The Second Summoning

FOURTEEN

“IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE IT’S OPEN.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Byleth said softly, staring up at the three-story Victorian building. The memory of darkness had left a grimy patina over the red bricks—a discoloration any eyes but hers would assume had been left by modern pollution. Well, the yellow-brown stains eating away at old mortar had been left by modern pollution, as had the patches of filthy, crumbling paint on the pale green trim, the white streaks from acid rain on the old copper roof, and the rather amazing amount of rust on every exposed piece of iron. She sighed and wondered why darkness even bothered.

“Maybe I should go in with you.”

“Maybe you should mind your own friggin’ business.” She unlocked the seat belt and shoved open the door with the same angry motion, uncertain of just who she was angry at. I ought to suggest that he put it in gear and then drive into something solid, but why waste such a cool car. She considered telling him to park by the lake and walk out until he found a break in the ice. Or to jump off the top of a building. Or to take in a Britney Spears concert. Well, she might not be able to touch enough of the darkness to manage that last one, but all the rest were perfectly feasible. Standing on the road, still holding the car door, she examined her options.

Leslie/Deter ducked down far enough to see her face. “Be careful.”

“Whatever.” No point in wasting diminishing resources on such a loser, not when there was a world of dark potential at her back. Muscles straining, she pulled at the heavy door and was astonished to hear her own voice just as it closed. “Thanks. You know, for the ride.”

Gratitude?

Eww.

Spitting wasn’t enough to take the taste out of her mouth. This was so the last time she was manifesting in Canada.

Clutching her open coat more tightly around her, Byleth waited until the car disappeared around the corner before turning toward the house. The God-pimp was just the kind of guy who’d hang around to make sure she was all right. “As though he could do anything about it if I wasn’t,” she sneered, climbing over a ridge of snow and up the nine uneven steps to the porch. There was a door down an equal number of steps in the area, but a teenager breaking into the basement of a guesthouse might be noticed by the neighbors while a customer, even a young customer, approaching the front door would not— knowledge not from the dark end of the possibilities but overheard last night in the mission dorm. If things went her way over the next couple of hours, there were a few other bits of overheard information Byleth looked forward to trying out—although she wasn’t entirely certain what a funchi, key caz star boi was.

The door was unlocked.

The old-fashioned brass knob turned silently.

There’d be a Cousin inside. A Cousin who’d have been able to sense her since this morning when that idiot angel had so unexpectedly changed. A Cousin who had to know she was close. Who could be waiting, ready for her, just inside.

I can take a Cousin.

Palms suddenly damp, she hesitated, wondering why she was leaking. She could take a Cousin. Couldn’t she? At the precise moment she made form out of darkness, she could definitely have taken a Cousin, but for every moment after that, she’d been changing. Or, more precisely, the body had been changing her. Into what? That was the question. Suddenly racked with very undemonic insecurity, she froze.

I don’t even know who I am anymore. This was such a stupid idea.

It took a cold wind blowing in from the lake to get her moving again. Freezing was fine as a metaphor, she decided, pushing open the door, but in the real world it sucked big time. So maybe she couldn’t beat a prepared Cousin—no matter how pointless the whole stupid thing ended up being, it was infinitely preferable to spending another moment feeling like imps were jabbing icicles into her ears. She got enough of that back home.

It wasn’t significantly warmer inside the guesthouse.

The lobby and the tiny office behind the long wooden counter were empty of everything except a rather pitiful looking desk and an old rotary dial phone. Either the Cousin whose presence permeated the building had set a trap closer to the memory of Hell, or he hadn’t thought her much of a threat.

Byleth’s fingers curled into fists and her mood flipped a hundred and eighty degrees, insecurity trumped by insulted pride. That’s just fine, she snarled silently. If you want a threat, I’ll give you a threat.

Tossing a disdainful glance at the hunter-green walls—so yesterday’s color—she moved quietly down the hall, allowing instinct to guide her. After it guided her to the kitchen, which decidedly had never held a hole to Hell in spite of a rather eldritch pattern of grape jelly spilled on the counter, she started opening doors.

The basement wasn’t that difficult to find.

Given the history of the place, Byleth could think of only one reason for the large metal door across from the washer and dryer, although reasons for it to have been painted turquoise escaped her. A few steps closer and she saw that it was ajar.

This, then, was where the Cousin had set his trap.

“Where to?”

Setting the squirming backpack carefully on the floor behind the driver’s seat, Diana dropped into the cab and slammed the door. “The Elysian Fields Guest House, Lower Union just off King Street.”

“That’s downtown, by the waterfront?”

“Last time I checked.” Given the building in question, that wasn’t entirely a facetious statement.

“The Elysian Fields Guest House?” the cabby repeated thoughtfully, easing his car into the line of traffic leaving the train station’s parking lot. “Bet that’s a name that doesn’t draw a lot of business. Might as well call it the Vestibule of Hell.”

Diana smiled grimly at his reflection in the rearview mirror. “It’s been considered.”

“’Elysian, windless, fortunate abodes // Beyond Heaven’s constellated wilderness.’ Prometheus Unbound, Percy Bysshe Shelley.”

