Chapter 8: Maia
New York City. Tuesday, February 18, 1913.
Neal met Henry by the entrance to the field office for the Bureau of Investigation. The building no longer existed in their time but it was close to the modern Federal Building. Everywhere Neal went, he tried to record the scene into his memory. He'd taken to carrying a pad of paper with him so he could sketch on the train or during taxi rides.
Henry was waiting for him outside the building. The papers Neal gave him contained ample evidence to keep Rat-face off the streets for decades. He and Henry didn't talk for long as they both needed to work fast. Henry hoped Offley's agents could make a raid that afternoon to pick up the crook. Neal's destination was Morningside Heights. He had one last con to run before they returned to the present.
When he returned to the hotel, Chloe and Sara were already in the lobby. They dashed off in a taxi for the Schinasi mansion. Neal had yet to be inside but the Schinasis were supposed to be out the entire day. They presented themselves as friends of Mrs. Schinasi and were allowed to enter the salon to write a note for her. The staff was busy in the dining room, giving Neal the chance to sneak around. Sara was prepared to explain he'd gone off in search of the bathroom. Neal keep the camera running in his head as he darted from room to room. Sara and Chloe had also promised to help remember details.
They couldn't stay for long without arousing suspicion, and in any case, they had one more stop to make—the Columbia University campus. If Mozzie had been along, he would have insisted on visiting the tunnels. But Neal had all he could manage in getting a general feel for the campus. In February, darkness came far too quickly, and they'd assured the others they'd be back by five o'clock.
Neal hoped the excursion helped to distract Chloe from what was coming. She was much quieter than normal, undoubtedly dreading the reunion with Maia.
They made it back to their hotel with only a few minutes to spare. They'd considered having dinner together before leaving, but they were all anxious to return. And nervous. Seth told them the orchid potion would transport them back, but it hadn't been tested.
As agreed, when they went upstairs they headed for Henry and Sam's room. One look at Sam's face and Neal knew something was seriously amiss.
"Azazel found us," Dean said as soon as they closed the door. "The son of a bitch knew we were at the Blue Parrot."
"He can engage in time travel too?" Chloe asked, dismayed.
"I don't know how he managed it, but he ordered us back to the present," Sam said, his face looking haunted. "He said if we didn't, he'd start killing everyone in the house. Maia, Bobby, Eric—they're all in danger."
"Chloe, you got that potion ready?" Dean asked.
She nodded. "The bottles are in my suitcase."
"Our room is a little larger," Sara said. "Let's meet there in fifteen minutes. It won't take us long to pack."
Henry had already paid their bills. Any thought of lingering was obliterated by the news about Azazel. What time would it be when they returned to the present? Had Azazel grown tired of waiting and already started the killings?
When everyone had gathered, Chloe passed out the individual glass vials she'd prepared in New Haven. Each contained an equal amount of the precious orchid potion.
Henry raised his vial. "Bottoms up, guys and gals. All aboard the New Haven Express!"
Henry was as worried as the rest of them, but they'd been getting out of scrapes all their lives. Somehow they'd find a way to come out of this one okay too. Neal clasped Sara's hand, clinked glasses with her, and tossed it down. The liquid had an unusual floral scent. He blinked and . . .
"Well, I'll be a squirrel in a skirt."
Bobby's exclamation greeted Neal when he opened his eyes. He was back! He scanned the basement. All of them had arrived safely. And there to greet them were Eric, Maia, Splash, and Tatyana. Even the cat Daphne sat up to give them the once over.
"Sam!" Maia rushed forward. Sam leaned down to envelope her in a tight embrace. Eric's reunion with Henry was only slightly less emotional.
"How long have we been gone?" Dean asked.
"Only two hours by our time," Bobby said. "It's around three o'clock on Thursday, November 30. Did you accomplish what you set out to?"
"Yes, have you had any incidents?" Neal asked.
"In two hours?" Bobby gave him a sharp look. "What were you expecting?"
"We ran into Azazel," Dean said, keeping his voice even. "Let's talk upstairs."
Maia spun around. "You saw Azazel? Did he try to take Sam?" She turned to her boyfriend, her eyes wide with fear. "Did he?"
Sam took her hands in his. "No, but he returned to the present too, and we don't have much time before he acts."
