A Snake in the Grass (24 page)

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Good job,
kid.”

They tinkered with the thing some more,
testing out the throttle, tweaking things I didn’t really
understand. Everything was apparently to the old man’s
satisfaction, because they finally powered it down and he gave a
satisfied nod. “If you take good care of her, she’ll run forever.
Just gotta keep up on the maintenance.”

“I will. I’ll take good care of her.” Estéban
reverently ran his hands over the bike’s seat. “Miguel would be
happy that we got her running.”

Terrence snorted, eyeing the mechanical
carnage they’d left strewn all over the driveway. “You boys better
get to picking this up. I’m going to head down into town, make a
few phone calls.” Oh sure,
we
had to pick up the mess. The
kid and I rolled our eyes at each other, but started gathering up
the tools and spare parts while Terrence took over my bucket
throne, leaning on the cane that he had miraculously not needed
until just this moment. “And as far as your demon fighting puzzle,
I think you’ve reached the point where there’s only one solution,
and it may be worse than not knowing.”

“Oh?”

“The only way to find out what deal that boy
has made with them is to ask him. Only we can’t find him, can we?”
I waited patiently, hoping the old codger had a point. “So you’re
left with asking the one other thing that knows the answer.”

Esteban and I both paused in our cleaning to
look back at Terrence with raised brows. He just gave us a
challenging look. “Are you really suggesting that we summon up a
demon and have a chat?”

“I didn’t say any such thing. Just saying
that it’s the only alternative you’ve been left with.”

I knew the answer to this already. “Not only
no, but hell-the-fuck no.” I’d summoned one demon, ever, and I
still felt pretty slimy about it. Whatever we needed to know, it
wasn’t worth it.

The kid, however, had a thoughtful frown on
his face. “We could. We know its name.” At that simple suggestion,
the demon name in question swam to the forefront of my mind. The
souls in my skin twitched, and I grimaced. The look on Estéban’s
face said that it was doing the same to him. They wanted to be
spoken, the names. Nearly living creatures in and of themselves,
they wanted to be set free into open air, tainting anything that
was close enough to hear it. Every single demon name I’d ever heard
still lingered inside my head, like an abscess just waiting to pop.
I swallowed hard, and tried not to taste the bile at the back of my
throat.

“That’s a dangerous road to start down, kid.
It’s not really something you can take back once it’s done.”
Another name swam dangerously close to the surface, one that
belonged to a creature I’d nicknamed The Yeti. That one I could
still taste on my tongue, where it had passed into the world not
quite a year ago. It would be easier to say it the second time. I
knew that instinctively. My right shoulder flared white hot for a
second, startling me into a wince, and the names retreated, bullied
back by the pure life force I was carting around.

“Do we have a choice?” The question wasn’t
rhetorical, he truly wanted an answer.

“There’s always a choice. It just may not be
a good one.” When demons were involved, the choice was never a good
one. I’d learned that.

Terrence heaved himself off his seat,
hobbling his way toward the kitchen with what I was pretty sure was
grossly exaggerated stiffness. “Well, you two ladies figure it out.
I’m taking the truck, I’ll be back after while.”

Estéban sighed and bent to finish gathering
up the tools, rolling them carefully up inside their worn leather
case. “Mamá would murder us anyway, if we did it.”

“We couldn’t do it here,” I conceded. “Not
inside the wards. That’s just…beyond wrong.” I frowned, hearing the
words come out of my mouth, and quickly corrected myself. “Not that
we would actually do it. Just sayin’.”

“Right. It’d have to be somewhere else. Away
from people. Wouldn’t want to put them in danger.” I picked up one
of the tool boxes, and he took the leather bundle, and we went to
put them away. “Need to be a shadowed place too. They don’t like
sun, but I don’t think we want to tackle this at night.” I gave him
a raised brow, and he shrugged. “Hypothetically.”

“We couldn’t hold it, you know. Circles don’t
really trap them. We’d have to give it a reason to stay and talk.
Give it something in exchange for any information we get. It won’t
deal for free.”

“Hypothetically.”

“Right.”

