the spell, death magic drew bad stuff. Beings of the underworld were attracted to it. No doubt that was why they’d smudged a large area around the ritual with sage.
I looked over the edge of the tub and choked. This wasn’t a run-of-the-mill death spell, if there was such a thing. This was the stuff of nightmares, and no amount of sage and bones was going to help us if what happened here was what I thought it was.
Chapter 7
I ’D AT LEAST had the forethought to stash my sword and butter knife back in my car before the police arrived. Yes, I called the police. As much as I didn’t want to deal with all the questions and red-tape bureaucracy, I couldn’t leave a dead woman to rot in the ruins of an abandoned store.
I also called Janice, leaving her a message to meet me for breakfast in the morning. She’d been a huge help to me before, and I’d sorta agreed to give her first scoop on this sort of thing. What the reporter was going to actually do with a demon slaying and a death-magic ritual murder, I had no idea.
My next call was to Raven. I was shocked out of my mind when she picked up on the first ring.
“Aria, you need to get out of town. Go visit your family for a few weeks or something, but get out of town.”
Huh? Did she know? How could she have known? It had been a long time since I’d seen Raven, but the woman I knew never would have participated in the ritual I’d seen in that building.
“There’s a mage here in Baltimore doing human sacrifice. I was calling to warn you .”
“They do that there. And shit is going down. It’s been going down for a while, but now it’s really going down. Stay out of it and get out of town.”
They do that there? I was in Baltimore, not some island in the South Pacific full of natives with strange customs that included human sacrifice.
“You know ? This is commonplace? Mages in Baltimore regularly power their magic through murder?”
Raven made a soft noise. “Not all groups are Haul Du. This is not your fight, Aria. Get out of there.”
How could this not be my fight? “Raven, there is a woman dead in a bathtub. A mage died this afternoon by a demon’s hand. I might not have been in Haul Du for long, but this sort of thing shouldn’t be a regular occurrence.”
“Who was the mage?”
I replied before I even wondered at her question. “Ronald Stull.”
I heard her snort. “He was an ass. No loss there.”
Probably not, but that didn’t mean I could just walk away from a demon loose and out of hell, or a woman who’d been murdered to power another’s magic. “I need to know who the mages are that did this. Which wizards in Baltimore are performing human sacrifice?”
“Hell if I know. Look, Aria, we don’t associate with those guys. The only reason I know Ronald Stull is because he screwed Reynard over on a luck charm once. Other than that, we don’t hang with them. They do death magic. It’s an acceptable magical practice. If there are a few bad apples who take it too far and use human sacrifice, then I don’t know about it. I’ve heard rumors, but that’s it. All I can tell you is some magical violence is brewing and you need to be out of the way. Got it?”
No, I didn’t, but before I could respond, she’d hung up. I knew better than to try and call her again, so instead I sat by my car and waited for the police. I didn’t have to wait for long.
Within minutes the place was overrun with red and blue lights. They’d moved a few of the barriers aside and driven right down the brick pedestrian path to park in front of the crime scene. I followed on foot, catching up with them as they were swarming the building like a group of armed ants.
I hugged myself, knowing that whatever story I told them was going to make me look suspicious. And I’d need to think up something fast. I couldn’t exactly tell the law I was a Templar, and that even though I’d refused to take my Oath I still had a self-imposed duty to sleuth
I looked over the edge of the tub and choked. This wasn’t a run-of-the-mill death spell, if there was such a thing. This was the stuff of nightmares, and no amount of sage and bones was going to help us if what happened here was what I thought it was.
Chapter 7
I ’D AT LEAST had the forethought to stash my sword and butter knife back in my car before the police arrived. Yes, I called the police. As much as I didn’t want to deal with all the questions and red-tape bureaucracy, I couldn’t leave a dead woman to rot in the ruins of an abandoned store.
I also called Janice, leaving her a message to meet me for breakfast in the morning. She’d been a huge help to me before, and I’d sorta agreed to give her first scoop on this sort of thing. What the reporter was going to actually do with a demon slaying and a death-magic ritual murder, I had no idea.
My next call was to Raven. I was shocked out of my mind when she picked up on the first ring.
“Aria, you need to get out of town. Go visit your family for a few weeks or something, but get out of town.”
Huh? Did she know? How could she have known? It had been a long time since I’d seen Raven, but the woman I knew never would have participated in the ritual I’d seen in that building.
“There’s a mage here in Baltimore doing human sacrifice. I was calling to warn you .”
“They do that there. And shit is going down. It’s been going down for a while, but now it’s really going down. Stay out of it and get out of town.”
They do that there? I was in Baltimore, not some island in the South Pacific full of natives with strange customs that included human sacrifice.
“You know ? This is commonplace? Mages in Baltimore regularly power their magic through murder?”
Raven made a soft noise. “Not all groups are Haul Du. This is not your fight, Aria. Get out of there.”
How could this not be my fight? “Raven, there is a woman dead in a bathtub. A mage died this afternoon by a demon’s hand. I might not have been in Haul Du for long, but this sort of thing shouldn’t be a regular occurrence.”
“Who was the mage?”
I replied before I even wondered at her question. “Ronald Stull.”
I heard her snort. “He was an ass. No loss there.”
Probably not, but that didn’t mean I could just walk away from a demon loose and out of hell, or a woman who’d been murdered to power another’s magic. “I need to know who the mages are that did this. Which wizards in Baltimore are performing human sacrifice?”
“Hell if I know. Look, Aria, we don’t associate with those guys. The only reason I know Ronald Stull is because he screwed Reynard over on a luck charm once. Other than that, we don’t hang with them. They do death magic. It’s an acceptable magical practice. If there are a few bad apples who take it too far and use human sacrifice, then I don’t know about it. I’ve heard rumors, but that’s it. All I can tell you is some magical violence is brewing and you need to be out of the way. Got it?”
No, I didn’t, but before I could respond, she’d hung up. I knew better than to try and call her again, so instead I sat by my car and waited for the police. I didn’t have to wait for long.
Within minutes the place was overrun with red and blue lights. They’d moved a few of the barriers aside and driven right down the brick pedestrian path to park in front of the crime scene. I followed on foot, catching up with them as they were swarming the building like a group of armed ants.
I hugged myself, knowing that whatever story I told them was going to make me look suspicious. And I’d need to think up something fast. I couldn’t exactly tell the law I was a Templar, and that even though I’d refused to take my Oath I still had a self-imposed duty to sleuth
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