Raised in Fire (Page 26)

Adrenaline pumped fire through my veins. I tried to calm down, but an issued challenge, even an indirect one, always fired me up. I continued, “In the meantime, I need to find the moron who’s skinning people and harnessing their energy to call demons. Calling demons is a no-no where I’m from. I mean, so is the skinning, but—” I shook my head at my slip-up and charged on. “I need to bring him in, and by bring him in, I really mean battle him and accidentally kill him, because that’s how it always seems to go down. So can you help me if I promise your name will never come up? Which is an assurance I can make, because I don’t even know your name—”

“Lily.”

“Oh. As in, the owner of Lily’s, which serves the best breakfast ever?” She nodded. “That’s okay, I’ll forget your name as soon as I leave. Names never stick. But I need your help. Please. I usually wouldn’t resort to begging, but if I don’t wrap this up and get out of town quickly, I’ll have to fulfill a promise to a shifter—one that concerns a vampire—and I don’t want to deal with either of those magical species any more than need be. Which up until two months ago was not at all. You can see my predicament.”

She looked at me for a moment, clearly indecisive. “Satisfy my curiosity on the deal and I’ll tell you what I know.”

Chapter Sixteen

Agnon once again forced the lesser demon back down below, taking the magical summons for itself. It materialized in the same place as before, within a blood-spattered chalk circle. The same black-robed humans encircled it, trusting their magic to contain Agnon.

“What news?” the being asked, hearing the echoes of their thoughts and picking up nothing of note.

“She is in town,” the human leader said. “A vampire shadows her. A powerful elder.”

“The vampire is nothing. Has the girl shown her power?”

“No. She’s had no reason to. She met with the human detective and checked out one of our dumping sites. They found nothing, of course. She is asking around, trying to find something to point her in our direction. I have advised my associates at the guild to allow her to continue investigating until you say otherwise.”

Anger simmered within the being, but it held its impatience in check. It still needed these ridiculous humans. They needed to run interference until the being had the answer it sought about the heir. It couldn’t risk being banished from this world until then. A knowledgeable mage could make it nearly impossible for Agnon to come back on its own, which would result in its superiors stripping away its boons. If that came to pass, it would never rise in ranking. That was unacceptable.

It was time for Agnon to take a more active role. It needed the humans, but it could no longer solely rely on them.

It stepped forward until its webbed toes were barely touching the magical wall rising up from the drawn circle. A spicy blend of magic burned its leathery skin, more intricate than Agnon had expected. A level-four demon would assuredly be trapped by such a setup, forced to do its master’s bidding. What a disgraceful fate.

The being pushed forward slowly, pierced with the artful mix of spells. Three, he counted, adding security to a fundamental circle. Fire licked at the being’s power, threatening to tear the fabric of its essence. Bits of itself unraveled, tugging at its foundation. The mages backed away with wide eyes.

The being would need to take one of their bodies after it was through. Breaking through the circle would take too much energy for it to then create a form and exist on its own. Luckily, the one Agnon had identified as the most expendable of the group wasn’t running. Stupid human.

Fire filled the cracks within its being as it kept moving through the wall. Its power throbbed like a cold, deadened thing. Energy drained from its body.

“No,” the lead mage whispered. He dug into a bag at his side and extracted a cluster of herbs. The circle of mages began chanting with him, the air swirling with more spells intended to lock Agnon into their magical prison.

The being’s dry laugh rattled from its throat as it kept going, feeling the magic eat away its flesh without cutting it down. The humans should’ve done their homework. If they had, they would’ve known not to use their summons again. At least not until the being had returned to the underworld, where it could no longer intercept the spell.

Fire scored its face. The fabric of its self unraveled a bit more, tearing at its center. A moment later, the pain drifted away. Agnon was through.

“That’s impossible,” the leading mage shrieked, throwing a spell.

