Mark of the Demon

CHAPTER 27

I didn’t go back to the office. There was no point. Instead, I headed home. Right now all of my focus and energy needed to go into preparing for what was possibly the most important summoning of my life. He was right, I railed, sternly telling myself not to start crying again. Rhyzkahl was right. Ryan was using me. He was too young to be the Symbol Man, but it wasn’t a stretch at all to deduce that Ryan had been working with Peter Cerise, wanting a share of the power that would come with a captive Demonic Lord.

“And he broke my fucking door too,” I grumbled as I entered and locked the back door behind me. Looking down the hall, I had an excellent view of my front door, still barely held in place by a couple of nails. I never had managed to get a sheet of plywood to cover it, but I had plenty of scrap wood out in my shed. I checked the clock in the kitchen. Almost ten a.m., and I had a ton of shit to do to prepare for tonight. First things first. Make sure no one can come in. I pulled open a drawer in the kitchen, removing a hammer and a box of nails. It wouldn’t be pretty, but it would work.

My cell phone rang several times while I was cleaning and preparing. I glanced at the caller ID and listened to the voice mail, and after the third call from the PD with the message to contact my captain I finally relented—partially. I called the dispatcher and asked her to give Captain Turnham the message that I was following up on a big lead and that I was fine but would be out of touch for a few hours. I didn’t want to speak directly to the captain, didn’t want to answer any probing questions about what sort of lead I was following or what I was doing about the Symbol Man or Ryan. There was no way to explain to him that I was doing the only thing I knew to do to stop him. Or at least stop him for now. It’s just buying me more time, I know. Eighteen months to figure out a better plan. I couldn’t even get worked up over the knowledge that I was certainly off the case, and probably out of Investigations as well. Right now the most important thing was to make sure that Rhyzkahl couldn’t be summoned and bound.

I got a call from Tessa, which I ignored as well. I’ll call her right before I summon. I wouldn’t tell her what I planned to do, but at least I would have a chance to talk to her before …

I paused as I sketched the diagram onto the concrete of the basement floor, hand tightening on the chalk. What I was about to attempt was insanely risky—more so than summoning a twelfth-level demon. The magnitude of it was just now sinking in. I was going to summon Rhyzkahl, a Demonic Lord, and I knew I didn’t have the means or power to set any manner of protections that would stand up to him. The only thing I could do was trust in that difficult code of honor, trust that he would spare me because I would—hopefully—again save him from being bound, though this time intentionally instead of accidentally. I couldn’t bind Rhyzkahl or even protect myself arcanely. I could only tell him why I’d summoned him in such an insane way.

But even if I die in the attempt, at least it’ll buy everyone else more time. It wasn’t an easy thought. I’d never wanted to be any sort of martyr, and I desperately hoped it wouldn’t come to that. Protect and serve. Yeah, right. But at least Rhyzkahl wouldn’t be bound by another summoner, and he also wouldn’t be in this sphere unrestrained—which could be even worse.

I shuddered, then forced myself to continue with the diagram, doing my best to lose myself in the tasks of preparations.

I decided that it would be safest to summon the Demonic Lord well before midnight, summoning him before the Symbol Man—and Ryan—could. I heard the hall clock chime nine times as I stood in the basement. Everything was in place. The candles were set out in perfect alignment, the diagram chalked with painstaking precision, the oil and the razor-sharp knife set just beyond the perimeter of the diagram.

I returned upstairs. Now it was time for the mundane preparations. My will was already on the kitchen table, and I pulled a page out of my notebook to begin a letter to my aunt. Of all the people in the world, she was the one who needed to know what I had done and why and who the killers were. Tessa wasn’t a police officer, but I knew that if I didn’t survive this summoning, Tessa would be the next best to try to stop them.

I finished the letter and folded it into an envelope, hand trembling as I sealed it and wrote Tessa’s name on the outside, too aware that the letter was painfully terse. This is going to be fine. I’m still going to be preventing the binding, just like last time. Only difference is that this time I’m aware of it. I slid the envelope underneath the copy of my will, set a mug on top of both, then went to the next step in my preparations.

I turned the water in the shower as hot as it would go, forcing myself to stand under the near-scalding water as I ran through the mental exercises that were meant to calm and aid focus. I wasn’t sure just how much focus I’d managed by the time the hot water ran out, but at least my hands weren’t shaking as much anymore.

