For a Few Demons More

ever-after slithered over him. He took his hand from his nose to show that the blood was gone.

'Me?' I said, burning off some angst. 'You said you'd call first, not just barge in!'

'I did call!' Minias roughly adjusted his robes. 'You never answered, and then,' he shouted, flicking a finger under my expensive chalkboard to make it hit the floor, 'instead of a simple 'I'm busy could you call back again later,' you slam the door in my face! I want this mark between us settled. You are rude, ill-mannered, and as ignorant as a toad!'

'Hey!' Face warming, I leaned to look around the counter to find that my board had cracked. 'You broke my chalkboard!' Then I hesitated, drawing back with my arms over my chest. 'You were the one making me sneeze?' I said, and he nodded. 'I'm not allergic to cats?' I looked at Jenks, elated. 'Jenks! I'm not allergic to cats!'

Minias crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. 'Ignorant as a toad. Rude as an unwanted guest. Al is a saint for putting up with you, the novelty of your blood aside.'

Jenks was shooing his kids from the window, assuring them we were all right and to not tell their mother. 'Me… rude?' I stammered, tugging my shirt back down where it belonged when Minias's gaze slid to my midriff. 'I'm not the one just showing up!'

'I said I would call first.' His demon eyes narrowed. 'I didn't promise it. And I'm not the one flinging pills and mace,' he added, scooping up his hat and jamming it on his head. His curls were sticking out all over, and damn me to hell if he didn't look good like that. Immediately I sobered. No, no, Rachel. Bad girl. And remembering what Ivy had told me this spring about my needing the threat of death to prove to myself that I was alive, I quickly shoved aside any idea that Minias was attractive. But he was.

Minias saw my anger fizzle, and, clearly used to dealing with volatile females, he dropped his gaze. When it returned to me, he was visibly calmer, though no less angry. 'I apologize for startling you,' he said formally. 'Obviously you thought you had something to fear, and grabbing you probably wasn't the best idea.'

'Damn right it wasn't,' I said, jumping when Jenks landed on my shoulder. 'And don't try to sell me any crap about the kindly demon. I know three of you now, and you are all evil, insane, or just plain nasty.'

Minias smiled, but it didn't make me feel any better. His eyes drifted over the inside of my bubble. 'I'm not kindly, and if I could get away with it, I'll drag you into the ever-after and have someone broker you off—but Newt would get involved…' He shifted his eyes to focus on me. 'She doesn't remember you right now. I would like to keep it that way.'

'Tink's little red thong,' Jenks whispered, grabbing my ear for balance. Stomach clenched, I retreated until I found the fridge, the stainless steel cold through my thin chemise.

'With this debt standing between us without even a mark to keep things tidy, taking you would be in bad taste.' Minias tugged his sleeves down over his wrists. 'Once I grant whatever stupid wish you want, I won't have to restrain myself, but until then you're relatively safe.'

My chin lifted. Bastard. He had scared me on purpose. I didn't feel bad now at all for burning his eyes, or stomping on his privates, or for him running into my bubble. And I wasn't going to trust that until we settled this I was immune to him.

'Jenks,' I said softly as Minias looked over my kitchen, 'will you send one of your kids to get Ceri?' She was likely over her pique at my sorry-ass ley line skills. And I didn't want to do this without her.

'I'll go,' he said. 'They aren't allowed to leave the garden.' My neck went cold in the breeze on his wings, and he hovered, his angular features pinched. 'You'll be okay?'

I watched Minias touch the herbs drying on the overhanging rack, wanting to tell him to get his fingers off them. 'I'll be fine,' I said. 'He's in a good circle.'

Minias's eyes followed Jenks zipping out with an unusual amount of interest. Looking mildly annoyed, he scuffed his bare feet against the linoleum, and a pair of embroidered slippers appeared on them. Slowly his brow smoothed under his brown curls. I fixed on the alienness of his eyes, trying to see the sideways pupil beside the dark iris. His back against the counter, he crossed his ankles and waited. Beside him was my spell to stop sneezing, and I didn't like the patronizing look he had favored me with after giving the pentagram a cursory glance.