“Gee, and I can’t imagine why my guidance counselors keep steering me away from an English Lit degree.”

“I could also do you a great wanking piece from Henry V,” he told her, changing lanes on Days Road, “but the city’s not sanding as much as they used to and last night’s snow is a bit packed in.”

“I vote you pay attention to the road. You could even speed if you feel up to it.”

“In a hurry.”

“Definitely.”

“Meeting a boy?”

“What happened to paying attention to the road?”

“Just asking.” His reflection frowned slightly. “You got a cat back there?”

“No.” It came out a little fast, but Diana thought it still sounded sincere. The last thing she wanted to do was mess with a Bystander’s mind in a moving vehicle. Okay, not the last thing, but it was definitely in the top ten somewhere between seeing the N’Sync movie and having a root canal. “It’s just a backpack.”

“You think you could get it to stop sharpening its claws on the back of my seat?”

“If she opens the way…”

“It, not she. It’s a piece of darkness given physical form, it’s not a person.”

Ducking back into the right lane to pass a Mazda Miata toddling along at a mere twenty kilometers over the limit, Dean shook his head. “Diana seems some certain there’s a person involved.”

“Diana also believes that The Cure is the best band in the world.”

“They’re decent,” Dean acknowledged.

Trying not to feel old, Claire stroked a comforting hand down Austin’s back, but whether she was comforting him or herself, she couldn’t say. “It won’t be that easy to reopen the site. There were three Keepers involved in closing it, as well as you and Jacques, and it’s not that easy to find a hotel keeper from Newfoundland and the ghost of a French Canadian sailor in downtown Kingston on a Wednesday afternoon during the Christmas holidays.”

“On a Saturday night in mid-January?”

“Not impossible.”

“Demons have their own connection to darkness,” Austin reminded her. “She won’t need to reproduce all the factors.”

“It,” Claire reminded him. “And I know. But all the convolutions should slow it down.”

“Should?” Dean wondered.

“Will. Why are you slowing down?”

“Exit ramp.”

“Right.”

“And there’s a police cruiser on the shoulder up ahead.”

“Let me worry about that.” Reaching into the possibilities, Claire reset the radar gun to the Disney Channel. “You just drive.”

There was no trap on or around the furnace room door.

Standing at the top of the stairs leading down to the bedrock floor, Byleth wet her lips and stepped forward. One step. Two.

No Cousin. So far, no Keepers.

“Oh, sure, ignore me all you want, but I’m not going away.” The slight echo in the room made her sound more petulant than defiant. Definitely the echo…

On the bottom step, she paused, suddenly worried she was about to do the wrong thing.

“Wait a minute.” The smack, palm to head, was a little harder than it needed to be. “I’m supposed to be doing the wrong thing.” Stepping off onto the floor, she walked quickly to where the memory was the strongest and, before yet another mood swing could come along, dropped to her knees, placing her hands flat against the stone. The connection was there, but what should have been a rush of power revitalizing every dark molecule of her being was no more than a mere trickle of low-end possibilities it took forehead-furrowing concentration to feel.

WE’RE SORRY, THE NUMBER YOU HAVE DIALED IS NOT IN SERVICE. PLEASE INSCRIBE A PENTAGRAM AND TRY AGAIN.

“Oh, for…” Both palms slapped down hard. “I don’t need a freaking pentagram, I’m a piece of you!” All the hair on the back of her neck lifted as her anger lent the connection new strength. They were listening down there, no doubt about it; probably arguing about who was going to take the call. “This isn’t evil, guys, this is irritating. Do you want to be released into the world or not? I’ve got better things to do than sit around waiting for you to get your head out of your ass.”

HEY! THERE’S NO NEED TO BE INSULTING.

Byleth sat back on her heels. “Got your attention, so apparently there is.”

YOU’VE BEEN CORRUPTED BY THE WORLD.

WE HARDLY RECOGNIZED YOU.

Hell sighed. THEY GROW UP SO FAST.

“Look there’s a Keeper coming…”

WE FEEL ONLY YOU.

BECAUSE THERE’S NO ACTUAL HOLE, IDIOT.

OW.

Didn’t miss that, Byleth remembered. “The point you’re not listening to is that we don’t have much time so like pull it together into one voice, would you, and tell me how to reopen this thing.”

In the long pause that followed she had the strangest feeling Hell was about to ask if she was sure, if she really wanted to wrap the world in a shroud of darkness and pain. All the world, including the Porters and that axworthy guy in the music store and Leslie/Deter and his car. Which was ridiculous because Hell as a general rule could care less about the opinions of and/or motivations of those who offered it a chance to release chaos.

She bit her lip almost hard enough to draw blood.

Was she sure?

ALL RIGHT, HERE’S WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO.…

Too late anyway.

“It doesn’t look like it’s open.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Diana told him, handing over the last of her Christmas money. “The guy who runs this place is a Cousin.”

“Ah, yes, family, where they always have to take you in. ‘A happy family is but an earlier heaven.’ John Bowring.”

“And this particular family is trying to prevent an earlier Hell.” Backpack on her lap, she slid out the door and straightened. “Keep the change.”

“’There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse.’ Washington Irving.”

