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U.S. Marshal Larson Wells is God’s own Pinkerton on Earth. The Golden Vigil is Homeland Security’s dirty little secret—an investigation and law enforcement operation for supernatural activity. Which is a nice way of saying they’re dedicated to harassing people like me and pretty much everyone I know. They’re thorough and obsessive. From what I’ve heard, they still have Lucifer on a terrorist watch list with a price on his head.
Wells is a charming piece of work. A Nevada Holy Roller marshal who hates working with me as much as I hate working for him. But we both have a vested interest in stopping the old gods, the Angra Om Ya, from returning and eating the world. Wells has a habit of calling all Sub Rosa and Lurkers “pixies,” which isn’t so bad on its own. It’s just that he says it the way a backwoods redneck says “faggot.” He used to run the Vigil with an angel named Aelita. She’s dead. I didn’t do it, but I would have been happy to.
I’ve been back on the Vigil payroll for a couple of weeks and things are going swell.
“Where is he?” says Wells when he sees me and Candy.
“There was a problem,” I say.
“What kind of problem?”
I hold out the ice chest. Wells’s eyes narrow and he opens the lid an inch before dropping it down again.
“What in all of God’s creation is wrong with you? I sent you on a simple snatch-and-grab. I wanted to question this man. Where’s the rest of him?”
“In a meat locker near Sunset and Echo Park, along with a dozen other dead Angra fans. They built a Sistine Chapel out of body parts in one of the freezers. You might want to send a team over before the cops haul away all the evidence. You can get the GPS off my phone.”
“Don’t move,” says Wells. He pulls out his BlackBerry and thumbs in a text like he wants to punch the keys in the face. When he’s done he sighs and peeks in the cooler again.
“Why did you even bring that thing here? I’m not paying you by the scalp.”
“He didn’t do it,” says Candy. “Well, not all of it. Just the last part to get his head off. The guy did the rest himself.”
Wells turns to Candy. It’s the first time he’s acknowledged her presence.
“It’s truly a comfort knowing that your paramour only partly cut off the head on a key witness in our investigation.”
“Just ’cause he’s dead doesn’t mean we can’t still question him. That’s why he’s on ice,” I say.
“Go on.”
“There’s this ritual I know. It’s messy, but if I do it right, I can catch his soul before he goes into the afterlife.”
“And how pray tell does the ritual work?”
“First I have to die a little.”
Wells puts up his hands and claps once.
“Well, isn’t that peachy? Another death today? And a suicide? Right here in Vigil headquarters? I can’t see Washington minding that at all. Please go ahead.”
“It isn’t technically suicide because I’m only partway dead and only for a little while.”
“Good, because suicide is a sin, this is consecrated ground, and I’ve already broken enough commandments just letting you in here.”
I hand Candy the cooler and go up to Wells.
“You came to me for help, remember? You know what I do and how I work. Anytime you don’t want me around I’m gone. But when I leave, the Magic 8 Ball comes with me.”
“So you can lose the weapon again? How about you clean up this mess before you go causing another?”
“Fine. Get me a room where I can do the ritual. Preferably somewhere quiet and private. There’s going to be some blood.”
“More good news,” he says. “Come with me. I wanted you to see this anyway. It’s one of the old club offices. We’ve turned it into a kind of lab so you pixies can do magic or whatever without contaminating or scaring the bejesus out of the newer agents.”
“They sound a little too sensitive to be cops.”
“Don’t bad-mouth my people. None of them’s ever come back with a head in a box.”
