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I grabbedrod, and Shiro&039;s cane, andWe took the cab to McAnnally&039;s The Blue Beetle was still in the nearby lot, and it hadn&039;t been stolen, vaporized, or otherwise mishandled

"What happened to your back ?" Susan asked

"One of Marcone&039;s goons winged a few shots at me outside the Larry Fowler studio"

Susan&039;s ain?"

"I don&039;t want to talk about it"

"Uh- huh And what about the hood?"

"Little holes are fro dent was a chlorofiend," I said

"A what?"

"Plant monster"

"Oh Why don&039;t you just say &039;plant monster&039;?"

"I have ot out my keys, but Susan put her hand on mine, and walked a circle around the car She crouched down and looked beneath it a couple of tiot in "Thank you, double oh seven, but no one boot in the passenger door and said, "Cute confetti if you aren&039;t careful, Harry"

I grunted, revved up the car, and puttered to Michael&039;s place

The iven up its grip on the Great Lakes, and where Lake Michigan went, Chicago went too Susan got out and looked around the front lawn, frowning froe to ht demons on the side?"

"He probably watches a lot of those horass is green It&039;s February and his grass is green Doesn&039;t that strike you as strange?"

"Sod works in usted sound, and then followed me up the walk to the door

I knocked A moment later Father Forthill said, "Who&039;s there?"

"Donny and Marie," I responded "Salt-N-Pepa asked us to fill in for theold-ri old Forthill, but he looked strained and tired The lines of his face had grown deeper than I remembered "Hello, Harry"

"Father," I said "You know Susan?"

He looked at her thoughtfully "By reputation," he said "Come in, come in"

We did, and as I caer baseball bat down in the corner I raised my eyebrows, traded a look with Susan, and then put my staff and Shiro&039;s cane beside the bat We followed Forthill into the kitchen

"Where&039;s Charity?" I asked

"Taking the children to her mother&039;s house," Forthill said "She should be back soon"

I let out a breath of relief "Anna Val"

"I need to call Martin," Susan said "Excuse me" She stepped aside into the shnut?" Father Forthill asked

I sat down at the table "Father, you&039;ve never been closer to convertingsouls one Danish at a tiods themselves in Dunkin Donuts paper sacks and Styrofoa some for himself as well "I&039;ve always admired your ability to rave"

"I sort of noticed," I said through a hnut "Where&039;s Michael?"

"He and Sanya went to St Louis to investigate possible Denarian activity They were both arrested by the local police"

"They what? What for?"

"No charges were filed," Forthill said "They were arrested, held for twenty-four hours, and released"

"Sand trap," I said "Someone wanted them out of the way"

Forthill nodded "So it would seeo They&039;re on their way back now and should be here soon"

"Then as soon as they get here, we have to go get Shiro back"

Forthill frowned and nodded "What happened to you last night?"

I told him the short version-all about the art auction and the Denarians, but I elided over the details afterward, which were none of his chaste business And which would have eious, but come on, the man was a priest

When I finished, Forthill took off his glasses and stared hard at s, and they could be disturbingly intense "Nicodemus," he said quietly "Are you sure that is what he called himself?"

"Yeah"

"Without a doubt?"

"Yeah We had a nice chat"

Forthill folded his hands and exhaled slowly "Mother of God Harry, could you describe him for me?"

I did, while the old priest listened "Oh, and he was alearing a rope around his neck Not like a ship&039;s hawser, a thin rope, like clothesline I thought it was a string tie at first"

Forthill&039;s fingers reached up to touch the crucifix at his throat "Tied in a noose?"

"Yeah"

"What did you think of hihnut "He scared the hell out of "

"The word you are looking for is &039;evil,&039; Harry"

I shrugged, ate the rest of the doughnut, and didn&039;t argue

"Nicodehts of the Cross," Forthill said quietly "Our information about him is limited He has made it a point to find and destroy our archives every other century or so, so we cannot be sure who he is or how long he has been alive He may even have walked the earth when the Savior was crucified"

"Didn&039;t look a day over five hundred," I one and parted his hair for him?"

"They&039;ve tried," Forthill said

"He&039;s gotten away?"

