Demon's Vow: Part 2 of the Final Asylum Tales (The Asylum Tales series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

standing on the bottom stair as his eyes skimmed over the writing on the wall. He looked a little paler than when I’d last seen him, but then he’d spent a lot more time with the victims.
    “I found the owners,” I said, breaking the silence. “He killed them while they were sleeping. They’ve been dead several days, allowing him time to set up the house as he needed it before doing the spell again.”
    Gideon said nothing as he walked over to the nearest wall covered in the cryptic writing, his brow furrowed as he examined every inch of it. I stayed silent as I watched him move from wall to wall, waiting for him to finally make an announcement of how he figured it all out so that we could catch this bastard.
    “He’s getting better,” Gideon murmured as he reached the last wall. His voice had been so low that I wasn‘t sure if he was talking to himself or if he was talking to me.
    “Less mistakes,” I replied, noting that the killer had marked out fewer sections than at the Florida apartment.
    The warlock gave a little grunt of agreement before turning back toward me. “You realize that he chose this house for a reason.”
    “Because it was owned by an elderly couple?”
    Gideon shook his head. “Whoever this is, he’s strong enough to take out vampires. A pair of humans, regardless of their age, isn’t going to trouble him. No, he wanted this house because it was close to the nest. He used the spell this time to raise the corpses.”
    “If the goal was to raise the vampires after he killed them, why didn’t he just do it over at the nest house? Why here?”
    The warlock looked back at the wall. He had pulled his wand out and was slowly rolling it between his fingers with both hands in a sort of nervous gesture. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen him doing that. Whenever the warlock was thinking deeply or anxious, he preferred to have his wand in his hands, as if it could help him focus his thoughts—or maybe it just gave him a sense of control.
    “I think it was a time factor,” Gideon said after a minute. “He needed time to prep. This type of magic isn’t easy to harness and even harder to control, from what I’ve managed to learn. I think he also needed the corpses to be relatively fresh. Vampires don’t keep well after they’ve died. Well . . . died a second and final time.”
    “He killed the old couple so he could have the house next to the vampires. Killed the kids to fuel the spell. Killed the vampires . . . to what? Raise the dead?”
    “And to send us a message.” Gideon shoved the wand back into the holder up his sleeve. “He knows that we‘re hunting for him.”
    “Of course.” I gave an indifferent shrug, shoving my hands into my pockets. “Anyone would be able to guess that if you use magic, you’re going to catch the attention of the Towers.”
    “Yes, but you were the first to notice that the dead were trained on anyone using magic. Prior to me casting the spell, they only attacked if you got too close to them, which I think was more of a reflex left from their prior state.” Gideon gave a little shake of his head as he stepped closer to me. “No, they started violently attacking only when we used magic. They were commanded to attack any witch or warlock who appeared in the area.”
    I gave him a little smirk, though I wasn’t quite feeling so amused. “He’s sending the Towers a warning? That takes some balls.”
    “Or he’s just insane.”
    “I thought that went without saying,” I grumbled.
    “Or . . .” Gideon said, pausing as he looked over his shoulder at the wall again as if he were rereading the writing there, even though I was sure that it was just gibberish to him as well. “He knows something that we don’t know.”
    “And what’s that?”
    “I have no idea,” Gideon said with a frustrated sigh.
    Groaning, I walked over to the pile of furniture and pulled out an old metal folding chair the owners had probably saved for family holidays.