Pale Demon

strike. Tumbling, it hit the ground, getting smaller as it rolled across the parking lot and smacked into a rock.

“Did you kill it?” Trent said. “Rachel, did you kill it!”

He sounded frightened, and I gave him an ugly look. For all the smooth callousness he showed the world, perhaps he wasn’t as immune to death as he wanted everyone to think.

“We should be so lucky,” I said sourly, crab-walking a quick circle around the car with the chalk to make a more secure barrier. Ivy looked frustrated, pixies perched around her for security since Trent had driven them from himself. Vivian was pale. Scared. The lump of feathers now lying at the base of the rock wasn’t moving, but I invoked the circle, shaking in the hot sun, waiting.

“Are you going to go look at it?” Vivian asked and Jenks landed on my shoulder.

“Yeah. Right,” Jenks said, dusting heavily in exhaustion. “You don’t poke the monster when it’s down. You run away.”

“I’m not getting out of this circle,” I said. “Give it an hour or two, and if he still doesn’t move, we can throw rocks at him.” Demon. I was starting to believe that it was one.

Trent edged closer, stopping when I gave him a withering look. But whether we should poke the downed bird or simply drive away became moot when the lump of black shifted and stirred. Fear tightened my shoulders as a man rose, shedding feathers, the foot-long shafts of obsidian gray falling from him to reveal the simply cut gray pants and shirt underneath and the soft gray slippers. His slate gray hair was silver where the light hit it, and when he turned, he smiled as if pleased that I’d hurt him. He was taller than me. Pale. Silver. Shiny. Demon.

I glanced at Trent, thinking I’d rather have him as an enemy than a friend if this was his idea of helping. Trent’s head was down, and it ticked me off that I was the reason he was safe and the rest of us weren’t. God! I was a fool. Al had been right.

Vivian was staring, slack-jawed, at the approaching form, and Jenks hovered at the edge of the bubble, hands on his hips as he assessed the new threat. Ivy was scared but trying not to show it as the demon came to a halt before us, looking stronger and more certain of himself. He looked young, even with the silver hair, and I squirmed when his goat-slitted eyes moved from Vivian to me.

“But it’s daylight!” Vivian whispered, and Ku’Sox smiled in delight, his attention leaving me to touch upon Trent and slide away. Can’t touch this. His look at me had been one of casual disinterest. Bet it wouldn’t stay that way.

“It’s the Ku’Sox!” the pixies shouted from the car, and Ivy waved at them to go away as they swarmed her. “The Ku’Sox Sha-Ku’Ru!”

“I’m the eater,” the narrow-faced man said, and I breathed. Crap, his voice was as gray as he was. Silver and gray, with a weird accent I’d heard only once. It was Newt’s.

Ku’Sox squinted at my bubble, making me even more nervous as he leaned one way, then the next, evaluating its size and the black haze of demon smut crawling over it. I blanched when I realized the smut crawling over my bubble was being attracted to him, congregating where he was, looking like it was trying to get to him. “Guys,” I said, wishing I could back up even more. “I don’t think I can hold a drawn circle this size against him.”

“No, you can’t,” Ku’Sox said, his eyes landing on me. “Aren’t you an odd sort of witch.” He breathed deep, surprise cascading through his expression. “Wearing a man’s clothes,” he added, his bloodred eyes shifting to a pale blue. “How curious. You’re female.”

“Look out!” Jenks shrilled, but I was suddenly gagging, my hands digging at Ku’Sox’s fingers gripping my throat. He had me, his hands lightly around my neck as my feet dangled. Somehow he had yanked me out of my circle, broken it without a thought. It was too large for me to hold against him, and he’d taken it.

From Ivy’s and Jenks’s shouts of protest, I guessed that Vivian had reset the circle. She wouldn’t have a chance of holding it, either, except Ku’Sox didn’t seem to care about them anymore. No, I was freaking demon candy. It must be the red hair.

