by Jenny McKane
“You finally ready, Rosie?” Gabriel teased.
She made a face at him and stuck her hand out in front of Metatron. “The words, please?”
Metatron had written the summoning words down on a piece of paper because there was a chance that Sunny repeating them over and over to memorize them could have some sort of unintended consequence. He couldn’t exactly say what it was, but having read through so much ancient history and a few thousand years’ worth of unintended consequences, Metatron wasn’t taking any chances.
Behind her, Eli and Sin were working together to create a large triangle out of a long piece of black silk chord that Metatron had produced. It was the only way that Sunny could summon these demons and keep them bound until they’d reached an agreement. The demons wouldn’t be able to either harm Sunny or step out of the triangle as long as Sunny stayed still.
She glanced at the shape on the ground as it came together. It gave her about five feet across at its longest point—plenty of space for two bodies, but she had a feeling it was going to feel pretty claustrophobic once Asmodeus arrived.
When it was complete. Sin and Eli took a step back and Sin admired his work.
“That is one straight triangle. I should get a picture of it…” he was saying as he reached for his cellphone.
“Leave it,” Eli barked and Sin dropped his hands, taking a step back.
Tension radiated from Eli and Sunny knew it had to do with her.
Casting a look over her shoulder at Gideon that basically said give me a second, she walked to stand in front of her mentor and friend, looking him square in the eye.
His blue eyes pierced her with their unwavering gaze and emotion behind them, startling Sunny. What on Earth was this about?
“It’s okay,” she said simply, but Eli didn’t move. He was a statue standing in front of her, just staring in her eyes and not responding.
“I promise,” she said, not really knowing how she could promise a thing like that. “It’s going to be fine and we’ll figure this out as we go along.”
He swallowed hard at that and finally spoke.
“There has to be another way,” he said quietly and Sunny looked past Eli’s shoulder to find the archangels watching them. Metatron looked patient and calm, probably concerned for everyone’s emotional well-being at the moment. Gabriel had a quizzical look on his face as he watched their interaction. Like he was watching something nobody else was. Gideon had his back toward her, facing away. Odd.
“Don’t abandon me and I’ll be fine,” she said, mostly meaning it as a joke. She knew Eli wouldn’t, but she was also a little scared that he’d get so frustrated with her antics that he’d bail on the team if this went to the dogs.
“Never, Sunshine,” he said vehemently, startling her. “I’ll never abandon you.”
She watched Gideon’s muscles tense as Eli said it, obviously listening in on their conversation. What had just happened?
“I know, and I thank you for that,” she said. “Now I need you to stop brooding over here and give me some sort of fake encouragement because if you’re not with me, I might as well stop right here. I need your help.”
He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but closed it quickly and nodded.
“You know I’ve got you, Rosie,” he finally said. “Let’s do this.”
With everyone onboard it seemed, the last person necessary was Sunny herself. She sucked in a deep breath and blew it out before reaching in her front pocket and pulling the silk pouch out.
She put the paper with the summoning spell between her lips as she drew the signet ring out and put the pouch away. Suddenly incredibly nervous, Sunny couldn’t make eye contact with anyone as she stepped across the boundary created by the black cord.
“Hold your ground, Sunshine,” Metatron said from somewhere behind her. “Don’t let him fool you. You hold all the cards.”
“Show him who’s boss, Rosie,” Gabriel added.
Sunny just nodded. Her hands were nearly shaking as she got a grasp of the ancient ring and suddenly wondered what she would do if the thing didn’t fit right. Would it be faux pas to use Scotch tape to make it fit right?
Her worries were for nothing as she began to slide it over the middle finger of her right hand. As though the Seal were made just for her, it moved smoothly over her skin.
A sudden burst of cold wind ripped the paper from her mouth and she watched helplessly as it was carried up over her head and away with a second gust.
“Shit,” she swore, ready to panic. At that moment, a buzz settled over her hand, warm and sharp. It had to be the magic of the ring adjusting to her—maybe even testing to see if she truly was the last Solomon. Had any of them thought what might happen if they’d been wrong and she wasn’t the last one? Would the ring and its magic think she was some sort of imposter and punisher for the gall of donning the Seal of Solomon when she had no right?
As she was about to turn to Metatron for help with the words she was supposed to utter, she stopped in her tracks. She heard a voice, a deep, male voice whispering from somewhere in her consciousness.
Aperio. Aperio. Appareo. Asmodei.
Sunny frowned and looked around to see if anyone else heard the voice, too? They were looking at her, apparently unaware that someone was whispering in her head.
Aperio. Aperio. Appareo. Asmodei.
“I’ll go jot the words down again,” Metatron said, but Sunny stopped him.
“There’s no need,” she said, turning back to face the water. Knowing this was one of those rare moments in life that was a clearly defined “before” and “after,” Sunny took a moment to take in her surroundings. The cold air. The turbulent, choppy water out in the distance, complete with dark, gunmetal gray water and whitecapped waves. The sounds of her friends shifting their weight behind her, obviously aware something was shifting in the air.
Without a chance to second guess herself, Sunny let the words come forth.
