Chapter Fourteen-Sixth Sanctum

Chapter Fourteen


“Right.  No problem.  Boy, this job gets easier and easier.”  After momentarily closing my eyes, I opened them again to find Peor had vanished.  I wasn’t surprised.  Ha, maybe I was slowly becoming numb.  I looked towards Sam and my heart sped up a notch.  Nope, not numb and now alone again with him.

“What?”  Sam all but growled as I sat watching him.  

I decided ignoring him and his mood was my best option so I stood and started cleaning up the plates and bottles from the living room.

After tidying up, I returned and sat in front of the papers that we’d collected from Marty’s apartment.  

“You think that’ll help you?”  

I turned my head slowly and looked at Sam.  If I hadn’t been exhausted and at my wits end, it would have been hard to ignore how sexy he looked.  One of his long legs was stretched out and the other was half cocked up with his arm resting on his knee.  He lounged back against the couch, his hair still pulled back loosely in a knot.  All he needed was a cigarette and he’d have the rebel without a cause look down.  

“Look, I don’t know what your problem is and whatever touchy feely personal issues that guy dragged up by coming here but it’s after two in the morning and although he clued us in on what was going on, we still have no idea where to go from here.  We have Marty’s stuff and it might give us a couple of locations to check out.  One of us should probably study the details available on winter spells and anything like that as well although I keep going through it in my head and I’m coming up empty on what could possibly help us.”  As far as side kick names, I think the most appropriate for Sam at the moment was Bitchy Boy.  

I paused and watched as Sam gracefully rose to his feet.  

He slowly walked over to me and I scooted back as he approached.  A small sneer wiped over his face as he leaned across me and grabbed his jacket off the couch.  He slipped into his boots and walked towards the door.  He glanced over his shoulder at me, “Stay here.  You leave before I come back and there will be hell to pay.”  

He left silently.  

I rolled my eyes, and stood.  I walked towards the door.  I really really wanted to leave to spite him.  I usually don’t do well with orders.  That was one of the reasons why I enjoyed my business so much.  I work well with people, I really do.  As long as I’m the one who is basically in charge of things.  But I wasn’t about to leave the house again.  I was tired and wherever Sam decided to run off to, I really needed to get this work done.  I flipped Sam off through the door before locking it.

The books that I’d brought from the back were still somewhat helpful since they talked about demons and know we knew for sure that Shea was one.  Marty’s notes were good because I was still looking for the secret location and maybe he noticed weird things that Shea might have been interested in.  Surely a spell to bring about three winters would need some strange ingredients.  I grabbed a pen and a pad of paper and sat down in the middle of the living room and got to work.  Familiarize self with demons and how to squash them like little evil bugs and get to know what Marty’s been up to or more importantly where he has been up to it.  

Strangely enough, I started feeling better.  Research my old friend, at least with you, I am comfortable.




A loud crash woke me from a sound sleep.  Completely disoriented, I sat for a few moments blinking and running through a series of questions in my head.  Where was I?  Home.  My living room the be exact.  Why was I there?  Research, I was going through books and papers.  No wonder my body hurt.  Curled up on the carpet did not exactly make for comfortable sleeping arrangements.  Why did I wake up?  Noise.  

“What are you doing like that?”  Sam’s voice broke up the questions before I could figure anything else out.  

“Like what?”  I peered up and over the couch where he stood hands on his hips, looking the worse for wear.  I rubbed my eyes and shook my head trying to clear the spider webs out.

“Rumpled, paper stuck to your shoulder and book lines all over your face.  I think… yes, you even have pen smudges on your cheek.”  His voice was soft and… slightly slurred.  I couldn’t see him clearly because he stood in the shadows of the entryway.  

I pulled the paper off, annoyed, and scrubbed at my face.  “I fell asleep working.”

I jumped to my feet, my eyes narrowing as I started to get a slim suspicion of what he had been up to, “Have you been drinking?”

“As I recall, I was drinking before I even left here.”  His words definitely lacked the sharp edge they had when he was sober.  

“You stupid prick.  Could you save the emotional drinking for later?  You think we have time to goof off?  You know what’s going on in this crazy world more than I do and you leave me by myself to do the research?  I kind of gave you the benefit of the doubt that you’d gone to figure something out or get more information out of Peor but I must’ve been crazy to think you were doing the responsible thing.”  I continued on my rant as I made my way towards him.  The four letter words started pouring out a little quicker and a lot louder as I approached.  Suddenly I stopped.  

