A Gathering of Crows

“Well, you’ll have to succeed in striking me first, and I don’t intend to let that happen.”

They stepped away from each other. Levi panted for breath. His adversary scowled, clearly unhappy with the stalemate.

“I order you to leave this place,” Levi said.

“You order me to do nothing, bearded one. My brothers and I will deal with you later. For now, I am content to turn my attention to your companions, instead.”

The thing rushed past Levi, unleashing a powerful swipe with its forearm. The blow didn’t connect, but Levi stumbled backward anyway, more from instinct than fear. The entity raced past him and charged toward Donny and Marsha, who were still standing at the edge of the yard, seemingly mesmerized by the battle.

Levi steadied himself and pointed his right index finger at the creature. Winded and half-nauseous from the adrenalin surging through his body, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His finger wavered in the air. His arm shook.

Marsha shrieked.

“Get the fuck back,” Donny shouted. “What are you doing? Get out of there.”

Levi opened his eyes again, and in a calm, clear voice, said, “Hbbi Massa danti Lantien.”

The entity slowed, as if running through wet cement. It glanced over his shoulder at Levi.

“What is this?”

“Me, going to work.” The trembling in Levi’s fingerbecame more pronounced.

Donny grabbed Marsha’s arm. “Come on. Let’s go while we can.”

“No.” She pulled away from him. “We’re not leaving anybody else. Not again.”

“Marsha—”

“I said no, goddamn it!”

The man in black turned back to them and slogged forward. It hunched over, grunting with effort, clearly exerting itself with each step.

Levi took another deep breath. With his finger still upraised, he exhaled.

“I, Levi Stoltzfus, son of Amos Stoltzfus, breathe upon you. Three drops of blood I take from you. The first from your heart. The second from your liver. The third from your vital powers. In this, I deprive you of your strength and vitality. Now crawl on the ground like the worm you are. You’ll raise no hand against us.”

The enemy collapsed on its belly, indignant with rage. It thrashed on the wet grass, but its movements were slow and lethargic.

“That will slow him down,” Levi yelled at Donny and Marsha, “but it won’t last long, and it cost me something. Go. Go now!”

“What about you?” Marsha asked.

“I’ll be fine. Like I said before, I’ve had experience in these matters.”

Donny grabbed Marsha’s arm again and pulled, leading her away. Levi saw them both glance over their shoulders as they cut across the neighboring backyard and disappeared into the darkness. Then he was alone with the thing.

“Now,” he said, his smile returning, “where were we? I believe you said something about taking my soul?”

“I’ll devour it,” the creature groaned. “If not me, then one of my brethren.”

“Tell me about them.”

“Surely you jest. You have given me your name, and you have not the sigil nor the power to make me talk.”

Levi sighed. “Fine. We’ll do this the hard way, then. Dullix, ix, ux.”

Powwow hadn’t worked against this being, and the charm to still-bind it, while effective, was already weakening—otherwise it wouldn’t have been able to thrash and roll about. Levi racked his memory, searching for something that might work. Making sure he remained out of the thing’s reach, Levi quickly tried several different spells and charms, running the gamut from snippets of the traditional Catholic Rite of Exorcism to obscure Haitian voodoo recitations, Enochian chants and various rites of the Golden Dawn. All were ineffective.

“Is that your best, little magus? You are well versed in the art. Of that I can attest. But still, you are weak. Weak!”

The creature’s movements increased. It flopped back and forth like a fish on dry land, struggling to sit up. Levi grew desperate. There was no time to create a binding circle or to invoke the Greater Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, although Levi had his doubts now that even that would work against this enemy. Nor did he have time to construct a spirit trap. Even if he’d had time, he didn’t have a luminol light or anything else that he could use to force the entity into the trap. And again, he wasn’t sure that would work, either. Spirit traps were only useful against incorporeal spirits, and whatever this thing was, it had certainly felt corporeal enough when he’d punched it in the stomach.

The entity lifted its head free of the ground, looked up at him and smiled. “Soon, bearded one. Soon.”

Levi nodded. “I’d prefer later, if you don’t mind. We’ll get together and do lunch.”

Turning, Levi fled in the same direction Donny and Marsha had gone. His enemy’s laughter followed him. Levi cringed at the sound. His ears burned with shame and embarrassment.

“You have given me your name,” the dark figure called.

As he ran past the church where he’d tried to communicate with the spirit of the dead man, Levi noticed that the corpse was no longer there. The chalk outlines and the bloodstains were still present, but where the body had been, there was now just a small pile of ashes. The dog’s corpse, which he’d left impaled on the wrought-iron fence, was gone, too. More ashes sprinkled the ground beneath where it had dangled.

Nothing left, Levi thought. They’re consuming souls, and their victims are reduced to dust within hours. No decay. No decomposition. They just turn to nothingness. This is bad magic. This is very bad magic, indeed.

He found Donny and Marsha easily enough. They’d made no effort to hide the signs of their passage. Both were breathing hard. Their footfalls slapped the pavement as they dashed across the street. Levi caught up with them on the other side, just as they were ducking behind a vacant apartment building.

“Wait.”

Donny spun around, fists raised, his jaw twitching.

When he saw that it was Levi, his shoulders went slack.

“Holy shit! We thought for sure you were dead.”

“Not yet.” Levi wiped the sweat from his brow with his ripped shirttail. “I appreciate the two of you sticking around back there, but I really wish you hadn’t. You could have been killed.”

“What the hell happened back there, anyway?”

Donny asked. “What are these things?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“I thought you said this was your job? That you deal with things like this?”

“It is my job. I’ve just never dealt with something like this—or at least, something in this particular form.”

Donny frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I have an idea—a few ideas, actually—of what we might be facing here, but I’m still not one hundred percent sure. I need to do more, in order to be positive. I need to see more.”

“Why?”

“Because I need to learn their identity. Until I do that, I’m afraid I can’t fight them.”

Marsha paled. “Then what are you going to do?”

“Get the two of you to safety first. I can do that much, at least. After that . . .”

Donny nodded. “Yeah?”

“After that,” Levi repeated, “then I guess I’ll have to face them again. And this time, alone.”

“Are you crazy? I watched that fight back there. He nearly punched your head off.”

“But he didn’t. He wanted to, but if you remember correctly, his blows didn’t actually connect with me.”

“I noticed that,” Marsha said, nodding. “He clawed your shirt. How is it that he didn’t cut you?”

“You wearing body armor?” Donny asked.