“Ice melt? You summoned me into a circle of ice melt?”
“We didn’t have enough table salt,” Riley explained.
“The new Call of Duty game and a blond,” Jake went on.
I stepped out of the circle. Jake’s voice tapered off into a squeak and he held his paper up in front of him like a shield.
“One circle? Of ice melt? Next time use two circles, of the purest salt, with a triangle inside. Summon the demon into the triangle, with the two circles to reinforce the parameter, and wear amulets of protection. Make sure you have the banish incantation ready to go, and an incantation of no–harm to the spellcaster.”
I moved a few steps closer. “There won’t be a next time, though. You will all die by my hands tonight.”
“Does this mean I don’t get my blond?” Riley asked.
I changed direction and walked over toward him. “Oh you’ll get your blond. She’ll tease you and tempt you. Then as you penetrate her, the teeth in her vagina will tear and shred your cock to a useless, bloody nub. You’ll scream in pain, but you won’t be able to help yourself from doing it over and over again. For all eternity.”
I ripped the paper from his hands, grabbing his shoulders and sent tendrils of myself into him to Own. Then pain exploded in my head and everything went black again.
17
I woke in a garbage bag, tied up with electrical extension cords. I probably would have suffocated, but during transport, holes had formed in the cheap bag. Someone’s parents bought the generic, bulk stuff, and for that I was eternally grateful. I wasn’t sure that I would have been able to consolidate and pull back my spirit self to live inside a corpse while I was unconscious. Tearing my way out of the bag, I shrugged off the electrical cords. I had no idea where I was or how long I’d been out. I was under a bush, surrounded by woods with a steep slope in front of me. I could only assume I’d been driven somewhere in the country, then thrown down an embankment to decompose.
It was a tough climb to the top of the slope where I saw a two–lane road. Which way? And would there be enough traffic for me to hitch a ride, or would I be forced to walk miles before I found someone? I’d been summoned out of my home without a cell phone, without any identification, or money. I had no way to call Wyatt to come get me, and I wasn’t even sure I was within driving distance. For all I knew, I was on the other coast of the country.
I walked for about thirty minutes before I gave up and called the only being I didn’t need a cell phone to reach. It took a few seconds before Gregory appeared. He took in our surroundings in disbelief.
“What are you doing here?”
“I was summoned,” I told him sullenly. “By three teenage boys who got a hold of some scroll out of a museum. I don’t even know where ‘here’ is.”
“And where are these teenage boys?” Gregory sounded amused. “Am I to be reading three more four–nine–five reports?”
“I don’t know where they are.” I kicked some gravel off the road and down the steep embankment. “They knocked me unconscious and dumped my body down a ravine a few miles back. Trust me, if I could get my hands on them, you would definitely be reading a stack of four–nine–five reports.”
It had to have been evening. Yes, the sun was definitely lower in the sky then when I’d first crawled out of my garbage bag. I started walking, and Gregory fell in beside me.
“They thought I was going to give them stuff, like some kind of demonic Father Christmas. Me! One kid wanted a stupid video game. The other wanted answers to a school test. Because evidently it’s easier to summon a demon than to actually study.”
We walked along the deserted road. A cliff rose up on one side, and the ravine deepened on the other. Scrub poked out of the gaps in the guardrails along the ravine side, waving bare thorny branches in the chill breeze.
“What did the other human adolescent want?” Gregory asked.
“A blond with big tits. Now that I can actually understand. I mean, you should have seen this kid. No way was he ever going to get laid in his lifetime without otherworldly intervention. That dude had a legitimate reason to summon a demon.”
Gregory made a sympathetic noise.
“Is this what it’s come to?” I asked philosophically. “Satan? Demons? What happened to the terror, the screaming in the night? Young humans are now asking us to be personal shoppers and pimps. Adults ignore us, or emulate us. I’ve seen humans do things that would make the oldest demon cringe.”