The being felt the magic wash over it. It shuddered, shedding the uncomfortable feeling. Its oily black features puffed out for a moment before settling. It twisted its hawklike head, focusing on the expendable human. With a burst of power, the little it had left after breaking the circle, it speared the center of the human and filled the living shell. The human’s screams cut off as the being took control. Fingers wiggled as it learned how the body worked. Feet danced. The head rolled, followed by the shoulders.

The being assumed control faster this time. It hadn’t been very long since Agnon had done it before.

“Jimmy!” one of the mages shouted.

“Jimmy is dead. You may call me Agnon.”

“How did you get through the circle? It was reinforced with the blood of the damned,” the leader sputtered.

“It was reinforced with the blood of a human. The tortured sacrifice gave you more power, but it did not compensate for the type of offering you made. A vampire would be needed for the blood of the damned. A highly powerful magical creature might’ve worked as well. You know little of our kind, insect.” Agnon pulled at its power in order to rise from the ground in a display of might, but the circle had too greatly weakened it. Instead, it bent back the fingers on its right hand, breaking the bones with loud cracks.

The mages grimaced. Pain flashed through Agnon’s human shell, the body still reacting to its nervous system. The being followed the chemical reaction before severing the connection. Pain was not a pleasant feeling when in one of these vessels. The being did not like experiencing it.

“Now,” Agnon said, taking a look around with its new eyes. The human had barely passable vision. What a nuisance. “We must put our plans into effect. I must see what the girl can do, which means we must test her.” The mages stared at him with fear-soaked eyes. They were frozen with barely contained panic. That would not do. “If you fulfill my wishes, I see no reason to harm any of you.”

“But I summoned a level-four demon. How did a higher level come to be in my circle?” the leader asked, standing rigid. He did not plan to let this go. Failure and the fear of humiliation pinged through his thoughts. It would cripple the situation.

“I do not need to be summoned to walk above,” the being said, mustering its patience. “But I desired willing human minions, and there was no easier way to find them than to answer a summons. Humans under the illusion of safety, and hungry for power, are foolhardy. Blind. I promised you the vast sources of the underworld’s power, and you rolled over like mongrels, begging for orders. You are shortsighted. It was only a matter of time before these games of yours backfired. Nevertheless, this has worked modestly well so far.”

“But we didn’t summon you,” another of the humans said.

Agnon rotated his head, hearing the loud pop of its shell’s neck bone breaking. As expected, the head became heavier as more effort rested on Agnon to keep it upright. The being shouldn’t have broken that bone so early. No matter—in a day, it wouldn’t be an issue.

A ruddy-faced female human shrank away from its notice, her eyes fearful.

“A demon of high power can intercept a summons once it can maintain a form on the surface,” Agnon said. “Your ignorance may seal your fate. We shall see. Now. I promised you power when first I met you. I will impart that to you now in anticipation of meeting the girl. If she is the rightful princess, you will need every ounce of my help in order to survive.”

Chapter Seventeen

After a day’s worth of fitful sleep, I woke up to a hovering vampire. At least I felt pretty good about our plan for the night, thanks to Lily.

Callie and Dizzy soon headed off to a watering hole that Lily had heard harbored some of the more powerful mages in the area. Members of the guild were among that crew, something that had hardened Callie’s already hard bulldog expression. She wasn’t a fan of that corrupt governing body. I really hoped she didn’t mention that to them. Or get into a magic duel. I’d told her and Dizzy to keep a low profile. I didn’t want news of my presence spreading around. That made people ask questions, and questions were bad for business.

The first item on my checklist found me and, of course, Darius outside a condo that belonged to a man Lily was nearly certain was involved with the case. She’d overheard him conversing with someone about victims and screaming. It had unnerved her enough that she’d taken his name from his credit card and put it in a little book of disreputable characters. Normally, she would’ve banned him, but she’d wanted to keep her eye on him. Except he hadn’t come back in since.

What she’d heard was good enough for me. If he wasn’t involved directly, he probably knew something about it.