mission magic 01 - the incubus job (12 page)

“What do you want?” Law asked.

“For you to open the box.” The creature still used Hana’s voice. Bizarre to hear it come out of tall, gray, and grotesque, and even more startling was the fact that it could make that sort of sound without also gnashing its teeth. In fact, I was surprised it didn’t impale itself every time it spoke.

A cloud of white smoke spun out of nowhere and resolved into the box. It hovered in the air between us and So’la. It was maybe a foot wide and about four inches tall. Made of red-streaked black rock, every inch was inscribed with markings that looked vaguely like the bastard child of Nordic runes and Arabic. They glowed gold.

“What’s inside?” I asked.

“That which binds me. That which frees me. Open the box.”

“Or what?” I had to ask, even though I was pretty sure the answer involved draining my blood, tanning my skin, and making a mural out of the rest of me on the wall. Or maybe the demon would just shove me down a garbage disposal. I could have been wrong, though. Maybe it would send me on a trip to Fiji.

Trouble was, it wasn’t just me in up against the wall. All that shit would happen to Law too. I bit the inside of my lip until I tasted blood. No. I would not let that happen. If not for me, he wouldn’t even be involved in this mess. I had to stop the demon without letting Law get hurt in the process.

So’la smiled and it was almost enough to make me pee my pants. Or maybe that was Tabitha’s terror. I fought down the panic.

“Death,” it said. It took me a second to realize that was the entire answer to my question, though I had no doubt that it wouldn’t be so easy at that.

“Piss-poor planning, don’t you think?” I asked. I was working on buying time, hoping that I’d come up with a way out of this, hoping Law would pull a miracle out of his ass. “I mean, you go to the trouble of having the incubus steal the box. Didn’t you think to get the key too?”

The demon smiled again in that horrifying way. “My master held the key, but it was necessary that he die.” Its voice took on a creamy texture, tongue flicking over its maw in remembered delight. “No matter. You will open it for me.”

I frowned at its words. Killing its master had been necessary? To what? Why?

“What makes you think we can?” Law said.

The demon smiled again. “You are tied to the power of the auberge.”

That sounded a whole lot like I wasn’t necessary to the process. A hollow sound began to fill my ears. Had I led the demon to Law? Had that been the whole point of this job? I prayed that wasn’t the case. I couldn’t live with it if it were. “If he can do it alone, then why bother with me?” I asked in a strangled voice, my heart pounding.

So’la’s orange eyes gleamed at me. “His strength, your creativity.”

“My what?” Not the answer I’d been expecting, though fuck if I knew what I thought it would say.

“I have watched you. You don’t think as most sorcerers. You almost always do what I don’t expect. I always expect you to fail, and yet you succeed over and over.”

I had no idea what to say to that. Thanks was obviously off the table. Plus there was the whole expected-failure thing, and what sort of nutjob got irritated with a backhanded compliment from a demon, anyhow?

So’la waved its knotted fingers, the deadly talons clicking together. “No more wasting time. You must begin.”

“Not here,” Law said. “We need ritual space, and I am cut off from the power of the auberge in this room.”

I didn’t for a minute think he was really going to do it. Apparently So’la thought his agreement came a little too quickly also. It shook a bone finger at Law and made a tsking sound.

“I am not a fool,” the demon said. “I have planned this for longer than you know.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that we need ritual space, and you said yourself I need the power of the auberge,” Law said. “Or we can stand around here, pissing into the wind. Your choice.”

“Very well.”

The demon turned into a blur. Its bony fingers circled my neck. I didn’t have time to even try to scream before Law and the room vanished. The air turned hot. Acid ate my skin. So’la’s fingers tightened. I kicked and beat my fists against its arms, trying to get it to let go. A moment later we emerged into a broad room I hadn’t seen before. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made of slate. On one side near the door was a set of wood shelves well stocked with candles, chalk, and other ritual necessities.

I sprawled on the ground as the demon loosed its hold on my neck. I was a good two feet up in the air when he did. My breath exploded out of my lungs as I thudded to the floor. I lay there, blinking, trying to clear the gray from my vision. My throat ached and my head felt like I’d cracked it.

