Mark of the Demon

was doing something. I spent about an hour typing up some notes, then shut down my computer to head back home. Ryan would probably be awake soon, and then the two of us could continue canvassing for these people.

My phone rang just as I was locking the door to my office. “Detective Gillian,” I said.

“Hey, Detective Gillian, this is Deputy Keller with the sheriff’s office. I think we found one of your people.”

“Wow, that was fast! Where are you? Which one?”

He cleared his throat. “Well, it’s not so great, really. We’re out on Highway 1790.”

Highway 1790 was a long, empty stretch through the swamp at the north end of the parish. The sick knot in my stomach tightened. “Shit. Don’t tell me.”

He sighed. “Yeah, she’s dead. Sorry.”

“I’m on my way.”

I sent a text message to Ryan and pulled up at the scene about half an hour later, just as dusk was beginning to paint the sky in shades of purple and orange. Detective James Harris was already on the scene—which I’d expected since the body was found within his jurisdiction. But I was somewhat surprised to see Agent Zack Garner there as well, standing by his car and talking on his cell phone.

He hung up as I approached. “Ryan’s on his way. He and I were grabbing dinner when he got your text, and he said he’d meet us here.”

I caught myself in time before saying something like, Oh, I figured he’d still be asleep. That would be a sure way to give people the wrong impression.

“We’ve been discussing the case most of the afternoon,” Zack continued, absently waving a mosquito away from his face.

He must not have slept long at all, I decided. But it was probably better that he not spend too much time at my house. “Come up with anything new and interesting?” I asked.

He shook his head. “He just filled me in on what happened to you two this morning.”

“Yeah, it was pretty wild,” I said, keeping my response vague since I had no idea what Ryan had told him. Which story did he give him—the demon attack, or the one we told everyone else?

Zack’s eyes met mine. “He told me what really happened,” he clarified. The flashing red and blue lights of the patrol units reflected oddly in his eyes, making them seem for an instant as if they had a reddish cast of their own. Then he smiled and the effect was gone. “Sounds dumb, but I sure wish I’d been there to see it for myself.”

“Not dumb at all,” I said, but my gaze slid to Harris. He was deep in conversation with some of the detectives from his own department. “Does he …?”

Zack snorted. “No. Hell, he wouldn’t believe it even if he saw it with his own eyes. He’d find some way to explain it.”

“That sounds about right,” I said, relieved that Harris had not also been privy to the real story. I couldn’t explain why, but I didn’t have any worries about Zack knowing the truth. I just somehow knew that he got it.

“And here comes our prodigal son,” Zack said, looking beyond me. I turned to see a dark Crown Victoria pulling to the side of the highway behind my Taurus.

Ryan exited his car and walked up to us. I noticed that he’d found the time to shower, shave, and change clothes and still managed to look fairly rested. He gave a nod to Zack, then looked at me, expression sober. “I have a bad feeling about this one.”

“I do too,” I replied, though bad feeling was putting it mildly.

This stretch of highway didn’t have much in the way of landmarks. A long, boring stretch of asphalt with swamp on either side, it was where people went when they wanted to see just how fast their cars would go. The only thing people had to watch out for was the occasional wild boar or alligator in the road. At least once a month, deputies were dispatched to a single-car accident along this stretch. A collision with wildlife at ninety miles an hour usually had pretty drastic consequences.

I approached the body, surprised that it had even been noticed. Probably more than one car had passed the bloody lump on the side of the road and assumed it to be an animal that had lost its battle with a vehicle. My throat tightened as I got closer. Her death would have likely been far more pleasant if she’d merely been hit by a car. The coppery smell of blood mingled sickeningly with the dank stench of stagnant water and composting vegetation from the nearby swamp.

It was definitely Belle, the girl in the picture—ugly gashes marred the young cheeks beneath the slanted eyes, piercings in her brow and lip still in place. The body flowed and flickered with arcane markings and, unlike the last body, I could easily read these runes. I stood a few feet away, eyes narrowed and fists clenched.

“What do they say?” Ryan asked softly from beside me.

“Taunts and threats,” I said, voice tight. “Some indication of what was done to her, runes of suffering and torment.” And a glyph that included my own name wound through the others, but I wasn’t sure I was going to share that with Ryan. The killer knew I was a summoner, and now he was telling me that it didn’t matter, that I wasn’t strong enough to stop him.

“He’s baiting you,” Zack murmured.

I glanced sharply at him, unaware that he’d been standing right behind us. But then I realized that Ryan had probably brought him completely up to speed, including all of the arcane aspects. “He’s an asshole,” I growled in reply, then crouched by the body, ignoring the buzz and bite of mosquitoes. I noticed immediately that the injuries were markedly different from those of the other victims. Cruder, more savage. No precise slices or burns. Instead, she’d been nearly ripped apart. My stomach clenched as I took in the parallel slices across the girl’s torso that had disemboweled her. I recognized them easily as claw marks, but I wondered what Dr. Lanza would make of them. The symbol had been slashed messily into her thigh, like an afterthought.

“They didn’t take their time with this one,” I said, voice hoarse. “This was a slaughter.”

Ryan growled something under his breath, and I didn’t need to hear the words to be able to agree with the meaning. I shuddered, then narrowed my eyes at the tracks and impressions in the dirt that surrounded the body. “The demon brought her here.” I stood. “See those tracks?” I pointed out the deep indentations in the ground. “It landed there and then pushed off again to take flight, just dumping her body here.” But then I looked more closely at the tracks, bothered.

“What is it?” Zack asked.

“It… doesn’t make sense,” I said. The tracks were clear—most certainly not made by any manner of human. “A kehza wouldn’t be strong enough to fly all the way here with a burden like a body. Hell, they’re barely strong enough to fly at all. They can only do short flights.”

“Like when it was swooping down at us?” Ryan asked with a scowl.

“Exactly. So there’s just no way it could have flown here to dump the body.”

Ryan glanced around to make sure no one else was close enough to overhear our conversation. Fortunately, Harris was still pontificating to his own people. “And I guess it’s pretty silly to think that the killer drove the demon and his victim to someplace close, just so that it could fly over and deposit the body.”

“Right. It doesn’t make any sense. And the timing doesn’t work either. We were at the diner barely fifteen minutes after Belle called. Even if she’d already been brought out here, there’s no way that the kehza could have flown back to town in time to attack us. And it couldn’t have killed her and dumped her afterward, because it had been sent back to its own plane.” I cursed softly. “That must mean that there’s a second demon, a higher-level demon—probably a syraza or a reyza. Either of those would be more than strong enough to snatch her from that street and fly her all the way out here to kill her. The kehza was just there to find out more about me.”

“And using that syraza or reyza gives the killer an alibi,” Zack pointed out. “If he lets the demon snatch his victims and take care of the bodies, he can be anywhere else.”

That was an unpleasant thought.

“How could he have sent the kehza after you and also