Ravenous

'Good odds it was.' He laid his hand on her back, comforting, but still intense. He was in hunting mode. 'Let's see what your visitor left behind.'

All confidence, he pushed the nursery door open with one hand. Holly sidled up behind him. The room was empty, infuriatingly normal. She had a flash of that honest-the-car-sounded-terrible-before-I-brought-it-in feeling. Really, there was a giant mouse here, sir, tha-a-a-at tall.

With long, smooth strides, Alessandro drifted in a slow circle around the perimeter of the room, stopping before the old fireplace. 'It came in here,' he announced, tapping the wall above the mantel. 'The smell is strongest where I'm standing.'

'It came down the chimney?' Holly asked, incredulous. She giggled. Okay, I'm getting punchy.

'As it was a portal, it would be more through than down, but yes, it came via the chimney.'

'That's just… absurd!'

Alessandro looked at her, his eyebrows making a perplexed furrow. 'I assure you it did.'

Holly tried to envision the mouse stuffing itself down the flue. Bad image. Her overstressed imagination added eight tiny reindeer. 'Well, yuck. I guess I can't expect Santa to come through there again.'

Alessandro gave her a confused look. 'What? Santa Claus doesn't exist.'

'Does too. He brought me a plush unicorn when I was six.'

Alessandro raised a brow. 'Do you think if I ask for an Aston Martin Vanquish, he'll bring me one?'

'I doubt you've been quite that good.'

He huffed and turned back to the wall, but the absurd exchange had defused some tension. Now Holly came forward to see the site of the offense. With her witch's senses open just a crack, she touched the spot of wall he had identified. It was like plunging her hand into a nest of ants.

'I can feel it. It's all creepy-crawly.' She shuddered and pulled back. 'The barrier is still weak there. But the seal is healing. In an hour or two it will be sound.'

'Amazing.' Alessandro looked around the room. 'This is a marvelous house, so alive. So full of your family's magic.'

'Ben would sell it if he could.'

'What?'

'Never mind,' she replied in a tone that did not invite discussion. Holly didn't want to talk about Ben at the moment. It was too raw to even think about right then. Or ever. Tears blurred her lashes, and she turned her face away to hide them.

'The Carvers were necromancers, weren't they?' Alessandro asked, something tentative in the question.

'Some were. In her day, my grandma was really good. But you lived here then. You'd know that.'

He avoided her look. 'Have you ever done a necromancy spell?'

'Know the theory, seen it done, but I've never tried it myself. I just go to the mall if I want to see the brain- dead lurching around. Is there a reason you ask?'

Alessandro didn't reply. Instead he folded his arms and stared into the empty fire grate. It was dim in the room, and his face was only half-lit, but she could make out his features. With his thoughts turned inward, he looked more human.

Holly waited him out, wondering what he wanted.

Finally, when he spoke, the topic was new. 'The manifestation here is from the same origin as the disturbance at the Flanders house. That explains why the Flanders place was so strong. It wasn't just a bad house. It had demonic assistance.'

Holly's mouth went dry. 'How do you know this?'

'It smells the same. The stink clings to the back of the tongue.'

'That's the basis of your theory?'

'And logic. The demon—or whoever summoned it—was trying to harness the magic in the Flanders house to open a portal. Vanquishing the house closed it again. Now it tried here. The demon must be getting stronger, or the summoner more proficient, because it worked.'

'It was just a big mouse,' she said, giving a nervous laugh. 'I don't think they got what they ordered.'

Alessandro didn't look convinced. 'What happened to the mouse, exactly?'

Holly swallowed. 'I helped it fall down the stairs. I think it broke its neck.'

Alessandro looked bleak. 'What did the mouse look like when it died?'

'Kinda still.'

His eyebrows contracted in annoyance. 'After that?'

'It disintegrated into powder as it disappeared.'

Alessandro lifted his chin a fraction, his brows lowering. 'Certain kinds of demons will crumble and vanish without necessarily being dead. It's their way of escape. You might have chased it off, but I don't think you killed it. Our demon finally made it through the portal.'

'Whoa!' cried Holly, holding up one hand. 'Hold it right there! That mouse was an actual demon? Wasn't this just, like, a calling card, a trailer for the main show, but not the demon itself? Wasn't it sort of, um, demon mouse-mail?'

'I don't think so, Holly. Demons often take the form of rodents or serpents because those shapes inspire fear and disgust. It's also easier than assuming their human form. Easier after using all their strength to break through.'

Holly turned away, walking to the window. Outside, the streetlights backlit the branches of the oak tree. 'Not possible. This house can't be breached.'

'Of course it can,' he replied quietly, 'because it was.'

'Why come here? Why attack me?'

'Because you're powerful. Think about it. You beat it last night. To a demon, your soul would look, oh, so good to eat—full of magic it could take for its own.'

'Oh, crap.' Holly covered her face, dread coming in hot and cold waves, drenching her skin with a prickling sweat. 'Sweet Hecate, I need a moment to take this in.'

'Let's go downstairs.' He touched her shoulder gently and left the nursery.

Holly trailed after him, listening to the echo of her footfalls drift through the empty spaces of the old house. A demon? Here?

In the bright kitchen Kibs sat by his food dish, watching the vampire with a judicial air, tail twitching. Holly shuffled up to the kitchen table and sat, hugging herself. The clock in the sitting room chimed. Time flies when you're battling the forces of darkness..

'I know some demon lore, but books don't cover everything. So explain again why I look so good to a demon?'

Alessandro took a seat opposite her and folded his arms, a classic posture of unease. 'The authors of your books would never have access to a full range of information. We have had more direct contact because often we battle for territory. We are enemies for the most primitive of reasons: We hunt the same victims. They feed on human life, the soul, the essence, in much the same way a vampire feeds on blood.'

Holly mirrored his arm-folded slouch. 'Okay.'

'Most major demons,' he went on, 'live in a society that would make any marketing agency proud. Their power structure is a pyramid. The top demon has minions, or servants. Once a demon servant has enough power, it might start to collect minions of its own, and one day those servants will have servants, and on and on.'

'And the demon at the top of the pyramid just gets bigger and badder the more servants and subservants and subsubservants it has? Eventually it gets a Cadillac and a time-share condo in outer Hades?'

'Precisely. And you, being more than usually powerful, would feed your master better than any ordinary servant. Turning you would be quite a coup. It would move our demon right up the corporate ladder.'

Holly cleared her throat. 'So this is an up-and-coming demon?'

Alessandro shook his head. 'More than that. Only a master could cross over. That means it's already powerful and must have some servants helping it.' Alessandro's hand drifted toward his bandolier. 'Not even a master can come to our world without help.'