Blood of the Demon

I kept my attention divided as carefully as I could while I created my mini-portal, fighting to keep the power under control as it began to form and also paying attention to the shelf where I’d last seen the creature go. I’d never tried to create a portal of a specific size before, so I was going strictly on barely remembered theory. It also didn’t help that it was hard as shit to draw power when it was daytime during a waning moon. But I didn’t need a lot for what I was hoping to make.

Pain suddenly seared the middle of my back, and my control of the forming portal faltered badly as fatigue slammed into me. I fell to my knees and scrabbled at my back as I mentally grabbed for the portal. My fingers closed on something that wiggled and clawed alarmingly, sending a deep shock through me. A third way for this to fail: There’s more than one creature!

I’d maintained my hold on the portal though, which had widened to a bright slit in the universe a few inches wide. I chucked the squiggling thing in my hand at the portal, grimly pleased when it was drawn in with a sharp pop, like a roach into a vacuum. I could hear Ryan shouting something to Jill, but I couldn’t spare the focus to make it out. The pain had spiraled up, and the strange fatigue had increased to the point where it was taking everything I had just to maintain the portal. I heard a high-pitched whine from the shelf that I’d been watching, and then the other one shot out from behind the book. It grabbed on to the heavy chandelier, wrapping claws around a dangling crystal and resisting the pull of the portal as it bared its teeth at me. I knew that all I had to do was swat at it and it would fall into the vortex, but the pain in my back had increased to breath-stealing proportions, and even the thought of standing made my eyes water with the agony.

“Come here, ya little fucker!” I heard Jill cry out. I watched through pain-slitted eyes as she bounded into the room with a garbage bag in one hand and a pair of tongs in the other. Her lips pulled back from her teeth in a fierce grin as she snapped the creature up into her tongs and yanked it off the chandelier, crystal and all, then stuffed everything into the bag.

“What now?” she shouted over the strange whine of the vortex.

“Into the portal,” Ryan and I shouted at the same time. Or, rather, Ryan shouted and I wheezed. Jill wound up and winged it right at the slit in a beautiful underhand throw that would have made any fast-pitch softball player proud. I had a split second of panic that it would be too large to go in with the garbage bag and tongs—then it shifted and disappeared.

“Kara, close the portal down!”

I shuddered, then yanked the power free of the circle, sending it down to ground into the earth. The sudden quiet seemed deafening, broken only by our collective harsh breathing.

I tried to stand up and whimpered. Ryan snapped his head to look at me. “Ah, shit.”

The pain in my back was well on its way to excruciating now. He grabbed me and pushed me to lie facedown on the floor, ignoring my breathless scream at the motion.

“Jill, get hot water, a knife, and matches or a lighter,” Ryan commanded. “Also, any salt you can find.”

Jill dashed to the kitchen again. I couldn’t help but think that she was enjoying this introduction to the arcane far too much.

“Just stay still,” Ryan said, voice u

“How bad is it?” I managed to get out between clenched teeth.

“Bad enough,” he replied honestly. I was grateful for that, because if he’d told me that it wasn’t bad I wouldn’t have believed him.

“It’s not going to be easy, but I think I can get you through the worst of this,” he continued. Jill careened back into the room, holding the items out for Ryan.

He took the knife from her hand. “Okay, Kara, this is going to really fucking hurt.”

Maybe honesty wasn’t such a good thing, because he was right. I heard someone scream, then realized that it was me. My vision went dark and I fought it briefly, then decided that maybe going with my instincts to pass out was a good idea right now.

So I did.

Chapter 19

I woke up to the same amount of pain in my back, or so I thought at first. But after a couple of cautious breaths, I was forced to admit that it was nowhere near as excruciating as it had been before I passed out. Now it was merely on the level of hurts like shit.

I was lying facedown on my aunt’s bed, the yarn of her afghan tickling my nose. I shifted to get a tuft out of my nostril, grimacing at the dull spear of pain that accompanied the movement. I heard a chair scrape, then Ryan bent down, crouching beside the bed. Behind him I could see Zack leaning against the wall, his arms folded over his chest and his brows drawn down.

“How do you feel?” Ryan said, voice soft and thick.

“Like someone decided to shove an ice pick into the small of my back. Otherwise, peachy.” I moved carefully, relieved when I was able to roll onto my side without the pain becoming overwhelming. I gingerly reached to feel my back and discovered a wad of gauze and tape. There was a thick smell of garlic as well, so I had to assume that it had been used somehow in the treatment of the sting. Though I had no idea where they’d found garlic. Certainly not in Tessa’s pantry. I’d tossed out anything perishable some time ago.

“Okay, so what was that thing?” I looked at him, eyes narrowed. “You sure knew what to do with it.”

He glanced at Zack and a shadow passed over his face. He lifted a hand and scrubbed at his eyes, as if to brush the troubled expression away as well. “It … it’s like dreams I had,” Ryan said, looking back at me. “I mean, I sit here and rack my brains and I know—just know—that I’ve never in my life encountered anything like that.” His eyes were shadowed, green and gold like the middle of a forest on a summer day. The light from the window caught his face just right to make him look like a rugged statue with marbles for eyes. Then he sighed and shook his head, and the image was gone. “I did what felt right, then called Zack. He knew how to deal with the sting and brought some supplies over.” Zack gave a small nod of acknowledgment.

“And how did you know?” I challenged, looking at Zack.

“Dealt with something similar on a case several years back,” he replied. His expression was pleasant, but I got the distinct impression that he was not going to be forthcoming with any further information.

I was silent for nearly a full minute, then cautiously pushed up to a sitting position. My back throbbed, but it was already starting to fade to a manageable level. “How long was I out?”

“Two days.”

“What!” I straightened in shock, which sent a fresh throb of pain through my back. I groaned as Ryan smiled.

“Just kidding,” he said, eyes twinkling. “Two hours.”

I groaned again. Two hours was still pretty impressive.

“Jill went to get food,” Zack said. “There isn’t a damn thing to eat in this place except for some red beans that she turned her nose up at.”

I laughed weakly. “Yeah, she doesn’t think much of the instant stuff.” I carefully levered myself to stand, taking slow breaths until the wave of dizziness passed. “All right. So did we manage to get all of those things out of the library before I lost it?”

Ryan nodded, expression sobering. “Looks like it.”

“Then the next questions are: What were they, and how did they get in there?”

His face clouded again, then he gave a small shudder, as if throwing off a chill. “Zack said that they’re some sort of very nasty pest but … not from here.”

“From where?” I didn’t look at Zack. I wanted to see how much Ryan knew.