Miguel tried to dig up contact information on their parents; I remembered they had died a century or so ago in some kind of horrible accident, although I didn’t have the details. I often forgot Janet and Penelope, who looked my age, were actually about 300 years old. Especially Janet, because she was prone to being impulsive like a teenager. Like running off with a guy she’d known less than two weeks to live in a magical commune in Oregon. Of course, I kinda lived in a magical commune, so I couldn’t pass judgement on that, even though it seemed a bit hippyish to me. Angelville had been founded by my father, and all my neighbors were supernaturals, the majority of them my relatives. My sister could cast a spell from her front porch and hit my front porch, so “people in glass houses” and all that.

  Chapter Nine

  We’d arrived at the hospital a little after 8 p.m. Three hours later, a nurse came out and told us they were bringing in magical healers, and if that went well Penelope would go into surgery in a few hours. Jerome was correct; it was a gunshot wound and it had perforated her liver, as well as damaging her gallbladder and her stomach. It had gone in at an angle, as if the shooter had pressed the gun against her side and pulled the trigger. The bullet didn’t just travel across her body horizontally, though, it had started toward her back and moved forward in her body as it went through organs. It was currently lodged in her spleen on the left side of her body, even though it had entered the right side near the back. The nurse also told us if we had a god to pray to, we should start praying.

  The person Magda had sent to find Janet had yet to return. I had a bad feeling about that, although I couldn’t explain why. Remiel and I had a tense, whispered argument about calling in Michael. We finally decided against it. Michael can heal most injuries, but to do so requires him to take the injury upon himself. Not only is that painful and debilitating for him, but it’s also made him angry over the millennia. I totally understood why, and I’d only ever asked him to heal one person, Jerome’s mother, Valerie. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to do it without killing himself. He was willing, but Valerie wasn’t. I was saving my only other possible request for assistance for Jerome. He was young and he wanted to work either for me or the AESPCA helping people. I was worried that eventually someone would seriously injure him, and I’d need Michael to save him.

  We were still in the small, private waiting room. Miguel stood up and began to pace around the room. It was obvious he was angry, and I wasn’t sure why. I looked at Jerome to surreptitiously get information for me.

  “Why would a bullet do this much damage to her?” Miguel finally said out loud, and I wasn’t sure if he was truly asking or if it was meant to be rhetorical. It was a good question—bullets were not a common cause of death for a supernatural, not even a witch. It was even more surprising because I knew Penelope was a powerful witch and she should have been able to deal with it herself.

  “We’ll ask the hospital for the bullet,” Magda replied after a few moments.

  “Jerome, did you get anything from her thoughts before the ambulance arrived?” I asked the teen.

  “She kept repeating she needed to find Janet,” Jerome said.

  “We do too,” Magda said, looking at her phone. “My guy found the commune, but they’ve never heard of Janet or her husband...” Whatever else she was going to say died on her lips as both her phone and Miguel’s went off. A few seconds later mine did as well. My text was from Azrael. He was asking me to meet him in a small town southwest of the St. Louis Bureau of Exorcism.

  “Did the Bureau contact you?” Magda asked, as I set my phone down.

  “Yes.” I nodded. “But I’m going to tell Azrael I’m busy and explain what with.”

  “You can’t,” Miguel said. “You’re going to be needed. You can travel with me. I’m going to be needed as well.” I was about to protest that I was needed more here, when Magda slid her phone to me. Her text was from someone else at the AESPCA. We need that exorcist friend of yours, we have nearly 100 people possessed, we think it was put into the water supply for the town. What the actual fuck?

  “Call me the moment something changes. Jerome, stay here with Remiel.”

  “Soleil, I know you are not supposed to travel via portal without supervision yet, but you’re a natural at it and you’re going to have to handle it on your own. Miguel is not capable of opening portals, and it will be too slow to travel by car,” Magda told me.

  “Uh, he’s not going to give me a citation or arrest me for it, is he?” I asked, looking at Miguel.

  “No,” Miguel said. “Magda’s correct, I can’t open portals on my own. I was going to request the AESPCA send a helicopter if Magda wasn’t going with us. But if you can do it, then...” He finished his sentence with a shrug.

  “You just need to have confidence in yourself,” Magda whispered to me.

  “Sure, hopefully I won’t kill us,” I said, and started the spell for the portal. Opening the portal was easy; using magical sight to ensure I didn’t open the portal at the other end into a building or person was the hard part. I had a map of the Stygian in my head, so opening portals there was easy, and if a portal opened where a demon was standing, it survived. That was not true for people, and I didn’t have a map of the entire Earth in my head to show me where the buildings were located. The few times I’d done this unassisted, I’d opened portals over water and fallen in, that way I knew I wouldn’t open a portal into another person or above them. The fall into the water might hurt me and I might stun a few fish, but that was acceptable.

  I found the location I wanted using magic. There wasn’t a pond nearby, but there was a soybean field close enough that we could walk to the excitement from it. Magda repeated the bit about having confidence, and I sighed heavily as I tried to move closer to the town with my magical sight. I found the main thoroughfare, where dozens of people and cars were crowded. I wondered why it was so busy in the middle of the night but decided that could wait until we were on site. I found an empty spot and put the end of my portal there. Then I closed the magic, the portal solidified, and Miguel and I stepped through, leaving the hospital.