“Aperio. Aperio. Appareo. Asmodei,” she half-whispered, scared that this would really work and worried that it might not.
The air inside the triangle shifted, heating up as a form began to materialize. From somewhere deep within her, Sunny recognized Asmodeus without needing an introduction. He looked so familiar to her, yet she knew she had never looked on his face before.
He was tall, very tall. He stood more than a head taller than Sunny and studied her down the straight, prominent nose on his face. His skin was a dark caramel color and his hair ebony black. His eyes were black, too, at the moment. He was still in full newly-woken demon mode and Sunny couldn’t help the jolt of fear she felt being stuck inside the triangle with a full demon stuck in full demon mode.
Asmodeus’ hair was wavy and hung to his shoulders and he had a groomed mustache. He wore a black silk shirt and black dress pants. His look was completed with Italian leather shoes, also black. She understood the lust part—he exuded sexuality.
“The last of the line, I suppose,” he said by way of greeting. His voice was deep and low, like a thick, rich cup of coffee and he gave Sunny a once over—appraising her. “I’ve been waiting for you to summon me.”
Chapter Twenty-two
The demon Asmodeus looked beyond Sunny to the group assembled behind her.
“Human, demon rabble,” he muttered, moving his eyes from person to person. “Ah, two archangels. I’m impressed, young lady. Hello, Enoch. Gabriel.”
“The name is Metatron, thank you very much,” Metatron grumbled at the demon. “You well know it, too.”
“Perhaps,” Asmodeus said with a shrug. “I’ve been dead so long I can hardly remember who is who in this great tragedy we’re actors in.”
Sunny had the feeling the demon was putting on airs. He was probably grittier and tougher than the fop personal he was working hard to build.
“I need you to help me raise the four generals,” she said, cutting through his next words. He raised an eyebrow at her and closed his mouth.
“You dare interrupt me when I speak,” he scoffed. “Not even your ancestor, the ruler himself…”
“Zip it, Shakespeare,” Sunny snapped. Part of what she was doing was trying to show the demon that she had a backbone, as she’d been instructed, but something about the way he’d immediately dismissed her rankled her, so putting him in his place hadn’t been so hard, after all. “The generals. We need to talk about whether or not you want to free yourself from your prison by helping me. That’s all I want to hear from you right now—if you’re not interested, I’m going to send you back and be on my way.”
Asmodeus narrowed his eyes at her and was silent as he considered Sunny. Was he measuring her up? Planning on ripping out her throat the first chance he got? She couldn’t be certain but the longer he was quiet, the more uncomfortable she became.
“Tell me, Solomon,” Asmodeus finally said. “What is your name?”
Sunny swallowed a lump in her throat. She’d demanded all of his attention and she suddenly had it—and it made her nervous. Power radiated off Asmodeus.
“Sunshine,” she said simply, willing her voice not to waver.
“And what is the year?”
“2018,” she said. He frowned, looking around. “The world has changed.”
He didn’t say anything and looked around again. She would imagine he must be feeling some sort of shock—it’d been nearly 3,000 years since Solomon’s reign ended and Asmodeus’ freedom was forfeited. He was going to have a hard time adjusting.
“You there,” he motioned to Sin. Sin looked up, confused. “What is that thing in your hand? Is that a scroll? A tablet?”
Sin looked to Gabriel who just shrugged.
“It’s a phone,” he said, clearly confused by what the demon wanted.
“Is it a technology?”
He was asking Sunny.
“A technology? Yes. It’s how we communicate throughout the world. Where we can access information.”
That caught Asmodeus’ attention.
“Hand it to the Solomon,” he instructed Sin.
Again, he looked at Gabriel, who motioned for him to do so.
Sin took a few steps forward and begrudgingly handed his smartphone across the cord to Sunny. When she turned back to Asmodeus, his palm was outstretched. She dropped it into his hand.
“To turn it on, you need to…” but Sin didn’t need to finish.
The demon’s fingers were a blur as they not only unlocked the phone but accessed the Internet. His eyes grazed over page after page of content, faster than Sunny could keep up with what he was doing or reading.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Silence,” the demon hushed her, holding his hand up.
He sped through the Internet like a blaze and after two minutes, he set the phone back into its sleep mode and handed it to Sunny.
“You may return it to the cambion,” he said with a flick of his wrist.
Sunny’s blood boiled at the way he was talking to her like she was a servant, but she did what he instructed and placed Sin’s phone back in his eager hands.
“Interesting,” he said, his eyes back on Sunny.
“What did you just do with the phone?” she asked warily. She was almost worried that he’d infected it somehow and Sin was now in danger.
“I uploaded all of your knowledge into my brain. It’s a talent of mine, manipulating technology. How do you think I managed to build that temple in so short a time? You think Solomon had enough brains to make it happen? Hardly.”
“You just read the entire Internet in less than two minutes?” Sunny practically scoffed.
“Not all of it, no,” he shrugged, acting bored with their conversation. “Just the history and the modern vernacular. Oh, and I transferred my money from the savings account my majordomo held for me while I was gone. I’m actually quite rich now. Go figure.”
She felt like Alice who had fallen down the rabbit hole and was now having a discussion with the Cheshire Cat. He was confusing and didn’t follow the normal rules of adult conversation.
