Vengeance of the Demon: Demon Novels, Book Seven (Kara Gillian 7) (35 page)

Dismay washed over her face as she spun toward me. “Kara, it’s not what you think—”

I cut her off. “I also found your notes in the attic, so you can stop lying about your association with Katashi.” My hands were starting to ache, and I adjusted my grip on my gun.

Tessa drew a deep breath, and calm settled over her. Pygah.
She just mentally traced a fucking pygah.
Hurt and anger clawed within my chest at the reminder of things she’d never taught me.

“If you know so much,” she said, “then you also know I won’t tell you anything.”

“That’s nothing new.” My throat clogged. “I
loved
you!” I said, agonized. “You were like a mother to me! How could you throw me to the wolves?”

“I didn’t!” Tessa’s hands tightened at her sides despite her damn pygah. “I never wanted you to get hurt.” She shook her head. “It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this, but the situation had reached the point where having Angus diminish you was the best available option.”

“Are you going to insist you begged Katashi to show me kindness and mercy?” I said with a sneer.

The cold steel in her eyes took me aback. “You’re dangerous,” she said with uncompromising certainty. “Harsh measures were on the table. I advocated stripping your abilities, but in the end Isumo and Lord—” She caught herself. “Isumo made the decision without my input.”

What the hell? Ever since the nightmare at the Nature Center I’d clung to the fantasy that Tessa had stood between me and a death sentence.
They could have killed me at any time
, I reminded myself
. They took out Steeev easily enough.
I remained of use to the Mraztur, but for what purpose? Especially now that I was diminished. I didn’t want to consider the ugly possibilities until I was well armed with wine and chocolate.

“Did you have any
input
on getting Kara thrown in jail?” Idris demanded, taking up my slack while I recovered from her bombshell. “Do you know what happens to ex-cops in prison?” I wasn’t sure whether to be pleased by his support or worried. He’d met his mother, and she was the enemy.

“I wasn’t party to that decision,” she said with a lift of her chin, then she cast a righteous glare at me. “Your own actions set you up for that.”

“But you’re a key member of Katashi’s organization, and you stood by and let it happen,” I countered. “Guess what? If I get killed in prison, you might as well have murdered me with your own hands.”

She paled, but it only took her a second to rally. “You believe your allies are so admirable and without reproach?” she shot back. “Mzatal?
Szerain?
” Her voice dripped with venom on the second name.

“
Your
allies’ methods suck!” I yelled. “And you’re a horrible, lying, conniving bitch who never deserved my love!”

Tessa recoiled a step and stared at me, color high in her cheeks. “You’re my
niece
. I did the best I could for you given the circumstances. You can’t possibly think—”

Carl stepped out of the parlor. “Their backup is here. Two men,” he said, no more perturbed than if reporting that the morning paper had landed on the doorstep.

I took a deep breath and found my center. I didn’t need a pygah. Getting that crap off my chest worked just as well, and she could keep her lame excuses about
circumstances
. “Let them in,” I said. “We’re done.”

I lowered my gun enough that it wasn’t a direct threat but didn’t holster it. Carl swung the door open and stepped back to reveal Jerry Steiner easing across the porch toward the door with his gun tucked close to his body, and Tsuneo on the walkway behind him.

Jerry leaped nimbly aside to get out of the potential line of fire from a shooter within, while Tsuneo did the same in the opposite direction. When no hail of bullets materialized, Jerry made a tactical peek around the door frame. Satisfied he wasn’t about to get his head blown off, he leaned out for a more thorough inspection.

“You cool?” he asked McDunn.

“Like the ice planet Hoth,” McDunn replied as chill as ever. Some of the tension left Jerry’s stance at the answer, which told me it was a code phrase.

Jerry entered the house, shut the door behind him and put his back to it. Fine by me. No sense letting the neighbors see if things went to shit in here. His eyes darted this way and that as he took note of threats and tried to figure out what was going on. At the sight of Idris he paled and went still as a rabbit beneath a circling hawk. Idris regarded him with seething malevolence that radiated danger and a promise of death. Didn’t matter that fifteen feet separated the two. Jerry was
terrified
of Idris, and for damn good reason considering what he’d done to Idris’s sister.

