Playing with Fire

‘‘What? Goddess! I’ll be right there,’’ her breathy voice whispered in my ear.

‘‘I didn’t realize your master had taken over the house yet,’’ I told the demon named Jim. ‘‘I mean her no harm, and I’ll leave in a minute, I swear.’’

‘‘I’m here, I’m here,’’ Cyrene said as she hurried out of the shadowed edge of the lawn. ‘‘What happened? I thought you said the people wouldn’t come this late at night. Oh! A doggy!’’

Jim turned its head and winked at her. ‘‘Hiya, babycakes.’’

Cyrene clapped her hands in delight. ‘‘A demon! May, where did you find a demon? Can we keep it? I’ve always wanted a demon of my own.’’

‘‘No, you haven’t,’’ I told her, pulling her away from where she was patting the demon on its head. ‘‘And thank you so much for using my name in front of it. Come on, I have to get you out of here without anyone else seeing you.’’

‘‘But-’’ she started to say as I grabbed her wrist and pulled her after me, sticking close to the fence in an attempt to avoid being seen from the house. ‘‘But, May-’’

‘‘Shh!’’

‘‘I wouldn’t go that way, if I were you,’’ Jim called out after us.

I gritted my teeth and turned back toward it. It ambled over to us with a raised eyebrow.

‘‘Why not?’’ I asked.

‘‘Drake takes his protection very seriously,’’ it answered, pausing to scratch at its shoulder. ‘‘Pál and István always go over the perimeter before they set the alarms.’’

I swore under my breath again, spi

‘‘Beach,’’ I said quickly, doing an about-face as I hauled Cyrene toward the water.

‘‘They set up motion sensors out there this morning,’’ Jim said, following. ‘‘In case, ya know, someone tries to get in from the water.’’

‘‘Who is Drake?’’ Cyrene asked the demon. ‘‘Who are Pál and István?’’

‘‘Drake’s bodyguards,’’ it answered, laughter visible in its eyes as I did a circle trying to find another way out of the garden. ‘‘Drake is a wyvern. Green dragons.’’

‘‘Dragons!’’ Cyrene gasped, her eyes widening in delight. ‘‘May, did you hear that? Dragons! He must be that dragon who married the Guardian we read about! You know, the one who’s a demon lord. Can we-’’

‘‘No! OK, new plan. We’re both going into Kostich’s garden. He only seems to use arcane magic, none of this high-tech stuff the dragons favor,’’ I said with a frown at the demon. It smiled at me. ‘‘I’ll get you out, and we can resume the plan. OK?’’

‘‘Well, all right, but you know, I’m willing to bet that the dragons and this Guardian can help us-’’ She started to walk toward the house.

‘‘Cy, no!’’ I said, stopping her. ‘‘We don’t need help! We’ll be OK so long as we stick to the plan.’’

‘‘Cy, huh?’’ Jim asked, making me swear at myself for the slip of my tongue.

‘‘It’s Cyrene, really. Only May calls me by the abbreviation,’’ she told it.

‘‘Oh, great. Now it knows both our names,’’ I groaned, wanting to bang my head on the brick wall until this farce of an evening ended.

‘‘So?’’ she asked, rubbing its ears as it leaned into her, groaning with pleasure.

‘‘So now it’s going to go back to its master and tell her everything.’’

‘‘Would I do that?’’ Jim asked, its eyes closed in bliss.

I frowned at it as it peeked at me.

‘‘Yeah, OK, I would,’’ it said with a laugh. ‘‘Guess the only thing you can do to keep me quiet is take me with you.’’

‘‘For the love of… no!’’

‘‘Oh, but May!’’ Cyrene said, patting it on its furry head.

‘‘Absolutely not. We’ve got enough trouble without having a demon tagging along.’’

‘‘It could help us!’’ she protested as I moved over to the door, feeling it again for signs of any magic I might have missed earlier. There was nothing but the arcane spells the mage had bound into the door.

