Secrets of the Demon

In response he flipped to the next page in his little notebook and pulled a sheet out and handed it to me. On it was everything I could ever want to know about the witness and how to contact her, including home phone, cell phone, work phone, email, place of employment, and her work hours.



“I have no words,” I stated. Holy shit, but I wanted a dozen more like him on the road.



I tucked the page into my notebook, then turned back to the ditch, taking in what I could of the scene. The bank of the ditch had numerous boot marks and shoe impressions, many of them probably from EMS when they’d run an EKG strip to confirm death. But I wasn’t looking for footprints. Even without shifting into othersight the distinctive resonance hummed through me. The golem had done this.



“Has this been photographed?” I asked.



“Gordon here took pics,” Scott said with a nod toward the other officer. “I called out the lab, but I figured we should get some pics before everyone and their brother got to traipsing around down there.”



“And that’s why you’re the best,” I said fervently.



He snorted. “Words mean nothing to me. Buy me a beer later.”



“I’ll do that.” I gave him a friendly clout on the shoulder, then moved to where the majority of the scuff marks were and began to clamber down into the ditch. I wanted to get as much of a feel of the resonance as possible, and since some pics had already been taken I didn’t feel too guilty for possibly disturbing evidence. Besides, I doubt the golem was wearing shoes.



Miraculously, I managed to reach the bottom without tripping and doing a face-plant into the water. I crouched beside Roger’s body as the spasm of guilt tightened my chest again. Should I have done more to warn him that he could be in danger? But what else could I have done? Something. Anything.



I sighed and shifted into othersight, confirming what I’d felt from the top. I looked across the ditch. From my crouched position I could see gouges in the opposite bank. He tried to climb out and was pulled back down. I let my gaze travel over the body. He was wearing his Magnolia Fitness Center T-shirt with TRAINER on the chest, long athletic pants, and sneakers—on his way to work. He came out of his apartment and went to his car, I mused, then saw the golem, took off running. That would explain why he was so far away from the complex. But the golem could be fast. I’d seen that for myself. And Roger hadn’t been running in a while, so he probably wasn’t as fast as he might have once been. It was dark and maybe Roger didn’t see the ditch, or perhaps he thought he could gain some time by going through it? Either way, the golem caught up with Roger and dragged him back down, then simply held his head under the water until he stopped struggling.



I swiped my finger across the mud on Roger’s shoulder, then rubbed it between my thumb and finger. A faint flicker of the resonance seemed to prickle my fingertips. It melted a bit as it held Roger under. But not all the way. This mud had a clay-like consistency, and the dirt in the ditch seemed to be mostly sandy. There were a couple of glops of the mud scattered in the vicinity, but nowhere near enough to account for a whole golem. Or even a decent-sized piece of one.



“Fuck,” I muttered, then stood and clambered back up the bank with help from Gordon and Scott. Brushing mud and dirt off my pants, I scanned the area for Knight. I finally spotted him at the edge of the complex parking lot. He was crouching and looking at something on the ground and I headed his way.



“You find something?” I asked as I approached.



He pointed. “Keys. I’m betting they belong to your victim.”



“That’s his car.” I indicated the dark blue Chevy Nova parked a few spaces away. “The golem was here,” I said, feeling the by-now-familiar prickle of resonance. “Several hours ago, though, I think.”



Knight stood. “It must have been waiting for him—came after him as he was coming out to his car.”



“And Roger told me that he has a five A.M. client, which means it was still dark.” I shoved my hand through my hair. “He probably didn’t see it until it was right on top of him ... tried to outrun it, but he didn’t have a chance.”



We both remained silent for several heartbeats. Marco didn’t say anything meant to be encouraging like You’ll catch whoever’s doing this or I have faith in you. I kinda appreciated that. Especially since I was pretty sure I wouldn’t have believed him anyway.



Finally I turned and walked back toward the scene.



Jill had arrived while I’d been talking with Knight and was already down in the ditch taking pictures. There wasn’t a whole lot to do other than take pictures, so I waited patiently by the side of the ditch and gave her a hand out once she was finished.



“Thanks, chick,” she said. “Once the CO gets here I’ll take more pics of the body.”



“You rock, as always,” I said.



“This one’s like the others?” she asked, voice lower even though there was no one within a hundred yards. She started walking back to her van and I fell into step beside her.



