“I do not believe you,” Iadimus said stiffly. “And neither does the Lady Scara.”
“I, however, do believe her,” the lich said, smiling. “And Scara is not here.”
Iadimus’s mouth opened in shock, showing full fangs. Then he covered them, scowling.
“Irrelevant. The Lady Scara’s argument holds. I still oppose you. The vote is tied.”
“What about Lord Delancaster?” Vladimir asked sharply. “He’s a vampire lord.”
“The rebel does not get a vote,” the lich snapped, and Vladimir and I looked at each other, baffled. Delancaster did not respond; he just sat on the throne, motionless. “His protege, however… makes a quorum.” And then the lich looked at Saffron.
Iadimus drew a breath. “Oh, you manipulative bastard, ” he said quietly.
“Protege… me? ” Saffron asked. The attention seemed to have rattled her, and her voice sounded one drop less like the lich, and one drop more like Saffron. “What about me?”
“You,” the lich said, “are now in the Gentry. What say you about Frost’s assignment?”
“You know what she’ll say,” Iadimus said icily. “What, did you plan this?”
“Planned the death of Velasquez, the assault of the Destroyer, the shaming of Scara? Planned Frost pulling a dragon from her back? Come now,” the lich said. “But never waste a good crisis. Answer, child. Did you assign Dakota Frost the task of defeating the graffiti?”
Saffron just stared at him. “Yes,” she said cautiously.
“So you would be willing to commit that to a vote? To a finding of fact by the Gentry, that this is the explanation for Dakota Frost’s presence at all the graffiti crimes?”
“Yes,” Saffron said, even more cautiously. I got this sinking feeling that we were being maneuvered into a trap. “Yes, I asked Da-I asked the Lady Frost to investigate them.”
“I concur,” the lich said.
“I do not, ” Iadimus snarled.
“Irrelevant,” the lich said, smiling. “We have a quorum of elders, who have made a finding of fact that dismisses Scara’s objection. In fact, we can go further… now that the Lady Saffron is in the Gentry, her request to Dakota Frost gains the force of command.”
“Now wait a minute,” Saffron began.
“No, I see no need to wait. You commanded her to act, and so far she has produced no results,” he said. His eyes flashed at me. “Perhaps we can find new ways to motivate her.”
“You mention Cinnamon’s name again,” Vladimir said, “and-”
“No need for threats, Vlad,” the lich said. “I heard you when you said you came for Cinnamon and not for Frost. If the child holds her tongue, she can keep her head.”
“I’m not going to let you take her mother,” Vladimir said.
“And if you had to choose between them?” the lich said.
“Well,” Vladimir began, his eyes flickering over at me. “I’d-”
“That’s the same choice I would make, Doctor,” I said, staring at Cinnamon. The mention of her name had rattled her once again, and she was biting her knuckle. What had she said to the lich to piss him off? I had to get her out of here, whatever it took. “Don’t be ashamed.”
“Excellent,” the lich said, eyes focusing on me. “Then perhaps you will both agree that if I guarantee her safety… I can, in exchange, place you ‘on the hook’ for Saffron’s command?”
I swallowed. Vladimir and I glanced at each other. Then we both nodded.
The lich’s mouth parted in that piranha grin. “Dakota Frost,” he said, his bony hand slowly extending towards the cinderblock wall, “you have been given a command by a member of the Gentry, and have failed us. Now, we give you one last chance to redeem yourself:”
“Dakota Frost, on penalty of death,” the lich said, “stop this plague.”
Too Spooky to Pick Up a Phone
I stared at the wall. Then at the lich. “Wait, what? Stop this? That’s… it?”
“That is it,” he said, smiling evilly. “Though I doubt you will find yourself up to-”
“Get to the point,” Iadimus said. “She does not understand what we’re asking of her.”
I stared… and then got what he meant. “Oh, I think I do,” I said, feeling anger build. “Studying it for weeks, remember? I know you aren’t asking for a sandblasting job.”
“Quite right,” the lich said. “We are commanding you to kill the tagger.”
“No. No, you are not, ” I said sharply. Being strong armed into what I was already doing really pissed me off. “First, I’m no one’s hired killer, sir. And second, Saffron’s command was to stop the graffiti attacks. You are not commanding me to kill the tagger, but to defeat him.”
“But if you kill him, wouldn’t that-” the lich began, perplexed.
“Why do you think killing him will stop the attacks?” I said, waving at the tag. “ Look at that thing, growing in power. Is the tagger here? Is he hiding behind one of the curtains, orchestrating it? Who are you to tell me how to fight it? What the fuck do you know?”
“Watch your tongue, Frost,” the lich hissed. “I will not tolerate-”
“ You will not tolerate?” I interrupted. “You have no idea what you’ve done! How long have you had this tag? How long have you had Demophage? Days? Weeks? ”
The lich’s scowl slowly faded, became uncertain. “Over two weeks.”
“ Damn you! ” I said. “That was before Calaphase died, before dozens of others! You had a live sample of the graffiti and kept it hidden when you knew I was fighting it?”
“We did not believe,” the lich said, “you were fighting-”
“All this pointless death, destruction, and brinksmanship, when all you needed to do was make a phone call! I would have broken the speed limit to come take a look at this!”
“You are not an easy woman to find,” Iadimus began.
“You idiots! ” I said. “I only went into hiding, like, ten days ago, and I only did that so I could stay free to fight the graffiti. I’ve spent weeks crisscrossing Atlanta trying to find a way to defeat it. I have been desperate to find a live tag.”
Glaring, I turned to the most perfect-and most safely contained-sample of the tagger’s artwork that I had seen. This is what I’d needed all along, and the bastard had withheld it from me-and Calaphase had died. I wanted to whip out the Dragon again and take my chances.
As I stared, watching the tag elaborate itself further, watching it lift from the wall like a bas-relief, I felt my skin tingle, then heard the crackling of paper. My eyes started to tear up, and I looked over to see the lich standing six inches from me, eyes white points of flame.
“Buzz off,” I said. “You’re making my eyes water.”
I felt Vladimir move to my other side, growling softly.
“If you two are going to fight, take it outside,” I said.
“It took considerable maneuvering to get the Gentry and the Consulates united behind you in this fight,” the lich hissed. “But even still, I will not tolerate insolenc-”
“Save it. We’ve lost weeks and people, all because you all were too proud or spooky to pick up a damn phone. So we’re all now weaker while this thing is getting stronger-every second. You’ll note the tag has become more saturated and dimensional while we’ve been talking.”
I felt a movement from Vladimir, as if he was looking at the tag. But the lich just nodded. “Yes. It has been growing with power since we… caught… it. It was little more than a crude cartoon with the slightest movement. Our wizards think Demophage fought his way free before he died, as his corpse was not burned beyond recognition like the others, but instead continuously burned, with a non-consuming magical flame.”
I scowled. “It harvested enough blood and suffering to start the spell,” I said, “but not enough to finish it, whatever the spell actually is.”
“Our wizards… concur,” the lich said carefully. “We brought the wall and Demophage here for study, but soon we found the link was not broken, and the tag was still growing.”
“I’ve seen that before,” I said-earlier today, outside Cinnamon’s and Tully’s hideout. “With the right core
