The Demon's Covenant

“Nick, put the sword away,” said Alan without a glance at Nick.

Nick hesitated, sword a silver arc of light in the dim kitchen. There was something about his pale face in the near dark that made Gerald shudder slightly and turn his eyes away.

“Now,” said Alan.

Nick put his sword away and turned his back on Gerald, stalking clear across the room from him to lean against the wall, arms folded, and glare.

“Takes orders well, doesn’t he?” Gerald observed. “They were made for it: They don’t know how to do anything else. Do you think that’ll keep you safe? All they know is obeying and betraying humans, crawling and then turning like worms. Pain and power is all they can give you. It’s all they are. He’ll turn against you in the end. Don’t you know that? Or is the power worth so much to you that you’ve let this treacherous, bloodthirsty thing loose on the world and you don’t even care what it will do?”

There was a blur of motion. Then the punch connected and Gerald went crashing onto the floor. He sprawled and hit his head against the washing machine.

For a moment Mae was sure it had been Nick: The movement had looked like one of Nick’s, like something savage breaking its leash.

It wasn’t Nick. Nick was still at the far end of the kitchen, leaning against the wall.

Alan stood over Gerald’s crumpled body. He had gone white.

“Shut your mouth,” he said. “That’s my little brother you’re talking about.”

Gerald touched his mouth delicately with the back of his hand. The gesture looked just like that of an ordinary person, a ginger touch to assess the damage, but when he drew his hand away from his mouth it was healed, the splash of blood looking out of place on his unharmed mouth. It didn’t look like real blood now, somehow.

It looked like he was playing a game.

“Struck a nerve, did I?” Gerald asked from the ground.

“Obviously,” said Alan. “Is that what you came here to do?”

Gerald climbed to his feet slowly, not making any sudden movements, as if he wanted a wild animal to come closer to him.

“I came because I wanted to make a proposition to you,” he said. “I can’t do it with the demon here.”

They were watching each other the same way they had before, with magic and a knife between them.

“Aren’t you curious?” Gerald asked, after a long moment.

Alan’s mouth twisted into a shape a shade away from a smile. “Always,” he admitted. “Nick, do you maybe want to go work on your car? Just for a little while?”

“What?” Nick demanded. “No.”

He shifted his stance, braced against the wall as if Alan would’ve had a chance if he tried to push him physically out of the room.

“It won’t do any harm to hear what he has to say.”

“It’ll do you some harm if he fries the meat off your bones,” Nick countered. “I’m not leaving you alone with him.”

“I won’t be alone,” said Alan. “If Mae agrees to stay with me.”

He turned his eyes to Mae, and she started. She was almost shocked at being addressed, as if she’d been watching a play and suddenly one of the actors had spoken to her.

“I have to confess I probably won’t be much help,” she said. “My big plan to save Nick before you arrived was to toss a kettle at the magician’s head.”

Alan grinned. “You willing to defend me with a kettle?”

“Putting your faith in my awesome kettle-wielding skills doesn’t strike me as your brightest idea ever.”

“I think I could do a lot worse,” said Alan, and looked back at his brother. “Nick. He’s determined to talk to me, and I’d like to know what he has to say. You’ll be within earshot.”

“And what,” Nick retorted, “I’m supposed to come running when you start screaming?”

“Come running when I start shooting,” said Alan.

Nick’s mouth turned up at one corner, though whether that was at his brother or at the thought of shooting, Mae didn’t know.

“Nick,” Alan said. “Go.”

He looked at Alan and reached behind him, fingers curling around the hilt of his sword. The gesture might have been Nick seeking reassurance, Mae thought, like a child clutching at a favorite toy.

Or he might have been thinking of using it.

“I don’t like what you’ve done to me,” Nick told his brother, his voice ugly, and moved fast.

He went for the door and stalked out, slamming it shut behind him. The crash of the door was the only sound in the kitchen for a moment.

Then Mae moved past the counter to stand shoulder to shoulder with Alan as they faced the magician.

Gerald, clearly unimpressed by the awesome threat they presented, took a seat at the head of the kitchen table and stretched his long legs easily out before him.