For a Few Demons More

cupped hand. Double damn. 'How do I register?' I said flatly, and he snickered.

'You need a password. Connect to your calling circle as if you're going to contact me, and while connected to aline, think your given name, and then follow it with your password. QED.'

Simple enough. 'Get a password,' I said, feeling weary. 'Okay. I can do that.'

Minias was eyeing me from under some curls that had escaped from his hat. He was silent for a moment, and then, as if he didn't really want to, he crossed his arms over his chest and said, 'You have a common name that everyone calls you and a password that you keep to yourself. Pick it carefully. That's how people pull demons over the lines.'

Horrified, I looked from Jenks to Ceri, who was now holding her stomach. 'A summoning name?' I stammered, figuring it out. 'Your password is a summoning name?'

The demon grimaced. 'If it gets out, yes, it can be used to force someone across the lines. That's why you pick a password that no one can piece together.'

I backed up until I bumped into Ceri's circle. 'I don't want a password.'

'Fine with me,' Minias said snidely. 'But if I can't contact you, I'm going to come over when it's convenient for me, not you. And seeing as I don't care, it's going to be right before sunrise when you're trying to sleep, or making dinner, or screwing your boyfriend.' His eyes drifted over the kitchen. 'Or is it girlfriend?'

'Shut up!' I exclaimed, worried and embarrassed. But I was stuck, and stuck tight.

'Make it impossible to guess,' Minias said. 'Nonsense syllables.'

My mouth opened in an 0 of realization. 'That's why demon names are so weird,' I said, and from behind him Ceri nodded. Her face was white, and she looked as shaky as I felt.

'Demon names aren't weird,' Minias said indignantly. 'They serve a purpose.'

Jenks landed on my shoulder. 'How about your name backward? Nagromanairamlehcar.'

I felt my face twist. It sounded like a demon name.

'Terrible,' Minias said, and I moved back when he picked up my chalkboard and set it on the counter. 'Your names backward will be the first one Al tries, and if he figures it out, he can do untold mischief under your name. And nix on the birthdates, hobbies, favorite ice cream, movie stars, or old boyfriends. No numbers or weird characters that can't be pronounced. Stay away from the backward theme. It's too easy to run through the dictionary and find you.'

'That would take forever,' I scoffed, then blanched when Minias set his red eyes on me.

'Forever is just about what we have.'

I felt something shift, and I watched him, ready to move if he did. But he turned away, glancing at my kitchen clock above the sink.

'You need to leave,' I said, hearing my voice shake, and Jenks's wings clattered as he took flight to hover between us.

'Mmmm.' Minias inclined his head. 'I agree. We're done now, but with this mark between us to settle up, I will be talking to you. It's my God-given right to try to pay it off.' Touching the side of his hat, he vanished in a cascading sheet of ever-after.

I tightened my grip on my line as I felt him use it to cross into the ever-after. Numb, I stared at where he had been. What in hell have I just done?

Immediately Ceri broke her circle, almost knocking me over as she gave me a hug to be sure I was still alive. 'Rachel.'

Crap. What have I done?

'Rachel!'

Ceri was shaking me, and I blearily looked at her. Seeing my awareness return, she sighed in relief, and her hands fell from my shoulders. 'Rachel,' she said again, softer. 'I don't think you should do demon magic anymore.'

Jenks lit on her shoulder where he could see me; he was scared. 'You think?' I said bitterly, wiping a hand under my eye. It came away wet, but I wasn't crying. Not really.

'Actually…' Ceri dropped her head, clearly worried. 'I don't think you should do any ley line magic either.'

Sliding down from the counter, I looked past Ceri to the dark garden lit with the occasional flicker of pixy dust. My dad hadn't wanted me to have anything to do with ley line magic. Maybe… Maybe I should have a talk with Trent as to why.

Thirteen

'Rachel, hand me the hammer, will you?' Ivy said, her voice raised so she could be heard over the pixies yammering in the corner loud enough to make my eyeballs ache. 'I've got another popped nail,' she added as I puffed to blow a curl that had escaped my ponytail out of my eyes.

Jamming the rolled insulation back between the two-by-four studs, I turned. The afternoon sun came in the high windows in the living room to make dusty beams that the pixies were playing in. They had just woken from their afternoon nap, and Jenks had them in here so Matalina could get a few extra winks. She'd been feeling poorly lately, but Jenks had assured us that she was doing fine. His kids were a bloody nuisance, but I wasn't going to suggest they leave. Matalina could get all the sleep she wanted.

Fumbling, I pulled the hammer from the sill. I had borrowed it from my mom this morning, having dodged her questions with the excuse that I was putting up a birdhouse, not fixing the damage of an insane demon who'd trashed our living room. That it was July and too late for nests had never occurred to her.

'Here,' I said, smacking the ash handle into Ivy's bare hand with a soft and certain pop. She smiled before turning to pound in a nail that had pulled through the paneling Newt had ripped down. Pixies squealed, and Jenks's attention shot to them as he sat on a far sill with his youngest set of sextuplets, teaching them to tie their shoes.

Immediately his blurring wings stilled, and he resumed his lesson. It was a nice piece of pixy life we didn't get a chance to see often, a reminder that Jenks had an entire life outside of Ivy and me.

Ivy looked like a construction worker's calendar girl in her worn hip-hugger jeans and black T-shirt, her straight hair covered with one of those paper hats you get at paint stores. Body moving with a controlled grace, she pounded the stray nail into the paneling. Soon as she backed up, three pixies were there to inspect it, all helpfully pointing out the tear she had made in the paper veneer. Saying nothing, Ivy glued it back down and continued on.

Smiling, I turned away. Ivy wasn't pleased she had missed another one of my encounters with a demon. It was probably why she was hanging so tight today, needing to reassure herself that I was okay. And I could use her help. After seeing the estimate to replace a few sheets of paneling and carpet, we had decided to do it ourselves.

So far it had been easy. Just tidy the studs Newt had pulled the paneling off and put up new. There was no wall behind the thin sheets, and the insulation was the roll type, not the blown-in stuff we had put in the church's ceilings last fall. It didn't really look up to code, but that's what you get when you do it yourself. As for the carpet, it could stay out on the curb. There had been an oak floor under it. All it needed was a nice coat of shine.

'Thanks,' Ivy said, handing the hammer back, and I slid it onto the mantel.

'No problem.' I straightened my short-sleeved shirt to cover my midriff and pulled a handful of thin nails from the box beside the hammer and arranged them between my lips. 'You wanna 'old 'is for 'ee well I 'ammer it?' I asked as I tried to maneuver an unwieldy piece of paneling into place.

Bending, Ivy took it by the one edge and wedged it tight against the old paneling, her vampire strength making it look like she was holding a sheet of cardboard.

With a few quick whacks, I put a nail in the upper left corner, moved around her to put another in the lower right, then a third in the upper right. The rich scent of vampire incense mixed with the sawdust and my latest perfume in a pleasant fragrance of contentment. 'Thanks,' I said after I took the nails out of my mouth. 'I can get it now.'

Her smooth oval face showing nothing, she backed up, her hands rubbing against each other as if soothing