  Azrael was one of those on the street, and he was waving frantically at me. I jogged over.

  “What’s up?” I asked, looking around.

  “This is the bureau’s second mass possession event this week. The first one was at a school. It didn’t go as planned, though. For some reason only about a dozen kids became possessed over their lunch break. We were unable to find the source, and it took us about thirty minutes to exorcise all the demons, but this attempt is much worse.”

  “How did we find out about this attempt?” I asked. It usually took a few days to realize a person was possessed.

  “An exorcist came into town to take her elderly mother to dinner and realized multiple people in the diner were possessed. She cut dinner short, took her mom home and decided to talk to some of her mom’s neighbors. She found several of them were possessed as well, so she called the bureau, and we came out to investigate,” Azrael said. “Once we arrived and realized that about half the population was indeed possessed, I texted you.”

  “What time did she call the bureau?”

  “About 7:30 or so. But we suspect the water supply was tampered with around 4 p.m.”

  “Why?” Miguel Smith asked.

  “Because the police department got a call around that time saying someone was up on the water tower,” Azrael told him. “By the time they arrived, and it didn’t take long, the person was gone and there was no evidence they’d done anything. The lock was still intact on the stairs, and the tank wasn’t disturbed. The officer chalked it up to kids messing around.”

  “This is normally the point where I’d ask Jerome if they could cast a spell on the water to make it like a possession potion, but I left him at the hospital,” I said.

  “Why is Jerome at the hospital?” Azrael asked, concern appearing on his face.

  “Penelope, Janet’s sister, showed up at our house this evening, shot in the side. The prognosis isn’t great. Jerome, Magda Red, and Remiel are there waiting for news,” I said.

  “Where’s Janet?” Azrael asked.

  “That is a good question that no one can currently answer. I tried calling her, but she’s not answering. Magda sent someone to the commune they supposedly moved to, but they had never heard of her or her husband,” I said.

  “So, we have a mass possession, a witch that’s been shot, and another who is missing,” Azrael said.

  “Plus, someone is using possession to rob magical items from houses,” Miguel added.

  Possession seems like a strange tool for a burglar,“ Azrael said.

  “Yes, “Miguel agreed.

  “Oh, and a demon told us someone attempted a mass summoning recently. Not possession, but an actual summoning,” I added.

  “Why wasn’t the Bureau of Exorcism informed that someone was using possession as a method of robbery?” Azrael asked, looking pointedly at Miguel. I had assumed the two knew each other, and judging by that look, my assumption had been correct.

  “We were ordered not to inform you until all your employees, current and former, were cleared of suspicion,” Miguel said, giving me a quick glance.

  “Let’s be honest, you mean until Soleil was cleared of suspicion. Has she been?”

  “No, the AESPCA is looking into the whereabouts of all exorcists employed by the Bureau. And yes, Soleil has been mostly cleared,” Miguel said.

  “Mostly cleared?” Azrael raised an eyebrow.

  “Most of the investigative agents, including myself, do not believe she is a person of interest in the matter. Unfortunately, our opinions are not the only ones that matter,” Miguel replied.

  “Why would...you know what, never mind.” Azrael shook his head. “Soleil, do you think the Penelope thing is related to the robberies or this mass possession?”

  “Somehow, all of it is related—Janet’s disappearance, Penelope’s shooting, the mass possession, the individual possessions—I just haven’t figured out how yet,” I admitted. “But for now, let’s deal with the demons.”

  Uriel, Azrael, the AESPCA agents, and I spent four hours going door to door in the town. The population sign said there were 529 residents, but I was fairly certain it was incorrect and there were more than 600, of which more than half were possessed. Interestingly though, all the demons were small; for many this was their very first possession ever.

  After about twenty exorcisms, I had everyone start gathering in the town square, because I was positive I could do a mass exorcism and spare all of us some time and magic. Miguel and another AESPCA agent were walking around checking names off a list of property tax and census records. Total number of possessed was a whopping 401 people. But since all the demons lacked any real power, I didn’t consider the whole thing terribly successful. Small demons do not evoke fear like large demons, and demons who have never taken possession of a host don’t really know what to do, so the chaos and catastrophe that normally occurs during possession wasn’t happening here. I mentioned this to Azrael as we discussed the mass exorcism option.

  Azrael didn’t have any doubts about my ability to perform the mass exorcism. Uriel did though and encouraged Miguel to stop me from attempting it. To my surprise, Miguel did not attempt to stop the mass exorcism, but just wanted to make sure I felt I could do it. Then he whispered that a mass exorcism would be preferred, or we’d be here all day trying to clear up the mess and during that time one or two demons might figure out what to do to increase their power. No one wanted that.

