by Michele Hauf
“I don’t kill innocents. Only the bad-ass demons you’ve been setting free to this realm.”
“Oh, it’s not just me. You know damn well it’s the familiars that have all the power. Speaking of which…you almost ready, sweetie?”
An agitated meow rent the air, followed by a gasp for breath. A particularly lusty gasp. As if someone were close to—
Max spun and eyed the familiar stretched on the couch. Her back arched as she panted, her shoulders pressed to the cushions. “What the hell?”
Rainier cocked a wink at Max. “You don’t know about the ninth life? When a familiar hits good old number nine they develop a sort of tantric sex power to summon and bridge demons all on their own. Freaky, if you ask me. But it keeps me from having to satisfy her myself. Takes less than ten minutes. And, since we’re both here, I figure it’s time we met the demon who’s been clinging to our insides, don’t you?”
The familiar was bridging a demon on her own? Though amazed, Max gave it no more than a few moments’ thought. If she were bridging the deprivation demon—or whatever the hell it was—then he had to increase his odds of survival. Chaos was never a day at the park.
Swinging the whip high above his head put off the encroaching demons, but not the ghosts. Sigils didn’t keep them back, and the leather glided right through the ectoplasm, leaving them undamaged. But he didn’t worry about the ghosts. They couldn’t harm him.
Rainier tromped over to his familiar and began to chant what Max knew was a summoning spell.
So Max began the ritual chant that would exorcise demons. “Depart then, transgressor…”
Of Exorcism and Certain Supplications. When all he had was time a man had opportunity to memorize the document put out by the Roman Catholic Church.
He was able to swing the whip, nabbing demons in a tight clutch, and break their necks while keeping up the chant. It must be repeated over and over. Power increased with repetition.
Already, the lesser demons were dissipating, shattering or exploding into sulfur clouds. Some surrendered their mortal shells, leaving collapsed bodies sprawled on the parquet floor.
Rainier’s voice increased. The familiar writhed on the couch, close to climax.
Whip extended fully, Max dodged, but an incoming demon hit him square on the chest, stopping his chant. He landed on the floor, arms splayed, his whip skidding across the marble. Kicking high, he brought down his boot on the forehead of the charging demon. The spur cut through the black muscle and flesh and tore its face wide open.
Resuming the chant, Max got to his feet. He tugged the hematite rosary out from a pocket and dangled the silver cross before him. The wounded demon disintegrated to demon dust.
A swirl of female ghosts in high wigs and low décolletage clapped and swooned before him. Max stepped through the figments, ignoring the cold tug of their ectoplasm.
The air in the room changed. From the darkness a blue-eyed demon charged, clamping its teeth into Max’s bicep.
Max hissed out, “I command you out, unclean spirit!”
He managed to clamp the hand holding the rosary over the demon’s leg. With a whimper, the demon pried out its teeth and fled, taking all other demons in a hysteric scatter to the far side of room.
It was then Max noticed the ghost who hovered over the iron cauldron. From its hand dangled the cat cage holding Aby. “No!”
Heedless to his plea, the ghost dropped the cage. Water splashed over the cauldron lip. Aby clawed at the wire mesh. Her hysterical meows cut through Max’s heart. The last time he’d walked through her dreams…
She’d dreamed of drowning.
Max raced for the cauldron.
The air in the ballroom grew thick, much like the wax he slipped on. Candles flickered to darkness. The scent of brimstone and smoke spiced the air.
Max bounded and leaped for the cauldron as light snuffed out. Chest colliding with the iron rim, he groped in the tepid water, snagging his fingers in the cage, and tugged it out.
Stumbling, he landed on his knees and the cage clattered to the floor. He fumbled with the latch, opening it and reaching inside to touch the shivering wet creature. Shivering meant she was still alive.
Limbs flailing and claws striking blindly, she struggled as he pulled her out and tucked her to his chest. The poor thing mewled.
Still, the woman’s climactic moans echoed behind him.
