Dancing With Demons

by Trudi Jaye

  How did Connor even catch them? His mother must have discovered the information on how to do it in her research. Where did she get it? A feel a twitch of jealousy. In all my years of hunting, I didn’t find half as much information. As soon as I have Nelson safe, I’m coming back for Connor, and I’m going to make him tell me everything he knows.

  The demons are so close now that their reflected incandescence throws Connor’s face into shadow and light beside me. It makes him look even more manic, if that’s possible. I put one hand up to shade my eyes, unable to look directly at the demons when they’re this close.

  I absorbed about five or six demons at the ranch. It was painful, but I did it. I know I can do that much at least. It’s the fact that there are possibly around twenty of them in those cages that has me worried. Not to mention I have no idea how to I get them out of me and into Connor.

  “Can’t we just leave them in the cages? I could absorb them from here.”

  Connor shakes his head. “No, it won’t work. The magic that keeps them in there also protects them from the likes of you. They have to be released.”

  “What about one at a time?”

  “No way to just release one. Once the lock has been undone, it’s over. They’re out.”

  “How did you catch them all?” I’m beginning to think Connor doesn’t have much of an idea of what he’s doing.

  Connor stares at the demon cage. “They were trapped inside an iron ore bubble in the quarry. One of my diggers cracked open the bubble, and they came out screaming for revenge. They killed ten of my men before we could overpower them.” The story seems to upset him, and at first, I think it’s because his men were killed. But then he continues. “My mother came to the quarry the instant she heard about the demons. She’d always hoped the demons would be attracted to the iron. It was the sole reason she kept the quarry when my father died. She’d been storing the demon cages out here for when the time was right. That was the only reason we didn’t have a demon killing spree over the whole valley.”

  “So the demons killed her?” I ask quietly. “Not a fire?”

  Connor stares into the cage, his eyes darting over the faces of the demons inside. “Not immediately. She worked with them for many months before it happened. Officially, she was burned to death in a fire. In reality, one of the demons killed her.”

  “How?” I whisper the words, not really wanting to know the answer.

  “She grew careless. Thought the demons were friendlier than they were. She decided to test her ability by going into the cage with them, to control them. She’d been using her Siren abilities on them, and it seemed to be working.”

  “They deceived her?”

  “Yes. I watched as a demon ripped her head off with its teeth. Then it kept her body with it in the cage and spent the next year gnawing on her bones in front of me.” His face is expressionless, but I can hear the raw pain in his voice.

  “I’m so sorry, Connor.” No wonder he’s so close to the edge. Although I’m not sure why he didn’t just get rid of the demons somehow. Unless he doesn’t know how? “You couldn’t get her out?”

  “Not without destroying all her plans and making her death worthless. I have no other way to capture this many demons.” Connor’s expression is like one of those religious zealots, convinced that his way is the only way. Personally, I’d have figured out a way to get her body down. But that’s just me.

  “Did she write down what she found out about demons? Or how to make another one of these boxes?” If these cages are a way to safely store demons, perhaps I could use it to help further my research. Maybe the voodoo king was wrong after all.

  “She wrote notes, but they were indecipherable. She was very suspicious. Didn’t trust anyone else with her research. Even me.”

  “Where are the notes? Maybe I could—”

  “If I can’t decipher them, no one will be able to.” Connor’s voice is unduly harsh. I’ve hit some kind of a nerve. He’s hurt his mother didn’t include him.

  “Then what’s the plan?”

  “You will absorb the one who killed my mother first. And then you will absorb the others. Simple.”

  “Which one killed your mother?”

  Connor points to the largest demon inside the cage that’s just been lowered. “That one, in the corner. The one with eyes that stare at me with ravenous hunger.”

  “How long ago did your mother die?”

  “Two years ago.”

  “And you’ve had those demons hanging in here ever since?”

  Connor nods. “It’s a constant reminder of what my mother gave up for me. Why I can’t fail her.”

