Chapter 13
Bartol
Bartol glanced at Tormod. The young man had been unusually quiet all day as they made their rounds through the city, surveying places in Lepel the demon had visited. He was doing his best to hide his emotions, but every once in a while his violet eyes lit up in secret pleasure. Bartol and Caius had agreed to give the nerou hybrid some space until he chose to tell them how his time at the brothel went. Apparently, though, he wasn’t going to mention the matter on his own. He’d had hours, and it was already past noon.
Bartol caught a slight smile form on Tormod’s lips as they made their way through the woods toward their last stop for the day. If Eduard was correct, they might find evidence of the demon’s activity that could provide clues to his methods and intentions. As of yet, they’d found no traces of him left behind at the other locations—unless one counted the victims from the church.
“You appear pleased with yourself,” Caius said, breaking the silence.
The nerou shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“How did it go last night?” Bartol asked, unable to curb his own curiosity anymore.
He remembered the first time he’d been with a woman. She’d been a village girl who had appeared sweet and innocent, except she hid a naughty side that a few local young men were allowed to enjoy. It was awkward in the beginning, but Bartol soon got the hang of giving and receiving pleasure. Before long, they were meeting nearly every night. Then his strict grandfather found out about their activities and insisted he stay away from the girl. Though he hadn’t been in love, that was the first time he’d wanted to rebel against the man who’d raised him since his mother passed away when he was a child. It wasn’t long after that—when he was barely sixteen—that he’d left to strike out on his own.
Tormod cleared his throat. “Eduard gave me three women.”
“Three?”
“Yeah.” A blush ran up the nerou’s neck. “But not at the same time. They took turns…teaching me things.”
Caius chuckled. “That explains why you didn’t return until near dawn.”
Tormod gave him an accusing look. “You were listening for me?”
“We both were.” Bartol stepped over a fallen log. “We needed to know you returned safely.”
“Eduard drove me back to the hotel himself.”
Neither he nor Caius dared to mention that they’d returned to the brothel the previous evening to pay the vampire handsomely to take extra good care of Tormod. The point was to ensure the nerou had a good time on his first outing alone and with a woman…or rather, women.
“Do you feel any different?” Caius asked.
Tormod stuffed his hands in his pockets, and a sour expression formed across his face. “Can we please not talk about it?”
Bartol couldn’t blame the young man for feeling awkward. Perhaps he preferred not to kiss and tell, which would be a good trait to have. “Of course.”
A few minutes later, they came across a break in the trees where they’d been told the demon had performed some sort of ritual. To the average person, little would have appeared out of the ordinary, but to those with angel blood, the scene struck them as malevolent. The scent of sulfur filled Bartol’s nose, weak but still distinct despite weeks having passed to diminish it. He also noted the abundance of blackened leaves covering the small area and tree bark along the outer perimeter darkened with dried blood. A spell had been cast over the place to hide these details, though he couldn’t imagine why. Surely the demon wouldn’t care if humans saw the signs.
Then something else caught Bartol’s eyes. There was an unusual symbol in the middle of the clearing, about four feet by four feet in size and colored silver. It wasn’t a pentagram, but rather a variation of it with more lines inside the circle to form a rather complex star. There were also five smaller symbols outside of it, four for the elements and one for the demon himself. His sign was that of a big bull with wings like that of a griffin.
“Haagenti,” Bartol said and cursed under his breath.
Caius’ expression hardened. “He is one of the most powerful demons in existence.”
Tormod’s brows furrowed. “The guardians taught us something about him while we were in Purgatory. They said he was on Earth before—a long time ago—and that it took three archangels to banish him to Hell. Why didn’t they just kill him?”
“It’s never that simple with the strong ones,” Bartol replied.
“But could it be done?”
He looked away, remembering his last battle with a demon that only possessed half of Haagenti’s power. “Possibly.”
“In fact, there was that one time…” Caius began, looking intensely at Bartol.
“That was a fluke.”
“But you know it’s the real reason you’re here, doing this. Because you have the…”
Bartol wasn’t going to be drawn into that conversation. “The archangels will handle it once we track the demon down.”
Caius sighed and shook his head.
Tormod glanced between them. “What are you two talking about?”
“Nothing you need to know about,” Bartol barked, then spun on his heels. “We’ve seen all we need to see here. Let’s go.”
The other two men followed behind him reluctantly. He could sense their gazes burning into his back, but he would not acknowledge the event from long ago—one that cost the lives of many and nearly his own.
“So what’s next?” Tormod asked as they broke through the woods.
They could have flashed anywhere they needed to go around town, but their powers had to be conserved for long distance travel and emergencies in case they ran into the demon or his minions. Even flashing short distances could cost them if they ran into trouble. Thankfully, Eduard had loaned them a car, which they’d left parked along the side of the road.
Caius was doing all the driving since Bartol still needed to learn how to operate a modern vehicle. There were so many more buttons and switches and functions than the ones he remembered from a century ago. Tormod couldn’t get behind the driver’s wheel either since he hadn’t started training for that yet.
“We will return the car, and then the two of you will go on to Ukraine,” Bartol replied, tone brooking no argument.
The capital city, Kiev, was the next known city that the demon had stopped at, and the place where a deeply religious Jewish man had been compelled to murder twenty-one of his near and extended family members. So far in all the cases they’d learned, there was always a religious tie of some sort. Likely, it gave the demon some sort of extra boost in strength if he used people or symbols of faith.
“If we’re going there,” Tormod began, giving a worried glance to Caius, “where are you going?”
Bartol stopped at the front passenger side of the car. “With a demon of this caliber, we must intensify our search if we hope to stop him before he gets too strong. I will go on to Bucharest and see what I can find there—you two can meet me when you’re done.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Caius asked, giving Bartol a skeptical look.
“I’ll be fine.”
He wanted to be on his own for a while. The quest for a demon—and especially one this powerful—was dredging up old memories he’d hoped to never think of again. The last thing Bartol needed was the other two noticing how disturbed he was becoming. He’d collect himself and then be ready to face his comrades once more.
Caius’ expression turned resigned. “We shouldn’t need more than a day or so but call if you need us.”
“I will,” Bartol agreed.