brightest star
in the sky, but she would understand exactly what all this meant…if
I were to tell her.
Before she could work her nerve up to
come inside, I went out and pulled the door closed behind
me.
She stopped her pacing to watch me.
“We need to inform the authorities.”
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
She started toward the apartment. “But
you can’t just leave her there.”
“ Scarlett.” I blocked the
way to the door. “She’ll be found soon enough, I promise. There’s
nothing we can do for her, but if we raise the alarm, the bobbies
will shut down the area and we’ll never find
these… this guy,”
I corrected. “We can’t have that. He needs to think he’s in the
clear.”
Knuckles popped as Scarlett clenched
her fist about her hilt.
“ We got lucky stumbling
across the killer and forcing his hand.” I gestured to the sigil on
the outside wall. “He drew this in a hurry to keep people from
finding the body. He might not know who’s on to him, but he clearly
suspects someone is.” The fact that I’d caught a whiff of his
presence meant he probably sensed me in return.
“ Won’t he just hide;
hunker down until we’re gone?”
“ I don’t think so.” What I
didn’t tell her was why I didn’t think Jack and his buddy would
disappear. Like with most beliefs, the Devil’s Laws were passed down from
practitioner to practitioner, the idiocies and blatant falsehoods
becoming canon as time went on. According to the lore, you didn’t
start the process and walk away. If Jack was looking to summon
Uncle Lou, he needed to stick around until he got an answer, not
that he ever would, least not with parlor tricks. You didn’t summon
the Devil, he summoned you.
But if that’s what was going on, why
did Jack run off when we were in the bar together? Even the most
amateurish of wannabe Satanists couldn’t be so dumb as to think
Lucifer himself would pop in for a chat. He had to know my uncle
would send a minion if he bothered to respond at all. Then again, I
couldn’t be sure it was Jack I’d run into. It could well have been
the second guy; the one pacing about the room as Jack did the deed.
It’s not like I’d had time to measure his
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