Waltzing into Damnation (The Deception Dance Book 3)

by Rita Stradling

  “Stay here and stay down,” Nicholas says as he continues to push me into the floor.

  I really couldn’t be more down, so I don’t do anything.

  Linnie and Cassidy appear at the top of the stairs and duck down low as they descend.

  As more gunshots sound, Cassidy crawls over to us and leans in. “I don’t know who it is, but there are people in cars coming from all sides.”

  “Who are they shooting at?”

  “The birds, I think. They’re covering their windshields and—” She’s cut off as a loud booming sound shakes the house. “And that was a bomb.”

  Nicholas breaks away from me, crawling past Cassidy and over to the stairs.

  As soon as he’s out of sight, I lower my voice and say, “We need to call the demon . . . like, now.”

  “Say what?” Linnie whispers.

  Cassidy regards me, stunned. “Now? We’re surrounded and under fire, Raven!”

  “And I’m probably going to be captured before the night is out. This is my last chance.”

  The moment the words come out, I remember there might be another solution—turning myself in to the demons—but no. The only thing that’s certain about what Chauncey-demon said to me is that it’s some type of trick. “Cassidy, if we don’t do it now, we’ll never find out if there’s a way.”

  Cassidy nods. “We don’t have enough time for a blood sacrifice, then. We need a bird.”

  Chapter Seven

  Three Days Before

  Undoing the last screw on the grate of the crawlspace, I pull at the metal edge so it falls inward.

  “Did you get it?” Cassidy whispers over from the crawlspace access hole.

  “Yeah,” I whisper back as I set the grate aside onto the bed of insulation beside me. The last rays of daylight illuminate my face and hands, and I know I’m way too exposed. Pulling up the hood on my black sweatshirt, I peek my head out of the hole.

  Luckily, Nicholas was all too keen to have me be shut away with Cassidy and Linnie in the teenage boy’s bedroom while he patrolled the house. The gunfight outside had not quieted or slowed, and when I glance around, I immediately see why. A well-worn track cuts across the field near the house and at least five cars face off with each other and the birds between them. Every time a window rolls down and a gun reaches out, the ravens divebomb for it.

  Hopefully, they’ll be too distracted with killing each other to notice my very shoot-able head sticking out of the side of the house.

  Arching up my neck, I look across the roof ridgeline. I can’t see any birds, but I can’t really see the roof either. Clearing my throat, I whisper, “If there are any birds there, can you come where I can see you?”

  There’s a shuffling sound from the direction of the roof, but no bird appears. I realize my mistake. “Birds, come where I can see you,” I call instead.

  There’s another shifting, scraping sound, and then several birds’ heads shift into view at the ridgeline, beady eyes fixing on me.

  “Hi,” I say, and then I clear my throat. “None of you attack me now, okay?” I say this even though I know, I’ve always known, they won’t. “You . . .” I pick one at random, fixing my gaze on its eyes. “Come…” I stop what I’m about to say and take a deep breath of rapidly cooling air. I chew on my lip while glancing back to Cassidy, who still stands in the access, waiting for me.

  “What’s the matter?” she whispers.

  “Do you think they remember who they used to be?”

  “Raven, just bloody call one in here. We do this, or we don’t. There’s no time to ask ourselves the hard questions no one has the answers to.”

  I look back to the birds and whisper, “Show me some sort of sign or something if you’re at all human.”

  Nothing. They stare back at me in absolute stillness and silence.

  “If you fly in here, you’ll most likely die. I’ll literally be sacrificing you to a demon that will probably eat you alive. So, if any one of you wants to end this existence you’re stuck in, killing people all the time… being what you’ve become, I’m taking one volunteer. If you want to volunteer, fly in after me and wait for my instructions.”

  Not knowing what will happen, I duck my head back into the crawlspace. I wait while the light outside diminishes, listening to the disjointed rhythm of the gunfire. Most of me knows I’m being ridiculous, that as Cassidy said, “One less bird is one less murderer.’” But when the birds stare at me with their black, fathomless eyes, I can’t help seeing my own reflection, my own future.

