Mark of the Demon

summoning him before the Symbol Man—and Ryan—could. I heard the hall clock chime nine times as I stood in the basement. Everything was in place. The candles were set out in perfect alignment, the diagram chalked with painstaking precision, the oil and the razor-sharp knife set just beyond the perimeter of the diagram.

I returned upstairs. Now it was time for the mundane preparations. My will was already on the kitchen table, and I pulled a page out of my notebook to begin a letter to my aunt. Of all the people in the world, she was the one who needed to know what I had done and why and who the killers were. Tessa wasn’t a police officer, but I knew that if I didn’t survive this summoning, Tessa would be the next best to try to stop them.

I finished the letter and folded it into an envelope, hand trembling as I sealed it and wrote Tessa’s name on the outside, too aware that the letter was painfully terse. This is going to be fine. I’m still going to be preventing the binding, just like last time. Only difference is that this time I’m aware of it. I slid the envelope underneath the copy of my will, set a mug on top of both, then went to the next step in my preparations.

I turned the water in the shower as hot as it would go, forcing myself to stand under the near-scalding water as I ran through the mental exercises that were meant to calm and aid focus. I wasn’t sure just how much focus I’d managed by the time the hot water ran out, but at least my hands weren’t shaking as much anymore.

Only one thing left to do. The phone call to Tessa. I wasn’t about to tell Tessa the specifics over the phone, but I at least wanted to …

I want to say good-bye, I realized. Just in case. I understood so much more about my aunt now. Understood why she was acerbic and difficult, understood why she rode me so hard. At least I could tell her that I hadn’t screwed up the summoning. She’d probably viewed that as much her failure as mine.

The symbol for the voice mailbox was lit. I hadn’t realized that she’d left a message when she called earlier. I quickly dialed the mailbox to play it back, hoping that she hadn’t called to tell me she was going to be away from her phone for a while.

“Hi, sweetie, it’s me. I just wanted to wish you good luck in your summoning tonight.” She probably thinks I’m summoning Kehlirik again, I thought. Under any other circumstance she’d be right too. “Not that you need it,” the recording continued. “You’re so damn talented. I guess I don’t tell you that enough. I also don’t tell you enough that coming to live with you was the best thing that ever happened to me. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever told you that. And I should have. I whined for too long about having my life upended, but the truth is, I didn’t have much of a life before you came into it.” She gave a small laugh. “Okay, this has become unbearably sappy. Sorry about that. Call me when you finish up. Love you.”

I hit the button to save the recording, a silly smile on my face and a sniffle in my nose. I hit the speed dial for her number, mentally shifting what I’d originally planned to say.

A deep rumbling voice that was most assuredly not my aunt’s answered.

“Greetings, little summoner.”

Cold filled me and my grip tightened convulsively on the phone. That’s a higher demon, I thought wildly. Shit, did Aunt Tessa summon one tonight? But why would it be answering her phone? My thoughts whirled chaotically for a short instant, forcefully denying the other possibilities.

“I would like to speak to my aunt,” I managed to say, more calmly than I had expected to sound.

A soft hiss. “She is indisposed. Perhaps you would care to join her?”

I took a ragged breath. “What have you done to her? Where is she?” No. No. Not Tessa. Not now. Not before I had a chance to tell her …

“Her blood is strong, little summoner,” the deep voice continued. “Is yours as potent? There is another summoner here who would like to find out.”

“Tell Ryan to go fuck himself!” I yelled, shaking.

I heard the demon rumble in his version of laughter. “Come to the outreach center on Seventh Street, and we will use your blood instead of hers.”

I was silent, gripping the phone so tightly I could feel the plastic gouging into my palm. The outreach center. Ryan wasn’t the right age to be Peter Cerise. But Reverend Thomas was, and he would have had plenty of opportunity to peruse Greg’s drawings. And why else use the outreach center?

But if I went there I would be giving up the chance to stop him from binding Rhyzkahl. Shit. “Will you release her if I come?” My stomach churned. He wouldn’t release her. I knew it. He’d use her, and use me, and succeed in the binding.

There was silence on the line, then the demon gave a low growl. “If you come, she will be released.”

“Unharmed?”

“Too late for that,” he responded, sending another chill through me.

“Alive?” My voice broke.

“She will be released alive.”

“Your oath on it?”

“I swear on my essence that, if you come, she will be released alive.”

“Fine,” I said, my blood roaring in my ears. “I’ll be there.”

The line went dead and I slowly unclasped my fingers. The cell phone dropped to the table and I gripped the back of the chair. There was no way I could leave her there. My gaze slid to the door to the basement, nausea filling me. Up until this moment, it had been just a matter of theory that a few more people would die while I summoned. I’d even somewhat accepted that he had Michelle and that she was going to be sacrificed. But now … Aunt Tessa!

The only family I had left.

I wouldn’t be able to summon now. Even if I could leave my aunt to die, my concentration was shattered. I’d never even get the portal open. I had no choice.

I picked up the envelope containing the letter I’d written to her and tore it into pieces. A flare of anger speared through me and I nursed it, drew it in as I let the bits of paper flutter to the floor. The fatalism had returned, but it was different now. I’ll go, I thought grimly as I changed clothes, strapping my Glock onto my belt and my Kel-Tec into my ankle holster. And maybe I’ll die. But I’m gonna do my best to fucking take Ryan and the Symbol Man with me.

CHAPTER 28

The exterior of the outreach center was unlit except for the silver sheen from the full moon above. There were no groups of people clustered outside tonight. Perhaps they could sense what was going on, feel the menace within.

I parked on the street, right in front of the double glass doors. No need to try to conceal myself. They knew I was coming. I could feel it—the tension, the coiling of power, ugly and violent. The taint of blood flowed along the street and among the decrepit stores like a sluggish wind. Anyone with even a breath of sensitivity to the arcane would want to be far away from this place tonight.

I eased out of my car, wishing I had more of a plan of action than stop-the-Symbol-Man-somehow-and-save- everyone. I had a plan. It went bust. Now I have to figure out something else. Maybe I’d be able to disrupt the summoning. The weight of my Glock was a comfort on my hip, even though I knew it was no good against a demon—especially a higher demon. But both the Symbol Man and Ryan can be killed by mundane bullets.

They wanted to use me. I had to make them regret that decision.

The ache of Ryan’s betrayal tugged at me again, and I looked up at the silver and bloated moon, feeling its potency bathe me, no less powerful for having been trod upon by humans. The sick fear grew in my belly, and I rubbed my sweating palms on the front of my jeans. The Symbol Man would begin the summoning of Rhyzkahl soon. My stomach roiled at the memory of Rhyzkahl’s power, bile rising at the thought of that much potency being in the control of someone so unscrupulous.

Or I could call him. It wasn’t the first time the thought had occurred to me.