Hours later – back in the Library

Stone scanned quickly thru the various news sites the library had access to, looking for stories about young women found dead in hidden away areas. "So – nothing that I'm seeing but then again the two we're missing did disappear are the ones that disappeared around Dracula's castle but there doesn't appear to be anything in the local news about their bodies turning up."

"Already knew that" Jones sniffed. "If they had been found there would be a LOT more coppers looking into all these disappearances."

"Not of Rowan got to her "friends" first" Baird commented dryly. "I can see her getting the authorities to put a lid on anything they found so as to not scare off the killer."

Cassandra looked up suddenly, her eyes bright. "Here's something!" she exclaimed. "Two young women found wandering in…" she looked down at the story and frowned. "Oh – this is in London."

Flynn rose and leaned over her shoulder. "What does the story say?" he asked with a frown.

"Just that two young women were found hiding in St. James Park just a few days ago. The story is really sparse – only that neither woman seemed to speak English and both panicked when the authorities tried to take them out of the underbrush there were dug into."

Stone's face turned somber. "Cassy – does that story have a photo of the women they found?"

"No – but it's just a few lines. Probably not had time to do a much more thorough story." Cassandra stared quizzically at the story for a moment. "I wonder why there aren't any photos? You would think they would want to get these people's faces out to the public to see if anyone knows their names."

"We could use Rowan's friend's network right about now. I'm betting Scotland Yard isn't going to want to talk to some Yankees about strange homeless types living in one of their beautiful parks." Baird tapped her fingers on the table and stared at Jones. "But we don't – so Mr. Jones it's time for you to do your thing."

Jones smiled cheerfully. "Already done – looks like the story is making the rounds in all the Dark Web sites and one of them actually got photos of the women as they were being put in the ambulance." He turned his laptop around to the group with a flourish. "These birds look familiar?"

"Our two missing tourists" Baird replied grimly. "Someone brought them to London and dumped them in a public park hoping to… I don't know What they thought it would do?"

"Question?" Flynn called out. "Why didn't they just tell the police their names? From what I was able to gather looking at the mission persons reports both women spoke English – there wouldn't be any reason for them not to share they names and story with British police."

Jones pulled his laptop back and poked at it at bit more. "Looks like the bloke who got the pictures also got some sound files from the scene. Listen to this." He clicked on the link and suddenly a woman's terrified voice called out – but not in English.

"Jake?" Baird asked, looking at their resident language expert.

"She's speaking a variety of Romanian - I think it maybe an older version." He squinted at the laptop as he listened, trying to translate the words in his head. "Some of this is familiar but some of it maybe regional – words only used in a specific place."

"What's she saying?" Cassandra asked breathlessly.

Stone looked at Baird grimly. "She's begging them not to take her back to the Countess."

Jenkins sighed. "So – they did practice with two of their victims. They were able to transfer one of the souls from the book into the body of one of the women they kidnapped."

"That way they knew the spell would work when they tried it with the Countess." Flynn said.

"But wait!" Jones protested. "Didn't The Fae say that the only reason it worked was because Candice was a descendant of the Countess, that her DNA linked her to the Bathory family? So why would it work with this bird? What – did they do family trees for all of the Countess's victims just to make sure?"

"No" Cassandra replied sadly. "There's an update on the story being posted now. Both women died shortly after they were taken to the psych ward of London Bridge hospital. No one seems to know why – their hearts just stopped beating."

"Jones – quick – find out if anyone has claimed their bodies" Baird looked up at Flynn. "I'm betting those two lasted longer they whoever set this up had expected. Police were only supposed to find bodies – not living women that could be traced back to disappearances on the Continent. They will have to make the bodies disappear."

"And they have" Jones called out. "Big scandal, much talk of investigation – and probably nothing will be done. Bodies were taken to the morgue and according to the staff someone came from a mortuary with paperwork for their remains. Mind you – no one can find that paperwork now…"

Jenkins clenched his fists in anger. "They have been one step ahead of us at every turn."

"Maybe not" Stone mused. "Vlad's wolves are massive hunters. Bet if we could get him to bring them out to play they could track the bodies back to whoever took them away."

"In a modern city?" Jenkins scoffed. "The wolves of which you speak are forest dwellers – the scents that accumulated in modern day London will stymie them."

"These are Fae wolves" Stone replied quietly. "I'm betting there is a way to use their tracking senses even with the sights and smells of the city crowding them."

"Either way – we need Arthur back because unless one of you knows how to contact the old Warlord all of this is pure speculation." Flynn pulled a book off the table and wondered off, his fellow Librarians staring at him in silence.