“It wouldn’t have to be a soul we offered it.
If we could figure out something else that had value for it.” Souls
were not the only thing demons would bargain for. I knew that.
They’d take a smaller deal first if they thought it would get their
mark hooked. The first one is free, the second one always costs. “A
favor would be too much, but…a name, maybe. A single name, not a
whole name.”

Names and voices were odd things for a demon.
I’d been told once that all humans, all of us apes crawling on the
planet’s surface, looked alike to them. It was our voices that told
us apart, our names spoken in those voices that let them identify
just who was who. Axel knew my name, and he borrowed my voice with
impunity. Every demon I’d ever fought knew my name. That was part
of the deal.

The demon from the fight club had seen me,
and my souls, and he’d heard my voice, but he didn’t know my name.
It might be enough to trade.

I realized that I’d fallen into grim silence,
and the kid was staring at me with a similar look on his face.
“We’re going to do this, aren’t we?”

It went against everything Ivan had ever
taught me. And sometimes, you just have to draw a line. “ No. No,
we’re not.”

“But Jesse–”

“I said no.” That was as firm a voice as I
had. “Drop it. Go check on Sveta, see if she’s done terrorizing
your cousins.” We’d left the kid-pack in charge of Sveta’s
convalescence, figuring sheer irritation would get her back on her
feet sooner than later. “Go check on your mom, see if she’s ready
to try a little more food. There’s lunch leftovers warming on the
stove. I’m gonna go walk the perimeter.”

Was that smooth? Yeah, that was smooth.
‘Cause every one of you knows what I’d decided to do.

Sure, I walked the perimeter. I walked along
the mystical boundary, feeling the uneven edges where one caster
had gone out to one distance, one to another. It allowed the
barrier to trail off gently, rather than end in an abrupt,
impenetrable wall. Parts of it felt distinctly like Carlotta, but
the others were older, ghosts of people long gone.

With frequent glances over my shoulder, I
made sure I was as far from the main house as possible when I
slipped over the border – a little part of me expected to get
shocked like one of those dogs and their invisible fencing – and
headed out into the trees and mountain wilds.

It was beautiful out there, the late
afternoon sun shining down through the leaves, casting fluttery
shadows on the ground beneath my feet. Unseen birds chorused
cheerfully overhead, seemingly unconcerned about my presence.
Better vacate, Tweetie, you’re not gonna like what comes
next.

I walked for probably fifteen minutes – far
enough that I was fairly certain I could still find my way back,
and yet leave the Perez family at a safe distance – and finally
found a small clearing that would suit my purposes. An ancient tree
had fallen, probably decades ago, but there was still a gap in the
canopy where the sun beamed in unhindered. Exactly what I needed.
They hated the sun.

Planting myself in the center of the
sun-drenched clearing, I closed my eyes and took a few deep
breaths.
Listen up, you lot in there. I’m gonna do something
you’re really gonna hate, but I need you to just go with me on this
one, okay?
There was no response from my passengers, so I had
to just hope they didn’t decide to rip my back apart and leave me
helpless with a demon wandering around and night coming on.

I palmed the demon mace canister off my
keychain, ready to fog the place with cayenne and cumin at a
second’s notice, set both my feet in a good solid stance, took a
deep breath, and said it. “_____________________!”

Oh god, that sucks…
It wasn’t meant
for human anatomy, that word. My tongue shouldn’t have been able to
wrap its way around the syllables of poison, bitterness, ground
glass, and sulfur stench. But there it was just the same, and I
could feel a greasy, unholy joy as the name escaped into the
world.

I didn’t puke this time. Yay me? But the
world tilted at a radically unnatural angle, and the trees swam
around me like water reeds. The sensation of rancid oil coated my
throat, my skin, everything that vile, degenerate word could touch.
I think the sun even dimmed, a pall falling over the clearing that
dropped the temperature by a good ten or fifteen degrees. I didn’t
have time to be cold, though, what with the skin of my back burning
like fire. I could almost hear the souls hissing their displeasure
aloud as they swirled in agitation. I blinked my eyes rapidly,
trying to make things return to their normal, upright positions
before my visitor arrived.

The first thing that settled around me was
the silence. The birds had taken my advice and headed for less
demon-y pastures. The pleasant breeze had stilled. Hell, maybe the
rivers had stopped running and the earth ceased to turn. Hard to
say. It was only my second demon summoning.