Smiling tightly, Diana slammed the cab door. “Get a life,” she advised as he drove off, then she turned and raced up the porch stairs, ignoring Samuel’s muffled protests as he banged against the small of her back. Once inside, she dumped him out on the counter and watched incredulously as he raced to the end, flung himself to the floor, charged across the lobby and halfway up the stairs, spun around, returned at an even higher speed, launched himself back onto the counter, across to the desk, to the windowsill, and back to the counter again.

“What was that all about?” Diana demanded, hoping no one had heard.

“I figured out the legs,” Samuel told her proudly. Turning around, he caught sight of his tail out of the corner of one eye and pounced.

“This is so not the time,” she sighed as he spun about like a furry, orange, and not terribly coordinated dreidel. “The demon is in the building. Can’t you feel the dark possibilities opening?”

Head spinning, Byleth struggled unsuccessfully to make sense of the information Hell had just passed through their tenuous link. “Let me guess,” she muttered peevishly, wishing she could rub both throbbing temples, “those instructions were translated from the Japanese by someone whose first language was Urdu.”

CLOSE.

“They don’t make any sense!”

THEY DON’T? After a moment Hell cleared its throat in a vaguely embarrassed sort of way. UM, THAT’S BECAUSE THEY’RE ACTUALLY THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR HOOKING UP THE CABLES BETWEEN A DVD PLAYER AND A DIGITAL TELEVISION.

“Would they make sense if I had a DVD player and a digital television?” she snapped.

NOT REALLY, NO. HANG ON, WE’LL TRY AGAIN.

“That Cousin who’s supposed to be here…”

“Augustus Smythe.”

Samuel’s fur felt as though someone had been standing on a nylon carpet stroking him the wrong way and he had to keep fighting the urge to run up the walls. “He’s not here.”

“You can’t smell him?”

“Oh, I can smell him. But he’s not here.”

“He’s probably bleeding in the basement,” Diana decided, wincing as the cat dropped to the floor with an emphatic double thud. “The blood of the lineage is the fastest way to open a dark hole.”

“At least we know she hasn’t got it open yet.”

“Actually, we don’t know that for sure because my brilliant sister never bothered to remove the dampening field around the furnace room.” Leading the way to the basement door, Diana zipped her jacket back up, wondering why it was so cold. “Okay, full stealth mode until we see how far things have got. We don’t want to spook her into destroying herself.”

“Or the world.”

“Yeah, that too.”

Having hit every possible red light since they got off the highway, Claire was considerably less than happy as she reached into the possibilities to change the light at Division and Queen. “It’s almost as though something was trying to prevent us from reaching the guesthouse in time.”

“Gee, I wonder what that could be,” Austin said dryly. “Or maybe we just should’ve left the highway at Sir John A. MacDonald Boulevard like I suggested, thereby missing the downtown traffic.”

“Nothing personal,” Dean told him, accelerating through the intersection and not even slowing as Claire changed the light at Princess Street, “but it’s some hard to take driving suggestions from a cat.”

“Why?”

“You don’t drive.”

NOW GO RIGHT.

“My right or your right?”

YOUR RIGHT.

“There?”

OH, BABY…

“Oh, stop it,” she muttered, unamused. She’d been pouring all the darkness she had left in her into the stupidly convoluted pattern that sealed the hole, and although she’d thinned it to a thread, it was nearly gone. There might not be enough, even though she could now feel Hell trying to force its way to her from the other side.

“They’ll be sorry.” It was meant to be a snarl. It sounded more like a whine. “They’ll all be sorry.”

“Who’ll be sorry?” Samuel asked, whiskers tickling the edge of Diana’s ear.

“Standard teenage riff when attempting to destroy the world,” she explained, crouched down and peering around the edge of the furnace room door. “So what happens if you two touch? Do you blow up? Like matter and antimatter?”

“I don’t think so.”

“You don’t know?”

His tail lashed. “Hey, I just got here four days ago. You’re the one maintaining metaphysical balances in the world, not me.”

“Well, since this is my first angel/demon crossover, you’d better wait here. We’re trying to save her, not lose you both.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Convince her that there’s another way.” She straightened, pushed the turquoise door completely open, and stepped over the threshold.

There was no reaction. Not from the demon. Not from Hell.

Must be really concentrating.

One step. Two.

Maybe I should just try and knock her off the site.

Three steps. Four.

Then I sit on her until she listens to me.

Five steps. Six.

Just wish I knew what to say.

Seven.

The black-haired girl kneeling in the center of the bedrock floor, palms pressed against the stone, looked up, onyx eyes locking on Diana’s.

Say something, you idiot. Claire can’t be far behind you.

“Whassup?”

Byleth stared at the girl on the stairs in disbelief. “Oh, like that is so over. Take one more step, Keeper, and I punch right through to Hell.” Which was total bluff; she’d gone as far as she could, it was up to the other side now.

WORK TOGETHER, GUYS! TOGETH…STOP THAT!

Clearly, she’d have to stall.

“Send me back now, Keeper, and this is the path I’ll take. You’ll be opening the hole for me.”

“Diana.”

“What?”

