my tickling nose.
'How about the coffeehouse down two blocks?' my mom suggested as the dull beep, beep of barcodes being read clashed with the earthy smells of the shop.
'Grab some air, Jenks. I'm going to sneeze,' I warned him, and muttering things I was just as glad not to hear, he flew to my mom's shoulder.
It was a marvelous sneeze, clearing out my lungs and earning a 'bless you' from the clerk. But it was followed by another, and I hardly had time to straighten when a third hit me. Breathing shallowly to forestall the next, I looked at Jenks in dismay. There was only one reason why I would sneeze like this.
'Damn,' I whispered, glancing out the huge front window—it was after sundown. 'Double damn.' I spun to the clerk, who was now shoving things into a bag. I didn't have my calling circle. I had cracked the first one, and the new one was sandwiched between spell books under my kitchen counter. Damn, damn, damn! I should have made one the size of a compact mirror.
'Ma'am?' I warbled, then accepted the tissue my mom handed me from her purse. 'Do you sell calling circles?'
The woman stared, clearly affronted. 'Absolutely not. Alice, you told me she didn't deal in demons. Get her out of my store!'
My mother let out a huff of annoyance, then her face turned coaxing. 'Patricia,' she cajoled. 'Rachel does not summon demons. The papers print what sells papers, that's all.'
I sneezed again, this time so hard it hurt. Crap. We had to get out of there.
'Heads up, Rachel,' Jenks called out, and I looked up to catch a cellophane-wrapped stick of magnetic chalk as he dropped it. Fumbling with the wrapper, I tried to remember the complex pentagram Ceri had taught me. Minias was the only demon who knew I had a direct line to the ever-after, and if I didn't answer him, he might cross the lines to find me.
Searing pain came from nowhere. Doubled over, I gasped at the assault and fell back from the counter. What in hell? It isn't supposed to hurt!
Jenks hit the ceiling, leaving behind a cloud of silver dust like an octopus inking. My mother turned from her friend. 'Rachel?' she questioned, her green eyes wide as I bent and clutched my wrist.
The chalk slipped from me as my grip went numb. It felt like my wrist was on fire. 'Get out!' I yelled, and the two women stared at me as if I had gone insane.
We all jumped when the air pressure shifted violently. Ears ringing, I looked up, my heart pounding and my breath held. He was here. I didn't see the demon, but he was here. Somewhere. I could smell the burnt amber.
Spotting the chalk, I scooped it up and picked at the cellophane, but my nails couldn't find the seam. I was torn between fear and anger. Minias had no business bothering me. I didn't owe him, and he didn't owe me. And why couldn't I get the damned wrapper off the chalk!
'Rachel Mariana Morgan?' came an elegant British accent I'd expect from a Shakespearean play, and my face went cold. 'Where a-a-a-a-are you?' it drawled.
'Shit,' I whispered. It wasn't Minias. It was Al.
Panicked, I looked across the store to my mother. She stood with her friend, neat and tidy in her autumn- colored outfit, her hair perfectly arranged, and the skin around her eyes just starting to show a few faint lines. She hadn't a clue. 'Mom,' I whispered, gesturing frantically as I put space between us. 'Get into a circle. Both of you!' But they just stared. I didn't have time to explain. Hell, I didn't understand it myself. This had to be a joke. Some perverted, twisted joke.
My eyes went to the darting clatter of Jenks as he came to hover beside me. 'It's Al!' the pixy whispered. 'Rache, you said he was in demon prison!'
'Rachel Mariana Mo-o-o-o-orga-a-a-a-an,' the demon sang, and I stiffened at the tap-thunk tap-thunk of his booted feet coming from behind a tall display of spelling books.
'Damn fool moss-wipe of a pixy,' Jenks berated himself. 'It's too cold to take my sword,' he said in a mocking falsetto. 'It'll freeze to my ass. It's a shopping trip, not a run.' His voice shifted, becoming angry. 'Tink save you, Rachel. Can't you even go shopping with your mom without calling up demons?'
'I didn't call him!' I protested, feeling my palms start to sweat.