  Damned for eternity.

  After about five minutes pass, I realize I’m going to have to order one of the birds into the crawlspace or completely ruin the plan. I bite my lip and scoot forward on my belly.

  A raven flies in and veers away just in time to avoid colliding with my face. Grasping my hands over my mouth, I only just stop myself from screaming. The bird settles onto the floor and stares straight into my eyes as it hops even closer, brushing its feathers against my hair. I scoot back slowly, not wanting to be too close, but not wanting to scare it away either.

  “Do you have one?” Cassidy calls over.

  “Yeah, yeah, I think so . . .” I scoot back even further. “Unless it’s here to do something else.”

  “You need to order it into the circle and make sure you tell it not to attack us. I could take it, but not your sister.”

  I do just that and scoot backwards, keeping the bird in my view at all times. It hops after me. When I back down through the access hole and climb down off the chair we placed under it, the bird flies past me and straight into the salt circle on the floor.

  As I step up beside Cassidy, she greets me with, “We’re running out of time, Raven.”

  I feel like telling her that the next time we’re out looking for living sacrifices, she could play collector, but I just look away.

  “This is the last one,” Cassidy says, not looking up from the salt line she’s reinforcing with a fifth canister of salt. She tosses the spent canister behind her and glances at me. “Do you see any gaps in the salt line?”

  I examine it closely. “No gaps,” I say, quietly and evenly. “Linnie, it’s time to go guard the door.”

  “Are you sure you—?” When I glance back at her, Linnie cuts off. She nods. “Yeah, on my way.”

  Looking to the bird, I ask it, “Will you stay in the circle and not touch the salt?”

  All we need is for the bird to brush its feathers over the salt, break the circle and release the demon.

  Jeez. On the stupid scale, one being moderately dumb and ten being the stupidest decision of one’s life, we’re well into the millions. But we’re going to do this. I’m going to do this.

  “Okay,” Cassidy says on an inhale. She claps her hands together.

  My heart is beating so hard in my chest, I’m starting to suspect it wants to break free and get the hell out of Dodge. “Uh, okay.”

  “Ose, we summon you,” Cassidy says. “We gift you this crow, infected with the demon Andras’ power, willingly sacrificed. Ose, we summon you.” She repeats the words again and again while we both stare at the circle of scarred hardwood flooring, where nothing was changing.

  Gunshots erupt just outside the house, probably just at the other end. I spin around.

  Crap.

  “Linnie and Nicholas,” I whisper. “Maybe we should get them in here?”

  The gunshots sound again, and a small hole explodes through one side of the house and up into the ceiling, plaster raining down.

  Three things happen at once. Cassidy runs for me, I dive for the floor, and the raven takes to the air in fright. It flies wildly, hitting Cassidy midflight before tumbling to the ground, leaping again straight into the wall and then fluttering up into the open crawl space.

  Cassidy slams into me, and we go tumbling, just as another spray of bullets hit the side wall, shooting plaster out in little geysers.

  “Shit, it got me,” Cassidy swears.

  “
A bullet?” I just manage to roll off her to find Cassidy retching.

  Her complexion is already taking a greenish tint, and on her hand a large gash bubbles with neon red blood. She coughs out, “The raven.”

  “Wait—I thought you said it wouldn’t infect you?” My voice brims with the panic surging through me.

  “It’s okay,” she whispers. “It’s okay, Raven. I can’t be infected by two demons at once. I’ll be fine.” She says this before she leans over and vomits, splattering blood all over the floor.

  Using my sleeve, I wipe blood from her mouth. “You’re throwing up blood, Cassidy—”

  “Oh no, no, no . . . Raven, make sure none of my blood got in the circle.” She says the words through ragged gasps, and then she passes out cold.

  I have to catch her head so she doesn’t fall into her own pool of sick. Dragging her a little and staying down, I lay Cassidy across the floor and peer back at the circle.

  “We failed,” I whisper as I crouch down on the floor while more and more holes appear in the walls and bullets whistle up to embed over our heads.

  And then I see it. Just at the inside edge of the salt circle, a tiny drop of blood clings to the white granules.

