Katie MacAlister - Playing with Fire

‘‘Yeah, OK, I would,’’ it said with a laugh. ‘‘Guess the only thing you can do to keep me quiet is take me with you.’’

‘‘For the love of… no!’’

‘‘Oh, but May!’’ Cyrene said, patting it on its furry head.

‘‘Absolutely not. We’ve got enough trouble without having a demon tagging along.’’

‘‘It could help us!’’ she protested as I moved over to the door, feeling it again for signs of any magic I might have missed earlier. There was nothing but the arcane spells the mage had bound into the door.

‘‘How can a demon help us?’’ I asked, hoping to point out the irrationality of her statement.

‘‘Distraction,’’ the demon answered quickly. ‘‘You want to get your twin out, right? What could cause more attention than a demon? I drag everyone over to one side of the yard, and bingo! You take the lovely Cyrene out the other side.’’

‘‘Yes! What a good plan!’’ she said, nodding vigorously.

‘‘Uh-huh. And who’s to say that Jim isn’t going to sound an alarm when I’m getting you out of the garden?’’

Cyrene ’s face, filled with hope, fell. Before she could answer, the demon snorted. ‘‘Are you kidding? Kostich almost killed Ash last year. There’s no way I’m going to do him a favor.’’

‘‘Then why did your master take a house next to him?’’ I couldn’t help but ask.

‘‘She didn’t know until we got here who lived next door.’’ Jim smiled again. ‘‘She went all potty mouth when she found out, too, but Drake pointed out she wouldn’t have to see Kostich unless she wanted to. You don’t have to worry that there’s any love lost between Aisling and Kostich.’’

‘‘There, you see?’’

The triumph in Cyrene ’s voice was an indication that I wasn’t going to rid her of this idea without a whole lot more trouble than I was prepared to go through. Rather than argue the situation for the next fifteen minutes-increasing the chances that the dragons would come out to see what was keeping their demon-I gave in to the inevitable, and opened the door to Dr. Kostich’s garden.

‘‘Stay back and out of sight until I tell you to cause a distraction,’’ I told the demon, grabbing it by its collar as it nodded. ‘‘And so help me, demon, if you betray us, I will hunt you down and-’’

‘‘Yeah, yeah, do horrible things to me with a small fruit knife and a couple of nipple clamps. Heard it before, sister,’’ it said, brushing past me to enter the garden.

I was about to order it behind me when a blast of blue-white light exploded in front of me, knocking me backwards against Cyrene. There was little noise, but an intense heat and light that blinded me for a few minutes.

‘‘Agamemnon’s balls!’’ I heard Cyrene exclaim from beneath me. I rolled off her and scrambled to my feet as my vision slowly returned.

‘‘Are you all right?’’ I asked.

‘‘Yes. Except I’m seeing stars.’’

‘‘It’s from the explosion. It’ll pass.’’

‘‘I think it’s more from your head hitting my chin,’’ she said, rubbing her jaw as she got to her knees. She looked up, gasping. ‘‘May! The demon!’’

I turned to look. I don’t know what sort of magic was in the trap that the mage had evidently laid just beyond the gate, but it left the demon’s form in flames.

‘‘Help it! It’ll die!’’

‘‘Demons can’t die, you know that,’’ I answered, snatching Cyrene ’s lightweight jacket to smother the still-burning blue flames. Although there hadn’t been much noise, evidently the blast of light was enough to alert members of Kostich’s household to a possible intruder, as lights started appearing at the back of the house.

‘‘Help me move it back to the other side before they see us,’’ I hissed, hoisting the demon dog’s heavy front end in my arms. Cyrene stumbled over to us, half lifting, half dragging its back end.

I released the dog as soon as it cleared the doorway, quickly closing the gate and using Cy’s jacket to tie it shut. ‘‘It’s not much, but it might fool them into thinking the gate wasn’t used. Or at least stall them until we can get out of here. Come on, we’ll just have to chance the front fence.’’

‘‘Mayling!’’ Cyrene jerked me back to where the inert form of the demon lay. ‘‘We can’t just leave… what did you say its name was?’’

‘‘Jim, and yes, we can. It’s not going to die, Cyrene. It’s a demon.’’

‘‘But look at it!’’ she protested, pointing. ‘‘It’s hurt! Because of us! We can’t just abandon it when it’s unconscious!’’

Smoke curled up from various spots on the demon’s body. Blood was smeared across its face, its coat partially singed, the scent of burning hair hanging heavy in the air.

‘‘What if we destroyed its form?’’ Cyrene asked, kneeling beside it.

‘‘We can’t…,’’ I started to say, but stopped. She was right. It was harmed doing something for us, and I couldn’t just walk away. ‘‘I don’t know what we can do, Cy. We can’t take it up to the house. The dragons-’’

‘‘Are no friends of Dr. Kostich,’’ she interrupted. ‘‘Come on. And stop making that face-you may work for a demon lord, but I know you. I created you! You’re not a heartless person, so let’s just get this poor demon to its people and then we can leave. All right?’’

‘‘Why do I have a feeling you’re enjoying this?’’ I grumbled as I picked up the front half of the dog.

She giggled as she lifted its rear legs. ‘‘I have to admit I’m looking forward to seeing real dragons. And famous ones! This Aisling Grey person was the subject of conversation at the Elemental Beings conference last month. It was a very romantic story. She met this wyvern and became a demon lord and then she had something happen to make her a prince of Abaddon…’’

We were puffing heavily by the time we got the heavy demon to the flagstones marking the edge of the patio area. Cyrene continued to tell me some convoluted story about the demon’s master-to be honest, it sounded far too bizarre to be real-but most of my attention was focused on how I was going to explain the situation to strangers, and more important, keep the existence of the quintessence secret. I might have never met any dragons, but their love of treasure was legendary; the quintessence would surely present a temptation they couldn’t ignore… and one I couldn’t let them have.

‘‘Remember your promise,’’ I reminded Cyrene in a low voice as we set the demon on a chaise longue.

‘‘Which one? Oh! That one.’’ She nodded and made a gesture over her lips. ‘‘Locked tight, Mayling.’’

‘‘Good. I think we’re about to have company.’’ I straightened up and tried to adopt an innocent expression as two red-haired men burst out of the house, their body language (not to mention expressions) intimidating. I lifted my hands to show I was unarmed. ‘‘Good evening. I assume you are Pál and István?’’

‘‘I am Pál,’’ the taller of the two men said, stopping in front of me. He nodded to the stockier man, the one who watched us with hard, suspicious eyes. ‘‘He is István. What are you doing here?’’

I moved aside so the men could see the body of the demon lying on the chaise. The one named Istvàn started and gave a little cry, immediately kneeling down next to the demon. Before I could tell him the demon’s form wasn’t destroyed, it was just unconscious, the other man jerked me forward, twisting me around so his beefy forearm crushed my windpipe.

‘‘What did you do to Jim?’’ he growled in my ear.

‘‘Nothing. It was the mage next door-’’