Sam didn’t just look a little worse, he looked like complete crap.  He had a cut running about two inches long right underneath his eye.  I had the sickening sensation that if he were wearing anything but black, his clothes would be smattered with blood.  I reached down and grabbed his right hand, and looked at the cuts and scrapes all over his fist.  

“Aww shit, Sam, what’d you get yourself into?”  

“Ahh well at least you aren’t yelling anymore.  Please continue with the lecture though, I think you left off when you were detailing the nature of my mother’s impurities and explaining that I am a… well… that I suck certain things.”  

The blush colored my cheeks and heated my face, “Yes well, when I’m angry I let my mouth run away with itself.”

“And you glow.  Peor was right, it’s quite becoming.  Alex, I’m impressed, I wouldn’t have guessed a librarian had that kind of range in colorful language.  I do wonder if you glow at any other times.”  He cocked his head sideways and grabbed a piece of hair that had slipped from my braid.  

“Sam you’re either a moody and silent goth or an incorrigible flirt.  Is there any in between?”

“I guess I could be a silent flirt or an incorrigible goth.  Not sure how the second would work but I know I can flirt silently.”  He leaned forward, running his hand to cup the back of my neck.

Before he could capture a kiss, I put my hand on his chest and pushed him backwards slightly.  “I need to clean you up and you need to tell me what the hell you were doing.”  

He sighed.  “Yes ma’am.”  

“Come sit at the kitchen table, I’ll grab the first aid kit.”

First aid kit in hand, I peered at Sam’s face under the kitchen light.  The cut there wasn’t terribly deep but I had the feeling his face was going to be mottled with bruises come morning.  Glancing at the clock, I realized it was already morning.  I swabbed at the cut on his face and his hands.

Sam sat there silent and unmoving.  

“So what’s the story?”

“Demons.  They’re usually only like to do three things and I’m only up for drinking and fighting with them.”

“Demons?”

He nodded.  I sat down in the chair next to him.  

“Well half demons, I guess.  There are a lot over here.  There are a couple of bars in town that cater to them.  I’d been in before but I was listening more for what humans wanted from them and not what they were doing themselves.  I should have guessed Shea could be one himself.  Not that it should have mattered, I would never have known he had his powers back himself.”

“So did you get in ‘angry I want to kill you’ type fighting or ‘fun loving this is how we get our kicks’ fighting?”

Sam grinned up at me, his dark eyes twinkling, “More like ‘who has the biggest balls’ type fighting.”

“I do not want to know the answer to that.  Did you learn anything useful with all this demon macho schmoozing?”

“Schmoozing.  Hmm.  I don’t think I like that word.  I don’t schmooze.  Anyway, I learned more than I thought I would.  Seems Shea has made quite a few demon enemies.  The demons get along quite well when there is no power to fight for but put some power in there and they’re not so chummy anymore.  Shea can’t help but brag.  Seems he lied and told them that he was granted his powers back but that’s a good thing for us, we’d have trouble on our hands if they all started being worshipped again.  They were all minor demons but that’s nothing to be mocked.  So bring dear old Shea up and they’re brimming with gossip.  Never would have thought… hey you’re pretty.”

His swift change in subjects had me a bit flustered.  Sam drunk was not at all what I had expected.  He was mellow.  And dare I say it, sweet.  He’d lost the powerful intensity that usually vibrated around him.  “Umm, earth to Sam?”  His eyes were sort of staring off into space.

“Hmmm?”  

“Well at least you aren’t an angry drunk.  Sam, what did the demons tell you?”

He shook his head, probably trying to clear his thoughts.  “I know some of the names and locations of the other people still loyal to Shea.  Some of his worshippers I’m guessing.  We can go visit them.”

“Well not until you sober up.  Anything else?”

