“I’m not sure,” he said, returning his attention to the tablet.
“You find anything out?” I asked.
Xander shrugged. “M.I.S. database is pretty unreliable when it comes to the Nephil. Hecate seems to be even more of a ghost—absent from nearly all of our records. From the little I managed to gather, she’s powerful, and she’s gained even more power over the years. She also has a very loyal following of Cursed and Acolytes.”
“Are the Cursed vampires?” I asked.
“They are. Though, from what I’ve read, the vampiric curse isn’t exclusive to her. She has her own, specific type of curse—and most people seem to believe that she created the vampiric condition.”
“But it works the same? Her curse? The hungrier they are, the more powerful?”
“For the most part,” Xander said. “They’re immortal, vulnerable to death only from pure silver and magic. They also have a few tricks that Hecate imbued upon them. They can shape-shift, changing from human to Raven whether they’re hungry or not, like the vampire did earlier—though they still lose most of their intelligence when they shift deliberately. However, in their Raven form, they have more physical abilities—speed, strength, healing, some magical resistance. They can also control mists. Not like water vapor, but a fog that allows them to travel between worlds.”
I cocked my head. “Teleportation?”
“Not really, but kind of. Hecate can travel freely between worlds and realms. For example, she helped escort Persephone into and out of the Underworld. As a result, she was granted a place in the forever darkness—she can now move between our world and the Underworld without penalty.”
“And her Ravens can do the same?”
“They’re technically called Empousa—the first of their kind. And to an extent, yes. They are allowed to travel between worlds, though only with Hecate’s permission and guidance. They are servants, unable to do anything without her commanding it.”
For clarification, most of the Nephil live on Earth and are hidden in society. They live among us because they’re unable to travel to different heavens or hells or other realms of existence. Those few who have the ability to jump between worlds are extremely powerful and dangerous—Hades, Zeus, Poseidon… the big names—and most people don’t even think those three are Nephil, but actual full-blown fallen angels. Demons. Anyway, according to Xander, Hecate not only had the ability to openly travel where she wanted to, but she had imbued a part of that ability to her Empousa. For a Cursed or an Acolyte to move between worlds—to teleport—was unheard of, if not impossible.
Xander continued relaying his findings. “Her Empousa, like other vampires, also have the power to enthrall their victims.”
I recalled my meeting with the red-headed vampire in Xander’s monster prison. She had nearly coaxed me into sitting beside her on the bed. When I resisted, she said I was more powerful than I realized—like I shouldn’t have been able to resist her charm.
“So, to summarize,” I said, “Hecate diverted me from Mel so that she could abduct my daughter, alive, and capture me, also alive. When she failed, she placed some empanadas—”
“Empousa,” Xander said.
“Same fucking thing. She places some enchiladas at my house to finish the job. To her credit, she succeeded in burning my beautiful trailer to the ground.”
“I think the burning was your doing… and you have a loose understanding of the word beautiful, don’t you?”
I flipped Xander off. “Hecate travelled through some shadows or a magical fog to speak with me in the parking garage, while kidnapping Mel at the same time. Am I following the threads?”
“This is why I write it down.”
“Well, I’m not a fourteen-year-old girl with a crush.” I cleared my throat. “Her Empousa,” I said, enunciating the word for my grammar lord, “knew what I had inscribed on my wife’s wedding band. I find that strange, do you not? Why would Hecate want us to connect this event to Callie’s death? It makes no sense.”
Xander frowned. “Knowing Mel’s kidnapping connected to Callie’s death would force you to double down on your search—as you said. So, if Hecate wants you off the trail as she said,” he pointed at my cell phone, indicating the voicemail, “why plant the ring?”
“It has to be one of Hecate’s enemies… someone who wants me to find and kill her. Which doesn’t make any sense. Acolytes and Cursed can’t harm a Nephil.” I pondered on that for a second, chewed on the possibilities of an invisible Nephil using the circumstances to manipulate me into killing another of their kind—which, as said above, would be impossible for me. “How powerful is Hecate?” I asked. “Like, what do we know about her actual… power?”
Xander kept a long face for a second. “Nothing. I know what I told you. That’s it. She creates Empousa through her curse. She can travel between worlds, and she bestows that gift to her Cursed creatures. Everything we have on her is through observation of the Empousa. There’s no record of her engaging with humans beyond those who follow her eternally. The myths say she prefers isolation and night—the quiet darkness—to work on her magic.”
I clicked my tongue, then finished my scotch. It burned a little too pleasantly. I liked my alcohol to hurt, reminding me of why I drank. “What about Elizabeth? The Priestess?” I asked, referring to the other name the Empousa had given us while restrained. “You know anything about that name?”
Xander shook his head. “Nada. She could be anyone.”
“So, according to the Empousa—Hecate’s loyal Cursed—to find her, we need to find this Elizabeth Anyone? What if she’s a Nephil? You ever fight one before?”
“No,” Xander said. “That’s a business most people avoid.”
I put a hand on my head and tried to mentally straighten out the facts. I wasn’t that billionaire wizard from St. Louis, with an eidetic memory and the surging power of a Maker. I was a blue-collar drunk for the better part of five years, thrown back into the complicated world of monsters and