  Oh, dear god.

  Cassidy didn’t tell me exactly what would happen if her blood was used in a summoning, but she’d told me it was the worst possible thing we could do, and that was enough warning for me.

  Staying on my belly, I crawl over the plaster and toward the circle. Bullets whistle over me, but I can only focus on one thing. It seems like it takes forever for that blood drop to slide off its granules and into the circle. I just reach forward, intending to scoop it away, when a blast of heat licks up my face and a sudden, earsplitting roar rips through the room.

  A column of white-hot fire rises into the air, and I snatch my hand back, but not in time.

  My palm sears with pain, like a thousand white-hot pokers stab into my skin. But when I flip my hand over, my skin shows no sign of burning. Strangely, my pale hand looks clean now, instead of how filthy it looked a second ago.

  Hellfire.

  A low growl rips through the air just above me, and I look up slowly. First I see two massive paws, then four fur-sheathed legs thicker than telephone poles and up to a massive body. The lion barely fits in our circle, and it’s a perfect circle, ten feet in all directions.

  Barbas.

  I took care to learn about Barbas when studying the Ars Goetia after learning he was the demon that infected Cassidy. While still considered a greater demon, he holds the rank of president, which isn’t very high in the scheme of things. Yet somehow, looking up at the great lion demon, I know considering him as a lesser threat is like saying you should be glad you’re not trapped with a great white when you’re swimming in a tank with a tiger shark . . . and bleeding from the leg.

  Basically, I’m dead either way.

  His smell hits me like a punch to the nose, rotten eggs, but so much worse.

  I scoot back from the salt line slowly, reciting what I could remember of Barbas under my breath, “He can turn people into animals, knows the answers to secrets, and is the master of causing and healing disease. He’s prideful.”

  He was as tall as I was, with giant black eyes fixed forward on me. His short fur was a deep golden color, almost brown. A fair mane wrapped around his head.

  Getting to my feet slowly, I stare at the beast. I call at the lion, “I—I release you!”

  He doesn’t disappear. Lazily, he pulls up his lip to one side, showing a spear-tip sized fang.

  “I release you! Go back to Hell!” I call.

  Without opening his mouth further, the lion issues a low growl that shakes the walls.

  “Oh my god!”

  I glance away as Linnie and Nicholas crash into the room. They halt in the doorway, and Nicholas levels his giant gun directly at the greater demon. “Linnie, stay in the hall. Raven, come here.”

  Knowing it’s stupid to look away, I turn back to Barbas. But seeing the gun and pair I had so recently been afraid for, I realize I can’t hear anything. “The bullets? The shooting?”

  “Stopped,” Nicholas says as in my periphery I see him carefully inch his way into the room. “Probably because you two were stupid enough to summon him.” He says the words like he knows the demon personally and loathes him.

  “We didn’t summon him. Cassidy tried to lure Ose here, but her blood dropped into the circle when—I’ll explain later.” I back away slowly as pieces of plaster crunch under my skate shoes. “I tried to send him back twice, but it didn’t work.”

  “Because Cassidy did the luring,” Nicholas mutters. “He can’t leave the salt circle until she releases him.”

  Without us discussing it, we both converge on Cassidy.

  “He’s just standing there, staring,” I mutter.

  “You try to wake her. She needs to be the one to send him back. I’ll guard,” Nicholas says, obviously not wanting to drop his aim on the demon. If the demon is wary of the giant gun, he gives no sign of it.

  Leaning down, I shake Cassidy’s shoulders. “Wake up. Wake up.”

  Nothing.

  “Raven, is she alive? What happened to Cassidy?” Linnie asks as she pokes her head through the bedroom door.

  Licking my fingers, I hold my hand over Cassidy’s nose and mouth. The faintest tickle of breath passes over my fingers.

  “Breathing,” I say.

  Behind me, a blaze of fire erupts, striking pain up the length of my back.

  Both Nicholas and I dive to cover Cassidy’s body, though she’s the most indestructible out of the four of us. As if Nicholas too realizes this, he wraps an arm over my head, pushing it down uncomfortably into Cassidy’s leanly muscular shoulder.

