Lore vs. The Summoning (32 page)

I knew then that Grayson Dennison was going to kill me.

I didn't plead with him when he started forward with that dead-eyed stare. It wasn't my Gray looking at me. This was someone under the influence of some bad, bad voodoo.

He stalled with a mighty shake and let out a wolf-like howl from deep within his throat. My silent prayers shifted. I just wanted him to get it over with. He was only prolonging the inevitable.

"Gray," I whispered, "Make it fast."

The dead-eyed stare flickered for a moment to reveal a more familiar gleam in my friend's gaze. "No, god, no," he whimpered. Another shudder took over. "Unnngg!" He was gone again.

I took a deep, steadying breath as he closed the distance to me. This waiting was excruciating. "Just do it!" I shouted at him.

His fingers shot up to my throat to squeeze it...gently. Gray lowered himself forward until his quaking chest was against me. His forehead and nose pressed to mine. I felt the warmth of his tears splash down onto my cheeks.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered.

This was so much worse than if he'd just stabbed me as soon as he'd stood. "Just do it, please," I begged because I couldn't handle much more of this without falling to pieces.

Gray's lips slammed down on mine for a bruising kiss that lasted only seconds. When he pulled back he said five unmistakable words, "I love you, band girl."

I wasn't sure what shocked me more, what Gray had said or the debilitating pain of a dagger through the chest. Gray had stabbed me with the same force I'd seen him use on the other women. But I'd been wrong about that.
 

I did notice. Holy fuck did I notice.

The fact that he'd stabbed me through a lung instead of my heart didn't seem to make me feel any better considering I could barely breath despite my rapid gasps. At least if he'd hit me through the heart I'd have died quicker.
 

Gray pulled the dagger out with a horrified look affixed to his handsome features and fell to his knees. He screamed one long, heartfelt noise. "Noooooooooooo!"

My blood poured out of me at an alarming rate and even though I could feel my healing power furiously racing to make things better, I knew it wouldn't matter. If the wound didn't kill me, the demon that was about to appear would.
 

Apparently Gray had grown a pair, finally. Now that he'd killed everyone in the circle (or nearly had, I'd be dead in a few minutes), he dragged himself toward Talise. The priestess's lover must have been distracted because he didn't shout for him to stay in the circle until Gray was nearly past the salt line.

Another pained choke had a river of blood gushing out over my chest onto the ground. It must have been just the right amount needed because I felt the power in the circle snap taut seconds later. Every hair on my body stood on end. The space began pulsating with both energy and light. Each of the torches flared up like fountain fireworks before they were snuffed out with only tendrils of smoke remaining. The witches had gone quiet, perhaps in surprise.

It wasn't for long. Talise's voice called out a single foreign phrase in the darkness. Absolutely nothing happened for three heartbeats.

Then I heard roaring in my ears and felt a slight rumbling of the ground. I knew I was in for a shit storm of epic proportions. Even with the forewarning sounds I hadn't been prepared for what happened next.

The circle exploded in a column of fire that must have been visible from space. I couldn't help but scream as much as my wounded lung would allow while everything was incinerated around me in the white-hot heat. My ears burst from the thundering sound of it as if a jet engine had fallen atop me. There was nothing for my eyes to watch but the very flames of hell engulfing me. And then as suddenly as it had begun, everything went silent.

I was at peace.
 

There was only a calming, quiet blackness all around. Was this the afterlife? When the Diakonos of a Greek god died, did she go to Hades? I'd been hoping for the Elysian Fields. But that would be green, wouldn't it? Maybe I hadn't been heroic enough to pass there.

My peace was ruined when my chest shook in a painful, bloody cough. I saw light again in the form of the pale blue glow from the full moon overhead reflecting against my body. Aside from the knife wound in my chest, my skin was whole and unblemished. Somehow I'd ended up in a naked ball in the middle of the sacred circle.

I wasn't dead? How was that possible? How the hell wasn't I incinerated? Could Morrígan's Brand have protected me from
that
?

