A Snake in the Grass

by K. A. Stewart

  “Y ahora! El demonio!”

  A chill ran down my spine, and the souls in my skin fluttered along my muscles in unease. Had he really said what I thought he’d said? I mean, my Spanish a work in progress, but demon sounded a lot alike in many different languages. It’s a name, a fighter’s nickname, surely. He can’t really mean…

  “_______________!”

  Yup…yup, he really did.

  The demon name rang out into the stillness, echoing for way longer than can be explained by bad acoustics, and several things happened simultaneously. The guy directly to my right doubled over, barfing all over his shoes (he wasn’t the only one, by the sounds of it), Sveta took in a sharp breath, and the souls in my skin tried their damnedest to crawl out of me by taking the front of me through the back.

  I hit my knees, swallowing a scream of pain, my vision blacking out completely. I could feel the swoops and whorls of the iridescent tattoos turning into a writhing, agitated mess, every single occupant sending the same clarion alarm call through my tortured muscles. Iron bands wrapped around my chest, refusing to allow air into my lungs, and for just a second I thought I was actually having a heart attack. I was faintly disappointed that something so lame could do me in, and then I realized that it wasn’t cardiac arrest, it was a panic attack and it wasn’t mine. Two hundred and seventy-five souls were having simultaneous meltdowns. The message was very clear, Do Not Want!

  After a while, I realized that Sveta’s voice was low in my ear, urging me to get up, to retreat with her to the safety of the stacks. “Come. On your feet. We must go now.” I blinked the blackness away from my eyes, forcing my way up through sheer stubbornness. Sveta slipped her free arm around my waist, and I fully admit I was leaning on her more than not.

  No one noticed the spectacle we were creating, everyone else also caught up in their bodies’ very natural reactions to the abomination that was demon speech. At least two had fainted, that I could see, and several others will still revisiting their lunches. It took a strong stomach to dabble in the demon tongue on a regular basis, and it didn’t escape my attention that Paulito was way too comfortable with it. Hell, the one time I’d spoken a demon name aloud, I’d ralphed up my sneakers. But he stood calmly in the cleared circle, a small smile on his face as a roll of black fog started oozing out of nowhere.

  It seeped between people’s feet, coiling sinuously through the crowd like a living creature. Twining, twisting, it all ran into the circle of painted symbols, assembling into a rolling, bubbling ball of black smoke. Blight. I don’t know what it really was, but on the real world side of the divide, it was everything that made up a demon. Blood, bone, flesh, all of it was formed from blight, and as the insidious substance poured into the circle, the ball got bigger and slowly started to take shape, creating itself a body.

  I ignored Sveta’s urgent tugging at me, sick dread freezing me to my spot. I had to see. I had to know what it was.

  Ultimately, it wasn’t the scariest demon I’d ever seen. The roil of blight spun faster and faster until it resolved itself into something no taller than my knee, pale-skinned, all scrawny arms and bony legs. Its ears looked like batwings, larger than the head itself, and the eyes were big enough to take up most of its face. It looked kinda like that thing that sat next to Jabba the Hutt, but before I could find amusement in that, it smiled. The mouth was full of shark’s teeth, jagged and black, and each finger and toe was tipped with a viciously curved claw. Tiny did not mean harmless. Right. Got it.

  The luminescent eyes fixed on Paulito, flashing a violent red, and the thing hissed, charging at the young man. I tensed, ready to…do what? I couldn’t even stand up on my own, and I was totally unarmed. The woman beside me, however, was not, and Sveta leveled her gun at the thing, already squeezing the trigger at the moment that the demon bounced off an invisible barrier not a foot from Paulito, and sprawled on its bony little ass. Quickly, Sveta lowered her weapon, tightening her grip on me. “Come on!”

  The audience seemed to be recovering, finding their voices at once as they hooted and jeered at the angry little demon. That only pissed it off more, and it shrieked its fury at a pitch that had everyone wincing in discomfort. It pounded its fists on the invisible wall that held it trapped, and when that was unsuccessful, it raked its claws across the barrier over and over again. Blight rolled off the tips of its nails, scoured away by whatever was holding the demon in place.

