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"Was that how it was supposed to be, Aubrey?" I couldn't decide. Certainly the sex had been everything I'd ever imagined with Seth. But this afterglow? It was a bit lacking. Nothing about the situation was normal. I had no prior experience to fall back on.
After almost a half hour of staring at nothing and reaching no conclusions, I got out of bed. I was still reeling from what had happened, and my body burned with what Seth and I had done. I usually liked to shower after sex, but not today. I could smell Seth on me, his sweat and even a faint trace of the leather-and-apple cologne he used sometimes. I couldn't stand to wash him off yet, so I put the old cotton robe back on. Ratty or not, its fabric was soft against my bruised skin.
As I was about to leave my room, I noticed the photo of the medallion on the floor. I picked it up, intending to set it on my nightstand, and froze. There was writing on it.
Inked with a black Sharpie, neat handwriting read: Smoky quartz indicates earth or a oneness with the earth . The symbols on the medallion were circled, with lines drawn out from each one, leading to brief notes: this indicates an affinity for water, a harmonious, blending state; this is similar to the water one, except it's for the earth; this is a masking symbol, meant to shield the object it protects and keep the seal strong; this one's strange, indicates blankness or whiteness-maybe white sand or stones?; this is the symbol for tears-combined with the water sign, probably indicates salt water .
I reread the notes three times. Where had they come from? When had this happened? I retraced my steps, trying to figure out when I'd abandoned the picture. There'd been no writing when I showed it to Dante. The most likely time would have been while I was out for food. Someone could have also theoretically broken into my home and done it while I was with Carter in the living room, but sneaking past the angel seemed pretty out there.
Unless...was it possible Carter had helped me after all? He kept saying he couldn't; he'd even directly denied involvement with my assorted rescues. But the timing here was awfully coincidental. I kept staring at the symbols, at the notes, and the pictures of the seal. Whoever had written this was irrelevant for now. If their notes were correct, then I needed to use them to find Jerome.
Carter had said the seal served two purposes. One was to infuse the vessel with power. The other was to serve as a "lock" that could open the vessel and release Jerome. The parts of the seal itself were with the demon and the summoner, but the symbols should give some clues to the vessel's location. Supposedly, these symbols would have been used in hiding Jerome, infusing the vessel with a type of energy specific to the location that would help blend and mask Jerome's presence.
An affinity with the earth, as well as markings for water-salt water, specifically. A lot of places that were infused with power tended to be wild, natural places, though some had become centers of civilization and activity. Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle, for example, was one such ancient place of power that had been completely built upon by humanity.
But these...what did they indicate? Some place near salt water, apparently. The vessel was probably close enough to the water that the symbols would resonate and camouflage its location. And the earth location? Buried in the dirt maybe? Was Jerome buried on some beach near the ocean? Jerome's kidnappers wouldn't want to keep him too far away from them, but nonetheless, the Pacific flanked the entire western half of Washington. That was a lot of beach, and I knew there were a lot of places of power along there. I didn't know of any white sand beaches anywhere in the area; only further investigation could say for sure.
Groaning, I lay back on my bed, still holding the picture. The notes had only narrowed down the locations, but that was still a lot of area to cover. Yet what could I do? I had to find the vessel, sooner rather than later, or else Seattle was going to have a new archdemon. Studying the photo further, I willed it to give me some more info. Nothing. Just the medallion, the mystery notes, and Mary's cataloging info at the top which told me little-
I frowned, rereading her header. It was brief, just the materials, name, and date the medallion had been created and then picked up. But the date it had been finished...the date stuck in my head. Why? It was from a week ago. Something about that date was important, but I couldn't figure out why. It felt likes years had passed in this last week, but I nonetheless counted backward, reassessing my recent activities.
There. The seal had been made the day after I'd first gone to Vancouver...the day the vampire turf war had gone down. Would the seal's creation have triggered anyone's immortal radar? I didn't know, but if it had, Jerome, Grace, and Mei would have all been busy sorting out the ensuing vampire mess. Misdirection.
From there, other things began to arrange themselves in my head. I thought back to the Army of Darkness, wondering what events their activities might line up against. The event in Queen Elizabeth Park matched the date the seal had been picked up. And the Army's impromptu visit to Seattle...? That had preceded Jerome's summoning, though no one would have wanted to direct attention to that, would they?
The answer was here. I just couldn't quite make the pieces fit yet. The Army had staged their show. Jerome, Grace, and Mei had given it their full attention. Jerome had been summoned. Where had this game's other players been?
I left the bed and its aching, alluring memories. Finding my cell phone, I dialed Kristin's number.
"Hi, Georgina," she said, pleasant but busy like always.
"Hey," I said. "How's it going?"
"Crazy." I could imagine the grimace on her face. "Cedric's stressed to hell-no pun intended-with all these demons in the area. At least that...that succubus is distracting him."
"Tawny?"
"Whatever her name is. Cedric's actually out with her right now." Bitterness and the tiniest hint of jealousy came through in Kristin's voice. I remembered her perpetual devotion to him-and the look on her face when he'd asked Tawny out. I felt for her but had too many romantic hijinks of my own to deal with.
"Huh." I didn't really know what else to say. "Look, I have a question for you. Do you know, did Cedric come to see Jerome the day the Army was down here?"
"Yeah. Cedric came down after you left the message. I thought you knew."
"No...I only heard about it after the fact, and then, the whole summoning kind of took precedence."
"Why do you want to know?"
I hesitated. I liked Kristin, but she was clearly loyal to Cedric. I didn't think it'd be wise to share my theories with her, like that the Army being in Seattle had provided a convenient reason for Jerome and Cedric to be together when Jerome got summoned. It occurred to me that I might very well owe Hugh an apology for my adamant denial of Cedric's involvement. Something else also occurred to me.
"Um, it's a long story," I said hastily. "Do you know if he's been hanging out with Nanette a lot?"
"Why?" Her tone was quickly turning suspicious. She didn't like me interrogating her about her boss.
"Well...I told him the other day that I thought Nanette might be involved with Jerome's disappearance. He didn't think so, but he told her...and she got really pissed off. She, um.... well, let's just say she got physical, and I have the scars to prove it."
My immortal friends had pointed out that Nanette's attack made her look guilty. If Cedric had done enough goading to make her angry when he told her, it could have very well sent her to me in a rage-and successfully shifted attention from him. Fuck. I didn't want another suspect in all of this. I didn't want it to be Cedric. Nanette had hitherto been a convenient explanation.
Kristin was silent for several seconds. "I didn't know that," she said quietly. "Are you okay?"
"Mostly. Mei healed the worst of it, but I'm still a little sore."
"I can't imagine...Cedric would never have told her if he thought that was going to happen. He likes you. He wouldn't condone that. He couldn't have known. I'm sorry."
She was sincerely contrite, hurt at the thought that her boss-even if he was a demon and a servant of evil-could have been involved with something that had turned out so terrible.
"It's okay," I said. "I've gotta run, but thanks for the info. Things are kind of crazy here too, as you can imagine."
We said our good-byes and disconnected. I flipped the cell phone around in my hand, feeling overwhelmed. Nanette wasn't off the table yet, but Cedric was right alongside her now as a culprit-maybe more so. If I had enough evidence, I could possibly take it to Grace and Mei...but I didn't have that yet. Besides, knowing who the culprit was wouldn't solve the immediate issue: finding Jerome.