"Kill her!" Talise shrieked somewhere in front of me.

Ah hell. She was still alive. I'd have to take care of that now that I was unbound and only partially dead.

The ground shook behind me with a mighty thud and then the symptom repeated. It wasn't until I heard something breathing from very close that I understood what the noise had been: footsteps. From the sound of it, that something had a nasal problem and monstrous nostrils.
 

An uneven and rough object slid beneath my back. Moments later I dangled high in the air, facing a thing from out of a horror film. Worse, I was dangling from its hand.

The gray skinned creature must have been fourteen feet tall with four spiraled horns protruding from its bald head. The horns only accounted for two of the fourteen feet. Behind its monstrous shoulders was a pair of leathery wings one might expect to find on a pterodactyl. It had a humanoid face complete with all of the major features. Only the nose was odd, a smashed blunt thing in which the nostrils were merely holes in the face. Despite the ugly nose, leathery wings and sharp horns, it was the large empty obsidian eyes that disturbed me most. When I looked into them I saw nothing reflected back but emptiness I could feel gnawing at something within me.

"I have summoned you to this circle from the Realm of the Fallen. I command you, Kruzulun," Talise called out in an imperious voice. "Kill her now!"

The demon sedately turned its head toward the witch. Its horns were within inches of my face. I struggled not to react to it in fear. Most predators I went up against responded to fear. I didn't want it responding. It was holding me within a single, colossal hand that could easily squeeze the life out of me. I was confident I couldn't heal that kind of damage.

With an unhurried movement I was set down on the ground within the circle. It had been done almost with...care. Why would a demon gently set me on my feet if it were about to kill me?

"Your ritual called me," the thing said. My eyes shot wide at the thunderous voice. "But it was her blood that brought me over."

"She is our sacrifice to you!" Talise began to sound frantic. "Take her, Kruzulun!"

"The sacrifices were consumed by the flames of my arrival. This is not a sacrifice." A long, clawed finger extended toward me. "All she need do is command me with my name."

There was no thought involved in what I choked out, "I command you to go back to where you came from, Kruzulun."

The creature's head whipped toward me. "I cannot grant that."

"No!" Talise shrieked.

"She makes such racket. I would like to kill her," the demon said blandly.

"So would I," I half muttered.

The creature started toward the edge of the circle to do just that. "I cannot depart the circle without a door."

That was good to know. I glanced around now that I knew he wasn't going to kill me. The line of salt was strangely untouched though the shale was missing. No doubt it was another of the sacrifices.

"You whore!" Gerard's savage voice shouted.

I heard the man's thudding footsteps against the dirt behind me. My palm was flat in front of me as I turned toward his attack. I was ready to catch the nearest portion of skin for a good plaguing. I'd enjoy every bit of horror in Gerard's eyes as he struggled for his last breath while the sores took over.

However the asshole Gerard never made it to me. He was snatched up in the demon's meaty fist, broken in half with a revolting crunch and hurdled somewhere in the darkness. There'd been no doubt in my mind that the massive creature was a killing machine but actually seeing it in action was still a blow to my peace of mind.

I watched with a slack jaw as the thing walked out of the circle the way the witch had come in. He had his door now. Talise was dead in a similarly violent fashion before I'd comprehended that the demon had broken free of his sacred prison.

Strangely rather than fly off to begin a killing spree, the demon walked around the perimeter until he was in front of me. "What shall I do now?"

"Get back in the circle," I replied in a steadier voice. My breaths were a bit less labored now. I suspected my lung was almost fully healed.

Even though I hadn't used the demon's name he followed the command. He soon stood within feet of me. The empty black eyes stared down awaiting the next order. I couldn't help but shiver.

"Unnnng!" Gray's voice echoed in the darkness.

"A vampire has him," the demon told me.

Yes, she did. And she was going to pay for that.

I glanced over at Gray. The noise the Prime had let out wasn't just a fight against a command this time. After a quick sneeze-like sound, Gray seemed to implode into himself. He'd
shifted
.

