Holding the hawthorn stick and my free hand up before me, I paused to draw in a slow, deep breath. My eyes slipped shut and I relaxed the muscles in my shoulders. The energy in the air seeped in through my flesh and flowed through my veins so that my soul was now bound to the energy of the world in a deeper way. In my mind, I created the image of a tall crystal vase filled with colorful flowers. I could see purple and yellow irises, pink carnations, and orange birds of paradise.
As I released the breath I had been holding, I pushed the energy out through the tip of the wand, directing it toward the circle, building the image in my head up from the bottom. The crystal and the water in the vase caught the light coming in through my blinds and bounced it about the room. The flowers formed in a colorful profusion, overflowing from the vase.
When my creation was complete, I spoke a word, activating the connection I had drawn with the circle. There was a flash of light and the vase of flowers was gone. If I had done it right, the vase was now resting in the center of her dining-room table. She’d see it when she walked to the kitchen to brew her first pot of coffee for the day. If I had done it wrong, it was very likely that I had created a large mess in her apartment.
After sending the flowers, I swiped my hand over the top of the table, smearing the chalk so that the writing was no longer legible and the spell couldn’t be tapped by another. Feeling confident and a little more at ease, I finished getting ready and left for Asylum.
Something was wrong.
Stepping over the threshold at the Asylum parlor, an odd tingling crept over my body. Something felt wrong about the place. Locking the door behind me, I sent a series of seeking spells through the building to see if anyone was hiding or if any spells had been left on the place that I hadn’t put there. But nothing turned up. I used more aggressive spells, but still nothing turned up. I restarted the antiglamour spell and searched every inch, including the second floor apartment and the basement.
It was only when I stepped into the basement that I finally relaxed. And I realized why something felt wrong when I stepped into the lobby. The tattoo parlor was my home; the one place I was sure I belonged in this world, but it wasn’t helping me find my center any longer. The sickening part was that the cellar now gave the peace I unconsciously longed for.
The symbol spray-painted on the far wall rippled as the demon shifted, its powers stirring to life with my presence. I couldn’t sense its emotions or feel the contact with its thoughts like I could in the Towers. The spell that bound it at the parlor kept it more tightly locked down, but there was no question that it was watching me.
Pulling my phone out of my back pocket, I checked the time. It was barely after eleven. I had nearly an hour before the parlor was supposed to open and my first appointment of the day wasn’t until two. I had some time to myself. Time for research.
Turning off the lights and leaving a sign on the door that I’d open the shop at two, I teleported to just outside the Dresden Tower. The memory of Lilith’s nightmare haunted my thoughts, but I wasn’t going to let her put me off. I could keep my family safe from her. I needed the secrets hidden in Simon’s rooms if I was going to find a way to protect Trixie.
An uneasiness crept through me, squeezing my chest until it became difficult to breathe. It was early evening in Dresden. The warlocks and witches would be about in the Tower at this time. There would be no avoiding them. But I had an easy excuse. I was unraveling the defensive spells on Simon’s rooms. I was also a member of the guardians, sort of, and had a right to be there.
There were a couple gasps and murmured comments when I walked through the front door. I didn’t stop as I walked straight to the empty tube and rode it up to Simon’s level. The dark energy was no longer present in the hallway and there was no resistance when I entered the pitch black rooms.
The door slammed ominously as I stepped in as if it had been caught by an errant wind. Elation surged from the demon to hit me in the chest. I had returned. I had come back without its coaxing, because it thought it had me. Sadly, I wasn’t too sure that it wasn’t right about that.
The rage and anguish that had plagued me on my first visit were noticeably subdued this time. The childhood memories that constantly followed me, whispering of pain, blood, and betrayal were silent. I knew if I continued to visit and study here, I’d succeed in chasing Simon’s ghost away at last and these rooms would become mine. And there was some small part of me that was excited with the thought.
“Lights,” I said in a firm voice.
In an instance, lights flared to life around the main room and then on through the kitchen into the bedroom. A fire crackled in the hearth while the magical orbs glowed warmly overhead. And still the eagerness from the demon didn’t wane at the idea of being commanded by someone it considered to be inferior.
Not inferior. Just poorly trained.
The demon’s cool voice whispered through my head, making me more than a little uneasy that it was picking apart my thoughts.
“And you’re planning to change that.”
If you let me. . .
“I’ve got a few hours to do some reading,” I said, walking over to the table in the center of the room, where I had left the two books the demon had pulled aside for me. The first one looked ancient and I suspected that Simon had “borrowed” it out of the Dresden library and never gotten around to returning it. The book on demons was more disturbing because it looked as if most of the handwriting was Simon’s, though the first few chapters were in a different script. Simon’s mentor?
Picking up the general magic book, I carried it over to the large, overstuffed chair in front of the fire and tossed it on the seat while I pulled off my coat. When I turned back, the demon book was in the chair.