“I know. Terrible, aren’t they?” Gregory had a note of fondness in his voice. I halted and faced him.
“Wait. I thought you hated humans—that you were just doing this Gregori thing out of duty, because you angels fucked things up so badly.”
He looked at me for a long moment then turned his eyes west, toward the golden sun snared in the tree limbs. “I changed my mind. I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things.”
Without further clarification, he continued walking. I scampered to catch up, and we walked, side by side, in a companionable silence. The sun sank lower into the tree line, sending out rays of orange that faded into pink and violet in the darkening sky. Long shadows spread across the empty road. I hadn’t seen a car the entire time I’d been walking. Those teenagers had done a good job; this road was perfect for dumping bodies.
I glanced over at the angel beside me. He seemed peacefully lost in thought. I wondered why he hadn’t asked me what I’d wanted when I summoned him. He was always harping on about how busy he was, how I was distracting him from important duties, yet here he was, just out for a stroll as if there was nothing more important than enjoying the evening sunset with me.
“What angel did you send to Wyatt the other day?” I asked, making small talk.
“Eloa. He’s always happy to do stuff like that, and he gets along well with the humans.”
“That ass–kisser.” Eloa had appeared female last time I’d seen him, like a pouty Marilyn Monroe. “Of course he’d do anything for his Tsith, ” I added, uttering the disgustingly mushy term Eloa used to refer to Gregory.
Gregory shot me a look. “That’s disturbing.”
“Tell me about it. He probably has a little shrine to you in his choir. I’ll bet he practices writing his name as Mrs. Eloa Tsith. Then he dreams of the pair of you with little fat baby angels at your feet.”
“I doubt the last part,” Gregory commented. “Angels can’t interbreed.”
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Angels can only have offspring with demons. There has been no creation since the split.”
Wow. No angel babies for two and a half million years.
“But demons can interbreed. So you all really got the short end of the stick with the separation of our kind, didn’t you? Why in the world would you have banished all of us and basically condemned your own race to extinction?”
“Sometimes painful things must be done to keep true to one’s values. There was simply no compromise on either side of the issue; we chose the only morally acceptable path.”
I shook my head in disbelief. The whole thing seemed so stupid and childish, but, of course, I hadn’t been alive at the time of the war.
“And demons can interbreed, but they shouldn’t,” he added. “Their offspring continue to degrade in vibration pattern. Within another million years or so, demons will be nothing more than animals.”
“So we’re like the hillbillies of the spirit world?” I asked. “Inbred, ridiculed, made fun of?”
“You could be so much more than you are,” Gregory said. “Some of that is because of sloth, some because of improper formation.”
I walked along, feeling self–conscious. I tried to convince myself that this was all very subjective, that the way of the angels was not the only one of value. Still, I felt so puny, so weak next to this angel. An imp. Nothing but a cockroach.
I felt Gregory reach out to me, touching my energy with his own. “You show great promise, little cockroach,” he said, reassuringly.<
br />
It helped. And it also reminded me that this welcome break, this stroll at sunset with an angel, was only postponing all the things I needed to do.
I sighed and turned to Gregory. “Give me a lift home?”
“No.” There was a hint of humor in his voice, as though this was a ritual, a joke we shared between us.
“Seriously? Why did you think I summoned you?”
“Seriously?” he mocked me. “I am not your taxi service. Call your toy to come get you.”
“I don’t have a cell phone. Besides I don’t even know where I am. I could be in California for all I know.”
“Just outside of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,” he informed me.
“Well that doesn’t do me any fucking good when I have no phone, no money, no ID, and I’m walking down a deserted road in the middle of stinking nowhere at nightfall.”
“Figure something out, oh mighty Iblis.”
“I did. I called you so you could give me a lift home.”
“Nope.”
I fumed in silence for a bit. “Fine. I’ll just assume my winged form and fly home. Maybe I’ll grab a few humans along the way for a snack.”