“The generals,” Sunny insisted, finding her wits and refocusing. “Will you help or not?”
Asmodeus sucked in a breath just as he made a jewel-tipped cane appear along with a heavy black pea coat and a bright red scarf that wrapped around his neck. His power was returning, it seemed.
“Help you?” he asked, considering her words. “I don’t give a rat’s ass about you, Solomon, but I am interested in helping myself. So yes. We’ll summon the generals. We’ll rally a fight against whatever idiot thinks they can raise another doomsday event and then we’ll be free from one another forevermore. Deal?”
He stuck his hand out to shake on it, but Sunny was having a hard time understanding if they were really striking up an accord or not. Was there some loophole in his words that she was missing? What was this? She looked over her shoulder at Metatron, as much as she hated to. And he nodded, encouraging her to do it.
Looking back at Asmodeus, she saw that he was grinning at her.
“Using Enoch to make decisions for you? Smart girl. He was always among the wisest,” he said. “Except when it came to his own family and their run ins with demons.”
The meaning was lost on Sunny, as she’d never heard Metatron mention his former life or any demonic entanglements, but it was added to her mile-long questions list. Someday she’d ask.
His hand was still extended, so she slipped her hand inside his and she felt the power of the ring surge through them both, stinging and shocking her.
He hissed.
“Bloody hell, I hate that damn ring,” he said, using a bit of British vernacular.
Sunny laughed, despite herself.
When the agreement had been made, the black silk cord vanished into the air and Asmodeus stepped across the former boundary and looked around.
“That’s Chicago?” he asked, pointing to the city skyline in the distance. Sunny nodded. “And it’s under siege from supposed terrorists?”
Again, Sunny nodded.
“Right, well, we can’t go there,” he said, walking toward the SUV. “I’m going to need to make a few stops along our journey. A few things I need to pick up before we start our recruitment push. Are you all ready to begin?”
Sunny told him they were, and it was true. They’d packed up their belongings from Tammer Park and were now ready to head west to Phoenix, the first of their summoning stones. It was a group of West stones that they could use to summon the first of their four—Agares.
In an astonishing move, acting like he had been part of their little band this entire time, Asmodeus climbed into the front passenger seat, effectively stealing shotgun from Gabriel. For his part, Gabriel just rolled his eyes and grabbed a seat in the middle next to Eli. But Sunny had hardly been able to keep her jaw from hitting the floor.
Metatron started the vehicle and pulled out of the lakeside park and onto a main highway.
“Where are we going first?” Asmodeus asked.
“West,” Metatron replied and the archdemon nodded his assent.
“Good choice, starting with Agares,” Asmodeus said. “The other three are a little, shall we say, intense and probably have only gotten worse being locked up for three millennia. Have you warned her about Beleth yet?”
Nobody spoke and Sunny tensed. Gideon’s arm was along the back of her seat behind her and he gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
“Someone should probably warn Beleth about you,” he whispered.
She let out a noiseless laugh.
Once they had cleared the Illinois state line, civilization returned to the towns and cities they drove through. Five hours into the trip, they car pulled over in St. Louis and Asmodeus disappeared inside a national bank branch.
“What the hell is he doing?”
Sin asked the question, a tone of amazement in his voice. The cambion was obviously fanboying hard after Asmodeus’ apparent swag. “How could he possibly have any business inside a
bank?”
“He’s always been a schemer and a technophile, even when the technology involved cranks, levers, and giant stone boulders,” Metatron said. “And the one thing he’s even better at than technology is picking good followers. His followers would walk through infernos for him, of that I have no doubt.”
Gabriel and Metatron surmised that the entire time he’d been “asleep,” Asmodeus had help in the demon realm keeping his kingdom moving forward. While he might not have been there to reign in person, his persona was kept alive and whatever money and gold he’d been in possession of had probably evolved with the times. The archangels had no doubt that his keepers had likely used investments and stocks to build a fortune for the lust demon.
An hour later, Asmodeus sauntered out and pointed them to a mall.
“I need to make a few purchases and the rest of you can have something to eat before we get back on the road,” he said casually, ignoring the tension in the air.
“I hardly think it’s the appropriate time to go shopping,” Eli ground out from the back but a quick shake from Metatron’s head stopped any more protests.
“It’s fine,” Metatron said, following Asmodeus’ directions.
Sunny couldn’t imagine how he’d gotten the lay of the land so fast, but he had. In no time, they’d parked in an underground parking garage and found themselves wandering through a three-story mall.
It was nearly dinner time, so the guys had no problem mobbing the food court.
As Sunny was about to find herself something to eat, Asmodeus intercepted her.
“I need your help,” he said. “And it wouldn’t hurt you to upgrade your wardrobe, either. You’ve got an impression to make on these generals and looking like this probably won’t do it.”
Sunny was going to protest, but when she glanced down, she saw that her track pants were stained, probably with demon blood, and her tennis shoes didn’t exactly match. When had that happened? One was charcoal grey and the other black? At least they were a matching set as far as left foot and right foot were concerned.
She looked up and caught Metatron’s eyes, asking the question am I safe?