Adam just kept shaking his head. “I can see it.”
“He saw my wounds through my bandages in the locker room,” I said.
Adam nodded. “I see what is hidden,” he said, his voice distant like he was listening to something we couldn’t hear.
“What do you see, Thornton?” Charleston asked.
“Blood,” he said.
“He’s right about it being blood,” Goliath said.
“Human blood?” I asked.
“There was human blood on the outside of the bottle when the techs swiped it,” he said.
“Not just human blood,” Adam said, still staring at the bottle as if there was a label to read.
“He’s right again,” Goliath said.
“What’s in it, besides human blood?” I asked.
“Demon,” Adam said, almost dreamily.
“Now you’ve spoiled the surprise,” Lila said to him.
He did a long, slow blink like he was having to drag himself back from whatever metaphysical music he was listening to in his head.
“You got all that from swabbing the bottle?” I asked.
Ravensong nodded.
“What kind of freak wastes one of the rarest magical ingredients on the planet by spilling it down the bottle?” Goliath asked.
“Mark Cookson,” Charleston said.
“What can you sense from it, Havoc?” Ravensong asked.
“Gently,” Charleston warned.
I nodded; I could do gentle magically, it’s what I’d been doing most of my life once I left the College. I concentrated and just like that I could see the glow at my back that was my Guardian Angel. It wasn’t like the cold fire of the angel that had put Gimble in the hospital, but soft, pure white light, steady like a night light to guide you through the darkness. It could grow into something large and powerful to protect us like dawn spreading across the sky until the world was covered in sunlight.
I looked at the bottle again, but this time I asked the angels to help me see more. Angels will do what you ask, because your free will is what makes the choices; you can listen to your better angels when they warn you that something is a bad idea, but if you give them an order, a request, tell them I need your help, they will do what you ask, because that’s the way free will works—your free will, not theirs, because if everything goes according to God’s plan they don’t have any.
The spells on the crystal showed like golden lines forming script. It was a mix of Celestial and Infernal as if the bottle had been designed to hold more than just human and demon blood. The metal lacework around it glowed red and orange as if it were being shoved into the forge again.
Adam said, “Don’t do it.”
“Havoc is just looking at the spell on it,” Ravensong said. “I think there’s Celestial magic in its creation, not just Infernal.”
I nodded, and said softly, “Yes.” What I was doing shouldn’t have damaged any of the spells. I wasn’t putting energy into anything, just reading what was already there, but not everything likes to be read.
The metal glowed orange and yellow now, the red lost as the heat grew. “The metal’s glowing.”
“The bottle looks the same,” Goliath said.
Ravensong moved closer to it. “It’s wavering like heat.”
“Stop, Havoc, stop what you’re doing,” Charleston said.
I stopped, pulling back so that I couldn’t see the lettering traced on the bottle. The glow at my back had hands now, resting lightly on my shoulders. Guardian Angels don’t manifest physically without a reason.
The top of the bottle began to unscrew itself as if some invisible hand were twisting it.
Charleston said, “Lila, disable it.”
Lila stepped forward and the rest of us moved back so she had a clear field of “fire.” Her hands were loose at her sides, but her stance was solid, stacked, and ready for action. She could do her psychic ability so quietly that the bad guys never saw it coming, but when she didn’t have to hide, she looked like she was getting ready for a physical fight instead of a psychic one.
I never felt anything happen when she used her power; it was more like the world got quieter, like floating in silence as if standing in the middle of Lila’s power would be the most relaxing thing in the world, but then her power didn’t work on Celestial energies, and that was mainly what I did. She just cleared the psychic debris for me.
The stopper on the bottle stopped moving just like it was supposed to, and then it was as if the air in the room took a breath and the stopper began to unscrew itself again.
Lila’s voice was controlled as she said, “It’s not stopping.”
“Ravensong, can you throw up a circle of protection while I get a containment box?” Charleston asked.
“If Havoc plays battery for me, yes,” she said.
“Whatever you’re going to do, do it fast,” Lila said, still standing in front of the bottle, hands in fists now, physical strain showing in her arms and shoulders, feet digging into the floor as if she was standing against some invisible force that she was keeping away from the rest of us.
Charleston yelled, “MacGregor, Thornton, with me.” They were running before the door closed behind them. Running not away, but for one of the magical containment boxes that we had in storage on this floor for the rare objects that we couldn’t handle any other way.
I went to stand behind Ravensong, who was facing the table behind Lila like a second line of defense. Most witches need words to call the quarters and put up a magical circle; some of them even needed bits of the elements water, rocks, chimes, smoke, a candle. Ravensong spread her arms to the sky, legs wide and firm so she stood like a tree, roots in the earth and hands reaching for the sky. I stood behind her, my legs fixed wide and steadying, and if I’d been a Wiccan priest to her priestess, I would have either mimicked her stance except with my arms pointed in the opposite direction or crossed my arms over my chest; instead I put my left hand on her shoulder and told the angels to help me to help her work this spell. That was enough to drop my psychic shielding and let Ravensong tap into my energy. I was literally acting as a battery to amplify her magic.
“Narrow your field, Bridges,” Ravensong said.
The three of us had done this before in the field, never here inside the unit itself, but location didn’t matter; magic is everywhere.
“How small?” Lila asked.
“Small as you can make it.”
“Got it,” Lila said.
I felt the familiar warmth of Ravensong’s magic and gave my own power to hers. My Guardian Angel merged with the glow at her back, and then I felt the four quarters spring to life: North like a huge towering oak tree standing phantomlike but so real that I swear I could feel its roots reaching down into the center of the Earth and hear its leaves rustling as it grew skyward; East was wind and birds on the wing and then a towering cyclone whirling and waiting to sweep away all danger if you had the power and nerve to control it; South was fire towering upward as if God’s voice should come out of it; West was ocean and rain along the shore gentle and cleansing. It took seconds for it all to happen, but we were already in that time between, so that seconds of real time felt like so much longer for us. Ravensong called Goddess and God, and their power filled the space between with that soft, skin-ruffling power that felt both gentle and powerful. Ravensong’s God was not the one I prayed to, and her Goddess was not the mother of my God, but they all blessed this circle because I gave my power to the witch to strengthen her circle and keep us all safe.