England set up that’s devoted to Crowley. It would be disturbing if it wasn’t so damn helpful. But they list all of his poetry, which is really, really bad, filled with love, sex, death and more sex. But he has an entire poem on the ‘joining.’ It’s all about sex, of course, but this one is different from the others. This is the kind of sex that links the body and the mind.”
“It links the souls,” Quinn said. “Two become one.”
“That’s one horny guy,” Janus said, and then he paused. “Wait a second. They are linked in body and mind, which means they…”
“Right,” Quinn said quickly.
“You two?” Janus said. “That’s how come you guys are suddenly the picture of weirdness? You had sex and now you are…”
“It’s not what we are,” Kate said. “It’s what we’re becoming. Quinn and I are linked now. I have a feeling it becomes even stronger once the trial is passed.”
“Was it any different than normal sex?” Janus asked. When he saw the look on Quinn’s face, he continued. “Look, normally I would just wait to ask Quinn when he was alone, but since you two are one now anyway, what’s the point, right?”
Quinn wasn’t going to answer. He was opening his mouth to say it was private when Kate replied.
“Very. Imagine knowing exactly what your partner wants a half second before they even know they want it,” she said. “No awkwardness, embarrassment. No accidentally doing the wrong thing. It’s like everything is choreographed.”
“That sounds pretty fucking awesome,” Janus said.
“Yeah,” both Kate and Quinn said at the same time, and they looked at each other. Quinn didn’t want to think about sex right now. Or rather, that was all he wanted to think about, but if he did, if they lost themselves to that again, they would be dead.
“So that’s the deal. The two have sex and…”
“Sex changes everything,” Kate said. “That’s what Madame Zora told me when she read my future. It was in the Tarot cards: The Devil, which represented lust and sex.”
“What else did she tell you?” Janus asked.
“The next card was Death,” Kate said.
“Oh. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that isn’t so good.”
“Death can also mean transformation,” Kate responded.
“Really? Cause usually, when you use it in a story and whatnot, it just means death,” Janus said.
“Jump back for a second,” Kate said. “We aren’t done with Crowley. He hosts this party, right? Women come from all around.”
“So he can join with as many as possible?” Janus asked.
“I don’t think so,” Kate said. “So he could find the right one. The Web site is vague-everything here is reading between the lines. Crowley was basically holding try-outs. I think by himself he was just a guy, but he believed if he found the right woman and they had sex…”
“He would become the Prince of Sanheim,” Janus said.
“Bingo,” Quinn said.
“Which means what, exactly? All you can eat at the local Irish pub?”
“I don’t know,” Kate said. “I know it triggers the ‘Trial of the Cennad.’ But I don’t know what that means.”
“The Headless Horseman,” Quinn said. “He’s part of that trial. He has to be.”
Quinn could vaguely remember his dream before he woke up. He had been talking to someone-he couldn’t remember who-but the man had told him something.
“You are what you fear,” he said.
Kate nodded.
(You created him) she thought. (He’s your cennad.)
(Which means what, exactly?)
(It’s ancient Gaelic for ambassador)
“Stop doing that please,” Janus said. “Not all of us are tuned in to Kate-and-Quinn’s FM Sex Radio.”
“Sorry,” Quinn said. “Look, my parents read me ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ when I was a kid and I loved it. Loved it. I made them read it to me every night. Finally, my Dad, as a surprise, got me the Disney cartoon version of it. And it scared the hell out of me. I couldn’t sleep for weeks after that, and boy, was my Mom pissed at him for showing it to me. He figured that since I had read the story, I was ready. But I wasn’t.”
“So the Headless Horseman is the thing you feared,” Kate said. “That’s why he attacked us.”
“Can I just remind everyone that he’s made up?” Janus said. “He doesn’t exist.”
“No, he didn’t exist,” Kate said. “But he does now.”
“Because you two had sex?”
“Dee saw him before this,” Quinn said. “That man near Phillips Farm heard a horseman late at night. And that was before we, uh, made love.”
“Just a guess: it was after you met me,” Kate said. “Before you did, he was just a dream. Once you and I started getting closer, the Horseman became more real. But he wasn’t solid flesh-ready to attack us-until we had sex. That triggered the trial.”
“And the trial is what? He shows up and puts Quinn on the witness stand?”
“I could be wrong, but I think it’s a bit simpler than that,” Kate said. “We kill him or he kills us.”
“Awesome,” Janus said. “That’s just great, because last time I checked there was someone else that wanted to kill you two. You are very popular with the psycho set this year.”
“What happens if we succeed?” Quinn asked.
“I don’t know,” Kate asked. “But I do know that at least at first, everything is tied to Halloween. That’s the apex of the Prince’s power and his lowest point is…”
“Nov. 1, All Saint’s Day,” Quinn said.
“So whatever power is gained is lost at the stroke of midnight,” Kate said.
“What happened to Crowley?” Janus asked. “What did he do with his power?”
“I don’t know if he succeeded or failed,” Kate said. “But he held his party. It wasn’t a huge gathering, but it was enough. Maybe fifty to hundred.”
“Fifty men went up a hill,” Janus said. “None of them came down.”
“What happened?” Quinn asked, but he already knew.
“No one who attended that party was ever seen again,” Kate responded. “They found the castle where he threw it totally abandoned.”
“Fifty men went to see him,” Janus continued. “None of them were found.”
“But they found something else, didn’t they?” Quinn asked.
“Yes,” Kate said. “The Web site had a lot to say about that.”
“What did they find?” Janus asked.
“They found a message written on the wall,” Kate said. “It was written in blood.”
“Let me guess,” Janus said. “It said, ‘Need more beer.’”
No one laughed.
“No,” Kate said. “It said, ‘The Prince of Sanheim is Risen. May God Have Mercy On Your Souls.’”
Chapter 21
Tuesday, Oct. 24
Quinn idly tapped his pen on his notepad as he waited for the press conference to start. It was already 10 minutes late and reporters were buzzing around the small room in the police station. It was late October, but the room was hot. Quinn wanted to open a window, but he was afraid to lose his chair. It was standing room only.
There were reporters here from everywhere- The Washington Post, The Washington Times, maybe even The New York Times, he wasn’t sure. They had all gotten wind of what Sheriff Brown was supposed to announce. Lord