“My name is Diana, after a great-aunt my mother was sucking up to. I think she was angling for this totally ugly soup tureen. Got a 1915 chamber pot instead. Frankly, I didn’t see much difference. Old ugly is still ugly.” Two quick steps and Diana was standing on the floor, thankful for the thick-soled winter boots that partially blocked the emanations from Hell.

WHAT PART OF TOGETHER DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?

“Hardly your real name,” Byleth snorted. “You wouldn’t give me that kind of power over you.”

“Why not?”

“Duh. Because I’m what I am and you’re what you…” The onyx eyes blinked. “You did. Are you terminally stupid?”

“No. I hate being called Keeper, like I’m an earring or something. And you are?”

“Busy.”

“Yeah, and rude. Do you have a name or what?”

“Byleth.” She hadn’t intended to tell but there was power in trust as well. “Not that it matters,” she snorted, fully aware that the Keeper had been able to read the thought from her face, “only Demon Princes actually have names, I just borrowed this one.”

Diana shrugged. “Seems solidly yours now.”

“No way!”

“Way. You must’ve noticed how the form you’re in has changed you. If all you were was darkness, you’d have had this hole open by now and I’d be talking to you with my head up my ass.”

“I’m not sure you aren’t,” Byleth snarled.

“Nice. The point is, you’re not just wearing flesh, because of the way you created yourself, you’re wearing a fully functional human body, and it’s corrupted you the same way it corrupted…” She resisted the urge to glance over her shoulder toward the basement and Samuel. “Well, you know who.”

“You’re the bitch who changed the angel and exposed me!”

“Yeah, yeah, sticks and stones. Now, shut up for a minute and listen; we don’t have much time!”

Byleth’s lip curled. “Because all Hell is about to break loose.”

“Because my sister is right behind me.”

“Ooo, another Keeper! I’m so scared.”

“You should be. It’s her seal you can’t get through, and she could deal with you in a heartbeat.”

“It doesn’t look like it’s open.”

“That doesn’t matter.” Although the sidewalk and the steps had been shoveled, the driveway and parking lot beyond it had not. Dean pulled up as close to the curb as the snowbanks allowed. “I kept a key.”

“Dean, boy, well done.” The cat beamed at him as Claire shoved open her door. “It’s nice to know that even the most over-ethical has a tiny streak of larceny.”

“Mr. Smythe asked me to keep it.”

Sighing, Austin jumped down to the top of the snowbank. “So much for that bonding moment.”

“Byleth, you’ve become a person, and while you’re not Miss Congeniality, you’re not significantly different from at least half the kids I go to school with.”

“And that’s a good thing?”

“Actually, no, it’s just a thing and that’s what I’m trying to tell you, take away the darkness and there’s a person with the same potentials as anyone else, and that person deserves a life. I want to help.”

“Yeah, right. You’re a Keeper, you’re supposed to stop me.”

Hands on her hips, Diana exhaled emphatically. “Look, if I was supposed to stop you, I’ve have done it by now. Stopped you, sealed the site, and gone for mocha latte. I’m not here as a Keeper. I wasn’t even Summoned, I paid my own way with, I might add, money that could have been better spent on a new snowboard.”

“I should’ve known you were a boarder.” Her eyes narrowed on either side of the strand of hair. “I so don’t see the attraction in careening down a hill in a stupid hat.”

“I so don’t see the attraction in black clothes and bad poetry, so we’re even. Come on! You specialize in lies, you must know that I’m telling the truth. Have I touched a possibility since I got here? If you can’t sense that, Hell can.” Diana gestured toward the floor, keeping the movement as neutral as possible. This would not be the time or place to accidentally trace a sign of power in the air.

Door. Running footsteps. Another door.

Samuel was up on the shelf over the washing machine before the first set of boots appeared on the basement stairs. It was a pure cat reaction and by the time he realized he should have warned Diana, it was too late.

He recognized Claire immediately; not only did she emanate Keeper almost as loudly as Diana did, but there was a distinct physical similarity between the sisters. Beyond that, they shared the intensity that came from knowing they could, singly or collectively, explain British humor. Not to mention save the world. Unfortunately, Claire seemed as intently determined to send him back to the light as she was to send poor, confused Byleth back to the dark, and that made her someone he had to avoid.

Dean, who followed Claire down the stairs only because she held both handrails, refusing to let him by, seemed like the kind of guy who could be depended on to open the door seven or eight times an hour and pass down a sausage or two to keep a cat from starving.

Close on Dean’s heels, Austin stopped suddenly and turned, mouth slightly open. His one-eyed gaze swept over Samuel’s shelf like a pale green searchlight and kept going as though he’d noticed nothing.

Samuel wasn’t fooled. He knows exactly where I am. What do I do now?

There was nothing he could do except tuck in his paws and wait, hoping the possibilities would give him a chance to redeem himself.

“All right, so you’re here because you want to help me stay me. Big whoop. I’m here for the same thing.” Under the red sweater, Byleth squared her shoulders, wishing she could stand and stare this Keeper down but unable to lift her hands from the rock until the link was completed. “When I release Hell, I’ll gain the kind of notoriety that’ll keep me real no matter how things turn out.”

