Mark of the Demon

CHAPTER 19

I drove fast, ignoring the way that Ryan clutched at the door handle as I took the corners. After the sixth time his foot came down on the floorboards, though, I snapped, “The brakes over there don’t work!”

Ryan made a mock-panicked sound. “God help us all, Kara! We do have to get there in one piece, you know.”

I tightened my grip on the wheel. “Do you have any idea how amazing it is that this girl called me? I can’t run the risk that she’ll get scared or get tired of waiting for us and leave. There’s too much that she can tell us!”

Ryan scowled. “I know. I have been in law enforcement for a while.”

“Yeah, but were you ever a regular cop, or have you always been a Fed?” I winced, regretting the words as soon as they left my mouth.

“What difference does it make?” His reply had some heat behind it.

I grimaced. “I’m sorry. It’s just that so much of what I do is dealing with this underlayer of society. How much experience with that do you guys get?”

“I’ve been with the agency for ten years now. I worked in social services before that for four.” His tone was clipped. “I know how to talk to regular folk.”

“Good. That means you can understand why I want to get there as fast as I can.” I whipped the car around a curve, skidding to the side in a maneuver that unnerved even me, then straightened it out at the last second to avoid slamming into the curb. My pitiful Taurus shuddered as it found traction again, reminding me that it was not a performance vehicle.

He let out a sound that was close to a growl. “If we get into a wreck, we won’t get there at all.”

“Fine!” I said, slowing down a bit though not wanting to admit that he might be right. But I knew I was being a jerk. I was getting too caught up in the excitement of it, and I was being careless. Now was not the time to get hurt in a stupid way. Plenty of time later to get hurt in non-stupid ways.

Vaughn Street was about half a mile away from the outreach center, though the general quality of the neighborhood was the same. I’d come through here the night after speaking with Tio, handing out pictures and doing my best to encourage people who shunned the police to help me with my investigation.

There was no one in front of the diner when we pulled up—not a huge surprise since it was after three in the morning. Even the drug addicts and prostitutes usually found a place to sleep by this hour. I got out of the car, scanning the area, listening for any sign of others. The stores were all closed and dark, and even the diner was silent, with a hand-lettered sign in the window that announced that they opened at six a.m. The waxing moon reflected off the store windows in mute reminder of how much time we had left to find the killer.

Ryan exited the car, closing his door softly, as did I. “We might be early,” he said, voice low.

“Or she might be watching us from somewhere,” I said, scanning. “I told her to stay out of sight until she saw us.” The back of my neck prickled. Someone was definitely watching us. My intuition told me that much. The whisper of arcane brushed me again, and goose bumps sprang up on my skin.

“Something’s wrong,” I whispered. Ryan looked at me, frowning. I eased my gun from my holster, pulse beginning to quicken. Every small sound or scrape seemed preternaturally loud. Out of my peripheral vision I could see Ryan pulling his gun as well.

“I feel it too,” he said, voice almost too low to hear.

The piercing shriek from above gave me barely enough warning to throw myself to the side.

“Ryan! Demon! Take cover,” I managed to yell, even as leathery wings buffeted me, knocking me sprawling. I kept hold of my gun, though, and rolled quickly to my back as I tried to see where the creature had gone. It was a demon, that much I knew, but there’d been no chance to see what manner of demon I was up against. A higher demon wouldn’t have given itself away, I thought frantically. But it had wings, so it had to be at least seventh level. With any luck it was merely a kehza.

Merely. Ha. I couldn’t see a damn thing, nor could I hear the beating of wings, though I knew that the creature was strong and fast and, if it was diving, there was no guarantee I would get a warning the next time. I scrabbled back toward the doorway of the diner, wanting something solid at my back. I swore under my breath. Heavy metal gates across the glass front doors barred any hope of escape in that direction. But at least I was in a slight alcove, which meant that the demon couldn’t dive down on me. Unfortunately, I was also cornered.

“Ryan!” I called. “Are you all right?”

I heard him curse, then he came around the side of the alley and sprinted to me, crouched low, gun in his hand and eyes wide. But, to his credit, he didn’t look panicked. He just looked like a man who had believed in something for a long time but had finally been presented with unavoidable evidence that it was real, whether he wanted it to be or not.

He reached the alcove and huddled up in the sparse cover, scanning the area. “I’m all right. Where is it?”

“I can’t tell. I’m hoping it’s a kehza, a seventh-level demon.”

“Are they easier to kill?”

I gave a humorless laugh. “Sure, the way Everest is easier to climb than K2. All demons are incredibly fast and deadly, but if it was a twelfth-level we’d have serious problems.”

Ryan opened his mouth to speak again, but an inhuman shriek interrupted him. The demon suddenly dropped down in front of us, snarling around a mouthful of jagged teeth and grabbing at us with clawed hands. I let out a startled yelp and fired twice. The demon shifted with a speed that was otherworldly, somehow evading the projectiles, then leaped back into the air, leaving behind a sour-sweet smell like rotting flowers.