“Breaking me into pieces isn’t going to help me open the box,” I said. Kind of whispered. I started to cough, turning onto my side to catch my breath. The stone was cold against the heat of my cheek. After a minute or so, I managed to control myself and sat up.

My head spun and I braced my elbows on my knees and held it until the spinning slowed. I looked up at So’la. “Where are we?”

“Still in the auberge.”

I could have guessed that. Probably its lowest level. I didn’t see any windows that might open to the outside. My guess was this wasn’t Effrayant’s only ritual space.

“What did you do with Law?”

The demon’s buffalo-skull face managed to looked surprised. “He remains where he was.”

A tightness inside me released. He was safe, then. I didn’t think So’la was lying. It still needed Law to bat cleanup. It wasn’t going to hurt either one of us until it got what it wanted. I touched the knot on the back of my head where it had cracked on the stone. “Hurt” being a relative term. It was probably more accurate to say it wouldn’t kill us. Unless, of course, we died trying.

“Begin,” it ordered.

That’s when I noticed the box had come with us and sat a few feet away on the floor. I crawled over to examine it.

“What can you tell me about the spells on it?” I asked.

“Nothing.”

“You aren’t very helpful.”

“You’re smart and resourceful. I have faith in your abilities.”

I’m sure the demon meant that to be supportive. Actually, that isn’t true. I’m not sure it even knew what supportive was. Anyhow, the words twisted my stomach into knots. What if I could open it? So’la was a demon, and a powerful one at that.

“You’re strong. Why don’t you open the box yourself?” I knew the answer. Obviously it couldn’t. But why not? That’s what I wanted to know.

“I’m forbidden.”

That startled me and it shouldn’t have. It had had a master. That sorcerer had controlled it somehow. Why should it surprise me that he’d forbidden the demon from opening the box, especially if whatever allowed him to control So’la was inside? My brain, which had been stuck in first gear, shifted into second, third, fourth, and fifth in a matter of seconds. The pieces of the puzzle started clicking together.

I was to open the box, and Law was to use the power of the auberge—of the ley it sat on—to destroy what was inside. I was sure that the contents were how So’la’s master controlled it.

Which meant if I could open the box and get a hold of the contents, then I could control the demon. I could banish it back to its realm. All I had to do was open the box, claim whatever was inside, and learn to use it, all before the demon snapped my neck, ate my heart, or more likely, slaughtered me like the incubus.

“Why did you do that to the incubus, anyhow?” I asked. “I thought he was working for you.”

“Edrell disobeyed me.”

“You mean when he killed the girl?”

Hearing a demon snort in derision is more frightening than you might think.

“I killed the girl then used her body to remind him of his oath to me.”

“And then you killed him.”

“He should have followed my orders.”

“So what was with the bones and the skin on the wall? You taking up body-part sculpture?”

So’la smiled. This time I almost did pee my pants. “He will not soon rise again.”

“Soon? He’s not dead?”

“What you think of as killing a demon merely banishes them from this realm. They may return in time, once they regain strength. It will be quite some time before Edrell becomes whole again.”

While it’d been talking, I’d been examining the box, crawling around it and looking at it up close. I didn’t recognize the stone, but I wasn’t a geologist either. It was red and black with little flecks of green in the black. The markings made no more sense than they had before. The gold glow inside them pulsed softly. I could feel a powerful energy emanating from it, though whether it came from inside or the locking spells, I couldn’t say. What I could say was that it made my skin crawl. It felt slimy and wrong. Perverted even. It made me want to throw up, and I knew it was going to take all my self-control to touch the damned thing.

It actually reminded me of when the lich poisoned me. It had been soul-chillingly unnatural. Totally wrong. A perversion. It’s hard to explain what that means, but your body and mind know when something simply shouldn’t be. When something is turning the laws of nature on their head. You revolt against it in the deepest part of you. Horror is the least of what you feel. Your lizard brain—that part of you that is all about survival—claws away your reason and batters at you to run far and fast, dig a hole, burrow down where you don’t even remember who you are. All you want to do is hide and survive. What small fragments of reason remain make you pray desperately for mercy, hoping to hell that some benevolent god answers.

I swallowed, fighting back the visceral panic chewing its way into the center of my brain. The ghosts tightened around me, and suddenly I could breathe.

