Pale Demon (The Hollows #9)(61)
Author: Kim Harrison

Extending my arms to his back, I pushed myself up, looking wildly for Ivy. Jenks. Hell, even Vivian would be a help. Orienting myself, I sent my gaze to our table. "Pierce!" I shouted, and the man turned from where he’d been watching the two vamps in the corner. Beside him, Vivian’s eyes widened. "A little help here, maybe?" Jeez, did I have to sing it for them?

Pierce stood, his face ashen. "Rachel!" he called, cutting through the music and catching everyone’s attention. Without missing a beat, the band shifted to "Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong" and the crowd exploded into cheers. I could understand their confusion. Ku’Sox looked like an especially attractive billionaire, rescuing his woman of the week from a lifetime of minimum wage.

Tight over my head came a clatter of pixy wings, and I looked up to get a face full of pixy dust. "Jenks, get Ivy!" I shouted between coughs, the image of a pixy and a bird flashing through my mind-terrifying me more than Ku’Sox carrying me away. My head dropped as I wiped my eyes, and I glimpsed Trent at the top of the kitchen corridor. Focus blurry, I felt more than saw Ivy at the front of the restaurant in a puddle of light by the register, hands on her hips and looking svelte and refreshed.

Finally I could see again, and I let out a little shriek, ducking when a black ball of ever-after arched toward us. Pierce. He’d thrown something.

It struck Ku’Sox right in the head, little pinpricks of his aura hitting me like sleet. Ku’Sox stumbled as if shocked, and I scrabbled for a grip as he began to fall. The curse flashed through Ku’Sox, jerking his muscles stiff, but then it was me screaming when the son of a bitch shoved Pierce’s curse into me instead.

I howled as the arc of electricity jumped from neuron to neuron, burning. I caught a glimpse of Pierce, horrified, and then the pain was gone and I was panting, trying to breathe as I hung limp over Ku’Sox’s shoulder.

"What are you doing?" Vivian shouted from a thousand years away.

"You think your white charms are going to do anything against that?" Pierce yelled back, and the band started to falter-except for the drummer, lost in the throes of his passion.

"Please don’t do that again," I slurred, head hanging. Conversation hummed in my stunned ears, and I caught a few uneasy whispers. We passed another table, and I started to rally. It was up to Ivy. Magic wouldn’t do it-it had to be physical.

"Thank you, God," I said as I heard her scream at him. The world spun, and I hit the floor, sprawling and hip bruised. I looked up to see Ivy and Ku’Sox in a tangle on a table. Shouts of protest rose high as glasses and plates hit the floor. My phone was humming, the buzz in my back pocket almost lost in the vertigo that was hitting me. Dizzy, I rolled to get out of the way. People were starting to scatter. We had to do this fast, or the freak would start eating people.

"Jenks!" I shouted, ducking under the table when a chair Ivy had thrown shattered near my elbow. "Get Trent out of here!" I shouted again, thinking that maybe if Trent was gone, the demon might be constrained to follow.

Jenks hesitated in midair, hovering between Ivy and me, clearly torn.

"Tell him to get the car!" I yelled, a little ding from my back pocket telling me whoever it was had left a voice message. "Bring it here!" The demon would follow him or not. Either way, we’d have a quick way out of here when the shit quit hitting the fan.

Leaving a burst of frustrated dust, Jenks darted from Ivy to me, his long hair swinging. His sharply angled face twisted up in indecision, but before he could say anything, Ivy yelled in pain. We both looked to see her slide across the floor on her back until slamming into the bottom of the stage. Blinking, she shook her head, trying to focus. The drummer finally stopped, and in the sudden hush, she slurred, "I’m okay. Get the freak of a demon."

That did it, and even as Ku’Sox dramatically turned, people surged to the doors in a panic. In seconds, the emergency door began screaming, and the people trying to get out of the jam-packed front surged to the rear. Ku’Sox seemed to be enjoying the chaos, raising his arms in benediction and soaking it all in as the fear rose and the noise grew louder.

I jumped when Jenks landed on my shoulder. Beside me was Trent, and I grabbed his arm and started dragging him to the kitchen. There had to be a back door. Vivian and Pierce could take care of themselves. My phone was ringing again, and I ignored it.

"Nice going, Trent," I said as I yanked us to a halt to avoid a panicked waitress, her eyes black in fear. "I had this under control until you called in Ku’Sox."

"Yeah, you stupid cookie maker," Jenks snarled, resting on my shoulder. "Quit trying to help, okay?"

"I didn’t call him. He just showed up," Trent said indignantly, and I would have laughed but it sounded too familiar. "Why don’t you just hit him with some magic?" he said, and I stopped in the hallway, just outside the kitchen doors. People were screaming, trying to get out, but no one was coming this way.

"What, and end up dead?" I said, not having a problem admitting that there were people stronger than me. "Ku’Sox almost killed Al," I said, my pointing arm dropping when I realized Ku’Sox was eying the frantic people as if mentally culling the herd. "I can’t beat that! You freed a serial killer!"

Trent flinched, but I think it was from the explosion behind me more than from what I’d said. I spun to the wave of heat at my back, and by the familiar green tint to the fading aura, I’d guess that Ku’Sox had deflected one of Pierce’s curses. A table was burning with a green flame, and the fire licking the nets was beginning to crawl along the ceiling. A drop of it fell to the floor, and I felt myself pale when someone collapsed with an ugly scream, writhing in pain and clutching his leg. In three seconds, the man was engulfed, creating a second panic as people trampled one another to get away.

Okay. Safety note. Don’t step in the green fire.

"Pierce!" I shouted. The choking air smelling like burned limes. "You’re hurting people!"

His long coat furling, he spun to me. My face went cold. There was no remorse in him, no softness. Only the demands of the fight. "He needs to die in flame!" Pierce shouted angrily. "Demons die in flame!"

True, but so do people.

I strengthened my hold on the ley line when Ku’Sox started for Ivy, but the shrill sound of the man burning pulled Ku’Sox’s attention like a siren’s song. He shifted his focus and started for the screaming man instead, flinging people aside if they didn’t move fast enough. Standing before the writhing man, Ku’Sox hesitated for a blissful second, soaking in the sound of the alarm and the fleeing people as the man gurgled his last. The demon’s eyes widened in anticipation, and he flushed before plunging his hands into the slumped, still-burning form. Ku’Sox shuddered in pleasure, his expression one of gleeful enthusiasm. Pulling back, his two-handed grip was holding something hazed with a soft glow. Holding it over his head, Ku’Sox squeezed his hands and a black, viscous substance oozed from his fingers to fall into his mouth. His soul? Was it the man’s soul, burnt and burning?