“Did I mention the demons don’t really believe Shea is a real demon again?  Or maybe they do deep down but they can’t really explain it so they don’t know what’s going on.  Ehhh, they’re not the brightest bunch.  So gossip.  Some are saying that Shea’s got himself deep involved with some hot shot magician.  Demons don’t particularly like getting involved with the witches.  I never really understood that myself because I always wondered if demons could get some of their strength back through witchcraft but they don’t try.  It’s beneath them.  It’s like mingling with the prey, I guess.  Becoming the prey?  Ohhh, maybe the bigger demons still in the upper realm wouldn’t like to hear about ex demons becoming witches.”

It was so odd, drunk people usually stumble over words, talk incoherently, spew gibberish.  Sam however was making complete sense.  His words a tiny bit slurred but that could have just been from sleepiness.  The strangest thing was he was babbling.  

“Sam, what about Shea?”

Sam’s eyes wandered back to my face and he blinked.

“Yeah, Shea might be involved with some guy in our crowd.  Powerful, dark.  No one had a name though.”  Sam reached forward and grabbed my arms.  He pulled me forward, twirled me around and before I knew it I was sitting across his lap.  

“See sweetpea?  That’s what you don’t get.  I’d be useless at this research schtick.  That’s not a way to get information.  I needed to go out, get involved.  Throw myself into the action.”  He leaned his head against my body as he talked.  “You get anything from the notes?”

Rolling my eyes, I snorted.  “Yes.  And I managed to get it without bloodying myself up.  I also got a few names mentioned about people in the Shea fan club.  It’d probably take a bit more hunting to come up for locations for them so you are one up on that.  

“I did learn that although demons have a wide range of powers and skills, they’re not so well known for anything that deals with earth related magic.  No weather related stuff.  If that is what Shea’s focused on then the hot shot magician you’ve heard about- that is probably his specialty.  I know a few names associated and I can check them out.  It even makes sense why he’d be interested in Marty.  Marty’s lineage follows along that line.  Not that he ever thought it worthwhile to become adept at it.  

“He did keep mentioning the search for a lightning totem.  It seemed like he had no idea what it physically was but that they needed it.  Shea either didn’t know as well or wanted to keep it from Marty.  I don’t know.  I have this itching suspicion that this totem is at the center of everything.  We can only hope that Shea doesn’t know what it is and is still trying to figure it out.”

Lost in my ponderings over what the research had told me, I failed to notice Sam’s deep breathing.  When I finally looked over, expecting some type of response, I realized he was asleep.  Shaking my head, I carefully extracted myself from his lap.  I couldn’t possibly pick him up and carry him to the couch.  I’m strong but I’m not that strong.  I could leave him.  Well not really, that’d be just plain cruel.  

I poked him in the shoulder instead.  “Sam!”

Waking quickly he grabbed my wrist with frightening speed.

“It’s just me.”

“Alex.”  He loosened his grip on my wrist.

“You fell asleep, let’s get you to the couch.”

He got to his feet and shook his head.  “I’m so sleepy.”

I followed behind him as he walked into the living room.  He almost made it to the couch but he stumbled at the last moment and basically fell face first into the cushions.  Apparently it didn’t faze him in the least because he seemed to be sound asleep again.  I picked his legs up and deposited them on the couch.  I sat on the arm of the couch and untied his boots, slipped them off his feet and placed them next to the couch.  

As I reached over to turn the lamp off, I couldn’t help but tease him.  Even if he couldn’t hear me.  “Never would have thought you’d such an odd drunk.  Ehh, honestly I never would have guessed I’d ever see you drunk.”

Surprisingly Sam mumbled something in response.  I leaned closer to catch it.  

“Not drunk.  Tired.  Energy drained.  So hard… shields up.”  

Frowning, I wondered why it would have been hard to keep shields up.  And why such strong shields would be necessary in a demon bar anyway.  Maybe Sam was hiding something from demons?  But could demons even get past his shields?  

Maybe I was thinking way too much about this.  Maybe Sam was drunk and not wanting to admit to it.  That sounded like a macho thing to do.

Feeling a bit drained myself, I wandered into my bedroom.  The clock told me it was six in the morning and since I didn’t have to open the store, we could sleep in a little.  I set the alarm for ten.  Even that late only left Sam with four hours of sleep.  Well, we’d see how he felt at that point.  Who was I kidding, the extra one or so I’d gotten before Sam stumbled in wasn’t going to make me feel like Mary Sunshine.  At least I was in my own bed with my cats curled up next to me.