  Paulito laughed, almost fondly, crouching down to look the demon right in the eyes. “Sabes que no puedes escapar.” You know you can’t escape, my mind translated. The thing only hissed in response, growling something in its own language that was definitely not an endearment. “Estás listo para intentar ganar tu libertad?” Are you ready to try to win your freedom?

  “Yesssss…. Free me….” I thought for a moment that the thing was speaking English, which just seemed stupid given the circumstances, but after a moment I realized that whatever it was speaking it was something we could all understand. Made sense. What demon wanted to waste its time doing mail order language classes?

  The souls shuddered under my skin at the sound of the demon’s voice, and I swallowed away the oil slick taste that it left at the back of my throat. Look, you guys have to calm down. I can’t walk out of here if you’ve got me all tied up in knots like this. Almost instantly, the pain ceased, my ‘companions’ stilling abruptly. Leaving was obviously high on their list of things they wanted to do right fucking now.

  The crowd was pressing closer now, crowding the magical circle in fevered anticipation, pulling Sveta and I along with it like the tide. Her hand was like a vice on my arm, firmly intent on dragging me the opposite direction.

  “We have to get the kid,” I insisted. “I don’t know what’s about to happen, but we can’t leave him here with that thing.”

  Whatever she said, I’m pretty sure it would have gotten my mouth washed out with soap, but she finally relented, releasing her hold on me. “I have not seen him yet. We must circle around to the other side.”

  “Y el retador!”

  “Wait,” I hissed at Sveta. It was suddenly important to see who else was going to step into that ring. My danger sense may not be functioning as intended, but you just kinda know when something really bad is about to go down.

  There was a scuffle on the far side of the cleared circle, and the crowd parted to reveal two men manhandling a third into view. Whoever the challenger was, he obviously wasn’t a willing participant. His captors had his arms twisted behind his back, and one of them had a hand fisted in his hair, controlling his head. Only when the big thug yanked back brutally on his grip did I get a look at the prisoner’s face.

  Estéban. Of course it was. It couldn’t have been anyone else. His shiner from the night before had darkened into a nasty shade of black, and there was a new cut across the bridge of his nose, proving that he’d put up a fight tonight as well. His dark eyes flashed with contained fury when they landed on his cousin, and he spit blood, the mess landing at Paulito’s feet. “Vete a la mierda.” Definitely not language his mother would have approved of.

  “Now may I shoot someone?” Sveta started elbowing her way through the crowd before I could tell her no, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I just followed in the path she cleared, noting the exclamations of surprise as she roughly shoved people out of her way. Our presence was definitely being noted now.

  Paulito hadn’t seen us yet, and he patted Estéban’s cheek with one of those vicious smiles that is all teeth and no genuine emotion. “Y ahora, campeón, muéstranos cómo se hace.” And now, champion, show us how it’s done.

  “No voy a pelear.” The kid shook his head. I won’t fight.

  “Esto es lo que aprendes en los Estados Unidos?” Paulito sneered. “Para ser un cobarde?” Is this what you learned in the United States? To be a coward?

  Inwardly I winced. If I knew the kid at all, I knew he wouldn’t stand for that. Sure enough, the kid’s lip curled in a snarl, and when Paul
ito leaned a bit too close to leer into his cousin’s face, Estéban jerked against his captors, their surprise earning him enough slack to slam his forehead into Paulito’s grinning face.

  The crowd went nuts, screaming and hollering, and the last few rows between us and the open area surged together tightly, ignoring Sveta pushing at their backs. With a growl, she pointed her gun at the ceiling and fired off three shots, the sound deafening even amidst all the shouting, which immediately went from blood-thirsty to terrified. People hit the ground to take cover, or blatantly turned and ran, and suddenly there was a wide circle of empty space around Sveta and I.