Max shrugged off his coat. “Hide,” he directed Aby, and tucked her under the coat. “Get out of here if you can.”
Max could barely make out shapes and shadows in the vast ballroom. He stepped forward, avoiding the fallen bodies. They were innocent mortals, once inhabited by demons.
“I need you over here, Max!” Following Rainier’s shout, the familiar moaned loudly.
“I don’t do the tag-team thing anymore, Deloche!”
He glanced across the floor where he’d set Aby. The coat was gone. No cat, either.
Through the mire of demon dust, a thick fog of charcoal and sulfur particles, Max stomped across the floor and found Rainier standing before the couch. The undulating familiar contorted in near-orgasm behind him.
In Rainier’s grasp, a knife to her neck, stood Aby in human form. Max’s coat hung on her bare, wet limbs. One of the ghosts must have nabbed her for its unholy master.
Rainier tilted back Aby’s head with a fist under her jaw. “You really want to save this one, Max?”
“Let her go, Rainier. We can come to accord on this.”
“I don’t think so. You know what? I’m thinking I want to break what’s yours and take what’s mine.”
“Not very charitable of you.”
“Yeah, well, much as stealing kills you, you gotta know charity gets frickin’ boring after a few centuries. You think I want to give all my money away? There are much better things to do with it than fixing some orphan’s cleft palate or feeding a starving family of ten.”
“Go ahead and summon the demon. Your familiar seems close.”
“She’s close all right, but I need you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I can’t summon the demon into this realm alone. It needs to connect with its shadow.”
“I still don’t get it. You have part of the shadow.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t leave me the freedom to exorcise the thing from myself. So I call it into you, then I can get a wrangle on it.”
“You’ll let Aby go if I agree?”
“Of course I will. I’m not that big of an asshole. I just want the demon, Max. I’m genuinely sorry that means you’ve got to give up the ghost for it, but that’s the only way I can figure to do it.”
Even in the darkness Max could see the brilliant green eyes pleading with him. Green for freedom. She’d given him as close as he’d ever get to elusive desire. He’d been foolish to have entertained the dream of escaping a fate he’d earned well and good.
At least he had known pleasure. And Aby had given it to him.
“All right. Use me as you see fit. But release Aby first.”
Rainier shoved Aby away from him. She stumbled over to Max. “No, Max.”
“It’s the only way you’ll get out of here alive.”
She clung to him, whimpering. He wanted to clasp her hand, stroke her hair, to whisper promises of forever to her. Or maybe just the simple promise of love.
Max forced those futile thoughts out of his brain. “You swear to her safety, Deloche?”
“You have my word.”
“But you’ll die, Max. You can’t leave me alone,” Aby implored. “I love you.”
“Ah, now isn’t that special?” Rainier nodded over his shoulder toward the familiar. “Clock’s ticking, Max. Kiss her and send her off.”
Not needing to be told twice, Max swept Aby up. He kissed her hard. He kissed her as if he’d never see her again. He kissed her as if she were the only woman for him. Because she was. And he couldn’t see a way out of this.
“I’m sorry, Aby.
I love you. The wolf will take care of you.”
“No, I don’t want him to. I’m not leaving!”
Into the darkness Rainier shouted, “It’s happening now, Max, whether or not she’s out of the room!”
The familiar convulsed on the chaise and Rainier leaped around to recite the Latin words Max had memorized for decades. The spell to summon the demon to this realm. A spell that would call the demon to collect its shadow.
The familiar cried out. “Ready!”
Before his eyes the demon manifested from her pores. It clouded above her, but did not take shape.
“My liege!” Rainier called to the demon.
The demon resembled a monster beast of dark fog. It couldn’t completely form until it claimed its shadow from Max and Rainier. And once formed…?
If Max took out the demon now, he couldn’t know the results. The shadow may live on in him ever after, or it may be struck out with the demon’s exorcism. But doing so could also kill him.
A week ago he would have done so willingly to ensure the world was not plagued by the deprivation demon.
