“I’m not doing it to play hero,” Alex said sourly. “But I already got Tripp killed.”
“You don’t know that,” protested Dawes.
“I can make an educated guess.” She hoped it wasn’t true. She hoped Tripp was safely tucked away in his fancy loft apartment, eating bowls of vegan chili, but she doubted that was the case. “I roped him into this, and there’s a good chance he’s not coming back from it.”
“You can’t just walk in by yourself,” said Darlington. “You might pull your own demon with you, but you’ll all have to go through to get rid of the others.”
“What about Spenser?” Mercy asked. “Uh … Not Spenser, Tripp’s demon?”
“If the demon consumed Tripp’s soul—” Darlington began.
“We don’t know that happened,” Dawes insisted.
“But if it did, then the demon would be able to remain in the mortal world and feed on the living.”
A new vampire could be preying on people in New Haven right now.
Another bit of misery Alex had helped to create. Mercy had every right not to trust Tripp, to suspect he was a coward. But Alex liked Tripp. He was a dumbass, but he’d tried to do his best for them. I like being one of the good guys.
“We’re going to have to create a tether,” Dawes said. “Open the doorway and pull them back through.” “The vampire too?” asked Mercy.
“No,” said Darlington. “If Tripp’s demon really did become a vampire, it will have to be hunted on its own.”
“Mercy and I have been searching the armory and the library for a way to lure our demons,” said Dawes. “But there’s only so much we can do if we need to be in the right position to open the Gauntlet.”
“They’re drawn to us when things are bad,” said Alex.
Turner shot her a look. “So every hour of the day?”
“There’s the Doom Sparrow,” Mercy said, consulting her notes. “If you release it in a room, it sows discord and creates a general sense of malaise. It was used to disrupt meetings of union organizers in the seventies.”
“Have you heard that silence where the birds are dead yet something pipeth like a bird?” Darlington quoted.
“I really missed having no idea what you’re talking about,” Alex said.
And she meant it. “But I’m not sure we want to start a trip into hell feeling completely miserable and defeated.”
“There’s the Voynich,” said Dawes. “But I don’t know how to get hold of it.”
“Why the Voynich, of all things?” Mercy asked.
Even Alex had heard of the Voynich manuscript. Aside from the original Gutenberg Bible, it was probably the most famous book at the Beinecke. And it was certainly harder to get a look at. The Bible was always on display in a glass case in the lobby and one page was turned daily. But the Voynich was very much under lock and key.
“Because it’s a puzzle,” said Darlington. “An unparseable language, an unsolvable code. It’s what it was created for.”
Mercy shut the cover of her notebook with a loud snap. “Wait a minute.
Just … You’re saying the Voynich manuscript was created to trap demons?
Scholars have been speculating on it for centuries!”
Darlington lifted his shoulders. “I suppose it traps academics too. But Dawes is right. Accessing anything other than a digital copy is nearly impossible, and taking it out of Beinecke? Forget it.” “What about Pierre the Weaver?” asked Mercy.
Turner leaned back and crossed his arms. “This ought to be good.”
But Dawes was tapping her pen against her lips. “That’s an interesting idea.”
“It’s brilliant actually,” said Darlington.
Mercy smiled.
“Does anyone want to tell me and Turner who Pierre is and what he weaves?” asked Alex.
“The Weaver was acquired by Manuscript,” Dawes said. “It was used by a series of cult leaders and false gurus to lure followers. Pierre Bernard was the last, and the name stuck. The trick is making sure the Weaver spins the right emotional web.”
“And it will trap the demons?” Turner asked.
“Only for a short time,” said Dawes. “It’s all … very risky.”
“Not as risky as doing nothing.” Alex didn’t want to talk anymore. They couldn’t wait until the next full moon. “I’m not going to let those things chase us around and eat at our hearts until they pick us off one by one.”
“They’re only going to get stronger and more savvy,” Darlington said.
“Personally, I would prefer not to see you all eaten and then have to deal with a bunch of vampires wearing your faces.”
“Okay,” said Turner. “We use Pierre the Whatever. We trap them and drag them down with us. I still have a murder suspect who was …
encouraged, if not coerced, into helping to commit two horrific crimes and planning another. I can’t get them to ease up on his sentence because demons were involved.”