Though McDunn surely felt the tension, he remained placid as he turned to me. “Unless you have any objections, I’d like to take my people and go now.”

“None whatsoever,” I said cheerfully.

He looked over at Eilahn. “Could I have my weapons back?” he asked, polite and respectful.

She gave him a tight smile and thrust a plastic grocery bag containing heavy, angular items into his hands. Wary, McDunn peered into it, then let out a sigh and withdrew what I recognized as the spring and barrel for his handgun. While Tessa and I had shouted at each other, my boldly clever guardian had slipped away to unload and disassemble McDunn’s weapons. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I detected a trace of not-so-grudging respect in his expression as he dropped the items back into the bag and tied it shut.

Jerry shifted, uneasy. “C’mon, let’s roll out,” he urged.

McDunn shot him a quelling glance then touched Tessa’s shoulder. “Miss Pazhel, we need to leave.”

Eyes on me, Tessa began to speak then stopped. Maybe she realized it was too late for mere words to undo the damage. Or maybe she understood that nothing could undo or repair it. Whatever part of our relationship had been based in truth was as dead as ash. She dropped her gaze and turned away without another word.

Idris took a lurching step forward. “Did you know?” he blurted to Tessa’s back. Distress rose in his face when she failed to reply or react. “Did you
know?
” Before I could stop him he reached and caught her arm, swung her around to face him. “Tell me! Did you know about me and just not give a shit?”

Tessa hissed in a breath, eyes wide. She pulled away, and Jerry yanked his gun up to cover Idris. “Get the fuck away from her, asshole!” he yelled.

Idris turned a look of utter menace onto Jerry, intense enough to make his lord-daddy proud. With Jerry already on a hair-trigger, the air crackled with stress.
Idris
was Jerry’s greatest foe. Kill Idris, and he wouldn’t have to live in fear anymore.

McDunn yanked Tessa behind him, damn near squishing her against the wall to shield her from both Idris and Jerry’s overreaction. “Steiner! Stand down!” he roared, but Jerry gave no sign he heard McDunn. His attention stayed riveted onto Idris. I took careful aim at Jerry as Pellini did the same, tightened my finger on the trigger—

The heavy grocery bag flew across the room to smack into Jerry’s head with an ugly
thwock
. A gunshot slammed through the hallway as Jerry staggered back, and it took me several heart-pounding seconds to realize it hadn’t come from my gun.

I spun toward Idris, but he stood unscathed, eyes wide and breathing hard. I looked around to see McDunn glaring big scary daggers at Jerry, who leaned against the door with the bag of gun pieces at his feet and one hand pressed to his forehead. Blood trickled down his face, and his gun dangled from the fingers of his other hand.

Snarling, Pellini yanked the gun from Jerry’s grasp. He appeared unhurt as well, but my heart dropped as I continued my hurried scan.

“Eilahn!” She sat on the stairs, hands clamped onto her thigh and an aggravated expression on her face. My stomach did a horrible flip at the blood that stained her jeans though I told myself there’d be a lot more if the bullet had hit her artery. I sprinted to the kitchen and grabbed a dishtowel, ran back and pressed it to her wound.

“Leave. Now,” I growled to McDunn.

McDunn didn’t have to be told twice. Chances were low that a single gunshot would draw undue attention, especially so soon after the Fourth of July when people still let off the occasional firecracker. But he had a host of other reasons to get the fuck out of the house. He hustled Tessa toward the front door so fast her feet barely touched the floor. Dazed and bleeding, Jerry staggered with an unfocused gaze in a futile search for his gun.

McDunn yanked the door open and came face-to-face with a startled Tsuneo. “Get her in the car,” he ordered and shoved Tessa into the summoner’s arms. He scooped up the bag of gun parts and moved to grab Jerry.

“No!” The shout of rage burst from Idris. Fists clenched, he started forward in long strides with Jerry as his clear goal. I didn’t need othersight to know potency rippled over his hands. “No! You’re not taking him,” Idris snarled. “He doesn’t get to hurt anyone else!”

