Demon Song

to feel my teeth penetrate the skin, taste the thick, coppery blood splashing down my throat. The priest’s screams made my skin twitch and my stomach ache. I’ll share, Celia. Come feed. So sweet and warm.

There was a sharp slap on my hand that burned and I opened my eyes to see that Matty had smacked me with the flat of his sword. I’d nearly crossed the circle threshold. Shit. But why had the sword burned where it touched me?

I hoped and prayed that it had because the demon was touching my mind. I refused to watch the priest’s body twitch as the demon finished feeding. Instead, I lowered myself to a squat and picked up the black duffel.

The demon watched with interest as I unzipped the bag. When I pulled out the narrow triton conch, the demon’s face went from mildly amused to very much not amused. I stood and watched as Matty adjusted his headphones to be sure he had a solid fit.

If you put your lips to that, I will make sure you suffer when I kill you.

I raised the horn to my lips and stared into the demon’s yellow eyes with their slits of red down the center. The first note was long and low and I could feel it resonate through my body like a warm wave. Demons began to scream and thrash and throw themselves against the barrier. I blew until my breath gave out, and while the sound made the darkness waver, it wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to seal the rift.

Then I felt the answering tone—a high-pitched clarion call that made the greater demon scream. He looked around for the source of the agonizing sound, but the archbishop had done his magic well. He’d used illusion to hide the circle where he and Beverly stood. So the sound seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere. I blew again and so did she. The twin horns made the very air vibrate. Tears of blood were streaming down Matty’s face and I realized that I was crying as well. It was a pretty good bet that if I reached up, my hand would come away red.

The demon began to stalk around us, hitting and kicking and throwing things—searching for the hidden circle. He would eventually find it, but hopefully not in time.

Celia? The voice in my mind was one I recognized, but I couldn’t trust anything I heard. I couldn’t think of any reason why Pili would be inside the circle. But what the voice was saying sounded just like something Pili would say: You must not look at what is to come. There is never a good time to say good-bye, but this is the only way; I swear. There must be a sacrifice, and it must be a siren with demon taint. I am the only other, and she is the only one who can guard my path.

I should have listened, because when I opened my eyes there was a tornado a few paces away. It sparkled and raised sand and threw demons in ever-widening arcs. Vicki?

Inside the area of spinning sand was a single figure, walking slowly toward the waiting demons. I recognized her, too. What the hell?

Sound the horn, Celia. Let nothing break your concentration. A sacrifice is the only way.

Sacrifice? No! Not Vicki! Not Pili! There has to be another way. We’ll find another way. My face felt hot and I couldn’t concentrate. Both of them? What would happen to Gran now? What would happen to me?

Pili’s voice was stern: There is no other way. You must. The tainted must be sacrificed to give life back to life and death back to death. So it was written.

Matty saw me make a break for it and pulled me back before I could cross the barrier. He literally threw himself on top of me and pinned me down by stabbing the sword through my shirt into the ground. Pili took a hit from one of the demons but got up and kept walking. Vicki spun the demon and threw him back into the black gash. “Damn it, Matty! Let me go!”

In a last-ditch effort, the warrior priest pulled away my headphones.

Shrieks and unearthly sounds that no person should hear assaulted my brain. But I could hear Matty’s desperate voice clearly: “If you break that circle, Celia, we’re all dead! Pili, Vicki, you, me, and an innocent child whose soul will become a toy to those things.”

My hands were clawing at the dirt, mere inches from the barrier. I could feel the heat from the blue flame lick at my skin. I looked across to where I knew Beverly’s circle was and it was now visible. The circle was broken. The greater demon was towering over the cowering child while the archbishop held him off with a cross that glowed like a star, inside a makeshift circle made from a Bible and sword crossed. I’d heard of that sort of circle before. It’s not big, but supposedly it’s pretty powerful. But it wouldn’t hold forever.

I picked up the triton conch and fought back the sobs that wracked my body as I watched two people I loved walk to their death. It was hard to catch a deep enough breath to blow the horn, but I managed.

The sound reverberated through the circle and spread out like waves. Beverly looked up from where she was huddled on the ground, her green eyes wide and panicked.

I wanted to stand, to give my friends the dignity they deserved. Matty must have realized what I was doing, because he got off me and helped me to my feet. The young redhead stood as well, her head high—taking strength from me.

The greater demon abandoned her circle to fly toward mine at breakneck speed. He hit my circle and made the ground shake hard enough to knock Matty and me to the ground. The blue fire flickered and nearly went out. Before the demon could hit us again, I picked myself up and blew the horn once more.

That’s when I noticed four bright points of light in the distance. They glowed with the strength of halogen flashlights. Two were golden and two were white. Matty noticed, too. He didn’t abandon his prayer, just spread his arms wide to become a channel for John and Bruno. I could feel their energy flow into him and be made pure by the touch of his faith. The casting circle became white-hot light with golden edges that made the demon scream in pain.

To my extraordinary relief, I didn’t scream in pain.

I blew for all I was worth and so did Beverly. I wanted to close my eyes so I didn’t have to see Pili and Vicki, but they deserved to have me witness their courage. I watched the rift shift and shudder as the sound attacked it from both sides. The demon flew back and forth, hitting the barriers. Another priest fell and I tried not to listen as he died horribly but honorably—doing what he had sworn to do.

The ground began to shudder beneath us. I was nearly out of breath. It was taking everything I had to keep the sound going without pause. Finally a full-blown quake, a big, deep one, began to move through the earth and Matty and I were forced to kneel down to avoid falling over. The tornado that was Vicki waited for a long moment at the edge of the abyss, waiting for just the right moment. When it came, she threw herself forward, carrying Pili with her.

An explosion of sound and light made me reach for my headphones. But they weren’t enough protection. The casting circles blew apart like so much sand. Even the outer barrier strained and bulged and finally collapsed as the entire world seemed to shudder. I tried to see past the light, but the brightness burned my skin, my face, my eyes.

My head couldn’t take any more and everything went dark.

23

The doorbell rang. Or at least I thought it did. It was hard to hear over the bedlam in the living room. You couldn’t ask for a more picture-perfect morning for the party. The rift had messed with the weather—maybe the only positive result of the whole disaster. The jet stream had shifted and there was a white Christmas in California. It would likely be gone by midday, but for now it wasn’t an irony to play Bing Crosby on the stereo.

I made my way through the crowd only to get stopped by Mick and Molly Murphy before I’d made it two feet. They were smiling at each other in an excited way and turned that same energy to me. “Well, we talked it over. We’re going to take it.”

That brought a smile to my face. “Really? You’re sure? I don’t want to pressure you or anything. But Gran’s got her place and I have mine, so I thought I’d at least offer.”

Molly got a little teary and waved a hand in front of her face before answering: “It’s perfect. Really. I already