The Trouble with Demons

Piaras was weakening; the intensity of his notes wavered. The demon howled in gleeful anticipation.



“Tell me. Now!”



Tam did, and I understood. I didn’t have the skill or experience to do it, but Tam did. He told me what to do, and if I used his power, I could.



In theory. I hated theories.



“Find a mirror, thick glass, something you can force him inside of,” Tam ordered.



Mirrors were too dangerous to keep out in the open, but several of the shops had glass in their windows, diamond panes. I didn’t need Tam to tell me that wouldn’t work. Then I saw them. Some of the kids had gotten an early start on their drinking. They’d run, but they’d left two bottles of wine behind. Two empty bottles—with corks. Let’s hear it for partying college students.



“Would a bottle work?” I quickly asked Tam.



Silence and some fast thinking. “Yes. Is there a stopper of some kind?”



“Cork.”



“Get it.”



I snatched a bottle and cork off the table. The demon saw and laughed, a deep rumbling that vibrated through my chest all the way down to my toes.



“You are no demon master.” He smiled, slow and horrible, and held out a clawed hand. “Come to me, elfling, and I will let the young ones live.”



“Shove him in!” Tam growled.



“And just how the hell am I—”



“Visualize him flowing into the neck of that bottle and it will happen.”



I froze. “Do I have to hold the bottle?”



“Yes!”



Dammit.



“Tell the boys to release him.” Then Tam’s voice turned imploring; Tam didn’t implore anyone. “Raine, I will help you. You can do this. We can do this.”



I felt as if I were about to step off a cliff. I swallowed. “Talon, stop.” I tried to keep my voice calm and rational. “Ease your song away from Piaras and run.”



The kid looked at me as though I had lost my mind.



I wasn’t entirely sure I hadn’t.



“Trust me.”



Talon hesitated, then carefully did as I said. He’d seen me in magical action before.



“Let him go,” I told Piaras. “I’ve got him.”



Piaras couldn’t believe what I was telling him to do. His song faltered and the demon thrashed and lunged. I swore. He thought I was going to use the Saghred. The kid was going to hold that demon and get himself killed to protect me from that damned rock.



“Let him go!” I screamed.



Piaras did and dove behind some overturned tables.



Free of all constraints, the demon roared in triumph and turned on me.



I had the bottle and cork in one hand, and Tam’s power coiled inside me ready to strike.



We were ready for the son of a bitch.



I thrust my empty hand toward the demon, fingers spread, much like Piaras had done. Piaras had only focused a spellsong; I was focusing Tam. My arm shook with the effort and my shoulder was on fire. Tam’s power exploded through my body, my own surging upward to meld with it. Tam’s dark magic rushed up from the deep, primal core of him. My own magic coiled and flared through my body, seeking and triumphantly finding the source of Tam’s power. It was like a well, dark and deep. I dove in headfirst.



The demon’s roar turned to a scream of rage and disbelief, and finally to a thin shriek as Tam’s magic shoved him face-first into the bottle with enough force to knock me on my ass. I shoved the cork in and grabbed the bottle in a two-handed death grip, holding it as far away from me as possible. Purple mist writhed inside.



I really wanted longer arms.



Chaos surrounded me. Vegard was barking orders, and Guardians were running out of the Quad to carry them out. Meanwhile, more Guardians were arriving, and so were officers of the city watch. From Vegard’s expression and all the armed men shouting and running around, you’d think we were under attack. And here I was sitting on my ass holding a demon in a bottle. I got to my feet. My knees were a little shaky, but I made it.



“I’ve got him!” I yelled to Vegard over the din. “What’s the problem?”



“You have one, ma’am. There’ll be more just like him.”



I gripped the bottle tighter. “More?”



“It’s a Volghul, Raine,” said Tam’s voice in my head, as if that explained everything. It didn’t. Tam sounded as though he was running. I don’t know how I could tell, but I could.



“What the hell’s a Volghul?” I asked Tam, Vegard, or whoever could tell me what was going on. And why were Guardians in full battle armor running into the Quad?



“There will be more of everything,” Vegard told me.



I was incredulous. “Some lunatic is summoning these things?”



“Volghuls aren’t summoned,” Tam said. “They cross over by themselves. Vegard knows this.”



“Cross over?”



“Through a Hellgate.”



I stopped breathing for a few seconds. “You mean a gate to Hell? Literally?”



