The Demon Hunters (19 page)

I had trouble coming up with another
question. I’d learned nothing worthwhile so far. I drained my glass
and poured in the rest of the soda. Janine sat on the edge of her
chair now, watching me inquisitively. With her straggling hair, she
brought to mind the head of a Chinese Crested on a big human
body.

Janine reached over the arm of her
chair to pick up a small picture in a silver-gilt frame from the
side table. She handed it to me. “This is Elizabeth and her father
Edward. It was taken a week before they left England for Burma, a
year after Elizabeth’s mother died.”

The black and white photo was badly
faded. Elizabeth sat in an ornately carved wingback chair, hands
primly folded in her lap. Long, straight pale hair fanned the
shoulders of a high-necked, long-sleeved, tight-waisted dress.
Black ankle-boots hung inches off the floor. Her features were
small, petite. Edward stood half behind the chair, a tall
mustachioed man wearing a pith helmet, tight high-necked jacket and
trousers resembling a military uniform. His hand rested on the ball
head of a cane. The old photo gave no idea of the colors of their
clothes, except they were pale and their boots were dark, and
Edward’s hair could have been brown. I think they were dressed in
clothing for the expedition.

I gave Janine the photo back. “She
looks like Alice in Wonderland.”

She smiled at the photo. “I thought
the same.”

“
Have you been to
Nagka?”

“
My father went there in
his youth, but travel in Myanmar was easier then. The restrictions
imposed by the present government make it all but impossible to
move about the country. I will go one day.”

“
Did he discover anything
about the expedition?” I asked hopefully.

She shook her head. “He explored the
city, but the natives of the region refused to talk about it. They
were friendly in all other ways, but mention of Nagka made them
deaf and dumb. Very odd.” She frowned. “I don’t understand how
Elizabeth’s book can be part of a police case.”

Neither did I. At this point the
journal was an indulgence of mine, and maybe that’s all it would
ever be. I swirled the ice cubes in the glass and took a sip. “I
wish I could tell you. Miss Hulme, is Hans Stadelmann still alive?
Do you know his whereabouts?”

“
Is
he
involved in this?”

“
No. I’m
curious.”

“
Oh. He went back to
Myanmar and lived there a number of years before he returned home
and retired. The last I heard, he’s in Arizona, although I don’t
know where. He may have passed away since then. He is getting on in
years.”

Maybe I could track him down. I smiled
at Janine. “If you hear anything of him, I’d appreciate a
call.”

“
Certainly. I have friends
down that way. I can ask them.”

Time I got on my way. “Well I - ” My
cell rang.

I got the phone out my back pocket and
looked at it reluctantly. I had a feeling I knew who was on the
other end. I was right.

I mentally girded my loins, at the
same time smiling apologetically at Janine. “Hello,
Royal.”

“
Tiff? Where in god’s name
are you?”

I winced. I hadn’t got around to
calling him before I left town. “Um. Las Vegas?”

“
Las. . . . Why are you in
Vegas? Never mind, you can tell me later. Right now I need you to
come with me.”

“
Come with you? Where?
How?”

“
I’ll meet you outside
Bellagio. Get there as soon as you can.”

Uh oh
. He was in Vegas. He wanted me to go some place with him, and
I bet we would not be flying. “But I bought a return
flight!”

“
I’ll pay you back. This is
urgent, Tiff.”

“
My car’s at Salt Lake
airport.”

“
I’ll have someone drive it
back to your place.”

But I had the keys. I visualized one
of those scenes from a movie, where a thief jimmies a car door and
pulls a mess of wires from the dashboard. “Nobody better hurt my
car.”

“
It will be okay,
Tiff.”

I closed the phone and smiled at
Janine. “I don’t suppose you have any Dramamine?”

***

I strolled up and down Bellagio’s
magnificent foyer, feeling out of place among the smartly-dressed
people who wandering along with me. My Levis and Princeton
University T-shirt stood out, and not in a good way. But I was not
about to leave the air-conditioned comfort of Bellagio until Royal
turned up.

When I saw him arrive and start pacing
back and forth at the entrance, I didn’t know if I was happy to get
out of Bellagio, or unhappy to go out in the Las Vegas
heat.

I walked up behind him. “Hi,
Royal.”

He turned on his heel and a
smile lit his face, but I went up to him feeling wary. We hadn’t
spoken since the meeting with Gia and Daven and I felt there should
be some discussion between us. He had to still feel terrible about
not being able to help me as Gia threw me across the room, and we
hadn’t talked about what he knew and I still didn’t. But before I
could say another word, he surprised me by pulling me into his arms
and treating me to one of those deep, enveloping kisses for which
he’s famous. Well
I
think he’s famous for them. Toe-tingling would be an apt
description.

I pulled away as I dragged my breath
back in. “This is serious, isn’t it.”

He tucked a loose wisp of hair behind
my ear. “Yes it is, but that is not why I kissed you.” He put his
mouth to the side of my face, near my ear. “I missed
you.”

Aw.

But the warm flush brought on by his
words abruptly disappeared as he took my arm and scooted me along
the sidewalk toward Caesar’s Palace. I gripped his sleeve with my
free hand and clung on. “Not yet, Royal. Please. I’m not
prepared.”

“
Then you’d better prepare
yourself.”

Well thank you for being
so considerate.
“Royal, we have to
talk!”

He stopped and spun me to face him. “I
know, and we will talk, I promise, but now is not the time.” And we
were off again. I clamped my lips together, teed off, irate,
incensed, take your pick, as my feet virtually left the
ground.

