Demon Magic and a Martini: The Guild Codex: Spellbound / Four

by Marie, Annette

  Petrifying fear like I’d never felt before closed my throat. No mythic had frightened me this much. No black-magic rogue. No darkfae. This was something else, something worse.

  It was pure evil. It was death given form, the embodiment of murder and bloodlust.

  As though it could hear my thoughts, the creature’s lips pulled back to reveal huge, flesh-tearing fangs. Its quiet, gravelly laugh echoed down the alley, and it took another step. The beast was toying with us, drinking in our terror as it stalked closer. Even fifty feet away, its suffocating presence filled the alley. I couldn’t breathe through the icy chill.

  Ezra’s arm tightened around me—and I realized the cold was coming from him.

  He grabbed my upper arms and pushed me on stumbling legs until my back hit the locked metal door. Then he forced me into a crouch in the alcove, where I trembled against the frigid steel.

  “Tori.” He took hold of my wrists, his skin like ice. “Tori.”

  I forced my gaze up to his, hyperventilating in rapid wheezes.

  “Listen to me. I’ll keep you safe—I swear I will—but I need you to promise me.” His fingers tightened painfully around my wrists, then he lifted my hands to my face and pressed my palms over my eyes. “Keep your eyes covered. Don’t look.”

  Confusion fizzled through my panic and I tried to lower my hands. “Ezra—”

  He held my palms against my eyes. “Promise me, Tori. Cover your eyes and stay here and don’t move until I come back, or—” He stuttered. “Until I come back.”

  “But—”

  “Tori, promise me.”

  With my eyes covered, I couldn’t see the expression that accompanied his hoarse, desperate command. I swallowed hard. “I promise.”

  He released my wrists. Squeezing my face with my hands, tears wetting my palms, I trembled at his quiet footsteps walking away from me. Alone, cornered in a doorway, my eyes covered, a demon stalking closer.

  Ezra’s steps retreated until I couldn’t hear them, then came the quiet sound of the demon’s deep breathing—close. Much closer than before. Panic swept through me, so potent my muscles convulsed.

  “Tūiranā thē, hrātir. Eshanā paissum adhʾsūv thē.”

  The harsh, gravelly rumble vibrated in my bones, a language I’d never heard before. The demon continued in its guttural tongue, then broke off with a deep growl. The temperature plunged and the orange glow leaking around my hands disappeared as darkness overtook the lightbulb.

  Red light flared, shining through my palms.

  The air, searing with painful cold, turned electric and power scraped across my bones like thousands of tiny knives. The demon barked something in its harsh language, then came the grind of claws dragging across pavement.

  With a sickening thud, flesh struck flesh.

  The demon roared. Thumps, grunts. Crimson light flared again and frigid wind blasted me. I pressed into the alcove, knees pulled up to my chest. Arctic cold clawed at my exposed skin, stealing my body heat. My tears froze to my cheeks.

  Red light blinded me through my hands, then a clanging boom as something hit an overhead door. My instincts screamed at me to look, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t dare. Huddling into a tighter ball, I crushed my eye sockets with the heels of my hands.

  Crack. The sound of breaking bone. A deafening howl echoed off the alley walls, and air boomed with the labored beating of wings. The sound grew distant, then silence settled around me.

  Shaking in my alcove, I waited. And waited. And waited.

  Silence. Nothing but silence.

  Trembling so violently I could barely control my limbs, I lowered my hands. The lightbulb overhead buzzed and flickered, casting a weak glow across the alley.

  Glittering white fractals covered the ground, the damp sheen of recent rain turned to pale ice. Frost coated every surface, and thick crimson blood had frozen to macabre pink. A huge dent, smeared with icy blood, had caved in a steel door.

  Exhaling in a wintry-white cloud, I pushed out of the alcove and onto unsteady legs.

  Ice crunched under a heavy footfall. I spun toward the shadow-swathed dead end. Ezra limped out of the darkness, heavily favoring one leg. His face was splattered with blood and he held a hand over his left eye, covering his scar and pale iris. Blood dripped steadily off his elbow.

  “Ezra.” My mouth formed his name, but only a croak escaped my dry throat. I stumbled across the frozen pavement, reaching for him.

