Engulfed

“My God, what happened here?” The front doors of the church were blown off their hinges; shriveled corpses swathed in black habits were lined up along the far wall, the forensics team snapping pictures while the more magically gifted investigators checked for traces of soul signatures. Many of them did a double take when Azlynn walked in. She hadn’t bothered to disguise her true appearance, and her black and white wings fluttered restlessly and her rose and snake tattoos were striking against her ivory skin. She resembled the avenging angels depicted in the stained glass windows, except far more avenging angel-ish.

“Well, our first thought was vampires-”

“This was definitely not vampires,” Dante interrupted. “Vampires don’t tend to leave behind giant messes like this, and their fully drained victims turn into vampires themselves after about twenty-four hours. They wouldn’t leave this many new vamps just lying around, assuming they’d even be ballsy enough to raid a church and Turn all the nuns.”

“Hence why we dismissed the idea of a vamp raid pretty quickly.” Police Chief William Lawson seemed to have aged years in the few short months since Dante had last seen him. He had lost weight, and there were dark circles under his weary eyes. “Unfortunately, we’re not really finding any evidence to indicate to us who or what did do this.” He sighed. “We have some of the best soul readers there are working on this, and we still can’t get a hold on who was here, besides the nuns themselves. . I wish we still had Charlotte around. “Her blood magic could sure come in handy here.”

Dante snorted and Azlynn made a weird noise in her throat.

“Maybe it would be wise not to mention Harlotte-cay when Rew-day is in the general vicinity,” Dante muttered, casting a look across the room to his friend Sergeant Andrew Miller. The Weretiger had been bonded to Charlotte; they had been linked as soul mates until Azlynn’s father had marked Charlotte as his familiar, erasing both the mark that bound her to Drew, and in the process also taking Charlotte’s memories of ever having been bonded with him away. Drew had been moody and depressed ever since, especially after Charlotte disappeared without a word or a trace days after they had defeated Leviathan and stopped the True Form Society.

“Anyway we don’t really need Charlotte,” Azlynn said dismissively. “I can tell you exactly who did this. I’m sure his name was really the first thing to cross your mind, Will, and not vampires.”

“You mean, it was Ted?” Will said in a low voice, looking worried.

“I’m sure of it,” Azlynn replied.

“I still think, if you could track Charlotte down for us-”

“Pretty much all Charlotte did on the last mission was get kidnapped,” Dante interrupted.

“I already told you, I don’t know where she is,” Azlynn told Will firmly. “And even if I did, I wouldn’t be likely to track her down for you. Charlotte made her choice. She ran away. She’s not exactly team player material.”

“Look, I know my sister can be a pain. An insufferable one at that,” Will said. “But what she does, she does well.”

“You don’t need Charlotte and her angst to tell you that Ted did this. I know it was him,” Azlynn replied. “I can sense him here. He did a good job at covering up his lingering essence, I’ll grant you. But it was him.”

“Can you tell where he is now?”

“Not yet,” Azlynn said, ruffling her wings. “But I’ll find him,” she added tersely when Will sighed again.

“What would he have needed the blood of a dozen nuns for?” Will asked.

“Nothing good,” she said coolly.

“Well what’s significant about a nun’s blood?” Dante asked, perplexed.

“It’s pure,” Azlynn said.

“Isn’t everyone’s blood pure blood? I mean, there’s nothing in it but…blood, right?”

Azlynn shot him a withering look.

“What?”

“Dante…” she shook her head. “Haven’t you learned by now?”

“Learned what?”

“Our essence is held in our blood. Why do you think so much magic is linked to it? It’s powerful. Nuns are pure, and have given themselves over to the Divine, and God’s will. That kind of blood is basically like holy water times a thousand. Plenty of people seek to use nun blood, or priest’s blood, or even children’s blood in magical practices.”

“What kind of magical practices? What are they gonna do with blood? Paint pretty pictures on the wall?”

“Blood enhances whatever spell or ritual you’re doing,” Azlynn explained, sounding impatient. “The blood of a dozen nuns could easily amp up a spell’s power to incredible proportions.”

“So I’m guessing we should find whoever took all this,” he gestured to the withered bodies of the nuns, “pretty fast.”