Only one thing left to do. The phone call to Tessa. I wasn’t about to tell Tessa the specifics over the phone, but I at least wanted to …

I want to say good-bye, I realized. Just in case. I understood so much more about my aunt now. Understood why she was acerbic and difficult, understood why she rode me so hard. At least I could tell her that I hadn’t screwed up the summoning. She’d probably viewed that as much her failure as mine.

The symbol for the voice mailbox was lit. I hadn’t realized that she’d left a message when she called earlier. I quickly dialed the mailbox to play it back, hoping that she hadn’t called to tell me she was going to be away from her phone for a while.

“Hi, sweetie, it’s me. I just wanted to wish you good luck in your summoning tonight.” She probably thinks I’m summoning Kehlirik again, I thought. Under any other circumstance she’d be right too. “Not that you need it,” the recording continued. “You’re so damn talented. I guess I don’t tell you that enough. I also don’t tell you enough that coming to live with you was the best thing that ever happened to me. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever told you that. And I should have. I whined for too long about having my life upended, but the truth is, I didn’t have much of a life before you came into it.” She gave a small laugh. “Okay, this has become unbearably sappy. Sorry about that. Call me when you finish up. Love you.”

I hit the button to save the recording, a silly smile on my face and a sniffle in my nose. I hit the speed dial for her number, mentally shifting what I’d originally planned to say.

A deep rumbling voice that was most assuredly not my aunt’s answered.

“Greetings, little summoner.”

Cold filled me and my grip tightened convulsively on the phone. That’s a higher demon, I thought wildly. Shit, did Aunt Tessa summon one tonight? But why would it be answering her phone? My thoughts whirled chaotically for a short instant, forcefully denying the other possibilities.

“I would like to speak to my aunt,” I managed to say, more calmly than I had expected to sound.

A soft hiss. “She is indisposed. Perhaps you would care to join her?”

I took a ragged breath. “What have you done to her? Where is she?” No. No. Not Tessa. Not now. Not before I had a chance to tell her …

“Her blood is strong, little summoner,” the deep voice continued. “Is yours as potent? There is another summoner here who would like to find out.”

“Tell Ryan to go fuck himself!” I yelled, shaking.

I heard the demon rumble in his version of laughter. “Come to the outreach center on Seventh Street, and we will use your blood instead of hers.”

I was silent, gripping the phone so tightly I could feel the plastic gouging into my palm. The outreach center. Ryan wasn’t the right age to be Peter Cerise. But Reverend Thomas was, and he would have had plenty of opportunity to peruse Greg’s drawings. And why else use the outreach center?

But if I went there I would be giving up the chance to stop him from binding Rhyzkahl. Shit. “Will you release her if I come?” My stomach churned. He wouldn’t release her. I knew it. He’d use her, and use me, and succeed in the binding.

There was silence on the line, then the demon gave a low growl. “If you come, she will be released.”

“Unharmed?”

“Too late for that,” he responded, sending another chill through me.

“Alive?” My voice broke.

“She will be released alive.”

“Your oath on it?”

“I swear on my essence that, if you come, she will be released alive.”

“Fine,” I said, my blood roaring in my ears. “I’ll be there.”

The line went dead and I slowly unclasped my fingers. The cell phone dropped to the table and I gripped the back of the chair. There was no way I could leave her there. My gaze slid to the door to the basement, nausea filling me. Up until this moment, it had been just a matter of theory that a few more people would die while I summoned. I’d even somewhat accepted that he had Michelle and that she was going to be sacrificed. But now … Aunt Tessa!

The only family I had left.

I wouldn’t be able to summon now. Even if I could leave my aunt to die, my concentration was shattered. I’d never even get the portal open. I had no choice.

I picked up the envelope containing the letter I’d written to her and tore it into pieces. A flare of anger speared through me and I nursed it, drew it in as I let the bits of paper flutter to the floor. The fatalism had returned, but it was different now. I’ll go, I thought grimly as I changed clothes, strapping my Glock onto my belt and my Kel-Tec into my ankle holster. And maybe I’ll die. But I’m gonna do my best to fucking take Ryan and the Symbol Man with me.