'You're vastly deficient in line etiquette,' he said dryly, 'but I'll admit that this is better than the moldy basements I'm always hearing about.'

'I didn't know you were making me sneeze,' I huffed. 'You can't know what you haven't been told.'

Minias brought his attention from the dark garden. One eyebrow rose. 'Yes you can.' Turning, he started messing in the remnants of my ley line spell. 'So what's it going to be?' he said, holding the crucible in one hand and running a finger through the soot with the other. 'Eternal life? Untold wealth? Unlimited knowledge?'

I didn't like the way he was rubbing his thumb and finger together, smelling the ash as if it had meaning. 'Stop that,' I said.

Eyeing me from under his brown curls, he set the crucible down.

The sight of his elegantly robed figure doing something as mundane as tearing a paper towel and cleaning his finger looked odd. I frowned, my tension rising when he crouched to see my spell books.

'Leave those alone,' I muttered, wishing Ceri would hurry.

Swearing in Latin, Minias took his fingers off my books. When he rose, he had my nested set of copper spell pots, my splat gun sitting nice as could be in the smallest. I had a moment of worry that the charms in it, though expired, might have enough of my aura to break the circle. Minias, though, gave it only a quick glance, turning his attention to the largest pot. It was the one I had dented against Ivy's head, and I didn't like it when he held it up in disdainful disgust. 'You don't actually use this?' he asked.

'Would you knock it off?' I protested. God, what was it with him? He was worse than Jenks when it came to inquisitiveness. His eyebrows high in amusement, Minias set the spell pot down and picked up the open spell book on the counter. My jaw clenched, but I said nothing this time. His lips curled up in amusement, Minias held the book splayed open in a single hand and, after adjusting his hat, levered himself up to sit on the counter beside my ley line charm. His curly head was almost among the pots and herbs.

Exhaling slowly, I took a step forward. 'Look,' I said, and he drew his alien-seem gaze to mine. 'I'm sorry, I didn't know you were trying to reach me. Can we just get this mark thing settled so we can all move on with our lives? '

Eyes returning to the book, Minias took off his hat and murmured, 'That's what I'm here for. You've had time to think up a wish. It's been almost five hundred years since I dealt with temporals, and I don't want to start it up again now, so let's hear it.'

My head dropped, and, suddenly nervous, I hiked myself up onto the counter beside the sink. Temporals, huh? Arms wrapped around knees drawn up to my chin, I thought of Jenks's shorter life span and how wishes always came back to bite you. Sure, the one I had made to get out of the I. S. had worked, but I was still trying to get out from under the demon marks that had come from it. If I wished for a longer life for Jenks, he might be in a state where he couldn't do anything. Or maybe he'd be the first vampire pixy, or something equally unpleasant. 'I don't want a wish,' I whispered, feeling like a coward.

'No?' Clearly surprised, the demon shifted his legs, letting them drape down the counter to hide my spell books. 'You want a curse?' His clean-shaven features turned sour. 'I've never taught a witch, but I could probably wedge something past your thick skull.'

Interesting. 'I don't want to know how to do a curse,' I said. 'Not from you anyway.'

Minias brought his wandering gaze from my yew cuttings drying in the corner. Cocking his head, he looked at me as if I'd only now caught his attention. 'No?' he repeated. With one hand he made a gesture of question. 'What do you want, then?'

Nervous, I slid from the counter. I didn't want to do anything without Ceri, but saying no seemed harmless enough. 'I don't want anything.'

Minias's smile went patronizing. 'And I'll believe that when the two worlds collide.'

'Well, yeah, I want stuff,' I said bitterly, not fond of being offered everything when getting it would cause more trouble than not having it to begin with. 'I want my partner to live longer than a stinking twenty years. I want my friend to find some peace in her life and her choices. I want my stinking church…' I slammed my hand on the counter to make my palm sting. '… resanctified so I don't have to worry about the undead while I sleep! And I want to get rid of that thing in my freezer before it (a) starts an Inderland power struggle or (b) brings Newt knocking on my door for a cup of sugar again. But you…' I pointed. '… would give me what I want in such a way that it would ruin any joy I found in it, so forget it!' Angry and wondering if I was making a mistake, I crossed my arms and