I gasped for breath in the sudden silence, the sound echoed by Ryan as we both hurriedly checked ourselves for injuries. Though not as large as an eleventh- or twelfth-level demon, a kehza was still plenty dangerous—about the size and build of a human, with a face that bore an uncanny resemblance to a Chinese dragon, skin of iridescent red and purple, and plenty of sharp teeth and claws.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Ryan breathed. “I’ve never seen anything move that fast.”

“They’re fast,” I agreed, though I’d never realized they were that fast. It had fucking dodged a bullet! “But I was right. It’s a kehza.”

He slid a narrow-eyed glance to me. “And this information helps us how?”

“Oh, it doesn’t. I think the only way we’re going to wound it is if it gets distracted and one of us is able to shoot it.”

Ryan frowned. “How many shots will it take to kill something like that? Where’s the best place to aim?”

“Well, you won’t be able to kill it,” I said, still scanning anxiously. “It’s not from this plane, so if you deal it a mortal injury, it’ll return to its own plane and re-form there. It … discorporeates.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Is that really a word?”

I gave a bark of laughter. “It is now. Basically you’re just doing a really harsh dismissal ritual.”

“Well, sending it back to its own plane is good enough for me.” Ryan scowled, scanning the skies. “Otherwise, it looks like we’re trapped here until it decides it’s tired of playing with us.”

I shifted my grip on my gun. “Shit. I can’t figure out what it’s doing. If it really wanted to kill us, we’d be dead.”

“Well, I’m not going to just sit here.” He looked longingly over at my car, which sat so invitingly a mere fifty feet away. It might as well have been a mile. “No chance we can make it to the car, huh?”

“Yeah, right,” I scoffed. “Go for it, tough guy.”

“Well, you did say that one of us needed to distract it.” He smiled without humor.

I scowled at him. He had no idea what we were up against. “No, I said that it needed to be distracted. Not necessarily by one of us.”

He continued to scan the area. “Do you see anyone else here wanting to help?”

My scowl deepened. “You don’t realize how fast these creatures can be.” I rubbed my eyes with my free hand. “This is stupid. You’re right, we can’t afford to be stuck in here. We don’t know if Belle is anywhere near here either.”

“Yeah, I have a bad feeling about that,” he murmured, expression dark.

I let out a shuddering breath. Had the demon already taken her? Then what was it doing attacking us? But it easily could have killed us by now, so maybe it’s just stalling us. I didn’t have any answers. I only knew that I was blowing it again and another victim was going to die. “Cover me,” I said, and before Ryan could form a protest, I took off running toward the car.

I heard the whoosh of air and I dove to the side, not thinking about tactics, just hoping that random evasion would work the best. Wings slammed at me and I went rolling, seeing teeth and claws as a line of fire seared my shoulder. A clawed hand seized my wrist in a grip of iron, then abruptly released me, sending me sprawling. My gun went flying from my hand as I tucked, but I heard gunshots anyway.

An agonized bellow erupted above me. I rolled, scrambling to get my back against the car as I saw the demon hit the ground in a crumpled heap, bright white light streaming from two places in its chest. It shrieked again, pushing up from the ground as the light spread and widened, then it collapsed, the shriek dying into an almost piteous whine.

I pulled myself to my feet and the demon lifted its head shakily, locking eyes with mine.

“Sssummoner,” it said in a weird, hissing croon, then the light flared to blinding levels and I heard the earsplitting crack of a dismissal. When I could see again, the demon was gone, with just the smell of rotting flowers and ozone lingering.

I looked up to see Ryan running toward me, his face a mask of fury. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he yelled, grabbing me by the shoulders and giving me a shake. Then he released me so suddenly I almost fell. “Christ, you’re hurt!” he exclaimed, looking down at blood on his hand.

I blinked at the sudden change from furious to solicitous. As if his words were a switch, my shoulder started to hurt. “Crap. Yeah.” I sighed and craned my head to look at my upper back by my shoulder. “I don’t think it’s bad, though.”

“It’s going to need stitches.” Ryan scowled blackly. “What the fuck was that stunt? That’s not what partners do!”

I hunched my shoulders unconsciously under the verbal barrage. “Sorry. I was thinking that the demon was keeping us there long enough for Belle to be grabbed.”

Ryan swore under his breath again and jammed his fingers through his hair. “Yeah. Okay. But, next time, fucking tell me. I mean, give me some warning other than ‘Cover me!’ I was fucking reloading!”

I winced. “Sorry. I’m not used to this partner thing. You’re right.”

He blew out his breath. “No. No, it’s cool. I’m sorry I yelled. Its full attention was on you, which made it possible for me to shoot it. We need to get you looked at, though, and see if our girl is still here.”

“We’re probably gonna have help in a few minutes,” I said, as I retrieved my gun and holstered it. “I’m sure someone around here will call in the fact that they heard gunfire.”

Ryan scanned the street, then looked back at me. “How are we going to explain this?” he wondered aloud. Then he let out a colorful oath. “You’re bleeding pretty badly. Where’s your radio?” He took me bodily and pushed me down to the curb.

“I’m all right. It just got me with a claw.” Now, as the adrenaline wore off, I was starting to feel it more. I could also feel what would soon be a bruise on my wrist where it had grabbed me. It grabbed me and then let me go. It had what it needed. “Radio’s in the car,” I said. Then I gave a rough laugh. “Good place for it, huh? Though I don’t know how I would have called this one in. ‘Officer needs assistance, under attack from demon.’”