  “Raven Smith . . .” A low male voice reverberates through the room. “And I see you’ve brought me my darling Cassidy. Please, bring her to me.”

  Chapter Eight

  Three Days Before

  Pushing Nicholas’ beefy arm off my head, I roll off Cassidy and turn to look back into the salt circle.

  I know I’m going to find a man-shaped demon before I look, as it’s Barbas’ known second shape, but I don’t expect the man standing there.

  I’ve seen demons possessing human bodies and looking human. I saw Andras in a part-bird, part-human form once. Yet, nothing could really come close to seeing a truly demonic humanoid. He looks twenty, perhaps twenty-one. Tall and lean, he has a swimmer’s physique times fifty, muscular at the shoulders but tapering down into a thinner waist. His hair and complexion are the color of melted gold. A wide, sculpted nose sits central on a long face ending in a square chin. Arched brows give him a wicked look, reinforced by the gleam in his glowing golden eyes.

  As with all greater demons, his eyes glow neon.

  I stand up and stare at the greater demon. He stands about a foot taller than me, all the better to grin creepily down. “What would you have of me?”

  “Uh . . .” I look around at the room, Cassidy on the floor, Linnie peeking out from behind the wall and Nicholas aiming a bazooka’s not-so-little brother at the demon.

  “Run, Raven. I’ll be right behind you with Cassidy, after I blast off his head,” Nicholas replies as he steps forward.

  “You could blast my head off.” Barbas shrugs like it’s nothing to him, and he crouches down on the floor, going to a squat. “However, you might want to consider that I’m the reason the bullets aren’t blasting through your walls anymore. How long do you think you’ll last under heavy fire? The men you signaled from the roof likely aren’t going to get in here in time to save Raven Smith if the soulbound start shooting again. So, I’m afraid this looks very much like an ‘I die, you all die’ situation, doesn’t it? Actually, some could even view this situation as me saving your life with my sheer presence.”

  “More like your own,” Nicholas says as he continues to sight the humanoid demon.

  It’s only then I notice what Barbas is wearing,
a tailored-looking business suit. And I only notice because it’s odd to see a man dressed like that squatting in such an animalistic way. His body leans forward with one hand balancing him, as if he’s lining up to pounce straight through the salt line.

  But that’s impossible.

  I hope it’s impossible.

  Barbas’ attention shifts to me, his golden eyes glowing yellow. Staring at his face, I can see how distinctly cat-like he is, even in human form. “You have quite a few secrets. Don’t you, Raven Smith?” He grins, inhaling in a whistling sound, his nostrils sucking in as he raises back his head. “Or should I call you, kleis tou thanatou kai tou adou? Or in English, the Key of Death and Hades.”

  I step toward him. “What does that mean?”

  “Give me that girl lying at your feet, and I’ll tell you,” the demon says as his grin hikes unnaturally high up the sides of his face.

  “Don’t listen to him, Raven,” Nicholas says, as if I’d ever consider doing that.

  “You’re always surrounded by people, but you feel so very alone, Raven Smith. You trust no one now, not even your own sister,” the demon whispers.

  Linnie peeks around the corner, her bright blue eyes going to mine. Hurt shines clear on her features. “You don’t trust me?”

  “Linnie, he’s—he’s lying,” I say, knowing she’s going to know it for the bull-crud answer it is. Demons can’t lie. They can manipulate you until you think up is down, but they can’t flat-out lie.

  “And all Linnie has ever done is stand by your side, too.” The demon tuts. “She even gave up her chance at happiness for you.” Barbas’ eyelids narrow, as if he’s thinking for a moment. “Richard Jones was his name. And he was beginning to care for her in the same way back. But Linnie said no when he asked her to go with him to Leijonskjöld. Didn’t you, Linnie? You chose loyalty to your sister.”

  Linnie steps out fully from the hallway, her teary gaze on the demon as if she’s mesmerized by his words.

  “He still thinks about you, Linnet. He thinks about what could have been.” The demon’s voice is a soft caress, coaxing her closer.