Forthill&039;s eyes and voice stayed steady "He&039;s killed thehts More than a thousand priests, nuns, monks Three thousand men, woes recovered frohts have ever faced hiht "Shiro is one of the to trade me for him"

Forthill nodded and closed his eyes for a row in power by inflicting pain and suffering on others They becoive the thoseShiro," I said

Forthill put his hand on"We must have faith We ht the whole point of the Knights was to deal out justice," I said "The Fists of God and all that So why is it that Nicodehter them wholesale?"

"For much the same reason any ent Cautious Skilled Ruthless Like his patron fallen angel"

I guessed at the name "Badassiel?"

Forthill almost smiled "Anduriel He was a captain of Lucifer&039;s, after the Fall Anduriel leads the thirty Fallen who inhabit the coins Nicodemus wasn&039;t seduced into Anduriel&039;s domination It&039;s a partnership Nicodemus works with Fallen as a near-equal and of his free will No one of the priesthood, of any of the Knightly Orders, of the Knights of the Cross, has so uessed "The rope It&039;s like the Shroud, isn&039;t it? It has power"

Forthill nodded "We think so, yes The same rope the betrayer used in Jerusale with hi with each other"

"You are correct, thank God Nicode with hi to our information Usually, he keeps three others nearby"

"Snakeboy, deirl, and Ursiel"

"Yes"

"Howaround the world?"

"Only nine are accounted for at this time Ten, with Ursiel&039;s coin"

"So Nicode with hioons"

"Goons?"

"Goons Normal hired hands, they looked like"

"Ah They aren&039;t normal," Forthill said "From e have been able to tell, they are almost a small nation unto themselves Fanatics Their service is hereditary, passed on froets better and better," I said

"Harry," Forthill said "I know of no tactful way to ask this, so I will siive you one of the coins?"

"He tried," I said "I turned him down"

Forthill&039;s eyes stayed on my face for a moment before he let out a breath "I see Do you rerunted in affirmation, picked up a chocolate-covered jelly, and drew the syer

Forthill tilted his head, frowning "Lasciel," he murmured

"Lasciel?" I said It caer

"The Seducer," Forthillthe sigil "Lasciel is also called the Webweaver and the Teh it seems odd that Nicodemus would want to free her Typically, she does not follow Anduriel&039;s lead"

"A rebel angel aels?"

"Perhaps," Forthill said "It is so better not discussed, for now"

Susan stepped out of the little office, a wireless phone to her ear "All right," she said to the phone, and walked past us, jerking one hand at us to tell us to follow her Father Forthill lifted his eyebrows, and ent out to the Carpenter fae room divided into several clumps of furniture The television was in the smallest clump, and still looked about three sizes too small Susan h stations

She stopped on a local station, a news report, that showed a helicopter angle of a building being consu fire About a dozen yellow-and-red fire trucks circled around it, but it was obvious that they were only containing the fire The building was lost

"What&039;s this?" Forthill asked

"Da

"It&039;s the building Shiro took us to last night," Susan said "The Denarians were in some tunnels beneath it"

"Not anymore," I snapped "They&039;ve left and covered their tracks Hell, they&039;ve had what? Six hours? They could be a couple of states away by now"

"Nicodemus," Forthill said "It&039;s his style"

"We&039;ll find them," Susan said quietly

"How?" I asked

She pressed her lips together and turned away from me She spoke quietly into the phone I couldn&039;t hear what she said, but it had that end-of-conversation tone to it She turned the handset off a o to the underworld," I said "Call up some answers from there But I can&039;t do it until the sun sets"

Forthill said quietly, "You erous None of the Knights would want-"

I slashedhi to die Not only that, but if we don&039;t run down Nicode ready to do with the Shroud If I have to go to Downbelow for answers, then that&039;s where I go"

"What about Michael?" Susan asked "Couldn&039;t he find Shiro the way Shiro found Harry?"

Forthill shook his head "Not necessarily It isn&039;t soiven that kind of discernment, but they can&039;t call it up at will"

I checkedup distances "Michael and Sanya should be back here in what? An hour or so?"

"Barring further difficulties," Forthill said

"Fine We&039;ll see if the side of the angels wants to pitch in If they don&039;t, I&039;oes down" I took the phone from Susan and walked out of the roo?" Susan asked

"To talk to Anna Val to call my client On the off chance I survive, I want to look like I at least tried to be professional"

Charity kept a guest roole of fabric Clear boxes full of the stuff in every iainst one wall, and a s neatly folded stacks of more More boxes of fabric had been stacked into a rale bed, which was occupied by a lump buried underneath several quilts