“That would go over well,” he replied dryly. He reached inside the car and grabbed my radio out of the charger and a T-shirt out of my gym bag.

“I need to call something in, quick,” I fretted. “Something to explain why I got hurt and why we fired shots.”

“Got it covered,” he said with a smirk as he lifted the radio. “Agent Kristoff, Dispatch. Unit 723 and myself in foot pursuit of burglary suspects, headed down”—he paused, glancing at the street sign on the corner—“Vaughn Street at Alfred Drive, southbound. Shots have been fired.” He spoke in an unbearably calm voice, eyes on me. Then he lowered the radio, picked up a brick from the gutter, and heaved it through the diner window.

I groaned and dropped my head. “I cannot believe you just did that.”

“You want to tell them we were fighting a demon?”

I shook my head, laughing. “You’d just better hope that there’s no video surveillance on any of the businesses on this street.”

“Oh, shit,” he said, suddenly chagrined. He glanced up and down the street, then relaxed. “I don’t see any. Probably why he chose this spot. Wouldn’t want his demon to get caught on tape.” He gave me a quick grin, then keyed up again. “Agent Kristoff, Dispatch. We’ve discontinued foot pursuit. Officer in need of assistance. Subjects last seen headed southbound.

“Before all the troops arrive,” he said, as the sound of sirens became audible, “can we expect any more of these nasties?” He handed me the radio and pressed the shirt from my gym bag to the bleeding wound on my shoulder.

“Highly doubtful. It’s almost impossible to summon and hold more than one demon at a time.”

He sat down beside me on the curb, holding the shirt to my shoulder. “You know, this kind of sucks ass,” he said, tone jarringly conversational.

I laughed. “Ya think?”

He gave a wry smile. “No, I mean, you … we … can’t be honest about what we saw, which means that we can’t get help trying to find who sent it after us.”

“Yeah. That definitely sucks.” I rubbed at my face with my left hand. “A little extra manpower would be damn useful right about now.” The summoner would be tired, I knew, and a little shaky from having his summoned creature sent back. He was fucking vulnerable, and there was nothing I could do about it.

But that wasn’t what had me so unsettled. “He wasn’t trying to kill us.”

Ryan arched an eyebrow at me. “Oh? He was doing a damn fine imitation.”

“No. If we were meant to be dead, we’d most likely be dead.” I could hear the wail of sirens grow closer. We probably had less than a minute until the backup units arrived.

Ryan’s brows drew together. “So what was it doing?”

“I think … it was assessing me.” I fought back a shiver. “It grabbed me—just for a heartbeat—and then let me go. And right before it ‘died’ here, it called me ‘summoner.’”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” he said, voice nearly a growl.

“Me neither, but a few things make sense now. The bodies being dumped where we could find them, the sigils around Greg’s body—I think all of that was to see if I was a summoner.”

“Then why send the demon?”

I rubbed my arms. “To see how strong I am, I think.”

“I’m pretty damn uneasy about why he might want to know that.” He gave me a grim look.

The backup units came screeching up then, and the next several minutes were a barely ordered maelstrom of questions and shouted commands. Somehow we both managed to stick to a vaguely consistent story. I gave a fictional description of the perps, which I prayed didn’t resemble anyone who might actually be in the area, and about a minute later the K9 unit rolled up.

“So, how many of them were there, Kara?”

I raised my good arm in a gesture of helplessness. “Sarge, I’m sorry. I think there were three, but it happened so fucking fast. We rolled up on them just as the brick got pitched through the window. We got into a fight, then a chase, one of them fired on us, we both fired on them, but it was so crazy that I don’t know if any were hit. I didn’t even realize that I’d been cut during the fight until Ryan saw me bleeding.” Damn, but I was pretty good at lying!

The road sergeant glared at me. “Why the fuck didn’t you call it in when you saw it?”

“I did!” I exclaimed with what I hoped was believable fervor. “But my radio got knocked out of my hand during the fight.”

He frowned. “Nothing came over the air.”

“Damn cheap radio system,” I said, adding a scowl for good measure.

He nodded in agreement. “Yeah. It sucks ass. Maybe after someone gets killed, the voters will give us the tax that we need to buy new equipment.”

The one time I can be glad that our budget is so damn low, I thought with vague relief.

A din suddenly erupted from the K9 unit’s vehicle, drawing everyone’s attention. The dog yelped and whined, refusing to get out of the car. His officer was clearly baffled as to why the animal was acting so oddly.

It smells the demon, I thought. And it doesn’t want any part of it. “I think they had a car near,” I said aloud, beginning to despise the need for fiction. “I don’t think there’s a point in doing a track with the K9.”

The sergeant’s gaze was still on the dog. “Yeah. Probably a good thing. Man, I have never seen that dog act like that.” He walked over to the vehicle, and I could hear him telling the K9 officer not to bother. The dog’s yelping subsided instantly once the door was shut again.

“Yep. This sucks,” I agreed in a low voice to Ryan.