Shiiiiiiiiit. As much as I agreed with Idris’s bloodlust, this was
not
the time for it. I pushed away from the stairs and lunged after him, though I knew I had slim chance of closing the distance in time to stop him. As Idris charged, McDunn settled his weight and balled his hands, ready to defend his man, fucktard though Jerry was. Idris was young, strong, and determined, but even with an arcane edge he was no match for McDunn’s training, experience, and size—and his ability to eradicate arcane ability.

Without warning, Carl stepped from the sitting room, grabbed Idris’s forearm and smoothly blocked him several feet from McDunn and Jerry. “You need to get a hold of yourself or more people will get hurt,” he murmured. Quiet and calm. Typical Carl.

Pulse pounding, I stuttered to a halt behind Idris, braced for him to shove Carl aside and bull forward. Instead, Idris dropped his eyes to Carl’s hand on his arm then turned his gaze to Eilahn and the blood-soaked towel pressed to her thigh.

The vengeful rage left Idris like air from a burst balloon. Utter chagrin filled his face as it hit home how close he’d come to putting us all in a disastrous situation. Maybe Carl had a calming touch like Sonny? Either way, he’d stopped a disaster.

“I’m sorry.” Regret swam in Idris’s eyes. He started to say more, but I lifted a hand to stop him.

“Hold that thought,” I said, more snappishly than I meant to, but I
was
kind of on edge. I shifted my attention to the pair by the door. McDunn had relaxed his hands and nothing else. Jerry’s head continued to bleed. “Get out.”

McDunn grabbed Jerry by the back of the collar, hauled him out and closed the door hard behind him. Heavy footsteps on the porch mingled with a querulous whine from Jerry about how “the fat asshole” had his gun. A sharp
smack
followed that I suspected was McDunn’s way of telling Jerry how little he gave a fuck. I silently willed him to hit Jerry a few dozen more times—hard. The “fat asshole” had turned out to be one of the best people I knew.

A few seconds later two cars started and left. “Clear,” Pellini announced.

“Thanks.” I turned to Idris. “I need to talk to you in the kitchen.” He winced but went without protest. “Do what you can for Eilahn, please,” I said to Carl and Pellini. “I need a few minutes.”

“Got it covered,” Pellini said. He unloaded Jerry’s pistol and tucked it into his waistband, then crouched by Eilahn as Carl fetched towels. Tessa’s favorites, I noted with dark amusement.

Idris stood at the sink, back to me as he gazed out the window at the lake. I closed the door and moved to him.

“I screwed up,” he said, voice thick. “I let my emotions get the best of me and put us all in danger.”

“Yeah, you did.” I leaned against the counter beside him. “You were provoked, and Jerry is a worthless piece of shit. And that was a terrific apology, but that’s not why I wanted to talk to you.”

He gave me a baffled look. “What then?”

My heart began to thud unsteadily. I leaned close and spoke low. “I need you to send Eilahn back to the demon realm.”

He drew back in surprise. “Dismiss her?”

“It’s best this way,” I said, unable to keep my voice as steady and assured as I’d hoped. “I can’t bear the thought of her getting killed for real.” I didn’t say
and I’m not worth guarding anymore
. Even though that was a factor in the amalgam of crap that brought me to this point, the decision was far more complicated. I knew Eilahn would never abandon me, whether I was a summoner or not. She was willing to die to protect me. But I was no longer willing to lose her.

Idris searched my face. “Are you sure?”

I swiped at a few pesky tears. “I wasn’t before she got shot. But . . .” Gooseflesh rippled over my skin. I’d watched her die once before. That was enough.

“I get it,” he said quietly.

A sick ache spread through my chest as the full import of my decision hit home. She’d been with me for the better part of a year, watching my back and perching on my damn roof and decorating my house with outrageous enthusiasm for every holiday. “She won’t want to go,” I told him. “You’re going to have to catch her off guard.”

He exhaled. “Right.”

I returned to Eilahn and sat beside her on the stair. A fluffy yellow towel with embroidered roses swathed her thigh. “How is it?”

“It is a mere flesh wound,” she said. Pellini let out a cough that sounded like laughter though I had no idea why.