Summoning Sebastian by Katriena Knights

me over, and I went to stand by the computer until Colin got up and gave me his chair.
    I wasn’t quite awake enough to follow all the details, but the gist of what Roland had worked out was easy enough to follow. The symbols I’d circled were all related in a way no one had noticed before, because they’d never been singled out in this pattern. They also appeared on the talisman and in the codex in the same order. I hadn’t noticed this.
    â€œI think you had the talisman upside down,” Roland clarified. “Also, I’m thinking you were paging back and forth to find the matches.”
    I nodded. “I was.” I’d had the individual files mixed up, too. Now that someone awake and alert had set everything in the right order, the pattern was obvious.
    â€œAnd the third thing—and this you had no way of knowing—is that a subset of the same symbols appears in a document that is traditionally connected to the stone but isn’t generally included in the main texts. Apocryphal data, as it were.”
    I puffed my cheeks out with a breath, eyebrows rising. “How many weird-ass vampire documents do you guys have hanging around, anyway?”
    â€œA lot more than you might think,” Roland admitted, “and we have almost nobody to actually work on them—or at least nobody who’ll talk.”
    â€œWe could find someone from the Church of the Eternal,” Colin muttered. “Swat them around a little.”
    â€œI tried that in the ’70s.” A pause. “1870s,” Roland clarified, as if only then remembering she was now in a completely different century. “Didn’t work.”
    Colin grunted. It was just a grunt, but it held a world of meaning. I interpreted it as saying that if he’d been doing the swatting, the results would have been much more useful. Roland gave him a side eye that made me think she spoke that obscure language, as well.
    I didn’t step into that exchange. It wasn’t worth it. I knew something about the Church—enough to know Colin was posturing. Quelle surprise.
    â€œIt’s a moot point,” I said. “We have what we have, and we need to figure out how to work with it or leave Sebastian under the control of a bunch of asshats who obviously don’t have his best interests at heart. And I’m not nuts about that idea.”
    â€œNeither am I.” For once, Colin’s tone was serious, not mocking or tight like he thought I was accusing him of not caring what happened to Bastian. I reached over and stroked his arm. Positive reinforcement is never a bad idea. Also, he has nice arms.
    â€œAnyway,” Roland went on, “I think we can reconstruct this talisman and use it to summon Sebastian. From there, we just have to work out a way to keep him with us. Keep him safe.”
    I studied her face. I could tell by the crease between her brows that she had some ideas along those lines. I could also tell her concern was genuine. Which made me wonder—again—exactly how close she and Sebastian had been in the past. It was one of those I-want-to-know-but-I-really-don’t-want-to-know kind of things.
    Colin leaned back. “I’m going to go get us some coffee,” he said. “You want the usual, Nim?”
    â€œPlease.” Why he was going out, I didn’t know—we had plenty of coffee. Then again, we were out of Jamaica Blue Mountain, so really what was the point of drinking anything else?
    â€œAmericana for me,” Roland offered. “Throw some cream in there if you would.”
    Colin nodded and headed out of the room.
    â€œWhat is it with vampires and coffee?” I asked Roland, just before I realized I was alone with her and that probably meant we’d end up conversing or something.
    â€œWe can actually taste it if it’s strong enough,” she said. “Most things we can’t. I like the cream for texture more than anything