His world had changed since then. If Max died, Aby would be alone. And while he’d seen her gain independence he didn’t want to end it now. He needed more time with her. Time to fall deeper in love. Time to know her.
He wanted time to begin anew.
“Max, please.” Her green eyes pleaded with his.
“The vessel is open to you, master,” Rainier announced. He pointed to Max.
“Yes,” Max agreed.
The demon cloud turned to him as if it had just realized Max stood there. Blue glowed in the area where its eyes might be. Its cloudy form ever changing, the muscles shifted and bulged, trying to find shape.
“Aby, shift now.”
“No.”
“If you love me, do it!”
He shoved her away from him. She stumbled, casting a hurt look at him.
“Just do it! Get safe.”
The demon moved over his head. Rainier’s wicked smirk sickened. He had always been the one to go for it all, no matter the cost.
Out the corner of his eye, Max saw the russet cat scamper toward the doors at the far end of the ballroom. Thankfully she’d done what he’d asked. Now she would be safe. The wolf would care for her.
Damn him, but he didn’t want the dog to take care of her!
Turning from the one thing he wanted more than life, Max thrust out a fist. “Take back your shadow,” he called. “If you dare!”
The demon grinned at the challenge. The glimmering dust coalesced and formed a maw that roared. The noise put Max back a few steps. He stepped into Rainier.
“’Bout time you came around,” Rainier said. “Let’s do this!”
Doing this, Max knew, did not involve a friendly reunion or brotherly hug after their shadows had been yanked from their insides. Doing this meant Rainier would have to slice Max’s head from his body to allow the demon escape, because he suspected the man wasn’t going to take the time for an exorcism.
Before Max could protest his unwise choice, he felt icy fingers grip his heart. The demon had plunged a fist into his chest. Now it lifted him bodily from the floor. Boots kicking, he bent backward, his arms swinging at the agonizing pain. The fist opened and the sensation of his insides moving toward the splayed fingers twisted Max’s limbs in agony. He growled, the noise wrenching from his very soul and becoming a battle cry against the heavens that would never admit him.
Yet, the demon did not enter him, as expected. Instead, it yanked out its fist. Blackness scurried over the demonic cloud, taking away dimension and increasing its size. Was it the shadow?
Before he could tell, Max fell to his knees in a near-lifeless heap.
Chapter 22
A by sought safety beneath the heavy Highwayman’s coat. Shivering, she listened with fear as the demon tore into her lover. There was nothing she could do to help Max. Not in cat form.
So she shifted, stretching out her human limbs beneath the coat.
Shuffling her arms into the coat sleeves she then scampered toward the far doors. Buttoning the coat to her thighs, she relished the scent of Max surrounding her. But it wasn’t enough. She needed his arms about her.
But how could she save him from the demon?
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
Aby stepped right into the white-haired familiar. The naked woman smiled, then slashed at Aby’s cheek with razor-sharp claws.
“You bridged the demon.” Aby darted deftly from the woman’s attack. She put her back to the wall and kicked, catching her in the gut. “Don’t you know it’ll kill Rainier, too?”
“Good.” The familiar pounced, fitting her clawed fingers to Aby’s shoulders. “I’ve longed for freedom from that monster. He’ll get his due tonight.”
“He’s kept you prisoner?”
“Five lives long.” The woman yanked Aby forward, and they tumbled to the floor.
Aby’s claws grew out and she slashed defensively and kneed her opponent, gaining moments of freedom before the wily thing pounced again.
“If you help Max get out,” Aby said as her hair was jerked and her head smashed into the floor, “he’ll let you go.”
“How stupid are you? You think he’ll let you live? The Highwayman kills familiars. If he does not, he’ll imprison you like the other highwayman. They are two of the same cloth.”
“No, Max isn’t like that.”
“He’s killed hundreds of your sister familiars. We are a disappearing breed because of the Highwayman. Would you really show them respect by taking him as your lover? You were merely a tool to lead him here.”
“He didn’t need my help to summon the deprivation demon. You did that. You are the one who put us all in danger.”
