by Ann Aguirre
Just to fuck with Santos, I murmured, “You might want to put that away. It’s not good to hold such things for too long.”
He shuddered, stuffed the long strand of hair into a plastic bag, and then wiped his fingers against his brown pants. The others smirked a little, but I had no doubt they would react the same way, even though rationally, I couldn’t have done anything to the item. They’d picked up the hair extension for me. But when the lizard brain spewed fear, logic disconnected.
“Anything else?” Morales asked.
“No. You have your orders. Call me once it’s done.”
The boys went out into the world to wreak havoc in my name.
Darkness had fallen by this time, which meant the demon would arrive soon to demand his due. I pored over the grimoires some more, trying to get ready, but how the hell did anyone prepare themselves for this? I had no answer.
Eventually, a knock sounded. No point in asking how Maury got over the fencing, complete with barbed wire. For all I knew, he could hurdle it. I glanced out the peephole, and I didn’t recognize the man standing there.
“Maury?”
“None other.”
I unfastened all the locks but didn’t invite him in. “We’ll have to do this outside.” I turned to Shannon. “Will you bring the supplies?”
“Sure.”
The body Maury had selected offered no attraction. He was thin and reedy, balding on top. But maybe nondescript was a bonus to a demon, making it easier to go about his business. Butch growled as if to warn me that this guy wasn’t what he seemed.
I patted the dog. “Don’t worry—I know that already.”
He whined at me, none too convinced I understood what I was doing. But when I went toward the door anyway, he washed his paws of me and trotted back to the pillow we’d put on the floor for his comfort. A glance over my shoulder showed him turning repeatedly on the cushion to find the perfect place for his butt.
I chose a spot in the far left corner of the parking lot, away from the building, but screened completely by scrubby trees and chain-link fence. Here, the pavement appeared smooth enough for me to lay the pentacle, at least. In other spots, it lay broken and riddled with holes.
My hands trembled a little as I drew the pentagram. The chalk felt dusty on my fingertips, but when I finished I saw the shape was accurate enough to do the job. I followed up with a circle, and as I drew this time, I willed heat from my hands. Because of those long years when the touch comprised my only gift, I could not conceive of magic feeling any other way. By the time I closed the circle, my hand burned as if I had immersed it in a fire.
I dropped the chalk with a little moan and saw that my fingertips glowed orange like live coals. I had no doubt I could hurt someone with my bare hands. Perhaps not a fatal injury, but I could bestow a brand—sobering thought.
Seeing that, Shannon backed away. “Whoa, is that normal?”
“For most witches, no.” I had handicaps, but considering I’d never thought to work my mother’s spells at all, I could bear the pain. I was used to it, after all.
“What are you waiting for?” Maury demanded, as I trickled salt atop my chalk circle. This demon wasn’t going anywhere unless I willed it.
“Almost finished. But I need her name now.”
He pronounced each syllable with great care, as if caressing his absent lover. I found it oddly endearing. “Dumah Porai Valyonatha.”
“It’s been a long time since you’ve seen her.”
“Only by your standards,” he muttered. “But I have been away longer than I expected. She will be missing me.”
I tried to sound casual as I finished spreading the salt. “You could go back. I could send you.”
“I think not. Your people call my world hell for a reason.”
“Very well.” Using my athame, I cut a narrow slice in my palm and let the blood drip inside the pentagram. I was careful not to break the circle, however. “By fire, earth, wind, and rain, I call you forth, Dumah Porai Valyonatha. I offer sacrifice in your name. As I will, so mote it be. In the name of Solomon the Binder, whose blood I carry, you must obey.”
Unlike the spell I had used on Morales, this one required focus and repetition. My mother had once said: There are no true magic words, only your will behind them. Power sizzled through me, far more than I’d ever held before—more than it took to read a house or a patch of dirt. It felt as though my heart must cook inside my chest. I sent it to the circle and the salt ate it, blackening beneath the heat.