  “I was coming to get you.” His normally smooth voice was a rough, painful rasp, no louder than a whisper.

  I grabbed his arm to steady him—and my fingers slid through slick, warm wetness. Jerking back, I looked in horror at my hands, coated in bright red human blood.

  “You’re hurt.” With those two words, I threw off my helpless terror and pulled myself together. Ezra was injured and it was my turn to be the strong one.

  My purse was gone—lost while we’d been running. I ran my hand over Ezra’s front pockets, feeling for the shape of his phone. With no time for bashfulness, I reached around and grabbed his ass with both hands. He jumped.

  “Tori …” he muttered hazily. Was he going into shock?

  My fingers pressed into the hard shape of a cell. I yanked it out of his pocket and pressed the power button. The screen lit up but a spiderweb of cracks had turned the display into a hideous pattern of black and neon streaks. Useless.

  We needed help. Ezra was limping too much to walk far, and I didn’t know how much blood he’d lost.

  “Hoshi?” I called.

  A breeze washed over me, then a bluish-silver shape appeared. The sylph’s pink eyes glowed faintly, her gecko-like head adorned with two pairs of antennae that ended in little blue crystals. Her body was mostly tail, and her long, sinuous form undulated weightlessly, as though the air were thicker than water.

  “Sorry I dropped you,” I said hastily, relieved she’d followed me even after getting accidentally dumped somewhere. “Hoshi, Aaron is at the guild. I need you to bring him to me.” I squinted, forming an image of the guild and Aaron in my mind, then imagining Hoshi leading him through the alleys to me and Ezra.

  Hoshi touched her cool nose to my forehead and the image replayed in my head. The sylph spiraled around me, then sped down the alley like a fluttering blue banner.

  Throwing Ezra’s broken phone aside, I pulled off my scarf—his he’d lost during the battle. I wound it around his bleeding arm, then tied the limb against his chest in a sling. He was swaying, so I pulled him over to the wall and sat him against it. He finally lowered his hand from his face. His eye looked normal—as normal as the pale iris ever looked—and I wondered why he’d covered it.

  “Hold on, Ezra,” I whispered. “You’ll be okay.”

  He smiled faintly and my heart twisted. I tried to check him for injuries, but he was covered in blood—some his, some the thick, crimson-black demon blood.

  Forcing myself to breathe deep, I scanned the alley for signs of movement—praying Aaron and Kai were at the guild and would come as fast as they could. And praying the demon didn’t return.

  My gaze landed on a dark shape lying on the pavement amidst the splattered blood. For a long moment, I didn’t understand what it was, then I realized it was the demon’s horns—two of the four horns that had risen off its head, shattered at the base. I remembered the bone-like crack before the demon fled.

  How the hell had Ezra done that?

  Swallowing my questions, I pushed myself up and approached the broken appendages. It took a swift but stern lecture to convince myself to touch them. Gingerly picking them up, I speed-walked down the alley, away from the signs of battle, and shoved the two horns deep into a garbage bin. After replacing the lid, I strode back to Ezra.

  He watched me return. Said nothing.

  I crouched beside him, took his hand in both of mine, and waited for help to arrive. He closed his eyes, breathing harshly and sagging forward with the passing minutes. Panic swirled through my gut—then I sa
w the flash of pale blue at the end of the alley. A sinuous shape, accompanied by two human silhouettes.

  “Tori?” a familiar voice called, sharp with alarm.

  “Aaron!” I screamed. “Over here!”

  He and Kai sprinted up the alley, fully geared with their weapons drawn. Hoshi trailed after them. When they reached the frosted ground and saw the battle damage—the dented steel door, cement walls gouged with claw marks—Aaron slid to a horrified stop.

  Kai ran straight to Ezra, sheathed his sword in one quick motion, and flicked on the light attached to his vest. As brightness bloomed, Kai pulled the bloody scarf away. My stomach turned over.

  A triple line of claw marks raked down Ezra’s arm from bicep to wrist, and even deeper gouges in his leg were leaking blood. Ezra cracked his eyes open, pupils dilated and unfocused.

