Where Demons Dare

Panicked, I looked across the store to my mother. She stood with her friend, neat and tidy in her autumn-colored outfit, her hair perfectly arranged, and the skin around her eyes just starting to show a few faint lines. She hadn’t a clue. “Mom,” I whispered, gesturing frantically as I put space between us. “Get into a circle. Both of you!” But they just stared. I didn’t have time to explain. Hell, I didn’t understand it myself. This had to be a joke. Some perverted, twisted joke.

My eyes went to the darting clatter of Jenks as he came to hover beside me. “It’s Al!” the pixy whispered. “Rache, you said he was in demon prison!”

“Rachel Mariana Mo-o-o-o-orga-a-a-a-an,” the demon sang, and I stiffened at the tap-thunk tap-thunk of his booted feet coming from behind a tall display of spelling books.

“Damn fool moss-wipe of a pixy,” Jenks berated himself. “It’s too cold to take my sword,” he said in a mocking falsetto. “It’ll freeze to my ass. It’s a shopping trip, not a run.” His voice shifted, becoming angry. “Tink save you, Rachel. Can’t you even go shopping with your mom without calling up demons?”

“I didn’t call him!” I protested, feeling my palms start to sweat.

“Yeah, well, he’s here,” the pixy said, and I swallowed when the demon peeked from behind the display. He had known exactly where I was.

Al was smiling with deep, taunting anger, his red eyes, their pupils horizontal slits like a goat’s, peering over a pair of round smoked glasses. Dressed in his usual frock coat of crushed green velvet, he was a picture of old European grace, the image of a young lord on the verge of greatness. Lace showed at his cuffs and collar. His aristocratically chiseled features, with a strong nose and chin, were tightened in bad humor, and his thick teeth showed in an expression that anticipated dealing out pain.

I kept backing up, and he came out from behind the display. “Oh, I say. This is splendid!” he said in delight. “Two Morgans for the price of one.”

Oh, God. My mother. Terror snapped me out of my shock. “You can’t touch me or my family,” I said while I tried to get the cellophane off the magnetic chalk. If I could make a circle, I might be able to trap him. “You promised!”

The tapping of his boots stopped as he posed to show off his elegant grace. My eyes measured the distance between us. Eight feet. Not good. But if he was looking at me, he was ignoring my mom.

“I did, didn’t I?” he said, and when he sent his gaze to the ceiling, my shoulders eased.

“Rache!” Jenks shrilled.

Al lunged. Panicking, I backpedaled. Fear hit hard when he found my throat. I dug at his fingers, my nails gouging him as he picked me up to dangle me from his grip. His sculptured face grimaced at the pain, but he only tightened his fingers. My pulse pounded in my head and I went limp, praying he wanted to gloat a little before he dragged me back to the ever-after to hopefully just kill me.

“You can’t hurt me,” I squeaked out, not sure if the sparkles at the edge of my vision were from lack of oxygen or Jenks. I am dead. I am so dead.

A soft sound of satisfaction emanated from Al, a long, low rumble of contentment. He effortlessly pulled me close until our breaths mingled. His eyes were red behind his glasses, and the scent of burnt amber coursed through me. “I asked nicely for your testimony. You refused. I’ve no incentive to play by the rules anymore. You can thank your own shortsightedness for that. Me sitting in a tiny little cell.” He gave me a shake to rattle my teeth. “Stripped of my curses and naked but for what I can say or spell. But someone summoned me out,” he said maliciously. “And we have a deal that’s going to leave you dead and me a free demon.”

“It wasn’t my fault you went to jail,” I squeaked. The pulsing adrenaline hurt my head. He couldn’t take me to the ever-after unless I let him; he’d have to drag me to a ley line.

Somewhere in my frazzled brain, something clicked. He couldn’t hold me and go misty at the same time. Grunting, I pulled my knee up, connecting right between his legs.

Al grunted. Agony smacked into me as he flung me away and my back hit a display. I gasped for air, holding my bruised throat as packets of freeze-dried herbs sifted over me with light thumps. Sucking in the scent of amber as I coughed, I held up a hand to fend them off, angling my legs under me to stand. Where is the chalk?

“You sorry bitch of a succubus whore!” Al groaned, holding himself as he hunched over, and I smiled. Minias had told me that as part of Al’s punishment for letting his old familiar go when she knew how to spindle line energy, he’d been purged of the accumulated charms, spells, and curses he had built up over the millennia. It left him, while not helpless, at least reduced to a limited spell vocabulary. Obviously he’d been in the kitchen recently, since his upper-crust Englishman persona was a disguise. I didn’t want to know what he really looked like.

“What’s the matter, Al?” I mocked, wiping my mouth to find I’d bitten my lip. “Not used to anyone fighting back?” This was freaking great. Here I was in a charm shop, and nothing was invoked but vanity charms and bust enhancers.

“Here, Rachel!” my mom cried out, and Al’s head swung around.

