Lisa Shearin - The Trouble With Demons

Piaras was looking at me. “What?”

I swallowed a snort. “Nothing. Go on.”

Piaras glanced at the door; it was closed, but he lowered his voice anyway. “Archmagus Valerian said he would know if Katelyn and I… you know. Raine, I’d like to live long enough to graduate, or at least graduate in this form. He can’t really turn me into a squid, can he?”

“Is that what he told you?”

“And a couple of other things.”

“He can’t do it, at least not the squid part.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

Piaras let out a relieved breath. “That’s good.” His look turned suspicious. “Why are you asking about me and Kat?”

I really didn’t want to come out and say this. “I need to find the Scythe of Nen. And by the way, you weren’t too far off the mark. It is a dagger.”

“What’s it look like?”

I told him what my dad had told me.

“Something that small won’t be easy to find,” Piaras noted.

“No, it won’t. And apparently a certain type of person is helpful for finding this kind of thing.”

Piaras’s eyes narrowed. I had a sinking feeling he’d figured out where I was going with this.

“What type of person?” he asked.

I winced. “Uh… a virgin type of person.”

His lips narrowed into a thin line to match his eyes. “And when you found out you needed a virgin, you immediately thought of me.”

“Not immediately.”

“What, so you had to wait two seconds?”

“More like five actually. Don’t feel bad about it.”

“You think I’m the only virgin on this island! How’s that supposed to make me feel?”

I grinned hopefully. “Special?”

Piaras gave me a look. You know the one.

I threw my arms up. “Okay, I’m sure there are other virgins on this island, but I don’t have time to find them. I was pretty sure you were qualified-”

Piaras glowered. “As a virgin.”

I held up a hand. “No, no.” I was just getting myself in deeper. “I knew you were qualified in other ways to help. Levelheaded, good in a fight, that kind of qualified.”

Piaras arched an eyebrow. “Nice try.”

I hung my head and sighed. “Kid, just help me out here, will you?”

Silence. I looked up. Piaras was grinning.

“What do you need me to do?” he asked.

I told him.

“One question,” he said when I’d finished.

“Shoot.”

“This virgin thing, does thinking about it count? Just because I haven’t done it doesn’t mean I don’t think about it.” He lowered his voice again. “A lot.”

Piaras and Talon needed to go to their next class. I needed to talk to Sora Niabi. Both destinations were conveniently located in Starke Hall, also known as the demonology department. I had Vegard, Piaras had four grim Guardians, and Talon had a goblin dark mage hit squad.

Good thing I wasn’t trying to be inconspicuous.

Vegard’s messengers had hopefully reached Mychael by now, and hopefully he’d taken steps to protect the virgins and break the mirrors. If it were me, I’d have every mirror on the island broken. I was sure Mychael had a better solution, but big demons would have a tough time wiggling through an itty, bitty shard of glass. In my opinion, the solution for the virgins was obvious. Get laid now. I muffled a smile. The lower hells would freeze over before Mychael would issue that order.

Knowledge about demons came in three varieties: legend, rumor, and fact. Demonologists knew the facts; the rest of us floundered with legends and rumors; none of them were pleasant, and each of them was more gruesome than the one before.

The rumor that would probably be making the rounds on campus within the hour-if it wasn’t already-would have nothing to do with fact and everything to do with horny college students looking for an excuse. Whether demons liking virgins was fact or fiction didn’t matter. I’d be willing to bet that the number of virgins among Mid’s student population was suddenly going to skyrocket. And every last one of those kids would be desperate to lose their apparently forgotten virginity as quickly as possible to ensure protection against the demons. I wondered what new pickup lines they’d be using. Help me; I’m a virgin.

With the impending increase in fake virgins, I was really glad I’d already secured the help of the real thing.

I think.

Piaras still wasn’t happy about his role in our little expedition. And I didn’t think his opinion was going to change anytime soon. Especially since Talon had already heard the one about demons and virgins.

Talon’s grin was full of fang. “Well, I’m safe,” he was telling Piaras. “I’m probably one of the safest people on this island. Hell, I’m probably demon repellant.” His grin broadened. “Are you safe?”

It was obvious that Piaras didn’t want to answer that question. “Not exactly,” he finally said.

“Piaras, either you’re safe or you’re not. There’s no gray area here. Which is it?”

I’d listened long enough. “Everyone is safe. Regardless. The island is crawling with armed Guardians. Everyone will be safe.”

Talon’s grin never wavered. “But are you sure of that?”

“Yes.”

“Absolutely positive?”

I glared at him.

“When there’s a danger, shouldn’t you take every precaution?” he asked innocently, his aqua eyes wide.

I added a growl to go with the glare.

“I’ll be helping Raine,” Piaras said between clenched teeth.

“Helping?”

“Because I’m…” Piaras really didn’t want to say the word.

“Not safe?” Talon said helpfully, grinning from ear to pointed ear.

“No, I’m not safe!” Piaras snapped. He turned on me. “Now everyone’s going to know!”

Talon snorted. “Everyone already does.”

Piaras actually snarled at me.

Talon clapped him on the back. “Not a problem. I know some ladies who can get you safe real quick. Though if you’re looking for a freebie, you and Katelyn could help each other out. She’s definitely not safe.”

Piaras blushed scarlet. I smacked Talon in the back of the head.

Topic closed.

Demonologists could make a lot of money in the private sector. Law- enforcement agencies were the natural choice for postgraduate work, but it didn’t pay worth a damn. City governments expected their citizens to be protected but only paid a pittance for the privilege. The more money-minded demonologists worked for themselves-if you had demon problems and enough gold, a freelance demonologist would gladly take both of them off of your hands.

So while Mid was on its way to becoming hell on earth-a freelancer would have called it paradise.

We didn’t have freelancers, or time to call any in. We had students and faculty. Hopefully the old adage “those who can’t do, teach” didn’t apply to the demonology department faculty. If so, we were all seriously screwed.

Starke Hall, which housed the Conclave college’s demonology department, wasn’t chaos, but it was close.

The students were either grim-faced and determined or wide-eyed and excited. The former were probably graduate students or upperclassmen who knew what was happening; the latter were merely young and clueless. Those grad students knew that during the next few hours or days, they were going to get a nasty taste of what working in the real world was like. The young ones would be told to hide.

The sight of me, Vegard, four massive Guardians, and four leather-clad goblin dark mages in the corridor didn’t help the situation. If anything, grim turned grimmer, some of the wide-eyed ones added open mouths to their expressions, and several students decided they needed to be somewhere else.