  “Aaron!” Kai barked as he unbuckled his belt. “The others are right behind us.”

  Aaron nodded. As Kai slid his belt around Ezra’s thigh and pulled it tight to stanch the bleeding, Aaron raised both hands. Fire burst from his palms. Swirling steam rose from the pavement and the air warmed to a normal temperature.

  Four people appeared at the alley intersection.

  “Here!” Aaron shouted.

  Drew, Lyndon, Venus, and Sylvia ran to join us. Venus dropped to her knees beside Kai, her brown eyes darting over Ezra as she opened her alchemy kit. He’d closed his eyes again, and I was no longer sure he was conscious.

  “Good lord,” Lyndon said hoarsely, staring at the damage. “What happened?”

  Everyone except Venus, who was pouring a sizzling potion over Ezra’s arm, looked at me. Aaron’s blue eyes were electric in their intensity, and Kai’s dark stare cut with warning.

  I understood: No single mythic should’ve been able to fight a demon and survive. Aaron had melted the frost, the same way I had hidden the broken horns. Ezra’s secrets balanced on a blade’s edge and a single wrong word could expose them.

  “We were walking back from the bakery,” I said shakily. “The demon showed itself … and chased us.” I gulped down the very real panic rising in me, triggered by the memories. “I sent Hoshi for help, and the demon chased us into a dead end. Ezra tried to protect me but … I think the demon was toying with him.”

  I looked at Ezra, slumped against Kai, and lied with all the skill I possessed. “The demon was about to kill him, then it took off. I think it heard you guys coming.”

  Drew whirled around in a panicky circle. “Is it that close? Aaron, did you report it?”

  As Aaron spoke into the mic on his earpiece, Venus closed her bag. “I’ve stopped most of the bleeding, but if the demon threw him around, he might have internal injuries. Let’s get him back to the guild.”

  Drew and Kai loaded Ezra onto Aaron, piggyback-style, and they walked away in a tight cluster. Sylvia pulled me to my feet.

  “You did good, hun,” she murmured, patting my arm. “You did good.”

  I blinked. Sylvia never said nice things, like … ever.

  She kept an arm around my shoulders as we hurried after the others. I glanced back at the caved-in steel door. I’d lied and now I had to hold to that story—but what had really happened? How had Ezra survived the demon’s attack?

  And how dangerous were the secrets that he, Aaron, and Kai were so desperate to protect?

  Chapter Seven

  “And then,” I said wearily, “the demon flew away. Aaron, Kai, and the others arrived a minute later.”

  Cearra, Alyssa, Liam, and Riley listened with expressions ranging from rapt fear to scarcely suppressed disbelief.

  “Just like that?” Cearra asked skeptically. “It flew away?”

  I ignored her since I’d literally just said that.

  Liam adjusted the round sunglasses he always wore. “Why do you think it fled, Tori?”

  I’d repeated my story so many times now—to Felix, to Darius, to an MPD agent on the phone, to four GMs from other guilds—that the details came easily. Considering the authoritative positions of the people I was lying to, I couldn’t afford any inconsistencies.

  “The demon either decided that killing us wasn’t fun anymore,” I answered, “or it didn’t want a big fight right then. Either way, if Aaron and Kai had arrived a minute later, Ezra would be dead. Me too, probably.”

  All five of us glanced across the pub to the healers’ corner. Ezra was stretched out on the second gurney in a weird half-clothed state—one sleeve and one leg of his pants cut off—while the healers worked on his injuries. He’d lost a lot of blood, but the wounds weren’t as bad as they’d looked. Elisabetta had assured me, Aaron, and Kai that he’d be back on his feet in no time.

  “You got lucky for sure,” Cearra said, worry softening her normally acerbic tone. “I can’t believe the demon stalked you guys like that.”

  “Do you think it followed you into Gastown?” Riley asked, nervously adjusting her hair—a mop of wild brown curls that made mine look tame in comparison. “Why would it do that?”

  “If it followed them,” Alyssa cut in shrilly, “does that mean it’s watching our guild?”

  The four mythics shifted uneasily. I didn’t comment, but I suspected the same. How else would the demon have picked me and Ezra out of the crowd like that? It must have followed us, but Ezra didn’t sense its movements until after we’d left the chaotic Halloween crowds behind.

