The Good, The Bad, And The Undead

said. 'Isn't it a nice one? It's lined in silver. I checked it out, and it's almost the only spot in the apartment where there are no electric or gas lines. There's another in the kitchen that you can see with a black light, but it's bigger and I can't make a circle that large that's strong enough to hold him.'

I watched as he wedged the shelves off their brackets with a stiff, underhand thunk, stacking them against the wall in the hallway. Finished, he stepped into the closet and held out a hand for me to join him. I stared, surprised.

'Al said the demon was supposed to be in the circle, not the summoner,' I said.

His hand dropped. 'It's part of the trial membership thing. I'm not so much summoning him as asking for an audience. He can say no and not show up at all, though that hasn't happened since you gave me the idea to put myself in the circle instead of him. He shows up just to laugh now.' Nick held out his hand again. 'Come on. I want to make sure we both fit.'

I looked to the slice of living room I could see, not wanting to get in a closet with Nick. Well, not under these circumstances, anyway. 'Let's use the circle in the kitchen,' I suggested. 'I don't mind closing it.'

'You want to risk him thinking you called him?' Nick asked, eyebrows high.

'It's an it, not a him,' I said, but at his exasperated expression, I took his hand and stepped into the closet. Immediately, Nick dropped my grip and ran his gaze over where our elbows went. The closet was good-sized and deep. Right now it was okay, but add a demon trying to get in, and it would be claustrophobic. 'Maybe this isn't such a good idea,' I said.

'It'll be fine.' Nick's motions were quick and jerky as he stepped out of the closet and reached up to the last shelf, still in place above our heads. Taking down a rattling shoe box, he opened it to show a zippy bag of gray ash and about a dozen milky green tapers already burnt. My mouth opened as I recognized them as the candles he had lit one night when we were, ah, utilizing Ivy's tub to its fullest potential. What were they doing in a box with ashes?

'Those are my candles,' I said, only now realizing where they had gone.

Setting the box on his bed, he took the zippy bag and the longest candle and went into the living room. I heard a thump, and he soon reappeared, dragging the stool that I had put his obligatory housewarming plant on. Still silent, he set the candle where the peace lily had once been.

'Buy your own candles for summoning demons,' I said, affronted.

He frowned as he opened the drawer under the footstool to pull out a box of matches. 'They have to be lit the first time on hallowed ground or they don't work.'

'Well, you've got everything figured out, don't you.' I sourly wondered if the entire night had been an excuse to get those candles. How long had he been calling this demon anyway? Lips pursed, I watched him light the candle and shake the match out. But it wasn't until he took a handful of gray dust from the zippy bag that I started getting nervous. 'What is that?' I asked, worried.

'You don't want to know.' His voice carried a surprising amount of warning.

My face warmed as I recalled that I use to bring his kind in for grave robbing. 'Yes, I do.'

He looked up, his brow pinched in irritation. 'It's a focus object so Algaliarept materializes outside the circle instead of in it with us. And the candle is to make sure he doesn't focus on anything but the ash on the table. I bought it, okay?'

Muttering a quick, 'Sorry,' I backed off. Somehow I seemed to have found the only nerve Nick had and stomped on it. I wasn't up on my demon summoning; obviously he was. 'I thought all you had to do was make a circle and call them,' I said, feeling nauseated. Someone had sold their grandmother's ashes so Nick could call a demon with her remains.

Nick dusted his hands together and resealed the bag. 'You might be able to get away with that, but I can't. The guy at the store kept trying to sell me this outrageously expensive amulet to make a proper binding circle, not believing a human could close one of his own. He gave me ten percent off everything after I put him in a circle he couldn't break. I guess he thought I knew enough to survive to come back and buy something more.'

His irritation had vanished the moment I quit barking at him. I realized that this was the first time—well, the second—he had the chance to show me his skills, something he was obviously very proud of. Humans had to work hard to manipulate ley lines as well as witches, which is why humans were known to align themselves with demons so they could keep up. Of course, they didn't last long after that, eventually making a mistake and being pulled into the ever-after. This was so unsafe. And here I was encouraging him.

Seeing my face, he came to me and put his hands atop my shoulders. I could feel the ash, gritty between his hands and my skin. 'It's okay,' he soothed, his narrow face smiling. 'I've done this before.'

'That's what I'm afraid of,' I said, stepping back to make room for him.

As Nick tossed the zippy bag of ash to land next to the shoe box, I tried to wipe the ash off my shoulders. Nick got in the closet with me, and then, with a grunt of remembrance, wedged a piece of wood into the crack of the hinges. 'He shut the door on me once,' he said, shrugging.

This is not good, I thought again as the small of my back started to sweat.

'Ready?'

I glanced at the lit candle and its little mound of ash. 'No.'

My fingertips tingled as Nick closed his eyes and opened his second sight. An eerie feeling of my insides being rearranged started in my belly, swirling up into my throat. My eyes widened. 'Whoa, whoa, whoa!' I cried as the sensation wrenched into an uncomfortable pull. 'What is that?'

Nick opened his eyes. They were glazed, and I could tell he was seeing everything in that confusing mix of reality and ever-after sight. 'That's what I've been telling you about,' he said, his voice hollow. 'It's from the binding spell. Nice, isn't it?'

I shifted from foot to foot, making sure I stayed in the circle. 'It's awful,' I admitted. 'I'm sorry. Why didn't you tell me it was that bad?'

He shrugged, closing his eyes.

The pull through me strengthened, and I struggled to find a way to deal with it. I could feel the ever-after energy slowly building in him, paralleling what I experienced when I tapped into a ley line. The power swelled, and though it was a fraction of what I had channeled in Trent's office, it urged me to react.

With an excruciating slowness, the levels built to a usable level. My palms started to sweat and my stomach clenched. I wished he'd hurry up and close the circle. The eddies of power went deep through me, the need to do something growing.

'Can I help?' I finally asked, gripping my hands together so they wouldn't spasm.

'No.'

The tingling in my palms rose to become an itch. 'I'm sorry,' I said. 'I didn't know you could feel all this. Is this why you haven't been sleeping? Have I been waking you up?'

'No. Don't worry about it.'

My heel started tapping, the jolts going up my calves feeling like fire. 'We have to break the charm,' I said, jittery. 'How can you stand this?'

'Shut up, Rachel. I'm trying to concentrate.'

'Sorry.'

His breath slipped from him in a slow sound, and I wasn't surprised when he jumped, mirroring the sudden cutoff of ever-after energy I could feel running through him. Through us.

'Circle's up,' he said breathlessly, and I resisted the urge to look at it. I didn't want to insult him, and having felt its construction, I knew it was good. 'I'm not sure, but I think because I'm carrying some of your aura, you can break the circle, too.'

'I'll be careful,' I said, suddenly a lot more nervous. 'So what happens now?' I questioned, looking at the candle on the footstool.

'Now I invite him over.'

I stifled a shudder as Latin flowed from Nick. My lips curved down at the alienness of it. As he spoke, Nick seemed to take on a different cast, shadows under his eyes growing, to make him look ill. Even his voice changed, more resonant and somehow echoing in my head. Again there was a slow buildup of ever-after energy, rising until it was almost intolerable. I was antsy and nervous, almost relieved when Nick said Algaliarept's name with a drawn- out, careful precision.

Nick sagged, taking a clean breath. I could smell his sweat over his deodorant in the close confines. His