“I don’t think starting with demons is the best idea when I’m weak in too many other areas,” I grumbled as I turned back to the table to pick up the other book.
But I can help you in those areas until you grow strong.
“Or I can just grow dependent upon you and never learn those things for myself,” I snapped irritably.
That works too.
The demon’s amusement never wavered.
Grabbing the book I wanted, I dropped the demon book on the floor beside me and flopped down in the chair, putting my feet up on the footstool. I flipped open the old tome and started skimming over the topics laid out before me. A lot of the information was familiar, though it gave some background that I had been sorely lacking. Yet it wasn’t long before I was craving a notepad and pen so I could make some notes.
The thought had barely occurred to me when a hardbound journal appeared at my elbow along with a black pen. I stared at it for a moment, surprised that it looked identical to the ones I had been using for years to make notes regarding spells and potions I uncovered since leaving the Towers. When I picked it up, I got a whiff of a familiar scent, marigolds and blood.
“Did you get this from my basement at the parlor?” I demanded, sitting up with a jerk.
Of course. You needed to make some notes.
“You can bring things from one place to another?”
As long as they’re connected.
As the words crossed my mind, there was a soft shifting of the stones in the center of the room that contained the demon’s symbol. Simon’s rooms were connected with the parlor because I had drawn the same symbol that Simon used.
“Did he know I used the same symbol?” I asked softly, suddenly wondering if he could have used the same connection to walk right into my parlor during the past several years.
No.
“Can you bring through larger items?”
Size has no bearing.
“What about a person? What if Bronx or Trixie walked into the basement? Could you bring them here?”
It would not be . . . healthy for living creatures.
I could f
eel the demon’s amusement at the thought and a chill pricked along my flesh.
“It would kill them,” I said, crossing off the idea as a potential way of getting my friends immediately out of danger should the need arise.
No.
“But . . . ?” I prompted when the demon chose not to elaborate.
Their minds would break under the burden of the journey.
Before I could question the demon about what it meant, the book at my feet opened with a snap and the pages flew until it found the proper entry. With a grunt, I picked up the book and placed it on top of the one I had been reading. A quick glance revealed that the original writer of the book had done quite a bit of research on the region where demons resided, or rather where their corporeal form resided.
It wasn’t a pretty place by the sound of it, making the Christian version of Hell look like a summer retreat for girl scouts. Not a place I wanted to visit. Luckily, Lilith had something entirely different planned for me, though I doubted it was much more pleasant.
A groan slipped from my lips as I sat back in the chair again, when I realized that I’d turned the page twice since picking up the book. I wasn’t supposed to be reading this one, but my mind immediately starting soaking up the information, as if it had been starved for too many years. And maybe it had been. It had been a decade since I’d been permitted to study any kind of magic, leaving me eager to study anything I could get my hands on.
“Look . . .” I started and then stopped when I realized that I had been about to use the demon’s name, but didn’t know it. Hell, I didn’t even know if demons had names. Did they need them?
Zyrus.
I flinched at the hissed sound. It was like someone had stabbed a red hot knitting needle through my frontal lobe.
Say it.
“Why?”
Say it.
“Why? Will it give you some kind of power over me?”
The demon chuckled. No.
“Will it give me power over you?”
You mean more than you already have? No.
I hadn’t thought so. There was no power in the name. If you wanted power over someone, you needed a bit of their blood. Or better yet, a chunk of their soul.
“Then why do you want me to say it? I didn’t think that demons had names.”
The pages in the book started flipping again to stop on another section that Simon had written about demon names. There wasn’t much there, but there was no mention of any danger inherent in speaking a demon’s name. A few other demon names were listed there, but I found it interesting that the demon that guarded Simon’s rooms wasn’t listed.
“You didn’t tell him?”
No. Say it.
I could feel that its amusement was fading and it was growing more irritated, but I wasn’t going to be cowed by this creature. It had said that it needed me, that it was the pawn that I had claimed in this game. I wasn’t going to follow its directions without a damn good reason.
“Why didn’t you tell him?”
Say it first.
I frowned, not liking the fact that it was trying to bargain now. Looking down at the book in my lap, there was no warning about saying the demon’s name and I was confident there was no power in a name. Could there be any real harm?
“Zyrus,” I said between clenched teeth.
Zyrus, the demon repeated, correcting my pronunciation while sending a fresh stab of pain through my head.
“Zyrus.” I winced as I hissed the name. With his voice in my head, the “U” became more of a soft “I,” sounding like “ZEAR-ris.”
Zyrus.
But something frightening happened this time when it said the name. The pain was gone. I could still sense the demon’s emotions, like its pleasure and amusement at my saying its name, but the nausea that always accompanied it was gone. I was also starting to get thin snatches of the creature’s thoughts.
“What the fuck?” I demanded, lurching to my feet while dumping the books in my lap onto the footstool.