“That’s a long flight,” he said thoughtfully. “And some human is liable to shoot you out of the sky. You’ll wind up stuffed and mounted over a fireplace.”
That was true. Humans were a lot like demons. We would be thrilled to shoot someone out of the sky and mount them over a fireplace. And from what I’d seen in the last forty years, humans truly loved taxidermy.
“Then I’ll fly to the nearest city and hijack a greyhound bus to take me home. I’ll make sure I run a bunch of cars off the road on my way. Maybe plow over some puppies and kittens too.”
“Well, I can’t allow that to happen, can I?” He was making fun of me, that little smile quirking up one side of his lips, his eyes dancing. “I guess I’ll have to gate you home. That way, all the puppies and kittens are safe from your murderous intentions.”
This seemed a little too easy, but I decided to take the offer at face value. I halted and turned, expecting him to grab me like he always did. Instead he remained where he was, arms open, waiting. Waiting for me to come to him. Feeling like this meant something far deeper, I stepped close, pressing myself against him as his arms wrapped around me. We stood there, on the deserted road at sunset, the heat from his power a force even the winter wind couldn’t cut through.
“For this, you will owe me another favor,” he said into my ear. The purr of his voice warmed me. The heat of him burned as he pressed himself against me, both flesh and spirit. I wanted to hold there for all eternity, wrapped up in him, feeling him surround me, feeling him inside me. But I couldn’t let myself be enslaved by my desire for this angel.
“Another favor?” My voice was raw and shaky. “What the fuck? Are you trying to collect the set or something? How many favors does one angel need? And they call me greedy. Sheesh.”
“A favor.”
The seductive pull of him intensified. I needed to agree to this favor, or I’d be agreeing to something else in a few seconds. And I really wanted to. I closed my eyes and inhaled, rubbing myself along him, trying to fill every sense, corporeal and otherwise, with him. He pushed in for a brief, tantalizing second then pulled back, just outside of my reach.
“Do you grant me another favor?” he asked.
“Yes,” I breathed. I’d agree to anything. Anything.
He gathered me in tighter, but instead of the delicious joining I was longing for, I felt an instant of vertigo and saw a flash of light from behind my eyelids. I opened my eyes and we were in my living room. There was a scream, and a bowl of pasta flew across the room as Leethu dove to safety behind the sofa. She peeked over the edge at us with huge eyes. I was relieved and disappointed. He’d hardly pursue angel sex with the annoying succubus watching us.
Wrong. Leethu’s eyes grew impossibly big as he continued to hold me close, laying his energy right on top of mine and joining in a thin edge with mine. I was torn between the urge to reciprocate, and the need to regain control, to push him away.
“Leethu is watching,” I warned him, pulling slightly back.
“Go away,” he commanded. He didn’t even look at her.
Leethu squeaked and darted for the stairs.
“Stop. As your Iblis and head of your household, I command you to stay.”
Leethu froze halfway up the stairs, shooting pleading looks down at me.
“So now you want her to watch?” he teased. “Make up your mind here.”
“No. I want you to leave so I can finish this stupid report of yours.”
He leaned back and looked at me in surprise. “You’re not done yet? What is taking so long?”
I pulled myself out of his arms and gained some much needed distance between us. “No, I’m not done yet. I got summoned, remember? I was just starting when those stupid boys yanked me out of my living room and into a circle. Before that I had to go over to Wyatt’s and kill a demon that was trying to set his house on fire.”
I glanced over at the clock. Eight at night. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“I’ll give you until dawn,” Gregory said, his eyes following mine. “Only because I’ve had such an enjoyable evening, and I’m feeling rather generous.”
I glared at him.
“It’s ample time. You should be energized after your long nap in that roadside ditch. A couple of hours on that report then pop over to Hel and take care of your demon issue then resolve the problem your sister has and get her out of your house. Everything wrapped up by dawn. I’ll show up to collect the report, and make you a cup of coffee while you lob breakfast foods at me, or do whatever it is you do in the morning.”