'Yeah, well, he's here,' the pixy said, and I swallowed when the demon peeked from behind the display. He had known exactly where I was.
Al was smiling with deep, taunting anger, his red eyes, their pupils horizontal slits like a goat's, peering over a pair of round smoked glasses. Dressed in his usual frock coat of crushed green velvet, he was a picture of old European grace, the image of a young lord on the verge of greatness. Lace showed at his cuffs and collar. His aristocratically chiseled features, with a strong nose and chin, were tightened in bad humor, and his thick teeth showed in an expression that anticipated dealing out pain.
I kept backing up, and he came out from behind the display. 'Oh, I say. This is splendid!' he said in delight. 'Two Morgans for the price of one.'
Oh, God. My mother. Terror snapped me out of my shock. 'You can't touch me or my family,' I said while I tried to get the cellophane off the magnetic chalk. If I could make a circle, I might be able to trap him. 'You promised!'
The tapping of his boots stopped as he posed to show off his elegant grace. My eyes measured the distance between us. Eight feet. Not good. But if he was looking at me, he was ignoring my mom.
'I did, didn't I?' he said, and when he sent his gaze to the ceiling, my shoulders eased.
'Rache!' Jenks shrilled.
Al lunged. Panicking, I backpedaled. Fear hit hard when he found my throat. I dug at his fingers, my nails gouging him as he picked me up to dangle me from his grip. His sculptured face grimaced at the pain, but he only tightened his fingers. My pulse pounded in my head and I went limp, praying he wanted to gloat a little before he dragged me back to the ever-after to hopefully just kill me.
'You can't hurt me,' I squeaked out, not sure if the sparkles at the edge of my vision were from lack of oxygen or Jenks. I am dead. I am so dead.
A soft sound of satisfaction emanated from Al, a long, low rumble of contentment. He effortlessly pulled me close until our breaths mingled. His eyes were red behind his glasses, and the scent of burnt amber coursed through me. 'I asked nicely for your testimony. You refused. I've no incentive to play by the rules anymore. You can thank your own shortsightedness for that. Me sitting in a tiny little cell.' He gave me a shake to rattle my teeth. 'Stripped of my curses and naked but for what I can say or spell. But someone summoned me out,' he said maliciously. 'And we have a deal that's going to leave you dead and me a free demon.'
'It wasn't my fault you went to jail,' I squeaked. The pulsing adrenaline hurt my head. He couldn't take me to the ever-after unless I let him; he'd have to drag me to a ley line.
Somewhere in my frazzled brain, something clicked. He couldn't hold me and go misty at the same time. Grunting, I pulled my knee up, connecting right between his legs.
Al grunted. Agony smacked into me as he flung me away and my back hit a display. I gasped for air, holding my bruised throat as packets of freeze-dried herbs sifted over me with light thumps. Sucking in the scent of amber as I coughed, I held up a hand to fend them off, angling my legs under me to stand. Where is the chalk?
'You sorry bitch of a succubus whore!' Al groaned, holding himself as he hunched over, and I smiled. Minias had told me that as part of Al's punishment for letting his old familiar go when she knew how to spindle line energy, he'd been purged of the accumulated charms, spells, and curses he had built up over the millennia. It left him, while not helpless, at least reduced to a limited spell vocabulary. Obviously he'd been in the kitchen recently, since his upper-crust Englishman persona was a disguise. I didn't want to know what he really looked like.
'What's the matter, Al?' I mocked, wiping my mouth to find I'd bitten my lip. 'Not used to anyone fighting back?' This was freaking great. Here I was in a charm shop, and nothing was invoked but vanity charms and bust enhancers.
'Here, Rachel!' my mom cried out, and Al's head swung around.
'Mom!' I shouted when she threw something at me. 'Get out!'
Al's eyes tracked it. I stiffened as a shimmer of black ever-after coursed over him, healing whatever I had damaged. But the magnetic chalk thumped safely into my hand. I took a breath to yell at her to get out again, and the shimmer of a blue-tinted ever-after circle rose up around her and the clerk behind the counter. They were