  I knew I could do it. I also had a theory I wanted to test. Would sunrise exorcise the demons for us? If so, that would provide tangible proof that this event and the robberies were related. If not, we’d only lost half an hour or so. The sky had begun to lighten a while ago and last time I’d checked my watch, it was close to 6 a.m. Jerome had texted me an hour and a half ago to let me know they were still waiting to see if they could do surgery on Penelope. Magda had people looking for Janet in Oregon and Missouri. I texted back that they were originally from Massachusetts, and they should probably check there as well.

  Miguel, Azrael, and I stood in the square looking at the townsfolk we’d determined to be possessed. I couldn’t see them well enough to make out their features because they were overwhelmed by the superimposed image of the demon spirit inside of them. Seeing demons in spirit form is one of my innate talents. To most people, demon spirits are shadows. To me, they look like the demon they belong to. I was five years old the first time I saw a possessed person; I was at the grocery store with my mom and there was a woman in the store who was possessed. I didn’t know that was the reason for the superimposed image at the time, I just knew there was something weird about the woman, and I kept trying to explain it to my mom. She eventually called my uncle, Gabriel, to the store to talk to me about it because I became hysterical telling my mom we needed to help the woman. It was Gabriel who told my mom, myself, and the woman that she was possessed. Then he called Azrael to come deal with it. That, plus my hellfire incident, made Azrael decide I was destined to be an exorcist. Azrael has never once doubted my ability to do anything related to the Stygian. Uriel, on the other hand, even after seeing me do things like mass exorcisms, continues to doubt my ability to do anything. When I was training to be an exorcist, this dichotomy was problematic at times. I suspected it was about to become a problem again as Uriel marched over to Azrael and Miguel, no doubt to try to stop the mass exorcism.

  I stepped away from the angel and the werewolf, because I didn’t want to deal with Uriel. Uriel is an entitled, chauvinistic jackass who thinks angels are better than everyone else, and I am not a full-blooded angel. Despite his age, my uncle was convinced women could not do the stuff men could do. He was horrified when my sister and I were given archangel designations because we are nephilim, not angels, and we are women. In his mind, my contribution to society would be to pop out angel babies, but I would need an angel mate for that because, ya know, I’m only half angel. He detests that my sister had children with a mortal, because her daughters are even less angel than she is. And good God, they were girls of all things, just what the world didn’t need—more nearly-mortal women to dilute the gene pool even more. That wasn’t exactly how mortality and immortality worked, but Uriel didn’t care about the mechanics or legitimacy of his misconceptions.

  Azrael, Uriel, and Miguel were arguing quietly. I stood near some AESPCA agents and an exorcist in training at the Bureau of Exorcism. The Bureau was part of mortal government and not governed by the AESPCA. I wasn’t sure why the Bureau of Exorcism fell under the authority of the Department of Justice and was part of the mortal government system instead of under the power of the AESPCA, but that’s the way it was, and Azrael would fight tooth and nail to keep it that way. In several countries there was only a single government system, and it was part of the AESPCA, but the US was an exception. The AESPCA advised the mortal government on issues involving supernaturals, but supernatural citizens in the US were required to follow mortal laws as well as the laws of the AESPCA. Until the 1950s, supernaturals were not allowed to run for any public offices in the US. With the restriction lifted in the 1950s by President Kennedy, term limits had been set for every elected public office in the country, from tax assessor to president. Most term limits were two terms, but for some smaller county offices it was as long as five years. For example, the sheriff of St. Louis County, which was not a small county, was five terms of five years each, and their current sheriff, a shifter, was serving his fifth term. Once his term ended in January of the next year, he would never be able to hold the office again. There were three candidates running for the position, two mortals and one immortal. I didn’t know much about any of them, since Angelville was in St. Charles County, not St. Louis County. I’d only known about it because I worked with the sheriff of St. Louis County a few times, and I’d lived there for most of my life.

  This town was part of Franklin County, which was an area I knew almost nothing about. I’d never even heard of this town before today, or rather last night. As the adults argued about the mass exorcism, occasional snippets floating to my ears on the wind, the sun began to rise above the horizon. I turned my attention to the possessed population. I wasn’t sure if I wanted the possessions to end with sunrise or not. If they did, it would prove a connection and that we didn’t have multiple crackpots running around summoning demons. But I also wouldn’t get to show off my ability to exorcise nearly 400 small demons at once, and that kinda bummed me out.

  Then the sun came up over the horizon and some of the demons disappeared. One moment there, the next gone. I began to do a head count.

  “Close to 100 demons disappeared at sunrise,” I told the arguing group of people in charge. “That still leaves about 300 that didn’t.”

  “Why would some end and some wouldn’t?” Miguel asked.

  “Have you told them about Xerxes’ potion?” I countered.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Okay, well, if they used a modified version of Xerxes’ possession potion to make the mass possession potion, elements of the altered potion wouldn’t work correctly,” I said. “That’s my theory, anyway. I was never good at making potions because I find them finicky, and I don’t like dealing with finicky shit.”

  “That would be my theory as well,” Azrael said.

  “I don’t think Xerxes’ potion could be altered to make a mass possession potion,” Uriel said. I was pretty sure he said it just to be recalcitrant.

  “I don’t see why not; Xerxes managed to alter it and make a mass possession potion,” Azrael pointed out.