Diana sighed. She recognized bravado when she saw it. It was, after all, something she saw every day at school and occasionally in the mirror. Squatting, so that their eyes were level, she looked deep in the black depths and asked quietly, “Are you sure you want to do that?”

Was she sure? Confused, Byleth wondered how Diana’s question could sound so much like the question she’d thought she heard back before Hell decided to cooperate. Maybe…

Maybe it wasn’t too late.

Then the possibilities opened.

Claire entered the furnace room at a run, not having slowed in any significant way since she’d left the truck. She saw the demon kneeling in the center of the floor, hands pressed against the stone and knew what was happening. When the darkness in the demon reached through the pattern sealing the old hole and touched the ultimate darkness on the other side, all Hell would break loose. Which was an expression Claire had grown heartily tired of.

Banishing the demon down its own power stream and sealing the breach behind it would solve the problem nicely. A few minutes spent reinforcing things, and all but one of the embarrassing complications rising out of Dean’s first time would be taken care of and the other Keepers could just go back to saving the world instead of hanging about in metaphysical chat rooms speculating about her love life.

Halfway down the stairs, she reached into the possibilities.

Her focus split between the demon and the anticipation of dealing with that one remaining complication, she didn’t see Diana until her sister surged up out of a crouch, whirled around, and caught her power, stopping it cold a full three feet from its target.

The room, the house, and a three-block radius grew so quiet no one dared drop so much as a single pin. The point midway between the Keepers began to crackle and hum.

“I can’t let you do this, Claire,” Diana announced dramatically. “It isn’t right.”

Claire closed her mouth so forcefully the crack of her molars impacting could be clearly heard. “What are you doing here?”

So much for dramatic announcements. “What’s it look like I’m doing, doofus? I’m stopping you.”

“From doing my job!”

“From doing the wrong thing!”

“Says who?”

“Says me!”

“Diana, I’m warning you, get out of my way.” Claire’s voice had begun to hold more fear than anger. The last time Keeper had fought Keeper, the fight had occurred on the exact same spot and it had ended with one Keeper lost to darkness. “I was Summoned to deal with this thing!”

Diana squared her shoulders. “Then deal with the thing part and leave the rest of her alone.”

“It’s not a her! It’s a demon! Stop being so stubborn and look at its eyes!”

“I’ve looked into her eyes, which is more than you’ve done, and I know what I’ve seen.”

“You’ve seen what it wanted you to see.”

“You are so wrong. I saw what she didn’t want me to see. I saw someone who, from the moment she found herself in that body, made excuses to act against what she perceived as her nature. To act like a person. Okay, a kind of bitchy not easy to get to know I wouldn’t trust her to watch my backpack, kind of a person but a person. And you have no right to destroy that.”

“She’s seduced you!”

“What? The lesbian thing and a cute girl in a tight red sweater? Sure, I’ve noticed, but I no more let every beautiful woman I meet seduce me than you let every beautiful man.” Glancing over Claire’s shoulder, she smiled up the stairs. “Hey, Dean. And,” she switched a burning gaze back to Claire. “You just called her she.”

“That’s totally irrelevant!” It didn’t matter how much power she pulled, her little sister effortlessly pulled more. “Diana, listen to me. So far the dampening field has contained this little rebellion of yours, but once it gets out…”

“Little rebellion of mine?” Diana rolled her eyes in disbelief. “Claire, I’m serious about this. This is serious.”

“And you don’t seem to recognize how serious this is.” Older sister clearly wasn’t working, Claire switched to older Keeper, her voice cold. “You are betraying everything you’re supposed to protect!”

“Hey, Earth to stick up her butt, I’m protecting what I’m supposed to protect! I’m protecting a person from darkness. And you.”

The air began to buzz and, between the Keepers, grow distinctly brighter.

Just inside the door, Dean had to squint to make out Diana’s face and could only just barely see the back of Claire’s head. “Claire, she’s making a lot of sense. Why not shut this down and listen to her?”

The temperature began to rise.

“She wasn’t Summoned, Dean. This goes against everything we are.”

Diana stamped her foot against the floor in frustrated emphasis. “Claire! We’re not slaves to what we are. We’re as free to make choices as anyone, and I know I’m doing the right thing.”

The vibration started in the center of the light and worked its way through the room.

“You’ll open the hole yourself in a minute!” Claire warned.

“I’m just standing here, you’re the one throwing power.”

“Hello? Does anyone care what I want?” Byleth demanded.

NO.

“I do.” Austin came out from behind Dean’s legs and walked slowly down the stairs, the energy in the room fluffing him out to twice his normal size. He brushed against Claire’s legs as he passed and looked pointedly at a drift of orange cat hair on Diana’s jeans, then sat down just outside the old pentagram’s center. “So tell me, besides the latest Cure CD, what do you want?”

“How did you…?”

He smiled at her. “I’m a cat.”

“But…”

“Let it go,” Dean advised from the top of the stairs.

Byleth looked at him, realized he was nothing more than human but, more importantly, nothing less than human, looked at the two Keepers, looked at the cat, and sighed. “All right. Fine. You want to know what I want? I don’t know, okay?”

“You don’t know?”

“What, are you deaf?”

“Sounds human to me,” Austin declared as though that settled it.