She stared at him aghast. "He knows how to engage in time travel too?"
"Apparently so," Dean said. "And I'm not thrilled to admit it, but we need Crowley here. Maia, please give him a call."
Neal watched Maia carefully. There was no doubt in his mind that she was the same person he'd had dinner with yesterday. It was also clear that Sam was so much in love with her, he'd defend her to the rest of the family. Neal suspected that if Maia's situation weren't so precarious, Sam would immediately bolt, putting as much distance as possible between him and his family. But he realized he needed to be there for her, and the conflicting impulses were doing a number on him.
Maia called Crowley on her cell phone, leaving him a voicemail.
They trooped upstairs to the living room where there was adequate seating. Henry took the lead in explaining the Double Trouble con. Dean then picked up the thread on Azazel.
"I don't expect you've heard anything from Julia and Graham," Chloe said.
Eric shook his head. "And as we agreed, I haven't contacted them. Sam, don't take this the wrong way, I'm relieved beyond words Azazel didn't snatch you, but why does he want you in the present?"
"I've been puzzling over that too," Henry said. "Sam, you said your nightmares about Azazel started back up this fall. Do you remember when exactly?"
He thought for a moment. "It was right after Mabon—the fall equinox. I remember because I had a weird vision at the Mabon festival and I wondered if it was connected."
Dean scowled. "What vision? You never told me about that."
Sam winced. "That's 'cause it didn't mean anything. I thought I'd been sniffing too many herbs. Don't you remember? I mentioned it."
"Yeah, I do but you didn't say anything about seeing things. What was it like?"
Sam exhaled. "I was in a forest. The stars were out so it was sometime during the night. I saw three women dressed in medieval robes. They were standing by the edge of a lake and chanting Greek around a crystal basin set on a stump. One of them was strumming a lyre." He fell silent and frowned. "That's all I remember. No, wait. There was one particularly bright star overhead." He turned to Dean. "You see, it had nothing to do with Azazel."
"What is it, Maia?" Sara asked, looking at her with concern. "Do you know something about this?"
"I had something similar happen to me when I was performing with an early music group at the same festival," Maia said, her face troubled. "I also saw three women—only I was one of them. I didn't recognize the others. We were chanting an ancient Greek poem, but I can't recall the words. I could see my fingers plucking a lyre." She directed her gaze inward. "The basin was in front of me. Vega shone high in the sky." She turned to Sam. "Why would we have the same vision? Did you recognize me?"
"No, I never connected you to the woman in the vision." He glanced at Maia's harp in a corner of the room. "Maybe because she wasn't strumming your harp."
Maia scanned the group. "This doesn't sound like anything connected to Azazel."
"No, but Astrena could be involved," Chloe said. She stood up and took a seat next to Maia on the couch. "The lake and the woods might have been at the state park in New Jersey where we held the Litha festival. Gemma was there. So was Astrena. We know Gemma is one of Astrena's sisters. She was also at the Mabon festival last September. She could have planted the visions in both your heads."
"Chloe's onto something," Bobby said. "That was when we learned about Astrena's plans to make pure-blood vampires." He turned to face Henry and Eric who were sitting on the piano bench. "I'd heard from a hunter in Romania. He told me about an ancient manuscript he'd read describing Astrena's ritual—she called it an anistemi. Supposedly, it needed to be conducted when Vega was overhead."
"So you're saying that the vision Maia and Sam saw was a flashback to a real event except that Maia was added to the sisters," Eric said.
No, she was one of the sisters. Neal watched Dean carefully. He kept his eyes fixed on Sam, his lips clamped tightly shut. Neal had seen Maia try to con Astrena when they summoned her through the crystal ball. He knew how difficult it was for her. Maia wasn't an actress. Her current bewilderment was genuine.
"We shouldn't discount the possibility of Astrena working with Azazel," Bobby warned. "And that's not just because their names both begin with A. Gods have been known to form alliances in the past. Your dad's journal mentioned rumors of hunters encountering Osiris and Kali among others."
"Then Azazel might have made a bargain with Astrena," Maia said, swallowing hard. "Gemma as Astrena's representative on Earth could have tried to influence us to carry out Azazel's instructions." She rubbed her forehead. "This doesn't make any sense."