Still glaring.
He grinned and rubbed a piece of my hair between his fingers.
Nope. Still glaring.
“See you in,” he looked at the clock. “Ten hours.”
Then he was gone and I was glaring at the spot where he had been.
“Ni–ni, he really scares me,” Leethu whined.
“I know, I know.” I looked over at the daunting stack of papers on the table. “I’ve got a lot to do tonight, so can you try to stay quiet and out of sight?”
“He’ll be back in the morning?” Leethu asked. She was clearly planning to be at the farthest end of the house.
“Yes, but hopefully after that we won’t see as much of him for a while.” It was a depressing thought—more depressing than the stack of papers calling me.
I worked all night on that stupid report. It was impossible. The amount of detail, and the questions were absolutely ridiculous. I took a brief break to make a pot of coffee and looked desperately at the hint of pink on the horizon. Fuck.
The sun was full up by the time I felt the burn of Gregory’s presence. I was late. Damn it all, I was late.
“Deadline,” he said. “Past deadline, actually, even with the reprieve I gave you for being summoned by a bunch of teenage boys.”
I wouldn’t have put it past him to arrogantly yank me out of the middle of something to meet an arbitrary angelic deadline. Still, it had been very generous of him to give me an extension.
“I’m almost done,” I told him. “Just fifty more pages left, although I couldn’t figure out section four. I kind of had to wing that one.”
He sighed. “Let’s go.”
“Get yourself a cup of coffee and sit for a bit. Just a few moments more.”
“No.”
“I’m almost done! Just chill out for a bit and I’ll race through these last few pages.” I’d just scribble some shit down and hand it over. I doubted anyone would read this stupid report anyway. Well, that snotty Gabriel might, just to spite me.
He sighed again. “Let’s go,” he said, reaching for me.
“No, no.” I felt the panic rise in me again. “I can’t do that again. I can’t. Please. I’m almost done.”
There was the faint blue again. I think it might be an involunt
ary thing with him. Either way, it was a nice gesture.
“You won’t die. I promise, and, unlike you, I keep my promises.”
“No. I can’t. I can’t.”
“I will stay by your side again. You won’t die.”
“No, please no.”
He frowned, perplexed. “You don’t react like this when we join, and that act requires us to be non–corporeal. We faced terrible risk doing that here, yet you were fine. Why do you panic in Aaru, but not here where there is a chance of death?”
I hadn’t thought of that. When we’d angel–fucked, I’d been too occupied with the sensation to think about the risks. I hadn’t even notice I’d left my body behind, never considered that we might die. I guess I just trusted him to take care of me. He’d been in me, around me, a part of me. I’d assumed I was safe in the embrace of his personal energy, of his spirit self.
“Uh, I uh.” Shit, what should I say? I could hardly tell him this. Pride is not my sin, and normally I don’t have any problem admitting weakness, but I just couldn’t spit this one out.
He waited patiently.
“I’m a trespasser in Aaru. Even if I am the Iblis, the angels hate me and I don’t trust them to honor my diplomatic immunity. Accidents happen, and it’s easier to ask forgiveness then permission.”
“I’m right there. I won’t leave you. Just relax and enjoy it. Your kind used to live as beings of spirit before the exile. Back when you were angels.”
“We’re not angels anymore, we’re demons. Please. Just a few more hours.”
His face hardened. “No.”
I was restrained and naked in Aaru in a flash, trying to push down that sick feeling of fear.
“Relax.” He sounded irritated, but that blue continued to cover me, soothing and calming. And then he was gone.
I tried to remind myself that he was right next to me; that I wasn’t dying. I kept thinking of all the demons who existed this way millions of years ago and reassure myself I’d be okay. I couldn’t sense him anywhere near me. And I didn’t feel okay. I felt … naked—naked and defenseless.
Elven Blood (Imp Book 3) Page 18