Page 11 of Witch's Dawn
"I was just sheltered growing up, I guess," I said with a shrug. "My parents never really exposed me to cultures and lifestyles outside of ourown."
His charming grin reached its widest pointyet.
"You really have no idea what you are, doyou?"
I looked at him,bewildered.
"What do you mean bythat?"
But he just set his teacup down, slapped a few dollars on the counter, and gave me awink.
"Thanks for the tea. See you around,Deja."
As he turned away to leave, only then did I notice the mark on his arm-- a raven holding a jeweled crucifix necklace in its beak. My mind spun as I realized it was the tattoo he received at the party lastnight.
And somehow it already looked fullyhealed.
6
ASHTAROTH
IsensedRaum's return before I ever sawhim.
Within moments I heard the telltale fluttering of wings and annoying, "Caw! Caw!" at mywindowsill.
"I agree. You are quite the birdbrain," I said, not looking up from my book of the day. This time it wasThe Turn of the Screw, an oldfavorite.
"Caw!Caw!"
I shot him a death stare, knowing he was cawing things he wouldn't dare say to my face in humanform.
"No pretty trinkets in your beak this time," I observed. "Any reason forthat?"
He shifted into human form and shot me a sheepish grin as he leaned against thewindow.
"Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age but I just couldn't bring myself to steal from her. And anyway I had no reason to. She gave me agift."
"Oh?" I said in a bored tone, returning to my book. "And what wasthat?"
"She made metea."
He was trying to get a rise out of me, to make me jealous. And honestly, it worked. Even demons in the first hierarchy weren't above petty human emotions. How else did we know how to manipulate them sowell?
But after watching humanity pass by over the last several thousand years, I learned to keep my faceneutral.
"So was my hypothesis correct?" I asked, keeping my boredtone.
"It was." Raum lowered his head in a respectful nod to me. "She has no idea of the power she wields. She is definitelyblocked."
"And the reason forthat?"
"A sheltered upbringing inBakersfield."
As a devout Christian, mostlikely.
The thought left a foul taste in my mouth and I snapped my book shut. If she truly was the one we'd been waiting for all these centuries, being reborn as a Christ-worshipper seemed like a particularly cruel joke. Salt in the proverbialwounds.
With one glance at Raum, I knew he wasn't telling me everything. I knew him better than anyone. He'd been my disciple since the dawn of Christ himself and enjoyed being tricky and keeping secrets, possibly too much. Lucifer had little patience for him but I saw his potential as an ally. It took a keen eye to draw the necessary information from him but I had two thousand years ofpractice.