  38

  Part of me is actually feeling sorry for Connor.

  I mean, he watched a demon eat his mother’s bones for an entire year. That had to have been rough.

  Except he’s holding a little kid hostage, and he’s expecting me to do something I can’t do. Nelson’s life depends on me absorbing all these demons, and handing their energy over to Connor. I don’t know how on earth I’m even going to begin doing it.

  Connor seems certain I can make it happen. But given that he’s currently living in Crazytown, I don’t really trust him to know anything. And if his mother’s book is indecipherable, then that’s no use either.

  For a moment, all I can do is wish Blade was here with me. I don’t need him to protect me. Or fight for me. It’s more that he’d help me, we’d work together. I’ve come to rely on him in the short time he’s been around. The feeling is strange, awkward. Like I’m using a thought process that’s been dormant for so long, it’s rusted over.

  I really wish he were here. All I want to do is go back in time and tell him about Connor’s text. I don’t know why I didn’t. It made sense at the time, but now it seems like I must have been visiting Connor in Crazytown.

  Instead of Blade, all I’ve got is me and the dubious help of Connor.

  “Why do all this now?” I ask desperately as the first cage thumps to the ground. Moments later the second cage slams down, and more glittering diamond demons reach out toward me through the bars.

  Connor waves the other man away, and the worker scuttles toward the exit door. “Wouldn’t it be better to work this out, to know exactly what we’re doing? I have no idea how to give you the powers.”

  “You’ll figure it out,” says Connor, like he’s some kind of an expert. “Instinct is a big part of being a super. That’s what my mother always used to say.”

  “I don’t think that’s true. I need time to prepare for this. To figure out a plan. Maybe make some devices to protect us if something goes wrong.”

  “Excuses. You’ll be fine.”

  “If you’d just talked to me, I would have helped you, Connor.”

  “That was the plan. I was going to get you onside, and then ask you to come out here and help me. But that SIG agent started sniffing around.”

  “Blade wouldn’t have interfered.”

  Connor’s face is glittering with the reflected lights from the demons, making him look half-crazed. “You were supposed to come to me. You were supposed to be dazzled by me. Instead, you spent far too much time with him.”

  “You were jealous?”

  “My plans have been in place for years. I couldn’t allow them to be upset by some kitty-cat shifter who thinks he knows what he’s doing.”

  “He’s helping me. He would have helped us here too. He still could. All we have to do is stop this now and give him a call. Let’s figure this all out together.” I don’t know if my tone is as calming as I’m trying to make it sound. Connor certainly doesn’t look like he’s going to start singing to my tune. In fact, he’s acting as if I didn’t speak at all.

  “I’m going to unlock the cage. I’ll pull the door back, and the demons will swarm forward. Use your voice to control them immediately. Otherwise you’ll be dead.”

  “Where will you be once the demons are out?” I ask.

  “Right next to you,” he says
, looking at me in surprise.

  “But...”

  “You will have to protect me. If you don’t protect me, Nelson dies.”

  “I don’t even know how to do this,” I blurt out angrily. “You can’t put this much pressure on me. The only times I’ve absorbed demons before, it almost killed me.”

  “Mother said you were powerful. She could feel it. She said you’d be worth all the hard times.”

  He steps forward, holding the wooden key in front of him.

  As he turns the key in the lock, I have to try one more time. “No! Stop, Connor! Don’t do this. I don’t know how to absorb them all. They’re going to kill us.” I run toward him, but it’s too late, he’s broken the lock. The small legion of oversized demons pours out of the cage, glittering like some kind of tacky moving display. They start glowing blue underneath their shiny outer layer, like they’re halfway between their two forms. Instead of immediately attacking me, which is what I’m expecting, they all swerve upward into the air and streak around the top of the room like they’re stretching their legs after a long trip in the car.

  Connor stands staring at them like he’s caught in a daze. Perhaps he is. Letting the demons out must be a traumatic experience for him. It’s the culmination of everything his mother set up, and a tragic reminder of her horrific death.

