Pale Demon (The Hollows #9)(63)
Author: Kim Harrison

Ku’Sox looked to the ceiling as a cascade of red-tinted ever-after washed over him, rebounding at the outermost point of his aura and soaking back into him. Tucking the dead woman under his arm, he headed for the door. I could hear sirens out there, and my heart hammered. Black craft or not, I couldn’t let him leave.

"Are we letting him go?" Pierce shouted, angry as he wiped his mouth and came out from behind the table.

I glanced at Ivy to tell her we weren’t, then Vivian, who still didn’t understand the reality of demons. "Yep," I lied, leaning back and crossing my arms over my chest and rocking back on one foot. "This is not my problem."

"What?" Vivian said, and I lifted a shoulder and let it fall. "You can’t let him walk out of here! He just killed two people!" she raged, her anger at her own naivete, her fear, and her disbelief finding an easy scapegoat in me.

I should have told her that this was all Trent’s fault, but I held my tongue as Ivy slinked away to take up a defensive position. "What do you want me to do, Ms. Coven Member? You’re telling me to do black magic? Huh? ‘Cause that’s the only thing that he’s going to notice!"

She licked her lips, clearly at war with herself. Ku’Sox, though, was almost to the door.

"He’ll notice this," Pierce said, and then, pulling on the line so heavily even Ku’Sox felt it, he threw a spell. Vivian gasped as it flew the distance, burning the very air as it passed. Ku’Sox spun, bouncing it back at us with a quickly instigated bubble.

"Down!" I shouted, and I dropped to the floor. The curse hit the stage, and the amp exploded, sending sparkles of ozone over us. "Damn it, Pierce! Watch what you’re doing!"

"Mmmm," Ku’Sox said as he started back in our direction. "Curious accent to your spell work. Not at all like hers. Who taught you?"

"We can’t stop him!" Vivian exclaimed.

"Duh," I said, trying to decide if Vivian was scared enough yet. If I could convince her that someone needed to know black magic, they might let me keep my mind when they shoved me back in Alcatraz. Sort of a plan B in case demons came visiting again.

Pierce jumped onto a table, shouting Latin, and seeing that he had Ku’Sox’s attention, I pulled Ivy and Vivian to me. "I have an idea," I said, silently thanking God that Pierce was here-even if he was a black witch. I needed him. Al was right.

Vivian hesitated, but it was Ivy who said, "Like the fairies?"

I nodded, even as my heart seemed to clench. I was going to burn Ku’Sox-and I wasn’t going to stop the curse. "Vivian, we need your help." Her face became more frightened, and I looked at Pierce, winding up and throwing another curse at Ku’Sox. Okay, the man not only knew what he was doing, but he looked good doing it.

Pierce followed the first charm with a second, scoring on the demon when Ku’Sox didn’t see the one hidden behind it. A black sticky something coated Ku’Sox, and the demon dropped the dead woman to claw his way out of the green aura covering him.

"A casting," I said, watching Pierce flick his hair back as he caught his breath. "We have to do a casting. I doubt it will kill him, but he might go somewhere else to lick his wounds. Pierce?"

His gaze never leaving the demon, Pierce raised his hand in acknowledgment.

My heart gave a hard pound. Ivy. She’d be safe, but she’d have to stay with me.

"That’s-" Vivian began to say, starting to look aghast again, and I wondered what it was going to take to convince her.

"Casting isn’t illegal," I interrupted her. "Just the curse. And I’ll twist it, not you."

"Down!" Pierce yelled, and I dropped, yanking Vivian with me and snapping a protection circle over us. A red-tinted ball of death exploded behind us, and the smoke alarm started going off. Outside, I could hear sirens. "We need a decision here!" Ivy said, looking shaken.

"I can’t do a black curse!" Vivian babbled, the last of the professional young woman dropping away as she pushed her hair out of her eyes. "I’m coven!"

"Bloody hell paste!" Ku’Sox was shouting, still not altogether out of Pierce’s last spell.

"All you need to do is hold the inner protection circle against all creation," Pierce said, his blue eyes sharp with an old anger at the reluctance of uptight women. "You don’t need to sully yourself-we’ll do that."

I dropped my bubble so Pierce could join us, and he took a symbolic step forward. He knew the spell I wanted to use. "My outer circle won’t hold him long. Pierce, you’ll have to be quick in the casting. If he breaks it, the curse will incinerate half of Vegas."

Ivy looked scared. "Get it right, witches."

"’Scuse me," Pierce said with a grunt, throwing another ball of goo at Ku’Sox.

This time, Ku’Sox absorbed it, the black mass dissolving in a cascade of sparkles. He had mastered the countercurse. We had to work fast. "I’m of a mind to see if you’re as grand as you think you are," Pierce said to me, and I smirked back.

"Same here," I said, exhilarated even as I was scared to death. "Okay! Let’s do this!"

"Look out!" Vivian shouted, and I jerked as Ku’Sox backhanded Pierce into Ivy. They slid across the floor in a tangle of arms and legs, the spell that Pierce had begun fizzling in a sparkle of green and red. Crap! When had he gotten that close?

"Hey!" I shouted as Ku’Sox wrapped an arm around my neck and started dragging me away. I struggled, trying to break his hold as he headed for the door. Shit, shit, shit! I could still make the outer protection circle, but I wasn’t ready to sacrifice myself to get rid of Ku’Sox. But then I remembered him tearing that woman’s throat out and her silent screams as she tried to breathe. Burning would be better than that. I think.

"You have the nicest hair," Ku’Sox said as he yanked me up and I felt him touch behind my ear. I stiffened when he ran his nose down my neck, and my breath sucked in as he found the vamp toxins sunk deep in my tissues. "Ohhh, you’re flawed," he murmured. "How delightful."

"Oh shit," I whispered, scrambling for anything to slow us down.

"Shit," Ku’Sox said speculatively, and he loosened his grip until my heels dragged on the floor again. "I’ve heard that several times now. Is that the word of choice? I do so like all-encompassing words. Verb, adjective, noun. Yes, you are shitted."

My heels thumped as he dragged me backward. "You’d better let me go!" I cried, reaching out to grab a post. Ku’Sox yanked me off it, pulling me another foot until I snagged a table. I wouldn’t let go, and the added weight slowed him down even more. We were almost to the door, and I could hear radio chatter and yelling people in the street.