“Well?” Diana demanded, spearing her sister with a dark gaze. “We haven’t got time for DNA evidence. Which one of us blinks first?”

Claire could feel Dean behind her, even through all the building possibilities. This was more than a Summoning, this was her chance to fix things between them. Balance of good and evil aside, if she didn’t banish the demon, they’d be condemned to long nights of playing cards with a cat who cheated.

“Claire, please?”

She had no intention of looking into the demon’s eyes, she knew too well how darkness worked, so she looked into her sister’s instead and saw Diana honestly believed in what she was doing. It wasn’t defiance, it wasn’t sibling rivalry on a grand and possibly explosive scale, it was, plain and simple and totally unexpected, an attempt to do the right thing.

But I was Summoned to deal with the demon.

Would it be enough to destroy merely the demonic?

“Maybe,” she said softly, “we’re both right.”

Feeling her eyebrows singe, Diana smiled, relieved. “I can live with that. Byleth?”

Byleth screamed.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

“Break her contact!” Claire commanded, gathering up the possibilities as Diana released them.

They had no more than a heartbeat before Hell reached her. “How?”

An orange blur raced past before Claire could answer, slammed into Byleth’s chest and, in flash of both black-and-white light, knocked her over backward.

“She’s clear!”

AND SO AM…

Claire hit it first with all the power that had been building against Diana’s block.

NOT YOU TWO AGAIN!

Then Diana slammed the power from the block against it.

WE ARE THE HEART OF DARKNESS; YOU CANNOT PREVAIL.

“Can too.”

“Diana, don’t argue with Hell.”

Together, they backed the heart of darkness down the narrow path, denying the possibilities it represented one after the other, until finally they shoved it right back where it had come from…

THIS IS REALLY STARTING TO PISS ME OFF.

…and sealed the hole tight.

I’LL BE BACK!

AND I’LL BE BEETHOVEN.

SHUT. UP.

OW!

Dropping to her knees beside Byleth, Diana scooped Samuel’s limp body into her arms and peered anxiously into golden eyes. “Are you okay?”

He tried to focus on her face. “I, I can’t feel my tail.”

“Sorry.” She shifted her knees.

“Oh, yeah. That’s better.”

“He’s fine.” Austin laid a paw on the younger cat’s flank. “That was a brave thing you did, kid.”

“It was a dangerous thing,” Claire corrected, untangling herself from Dean’s embrace and coming to stand over them. “Who are you, and where did you come from?”

Diana sighed. “Chill, Claire. His name is Samuel, and he’s with me.”

A set of claws pressed into the sleeve of her jacket, releasing a puff of down. “I am?”

“Aren’t you?”

He rubbed his head against her face. “Yeah, I am.”

Claire opened her mouth to demand more information, but the look on Austin’s face stopped her. She smiled and shook her head. “Welcome to the family, Samuel.” When Diana glanced up, startled, the smile vanished. “You, however, are still in deep trouble.”

“I was…” About to say right, Diana glanced past Claire to Dean shaking his head warningly and said instead, “…wrong. I was wrong to defy an older Keeper in such a way, but there wasn’t time to for anything else. I’m not sorry I did it, but I am sorry we had to clash like that.” Settling Samuel against her chest, she held up a hand. “Friends?”

“I’m still mad at you.”

“I know.”

“This is bigger than taking my bra to school for show and tell.”

“It wasn’t that big a bra.”

“Diana.”

“I know.”

Claire looked down at their clasped hands, unable to remember the actual moment when their fingers had linked. “This is going to take more than an apology.”

“Then tell me what it’s going to take, oh, older, wiser, shorter Keeper.”

“Stop it.” The corners of her mouth twitching, she released her sister’s hand. “You were right and you know it, and there’s no need to be so irritating about it.” Before Diana could disagree, she dropped to her knees on Byleth’s other side. “Let’s just take care of this little problem before she wakes up and puts us through all that…indecision again. I won’t go so easy on you the next time.” But the heavily mascaraed eye pried open was pale gray and the rest of Byleth’s body was equally darkness free. “That’s strange. Samuel knocking her free of the site so unexpectedly must have dragged the rest of it out of her.”

When no one offered any better explanation, Claire sat back on her heels and spread her hands. “So. What do we do with her now?”

“Why don’t I carry her to a bed and we all spend some time thinking about it?” Dean asked, stepping forward. “You two don’t always have to have instant answers.”

“Obviously you haven’t read the handbook,” Diana snorted.

Claire ignored her with the ease of someone who’d spent seventeen years living with a cat. “That’s a good idea, Dean. I’m sure we can come up with something once we’ve all detached a little.”

“I’ll be after putting her in my old room, then.” He slid his arms under Byleth’s shoulders and knees and lifted her easily. “It’s closest.”

Rising with Byleth’s body, Claire reached out and pressed her hand against Dean’s cheek. “I’m sorry I didn’t keep my promise to banish the demon.”

He smiled. “I’m after feeling it’s not going to matter.”

“You think?”

“I do.”

“Yes!”

“Code?” Diana asked, watching her suddenly cheerful sister follow Dean and his burden up the stairs.