  I feel much the same. I can’t bring myself to move or do anything against the demons sweeping around the warehouse, flying in strange formations. It’s only when one of the smaller demons turns a corner and dives straight for Connor that I remember I have to keep him safe if I’m going to protect Nelson.

  I dive to where he’s standing and force him to the floor. I roll over and open my mouth, screaming out the highest pitch I can manage. The demon spins past me, but it’s caught up in my music, and even as it struggles, it’s pulled back in to where I’m standing. I keep making that one screaming note. My throat starts to feel raw. As the demon starts turning black around the edges, its features become blurry, until a loud pop turns it into ash at my feet. A familiar blue mist emerges from the ash and floats up, absorbed almost immediately into my skin. I feel heavier, and the little demon inside me starts to chitter like a baby bird.

  Up above, the demons have started making strange noises as well. It’s a nonsensical noise, more like crickets on a hot summers day than raging demons in an ore smelter.

  I’m tired, but I didn’t do anything foolish like grabbing a demon’s tongue, so I’m already ahead of last time. Connor has pulled himself to his feet, and he’s watching me expectantly. High above, five of the remaining nine demons are floating, their black, inky eyes focused on my every move. I think they’re watching me, trying to understand what I’m doing. Trying to figure out how they can win.

  When a whining sound like a speeding bullet comes from around behind the massive ore pot, I spin around, preparing to face the next demon. It rushes in, almost invisible in the darkening light of the warehouse, and for a split second, I think it’s going to go right through me. But my hand lifts of its own volition, the glowing blue light pushing out from my palm. I open my mouth and a steady, low hum comes out. The pitch of my voice seems to make the demon vibrate at the wrong frequency, and it wavers in front of me, becoming more and more blurry, until it becomes part of the air in front of me, invisible to the naked eye. A moment later, ash appears to fall from the air, floating down over a ten-yard radius.

  Blue light floats up from the floor and is sucked into my body.

  If someone had asked me, I would’ve said the energy would make me more powerful and filled with energy. I mean, that’s what the voodoo king said would happen. It would have been nice to be able to blow up the other demons, my new abilities outweighing the terrible tightness that’s even now filling my body. But it doesn’t work like that, and I have no idea why. I feel heavier and less able to move. My joints are stiffening up, and the muscles on my face feel frozen.

  I try to make a sound come out from my throat, but my vocal cords have seized up—nothing comes out but a dirty croak.

  Apparently, I’m seizing up, and I’ve only absorbed two demons. This is worse than last time. Nelson is going to die, and it’s all my fault.

  39

  My feet feel like stone, but I manage to walk stiffly over to Connor. “This isn’t going to work. I can’t do it.” The demons are swooping over our heads like birds dancing in the wind at the beach. I don’t think it will be long before one of them decides to take a chance and attack again. I just hope they don’t decide to do it all at once.

  Connor shakes his head. “You must. Now the demons have been set free, there is no way to return them to the cages.” He’s watching the demons, his face almost joyful. It’s like he’s having some kind of religious experience, but with demons.

  “How did your mother get them in there in the first place? You must know that,” I say impatiently.

  “She never had a chance to tell me. She was experimenting on them, looking for ways to control them. She hadn’t finished.”

  “Trying to do what a chalice can do?” I say, curious despite myself. “Why?”

  “Because she felt that controlling demons was a worthwhile talent. She never felt that being a siren was enough.” He glances down at me. “She also hoped it would help me gain power if she did it properly.”

  I’m stunned. She had an inferiority complex? That’s what this is all about? “Connor, we have to get out of here,” I say, grabbing Connor’s arm, trying to get him to see the truth of the situation. “I don’t know how to use my power properly. Not yet. We’re all going to die if we don’t leave.”