"Is that why you called?" Crowley asked, a mocking smile on his lips as he materialized into the room. "What mystery of the universe do you need help with today?" He glanced at Maia's distraught face, and his features softened. "What did Azazel do now?"
"He followed Sam back to 1913 and ordered him to return to the present," she blurted out. Dean winced at her response. He probably wasn't thrilled about Crowley knowing anything about the time converter or Seth.
Crowley cocked an eyebrow. "Is that so? A moose engaging in time travel—I'm sorry I missed it. And judging by the costumes many of you are wearing, he wasn't alone." He turned to Sam. "Since when have you become a pal of Chronos?"
"Who's Chronos?" Henry asked.
"You're a Man of Letters and you don't know about Chronos?" Crowley heaved a much put-upon sigh. "Must I teach you everything?"
"Are you referring to the Greek god Chronos?" Maia asked. "The god of time?"
"No need to play coy, little mouse. Of course, I am. How else would you achieve it?"
"Chronos," Dean repeated thoughtfully and paused for a moment. "Is he a mild-mannered dude, average height, slim?"
"That's him. Bland as homogenized milk." Crowley eyed them inquisitively, evidently starting to suspect Chronos hadn't been responsible for their time travel.
Neal reached for his sketchpad and pulled out a drawing. "Does he look like this?" He'd made the drawing based on Dean and Sam's description while waiting for the others to finish packing. He hadn't realized it would be useful so quickly.
Crowley glanced at the drawing and nodded. "That's the bloke all right." He turned to Sam. "I know Astrena thinks you and the squirrel are emissaries from Papa Erebus. Was this her way of ingratiating herself to you?"
"No, Chronos was helping Azazel."
Crowley's eyes narrowed. "Was he now? That complicates matters."
"All I know about Chronos is how he's depicted in ancient Greek texts," Maia said. "You seem much more familiar with him."
Crowley shrugged acknowledgment. He strolled over to the sideboard where Maia kept his Scotch and poured himself a healthy amount into a glass. He appeared to be conducting an inner debate with himself. Dean had told Neal that crossroads demons never divulged anything without exacting payment but Crowley had already blurred the lines. Perhaps he would simply add it to their tab.
"I've only seen him a couple of times," Crowley said. "He's considered a wimp among my crowd. Now that nobody worships him, he has limited powers. He has to kill mortals to gain enough energy for time travel. Astrena told me he's her uncle—her father's brother to be precise—but the two don't get along. That seems to be typical among their kind."
"How do you think they traced Sam back to 1913?" Chloe asked.
"He would have needed someone's help—my guess is Thanatos. He has the most to gain from helping Azazel."
"How do you figure that?" Bobby asked.
"Isn't it obvious? Azazel wants to free Lucifer, who's been sitting in a cage for millennia."
"Isn't Lucifer one of God's archangels?" Sara asked. "How could a cage hold him?"
Crowley beamed at her. "I'm glad to see you've done your homework, Scarlet. Lucifer got in trouble with his daddy by creating the first demons. Some say Lucifer was corrupted. I wouldn't know about that, but I can vouch for him being a royal pain in the arse. Azazel and Lucifer are equally contemptuous of mortals. They want to unleash a plague of their specially chosen demons to destroy humanity, inflict chaos upon the Earth, and start afresh. Azazel may have approached Thanatos and Chronos for assistance, probably promising them a brighter future in this demon utopia they plan to create. Thanatos is undoubtedly bored stiff to be stuck in Oblivion now that he's had a taste of city life."
"Hold on a minute," Bobby growled. "Are you telling us Thanatos was recently on Earth?"
Crowley stared at him in obvious surprise. "You don't know?" He shrugged and fell silent.
"Come on, Crowley, don't hold back now," Dean pleaded.
Crowley's eyes flicked to Maia. "Thanatos masqueraded as a Columbia University student last year. He went by the name of Quint Worland. Astrena found out about the deception too late to do her any good. Thanatos planned to use Mozart's ghost to exact revenge on her for killing his lover till Erebus put a stop to it."