“It was Ted!” Azlynn snapped at him.

“Okay!” Dante held up his hands in an “I surrender” type gesture. Do all angels have PMS like this? Or just her?

“I heard that,” Azlynn muttered, kicking his shin. He winced. “D’you always gotta be poking around in my head like that?”

“You don’t exactly shield your thoughts,” Azlynn retorted.

“I shouldn’t have to.” Dante rubbed his sore shin. “What goes on in my own head is me business, and I would appreciate it if you would stay out of it.”

Azlynn regarded him with a cool stare. “Don’t shout and expect the rest of us to put in earplugs for your convenience.” She pivoted on her heel and stalked over to where Drew was standing, talking to some of the techs. Will cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“Trouble in paradise, DeMarco?”

“I don’t recall inviting you to the party,” Dante snapped. Will shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

Huffing, Dante strode towards Azlynn and Drew, who were now talking alone, and Azlynn seemed to be speaking in a soothing tone. Trying to comfort him yet again about Charlotte’s disappearance, no doubt.

“Hey Miller. You look like shit,” Dante said by way of greeting.

“Yeah, cause you’re a real prize yourself, DeMarco. Did you even bother to comb your hair today? Or this week, for that matter?”

“Yes, mother.”

“So what do you two make of this situation?” Miller asked. “Rogue vamps?”

“No,” Azlynn said shortly. “It was Ted, although no one seems inclined to listen to me.” She shot Dante a pointed look.

“All right, suppose it was Ted,” Dante said. “What are we supposed to do?”

“We’re going to find him and we’re going to kill him.”

Dante raised an eyebrow at the cold casualness with which she said this.

“And how do you plan on doing that?” he asked. “The guy had plans for destroying Heaven. So it’s not going to be particularly easy to whack him. It’ll be even harder since we don’t know how to find him.”

Azlynn’s wings unfurled with an angry snap and her eyes flashed. “First you insult my intelligence, then you suggest that I’m not capable of finding him and stopping him.”

“I never said you couldn’t find him,” Dante said stiffly. “I was just asking a question.”

Azlynn shook her head, looking disgusted. “I’m going to scout the rest of the immediate area, see what I can find.” She stalked angrily for the door.

“You guys okay?” Drew asked, watching her walk away with a confused look.

“Fucking peachy,” Dante muttered. He ran his fingers through his hair and let out a sharp breath. “So how are you doing?”

Drew shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”

“You guess?” Dante raised his eyebrows.

“Well, I’m sorry man, but things haven’t exactly been easy since Charlotte left.”

“Again with the moping! You know what you need? A drink.”

“Is that your solution for everything? Copious amounts of alcohol?” Drew smiled dryly.

“Yes, as a matter of fact.”

“And this desire to drown yourself in whiskey doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that you and Azlynn are over the honeymoon stage?”

“Save the psychotherapy for your talk show, Dr. Phil. So what do you say? Let’s go find a watering hole somewhere and pretend women don’t exist.”

“Never thought I’d hear you say that,” Drew remarked.

“What’s Rico up to?” Dante asked, ignoring him. “He’ll go with us.”

“Stop trying to change the subject.”

“There’s no subject to change.”

Drew crossed his arms and gave Dante a look. “You’re avoiding something. What is it?”

“I’m not avoiding anything. Now do you wanna go get hammered or not?”

“I’ll go if you tell me what you’re ’not’ avoiding.”

Dante was spared having to reply when Azlynn suddenly swooped back through the front door, eyes bright with worry.

“Everyone needs to get out of this building, now.” She spoke calmly, but there was a nervous energy emanating from her.

“Like, right now right now?” Dante said flippantly. Azlynn swished her head through the air and he felt like she’d just smacked him on the head.

“Ted set up wards around the church,” she said irritably. “This isn’t a joke. This building is going to blow up.”

“Are you sure?” Will asked. Azlynn threw her hands up. “Why does everyone suddenly doubt my ability to know things? Yes, I’m fucking sure. Everyone get out-oh, screw this.” Azlynn flung her hands out, yanking everyone in the room into a circle around her, then she orbed them all out of the church. Moments later, they were floating up in the sky, looking down as the crime scene erupted in a ball of orange fire.