Lara sighed and asked, “Okay, while we’re waiting for them to return, why don’t each of you take a moment to explain the weapons you’ve brought and the reasoning behind them?” She pointed at a young man covered in bizarre items, the very same that had asked Mrs. Bagley about witches dancing naked, “Starting with you.”

  Around his neck was a string that went through several whole cloves of garlic and two crosses on chains, one in silver that included a little depiction of Christ, the other more plain, in cast iron. Over his shoulder was a leather bandoleer made for a shotgun, which mostly held shells along the front, with a holster on his back for the weapon. Notably, one of the loops held a wooden stake in place of a shell. His gun belt held a pair of pistols, no less than three knives and a small claw hammer. Every spare inch of it included more loops for shotgun shells, but those had been filled with little glass vials. The back of it had some pouches, the largest of which held a can of blue spray paint, if the cap was any indication of color, which stuck out the top.

  By way of explanation, he offered, “My great-grandad used to hunt vampires and ghosts. He passed his gear down to me.” Lara rolled her eyes as the young man went on, “The garlic, crosses and stake work real good on vampires,” he patted his belt and the little vials, “then there’s holy water, which they really hate. Rumor says the crosses and holy water are supposed to work on demons, but Granddad never fought them.” Next, he patted the shotgun shells, “These are loaded with salt, which ghosts really hate. I got some table salt in one of my back pouches to draw a circle with, if there’s lots of them,” he patted a knife handle, “and this one has an iron blade, cause they really don’t like that, and it’s also supposed to work good for fairies, no offense meant. One of my vials is an extract of wolfsbane, in case of werewolves. Speaking of them, I’ve got my silver cross,” he patted the handle of one of his knives, “and this one is silver plated, cause silver works on all sorts of stuff. For witches,” he patted his left pistol, “I keep this one loaded with runic witch-killer bullets.” He glanced around at the few witches present, then grinned, sheepishly, “Again, no offense meant. For everything else, I’ve got a regular knife, some shotgun slugs and my right pistol, which I keep loaded with .45 rounds, in hollow-point.

  “I also keep a small bible handy.” He tapped his breast pocket, which had a bulge in it that might have been a pocket-sized book.

  “And the can of spray paint?” Lara asked, her face beginning to shift to a small measure of reluctant approval, indicating at least some of the young man’s measures might be useful in the field, though it was obvious she didn’t like him.

  “Oh, right! That’s for drawing binding circles, for demons. I’ve memorized six different kinds, though I don’t know if they work. I had it made special, with some salt and garlic mixed in, so it should also work on ghosts and vampires, though I haven’t been able to test it yet.”

  “Do you have any experience fighting monsters, or is everything you’ve got based on rumor?”

  The young man smiled, “I’ve always wanted to fight a vampire, but Grandad tells me the bad ones are all dead or they went to ground, probably because he scared them off. However, I’ve destroyed dozens of ghosts. They’re kind of my specialty. That’s how someone from the Order found me. We were investigating the same haunted house and I saved his life.”

  “Who was this and what’s your name?”

  “Fellow by the name of Jack Boyd. I’m Bailey Shaw.”

  “That makes sense of it.” Lara chuckled and the man grinned, “Boyd has been only barely passing his fitness tests for field work for more than a decade. We’ll have to see what we can make of you, but clearly, we’ve got some notions to break you of.”

  The young man frowned, as if Lara had insulted him, then shot back, “And why should I listen to you, lady?”

  “Because you merely wield weapons,” Lara raised her arms, which transformed into a pair of Tommy-guns, while her head lengthened and became the barrel of a mortar cannon, her voice taking on a very metallic ring, “but I am a weapon. I’ve also been a part of saving the world from an apocalypse on no less than two occasions, on top of the fact that I used to be a demon and I’ve been part of the Order for eighty years.” Her body returned to normal and she lowered her arms.

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  The young man who’d stared down the barrel of a loaded mortar at a live shell took a deep, cleansing breath, then quietly muttered, “Yes, ma’am.”

  The others had brought far more normal weapons, though a chakram took pride of place as the most odd.