“Yep,” I replied. “And it’s starting to piss me right the fuck off, too.”



She gave me a sympathetic grimace. “Isn’t there some way a demon can ... I dunno, track it down or something so that you can find who’s making it?”



“I have absolutely no idea if that’s possible, but it’s a hypothetical exercise at this point anyway, because I don’t have enough power to do a summoning right now.” And even if I did, I’d be using it to call Rhyzkahl so that I could tell him about the summoning attempts. But Jill didn’t need to know about any of that. “Right now I’m forced to do my investigation using only mundane tactics.” I gave a mock shudder and she laughed.



“Oh my god, the horror!” She cast a sideways glance at me. “Seriously, though, is anything popping?”



“Too much, if that makes sense.” I made a sour face. “A bunch of strange little details and links, and I’m not sure what fits together or how. Plus, there’s stuff that looks intriguing to me but might have absolutely nothing to do with why anyone was killed and is only managing to distract me.”



To my surprise she wrapped an arm around me and gave me a companionable squeeze as we walked. “You’ll figure it out,” she reassured me. “You’re too much of a bitch not to.”



I jabbed my elbow lightly into her ribs. “Takes one to know one!”



She laughed then lifted her chin toward my car. “Who’s that?”



I looked to see that Knight was leaning against the hood of my car, arms folded casually across his chest. “Oh, that’s right, you haven’t met him yet. He’s part of the task force when we do New Orleans stuff.” And he freaks Pellini right out, which earns him extra points in my book, I thought, masking a grin. By this time we were close to the car. “Jill this is Marco Knight. Marco, this is Jill Faciane, our crime scene goddess.” I glanced at Marco. “Jill, um, knows.”



Jill snorted. “Yeah, I know that you’re totally weird,” she said to me, then she stuck her hand out to Knight. “Nice to meet you. I take it you’re weird too?”



A lazy grin crossed his face. “Quite so,” he said, taking her hand. To my surprise his grin abruptly slipped, an expression of shock and sadness flickering there before he released her hand and smiled normally again. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said quietly.



Jill merely nodded, brow faintly furrowed, then she turned to me. “I’ll be right back. I want to put my camera away and check the pictures.”



“Sure thing,” I said, then watched after her as she strode to her van at a brisk clip. I gave Knight a questioning look but his gaze was on her as well. After a few seconds he gave a soft sigh then looked back to me.



“Is everything all right?” I asked.



“Yeah,” he said, giving me his usual lazy amused grin. I smiled back, but I’d seen that brief flash of ... what had it been? Pain? Longing? Grief? It had been too quick to identify, but I knew the lazy grin to be a mask now.



But I felt no driving need to tear it away. I murmured something inconsequential and then moved off a short distance and pulled my cell phone out. I needed to let Ryan know what was going on ...



I stared down at the phone, hesitating before dialing Ryan’s number. I’d managed to forget the shock of last night for a while, but now it all came rushing back in. Zack’s not human. And Ryan can summon. Though Zack hadn’t said that Ryan was a summoner, merely that he had the ability to open portals. But if Ryan had never summoned before, what on earth could a human do to be labeled a kiraknikahl? Zack had said that his punishment was dire and just. And part of that punishment had to have been something that changed his memory or took it away. But Ryan can do that, I reminded myself. I’ve seen him change people’s memories. Did he do something to a demon or a summoner? Maybe that was why—



I jumped and bit back a yelp at the touch on my arm. I whirled to see Marco standing beside me, a questioning look on his face. “Does it do tricks?” he asked.



I gave him my best stupid look in response. “Huh?”



His lips twitched with a whisper of amusement. “You’ve been staring at your phone for several minutes now. Figured you were waiting for it to do something.”



I flushed and shook my head. “Sorry. Got lost in thought there.”



He flicked a glance to where the coroner’s office van was pulling up, directed to the ditch by Gordon. “Understandable. You got a lot to think about.” He met my eyes. “You’re caught right smack in the middle of some powerful forces.”



I controlled the shiver that wanted to slide down my spine. “Pellini told me to watch out for you,” I said before I could think about it. “Said you know shit,” I lowered my voice in quasi-imitation of Pellini, “and that you fuck people up ... telling them things.”



The smile faded from his face and he looked away, into the distance. “I made some mistakes. Hurt people who didn’t deserve the hurting they ended up with.”