Austin shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”

“Uh, Austin, about Samuel.”

“What about him?” He gave her the sort of look that was usually accompanied by small feathers around the mouth.

Suddenly unsure, Diana set the orange cat on his feet and stood. She had a feeling she’d need all the advantage height could give her.

“He knows,” Samuel told her before she could decide how to answer. “He knows what I was.”

“Will you tell Claire?” Diana asked the older cat, hoping he couldn’t sense how anxious she was. “After what we went through with Byleth, if she found out what Samuel was, she wouldn’t want him around. She’d be worried it could happen again.”

“Hey, it’s none of my business how you two crazy kids got together,” Austin snickered, starting up the stairs. “And I think Claire’s going to have plenty of other things to do for the next little while.” Halfway up to the basement, he turned and glared into golden eyes following close behind, looking concerned. “If you so much as insinuate I’m too old to be doing this, I’ll notch those virgin ears of yours.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

“Sorry.”

“So you should be, kid. So you should be.”

Claire was waiting for them at the foot of the basement stairs. “Dean’s just digging out a blanket. Diana…”

“I thought we worked through this?” Diana demanded, folding her arms and lifting her chin defiantly, working the “best defense is a good offense” line. “Look, I know it was your Summoning and I shouldn’t have gotten involved, but you’ve got to admit you were working from your own agenda here and not seeing what was so obvious to me. If I hadn’t stopped you, we’d have lost all the potential Byleth represents.”

“I’m not arguing.” Her tone was so mild Diana braced herself. “I was only going to ask if Mom and Dad knew where you were.”

“Mom and Dad?” It took her a moment to realize the implications. “Oh, no. I got so into stopping you and saving Byleth, I forgot to call.” Patting her pockets, she remembered she’d left her cell phone behind. “Nuts! I’ll have to use the phone in the office.”

Kicking aside the cashews, she raced up the stairs two at a time with Samuel at her heels.

Claire and Austin followed a little more sedately.

“You’re not going to go on and on to her about this little incident, are you?”

Claire shook her head, smiling contentedly. “No need. I’ll let the pros handle it.”

Exiting into the first floor hall they heard a desperate, “But, Mom, I meant to call!” and then giggling.

Cat and Keeper exchanged puzzled looks.

Giggling?

Before they had time to investigate, the only other door in the hall swung open to reveal a small Victorian elevator. Dean and Jacques had repaired it in the fall but when, on the inaugural trip, they’d boldly gone where no elevator had gone before, Claire’d declared it off limits until she was able to study it. Unfortunately, she’d been Summoned away before she had the chance.

A short, gnomelike man stepped out, arm in arm with an elderly bottle-redhead of formidable proportions. Matching his and hers lime-green bathing suits under open parkas and a trail of fine white sand suggested they’d just been to the beach. They stopped short at the sight of Claire and Austin.

“Augustus Smythe? Mrs. Abrams? What…? Where…?” Realizing that shock could keep her stuttering questions she didn’t want the answers to all afternoon, Claire managed to pull herself together. “Never mind. Not important.”

Snorting hard enough to nearly flip his mustache, Augustus Smythe stepped forward. “About time you got here.”

“It is?”

“I should think so. We’re on a commuter plane to Toronto in two hours and then it’s off to sunny Florida.”

“Florida?”

“We have a nice little condo in a seniors building only a block from the ocean.” Mrs. Abrams wrapped both hands around Augustus Smythe’s upper arm and beamed. “You’ll have to come down and see us some time, Connie.”

“Claire.” This was all just a little more than she could cope with right now.

“Don’t contradict,” Smythe warned her. “It’s rude. And what’s more,” he continued, turning his scowl on his companion, “she can’t come see us, she’ll be here.”

“No.” Claire raised both hands. “I’m not…”

“You are. You’re the new Keeper for this whole region. Check your damned e-mail on occasion, why don’t you. There you are, McIssac, I wondered where you’d got to. Figured you wouldn’t be far.”

“Mr. Smythe? Mrs. Abrams?” Dean’s astonished gaze slid off the shelf of lime-green supported bosom exposed in the open parka and wandered around the hall, unsure of where it was safe to alight.

“Hello, dear boy. My, you’re looking well.”

“Thank you, um, you, too.”

She released her grip on Augustus Smythe’s arm just long enough to wave at the elevator. “We’ve been working on our tans.”

“No time for chitchat.” One hairy-knuckled finger jabbed toward Dean…“McIssac here will run the guesthouse.”…then changed direction to jab at Claire. “You’ll take care of the metaphysical from Brockville to Belleville with this as your base. He needs to be more than your love slave, and this area needs a permanent Keeper. Your cat looks like he could use a few less nights sleeping rough, too.”

“He’s never slept any rougher than a Motel Six,” Claire protested.

“It was awful,” Austin sighed.

“No doubt.”

“Just wait a minute.” Her urge to grab Augustus Smythe’s arm aborted when he turned to glare. “Keepers my age don’t get tied to one place.”

“Times are changing. Thanks to modern communications, modern transportation, and spandex, Keepers can get to sites before they grow big enough to be dangerous.”

“I’ve closed dangerous sites!”