  Most of the audience scattered in panic, but I was willing to bet that the people remaining were all of Paulito’s flunkies. Definitely not a welcoming committee I wanted to deal with. I even caught a glimpse of Reina, Paulito’s girlfriend, watching us from the shadows . Her dark eyes showed no fear, only an odd sort of curiosity, and I had to wonder just what all this girl had seen that a gun-toting maniac didn’t elicit even the slightest bit of fear.

  With a blank expression on her face, Sveta lowered the muzzle of her gun to point directly at Paulito’s head. “Release him.”

  He sneered at her around the blood dripping from his nose. “No hablo Inglés.”

  She marched forward without hesitation, until she could press the barrel of the gun directly between his eyes. “You speak gun. Release him.”

  After a moment, Paulito made a motion with his hand and the two thugs let go of Estéban’s arms. The kid worked the aches out of his shoulders, but he made a show of walking slowing away from his captors, his head held high. Our eyes met for a moment before he dropped his gaze to the floor, wiping blood off his face.

  “Time to go, Sveta.” We only had moments before the remains of the crowd realized that they still greatly outnumbered us.

  She tilted her head, so I knew she heard me, but she kept her gun pressed against Paulito’s forehead, and from his grimace, I knew she was digging the metal into his skin. “Sveta, we have to go. Now.” Again, she refused to respond, and I started to worry that maybe this was going to be the thing that tripped her, the thing that proved she was the stone-cold killer I’d always suspected her of being. “Svetlana!”

  The line of her shoulders shifted ever so slightly, a tiny bit of tension going out of them, and she stepped away from Paulito, gun still leveled, but no longer touching him. “We will not see you again this night.”

  “Come on, kid,” I muttered. “Let’s get out of here before she really does kill somebody.” Silently, he followed at my side as I turned to retreat into the stacks.

  “I seeeeee you!” The screech brought us to a dead halt, the oil slick taste of a demon voice instantly coating the back of my tongue. “I see you, soul-bearer!”

  We’d forgotten about the little demon, but it hadn’t forgotten about us. The creature flailed against its invisible bonds in its excitement, its enormous eyes gleaming bright red. “I seeeee you!!!! I see you! I see you!”

  Only then did I realize that the souls in my back were doing their spotlight into the heavens bit. I could feel them shining like a beacon, brought to the very surface by my own adrenaline rush. There was only so much that Axel’s spell could do to conceal them, and if they were in full display mode, there was nothing that could hide them.

  The trapped critter did backflips and cartwheels in demonic joy, bouncing from its feet to its hands and back. “I see you, I see you!” Over and over, it chanted, and finally Sveta gave me a push toward the stacks again.

  “Go. What’s done is done. We cannot stay here.”

  Boy, didn’t I know it. Guess the cat was out of the bag now.

  Chapter 10

  The ride up the mountain to the Perez home was a tense one. Sveta rode in the back of the truck, watching for pursuit, and the kid stayed hunched into himself, refusing to meet my eyes again. We wended our way up the road in painfully uncomfortable silence, broken only by the occasional wince as I plowed over a particularly nasty bump.

  For my part, I wasn’t sure what to say to him. I was pissed, probably angrier than I’d been in a very long time. The kid knew better. He damn well knew better! What the hell was that year he spent with me for, if he was just going to throw it all away with something stupid like pit fighting against a demon? I was going to smack him upside the head. Twice. I might even dump him on his scrawny little ass just to get my point across.

  Being angry with Estéban and planning how I was going to kick his ass when we got home was easier than letting my mind mull over the other development of the evening. My secret was out, just like I’d feared for the last few months. Everything I’d dreaded was about to come true. Sure, the little rat in the summoning circle was low down on the demon ladder of power, but that only meant that what he knew could be taken from him. Some bigger demon was going to roll up on that little bat-eared piece of crap and squeeze him until his head popped, and then they’d all know. Things were about to suck. A lot.

  The second we parked in the driveway, Estéban bailed out of the truck, heading for the house at a nice clip. I was out right behind him, not even bothering to slam the door shut.