  “The only way we’re going to live is if you figure out your powers, Hazel.” His eyes, usually so deep and blue, are almost black. It’s like he’s finally having some kind of catastrophic breakdown, possibly because of the death of his mother. I just wish I didn’t have to be at the center of it. One of the demons swoops low enough for us to feel the wind as it passes overhead.

  If we can’t put the demons back in the cage, I’m going to have to think my way out of this. My powers aren’t strong enough—and let’s be honest, I have no idea how to actually use them—so I’m going to need all the extra help I can get.

  I stare over at the furnaces. They’re the obvious thing that’s going to help me. But will it be helpful, or can demons withstand that kind of heat? I don’t know. Forcing my feet into movement, I stumble to where the protective gear has been left hanging neatly on hooks by the workmen. I pull on a coat, safety hat, and visor and force my way over to the main furnace. The heat is like a wall, and I finally understand why all the workers are large muscled men. It takes a lot of effort to get close.

  The heat of the room is starting to get to me; my face is flushed and sweat is running down my body like I’ve just been for a swim. If I don’t get some more water into my system soon, I’m going to die of dehydration rather than at the hands of the demons.

  Dead is dead, whichever way it happens.

  The whirling noise of a demon alerts me before I see it hurtling toward me like some kind of avenging angel. Its harsh beauty makes my insides ache, but impending death is enough to make me open my mouth to start singing. It swerves off course, away from me, and I don’t even have to make a sound.

  I don’t know how many times I can bluff it, but I need to conserve my energy if I’m somehow going to kill all the demons. Even just thinking that makes me feel sick inside. It doesn’t seem possible just now, but I’m determined not to give up.

  Connor is still standing next to the first cage. The second cage is standing next to the empty one. Thankfully he didn’t get a chance to open the second one.

  I move even closer to the furnace, peering at the mechanisms that work the massive cauldron—do the workers ever feel like witches, stirring some kind of giant alchemic pot? If I could somehow get the demons to fly too close to the melted ore, perhaps it would destroy them? I try to think through everything I know about controlling and de
stroying demons. Metal. High-pitched sound. Blade’s knife.

  My chest tightens as I think about Blade. He’s going to be so mad when he figures out what I’ve done. I wish with everything inside me that I didn’t shut him out, that I trusted him enough to tell him about Connor’s text. Has he figured out who has me? Or is he so annoyed that he’s given up on me? Has he gone back to my apartment to pack his things and get the hell out of Dodge? The thought tips me over the edge, like nothing else could have. A sob works its way up my throat, and I struggle to keep it down.

  It’s only the distinctive whirring of a glittering blue demon that pulls me out. I look up and scream, loud and long. The emotion has unlocked my throat, and the sound I make is filled with everything—my fear, my sorrow, my anger. I leave nothing out.

  The demon screams and shrivels down to almost nothing, before dissolving into a puff of black ash. The familiar blue light appears and is immediately sucked inside me like I’m a magnet. I don’t think I could stop that part of the process even if I tried. Another two orbs of blue light zoom toward me, and I catch my breath. I destroyed three demons with one scream?

  Beside the cage, Connor crows with jubilation. As far as he’s concerned things are going great. He doesn’t comprehend the terrible weight I’m experiencing, the feeling of impending doom.

  The remaining demons roar, their movements faster and more frantic. Do they feel sad when another demon dies? Or is it a purely personal fear of dying in the same way?

  I have to figure out a way to test if they’ll be burned up in the smelter, the way a person would be. If I can get one of the demons to attack me somehow and then push it into the big smelter pot, then maybe I can test my theory. It seems a pretty stupid thing for the demon to do, but I’m relying on them being a little drunk on their freedom and a little stupid from all that hanging around in a cage.

  The large cauldron is held high up encased in metal, the ore like lava inside it. The walls one either side are reinforced metal, and there’s a ladder on each side of the cauldron, going up the side of the wall. I just need to climb up the ladders and try to get the demons to attack me. Somehow I’ll figure out a way to push them into the lava and test whether they can be killed by heat.