Secrets of the Demon

Chapter 4

By the time we gathered witness statements and dealt with the club owner it was nearly four A.M. At this point I was insanely glad that we’d driven to New Orleans in the same car—and not mine—because I was feeling too muddle-headed and fatigued to drive back to Beaulac. Ryan had obtained an SUV, since it had been necessary to transport Skalz from my summoning chamber to New Orleans. I’d taped black paper to the inside of the windows in the back and crossed my fingers that we wouldn’t get involved in any accidents. Skalz had not seemed to care. He’d curled up in the back like a giant, nightmarish cat and had remained quiescent for the duration of the drive.

I was also glad that the three of us were in the car together, because it kept Zack from tattling to Ryan about what the zhurn had said before I’d dismissed it. I knew Zack would tell Ryan soon enough, but right now I was too tired to deal with his reaction. Hopefully, it would also save me from having to be anywhere near Ryan when he found out that there were some in the demon realm who might not be pleased me with me. I’d seen him angry and upset before. It wasn’t pretty. Therefore, as a defensive measure, I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep.

And what would Ryan say when he found out? He sure as hell wasn’t a fan of Rhyzkahl—he’d made that quite clear on several occasions, though he’d also failed to explain how he could possibly know enough about Rhyzkahl to form an opinion of him. But there was more to Ryan than met the eye. The demons seemed to know him, and the reyza Kehlirik not only recognized him, but had reacted to him with open hostility. And shortly after that Ryan and I had been attacked by a kzak, a creature from the demon realm used as a weapon or assassin.

Though we never had learned which of us that attack had been meant for.

Kehlirik had called Ryan a kiraknikahl, or oathbreaker. The creatures I summoned, though known as demons, were not creatures from “hell,” nor were they inherently evil in any way. Instead, they lived within a complex social structure—they were utterly self-serving, yet they subscribed fully to a complex code of honor. Demons could be devious and calculating, but honor was key to every interaction and exchange, and breaking an oath was a damn big deal.

Yet I had absolutely no idea what kind of oath Ryan had broken—whether the demonkind had been involved, or if it had been related to something else entirely. And even though I was fairly sure that Rhyzkahl knew something about Ryan, so far I’d been unable to get the demonic lord to give me a straight answer. Rhyzkahl was obligated to answer two questions a month for me, but I had to be very careful as to how I asked the questions. I’d discovered that if Rhyzkahl didn’t want to answer a question he would find a way to answer it while still evading it, and I’d wasted several questions that way.

Of course that was another source of tension between Ryan and me. In order to save Ryan from having his essence devoured, I’d struck a bargain with Rhyzkahl: I’d sworn to be his summoner—agreeing to summon him once a month for the next three years—and in return he would answer two questions for me to the best of his ability.

It had been three months since we’d struck that deal, and I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. Rhyzkahl had some reason for wanting access to this sphere. I knew that. He hadn’t pushed so hard for the bargain simply because he wanted to see the sights. But in the three summonings since then he’d done very little upon being summoned.

Well . . . other than the crazy sex.

I kept my eyes screwed shut, glad that it was dark in the car because I could feel myself flushing at the memories. Holy shit, but the demonic lord was skilled.

He stroked the back of his fingers across my cheek. “It has been long, dear one.”

I leaned into the caress without thinking. “You are too impatient.”

A smile curved his mouth. “What, do you not believe that I ache for your presence?”

I let out a bark of laughter. “You ache for what I can do for you.”

He withdrew his hand. “You are skilled and clever, I will not deny that.”

I waited a couple of heartbeats, then laughed again. “See, that’s where you were supposed to add, ‘But the sight of you fills my heart with joy’ or some sappy crap like that.”

“Is that what you wish to hear?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow.

I shook my head, grinning. “No, because I’d know you were full of shit. That’s not your style.”

A low chuckle escaped him. “You are more perceptive than most. You appreciate directness.” He lowered his head slightly. “Then I will remind you that it has been long . . . twenty-six days since you last summoned me.”

I jerked awake. Shit. Not only had I actually fallen asleep, but Rhyzkahl had seen fit to use the link he had to my dreams to remind me of my duty to him. I scowled. I didn’t need the reminder. I had it circled on my calendar for each month—the last day I could summon him and be within the terms of the agreement.