“That demon is not a deprivation demon. It is a marauder that feeds on the weakness of mortals. It can deprive those most moral or overwhelm the immoral ones with their greatest desires. Either way, the mortal suffers. The demon will sooner kill both men than be trapped whole within one forever.”
She could not accept either fate for Max. She would not. Summoning her strength, she pushed the white familiar. “I have to get to Max. Get off me, bitch!”
Her strength was not enough. The familiar slapped Aby so hard, her head twisted sharply and her temple smacked the wall. She blacked out and dropped to the floor.
On his hands and knees it was all Max could do to lift his head toward the demonic cloud that expanded and coalesced over him. Indeed, the shadow was leaving his body but not without a clawing desperation to remain. It would not be had easily. That surprised Max even as he twisted in agony.
When it was done, he landed next to Rainier, who lay sprawled amid the wax droplets. Had the demon ripped out his shadow, too?
“Rainier?”
“That wasn’t right. It…didn’t enter you.”
There was no time to lose. He reached for his whip. It wasn’t at his hip.
“I do have a backup plan.” Rainier chuckled. He pulled himself to a wobbling stand. “You lost, buddy. It’s my turn now. You know what I can do with the complete demon inside me? Such delicious chaos.”
He stalked to the center of the ballroom, crunching hardened candle wax with his feet.
Rainier thrust back his arms and head. “Come into me!” And he chanted the demon into his body.
The demon was having nothing of it. It hovered high in the ballroom, spinning. It assimilated the shadow it had wrenched from Max and Rainier, becoming whole, stronger. Once complete, it could escape.
Max spied his whip across the ballroom. He made a dash for it. The candelabra rumbled, the crystals tinkling. The demon soared through the iron structure of the candelabra, shaking the metal fixture attached to the ceiling—and the massive thing dropped.
Heavy wrought iron crashed into marble, crystals exploded underfoot. The force knocked Max down and he landed on the floor once again.
He’d missed being crushed by a foot.
Much as the demon clawed in the air, trying to keep away, it could not resist the pull of the summoning chant that would enslave it within Rainier’s body.
The snarl of a cat alerted Max. He closed his eyes, trying to pick up Aby’s scent. She was no longer in the ballroom. He couldn’t get a fix on her.
“Please let her be alive.”
The demon clouded before Rainier. It was too late for Max to wrangle it. He’d have to do this the hard way.
He reached out for his whip, clutched it securely in his hand. Stomping across the ballroom, Max swung his whip high. He brought it around and around as the demon permeated Deloche’s body, entering his pores.
Rainier turned a blue-eyed glowing gaze on Max. “To adventure,” he growled.
The whip caught him about the neck. Blood spilled from the razor slices.
Rainier fought against the restraint, his palms opening at the razors. “Max,” he choked. “Whatever happened to us? We were partners!”
With one tug of the whip, the razors sliced through flesh and bone. Rainier’s head tumbled to the floor.
Max stood heaving over his fallen cohort in crime. “To danger.”
Reaching into his pocket, he produced the silver demi-écu and flipped it through the air. It landed on Rainier’s chest. Sulfur spewed from his body.
The demon formed, quickly taking shape. It was now complete, yet disoriented.
Max wielded the whip in dangerous circles, slashing through the form, cutting the demon into shreds that fell in a rain of demon dust to the floor and over Rainier’s body.
One final crack of the whip took the demon’s head and cut it in two.
It was done. The shadow was gone from him. The demon had been destroyed.
Coiling up the whip, he took but a moment to say a blessing over Rainier’s remains. Then he turned and dashed for the opposite door. He had to find Aby. He searched the darkened hallway and found her body. Motionless and cold.
Falling to his knees, he lifted her head gently. She didn’t rouse.
“Aby, no. Please don’t be dead. Oh, God, I couldn’t protect her.”
He held her against his chest, his hand supporting the back of her head. Her arms hung slack at her sides; he couldn’t feel her chest moving against his.
