Blood Lines

when the priests of dark gods would perform important ceremonies?"
    'Well, there were very specific dates set during the calendar year for the rites of Set."
    'No, we're not looking for their version of Christmas or Easter…"
    'Hardly that, Set is a dark god."
    'Yeah. Well, it's not Set we're concerned about. If one of the lesser dark gods needed to hold an unscheduled rite, when would it happen?"
    'It might help if you gave me some idea of why you needed to know."
    'I'm sorry, I can't tell you."
    Why did she know he was going to say that? "Well, it could happen any time, I suppose, but a dark rite would most likely be held during the dark of the moon, when the eye of Thoth is out of the sky. And probably at midnight, when Ra, the sun god, has been out of the world for the longest time, and will still be gone for an equal amount of time."
    'Where?"
    She blinked. "I beg your pardon?"
    'Where would the rite be held?"
    'Does this god of yours not have a temple?"
    'The rite involves creating a temple."
    Involves creating a temple? Present tense? Police work in Toronto was stranger than she thought. "Then the rite would have happened wherever the priest wanted the temple to be."
    From the sound of his voice, his teeth were clenched. "I was afraid you were going to say that. Thanks, Rachel. You've been a help."
    'Mike?" The pause before he answered told her she'd barely caught him before he hung up. "Will you tell me why you needed to know this when you've finished whatever you're working on?"
    'Depends."

    'On?"
    'On who wins."
    Rachel laughed at the melodrama as she settled the receiver back on the phone. Perhaps she should see Detective-Sergeant Celluci again; he was certainly more interesting than academics and bureaucrats.
    'Depends on who wins," she repeated, bending back over the report. "He even sounded like he meant it." The sudden chill that brushed against the fine hair on her neck, she credited to an overactive imagination.
    Vicki turned to look out the window and frowned. "It's the dark of the moon tonight."
    'How do you know?" Celluci asked. "Maybe the moon's behind a cloud?"
    'I start my period two days after the dark of the moon. It's Tuesday. I start Thursday."
    Hard to argue with. "Yeah, but the dark of the moon happens once a month," Celluci pointed out.
    'Tawfik said soon." She wrapped her arms around her body and winced as the motion pulled one of her multiple bruises into a painful position. "It's tonight."
    'We're in no shape to take him on tonight."
    'You mean I'm not. We don't have a choice."
    Celluci knew better than to argue with that tone. "Then we still have to find him."
    'He must have told you something, Henry." The city stretched out below her, offering a thousand possibilities. "What else did he say?"
    'Nothing about the location of a temple."
    'Wasn't there something about a mountaintop?" Celluci asked.
    'In a manner of speaking. He said, 'With no need to hide, I will shout Akhekh from the top of the highest mountain.'"
    'Well, we're a little short of mountains in this part of the country. High or low."
    'No." Both of Vicki's hands pressed flat against the glass as she suddenly realized what had caught her attention. "No.
    We aren't. Look."
    Her tone pulled both men to her side without questions. Her eyes were wide, her breathing labored, and her heart beating so hard, Henry was almost afraid for her.
    'What are we looking at?" he asked softly.
    'The tower. Look at the tower."
    The CN Tower rose at the foot of the city, a shadow against the stars. As they watched, a section of the revolving disk lit up as though a giant flashbulb had gone off inside. It only lasted for an instant, but the light left an afterimage on the eye like a film of grease.
    'It could be anything." Not even Celluci believed the protest, but he felt he had to make it. "There're often lights on the tower."
    'It's him. He's up there. And I'm going to bring him down if I have to bring the whole goddamned tower down with him."
    Up above the observation deck, two of the red airplane safety lights hovered strangely close together.
    Almost like eyes.
    Chapter Sixteen
    'What the hell are you doing?"
    Henry slipped the BMW into neutral. "I'm stopping at a yellow light."
    'Why?"
    'Detective, contrary to popular belief, a yellow light does not mean speed up, there's a red light coming."
    'Yeah? Well, contrary to what you seem to believe, we haven't got all night. Rachel said this thing'll go down at midnight and it's eleven