“Nice nap?” Ryan asked from beside me.

I straightened, hoping I hadn’t done anything obnoxious like drool or snore. “Sorry. I’m kinda wiped out.” I glanced out the window, but it was still dark and I couldn’t make out any landmarks. “Where are we?”

“About half a mile from your driveway. And don’t feel bad. Zack slept the entire way as well.”

I glanced back to see the blond agent with his eyes closed and head tipped back. His breathing seemed deep and regular, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was completely alert.

Ryan blew his breath out. “I tell you, I’d have bet solid money that the threats Lida was receiving were pure bullshit.”

“I know what you mean,” I said with a weak laugh. “Shocked the shit out of me when that thing grabbed her.”

He slowed to make the turn in to my driveway. “Any ideas what it was?”

“It wasn’t a demon. I know that much. Skalz said it was an arcane construct.”

“What, like a golem or something?”

“Yeah, that sort of thing. Inanimate matter controlled by ‘magic’ or arcane power to be animate. Unfortunately, that’s about the extent of my knowledge.” I glanced at him. “Do you know anything about them?”

Ryan shook his head. “Only what I’ve read in stories or seen in movies. So, someone has to be controlling it, right?”

“I would imagine so, but I don’t really know how that works. I have a lot of research ahead of me.” Maybe it was a good thing I hadn’t yet summoned Rhyzkahl this month.

“I wonder if it’s someone in the band,” he said, mouth tightening slightly.

“You mean someone in the band who has it in for Lida?”

His shoulder lifted in a shrug. “I was thinking more along the lines of publicity stunt.”

I considered it for a moment and couldn’t find any reason to immediately discard it as a theory. “It’s possible,” I agreed, “though Lida sure looked terrified. Either she wasn’t in on it, or she’s one hell of an actress. But at this point anything’s possible. Until I find out more about how those things are created and controlled, we’re kinda in the dark.”

“I foresee more interviews with Lida and her band mates.”

I looked back at the supposedly sleeping Zack and chuckled. “Someone’s gonna hate that.”

“Sometimes our duty is tough,” Ryan replied, mouth twitching in amusement as he pulled to a stop in front of my house. I lived nearly half an hour from Beaulac city limits, in a single-story Acadian-style house in the middle of ten acres of woods. The house was several years overdue for repainting, and the driveway would probably need a fresh load of gravel on it before the year was out, but I owned it outright, which helped make it possible for me to live on a cop’s salary. But, more important, it sat on enough of a hill to allow me to have a basement—a rarity in south Louisiana—and that feature, coupled with the privacy the location afforded, made my house absolutely perfect for someone who enjoyed summoning demons in her spare time.

He shifted into park. “You’re going to summon tomorrow night?” He made it sound like a question, but I knew it wasn’t.

“I have to,” I said quietly.

“That’s cool.” He gave a curt nod. I knew he wasn’t cool with it, not in the slightest, but I had to give him points for at least pretending to be all right with it.

He glanced at the clock on the dashboard. “At least it’s a Sunday and you can catch up on some sleep.”

“Then back to the office grind on Monday.” I wrinkled my nose, though I didn’t really mean it. I enjoyed being a part of the task force, but I had no desire to be a full-time fed. I liked being a “small town” cop. Even though Beaulac was the parish seat of St. Long Parish, it was barely big enough to be called a city by census definitions, maintaining a small-town feel that managed to be friendly and homey without being annoyingly insular. The city of Beaulac curved around Lake Pearl and for decades had survived primarily on an industry of sportsmen and weekend vacationers, but that was gradually changing. The area was experiencing a few growing pains as more and more people discovered the “rural charm” of St. Long Parish, especially since the parish was still within comfortable driving distance of New Orleans. But I figured that such things were inevitable, and it would likely be decades yet before Beaulac and St. Long Parish had to worry about the kind of issues that plagued the immediate suburbs of New Orleans.