I don’t know how long I chanted, but the air churned inside the pentacle. Not like Caim’s manifestation, but it grew dark with smoke that writhed with signs of life. I saw a glimmer of eyes, a suggestion of a face.
“She’s here,” the demon breathed beside me.
Maury started to go to her, only to be brought up short by the power of my wards. I smiled. “My part of the bargain is fulfilled, and you are repaid.”
“That wasn’t the deal!”
“In fact, it was. You specified I had to summon her, not set her free.”
“No, I wouldn’t consent to that. The last part was implicit in the agreement.”
And now I gambled everything. “If you have the power, if I have invalidated our deal, kill me now. Take the knife from my wound. I’m willing to risk it.”
Long moments passed while Dumah twisted inside the circle. I hoped the confinement didn’t hurt her, but surely it couldn’t be any worse than hell. Sometimes I got a clear enough glimpse at her features in the smoke to know she longed for the creature I called Maury. I hadn’t known demons could love.
“I cannot,” it said at last. “You have satisfied the letter of our agreement if not the spirit, and so I have no power over you.”
“Since she’s here”—and I already had the darkness in my magick for other practitioners to see—“I’m willing to renegotiate.”
Maury raised both brows. “What makes you think I’d trust you now?”
“Then I’ll just banish her. I promised, as you recall, not to bind her.” Which included forcing her to obey me. It didn’t include sending her home. Maybe Solomon’s blood ran in my veins after all; I’d used the claim to power a spell, and I seemed to own a knack for dealing with demons.
“Wait,” he said. “Present your offer.”
“You swear on her name that you will do no real harm while you linger here. Mischief and misfortune I can abide, but no death. No permanent damage.”
“Can we cost a rich man his gold?”
I didn’t need to think very long on that. “Absolutely. Limit your pranks to people who deserve it, and you’ll have no quarrel with me.”
“Oh, priceless,” he said. “You would use two demons as angels of vengeance.”
“Weren’t you angels once?” Shannon asked timidly.
“No, my dear. That is yet one more inaccuracy in your history.”
“It’s not history,” I felt compelled to point out, “so much as religious myth.”
“Whatever. It’s wrong. Will you let Dumah go now?”
I grinned. “Nice try. You agreed, but you haven’t yet sworn on her name. I won’t be defeated by loopholes tonight.”
“Fine,” he grumbled. “I swear by Dumah Porai Valyonatha and my love for her that we will restrict our attention to those who deserve it and cause no death while we’re here.” Maury stalked away and gave me his back, doubtless telling me he was pissed I’d gotten the best of him this time.
“Then we have a deal.” I rubbed my foot across the lines of salt and chalk, blurring it so the demon could escape.
The subsequent rupture surprised me and blew us back a good ten feet. I lay there, dazed and bruised, with my head on the pavement. Holy shit, what was that? A dark force, smelling of cinder and smoke, writhed above me. Was Dumah laughing?
Maury certainly was. “Oh, poor fledgling witch. I forgot nobody ever told you to drain the power from the wards before you break a field.”
Head thr
obbing, I crawled over to where Shannon lay. She looked impossibly pale, and a bruise was already forming on the side of her face. For a moment, she didn’t seem to be breathing, and I went from worried to frantic in 3.4 seconds.
“Shan?” I felt for a pulse and found one.
Thank all gods and goddesses.
“Did you get the number of that truck?” she mumbled, opening her eyes.
“It’s my fault. I got cocky. A few hours with the grimoires and I thought I knew something. God, I’m sorry. How much does it hurt?” I felt her head gingerly and discovered a lump the size of an egg.
“A lot. But I can deal. I’m thinking we should hose off the parking lot and get back inside, though.”
I should’ve thought of that. The ending of the ritual had scrambled my brains. I couldn’t leave my blood out here undiluted. Though it was a long shot anybody who meant me ill would stumble across it, it was possible Montoya’s sorcerer could use it to pinpoint my location somehow. I had no idea what he might’ve learned in the islands; what I’d seen from him so far was powerful and terrifying. After I pulled Shannon to her feet, we stumbled toward the building.