  “Stop!” He froze at my barked command, probably more out of ingrained habit than anything else. “Get your ass back here.” Reluctantly, he turned on his heel to face us. “Just what the hell was all that?”

  “It was nothing.”

  “Nothing? Summoning demons is nothing? How long have you been doing it, Estéban? How many demons did you bring into the world?” I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and gave him a good shake to make sure I had his full attention.

  “None!” His eyes flew up to mine, and he grabbed my wrist in both hands, but didn’t try to escape. “I didn’t summon them, I swear to you. That is why they beat me, last night. Because I would not give them any demon names. They know only a few, and they thought that I would know more.”

  “You don’t know any names.” The one demon fight the kid had actually been in, the demon had been on scene before the kid arrived. He’d missed the traditional calling, so while that particular demon’s name swam around in my head as I thought about it, the kid was clean.

  God, if he’d known, though… What that bunch of rank amateurs would do up against something like the hell hound we’d fought… The thought sent a chill over my arms, and the souls swirled lazily in response. It had taken two of us to bring that hulking beast down. That monster would tear through that fight club like they were made of wet tissue paper.

  “I know. They didn’t believe me.”

  Sveta hopped down out of the truck, landing lightly on her feet as always. “If you knew this is what they wanted, why did you go with them again?”

  He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, parts of it stiff with matted blood. “I thought if I went with them, I could stop this. Find a way to end it. But this time, they wanted me to fight it. I refused. And…well that’s when you showed up.”

  “You should have said something, kid. You know that, right? There’s no shame in calling for backup for something like this.” I gave him one more shake and released him, scrubbing my hand off on my jeans. Damn, my skin still felt oily from just being within earshot of that ratty little demon.

  “I thought… He is family, Jesse. I had to try.” I got it. I truly did. Didn’t mean I was happy about it.

  “What were you supposed to fight for? Someone’s soul?”

  The kid shook his dark head. “No, there was no contract, no wager. The demon fights one of the men, and if it wins, it is freed from the circle. That is all. Last night, he called the same one, and the man defeated it.”

  I exchanged a look with Sveta. “Something doesn’t smell right. It could just poof out of that circle any time it wanted, why would it need to be freed?”

  “But the barrier was real,” she pointed out. “It scraped its nails on it, and was damaged.”

  “I don’t know the spell he used to bind it. The symbol
s weren’t familiar to me, they’re not ones that Mamá taught us.”

  I filed that away as something that would definitely need more investigating, sometime when we weren’t barreling toward the darkest part of the night. Before I could pry anymore, however, the light over the kitchen door flicked on, momentarily blinding us all.

  “What is happening out here?” Carlotta stepped into the courtyard, her robe covering her nightgown. “Estéban? Jesse?”

  The kid cast me one pleading look, and I just snorted. “Oh hell no. This is on you, you tell her.”

  “Tell me what?” Carlotta’s ‘mom’ look was instantly focused on her son. The kid, easily towering a foot taller than his mother, just ducked his head and started a mumbled explanation in Spanish I couldn’t really follow.

  Sveta took that moment to touch my elbow lightly. “I will begin packing our things, and wake Terrence. We should leave once the sun comes up.”

  I nodded. She was right. We’d be safe where we were for the night, behind the Perez family’s formidable wards, and dawn would chase the demons back to their own world. When the sun spilled over the mountains in a few hours, we had to be ready to go.

  “Qué hizo?!” Ooh, I knew that tone of voice. Estéban had obviously just gotten to the good part of the story. “Jesse! Is this true, what Estéban tells me?”

  I leaned against the truck, crossing my arms over my chest. “Depends. Did he get to the part about Cousin Paulito summoning a demon for the kid to fight, yet?”

  “He did.” Carlotta fixed the kid with a glare that threatened to melt him into a little pile of guilt-goo. “I cannot believe such a thing. Paulito, of all people…”

  I gave a small snort, and then her glare turned my way. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. You knew what they were doing down there. You and Rosaline and probably everybody, ’cause why else would Rosa ask me to go after the kid? Don’t try to act all shocked and offended now.”