“For some time. Janik has recently assigned me here as our senior trade representative with Novak. I’ve taken an apartment at the Royal Arms.”
“I see. I’m afraid I’m not familiar with your Family’s business interests.”
“At home, agriculture—food, brewing, and distilling. Here in North America, primarily vodka, brandy, and beer, along with specialty foods.”
“Competitors of Findlay?”
“Perhaps, perhaps not. I have a meeting with your grandmother next week to discuss distribution of our goods.”
The sizzle of lightning and a thunderclap startled the entire assembly. A gunshot rang out. People scattered and dove to the floor. I dropped into a squat, setting my glass down out of my way and pulling out the box.
Across the room from us, a man in a guardian’s uniform—the colors unfamiliar to me—stood over a man on the floor staring blindly into infinity. The man in uniform was bleeding from his upper left chest, and his coat was charred. As I watched, he grabbed a woman by the hair, brought her face close to his, and kissed her. His body immediately fell to the floor.
The woman whirled about and charged a man and a woman cowering on the floor near the wall. Another bolt of lightning grazed the possessed woman’s back, but she didn’t seem to notice. What drew my eye were the two people a few feet away—Mychal and Kirsten.
The crazed woman reached the pair on the floor and ripped the man’s head off, then stuck her fist through the woman’s chest and pulled her heart out. Then she turned toward my friends.
Mychal stuck his arm out, and I heard a Raider go off three times in quick succession. The woman jerked, then her head exploded, and her body fell to the floor. Mychal jumped up and stood over her.
“No!” I screamed. “Get away from her.”
Her body melted, and the demon who had possessed her took on corporeal form. Laughing maniacally, he reached for Mychal.
My partner took a step back and fired twice, both shots hitting the demon in the head. A Findlay guardian appeared at his side, and also fired twice, blowing holes in both sides of the demon’s chest. Its body collapsed.
The ballroom was eerily quiet, and then a woman screamed. Soon, a different kind of pandemonium reigned, but there weren’t any more killings.
I picked up my glass and turned to Aleks. “I have a feeling you’ll never forget the night we met.” My hand was shaking.
He gave me a wry grin and clinked his glass against mine, his hand as shaky as mine. “I think that’s a fairly safe prediction.”
“I need to go.” I drained my glass and crossed the room to where Mychal and Kirsten were. I didn’t put away my weapon.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah, thanks to Mychal.” She was pale and shaky.
“Nice shooting,” I told him.
“Maybe. I don’t think her family is going to be happy.”
I looked at the remains of the woman the demon had possessed. “Did you know her?”
“Uh-huh,” he said. “I went to university with her.”
Chapter 44
At two o’clock in the morning, Mychal and I sat in Osiris’s office with Tom Whittaker and Henri Novak, the Novak Family’s head of security. Henri was Mychal’s uncle, and the family resemblance was obvious—tall, slender, with dark hair graying at the temples, and olive skin. A long scar next to his right eye was the only thing that marred his video-star good looks.
“How did a demon get past your security?” Whittaker demanded.
What we had pieced together was that a guardian accompanying some guests from Europe had been possessed by a major demon. He killed a man, and was immediately wounded by real guardians. In response, he abandoned the wounded body and took possession of a woman who was nearby, then killed two more people.
Osiris started to open his mouth, but I stepped in. “Do you know of any system that can detect a possessed human?” I asked. “I don’t. I’m not even sure a mage who’s a demon detector can do that. Boss, with all due respect, finding blame isn’t going to help things. What we need to do is figure out who hired him, and why. Do we even know if the victims were the intended targets?”
Whittaker started to say something, then let it go, and slumped back in his chair. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“We don’t even know if the demon originally possessed that guardian here, or in Serbia,” Henri Novak said. “The three people it attacked are all from the same Family in Eastern Europe. It leaves a leadership vacuum in one of our allies.”
“Who would benefit?” Mychal asked.
“The quick and obvious answer is the Rudolf Family,” Henri answered. “They’re competitors in the same markets, and there’s a long-running feud between their Houses. But why would they do such a thing here? We must be careful. I think we’re meant to see the obvious.”
“Someone wanted to upset Findlay,” Whittaker said. “Some of the Families represented here aren’t friends of yours. Some Novak allies are Findlay rivals, and some of the people invited are only tied to Findlay through marriage.”
“Yeah,” I said, “but if one of Findlay’s rivals set it up, it seems a little chancy to put your own friends in jeopardy like that. Once a demon gets started killing, you can’t expect him to control himself. Especially a major demon. The emotional high he probably experienced from more than a thousand terrified people would have been tremendous.”
“Your greatest rival is Akiyama, and some of the Houses represented here are their allies. Perhaps we should try to find out where Akiyama’s friends were when the demon went off,” Mychal suggested. “If they all took a smoke break at the same time…” He let the sentence hang.
After the meeting, I made my way back to my rooms. Kirsten was asleep, and I gratefully found my own bed.
She had been shaken up, but Mychal had stood like a rock with her, hugging her to him and making soothing noises. I had