“Mom!” I shouted when she threw something at me. “Get out!”

Al’s eyes tracked it. I stiffened as a shimmer of black ever-after coursed over him, healing whatever I had damaged. But the magnetic chalk thumped safely into my hand. I took a breath to yell at her to get out again, and the shimmer of a blue-tinted ever-after circle rose up around her and the clerk behind the counter. They were safe.

An odd, unexpected sensation of ice swept through me, and I stiffened. It felt like the chime of a bell ringing through my bones. Oblivious, Al let out a roar and lunged.

Yelping, I dropped to the floor and out of his reach. From behind me came a crash as Al sailed over me and fell into the rack I’d knocked over. I had seconds. Arm extended, I sat on the floor and scribbled a circle, rolling back and away as a premonition honed by years of martial arts told me he was reaching for me.

“Not this time, witch,” he snarled.

Eyes wide, I spun on my butt. My foot came up to kick, but he moved with an inhuman quickness and my boot struck his palm. I froze, lying on my back with my ankle in his grip and my scarf in my face. One good twist, and he’d break it. Shit.

Al had lost his glasses. His eyes glinted maliciously as he smiled, but before he could move, an explosion rocked through the store and blew out the windows. My hands jerked to my ears and I yanked my foot out of Al’s grip. The demon’s goatlike eyes were wide as he stumbled back, but his shock quickly became anger.

Frightened, I scrabbled to knock over another display. Packaged amulets rained down. The shush of tires against wet pavement became obvious as my hearing returned, the sound coming in through the broken window along with the calls of people. What had my mom done?

“Jenks!” I shouted, feeling the icy cool of a damp night. It was too cold. It might throw him into hibernation!

“I’m fine!” he exclaimed as he hovered in a red haze of dust. “Let’s get the bastard.”

I gathered myself to stand, then hesitated in a crouch when Jenks’s gaze fixed on something over my shoulder and the pixy went white.

“Uh, bastards,” he amended shakily, and a new fear settled in when I realized Al wasn’t moving anymore either, but watching whatever Jenks was. In the hush of ambient street noise, a wave of burnt-amber, tainted ozone flowed over me.

“There’s another demon behind me, isn’t there?” I whispered.

Jenks’s eyes flicked to mine and away. “Two.”

Terrific. Jenks darted away, and I moved. I tripped on my scarf, then kicked backward when someone grabbed my leg. Their hold faltered, and dropping back to the floor, I spun. A yellow-clad arm reached for me. Gripping someone’s shoulder, I swung my foot up as a fulcrum and flung him over me.

There was no crash; whoever it was had gone misty. Three demons? What in hell is going on!

Ticked, I got to my feet only to stumble when a blur of red darted in front of me. My eyes went to my mother. She was okay, fighting to get the clerk’s arms off her as the woman panicked, safe in the circle as the store was ripped apart.

“You sent a rent-a-cop after me?” Al bellowed. “Nice try!”

I covered my ears when a pressure shift pulsed against me and Al vanished. The demon in red that had been headed for him skidded to a stop. Cursing violently, he flung his scythe in rage. It sliced through a metallic rack like it was cotton candy, and the display toppled as the clerk began sobbing.

Blinking, I stood and slowly backed away. Packets of amulets crunched under my feet. Holy crap, I thought; the monster looked like death having a temper tantrum, and I jumped when Jenks landed on my shoulder. The pixy had a straightened plastic-coated paper clip, and I found strength in that. So what if there were still two demons here? I could do anything with Jenks watching my back.

“Follow him!” the last demon shouted, and I spun, fearing the worst. Please, not Newt. Anyone but Newt.

“You!” I exclaimed, my breath exploding out of me in that one word. It was Minias.

“Yes, me,” Minias snarled, and I jumped when the red demon with the scythe vanished. “Why, by the bloody new moon, didn’t you answer me?”

“Because I don’t deal with demons!” I shouted, pointing to the shattered window as if I had any authority over him. “Get the hell out of here!”

Minias’s smooth, ageless face creased in anger.

“Look out!” Jenks cried as he took off from my shoulder, but I was way ahead of him. The demon was striding across the store in his yellow robe and funny hat, kicking charms and herbs out of the way. I backed up, the cries from the sidewalk telling me how close I was to the circle I’d scribed earlier. My pulse pounded and I felt myself sweat. This would be close.

Murderously silent, he came on, his slitted eyes a red so dark as to be almost brown. His robes unfurled as he moved, looking like a cross between a desert sheik’s cloak and a kimono. Pace stilted, he reached for me, the light glinting on his rings.

“Now!” Jenks shouted, and I dropped out from under the demon’s reach and rolled past the chalk line.

I was outside the circle; Minias was in it. “Rhombus!” I exclaimed, slapping my hand down on the chalk. My awareness reached out to touch the nearest ley line. Power surged through me and I held my breath, eyes watering as it flowed in unchecked, my desire for a quick circle letting the ley line energy fill me with an unusual force.