‘‘How can a demon help us?’’ I asked, hoping to point out the irrationality of her statement.

‘‘Distraction,’’ the demon answered quickly. ‘‘You want to get your twin out, right? What could cause more attention than a demon? I drag everyone over to one side of the yard, and bingo! You take the lovely Cyrene out the other side.’’

‘‘Yes! What a good plan!’’ she said, nodding vigorously.

‘‘Uh-huh. And who’s to say that Jim isn’t going to sound an alarm when I’m getting you out of the garden?’’

Cyrene ’s face, filled with hope, fell. Before she could answer, the demon snorted. ‘‘Are you kidding? Kostich almost killed Ash last year. There’s no way I’m going to do him a favor.’’

‘‘Then why did your master take a house next to him?’’ I couldn’t help but ask.

‘‘She didn’t know until we got here who lived next door.’’ Jim smiled again. ‘‘She went all potty mouth when she found out, too, but Drake pointed out she wouldn’t have to see Kostich unless she wanted to. You don’t have to worry that there’s any love lost between Aisling and Kostich.’’

‘‘There, you see?’’

The triumph in Cyrene ’s voice was an indication that I wasn’t going to rid her of this idea without a whole lot more trouble than I was prepared to go through. Rather than argue the situation for the next fifteen minutes-increasing the chances that the dragons would come out to see what was keeping their demon-I gave in to the inevitable, and opened the door to Dr. Kostich’s garden.

‘‘Stay back and out of sight until I tell you to cause a distraction,’’ I told the demon, grabbing it by its collar as it nodded. ‘‘And so help me, demon, if you betray us, I will hunt you down and-’’

‘‘Yeah, yeah, do horrible things to me with a small fruit knife and a couple of nipple clamps. Heard it before, sister,’’ it said, brushing past me to enter the garden.

I was about to order it behind me when a blast of blue-white light exploded in front of me, knocking me backwards against Cyrene. There was little noise, but an intense heat and light that blinded me for a few minutes.

‘‘Agamemnon’s balls!’’ I heard Cyrene exclaim from beneath me. I rolled off her and scrambled to my feet as my vision slowly returned.

‘‘Are you all right?’’ I asked.

‘‘Yes. Except I’m seeing stars.’’

‘‘It’s from the explosion. It’ll pass.’’

‘‘I think it’s more from your head hitting my chin,’’ she said, rubbing her jaw as she got to her knees. She looked up, gasping. ‘‘May! The demon!’’

I turned to look. I don’t know what sort of magic was in the trap that the mage had evidently laid just beyond the gate, but it left the demon’s form in flames.

‘‘Help it! It’ll die!’’

‘‘Demons can’t die, you know that,’’ I answered, snatching Cyrene ’s lightweight jacket to smother the still-burning blue flames. Although there hadn’t been much noise, evidently the blast of light was enough to alert members of Kostich’s household to a possible intruder, as lights started appearing at the back of the house.

‘‘Help me move it back to the other side before they see us,’’ I hissed, hoisting the demon dog’s heavy front end in my arms. Cyrene stumbled over to us, half lifting, half dragging its back end.

I released the dog as soon as it cleared the doorway, quickly closing the gate and using Cy’s jacket to tie it shut. ‘‘It’s not much, but it might fool them into thinking the gate wasn’t used. Or at least stall them until we can get out of here. Come on, we’ll just have to chance the front fence.’’

‘‘Mayling!’’ Cyrene jerked me back to where the inert form of the demon lay. ‘‘We can’t just leave… what did you say its name was?’’

‘‘Jim, and yes, we can. It’s not going to die, Cyrene. It’s a demon.’’

‘‘But look at it!’’ she protested, pointing. ‘‘It’s hurt! Because of us! We can’t just abandon it when it’s unconscious!’’

Smoke curled up from various spots on the demon’s body. Blood was smeared across its face, its coat partially singed, the scent of burning hair hanging heavy in the air.