We looked for a hose and didn’t find one, so we wound up ferrying buckets of water to toss over the messy mixture of salt, chalk dust, and blood. Once we’d wet it all down, I swept it into a paste and then dumped another batch of water on it. More sweeping. If anyone could tell in the morning what we’d been doing here, I’d be greatly surprised. More important, the mixture rendered my blood unusable.
“That should do it. Let’s get you an ice pack and some Aleve.” I’d started carrying the stuff in my bag because sometimes—after I’d handled my mother’s necklace and my power changed—the burns hurt too much to bear, even though they no longer left new scars.
“I’ll live,” she said.
“This time.” I had to stop putting her at risk. Maybe I should put her on a bus, even if she didn’t want to go. Before it was too late. “Look, Shan, I really think—”
“No.” She slammed the first door open and stomped to the apartment. “If you want to get rid of me, I’ll go. But you’re not sending me to my dad. I’m not a little kid. . . . I can get a job. Maybe I’ll try Cali. I hear it’s pretty there.” She glared, as if daring me to object. “You did fine on your own.”
“Not really,” I said softly. I’d never told anyone this. I didn’t like thinking about it. “I landed well at first. I found a job in a used bookstore and I had a room in a boardinghouse. But when the store went under, I couldn’t find anything else. Pretty soon, I had no money, and I had no place to stay. I don’t make friends easily, so I had nobody to turn to. I moved on with only enough money in my pocket to get to the next town. I found myself sleeping in the bus station. I did things I’m not proud of.”
I’d taken insane risks, and it was lucky I wasn’t diseased or dead. It would break my heart if I drove Shannon to that with my good intentions.
“Like what?”
She wouldn’t be satisfied unless I told her. I wouldn’t reveal my past to anyone else for any other reason—only to keep Shan from repeating my mistakes. I was over it, mostly. I’d learned to deal. But she needed to know how much I trusted her.
So while I wrapped an ice pack, fixed a glass of water, and set out two pills, I revealed the whole story. Nobody knew this much about me—I’d picked up men for food and shelter, using serial monogamy as a means of survival. Those relationships never lasted long, because I chose men who wouldn’t reject me: ones who’d take me home and were lonely enough not to complain if I stayed. But I always moved on, feeling worse each time, because I lived with them out of desperation, not desire.
My past left me with such low self-esteem that I didn’t demand to be an equal partner with Chance, when he came along. I didn’t feel worthy of him, and I did anything to please him; I suborned my old identity because it was awful and tawdry, and I wanted to forget that woman, the sad, desperate Corine. It would kill me if Shan ever thought she wasn’t equal to any man who wanted her.
I went on. “By the time I met Chance, I had gotten myself together. I had a place of my own and a job at a dry cleaner’s. But you know how hard it is get work if you don’t have an address? How hard it is to keep clean in public restrooms so people’s eyes don’t slide away from you? It’s easier if you’re young. But if you’re old and homeless, it’s the next thing to an invisibility spell. I knew people who died on the street, people who froze to death and nobody noticed. Nobody cared. The city just removed the bodies like they were leaves in the street.” I bit my lip against the burn of tears and the throbbing in my head. “So if you think I’m letting you leave with nothing, you’re out of your mind. I want better than that for you.”
And that was part of why I couldn’t turn down Escobar’s money. I wanted her to have a future brighter than I could provide alone. Having a place of our own mattered desperately, and now maybe she’d understand why. If Chance knew, he might get why my pawnshop had meant everything to me, and, with it blown to shit, why I felt as if someone I loved had died. I needed a home, dammit.
“I had no idea,” she whispered.
“Nobody does.” I exhaled shakily and got my own Aleve and agua.
Her expression said she understood; we didn’t need to speak of this again. Thank God. Though I’d come to terms with my mistakes, I didn’t enjoy reliving them, even for Shan’s benefit.
