Secrets of the Demon

by Diana Rowland

  “Yup,” I said against his chest, anger beginning to trickle away. He was making it awfully tough to stay mad at him. He smelled like all sorts of nice manly stuff and I could hear the calm and steady beat of his heart.

  He gave me a light squeeze. “Do I have any redeeming qualities left?”

  I sighed and tilted my head back to look at him, not breaking away from his hold. “Well, you still give a fuck. So that’s nice.”

  He gave me a soft smile, then surprised me by kissing me lightly on the forehead. A thrill raced through me, followed by a massive tsunami of confusion. A kiss on the forehead? What the hell was that? Should I do something? Should I try to kiss him? Was that a “we’re great friends” kiss? Or was he holding back because he didn’t want to get burned?

  He tightened the hug briefly, then stepped back, making the tsunami of confusion somewhat moot—at least as far as the “should I kiss him” part went. “I do give a fuck,” he said, still lightly gripping my shoulders.

  “I appreciate that. I’m sorry I slapped you.”

  He frowned. “You slapped me? I thought that a mosquito had landed—” He ducked and laughed as I swung at him again.

  “You are such a jerk,” I said, trying to glare without much success.

  “I think that’s been well established. C’mon, I’ll give you a ride home.”

  I hesitated. “Ryan, when I get there, I’m going to—”

  “I know,” he said. “You’re going to summon Rhyzkahl.” He gave my shoulders a squeeze. “It’s okay. I know you need to do this.”

  I searched his face for any flicker of regret or pain or angst or anything, but if he was feeling it, he was keeping it under unspeakably tight control. “Thank you.”

  “I’m trying,” he said, voice low and rough.

  “I know,” I said, hiding a smile. “And you have no idea how much that means to me. Which makes what I have to say next even harder.”

  His brows drew together in a frown. “What?”

  My lips twitched. “I’m actually not summoning Rhyzkahl. You totally wasted all of that control and maturity.”

  He smiled. “Well, damn!” he said, though there was relief in his eyes.

  “But I still appreciate the sentiment.”

  “Good thing,” he said. “I don’t have a whole lot of control and maturity to waste on false alarms like that. So, if you’re not summoning the lord, then why do you need to go back to your house?”

  “Well, you were close. I am going to summon, just not the demonic lord. But, I know that you um ...”

  “Don’t care to be insulted and growled at by demons?” he offered.

  “Well, yeah. I know you’re a real weenie like that.”

  He laughed. “You’re definitely hanging out with me way too much. You’re becoming an asshole.”

  “I’m learning from the best!”

  Chapter 30

  Despite our earlier banter, neither of us said much on the drive back to my house. Even though I wasn’t summoning Rhyzkahl, it was guaranteed to be an odd and tense situation with Ryan present, which was why I didn’t intend for him to be in the basement for the actual ritual. This summoning was a bit too crucial and I didn’t want to risk something going wrong because I was distracted by worry over Ryan’s safety.

  Dawn was sending pink fingers creeping across the sky by the time he pulled into my driveway. I’d grabbed the extra ammo out of my own car before leaving it to be towed and had reloaded on the drive back to my house. We both scanned my yard cautiously before getting out of the car. I gripped my Glock, extending every sense possible in the hope that I’d be able to sense an imminent threat. It didn’t escape my notice that Ryan’s gun was in his hand as well.

  My front door was ajar and slightly askew in its shattered jamb. What if it’s in the house? I’d damaged it, but I had no idea if it was capable of repairing itself or if it could only stay active for a set amount of time. We moved up the porch and through the house, guns at the ready, silently clearing it and checking for threats. Crumbles of clay littered the hallway—remnants of the creature’s leg—but no other sign remained.

  I holstered my gun after we finished searching the house from top to bottom. “It creeps me out that the wards didn’t affect it at all,” I admitted to Ryan. “Do you mind staying up here while I do the summoning?”

  “I was going to suggest it.”

  I glanced at him and could see that, again, he understood. Great, he’s capable of being all understanding about the demonic lord and the summoning and all of that. So why can’t he be more understanding that I want to know where he and I stand? Or maybe by keeping me at “just friends” he was letting me know.

