Mark of the Demon

skills—”

“Do you?” he interjected, watching me intently.

I shrugged. “Er, well, yes. Most summoners do the basic stuff.” I glanced at my aunt and then back at Ryan. “I’m still learning, which is the main reason why I summon lately—for lessons. I have a long way to go.”

“She has a lot of innate talent,” Tessa said. “She’s going to be better than me soon.”

I could only stare at my aunt in surprise. I’d never heard her say anything like that before.

“So, the demons can do these wardings and protections too?” Ryan asked.

I dragged my attention back to him. “Yes. In fact, most summoners will just summon a demon to do it for them. Wardings can be pretty tedious and tiring and are usually a real pain in the ass.”

“All right, so a demon is a pretty damn good ally. And I’m assuming a Demonic Lord would be even more powerful?”

Tessa spoke up. “If he intends to summon a Demonic Lord, he knows that there is no offering great enough to compel the lord to submit to conventional bindings. He would have to bind the lord to his will. Enslave him. And someone with a Demonic Lord under his control would be able to rule the world.”

Ryan’s expression turned skeptical. “Oh, come on.”

Tessa lowered her head and regarded him. “Like having a demigod in your hand. An army couldn’t stop him, and he’d certainly be able to raise an army of his own. You know perfectly well that there are many thousands of people who would gladly fall in behind such a powerful entity, no matter the intent of it.”

Ryan shuddered. “God, yes.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair, then frowned, looking at me. “But the lord who came to you—after he broke free of your control, why didn’t he stay and become a ruler here?”

“I think,” I said, speaking slowly as I tried to organize my thoughts, “that for them to be able to stay in this sphere, they have to have some sort of an anchor here, like a permanent invitation, or a summoning and binding. The binding that a summoner does after bringing a demon through a portal is not like arcane manacles but more a means of keeping the demon in this sphere. The demon submits to it because of the offering that the summoner provides.” I glanced at my aunt for confirmation.

“That’s right,” Tessa said. “It’s one thing for them to come through briefly, but staying is more complicated. This is not their world, and without the right protocols, they’ll be drawn back to their own. And the more powerful they are, the more difficult it is for them to stay. But that’s also why a clever and ambitious lord would want to be in this sphere, unfettered. It would be another power base, an easy way to gain enormous amounts of power and status in their own sphere. Without the limitations of their honor code—which would not apply if one were here unrestrained—there would be no reason to not use this world up. Enslave the populace, ravage the resources, drain it of potency, and leave it a dead world if they so desired.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “That’s a worst-case scenario—”

“But it is a scenario,” Tessa replied with heat. “Demons are utterly self-serving, and their honor is the only reason that their realm has not dissolved into anarchy.”

Ryan cleared his throat. “So why do they include summoners in this honor system?”

Tessa turned her attention to him. “Because even though it is an affront to them to be summoned, they can gain status by their knowledge of other spheres or with artifacts that we offer to them for their cooperation. Without the protection that their honor affords us as summoners, no human would ever attempt to summon a demon.” She snapped her eyes back to me. “And if someone were to call a lord outside of the normal protocols —”

“I have no intention of calling him!” I practically yelled. I started to say more, but the ringing of my cell phone interrupted me. Probably a good thing, since the more I had to say would not have been nice.

Ryan stared at me as I pulled my phone out to see who was calling at this late hour. “You have the Fraggle Rock theme song as your ring tone,” he said, with a bemused look on his face. “You are so weird.”

I laughed, then hit the answer button on my phone. “Detective Gillian here.”

There was silence for a couple of seconds, then a small cough, and a thin voice said, “H-hello? Is this the ladyc-cop who was speaking to T-tio?”

I straightened. “Yes, yes, it is. Who is this?”

Another brief silence. Then, “I go by Belle. Tio s-said I needed to t-talk to you. Showed me some p- pics.”

My excitement rose. I gestured wildly at Ryan and pointed first at the phone, then at the pics that I’d scrawled names on. “Yes, yes,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm as I flipped through the pages. “I’ve been showing some pictures around.” Ryan moved over to me and leaned in to try to hear. I yanked out a page that had Belle written on it and waved it at him triumphantly.

“Yeah. Oh, m-man. Tio said that it was f-fucked up and that I was g-gonna get killed, and now I think someone’s following me.” The girl’s voice wavered badly, thick with terror.

“I won’t let that happen,” I said gently as I looked at the picture. Holy shit, but she didn’t look much older than fifteen—a smiling black girl with a pert nose and slanted eyes, with piercings in her eyebrow and lower lip. “Where are you?”

“S-somewhere safe. I think.”

“Where?” I asked. “I can keep you a lot safer than you can be out there on the streets. Can I meet you someplace?”

Another silence, and this time I had to check my phone to make sure that the girl had not hung up on me. “Belle? I’m worried about you. Please tell me where I can meet you, so I can make sure you stay safe.”

“All right. I–I c-can meet you by the diner on Vaughn Street.”

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes, Belle. I’m driving a dark-green Ford Taurus. Stay out of sight until you see my car, okay?”

“Ok-kay.”

“And call me or call 911 if you see anything strange or unusual.”

“Okay. Y-you’re coming right now?”

“I’m leaving right now. Yes.”

The silence this time actually was the girl disconnecting. I stuffed my phone in my pocket and snatched up my jacket. “Come on, Fed Boy,” I commanded as I dashed for the back door. “Time for you to earn your tax dollars.”

CHAPTER 19

I drove fast, ignoring the way that Ryan clutched at the door handle as I took the corners. After the sixth time his foot came down on the floorboards, though, I snapped, “The brakes over there don’t work!”

Ryan made a mock-panicked sound. “God help us all, Kara! We do have to get there in one piece, you know.”

I tightened my grip on the wheel. “Do you have any idea how amazing it is that this girl called me? I can’t run the risk that she’ll get scared or get tired of waiting for us and leave. There’s too much that she can tell us!”

Ryan scowled. “I know. I have been in law enforcement for a while.”

“Yeah, but were you ever a regular cop, or have you always been a Fed?” I winced, regretting the words as soon as they left my mouth.

“What difference does it make?” His reply had some heat behind it.

I grimaced. “I’m sorry. It’s just that so much of what I do is dealing with this underlayer of society. How much experience with that do you guys get?”

“I’ve been with the agency for ten years now. I worked in social services before that for four.” His tone was clipped. “I know how to talk to regular folk.”

“Good. That means you can understand why I want to get there as fast as I can.” I whipped the car around a curve, skidding to the side in a maneuver that unnerved even me, then straightened it out at the last second to avoid slamming into the curb. My pitiful Taurus shuddered as it found traction again, reminding me that it was