Sara stared at Neal in shock. He'd told her about the bizarre events at the Metropolitan Opera. They knew Mozart was a vengeful spirit but hadn't suspected Quint was involved. Mozzie had considered the computer-science student to be his protégé at SETI. They'd spent hours in the tunnels together searching for tunnel slime. The Columbia tunnels were where the rift to Oblivion appeared. The location now made much more sense. Would Quint—or Thanatos—approach Mozzie once more? He'd also been friends with Travis. They both needed to be warned.
"Lucifer may have promised Thanatos that once chaos rules in the upperworld, he'll get a free pass out of Oblivion," Crowley added.
"Then you never saw Astrena with Chronos?" Maia persisted.
"No, why do you think she was involved?"
Maia fell silent but Sam clasped her hand and said, "Because she was also in 1913 Manhattan."
Crowley scowled. "Were you having a party and didn't invite me? Something doesn't smell right. How did you go back in time? Was that Astrena's doing?"
"In a way," Dean said in a pre-emptive move. "Sam wasn't alone. I was there. Chloe, Neal, Sara, and Henry were as well." He paused for a moment and took a breath. "Maia was also there."
She gaped at him, wide-eyed. "No, I wasn't."
Sam shot his brother a sharp look. "We're not sure, but someone who bore a remarkable resemblance to you was with Astrena."
She turned pale as a sheet. "With her?" she whispered.
Sam nodded, his face lined with sorrow. "Living with her . . . as her sister." He clasped her hand. "They had a mansion in midtown with an orchid room. Astrena called herself Penelope Morris. The woman looking like you was named Miriam. The two watercolors in your bedroom were also in Miriam's room."
Her breath came out in a gasp. "One of them has an inscription on the back. 'To my dearest Miriam.' It's signed by someone named Penelope. I'd wondered who they were." Her eyes widened in horror as she stared at the group. "I'm one of Astrena's sisters." She swallowed convulsively and tore her hand free from Sam's grasp. Holding it over her mouth, she stood up and fled the room. He quickly followed her.
Not the way Neal would have handled the revelation, but perhaps it was for the best. The truth needed to come out while Crowley was around to be questioned. In Neal's mind, Maia had already proved she hadn't been conning them. She willingly offered damning confirmation.
Bobby gave a slow exhale. "I figured something was up when you didn't mention Astrena, but I never expected this. Crowley, start talking."
#
Sam stood outside the bathroom door, waiting while Maia flushed the toilet. "I'm alone. Please let me in." He heard the sound of running water, but it was a couple of more minutes before she slowly opened the door. Her face was wet, her eyes red.
He folded her into his arms, hoping he could somehow reassure her. "I love you, Maia. I don't know what happened, but you're not the same person who was with Astrena in 1913. We'll figure this out together."
Her body shook against his. "If I'm her sister, I must have killed hundreds—thousands—of people. You have to kill me. Astrena may awaken something in me again. You can't take the risk."
He held her face in his hands. "When I found out I had demon blood, you were what kept me sane. You gave me the strength to fight it. You said you were in love with me, no matter what kind of blood I had. Don't you realize I feel the same way about you?"
"But you haven't killed any innocents." She was still shaking but she wasn't crying. She was probably on the verge of falling into shock.
"Not yet, but that's what Azazel intends. I don't know why he chose me any more than you know what happened to you. But if we can't stop it, I'll be responsible for the slaughter of thousands, maybe millions, of innocents. I can't fight him without you."
"Sam's right," Dean said unexpectedly. Sam turned his head to see him and Chloe in the hallway. "My gut's telling me you didn't have any more choice than Sam, and we're not giving up on either one of you."
"You're my sister now, not Astrena's," Chloe said, her face taut with anxiety. "Please come downstairs. Give Crowley a chance to explain."
Maia stared at her. "He knows about my past?"
She nodded. "Some of it at least, but he won't discuss it unless you're in the room."
Maia hesitated for a moment, her expression bleak. "All right, but you need to face reality. I'm too much of a threat. There isn't any good option."
Sam understood where she was coming from. He felt the same way about himself.
Notes: Sam and Maia's visions at the Mabon festival occurred in an earlier story, Thief in the Woods. The scene they relived was in Fireflies at Midnight. Thanatos first appeared in Columbia Ghost Story. He reemerged with Mozart in tow in Night Music.