  Now was a bad time to start getting all moody about that particular emotional train wreck. I did my best to shove it from my mind. “Okay, well, lemme go get ready.”

  He gave a short nod. “And I’ll go raid your fridge.”

  “I bought a new brick of cheese yesterday. Go wild.”

  I grinned as his groan of despair followed me down the hall.

  I quickly showered and wrapped my bathrobe around me, then sent Ryan into my bedroom to wait and count to fifty while I did my superstitious little routine of going down to the basement naked.

  You’re so stupid, I chided myself as I pulled my summoning garb off the hook at the bottom of the stairs. You have no problem at all letting Rhyzkahl see you without a stitch on, but you freak the fuck out at the thought that Ryan might catch a sight of tit. Maybe my subconscious was telling me I really did want Ryan as a friend and nothing more? Or maybe Ryan’s opinion of a naked me mattered more.

  I gritted my teeth and yanked on the silk pants and shirt. Stop thinking about this! My wayward emotions were going to get me killed at this rate.

  I carefully made the changes in the diagram for the calling of a syraza. I didn’t summon them very often, and so I pulled out my heavily warded, well-hidden, and barely-legibly-written summoning notebook to be sure I was doing it right. Usually I summoned a reyza if I needed a higher demon. Syraza weren’t known for skill in warding or other arcane areas that I might want information or instruction in. They weren’t big and scary-impressive like the reyza, or even unnerving like the zhurn Skalz.

  But obviously Rhyzkahl felt this demon would be a competent guardian for me. Maybe this one owes him a favor or something. That made more sense. But I’m going to have to buy an SUV or something to carry it around, I thought with a sigh. How the hell was this going to work?

  I reviewed my notes one more time, then tucked the little book back into its hiding place.

  The power flowed smoothly from the storage diagram into my control as I set the bindings and protections. The glyphs and sigils around the summoning circle began to glow in my othersight. Carefully manipulating the potency, I began the weaving of the portal itself. The icy wind swirled through the room as the light from the diagram increased to near-blinding incandescence. I felt the portal widen as the wind whipped my hair about my face, and I spoke the demon’s name.

  “Eilahn.”

  The wind dropped to nothing as the light vanished. I held the arcane bindings, waiting for my vision to adjust. A few seconds later I could see a figure on one knee in the middle of the diagram. Its skin was a pearlescent white that caught the light from the fireplace and shimmered with hints of orange and red and pink. It was slender, almost birdlike, with long graceful limbs. Its head was smooth and hairless, with large and slanted violet eyes set in a delicate, almost human, face. Its wings looked as fragile as tissue paper, but I’d once had the chance to see syraza in flight, so I knew that somehow those wings really were strong enough to support the creature.

  I paused, suddenly uncertain what to say. Usually there were forms to be followed for setting terms and bargaining for service, but this was different. I wasn’t the one who would be paying the price.

  At least, not in the usual manner.

  “I am Kara Gillian,” I finally said. “Lord Rhy
zkahl bade me summon you and said that you could provide me with protection.” It ended up sounding more like a question than I’d meant. But how could this creature—who looked like a strong breeze could carry it away—offer me protection ...

  My thoughts trailed off even as the syraza lifted its head. Kara, you’re awfully dense sometimes. I was pretty sure that Zack was a demon, and he sure as hell didn’t look like one.

  “I am Eilahn,” it replied in a voice that sounded like birds singing and bells chiming all at once. “I have given my oath to Lord Rhyzkahl to give you protection and support.”

  I lowered the wards and bindings. “I am grateful for your service.” I paused. “Please forgive me if I give offense, but are you able to, um, shapechange? I mean, your current form is quite pleasing,” I added hastily, realizing that it sounded as if I didn’t like the demon form. “But I wonder how you’ll be able to give me protection without revealing yourself as a demon.”

  It rose with sinuous grace to its feet. “Yes, I am able to shift my form, though it is not simple. I will require your assistance.”

