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I also forwarded all the data to my contacts at the NIH’s Center for the Study of Paranatural Biology. Let those guys see if they could figure it out. Did a being made of fire even have biology?
We had a party at the refurbished and open-for-business New Moon when the episode broadcast. Rented a couple of big-screen TVs, served up lots of beer and pizza. Even my parents and Cheryl and her family came. I kind of wished they hadn’t, since I’d have to suffer my mother’s appalled expression when she realized what was really going on during those weeks. Maybe I could convince her that we’d staged the whole thing and hadn’t really been in danger. Enough skeptics out there were already claiming it.
A bunch of people from KNOB were there, as well as a good chunk of my pack. The Paradox PI team—Gary, Jules, and Tina—also came back for the party. The place was filled.
Shaun had plenty of staff on hand, but I still found myself carrying pitchers of beer and bouncing from table to table trying to be social with everyone at the same time. I was getting flustered playing hostess for so many people. So many disparate parts of my life had come together. Part of me wanted to run, but I clamped down on that side of my psyche.
Another part of me felt a thrill at being in charge, being on top of it all, being at the center. Rick had said that—being at the center of the pattern. Bringing people together. I felt pride in what was happening here, and that was new. I liked it.
Ben grabbed my hand when I happened to drift close enough to our table in the corner. “Hey,” he said. “You okay?”
I was flustered, and he’d noticed, which made the world a little su
He chuckled. “How’s that working out for you?”
“I think it’s really good that we hired Shaun to run the place,” I said.
“Hey, Kitty,” Gary called. He, Tina, and Jules were sitting at a table halfway across the room. It pleased me that I now had a few more people I could hit up for information the next time something bizarre happened. Cormac was right. There would probably be a next time, and sooner than I liked.
Ben and I squeezed hands again, and I flitted off to be social with them.
“You guys okay? Need any more drinks? Any more food?” I asked.
“Maybe you should take a break for a minute.” Gary pulled an empty chair out from the table and nodded at it, encouraging me to sit.
“Of course, it’s nice to be worrying about not enough beer instead of demonic death,” I said, sitting with a sigh.
Gary had turned away to pull a manila folder out of an attaché case. He handed it to me. All three of them looked expectant.
“What’s this?” I said.
“We finally got a translation of the Arabic from the last séance. That’s the transcript. Thought you might be interested.” The video feed of us capturing the dji
Of course I was interested. I started reading, and it was what I expected: curses, threats, some of them pretty creative. My favorite was the one that went, “You pathetic creatures of flesh and dirt, animals of crude matter.” And so on.
“Look at the end,” Tina said.
The last line. What it was ranting when it realized we had trapped it, when it was being drawn into the bottle. The transcript read, “No, please. I have a wife, a family. I had to do these things, the priestess forced me, she would not release me until I did these things. I am not evil, have pity on me, please.”
For a moment, I felt sick. We had condemned a sentient being to supernatural imprisonment, without trial and without recourse. The priestess had controlled it. In some ways, it had been as much a victim as the rest of us.
But it had killed Mick, and others. I kept coming back to that.
I set my expression and looked back at them, keeping any pity at bay. “It’s a manipulation. It wanted us to feel pity. To feel guilty. It’s still a murderer and deserved what it got.”
This was supposed to be a celebration, and now I was getting depressed. I needed another drink. I’d set my last beer somewhere and couldn’t find it now.
“Hey, Kitty!”
I turned and saw Peter Gurney standing by the door. His appearance was the same as always, kind of scruffy in his army jacket and biker apparel. But he looked better now: stood a little straighter, smiled a little more. He wasn’t so angry anymore.
After the confrontation with the Tiamat cult, I’d asked him what he’d pla
“You made it!” I said, standing to meet him as he came over to join us. We hugged briefly, and he waved at the others, who all waved back. “Come on, sit down.”
He did, then pulled something from his coat pocket. “I brought this for you. Just to say thanks.”
“Thanks for what?”
“For filling in the blanks about Ted. For being his friend.”
He handed over a snapshot. It was T.J. A younger, cockier one than the guy I’d known. He was thin, with rough-and-tumble hair, looking very James Dean in a white T-shirt, tight jeans, and biker boots. Arms crossed, he was leaning against a motorcycle with lots of black and chrome, an older model I didn’t recognize, not the finicky Yamaha he’d had when I knew him.
“This was right before he left home,” Peter said. “He was eighteen. Just got his first bike. Looking back, I think he pla
I had to smile, and I had to cry a little at the same time. I had a little piece of T.J. outside my memory now.
“Thank you very much for this,” I said.
“It’s the least I could do. It means a lot to know there’s someone else who feels the same way about him.”
“That your brother?” Tina said, craning her neck to look over the table.
“Yeah,” Peter said, and I handed Tina the picture, which she studied.
“Hm. Cute,” she said. “We could use more like him batting for our side.”
I almost laughed at the joke, but I had to stop and think: Had any of us mentioned to her that T.J. was gay? Had she overheard Peter and I talking about it? Before I could ask, Peter was talking.
“I know it was stupid of me to think you could talk to him on cue,” Peter said, shrugging inside his canvas coat. “I was assuming he’d have something to say to me.”
A thoughtful expression pursing her features, Tina slipped the photo back to me. Then she reached in her purse.
She said, “Peter, what do you know about automatic writing?”
“Nothing, I guess.”
But Gary raised his eyebrows, and Jules dropped his jaw.
“You’re not serious,” Jules said. “Are you serious?”
“What?” Peter said. “What is it?”
“Just open it,” Tina said, handing him an envelope.
We watched him intently as he tore open the envelope. He pulled out a sheet of paper, slowly unfolded it, and went a bit ashen. Looking over his shoulder, I could see mostly white, with just a line of handwritten text. He must have read it a dozen times, his eyes flicking back and forth.
Then he dropped the page, covered his eyes, and took two or three deep, shuddering breaths.
“I’m sorry. This probably wasn’t the time or place for this,” Tina said.
The page was lying there on the table. I couldn’t help but read it. It said: “Petey. Let it go.”
My eyes instantly teared up. It was like a Pavlovian reaction. I couldn’t control it, the tears just happened, in response to the implication of the note. If Tina could do what she said she could, these were his words. This was as close and as real as he’d been in over a year.