Besides, this was my home, and I liked being a part of its protection, as corny as that might sound. Sometimes the fact that I was on the task force put me in a bit of a precarious position when it came to office politics, especially when there was a shift in the workload. But, then again, I knew that some of the detectives would find a reason to grumble no matter what I did. I tried to take extra cases to make up for the times when I was busy with task force things, which then earned me the grumbles that I was “sucking up and hogging the good cases.” I’d pretty much reached the point of not giving a shit.

Ryan nodded. “Okay, then we’ll starting figuring out strategy for this whole thing when we’ve all had some sleep.”

I climbed out of the car, and he surprised me by getting out and walking me up to the porch. I almost made a smart-alec remark about how I didn’t think I was in danger of getting mugged in the ten feet between the car and my door, but I restrained myself. We’d been doing a lot of “joking” back and forth lately, and it was beginning to feel forced, as if we were desperately clinging to the friendship portion of our relationship.

“Okay, you and Zack are hiding something from me,” he said, but there was a smile in his eyes. “And I figure it has to be something that the demon told you, and the only reason for you two to hide it from me would be if it had to do with my favorite demonic lord. So I wanted you to know that I’m a big boy, and I don’t want you to feel any more stress about any of this because of me.” He put his hands on my shoulders, and this time his smile was tinged with something that might have been sadness or regret, though I couldn’t tell if it was for himself or me. “I worry about you,” he said, in an echo of what Zack had said earlier, “and I fucking hate that you’re in this situation, but I also know that I have no business judging or make demands on you that will only make the whole thing harder on you.”

I blinked at him, then returned the smile. “Wow. You’re, like, being all mature and shit. That’s kinda scary.”

He laughed, then surprised me again by pulling me into a hug. “You are such a goddamn dork.”

I recovered enough to give him a return squeeze, then he stepped back. He’d started with the “friend-hug that was a little more than a man-hug” shortly after I’d made my oath to Rhyzkahl. I really liked the hugs, but they confused the shit out of me at the same time. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell him to stop. Ryan was solid and muscled, and he smelled damn nice as well.

“Hey, you’re the one who chooses to hang out with me,” I countered. “And I’m not the one who watches Star Trek and all that stuff.”

He heaved a dramatic sigh. “One of these days I’m going to make you watch some quality television.”

I glared at him. “I like my reality shows.” One of my current addictions was a show about preschool beauty queens and their white trash mothers. It was like watching a train wreck. I loved it.

He shuddered. “The horror.”

I poked a finger at his chest. “Right, and you want me to watch some show about a cheerleader who kills vampires.”

“You have no idea what you’re missing!”

I gave a derisive snort, but then I sobered. He knew something was up, so this was probably the best time to fill him in on what had happened. “Okay, so here’s the deal. Skalz offered me protection.”

All humor vanished from his face. “Tell me.”

I did, tempted to skim over the part about my arrangement with Rhyzkahl being “enviable,” but ruefully admitted to myself that it was better to get it all out in the open now. Besides, Zack would tell him eventually anyway.

“And so now you have the dilemma of whether to ask Rhyzkahl to provide protection for you instead,” Ryan said, expression grim.

I exhaled in relief. He understood. “Yeah. Exactly. If I use another demon for protection, I’ll have to negotiate terms. But if I accept it from Rhyzkahl, it seems . . .”

“Like another way for him to keep you under his thumb,” he said, voice nearly a growl.

I nodded.

He started to run his fingers through his hair, then scowled as he realized that it was glued into place with a metric ton of hair product. He dropped his hand and sighed. “I’m glad you told me this.”

I was too, suddenly. I liked feeling that I could trust him. There were times when I really wasn’t sure.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” he said, “but don’t rush into any decisions, all right?”

“I don’t plan on it. I should be able to tell you more Monday.”

His expression briefly tightened at the obscure reminder that I’d be summoning the demonic lord soon, but in the next breath he’d masked it and offered me a smile instead. “All right. Well, get some sleep.”

For an instant I thought he was going to lean down and kiss me on the forehead, but instead he turned and walked back down the stairs to his car. I unlocked my front door, feeling the brush of my arcane protections, comforting and strange. I looked back to see the tail-lights of the SUV retreating down my driveway, then gave a pathetic soft sigh and stepped inside.