I could feel the demon organizing thoughts to formulate a response. It was all murky and gray, but I could actually feel it more clearly now as if we were connected. Yet before Zyrus could explain, a heavy pounding echoed through Simon’s old rooms as someone demanded entrance.
“I know you’re in there, traitor!” the warlock shouted as he pounded on the door.
Excitement built in Zyrus as it moved from hovering close to me to the door. It was hoping the warlock would force his way inside the rooms. This creature was not on my list of people it could not kill. The thoughts were coming more clearly now as the demon was focused on the intruder. It had been far too long since it had killed something. It had been feeling frustrated since it had failed to kill the magical intruder in the basement at the parlor and was eager to rip into the flesh of something.
“Wait!” I said in a low voice, trying to tighten the leash on the demon without needing to actually lock it away within the symbol. Putting the demon away meant that I would be on my own against the warlock if he did come into the rooms.
The demon pulled back slightly and was far from pleased about it.
He means to do you harm.
“I don’t doubt it.”
Let me protect you, Master.
Even with our new connection, my skin still crawled at that hissed word. There was a layer of malevolence to the word I hadn’t sensed before. Zyrus wasn’t pleased with its newest yoke, but was willing to accept it if it got it closer to its goal.
“The council has tasked me with dismantling the defensive spells on Simon’s rooms,” I shouted back at the warlock while trying to push down the demon’s thoughts and desires.
“You gave up your right to have access to his books and notes, traitor! Come out of there!”
“I’m not finished with defenses in here. I’m having some trouble unraveling them all,” I lied.
“Let me see what kind of mess you’ve made,” the warlock grumbled as if he were dealing with a particularly slow child. I knew he didn’t give a damn about me and cared only about getting access to Simon’s work.
There was a rattle of the doorknob and for a breath, time stood still. I hung on the edge of the abyss with Zyrus floating just over my shoulder. This warlock was invading these rooms and meant me harm. He was eager to get his hands on Simon’s research, though I wasn’t exactly sure what interested him. It irked him that I might be touching it, a traitor to the Towers and my mentor.
I exhaled. My heart beat once. Twice. “Be quick,” I whispered.
The door started to swing open and total darkness consumed the rooms again. I sat down in my chair as the door slammed shut. The warlock muttered something in surprise and then there were only his screams.
I felt myself being torn into two pieces. A part of me was sick at the sounds of ripping flesh and organs, accompanied by the high-pitched screams of terror and pain that finally gave way to low moans that followed the warlock into his death.
The other part of me was swept up in the demon’s glee. There was such joy in its triumph, in the shredding of the warlock who had meant to cause me pain and possibly even death. Traitor. The warlock called me a traitor, and I knew he had no intention of sharing Simon’s research with his brothers and sisters of the Ivory Towers. He had killed countless people in his years as a warlock and Zyrus had put an end to it at last. The world was better off with this monster gone. With the help of Zyrus, I had made the world a little bit safer.
When the room was finally silent, I relaxed in my chair, waving my hand toward the fireplace so that flames jumped to life again. Zyrus circled back to me, practically purring in its contentment, as if it expected me to give it a little pat on the head as a reward.
“Clean up the mess, please,” I said, trying to suppress my own conflicted feelings.
As you
wish.
Zyrus rushed off toward the mutilated remains of the corpse while I picked up the book on demons I had been reading. I had only a couple more hours to get some research done and then I had to return to Asylum. There were people in Low Town who needed tattoos and potions.
I also needed to get away from Zyrus for a few hours so I could think clearly. The demon offered a tempting solution to my problem. Could I use it to pick off the warlocks and witches of the Towers one by one until the world was finally safe? Was it wrong to use a demon to save the world? I wasn’t sure anymore.
For now, I had access to Simon’s books and I knew I was safe while I did my research on magic. There had to be a way to take down the Towers. There had to be a way for me to keep Trixie and our baby safe.
Chapter 4
I returned to the back room of Asylum just after one thirty. There was too much on my mind after Zyrus had killed the warlock for me to continue reading. Too much in my life was changing and slipping away from me no matter how hard I worked to hold it all together. Zyrus had presented me with an option that I still wasn’t sure I should jump on, yet it was almost guaranteed to be the one thing that fixed everything. Wasn’t that what I wanted? Wasn’t I willing to sacrifice myself in order to keep Trixie and the baby safe?
As soon as I arrived, I realized that I wasn’t alone in the parlor. The energy zipped to my fingers without a thought, an aggressive spell at the ready on the tip of my tongue when the person called out.
“Gage? Is that you?” Trixie asked from the main tattooing room. Her heels clicked across the linoleum floor as she approached the back room.
With a heavy sigh of relief, I released the magic and walked down the hall to meet her, a smile growing on my face.
“What are you doing here so early?” I asked, pressing a quick kiss to her pursed lips. She wasn’t happy. Had she not seen the flowers that I sent?
“You mentioned yesterday that you wanted to do inventory, so I came in early to help. Where were you?”
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