AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kimerion smiled, cracking the dried blood on Alston's cheeks. "You know all the loopholes, I see. Your mother taught you well. I'm not here to fulfill a bargain. I'm a confederate of Walter Alston. I helped him negotiate his deals in return for certain considerations. A very satisfactory partnership that has now, apparently, come to an end. He tried to summon me, without the proper ritual material, and I only heard him as his spirit was winging its way to the other side." His sightless eyes traveled across the room. "He did not go easily, it seems. Or painlessly."
It was a reflection made without pity for his former partner. But no regret either, that he'd missed out on the chaos feast of the death. That was a big deal--demons feed on chaos, particularly the negative variety. So this was a respectful reflection, which was the best eulogy one could expect from a demi-demon.
"You'll be investigating this, then? You and that . . ." He gave a dismissive wave. "Council."
"Do you have any idea who killed him?" Adam asked.
"Oh, I know exactly who killed him. I arrived as they were leaving. I found the dog's corpse--the beast had been poisoned--but by the time I possessed it, Walter's killers were gone."
"Did you recognize them? Had they done business with him before?"
"That was the problem--they didn't do business with him before. They'd asked him to summon a demon, to aid their cause, and he refused. They came back to see if he'd changed his mind."
"So Alston gets a visit from this 'Free the Supernaturals' movement. He refuses to help them. Then the guys come back and do this--?" I waved at Alston's mutilated corpse.
"Not guys. It was a guy and a girl, to use the vernacular. Or, more precisely, a man and a woman, both being past the age of adulthood."
"Bullshit."
"No, I'm certain they were adults. Not much older than you, but adults nonetheless."
"I mean the part about his killers being activists. People like that don't do things like this."
The possessed Alston pursed his lips. "You have a point. Those who argue for their version of a better world never do anything violent. Animal rights activists never bomb buildings. Antiabortionists never murder doctors . . ."
"Check it out. He's not just a demon. He's a keen observer of the human condition. So fine, it's possible these activists would torture and kill Walter Alston. That could be in their nature. But I know what's in your nature. A serious hard-on for chaos. What better way to stir things up than to set the council on these guys."
I glanced at Adam for support.
Adam hesitated, then said, "True, but if chaos is his goal, there's more to be gained from letting their campaign continue. And even more if it succeeds." He looked at Kimerion. "Why, then, put us on their trail? You might want Walter Alston's killers caught, but that chaos snack isn't worth sacrificing the upcoming buffet."
Kimerion smiled. "You've inherited Asmondai's head for politics. He must be pleased. Yes, the exposure of supernaturals would cause trouble. But there's trouble, and then there's trouble. If all demons would love to see it happen, it would have happened already."
"So you're voting nay?" I said.
"Asmondai is."
"And you don't disagree enough to vote against your party platform."
"It's not so much a matter of party politics as personal politics," Adam interceded. "You have more to gain personally by helping me stop a campaign that Asmondai would like to see stopped. Which brings us right back to Savannah's original point. You have something to gain by setting us on the trail of these people. So why should we believe you?"
"The house is equipped, as you saw, with security cameras. Walter's killers were clever enough to disable most, but there's one they missed. You'll find the recording device in Walter's bedroom."
Adam nodded. "Okay, we'll get that later. Right now, I'm more interested in which demon the activists wanted to summon."
"If Alston went through all that"--I pointed at the mutilated corpse--"he really didn't want to summon him."
"More likely he couldn't," Adam said. "No matter how pissed off a summoned demon might be, he isn't going to do anything worse to him than that." He walked over to the books scattered on the floor and picked up a journal. "So which demon wasn't Alston skilled enough to summon?"
"You could ask me," Kimerion said.
"For a price." Adam leafed through the journal. "I'll limit my questions to you, thanks."
"In general a wise practice, but I'm inclined to be helpful here. Walter was an expert. If a demon can be summoned, he could do it. Some are more difficult--and dangerous--than others but, as you pointed out, at a certain point during his torture, I'm sure he would have tried. And it doesn't appear that he did."
"But if he could summon any demon . . . ," I said.
Adam shook his head. "Any demon that can be summoned. That was the problem. They wanted him to summon the unsummonable. That's why he set an impossible price on the job. He couldn't do it, but he didn't want to admit it. Bad for business."