“You dead yet? Then don’t argue with me. A century ago, you’d have beaten considerable odds to be alive at your age. But now, fewer Keepers die, more Keepers are alive, the lineage can cover more of the world safely and still have what resembles a life. It’s basic math. Your sister’ll probably spend her first few years closing sites no one’s been powerful enough to close until now. If she doesn’t blow herself to kingdom come first.”

It sounded good. But there had to be a catch. “So eventually the world won’t need us.”

“Did I say people were getting smarter?” He turned to Mrs. Abrams. “Did you hear me say that people are getting smarter?”

She beamed down at him. “I surely didn’t, puddin’.”

“There, see? The dumb asses in this world will always need someone to clean up after them. You’re just getting a chance to live happily ever after while you do it. We’ll get changed and out of your way. Coming, Mags?”

“Coming, puddin’.”

“That was surreal,” Austin observed as the two turned the corner into the office and then disappeared into Augustus Smythe’s apartment.

Strangely uncertain, Claire looked around at the guesthouse—stopped looking around when her gaze got to Dean. “You want to stay, don’t you?”

He shrugged. “It’s your choice, Boss.”

“Our choice.”

About to defer, he suddenly shook his head. “Then, yes. I want to stay.”

“Because you want to be more than my love slave?”

“I never said that. Just promise me something,” he added after a moment, capturing her face in both hands and holding it far enough away from his that he could look into her eyes. “Never call me puddin’.”

Claire shuddered. “I think I can safely promise you that.”

“Hey!”

They moved apart again as Diana and Samuel came down the hall.

“Was that who I think that was?”

“Yes.”

“With…?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“They’re moving to Florida together, Dean’s taking over the guesthouse and, if Augustus Smythe is to be trusted, which, of course, he isn’t, I’m now covering a specific area…” She patted one of the hunter green walls almost fondly. “…based around this very building.”

Diana’s lip curled. “Oh, man, that’s such a happy tie-up-all-the-loose-ends ending I think I’m going to hurl.”

“Take a number,” Austin advised.

Claire ignored them both. “What did Mom say?”

“That I did the right thing and we’ll talk about the rest when I get home.”

“Well, she actually said,” Samuel began and broke off as Diana glared.

“So what do we do with Byleth long term?” she asked, pointedly changing the subject. “She could live here with you, you’ve got the space. I think you two would make wonderful parents.”

Dean blanched. “Uh, better idea.” He pulled out a crumpled envelope. “I found this in her jacket pocket. It’s got the address and the phone number for a Mr. and Mrs. Harry Porter and a note that says ‘if you ever need us, call.’”

“I don’t know,” Claire began.

He handed her the envelope. “The ‘i’ has been dotted with a little heart.”

“Oh, yeah. They deserve each other. Although…” She sighed, frowning at the little heart. “I still don’t like the thought of releasing even an ex-demon into the world.”

“She’ll be going to high school,” Diana reminded her grimly. “Anything demonic she managed to do in the short time she was here, she’ll more than pay for.”

“Good point.” The envelope changed hands again. “She’s your project, Diana, you can do the honors.”

“Okay, but I’m doing it from the phone in Dean’s old apartment, I so don’t want to run into Mr. and Mrs. Scary Old People again.” Pivoting on one heel, she scanned the hall. “Samuel?”

Just as she started to worry, he emerged from the elevator, jaws working.

“Come on, we’re going to go ruin Byleth’s life. What are you chewing?” she asked as they started down the basement stairs.

“Someone left a piece of calamari in that little room.”

“Eww. Don’t eat stuff you find on the floor.”

“I’m eight inches tall. My options are kind of limited.”

As their voices faded, Claire moved back into Dean’s arms, slipping her hands under his coat and grinning at his reaction to the temperature of her fingers. “Now that Hell’s back out of the picture, you really have to put a furnace in this place.”

“I know. Claire, I was wondering…”

“Natural gas is probably cheaper.”

“Not that…”

Her hands dropped lower. “Just as soon as we get rid of everyone.”

“No. Well, yes. Wait a minute.” He caught hold of her wrists while he was still capable of stopping her. “The angel, is it gone, then?”

She nuzzled his neck. “Not exactly. Diana turned him into a cat.”

“Samuel?” Shoulder blades pressed into the wall, he detached enough to look down at Austin.

“Samuel,” Austin told him. “But Diana thinks Claire doesn’t know, so keep it to yourself.”

“Why?”

He shrugged and wrapped his tail around his front paws, managing to somehow look like a small, furry, one-eyed Buddha. “It’s an older sister thing. In an effort to keep a small piece of the high ground, Claire needs to know things that Diana doesn’t know she knows because Diana is so much more powerful. Keeperwise.”

“Okay. But couldn’t this whole thing…”

“No, he’s no more an angel now than that girl’s a demon. They canceled each other out when he knocked her away from the hole.”

“Did he know that would happen, then?”

“Does it matter?” Claire asked.

“I guess not.”

“I wouldn’t worry about him,” Austin said soothingly. “He’s a cat.”

“Which means?” Claire demanded from inside the circle of Dean’s arms.

“Which means—and do you have to do that in front of me?—that he’s still a superior being.”

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