“If by Hell you mean the dimension in which demons reside, then yes, I mean a gate to Hell. Volghuls are advance guards.”



I froze. “Guards in advance of what?”



Vegard and Tam answered me at the same time. “A legion of demons.”



Chapter 3



We were in the headquarters of the Isle of Mid’s city watch. Bars on the windows, bars on the cells, and wards just about everywhere. Most people would feel safe, but I wasn’t most people. One, I was a Benares, and we didn’t feel safe anywhere there were bars, unless it had bar stools and a lot of rum, which I could use a shot or two of right now. Two, according to Vegard, things were on their way here that iron bars and wards couldn’t hold, at least not for very long. Every Guardian and watcher was now on full alert. Anyone on leave was being recalled, and a day off had just turned into on duty. The demonology department faculty was aware of the situation and was taking steps. I hoped they were big ones.



I hadn’t seen any demons on the way here. Aside from a lot of heavily armed men, daily life and classes seemed to be business as usual. Word had to be getting around about the demon in the Quad, but as of yet, there was no terror in the streets. Then again, on an island full of magic users, seeing a demon might not be all that unusual. If we were lucky, people thought that a demonology grad student’s class project had escaped or something. The last thing the authorities on Mid needed right now were panicked citizens.



The possibility of an impending demon invasion did deflect some uncomfortable questions. Vegard told the chief watcher that I didn’t murder that elven mage. It was Vegard’s word and the word of his Guardians versus the groundless accusations of citizens with an overdeveloped mob mentality. My accusers had come out of hiding only after the fight was over; what they had seen was me confirming that the dead elven mage was indeed dead. It wasn’t my fault they mistook confirmation for carnage.



My being wrongly accused of murder wasn’t anyone’s biggest concern right now, and fortunately, neither was the other thing that I’d done.



I’d just taken out a demon in front of hundreds of people using a magical skill that obviously wasn’t mine. My enemies would think I’d used the Saghred. Actually, having them think that was better than what I’d really done. I was linked in some way with a goblin dark mage. To certain powerful and influential people on Mid, that was an even worse offense. It wouldn’t matter to them that I’d saved student lives. I’d be declared elven public enemy number one within the hour, if not sooner.



The purple demon was imprisoned in the wine bottle like an evil genie. The bottle was sitting in the middle of the floor in a jail cell so heavily warded it crackled. I wholeheartedly approved of the city watch’s security precautions; I didn’t think they were in the least bit excessive. I just hoped they held.



And I thought shopping and an attempt on my life would be the worst that could happen to me today. Though I shouldn’t complain, I wasn’t the one who’d had my throat ripped out. That dead mage was downstairs on a slab in the morgue. Some of the students were in the infirmary—a few had broken bones, but none had been killed. Katelyn Valerian was one of those in the infirmary. Considering that a demon had her neck in his claws, she was doing surprisingly well, though we’d almost had to drag Piaras from her side to come here.



We were sitting outside the corner office of Chief Watcher Sedge Rinker. Piaras sat on one side of me, Talon on the other.



The room was one big office area filled with the usual: desks, chairs, file cabinets, watchers, accused perpetrators, and plenty of noise. Cells lined one wall. Some had bars, some had wards, and some had both. If the city watch had gone to the trouble to apprehend someone on an island full of magic users, I guess they wanted to make sure they stayed put. One cell held a couple of students who looked as if they’d done something last night that’d sounded like a good idea after a few rounds. A few hours behind bars and killer hangovers were giving them second thoughts. The Guardians had captured four of the blue demons that had attacked that mage and then us. They were in a warded cell. The wards were thick, but not thick enough for me. The demons hadn’t taken their beady, yellow eyes off of the three of us since we’d arrived. With Piaras and Talon, I couldn’t tell what their interest was, but having demons interested in the boys was bad enough. I didn’t know anything about demonic facial expressions, but from what I could see, I think they were either afraid or in awe of me. I’d take either one, even though I knew it wasn’t me they were terrified or intimidated by. When I’d taken on their purple leader, they’d gotten a good whiff of the Saghred. I didn’t blame them one bit for being afraid—that damned rock scared me, too. But what Tam and I had done had scared me more.



I glanced at Piaras. Being escorted to headquarters by watchers and Guardians was yet another first for Piaras that was a direct result of knowing me. Most of the trouble I’d gotten into, Piaras had been sucked into right along with me.