Free Past Due by Catherine Winchester Page A

let me tell you what I’ve learned.” First she told him about not getting any impressions from the symbols on the walls.
    “ Is that unusual?” he asked.
    “ Very. In fact it’s the first time ever.”
    Alex looked thoughtful for a few moments before turning back to her. “What else have you discovered?”
    “ I caught a glimpse of him, only a glimpse, I couldn’t draw him from that but he looked… clammy.”
    “ Clammy?”
    “ Pale, pasty; almost unwell.”
    “ Maybe he is unwell, too sick to perform magic.”
    “ But still healthy enough to murder?”
    Alex conceded her point with a shrug. “Go on.”
    Frankie told him about her conversation with Clara and the copy of the Munich Manual grimoire Bradley had been hunting for.
    Alex looked grim. “I know of it. It sounds as if he’s found a copy.”
    “ Why?”
    “ Remember what I said about blood being spilled? Well grimoires are essentially dark magic manuals. This one deals with necromancy and, more importantly, demonology. The rituals involved in invoking a demon often call for both sacrifices and blood.” He looked worried.
    “ What are you thinking?”
    “ I’m thinking our man has reached the limits of his power; that he’s looking outside of himself now, and enslaving others to do his bidding.”
    “ But I thought he was an uber-witch?”
    “ He is but there’s still a limit to how much power one man can channel, like there’s only so much electricity a circuit can carry before it burns out. A lone man could probably levitate a small car but if he wanted to levitate a lorry, he’d need help. Usually that would mean forming a coven and combining their power but for whatever reason, our witch doesn’t want to share.”
    “ So instead he’s calling on other supernatural entities to do his bidding?”
    “ Yes. One of the… rules, if you like, for granting an entity access to the mortal plane is that the entity must provide services to whoever called them, otherwise no human would even attempt to bring these things over.”
    “ I’m going to guess these entities aren’t all that happy about serving humans, though.”
    “ Quite right. Once the debt is repaid, once they are granted full access to this realm, it’s not unusual for them to turn on whoever called them.”
    “ So if we let this play out the killer dies and we’re left facing whatever he brought over.”
    “ Yes.”
    “ Then we need to find this guy now. Powerful or not, I’m guessing a human is much easier to stop than a demon or some sort of demi-god.”
    “ Agreed.”
    “ Much as I like being told I’m right, suggestions for finding the creep would be more welcome right now.”
    “ If he has disappeared, perhaps the best way to find him is to go back.”
    Frankie thought about that for a second. “To his past. His family is dead but there must still be school friends or something. Maybe I can find something, an old haunt or somewhere he’d be likely to go back to.”
    “ Good idea.”
    Frankie leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “If he keeps to schedule he’ll kill another girl tomorrow. I need more time.”
    Alex saw she was in pain; she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders and until now, she’d been doing so alone. “We’ll figure this out, Frankie. We will stop him.” Without thinking he took her hand and stroked his thumb across the back.
    He heard her heart beat accelerate and realised he’d touched her. Heaven only knew what she was seeing but judging from her reaction, it wasn’t good. He snatched his hand away.
    “ I’m sorry, I didn’t think.” Until this moment, Alex had always loved being a vampire, it allowed him a freedom few humans would ever know. With everything he had seen and done in his long life, he had never regretted being turned. Now it looked as if what he was would keep him from what he wanted most.
    Frankie waved him off and stood up. Her handbag was resting on the desk and she picked it up and searched