“I drowned.”
“What’s Magpie’s role in this?” Beast asked, gently tapping his fingers against the table, tense and focused on Vars only.
Vars spread his arms in frustration. “Honestly? I don’t have a clue how he’s done it. I’ve known him for years, and he hasn’t aged a day. Maybe he’s a witch, or something? Nothing’s gonna surprise me at this point.”
Rev grinned, his gray stubble moving with the wrinkled skin on his cheeks. “Looks like Fox is free of the evils of maths. You’re gonna do our taxes literally forever!”
Vars stared his way, focused on the wall behind Rev’s back. While they were all gathering, Rev had appeared out of nowhere, as Vars would have noticed him coming in through the door. Could it be that there was a hidden entrance somewhere in the meeting room?
“How old are you exactly?” Gray asked, silencing his father with a gesture. Now that Vars had heard him speak several times, he was growing to enjoy his calm presence and balanced views. He was a man who didn’t joke around and went straight to the point.
Vars cleared his throat, drawn out of his thoughts. “Thirty-nine.”
Joker moaned, sliding lower in his chair. “That’s fucking disappointing. Thought you’d be two hundred, or something.”.
Knight smirked. “If you drink blood, keep your fangs away from my Elliot.”
Beast gave a heavy exhale and met Vars’s gaze with a tired expression. “Jokes aside, those are some serious issues. Are there other properties to your… state that we should know of?”
Vars thought about it for a while. “I won’t age, I won’t get ill, I won’t die unless someone actually wounds me physically. And your demon can’t see or hear me when I am in the room. Just like right now, Baal can’t hear us.”
That got everyone’s attention.
“So we’re free to talk?”
“His name is ‘Baal’?”
“You can’t get STDs?”
“Why can’t he see you? It can’t be about you being dead, since he sees souls,” Knight added to the cacophony of questions.
Vars leaned back, confused. “Wait, so you didn’t even know his name?”
“I don’t think he feels he needs to introduce himself. How do you know his name?” Beast asked and had a few gulps of water.
“Magpie,” Gray said, watching Vars with interest.
Vars licked his lips and nodded. “Yes and yes. Mr. Magpie told me that I’m... that I’m like a signal jammer. We’re invisible to Baal now. That’s why he came to talk to you about the Pigeon Heart in person. With me next to you, Baal couldn’t overhear any of it.”
Beast’s chest sank, and he leaned forward, loudly resting both his elbows on the table. His eyes were bright when they pinned Vars in place. “I’m gonna trust you. And your former boss. We want out from under that monster’s thumb.” He looked Gray’s way. “What about you? When are you going to put your hands on that huge ruby Magpie wants?”
Gray sighed. “He says it’s a two-man job. I need to wait until he finds an appropriate partner for me.”
Vars frowned. “I thought you guys are more in the distribution leg of the business.”
“Most of the time. But if I get the Pigeon Heart for Magpie I will be paid enough to make it worthwhile,” Gray said with a shrug.
“He even wanted the one in my engagement ring,” Beast said with a stern glance at Vars.
With nothing to say, Vars remained as quiet as the others. About the rubies he knew as much as the Kings did—that Magpie wanted as many as possible, although he suspected everyone at the table had their doubts about this being purely for money. The dwindling number of rubies on world markets had catapulted prices sky-high, and while jewel speculation wasn’t a new thing, it would have been a strange business model for the sale of a precious stone that had once been so prevalent.
Even Knight became more serious and pulled off one of the fingerless gloves he was wearing. “We’re really fed up with serving that monster. See this?” He showed Vars geometric scars similar yet not identical to the ones hidden under Vars’s beard.
A shiver went through Vars’s body. Nothing about Magpie’s looks or lifestyle resembled what he knew of Baal, but if Magpie was human, how had he gained access to the same magic as the demon? How could a person bring someone else to life?
Knight went on, “I’m bound to do shit for him every fucking month. I needed the power he gave me, but if we can avoid all this… yeah. We want out.”
“What exactly do you have to do?” Vars’s skin began crawling on his chin, under the beard where a similar mark from Magpie resided. He was also bound. Bound to join the Kings of Hell.
Knight sighed. “It’s all super-mystical shit. I have to pick a fight on the night of a new moon, get the blood of an enemy on my hands, and then go touch the ground where I bury these five fucking stones. It restricts my freedom, because every fucking new moon, I need to be here, or else.”