Sins of the Demon

corner of the basement, and a thin sheen of water covered over two thirds of the floor, including nearly half of my carefully reconstructed summoning circle. But that wasn’t the most disastrous part. My gaze fell on the swirls of chalk in the water beside my summoning circle—what remained of the storage diagram.

I heard Eilahn’s cat-like footfalls on the stairs behind me. “This is not good,” she breathed.

“I have no power for a summoning,” I said grimly. “Or hot water, for that matter.” I sank to sit on the stairs and looked glumly at Lake Basement. I knew I needed to go back upstairs and turn off the water, then find a shop vac or some other way to get all the damn water out of here, but I couldn’t muster up the energy. Damn. I was looking at a full day’s work ahead of me simply to get the basement into any sort of condition where I could do a summoning. Then another day or so for the floor to dry. And then a couple more to recreate the storage diagram and load it with power.

I dropped my head into my hands. “This. Sucks.” I could conceivably use my aunt’s summoning chamber, but I was still looking at a delay of at least a day to create and “charge” a storage circle.

Eilahn sat down beside me. “I cannot argue with you. But take heart, we are not completely without strength or options.”

I cocked a glance at her, gave her a sour smile. “Yeah, but this means we’re back to the ‘throw the cat at him’ plan.”

A pained expression flashed across her face, and I nearly laughed. “I will call the others,” she said. “Best to get this over with before we lose our nerve.”

Chapter 21

Our plan wasn’t quite as reckless as “storm Tracy’s house and throw a cat at him.” First Ryan, Eilahn, and I did a drive-by of his address to get a sense of what protections he had in place. But to everyone’s surprise, there was nothing—no wards or arcane protections of any sort that we could see. Or rather, that Eilahn could see. I was still effectively blind due to the cuff. I had no trouble seeing the physical, though: a single-story house with brick façade and beige vinyl siding on the other three sides. Well-groomed lawn with a minimum of high-maintenance landscaping. Some very basic plastic patio furniture in the back. Two vehicles in the driveway—his Beaulac Police Department cruiser, and a Dodge Charger. And blinds in all the windows that kept us from seeing any of the interior.

“No wards here simply means that he does his summonings somewhere else,” I told the others, but I couldn’t completely keep the sliver of doubt from creeping into my voice.

“You’re starting to think he’s not the summoner, aren’t you,” Ryan said.

“I’ve been wrong twice now. I don’t know what to think,” I confessed as I eyed the house. Even if he did summon elsewhere, surely he’d have some sort of protections on his house? “Of course, if he’s wanting to hide the fact that he has arcane skills, then it would be pretty pointless to have glowy sigils visible to anyone with othersight.”

“So Fuzzykins is our way in?” he asked with a wry twist of his mouth.

“Looks like it. I have a bad feeling we’re going to tip our hand no matter what we do.” I glanced into the back seat where Eilahn sat with the carrier. “Sorry, Fuzzykins. Looks like it’s all up to you.” I pursed my lips. “Maybe we should change the cat’s name.”

Eilahn gave me a puzzled look. “What is wrong with her current name?”

“Well, it’s not very tough-sounding,” I said. “And she’s turning out to be a pretty kick-ass cat. Even if she does hate me.”

Eilahn shook her head as she nuzzled the cat. “Her name suits her,” she stated firmly. “It sounds like fahs kehln which means whirling knives of justice.”

Yep, that name definitely suited the cat.

Ryan gave me a troubled look. “And you’re just going to go knock on his door?”

I grimaced. “I don’t exactly have a SWAT team at my disposal. I think bluffing him is the best scenario we have. Right now he has no reason to think we’re on to him. If I call him and ask him to meet me somewhere, he’s going to know something hinky is going on. Hopefully this way we’ll catch him off guard.”

“I will be with her,” Eilahn told Ryan. “I agree this is not a perfect plan, but we are running out of time and options.”

Scowling, he nodded. “Fine. But you’re going to wear a wire. And at the first hint of trouble, I’m coming in.”

I gave him a smile. “I would expect no less.”

Before we approached the house Ryan pulled into a parking lot, retrieved a case out of the trunk of his car, and quickly rigged me up with a tiny little button-mike and a discreet earpiece. Once we tested it and adjusted things accordingly, we climbed back into the car, and continued to the house, while I fought the urge to touch the mike to reassure myself it was still there.

Ryan parked and let us out directly in front of the house—a thoroughly non-tactical position, but we wanted to give Tracy the impression we were clueless about him. Meanwhile, Zack was parked around the corner, with a good view of Tracy’s back yard in case he made a run for it in that direction. Jill was still at Tessa’s—after she and Zack nearly got into a knock-down drag-out fight over the fact that she was pregnant and didn’t need to be in the midst of the action.

Taking a deep breath to settle my raging nerves, I walked up to the house and knocked on the door. A few seconds later I heard footsteps, and then Tracy Gordon pulled the door open.

I watched as he took note of us as well as the car out front. Then his eyes crinkled in a smile. “Two beautiful women on my doorstep. My lucky day.”

I flashed a grin. “I sure hope you think so after I ask you the big favor that I want to ask you.”

He gave a deep chuckle and stepped back. “Come on in. I’ll at least let you get warm before I dash your hopes.”

I caught a glimpse of Ryan’s frowning visage before Tracy closed the door. Eilahn set the carrier down and crouched by it. Fuzzykins hadn’t reacted yet. And if it turns out she loves him, does this mean he’s not a summoner or does it mean that she’s simply an ornery beast?

I did a quick scan of the house. Neat as the proverbial pin, and no weapons out in plain sight. The place was simple and ridiculously tasteful—somehow perfectly suiting a single man living alone. The walls of the living room were painted in a dark rust, but the hallway that led to the kitchen was a light tan, which helped keep the room from looking gloomy. A few bookcases lined one wall, and décor pieces like fossils and agates were interspersed with books, mostly non-fiction and classics. Though I did see one shelf of science fiction—Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, James S.A. Corey, to name a few. On the opposite wall a widescreen TV was mounted above a gas fireplace, though both were off now. A dark oak coffee table with a dish full of decorative stones of assorted colors was centered in front of a brown leather sofa. No pictures of any sort that I could see. If there was any possible way that this could turn out so that he was not our bad guy, I was totally going to invite him over to my house to help me decorate.

“Well, Eilahn and I are going out of town for a few days, and I was wondering if there’s any possible way you could cat-sit for me?” I flashed him a pleading grin as the demon pulled the cat out of the carrier.

Wary curiosity flickered in his expression. “Seriously?”

“Seriously!” I cheerfully lied. “Here, meet our cat!” I said as Eilahn thrust the feline into his face.

To my utter delight, Fuzzykins reacted as if she’d been confronted with a slavering Doberman. With a snarling yowl, she lashed out with all claws. Tracy yelped and backpedaled, only barely avoiding losing an eye.

Eilahn stooped and stuffed the cat back into the carrier in a swift and smooth move, while I pulled my gun from the holster in the small of my back and trained it on Tracy. He went still, eyes on the gun.

“Kara? What’s going on?”

“Cut the bullshit, Tracy,” I said. I wasn’t smiling now. “I know what you are.”

His eyes flicked from Eilahn to the cat and then back to me. “What I am?” he echoed. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Raymond Bergeron,” I said, oddly pleased when he jerked in surprise at the name. “You’re