  I nodded, feeling surreal. I was right. Zack is a demon. Ha! “Just tell me what I need to do.”

  It inclined its head, though its violet eyes stayed on me. “First we must complete the bond so that I may remain in this sphere.”

  A bond? A wave of uneasiness passed through me. “I performed an adjustment to bindings once before so that the reyza Kehlirik could remain past sunrise,” I said. “Is it the same sort of thing?”

  “Similar,” it replied and stepped to me. “But this will go deeper. I will guide you in the process.”

  I didn’t have a chance to ask how deep. Eilahn slipped a hand to the back of my head in a lightning-fast move and placed the other hand on my face, touching my forehead and cheeks with the tips of its fingers. A brief frisson of shock and fear surged through me, amplified by the fact that I could feel the strength of the grip that held me in place. Eilahn looked wispy and delicate and its fingertips seemed to be barely touching me, but I suddenly couldn’t move my head a millimeter. My survival instinct screamed at me to struggle, but before I could twitch I felt a jab of potency spear through me, freezing me in place. It was a trap! I thought in sudden panic. Rhyzkahl hadn’t sent this demon to me. This is a demon sent to kill me or capture me—

  A wave of calm and peace flowed through me and my desire to struggle faded. A small part of me tried to insist that this was part of the attack, but the flow of serenity pushed it down with barely a ripple. A soundless tone vibrated through me and for an instant I thought it would shake me apart, my molecules flying apart from the force of it. Suddenly I could feel the syraza as if I was inside its skin. I could see the shock on my face, taste the moisture on my breath, yet I was still looking up at the demon in a bizarre double-vision. But more unsettling were the shimmers of completely alien emotion that swept through me, too quickly for me to understand, and leaving behind only the awareness that I was somehow feeling what the demon felt.

  And then it was gone, and my senses were my own. Eilahn slowly released me and stepped back, a smile on its delicate face. “Forgive me for using force. There was no way to fully prepare you, and it was vital that the process not be interrupted once begun.”

  I blinked a few times as I tried to shake the sensation that I still wasn’t quite inside my head. “Um. Yeah. It’s cool.” I took a breath, slowly beginning to feel more normal. “Wow. That was ...”

  “ ‘Intense’ is a word that is often used to describe the experience,” the syraza offered, still smiling.

  I gave a weak laugh. “Yeah, that about covers it.” I scrubbed my hands through my hair, the last vestiges of the not-in-my-body sensation finally fading. Seriously weird. I didn’t agree with Eilahn’s statement that there was no way to prepare me—a simple “This is going to make you feel way funky” would have been good. I had the niggling suspicion that the syraza had enjoyed weirding me out like that.

  Great, there was a good chance that I was now bound to a demon with an evil streak.

  “Okay, so ... how do I help you shift your form?”

  In answer the syraza dropped down to a crouch, folding its wings tightly across its back as it wrapped its arms around its legs. I felt another soundless tone shimmer through me, though not even a hundredth as powerful as the first had been. But this time it didn’t fade away and continued to resonate. I could feel the demon again, could sense a slow shifting. It wasn’t a morphing like in the movies, but more as if the demon was being redrawn, a flickering of reality like falling rain. The resonance shifted to a series of alternating tones as the flickering increased and I found myself shaking from the effort of holding onto the resonance. Somehow I knew that if I didn’t keep it in check it would take over and shake us both apart from some sort of arcane vibration. I gritted my teeth as the flickering and resonance built to a shrieking crescendo.

  And then it was gone.

  Dizziness slammed into me, and I sagged and crumpled to the floor, barely catching myself from smacking my face on the stone. I took several deep breaths until the spots faded from my vision, then looked over at the demon.

  Or rather, I looked at the naked woman shakily pressing herself up from the floor.

  Chapter 31

  My hands still had a bit of a tremble to them as I went through the motions of making coffee, even though it had been over half an hour since I’d come up from the basement with a hot chick in tow. I was definitely way too tired for this shit.