At the Castle

"Well that was interesting – not" Rowan drawled, wiping her blade on Cindy's remains. The foolish American girl, thinking that she could help her mistress by distracting the young Queen had, in fact, only succeeded in attracting the attention of Sekhmet, the Egyptian warrior goddess who had decided to throw into the battle at the last minute. The sight of a lion-headed figure launching herself from a corner had so unnerved Cindy that she had tripped over her own feet and impaled herself on Rowan's sword. Dorothy hadn't fared any better, with Thantos and Anubis using her as a ping pong ball until her neck snapped, then snatching her warped soul from her corpse before it could hit the ground.

The Countess, in Candice's body, had stood defiantly until the trapped souls had been released from her book. At least until Khan had smashed the glass container holding her book and sliced through the book's bindings. Once the book's pages were freed - so were the souls and the demonic who had been the book's guardian. Azrael had waved the trembling points of light in front her with a cold smile. "By all means – first bite is all yours."

The Countess realized quickly that the Angel was serious and in her meat suit's weakened state there would be no escape. She screamed as the little power her bloodline had given her couldn't keep the remnants of her victims from turning on her like ravenous little piranhas. The body was dead a moment later and Baron Samedi had scooped her life force up in his hat and set it on fire – sending the last of Countess Bathory to its well-deserved punishment in Hell.

The Royal House stopped their attack, leaning back to watch the Death Angels do their work. "Hey sissy – that last one you took down doesn't count" Khan rumbled, a smile on his gore-stained face. "You didn't actually target her."

"Of course it counts" Rowan protested. "My blade killed her – so she belongs in my tally."

Arthur rolled his eyes at his siblings. "You're both in time out – I told you to wait until Azrael had a chance to set up her own battle station."

Rowan shrugged. "Azrael was fine with it – one less body to deal with." She watched impassively as the other representations of Death scooped up the souls that had poured from the book. "We probably should…" her words tailed off as the remnants of the Countess's Book suddenly burst into flames. "Well – never mind then. Flynn will be so disappointed he won't get a chance to examine a real Grimoire. Just so I'm clear - which one of you did that?"

Khan shrugged. "Probably Hades - he was in the mood to light things up."

"I didn't know he joined in" Rowan replied, scanning the slowly thinning group of Death Angels for that particular deity. "Pity - Flynn would have loved to meet him."

"Screw Flynn" Arthur replied. "We still have a problem – there were three modern souls that poured out of that book – not just one."

"Yeah – and I think the other two might have been the two missing women that were NOT here when this started." Khan patted Anubis on the shoulder and joined his siblings as the other death deities gathered to leave the field. "They were dressed like the first two that disappeared - in modern day shorts and tops. Kind of stood out a mile from all those older, raggedy souls."

Rowan noticed that the Celtic Goddess Morrigan stayed behind while the others made their way off the field of combat, picking absently at the dead bodies of Candice, Cindy and Dorothy. "Something concerns you, Auntie Morrigan?" Rowan asked.

"Yes – even with this fool of a girl taking up space in her descendant's body, there isn't enough magic between the lot of them to make this spell work properly. And yet it did." The Celtic Goddess rose, her eyes gleaming. "I think your Librarian friends have a new task to do for you, little Battle Crow. They must find the starting point of this – the ones that made this possible."

Arthur look over at the burning book in the remnants of its cage. "I agree – but right now we need to do clean up. Those ashes and glass need to go back to the library. I think we've pretty destroyed the book's usefulness but I'd rather not take chances."

"And we need to see how Father is doing" Rowan sighed.

Khan snorted. "Probably playing bridge with his angelic handler and cheating to boot."

Morrigan laughed. "The old dog – still at his games. It was and is one of his more endearing qualities." She leaned over and kissed Rowan's cheek, the goddess's red hair brushing the Queen's face. "Fare thee well, Little Battle Crow. If you need anyone at your back for a battle, remember me." She disappeared into the mists as quietly as she had come.

Azrael strolled over, waving her own siblings away. "Okay – so our part of the clean-up is done. Everyone is where they should be – including the Countess. But…"

"We know" Arthur sighed. "We were missing two souls."

Azrael nodded. "I wouldn't worry about that – one of my bunch just told me those two were already collected. But there is still the issue with who pulled this switch and why. If you find out – let me know. I think The Lord of Heaven might just look the other way if you were tempted to go a little loco on someone's ass." She smiled and stepped back, disappearing into the mist along with the others.

"And with that I think we've just been given a hint as to what the Boss wants us to do" Khan remarked.

"Let's clean this mess up first before we get into another one." Arthur yanked a piece of cloth from the walls and started his clean-up of the site with help from his siblings. Another adventure could wait.