Fire Within - By Ally Shields Page 0,88
Whatever, but the pattern points to Shale’s agency. That is the consistent link.”
“Ari, do you agree?” Ryan turned to her.
“Took the words out of my mouth. Only I’ll take it a step further. The demon may be posing as human, an agency volunteer or employee: counselor, aide, clerical, janitorial. It would have constant access, and what better place to hide?”
“Sounds like the ultimate identity theft. At least that’s something I can understand. Can’t you sense this thing, like you do with other creatures? Unmask him?” Ryan gave Ari a hopeful look.
“Maybe I could, if it wasn’t blocking its magical energy. I still might pick up slight power leaks, but lots of people, especially counselors, give off some psi ability. Shale does. So does Sarah Young. I pick up better if I’m touching, and I only shook hands with those two. I can’t very well demand to touch everyone in the building.”
Ari thought about the agency staff she’d met. Shale, Sarah, Amelia Binderman, the other counselors. Was one of them a demon? None had been unpleasant, friendly in fact. Of course, a creature would act that way if they had something to hide. She hadn’t yet met the fifth counselor or several members of the support staff.
“I could do more interviews. Try to shake a few hands. I assume you’ll broaden your background checks to anyone who regularly comes into the building,” she said, looking at Ryan. He nodded. “I’ll go back to the agency tomorrow, and at least meet Freida Stanley, who wasn’t available last time. Until then, I’ll start researching for a way to stop this thing.”
Andreas straightened his long limbs and stood. “I must leave the locating and unmasking of this creature with the two of you. My priorities must be the vampire community, the protection of the prince, and restraining our people from shedding further blood. Part of that is returning the club to normalcy. With Daron and I as owners, its continued closure makes us look vulnerable.” He gave them a warning look. “If the demon strikes again, Daron’s control could collapse.” With those unexpected words, Andreas strode toward the construction area.
Ryan and Ari stared at one another in alarm.
Chapter Sixteen
Andreas’s warning left Ari stunned. She really hadn’t considered the possibility of Daron losing control. Riverdale’s vampire community would be wide open for someone really evil, like a 1000-year-old vampire named Sebastian, to take over. A chilling possibility.
Propelled by a new sense of urgency, Ari scurried to the ancient library at the Otherworld Research Center. She flipped through the index of every book on demonology and checked out the volumes that held promise. She hoped to find at least rudimentary information on image changers. The more data, the more likely she’d find a solution. If she was really, really lucky, Ari might discover the demon’s true name. It would give her power over him. Half the books set aside were encyclopedias of ancient demon names.
Among the spell and potion books, she looked for methods successfully used to banish lesser demons or creatures related to demonkin. She even intended to read about the dark art of vanquishing. Although she couldn’t handle black magic, she needed a starting point, a formula for a banishing elixir or a script for a magical incantation.
Arriving at her studio apartment, she stacked the books on the dining table, put on a pot of coffee, and started reading.
Two hours later, Ari sat back and stretched. She had skimmed through half the books and was no closer to a solution. No mention of image changers or demon vanquishing spells. The volumes were either too general or too specific in the wrong areas.
She took a break from the books and opened her laptop. What she needed was a worldwide search. The first search for “image changer” returned 332,000 hits for software, website development, and photo editing. Nothing even vaguely referring to demons. “Demon” proved to be a more prolific search factor, showing 44,700,000 references, beginning with the Magikpedia definition and revealing hundreds of lists of demonic names and images. She sighed. It was going to be a long, long night.
Three sites provided extensive demonology lists claiming to include the real names, aliases, powers, and brief histories of all the known demons, greater and lesser. She scanned each tab for image changer. No listing. Without knowing a name, even an alias, there was no easy way to look for Riverdale’s demon visitor. She read on, page by page, clicked on each name, read through the descriptions