But she had her own point to make as well. “Look, I’ll stop threatening to leave if you stop talking about sending me away. I know it’s dangerous; I’m not an idiot. But for the first time I feel like I belong and I’m not giving that up. Okay?”
I downed my water like it was a shot of something stronger. “Fair enough.”
Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
In the morning, Chuch called. “Where are you, prima?”
“I think you’re better off not knowing.” I hesitated. “I’m so sorry. I brought this down on you.”
“You don’t know that. If Montoya knew we got involved in the raid on his place, then maybe he was already gunning for us. If you hadn’t warned us, it might’ve been a lot worse. Maybe we wouldn’t have gotten out the back.”
I suspected he was trying to make me feel better. “I’d prefer it if you stayed with Eva.”
He swore softly. “Who you think made me call you?”
I smiled because it sounded like her, nearly at her due date and thinking about revenge. She was going to be the most unusual mom on her block. “Don’t you have other stuff to do, like, say, see about having your house rebuilt?”
“My cousin Ramon’s already on it.”
“The one who gave your tía Rosita such a cheap funeral?”
“Yeah, well. He learned his lesson.”
“Eva really wants you to do this?”
The phone rustled; then his wife came on the line. “Seriously, chica. I’ll call if I think the baby’s coming. I don’t feel right about you facing this on your own.”
“I’m not, actually. I have Shannon. And Escobar’s men.”
“Pfft,” she said. “You need friends too. I’d be there if I could.”
A little pang went through me. “Even now? I cost you your house.”
“Bullshit. It’s like Chuch said.”
“Okay. Here’s the address.” I recited it to her.
“Gotcha. Take care.”
“You too.”
Shannon stepped into the living room. Her bruises glowed almost purple, and her cheek had swollen overnight. She looked like I’d backhanded her for giving me lip. “Chuch is in, I take it?”
“Yeah. I just need to decide how he can help.”
“Let me know if you need me. I’ll be surfing.”
With a nod, she went back to her laptop while I fretted over Jesse. Not knowing got the best of me, so I dialed the police station and asked for Glencannon. It was a long shot they’d put me through. The officer on the other end asked for my name and then put me on hold. I li
stened to bad Muzak for five minutes before anyone answered.
The lieutenant picked up eventually. “Ms. Solomon, what can I do for you?”
“I was hoping you could tell me how he’s doing. Physically.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t call his parents.”
“To be honest, sir, I spoke to you longer than I did with them. That was our first meeting.”
“Ah,” he said. “Not the best time for it. Well, he came out of surgery just fine, no complications. I posted guards and it’s been quiet.”
“Could you tell me what room? I’d like to call before he’s sequestered or whatever you call it.”
If he found it strange I didn’t already know, Glencannon didn’t mention it. “He’s in four oh five. They should put you right through.” He hesitated, and then added, “Tomorrow or the next day, he’ll be transferred to a city-owned safe house.”
“I understand.” He was telling me to say what I needed to because I wouldn’t be speaking to Jesse for a while. “You’ll make sure nobody else has access to that information, right?”
“I hope you’re not telling me how to do my job.”
I winced. Smooth. “Of course not. It’s only that . . . well—”
“We had Nathan Moon on our payroll. I’ll be careful, Ms. Solomon. I’m pretty sure the department’s clean, but I won’t bet Saldana’s life on it.”
“Thank you, sir.”
After hanging up, I realized I’d called this man “sir,” an unprecedented level of respect toward law enforcement. That had to mean something. Perhaps I could trust him. Whether he could trust me? Hm. I had a bad track record with cops, but I could cook up a charm to nudge him in that regard.
Shannon glanced up from her computer and grinned at me. “One more? Make it a trifecta.”
Most likely, Jesse hadn’t called because they’d kept him too doped up to dial. Still, I had to speak to him before he left the hospital. That was a girlfriend thing to do.
The phone rang several times before Mrs. Saldana picked up. I’d expected to find her there. She was the kind of mother everybody wanted and damn few people got. I had a great one of my own, but I didn’t get to keep her long.