At the Behest of the Dead (39 page)

I couldn’t wait for that day.

Chapter Twenty

“Where too?” I asked Doc.

“The n
ecropolis. Can you manage?”

Behind us
, the castle was crumbling as the water elemental continued pulling water from its realm.

They gave me a few minutes to recover and then I sucked in as much of the cusp as I could manage and zapped us back to Salazar’s old room once again. This time I had a sense of how this new method of tr
avel worked to deposit us on the floor, instead of on the other side where all of those stairs waited. The cusp became a smear of grey, and then we were in the void for a split second of absolute silence before being deposited around the summoning stone.

I sat for a time just staring at my companions. Peaches had thankfully returned to her original form. Doc stood and ran his hands over his body. Reassured he was in one piece
, he left the room and called for help.

I stared at Glenda’s shape while she lay still and cold. I touched her forehead and felt for life and was gratified to get the barest whisper. It was
her and she was scared, but I had no way to reassure her that everything would be okay. Even if it was a lie, she deserved at least that much from me.

A pair of novice
s burst through the door, and behind them came Lukan. His eyes were furious when they fell on me, furious and confused.

Was he the other? Since this whole mess had begun
, I was convinced that at least one other individual in the school was helping Balkir.

“Where’s Collin?
” Lukan demanded.

“My dog ate him in the first ward
, and if you don’t stop shouting I’m going to have her eat you,” I said.

Doc stifled a laugh.

The room filled with novices, and as more people arrived and saw that Doc was in the room the necromancers quietly shuffled the other guilds out. Lukan was stubborn and I pondered asking Peaches to do one of her changing acts just to get him out of my sight.

Lukan
stormed toward me, ignoring the hands that tried to tug at his arms.

Doc issued orders like a commanding ge
neral. He asked for a sarcophagus and six or seven left to retrieve it. He asked for tools and others went for those. Meanwhile Lukan stood over me and fumed.

“What did you do to
Balkir, you charlatan! I will not have this school and guild sullied by you. I’ll have you stripped of rank at the very least. Once I get to the bottom of whatever it is you have been up to, Phineas Cavanaugh, I’ll see you tossed to the wards.”

This went on for a full several minutes while I watched over Glenda. The novices arrived
and wheeled in the sarcophagus. It was ancient and covered in glyphs and archaic Egyptian symbols. It might have contained a mummy at one time. I helped ease Glena into it while Doc set up a table and prepared the rites.

When she was resting comfortably
, I brushed her hair off her forehead and leaned over to kiss her cold cheek.

“We’re coming for you,
” I whispered.

Lukan
droned on and threatened, more than once, to go and drag the ruling council in if I wouldn’t go peacefully. When I was sure that Glenda was comfortable I rounded on him.

“Shut up,
Lukan. Just shut the hells up,” I yelled. “I have had it with half-witted demon summoning assholes for the day. I’ve been to hell, been beat up, faced a giant demon, and seen two of my best friends die, and I don’t have proof but I suspect you are somehow mixed up in all it.”

“See here …”

I didn’t give him a chance. Even in my exhausted state, I still had full access to all of the cusp. I ripped at the veil between worlds and was flooded with power. My urge to pick up Lukan and throw him through a fresh pane of glass was overwhelming.

I rose a foot off the ground and energy pulsed along my frame
, until the air was filled with the smell of cracking ions. Sparks leapt from my fingers and fell to the earth to be grounded out. I called up a glyph of rending. Something I’d had to draw just a few days ago, but now came at my command. It grew several feet in diameter, and then for good measure I duplicated it so they hovered in the air before me.

As I called up enough forces to fry
Lukan to a crisp, get me kicked out for good, and probably start an inter-guild riot and war, I decided that he really wasn’t worth it. He may have been a traitor, something I would need to look into, but he may have also been a man defending his former master, just as I would have defended mine.

Lukan
stumbled backward uttering oaths. I tried to look fierce, but I had just used every single bit of energy I possessed on the little show.

“Hear me now,
Lukan. I am a guardian and a child of the cusp. I was so named by Salazar, and acknowledged by Balkir himself when he tried to use my body as a punching bag. He wanted the key that would allow him access to the things I have been tasked with protecting, and he is no more. If you think you are worthy of challenging me then do so now, in a duel, so I can get back to more important things. The necros in the room can fight over your smoking corpse.”

I was pissed. I was also bluffing. Every bit of power that remained was being channeled into the illusion.

Lukan fumed. He stared and stared until I thought his head was going to explode.

“
Lies, all lies. You have no dominance over my domain nor any other besides your pathetic calling.”

There were three or four other necromancers in the room and none of them looked too happy with
Lukan’s observation. I thought it was going to escalate when a funny thing happened.

Peaches le
ft her spot near the pedestal I used to access the cache of other worldly devices and trotted over to smell Lukan’s robe. She panted and looked up at the fuming demonologist with her cute teddy bear eyes.

I nearly dropped my spells when Peaches lifted her leg and shot a stream of smoking piss all over
Lukan’s feet. Thadeus, a novice that had been in the role for at least three years too many, was the first to crack. He raised his sleeved hand and covered his nose then left the room as the smell of brimstone filled it.

“Is this your guardian?”

Peaches changed into his real form.