  And Eilahn was a hot chick. There was no doubting that. Eilahn-the-demon might have appeared gender neutral, but Eilahn-the-human was quite female. Dark-skinned and tall, with sleek black hair that flowed past her shoulders, she still had a violet cast to her eyes, though nowhere near as deep and intense as when she’d been in her demon form. She looked like a perfect multiethnic mix of damn near every continent, with the build and muscle tone of one of the Cardio Barbies who haunted my gym, but without any of the artificial enhancements that so many of them employed. She didn’t need them.

  Right now she was wrapped up in my bathrobe, sitting across from Ryan at my kitchen table. Glaring at him. Ryan merely looked baffled and amused, seeming to take the whole demon-in-human form thing in stride. He was certainly handling it a whole lot better than I. Here I was, the accomplished summoner, and I’d had no idea that syraza could shapeshift. Could other demons? And could the syraza shift to other forms besides human? Curiosity pounded at me, but I knew I’d have to wait until later to satisfy it.

  I dumped the water into the top of the coffeemaker, then turned to face the two. “Eilahn, please stop giving Ryan nasty looks,” I said wearily. “He’s under my protection.” And, Ryan, you can stop looking at her at all, I thought with stupid, jealous annoyance.

  The syraza slid her gaze to me, then gave a slight nod of acknowledgment. “Lord Rhyzkahl warned me of your association with the kiraknikahl. Forgive me. I should have guarded my reaction with more discretion. I assure you that I meant no insult to your judgment.”

  Great. Now I was deemed a poor judge of character among the demonkind because I hung around with Ryan. This was getting better and better. “Well, you’d better get used to him and learn to get along with him, because he’s my friend.” I flicked a glance to Ryan and was surprised to see him looking at me with a pleased and grateful smile on his face. I found myself returning the smile. Yeah, I had his back.

  I ran my hands through my hair. “Okay, so, I guess I need to get you something to wear.” There wasn’t a whole lot of my clothing that would fit her, except for sweats and stuff like that.

  “Clothing would be appreciated,” Eilahn replied.

  Shit. This would get expensive if I had to provide her with an entire wardrobe. And no doubt she’d be living with me, too. Fuck. I was so not ready for this. If Zack was a syraza as well, was he bonded to Ryan the way Eilahn was to me? I had to assume that, if he was, Ryan was completely unaware of it.

  I
looked at the clock above the sink. Almost five A.M. And me with about two hours of sleep in me. This was going to be a fun day. “Well we’re going to have to find a store that opens early, because we need to get moving on figuring out how to stop the golem before it’s sent after one of us again.” Or sent after someone close to us, I thought with a sudden rush of worry. Tessa’s wards wouldn’t keep the creature out any more than mine had.

  “Hang on,” I said, grabbing my phone and going to the living room. I quickly dialed my aunt’s cell phone number, fidgeting as it continued to ring. She picked up on the fifth ring.

  “Mmmph?”

  “Aunt Tessa? I’m sorry I woke you up,” I said in a rush, “but I need you to go somewhere else for a little while. I’ll explain it all later.”

  “Somewhere else? What are you talking about?”

  So much for “I’ll explain it all later.” I should have known that Tessa wouldn’t blindly submit to my request. “The construct I told you about isn’t stopped by wards,” I told her. “It came after me at my house, walked right through the wards, but I managed to get away from it. We’re pretty sure we know who’s controlling it, but until we stop him and destroy the thing I don’t want to run the risk that you might be a target simply because you ... you matter to me.”

  “Oh, sweetling, that’s such a nice thing to say,” Tessa said, voice still fuzzy from sleep. “But don’t you worry about me. I’m not at home anyway.”

  Fear pierced through me as I flashed back to the hideous moment when I’d discovered that the Symbol Man had taken my aunt. “Where are you?” I asked, voice shaking despite my desire to remain calm. “Are you all right?”

  She let out a low laugh. “I’m quite fine, Kara. I’m at Carl’s house.”

  Relief mixed with embarrassment washed over me. “Oh. Oh, well that’s good.” I smiled weakly. “Okay, well, be careful anyway, all right?”