“First,” Eva held up one pointed finger, “not brainwashed or mind controlled or anything silly. Simple amplification of specific emotions–in this case, anger towards the nuns.” She held up a second finger. “I’ve got an array of blood shields lined up between the crowd and the nuns’ headquarters. Or I will, in a moment or two. I didn’t want to be too obvious too soon.”
Zoe blinked again. It took a moment to process what she said. “Right. Blood mage. I forgot. Distracted by the diablery, I suppose.” Zoe sighed. That was another thing she had been meaning to broach with the young woman. “Wayne is very accomplished with thaumaturgical order shields and he said that his shields went down very quickly against Sister Cross. How would yours hold up?”
“I guess I can get ready and show you some of it.”
Eva leaned down to her feet. Plunging her fingers into the cork of a jar resting near the edge of the roof, Eva pulled back and uncorked the jar. It was fairly large and made of glass. What was inside blended with the darkness too well to see.
Zoe flicked her dagger slightly. Immediately, her senses flared. The crowd below became almost deafening in their shouts. Zoe tweaked her sense of sound down to more manageable levels. Her hearing remained enhanced, just not to the maximum level possible.
Vision, she left at full. With her vision, she looked into the jar at Eva’s feet. A midnight black liquid filled it to its brim. The jar was about a gallon in size, if her estimate was correct.
The liquid jumped out of the bottle. The large glob quickly split down to golf ball sized orbs.
“Arachne kindly donated a large portion of her blood. I bled her out for half the night.” The demon to Eva’s side nodded vigorously at that. “Some is down on the streets already, ready just in case. This is all backup.
“As for shield strength,” Eva gave a light chuckle, “blood shields are, for the most part, impenetrable so long as I have blood. And I don’t just have blood. I have Arachne’s blood. Demon blood is several orders of magnitude better than human blood which is still better than my… Well, the shields will be strong.
“Personal experience has taught me that a golf-ball sized orb of blood can withstand several bolts of lightning. With all this backup, we’ll have plenty of time to evacuate the crowd if anything goes wrong.”
Zoe sighed and glanced over the assembled crowd once again. Even with her enhanced sight, she couldn’t pick out any students. Her eyes did spot a woman atop the building opposite from the one Zoe stood on. It took several seconds before she recognized the slouching woman as Martina Turner’s new secretary. Cathy something.
Martina had become increasingly vocal about her dislike for the nuns during staff meetings over the course of the semester. It didn’t come as a big surprise to Zoe that the dean had some sort of hand in this.
“No one is going to die,” Zoe half asked, half stated.
“Not if I can help it.” Eva pulled several papers from a book bag at her side. “I have a few ways of influencing the emotions of the crowd already drawn up. Some less subtle than others, but I’ll use them if the people need to evacuate in a hurry.” Eva turned her head from the streets below for the first time since Zoe approached. Her empty eye sockets honed in on Zoe. “I’m not a monster,” she said.
Eyes were such a huge part of reading emotions on the face. Eva lacked that key detail. The rest of her face was blank and stony.
Zoe wasn’t sure how to respond to her statement. Keeping the people from harm was good, and she seemed to be taking several precautions. Of course, she dragged them into the mess in the first place. If anyone did get hurt, it would be on her head. And Martina Turner’s head.
Their heads and Zoe’s head, if Zoe did nothing to stop it. No ideas came to mind for stopping Eva safely, try as she might.
Arachne saved her from having to respond. “I am a monster,” she said.
Eva turned her head to her demon with a smile. “Yes, but you are
The demon all but preened at that. She rested her head against Eva’s shoulder in a very awkward position that would have sent both tumbling to the ground. Only two legs jutting from her back and digging into the roof stopped them from falling.
Eva ignored Arachne’s actions. She turned her head back to the streets below.
“If things get dire, Arachne and I will personally intervene.”
“And me,” Juliana said.
Zoe turned to the armored woman. “Your mother–”
“Would be very happy to know I helped save lives.”
“You helped put them in danger.”
“Nope,” Juliana shook her head. “That was all Eva. Neither I nor Shalise knew anything until Eva asked me to keep watch. Well, Shalise still doesn’t, but we both unknowingly helped. Of course, that doesn’t mean I like them much. They forced us out of our dorm. That’s the second time this year.”