“Wait!” I choked out, still able to breathe and feeling his fingers firm around my neck. He didn’t stink like a demon. And his eyes, though still slitted like a goat’s, had become a pale blue with a thin rim of slate gray on the edges. His lips were thin, and his chin was narrow. Al had once said he could change his eyes if he made the effort. Had Ku’Sox made the effort, or were his eyes naturally blue?

Fear was a cascade of sparkles through me, and I shuddered as my toes touched the earth. “Uh, can we talk?” I managed, and the man smiled wider. His teeth were flat and blocky, like Al’s, and very white.

“Can we talk?” he echoed softly, looking at me in a not-so-nice way. “Perhaps. Hel-l-lo-o-o,” he drawled. “Nice to meet you, little red-haired witch.”

“Let me out, Vivian!” Jenks shrilled, and I tried to see them.

“Don’t you dare…,” I managed, then looked back to Ku’Sox as the grip around my throat shifted to my shoulders and my heels touched the pavement. I could breathe freely again, and my gaze was fixed on the man… demon…Ku’Sox. Washed-out, pale blue eyes flicked behind me, then back.

“I don’t know who you are,” I said boldly, his long, narrow fingers pinching my shoulder, “but you need to leave.”

“Brave,” he said, and I punched him in the gut when he tried to tuck me under his arm.

I didn’t know what my fist connected with, but he dropped me. I got a gasp of breath in, and then the pavement hit me hard. The chalk was still in my hand, and I refused to open it. Ku’Sox’s slippers were inches from my eyes, and my knuckles were bleeding, scraped open when I fell. I still had my chalk. Damn it, I still had my chalk.

I could hear Ivy yelling at Vivian, and I prayed she’d keep her circle closed. “Let me handle this!” I warned everyone, pulling my head up to see Ivy ready to throw Vivian into her own circle and risk all their lives. “Please,” I begged Ivy, and with a pained expression, she let Vivian go. The coven witch hit the car and slid to the pavement, shaken. Trent was a silent observer, and Jenks…

I looked away. Jenks was beside himself.

Ku’Sox only laughed, but he looked cross as he felt his ribs. “You’ll be my first in a long time,” he said, bending down to look at me with his hands on his knees. “Do you have anything in particular you’re not fond of?”

“Shove it up your ass,” I panted.

Ku’Sox straightened. “Lady’s choice,” he said, then reached for my shoulder.

“Owwww!” I howled as he flooded me with energy. Pissed, I rose up under his hand, shocking the hell out of him as I spindled the force and flung it right back at him. “Knock it off!” I shouted as he staggered back, his silver clothes seeming to shift to black in the sun.

Ku’Sox caught his balance eight feet away and blinked, amazement on his thin face. “Who the hell are you, witch who dresses like a man?”

I took a breath to tell him to screw himself, my words going unsaid as my head seemed to explode. Gasping, I fell to my knees. He was in my head. Oh, God, he was in my head! I was seeing snatches of my life with him standing in the shadows: an orderly at the hospital when I was thirteen, his blue eyes mocking my pain as my dad lay dying; then he was at camp on the horse behind mine; then he was at the park, walking the dog I’d seen when I’d made the deal with Al. He hadn’t been at any of those places in reality, but now, as I lived it again, he was there, learning everything, missing nothing.

“Get out!” I shouted, hands on my head as I tried not to hammer my forehead into the pavement.

“Rachel Mariana Morgan,” Ku’Sox said, flinging a hand out; I heard Ivy fall back with a grunt. The circle was down. No. Please no.

“Who has been teaching you such dangerous tricks?” Ku’Sox said, and there was a touch on my shoulder, soft and hesitant.

“Go to…hell,” I panted. No, not that memory, I thought in anguish as I saw his reflection in the mirror while I held Kisten as he died.

“Algaliarept?” The stitching in Ku’Sox’s sleeves glinted in the sun as he threw magic at Jenks, and I felt tears form, falling hot on my knees. They were trying to fight him as I sat crumpled on the hot pavement, living my life for the demon. “Why is the dullard letting you wander about here in the sun, little familiar?”

“Get out of my head…” I breathed as I tried not to remember that I wasn’t a familiar but almost an equal. “Get out!”