"Shit," I swore.

In his animal form Gray was faster and had sharper teeth and claws. He wouldn't be able to talk once he'd transformed and I wasn't certain he could listen to reason. Gods, the witches were dead. Why couldn't the vampire just give up? Her partnership was dissolved!

The honey colored wolf pounced forward out of the darkness. Apollo's Warning gave me enough time to dart out of his path. In the split second I had I saw the reflection of the moon's light on the dagger not far from me. I ran for it, breaking through the salt.

A high-pitched yelp tore my attention back into the circle. The demon had Gray by the leg and was about to bash him against the ground. I felt my heart stop.

"No! Don't hurt him, Kruzulun!"

Those Void-like eyes turned toward me with what appeared to be curiosity. "He was going to kill you."

"I know. But it's the vampire's fault. Let him go. I'll take care of him." I hoped.

"As you wish."

The moment the demon set Gray's feet on the ground the shifter shot out toward me. I waited with my hand holding the dagger firmly beside me. My early warning system slowed everything to a crawl.

I channeled all of my energy, all of the fury and the adrenaline that coursed through my veins into a single action. My hand lifted the dagger high in the air and then swung down with a powerful force to impale Gray's thigh to the ground. The dagger's hilt partially pushed through his fur.
 

Apparently I was really fucking pissed.
 

The wolf writhed on the ground below me with a canine whimper that tore at my heart. This was the least damage I could do to him while still thwarting him. On the ground he shook, snapped and twisted. He did himself more harm than good. He wasn't going to stop until the vampire retracted her command...or died. The only other thing I could think of to do was punch him in the head with enough force to knock him out. So I tried it. The wolf went frighteningly still.

I couldn't take the time to see if I'd killed him with a mere vanilla human punch. Because if I hadn't, he was going to get up and come after me. No, I needed a head start.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

I couldn't look at the fallen figure of my friend without feeling my chest squeeze in worry. So I avoided seeing that part of the circle. I noted the witch's white robe on the ground nearby. The edges of it were charred. Cinders had burned through to the ground beneath in several spots but it would be better than nothing.
 

I knelt to fetch it, pulling it over my shoulders. The fabric was smooth except for the few charred spots. Once clad, I stepped out in the direction of the soft glow in the distance that must be Boston.

"Mistress," the demon called after me, "Shall I remain in the circle?"

"Yes," I replied without stopping my forward momentum.

"That is not wise," he said in his dead voice. "I can help you."

A demon
help
me? I didn't think so. My response was, "You could also
kill
most of the city."

"Only if you tell me to."

The calm way with which the creature had answered was disturbing on a few levels. I blurted out another few lines, "Besides, you look...like a demon. Everyone will scream. I can't deal with screaming people."

"Easily remedied."

I was curious enough at the reply to stall and turn. There in the half destroyed circle of salt, the demon's monstrous fourteen-foot winged body slowly condensed into an entirely ordinary male body. Well, ordinary in that he didn't have wings or horns.
 

That body was clothed in a rather curious red linen tunic that covered his upper body but fell only to the knees of his caramel-skinned legs. Though still bald, his horns had receded into his skull. He had the look of a middle-eastern man without the facial hair I usually associated with them. And he was quite becoming, a drastic change from his nightmarish demon form.

"Will there be screaming people now?" His voice was still deep but it didn't rumble within the very ground like thunder. Spoken through human vocal chords he managed to sound bored.

No, there probably wouldn't be screaming people. But I wasn't going to answer with that. Gods, I couldn't bring a demon into Boston! Even if it
was
to kill the vampire responsible for the mayhem in the first place.

So I told him that.

He posed a question of me. "What else will you do with me? I cannot go back. You cannot kill me."

I didn't know about that. The plague didn't work on vampires because they were already dead. Who knew what the case was with demons? But it wasn't a good idea to let on that I might be able to hurt him. And he did have a point. What the hell
would
I do with him?

He glanced to the side. "The shapeshifter is regaining consciousness. Shall I fix that?"