Pale Demon (The Hollows #9)(47)
Author: Kim Harrison

I could hear Ivy yelling at Vivian, and I prayed she’d keep her circle closed. "Let me handle this!" I warned everyone, pulling my head up to see Ivy ready to throw Vivian into her own circle and risk all their lives. "Please," I begged Ivy, and with a pained expression, she let Vivian go. The coven witch hit the car and slid to the pavement, shaken. Trent was a silent observer, and Jenks…

I looked away. Jenks was beside himself.

Ku’Sox only laughed, but he looked cross as he felt his ribs. "You’ll be my first in a long time," he said, bending down to look at me with his hands on his knees. "Do you have anything in particular you’re not fond of?"

"Shove it up your ass," I panted.

Ku’Sox straightened. "Lady’s choice," he said, then reached for my shoulder.

"Owwww!" I howled as he flooded me with energy. Pissed, I rose up under his hand, shocking the hell out of him as I spindled the force and flung it right back at him. "Knock it off!" I shouted as he staggered back, his silver clothes seeming to shift to black in the sun.

Ku’Sox caught his balance eight feet away and blinked, amazement on his thin face. "Who the hell are you, witch who dresses like a man?"

I took a breath to tell him to screw himself, my words going unsaid as my head seemed to explode. Gasping, I fell to my knees. He was in my head. Oh, God, he was in my head! I was seeing snatches of my life with him standing in the shadows: an orderly at the hospital when I was thirteen, his blue eyes mocking my pain as my dad lay dying; then he was at camp on the horse behind mine; then he was at the park, walking the dog I’d seen when I’d made the deal with Al. He hadn’t been at any of those places in reality, but now, as I lived it again, he was there, learning everything, missing nothing.

"Get out!" I shouted, hands on my head as I tried not to hammer my forehead into the pavement.

"Rachel Mariana Morgan," Ku’Sox said, flinging a hand out; I heard Ivy fall back with a grunt. The circle was down. No. Please no.

"Who has been teaching you such dangerous tricks?" Ku’Sox said, and there was a touch on my shoulder, soft and hesitant.

"Go to…hell," I panted. No, not that memory, I thought in anguish as I saw his reflection in the mirror while I held Kisten as he died.

"Algaliarept?" The stitching in Ku’Sox’s sleeves glinted in the sun as he threw magic at Jenks, and I felt tears form, falling hot on my knees. They were trying to fight him as I sat crumpled on the hot pavement, living my life for the demon. "Why is the dullard letting you wander about here in the sun, little familiar?"

"Get out of my head…" I breathed as I tried not to remember that I wasn’t a familiar but almost an equal. "Get out!"

"Oh!" he exclaimed suddenly as a memory of Trent grew strong. Jonathan was there, his face having Ku’Sox’s eyes. And then I was gasping, my fisted hand scraping the pavement as I tried to get up, alone again in my thoughts. Panting, I bowed my head as the heat soaked into me. Oh God, it had been awful. My life. He’d seen my entire life.

"You can invoke demon magic?" Ku’Sox said softly, bending over me with the faintest hint of burnt amber between us. But if it was from him or me, I didn’t know.

My breath came in fast as I felt arms go around me. Head lolling, I tried to focus, failing. He was holding me, and I was too tired to even protest. I’d lived my entire life in eight heartbeats, and the heat washed out of me as I fell into shock.

"S-stop," I managed, jerking when Ku’Sox murmured a word of Latin, and Vivian cried out in pain. The only reason they were still alive was because he was interested in me.

My hand was in a fist, and he brought my bleeding knuckles up to his mouth, licking my blood. Working at it, I managed to focus on him. He had a scar on his eyelid, like Lee. He’d be minus an eye if I could move my other arm.

"You’re a link," he said, grinning at me like he’d won a doll at the fair. "And you have red hair and wear pants. I adore red hair. I once gave an entire generation of witches that color. That was before they locked me in the ground."

"Put me down," I demanded, and he did, holding me until I got my balance, but when I tried to escape, his grip tightened about my waist.

"Seems as if I got out just in time," he murmured, looking me over again. "Why are you dallying with Algaliarept? He’s a hack. But then, he’s probably the best they have now. Unless Newt is still alive. I’ve been gone for…" Squinting, he looked up at the sun in evaluation. "Somewhere in the vicinity of two thousand years?" Frowning, his gaze dropped to me. "Two thousand years and you have red hair. How’s that for a legacy!"

He seemed happy about it, but I was still trying to stand on my own feet. I didn’t like what I was hearing, and I was sure Vivian was even more pleased than she had been. Ku’Sox was indeed a demon. In. The. Sun. I needed answers, but I wanted them from Al, not…Cute Socks here.

Vivian was ashen faced, standing in front of the car with a bit of chalk in her hand. There was an uninvoked circle around Ku’Sox and me, and her intent was clear. Ivy was next to her, and Jenks. The wild pixies still with us were under the car. I met Jenks’s eyes, and he shrugged, pantomiming slugging him. Might work, I thought. I’d have a better chance of holding him in a smaller circle than keeping him out of one as large as a car. My heart pounded, and I pulled my foot back and slammed it into Ku’Sox’s shin.

The demon howled, his grip easing just enough.

"Roll!" Jenks shouted, and I dove for the pavement, feeling Vivian’s circle lick my heels as I made it through. A grunt slipped from me as I hit the parking lot again, finding my feet a little more slowly. Hand still clenched around my chalk, I turned, panting. The demon was in a circle-a coven-made circle-and it wasn’t going to hold.

Sure enough, Ku’Sox was pushing at it with a determined expression, smoke rising from where his fingers touched. The familiar scent of burnt amber grew obvious, and I scrambled into motion. Hunched, I crab-walked around Vivian’s circle, praying that the magnetic chalk wouldn’t skip, wouldn’t leave a gap. It had to be perfect. And it still might not hold.

"Rhombus." I inhaled as I finished, sitting back on the hot asphalt as the circle formed.

"Son of a Were whore!" Ku’Sox shouted as his smoldering fist broke through Vivian’s barrier only to smack into mine. Yanking his hand back, he shook it as if stung. His washed-out eyes dropped to mine, and I scooted back. It was perfect. It would hold. It had to.

"I couldn’t hold him," Vivian panted, and I looked to her, haggard and slumped against the car.