  Riley’s question was the big one on my mind: Why? Why had the demon targeted us?

  “I heard Felix say the police are clearing out Gastown,” Liam said, “but no one’s found any sign of the demon. Do you think it’s watching us again?”

  They all shuddered, and I wondered if they wanted to leave. Like me, they’d been stuck in the guild for almost twenty hours now. It wasn’t safe to go out alone, and the combat mythics were too busy hunting the demon to escort them anywhere.

  The guild door banged open. Aaron and Kai swept in, an assortment of other mythics following them. Kai tossed me my lost purse, and I gratefully stuffed it on the back counter.

  Felix looked up from his computers expectantly.

  “No sign of the damn thing,” Aaron told him. “Who knows where it is, and the Keys are making themselves real obnoxious. They’re all over Gastown.”

  Felix muttered something foul. “I’ll report to Darius. He and his team are heading back this way.”

  The two mages moved toward Ezra and the healers, and I hastened to join them. I slipped between Aaron and Kai as they watched Miles draw a rune on Ezra’s inner forearm. He didn’t have much unmarked skin left—the healers had drawn all kinds of shapes and symbols around his injuries. The gouges from the demon’s claws had healed to thin pink lines, smears of dried blood the only sign he’d been seriously injured.

  “Okay,” Miles said. “Time to wake him up. Ori expergefacio.”

  The rune shimmered, and Ezra inhaled sharply. His eyes flickered open, bleary and disoriented. Miles and Sanjana helped him sit up, then they fed him three back-to-back potions. He gagged on the last one, spilling the green liquid down his chin.

  “Drink up!” Miles commanded. “I don’t care what you think it tastes like.”

  Ezra swallowed the last of it with effort, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “What if it tastes like Brussels sprouts and burnt engine oil?”

  Miles asked Ezra a few questions about pain or stiffness, then patted him on the shoulder. “You’ll feel better once you’ve washed up and changed. Aaron and Kai, help him downstairs to clean up and make sure he stays on his feet.”

  Kai pulled Ezra’s arm over his shoulders and drew him up. Ezra leaned on his friend, limping as they walked toward the basement stairs. Aaron started to follow, then reached back and grabbed my hand. Uh, okay. I’d figured “cleaning up” would involve showers and things, but I guess I was still invited.

  The basement staircase was situated underneath the one to the upper level, the door tucked out of sight of the main pub floor. I’d only b
een in the basement a few times. The main room consisted of exercise equipment and a sparring arena, with shelves of gear lining the far wall. Behind one door was a large alchemy lab, and behind another was a heavily reinforced room for spell testing.

  Eighties action movie posters covered every spare inch of wall space, and Sylvester Stallone’s crazy Rambo stare followed me as we passed a row of treadmills. Kai pulled Ezra into the men’s showers, the door marked with an alien face instead of a men’s room stick figure, and I sat down on the nearest workout bench to wait. Aaron hung back with me.

  I scrubbed my face. “I’m so tired.”

  “Yeah,” Aaron agreed, sitting heavily on the mats beside me. “What a day.”

  My throat constricted and I whispered, “How bad is it?”

  “I think we’ll be okay,” he answered, understanding what I was asking. “Your story is believable, and they’re attributing the damage in the alley to the demon showing off its strength to frighten you two. It’s already proven that it enjoys ambushing and terrifying its victims.”

  I swallowed back the sick feeling in my stomach. “What about the horns?”

  In the few minutes I’d gotten alone with Aaron and Kai before they had to go back out, I’d whispered a high-speed rendition of the real fight and warned them I’d hidden demonic body parts in a garbage bin—evidence that would shatter my fragile explanation of my and Ezra’s survival.

  Aaron shook his head. “We tried to search when no one was looking, but the place was crawling with mythics from multiple guilds. It was safer not to draw attention to it. No one has any reason to search the trash.”

  “This is all my fault.” I pressed my hands together. “Kai told me to keep Ezra inside the guild, but I thought he meant I had to keep Ezra from following you two. I thought it was safe to go to Gastown. Even Felix said it was safe.”