Royal had come to fetch me, which
could mean only one thing. We were taking a trip, demon style, and
I dreaded it. I could manage a fast clip on the arm of a demon, but
true demon speed made me nauseous, hence the Dramamine.

In the dry, baking heat, he took me up
the long walkway to Caesar’s and along a narrow path which skirted
the casino. We came to a small, ordinary-looking wood
door.

“
Ready?” Royal
asked.

“
No!”

Seconds later, it seemed, although I
knew it had to be longer, I gasped and tried not to gag in good old
downtown Clarion. A few passersby looked our way, but Royal ignored
them and I could barely see them.

Dating a demon can be such fun. I
guess that kiss mean we were still dating

Up the steps to Royal’s apartment,
lickety-split, and into the living room. Gia and Daven waited just
inside, on their feet and looking alert.

“
Ready?” Royal
asked.

We were going someplace else? I
staggered away from him and fell on a couch. “No. You have to give
me a minute. And while we wait you can tell me what’s going
on.”

Gia gave me a cool look. “We can’t
afford to waste time like this.”

“
And I can’t afford the
cleaning bill when I barf all over myself.”

She threw up her hands, very elegantly
I might add, and perched on the arm of the other couch. Daven sat
down at her side, looking dapper in pressed camel slacks and a
cream short-sleeved shirt. The outfit went well with Gia’s cream
silk pants suit and amber jewelry.

Gia drummed the fingers of one hand on
her other wrist, staring at me like something dirty on the bottom
of her shoe.

I folded my arms and gave her an
obstinate look in return. “I’m not going anyplace till you tell me
where and why.”

Royal stood with hands in jeans
pockets. “She needs to know. You can’t walk her into a situation
like this with no explanation.”

That sounded ominous.

“
He is right, Gia,” said
Daven.

Gia tossed her head, which I suppose
was her version of go ahead.

“
One of my people was
attacked, using the same method by which the others were killed,”
Royal said.

I fanned my face with my open hand.
“Which was?”

“
Burning and decapitation.
They douse the victim in gasoline and set them alight, then cut off
the head.”

Yuk.
Or bomb the hell out their home with them
inside
, I thought as I looked over at
Daven. Either way, they burned them alive. My stomach soured. What
a dreadful way to die.

Then what Royal said sank in. I knew
the name of the killer, or at least his alias. “The
Charbroiler?”

Daven nodded.

I’d heard of the Charbroiler, as the
press dubbed him, or her. Who hadn’t? Four killings in the past
year, but they happened in the Eastern states and until now seemed
far away. I exploded up from the couch. “The Charbroiler! Why
didn’t you tell me? This isn’t some secret Gelpha thing, he killed
four people!”

“
Not human people, Tiff,”
Royal said.

Oh.
Right
. The murdered were Gelpha, but they
looked like human beings and were reported as such.

“
I don’t know how, but she
managed to get away,” Daven was saying. “She is dying and we cannot
save her. She could go at any time.”

Poor
woman
. I made a disgusted face as I sank
down on the couch. “That’s terrible.”

“
I hope - we hope - you can
communicate with a Gelpha shade,” Royal said.

His gaze slid away from me. I dropped
my head so I could rub at the pain developing between my eyebrows.
“What aren’t you telling me, Royal?”

“
We don’t know if
Gelpha
do
become
ghosts,” Gia said. “We will not know until she dies.”

I blinked a few times, trying to
process. They wanted me to be with the woman when she
died.

“
The opportunity to
learn
anything
about the killer . . . we have to know,” Royal said. “She’s
right on the edge.
We must
leave now.”

I closed my eyes.
Tell me, God, why me?
“She’s in Clarion?”

“
Russia.”

I knew it.
Not that we’d take a trip to Russia of all places,
but I knew we would not simply walk across town. No, it couldn’t be
so easy. “I thought you’d say something like that,” I
muttered.

So, another trip through Bel-Athaer.
At least the last one was fast. “Why Russia?”

“
The Republic of Tatarstan.
Kazan is her home, although for safety’s sake we moved her to a
village outside the capital. With the condition she is in, we dare
not take her far,” from Daven.

Gia and Daven got to their feet.
“They’re coming with us?” I asked Royal.

“
We are,” from
Daven.

“
So we won’t be demoning
along?”

“
We can move as fast as
Gelpha,” Gia said. I swear she spoke with satisfaction.

I recalled Gia’s speed as
she came at me across Royal’s living room.
Damn.
That’s right.

“
Don’t I need to pack?” And
I had to make arrangements for Mac.

“
If you need anything,
we’ll find it for you,” Royal said.

“
I can’t go off and leave
Mac for god only knows how long.”

“
I’ll zip back and take him
to Janie if it looks as if we will be more than a few
hours.”

“
Just a sec.” I pulled the
little canister out my pocket and popped another anti-nausea pill.
I know I just had one, but I wasn’t taking chances. Should I use
the bathroom before we took off? I hauled myself up. “Give me a
minute.”

“
We go now,” Gia
barked.

“
All right, already!” I
threw a glare at the back of her head as I followed her and Daven
to the door.

We stepped out of Royal’s apartment
and walked down the stairs, and Twenty-Second Street enveloped us.
July in Clarion is Festival month in conjunction with Fourth of
July at the beginning and Pioneer Day on the twenty-fourth. One big
celebration all month long. Twenty-Second is the venue for the
Farmer’s Market and the street’s merchants join in by setting up
tables outside their stores on which they display choice goods to
lure in customers. Delis load their little tables with samples of
food and drink. Jewelry and glassware sparkle and a wonderful aroma
from two bakeries and the patisserie ride the air.