  When Yasu drew her sword, to display it, Lara commented, “Nice. My partner sometimes uses something similar, a little Japanese short sword.”

  “Who’s that?” Yasu asked.

  Lara gestured to Artemis, who smiled, raised her arm and opened her hand, as if grasping an invisible sword handle, while black mist appeared and condensed into the shape of a wakizashi with a tsuba, or hilt guard, as it would be known in English, in the shape of an opening, blue rose.

  Yasu looked with an expert eye at what she knew had definitely been made to hang on a wall. It was very old, though it was in perfect condition. It had a blue hilt wrapping.

  “That’s a show piece that was probably made as a gift for a noble, way back in the day,” Yasu explained as Artemis looked at her, with obvious interest in her words, “but no self-respecting smith would have made such a piece to a lower standard of quality. In fact, it was probably held to an even higher standard. After all, when a home is invaded, sometimes even a show piece is used. I can see you’ve taken very good care of it. May I hold it?”

  Artemis proffered the blade hilt first and Yasu accepted it, waving it in the air to feel the balance. She closed her eyes with the absolute joy of an expert, because the balance was the very best she’d ever experienced, even better than her own swords, which were top-notch.

  When she opened her eyes and handed the weapon back, she was weeping, “I hope you value this blade, because it’s a good one. Do you have a matching katana or tanto, as well? These things are rarely made individually and often come in a set.”

  The girl shook her head.

  “It’s a real shame they’re not together.” Yasu wiped away her tears, “Where did you get it?”

  Lara laughed, “A pawn shop in New York, back during World War II. She got a marvelous deal on it, due to the way no one wanted anything Japanese, at the time. Thank you for telling us a little more about it.”

  “No, thank you.” Yasu bowed to both Lara and Artemis, “It was a pleasure to hold that blade, because the balance is the best I’ve ever seen.”

  The sword burst into a puff of black smoke, then Artemis mimicked Yasu’s bow. Yasu suspected she’d somehow gained the girl’s respect, the hardest of coin. Based on the mischievous way she behaved, it was probably a difficult thing to achieve.

  “Well, I think Artemis has taken a liking to you, young lady.” Lara commented, “What’s your name?”

  “Detective Shime Yasu.” Yasu bowed again, “I normally work for the New York City Police Department.”

  “Ah, you’re the one Porter recruited. It’s a real shame, what happened to her.”

  Yasu completed her bow and raised an eyebrow.

  Lara explained, “Missing, presumed dead. We had to bury an empty casket. I wish that didn’t happen so often, but she was working alone and we don’t even know what happened to her. Sadly, that’s the way it is: sooner or later, our luck runs out.” She raised her voice as she turned the thought into a lesson, “Everyone, I want you to understand exactly how dangerous this job is: any one of us could die at any time and there’s no shame in choosing a safer life. The Order’s mission consists of more than field work and any of you would be most welcome to serve as archivists. More than half the Ashen Blades do that job.”

  “What exactly do they do?” One of the teens asked.

  “The Order has always aimed to keep copies of the records for the entire Order stored in every one of our branch offices, so they’ll be available to any member that needs them. Computers have been helpful in recent years, cutting transportation costs, but it still takes a lot of work to print and file everything, so there will always be multiple copies. Then there’s the effort to scan the old stuff, to make it more available in the digital age. If you have skill at software design, you could join the team that’s working on an app for smartphones, which would make the Order’s records available in the field.

  “If you have the skill, you can do both field and archival work.”

  The young man with the odd assortment of weapons nodded and declared, “All right, you’ve sold me. Now I want both.” He grinned, “I never thought I could fight demons by doing paperwork, like my day job.”

  There was a murmur of agreement from several others.

  With the show and tell session out of the way, Lara declared, “Well, since our young friend isn’t back yet, I think we should move on to today’s object lesson. We have a few demons on hand that we can try things out on, including Ulmoch, once we get to the more deadly stuff. Artemis, do you think Masher would be willing to give us a hand?”

  Artemis nodded and removed her hat, hauling the black kitten out again, who yawned and complained, “What now? I was nappin’.”