“Why did you pick us?” I asked, twitching a little under the demon’s unblinking regard. “Law and me. We aren’t exactly topping the charts of the world’s most powerful sorcerers.”

So’la slapped what passed for a leg. “Begin,” it said and the sound echoed like an oncoming freight train. The sound grew, shuddering through me and rocking the ritual supplies on their shelves.

I’ll admit I’m not always in the most self-preserving state of mind. I’d been and still was scared on a level I could hardly fathom. Worse, Law was still trapped. Right now I had a chance to save him, but I had to be smart and creative and a whole lot of sneaky. Not to mention lucky.

Given that I held his life in my hands, I should have just ducked my head and got to work. Except that wouldn’t save his life. I needed all the information I could get, and it wouldn’t hurt to knock So’la off its stride. It had clearly planned all of this, probably for a long time. That meant I had to find the weak spot in its plan, or make one. Then bash it to hell.

So despite my abject fear, I sat still and stared defiantly at the demon. My nose started bleeding, and my heart lost its rhythm. I started to feel floaty, as if I were halfway under anesthesia. I tipped to the side. The orange of the demon’s eyes filled my world. I could feel it sliding up under my eyelids and behind, sending a tangle of sharp little roots into my brain. I couldn’t remember when I’d let my shields drop.

Whispers filled my mind. They spoke in different languages, none of which I understood. Aching hunger filled me. Not for food, not for sex. This was a different craving. It spread through me, demanding to be filled. My arms and legs moved of their own accord. All of a sudden, I was on my feet and running. I didn’t know where. I crashed into a wall, spun around, and started running again. I watched myself from someplace far away. I felt the pain of smashing myself against the walls, but I couldn’t stop. Worse, I liked it. I wanted it. I needed it. So’la was completely in control. I’m sure the demon wanted me to fight it. I didn’t. I wasn’t suicidal—yet—but it was throwing a tantrum and giving in wouldn’t get me anywhere. I could feel its frustration and fury bubbling through its hold on me.

I knew a lot about frustration and anger and losing control. It was my greatest fear. I’d left my partnership with Law because I’d been scared spitless of freezing up or worse at the crucial moment and putting him in danger. I’d made choices that could kill me, and that was my right, but I didn’t have a right to involve him in my risks, and I sure as hell wasn’t willing to.

On the other hand, I had a lot of experience with losing my shit and having my spells explode in my face. Sometimes literally. I knew how important emotional control was. So’la had plotted and planned for its freedom. It was desperate with hope and eagerness. It wasn’t that tough to turn those into insane frustration and fury. Law had always told me I was pretty good at pushing his buttons. I’d put the skill to good use now.

“Begin!” the demon shrieked. “Or I will flay away your skin. I will rip the bones from your flesh. I will drink your blood, and you will watch.”

It was dead serious, and I’ll admit that should have made me nervous. It probably would have if my terror level weren’t already pegged in the red. Plus, I knew it was playing the same head game I was—trying to drive away my control and break me. Knowing that, and the fact that the demon would likely kill Law and everyone else in the auberge if I didn’t stop it first, let me keep my cool. Or at least I didn’t totally fall to pieces. It didn’t hurt that I took a lot of satisfaction from pissing it off. Childish, I know, but I get my rocks off when I can.

“You know you’re this close to killing me,” I said when it let me stop ping-ponging the walls. I held up my forefinger and thumb about a millimeter apart. My hands were red, and a couple knuckles were swollen. “I thought you wanted me to open the box. My bad.”

I hardly heard the creature move. The swing of its arm was a blur. I flinched in anticipation of pain, but it clasped my shoulder in a surprisingly gentle grip. Scorching heat ran through me. It didn’t hurt. The demon let go, and I took stock of myself. It had completely healed me. I wasn’t even tired.

“Neat trick.”

“Begin,” it said. “Or I will bring you to the brink of death again and again.”

Didn’t that sound fun.

I sighed. “Why did you pick Law and me?” When So’la made a growling sound and red flames rippled over it, I figured I was making progress toward pushing it over the edge. I lifted a hand to calm it down. “It might help me figure out what to do,” I said.