“Doth my image offend thee
, oh mortal? Petty demonologist, I am in thrall to this warlock and would do his bidding. Shall we duel, and if thoust should be the victor I will watch from the wards while he finishes you off?”

That was enough for
Lukan. He left in a huff to the cheers of my fellow necromancers. Doc clapped me on the shoulder and told me to go rest while they worked.

That was a fine idea
, so I found a comfortable section of couch and plopped down on it. Peaches transformed then joined me and put her head on my leg. I scratched her between the ears and promptly dozed off.

I slept for two days.

**

“Take this and don’t you even think about arguing with me.” I held out a flask of crap I’d mixed
up that would probably turn Glenda’s skin a light shade of violet for a few days.

“Phineas Cavanaugh, a
m I naked under these sheets?”

“Last time I looked you were. Should I check again?”

“You idiotic, charlatan of a necromancer. I’m going to give you a tail for starters, and then cloven hoofs.”

“I’m so glad you’re back, Glenda.” I leaned over and kissed her forehead.

She went back to berating me, and I went back to holding back my tears.

**

When I tracked Ashley to her apartment, I found a surprise. Ash had told me she was a student and worked to pay for her books. I thought that was a clever way of saying that she paid for a tiny studio apartment or lived with a couple of roommates.

I drove up to her
place and asked Peaches if she wanted to stay. My demonic pooch seemed content to sit in the truck and stick her head out the window.

“If someone offers you
a dog biscuit, please don’t eat them. To be clear. Don’t eat the person.”

“As you wish.” She croaked and went back to trying to catch errant
rain drops on her tongue.

We were parked on a busy thoroughfare in Seattle. From the looks of the place
, the apartments either had a view of the Cascade Mountain range, Mt. Rainier, or the ocean, and that meant it was not cheap.

I’d guarded my delivery from Peaches since we left the store
. There was a short set of stairs that were surrounded by lush, well taken care of plants. I took the few steps, only to find a door locked and an intercom as the greeter. I supposed I could’ve stood outside and pushed buttons until someone took pity and opened the door, but I suspected this only worked in poorly scripted movies.

I took out the address and double-checked her apartment number then hit the button.

“Yep.”

“It’s me.”

“Me?”

“Phineas,
” I said, and looked down at my rather plain clothes. Jeans and a faded Nirvana shirt were the only clean things I could find. To add style, I wore a slicker that was bright yellow and probably manufactured in the nineties.

“My sofa is fine.”

“You can’t be sure about these things. You should let me take a look.”

“Where have you been?”

“Here and there, but mostly down under. Would you please let me in?”

There was a pause
, and I wondered if I was going to walk back to the vehicle with my package in hand and feed it to Peaches the wonder demon.

Bzzzt
went the intercom.

I took a very plush elevator to an equally plush floor covered in real wood, not laminate. I know because I stopped and tapped on it. There were only ten or so condos on this floor
, because it was high enough up to be considered posh. If I ever tried to move into somewhere like this they’d run me out of the city.

I found her door and didn’t get a chance to knock on it.

“Hello, Phineas, we were just talking about you,” she said as she opened up.

I pulled
out the bouquet of flowers with a giant orchid in the center.

“Tada. Wait, we?”

Ashley was dressed to kill in a tight skirt that caressed her knees and a shirt that was a button shy of showing cleavage. I stared at her for a few seconds and had the urge to steal her away from whatever hell I was about to step into. Was it a family get together? Husband? French lovers newly arrived?

It was worse.

Detective Andrews sat at the dinner table with a folder under her hand. Her other gripped a cup of coffee.

“Uh. Hi,
” I said brightly.

“You owe me my files, Phineas
. I have your check, by the way. I’ve been carrying the thing around for almost a week. You know that if you were home I could actually pay you, right?”

“Eh. Thanks …”

“Which reminds me, I have Ashley’s final statement here and was wondering if you’d be so kind as to stop by later and sign yours. It’s been sitting on my desk long enough to collect dust, and I hate disorder on my desk, Mr. Cavanaugh.”

Then I noticed that her hand shook around the coffee cup. Her skin was sallow and her eyes looked heavy with a shade of purple under them that was not normal. I brushed past Ashley and went to her.

“You just remember to stop by today, okay?” she said.

I
lifted her chin and she stared back at me fiercely. Blood shot eyes meant she hadn’t slept much, but I also picked up something else. Her aura was brighter than I’d ever seen it.

“Certainly
, detective. I uh, I thought I saw something in your eye but you look fine now. You look better than fine.”

She looked down and fought back a smile.

“I should go.” The detective rose and organized her folders before turning to go.

“Hey detective, do you have a first name?”

“You just said it.”

“Come on.”

“Fine. It’s Rebecca.” She smiled and trudged toward the door, overcoat shuffling against the floor.

“You don’t have to go,
” Ashley said.

“Yeah I do. Work
work work. There’s a body down on … well you don’t want to know.”

I coughed.

“Not yet. Give us a chance to do some police work. By the way, I tracked down Thora Whitfield, but you can’t talk to her.”

“Witness protection?”

“No, she’s been dead for a couple of years.”

“Detective, let me tell you about my line of work.”

“Oh just can it, you lousy warlock. She’s dead, but I have her next of kin around here. Hold on.” She dug around in her pocket and found a slip of folded paper and handed it over.