With no wind to speak of, the scent of sulfur
and ozone shouldn’t have been able to reach my nostrils, but there
it was all the same, flirting around my head. “Come on out, ugly, I
know you’re here.”

The only response I got back was a sibilant
giggle, somewhere above my head and to my left. I should have
grabbed my sword before I did this. I knew that. Belatedly.
Dumbass.

“All right, I’m sorry I called you ugly. What
would you prefer? Fluffy? Snookums? Cuddle-pie?” The tree branches
rustled, and I tracked the motion off to my right this time. I
turned to keep it in front of me. The thing giggled again, sounding
like a tank with air escaping. Claws rasped on tree bark, but the
thing stayed hidden. “Here kitty, kitty, kitty…”

Finally, the large moon-eyed head peered its
way around a tree trunk, a good fifteen feet off the ground. Safely
out of my reach, I noticed. The bat-winged ears twitched and
swiveled, keeping a wary watch on all that went on around it. The
actions of a prey animal, I realized. This little guy had been
hunted before.

“I seeeeeee you, soul-bearer.” With a blink,
it ducked back into hiding again, though I could still see the tip
of one ear sticking out.

“Yeah, I see you too, Bats. Why don’t you
come on down here so we can have a chat without me getting a crick
in my neck?”

“Tsk tsk tsk…” The thing tutted at me. “No no
no…won’t like it, chatting with you. Won’t like it at all…”

I snorted. “I like to think I’m a brilliant
conversationalist, actually.”

It hiss-giggled at me again. “Talk talk talk!
Always talking, saying nothing. Wispy words, drift like smoke…”

“What can I say, it’s a gift.” I took a few
steps to try and get a better look, but the thing circled the
trunk, keeping itself half hidden. “Come on down, let’s get to know
each other.”

“Down is down, up is better. Up high, safe
and free. Like a birdy in the tree!”

Oh god, it was rhyming. This was going to get
old, real quick. I’d talked with lots of demons over the years, all
with varying degrees of coherence. This one, while coherent, was
decidedly off, even for a demon. Sure, it was pretty weak. I wasn’t
even sure which of my personal categories it belonged to. But I’d
negotiated a detailed contract with a demonic slug with more
success than this.

“If I promise not to hurt you, will you come
down here?” The head reappeared, the enormous eyes blinking
owlishly at me.

“Swear. Swear it by power. Play me false, and
poof, all gone!”

“Uh…sure. I swear on my own power that so
long as you offer me no harm, I will cause
you
no harm while
you are here speaking with me, on this one and only occasion.” You
have to be really specific, with demons. The letter of the law is
everything.

The demon obviously didn’t know who I was, if
he thought I had any power of my own to bargain with. Still, the
oath seemed to satisfy it, and there was a scrabbling of claws on
wood as the thing slid down to the forest floor.

It emerged from behind the tree, walking on
feet and knuckles like a tiny ape, hunched and wary as it peered
around the sunlit clearing. The hairy tip of one ear caught a stray
beam of light, and the thing hissed as it drew back under some
overhanging brush. “Filthy sun. Why the sun? Why not the cool dark
night, sweetly black?”

“Can’t give you all the advantages,
right?”

It snickered, hissing through its mouthful of
fangs. “What does the soul-bearer want with me, hm? No one,
nothing… Plaything, puppet, slovenly worm…”

It was referring to itself, I realized.
Ladies and gentlemen, what we had here was the very first demon I’d
ever seen with self-esteem issues. “I wanted to talk to you about
the fight club. About what you were doing at the warehouse the
other night.”

The demon snickered and clapped its bony
hands together in glee. “Oh, the fun we have! Playing, yes, playing
with the angry ones!”

I crouched down so I could be more on a level
with the creature, peering under the bush that sheltered it. “Must
hurt, them smacking you around like that.”

The moon-eyes flared red for a heartbeat.
“Don’t have to let them! Could eat their faces off, if I want! Only
won’t let me… No, no, says no eating faces….” The red faded and the
bat-like ears wilted in dejection. “No eating faces.”