Diana Rowland - Fury of the Demon

“That sure looks like it,” I murmured. I took in the features of the unusual ring and allowed myself a mental sigh of disappointment that we didn’t instantly have our guy. The hand I’d seen had definitely been a man’s. “Can you zoom in?” Paul clicked the mouse a few times, and the ring obligingly grew larger, though fuzzy.

“It’s a scan of an older photo, which is why it’s pixilated,” he explained. “It was scanned about a decade ago, but I think the photo itself is about forty years old judging by the clothing style.”

“I can see the ring well enough,” I said. “Zoom back out, please?” He obliged. I tried to see if anyone in the picture looked familiar, but came up empty.

“It’s either the same ring or one exactly like it,” I said.

“This is the only image I felt,” he told me, “which means that if there are more like it, it’s unlikely there are pictures of them anywhere online.”

I blinked. “That you felt? ”

Paul ducked his head and hunched his shoulders. “Um, yeah.” He fidgeted. “I didn’t mean to say that.”

“Mzatal told me you use the computers as a way to connect to the Earth flows.” I gave him a reassuring smile. “Is that what you mean?”

His face brightened. “Yeah. I didn’t know that’s what it was until I met Lord Mzatal. I, um, don’t usually talk about it.” He glanced beyond me to Bryce as though for reassurance, then brought his gaze back to me.

“Trust me, this is a safe place for talking about weird shit,” I said with a laugh. “Is that how you found an obscure photo of the ring so quickly?”

“Pretty much.” Then he rolled his eyes. “If I’d used conventional methods alone it would have taken ages , or I might not have found it at all.”

“And it’s exactly what I was looking for.” I lifted my chin toward the screen. “However, it wasn’t on a female hand when I saw it. Can you find out who this woman is?”

Paul smiled. “Way ahead of you. It was easy to link to the photo. I’ll show you the name. Better than me trying to pronounce it.” He changed screens so I could read it for myself.

I straightened. “I know that name. She’s a summoner .” Rasha Hassan Jalal al-Khouri. This was the woman who’d summoned Jekki’s partner, Faruk, during the Christmas celebration while I was in the demon realm. According to Mzatal, it was the first time she’d summoned in almost a decade. I looked back toward the door. “Jekki!”

Bryce smiled at Paul. “Good job, kid.”

A streak of blue flashed past Bryce’s legs. “Kara Gillian!”

I grinned at the demon’s exuberance. “Jekki, we have a lead. Can you please go tell Mzatal I need him here?”

“Kri! Kri! Kri!” He spun and zipped out of the room, down the hall and out the back door like a little blue whirlwind.

Paul’s face held a pleased smile. “It’s probably the right ring then?”

“It’s a really good possibility,” I said, more than a little pleased myself. “You rock. I don’t suppose you can get a current address on her?”

He let out a dismissive snort. “Seriously? Give me something hard to do.” His screen shifted to something full of commands and code and who the hell knew what else, but Paul seemed utterly at home with it. His fingers flew across the keyboard, and about ten seconds later the printer hummed and spat out a sheet.

“That’s her current address, along with her vital statistics,” he informed us with a tilt of his head toward the printer. “Born in Egypt in 1934. Married in 1952 to a man named Sapar, who died October 31, 1956 in the Suez Crisis. She and her two children, twins born in 1955, emigrated to the U.S. in 1958. Has four grandchildren and two great grandchildren now as well.” He changed screens again. “And here are some more recent pics.” He leaned back to allow us to see better.

Several photos showed the same woman, looking quite hale in her sixties and perhaps seventies, but I didn’t recognize anyone else in any of the pics.

I plucked the sheet from the printer, skimmed the info and the address. “Austin! Hot fucking damn.”

Bryce gave me a questioning look.

“The phone call I got from Idris was made northwest of Austin on a phone stolen there,” I explained. “Plus, Mzatal detected the aftereffects of an event from a few days ago that disrupted the flows in a wide area around Austin. He felt Idris’s signature, but couldn’t pinpoint the source. I don’t think any of it’s a coincidence, and now we have an address.”

Bryce peered at the photos on the screen. “She’s not exactly a spring chicken now. You suspect she’s directly connected?”

I gave a humorless laugh. “I’ve learned that age is simply a matter of who you know. Katashi is over a hundred years old, and that bastard is going strong.” I tapped the paper. “She’s worn the ring, and she’s in Austin. That’s enough to keep her on my list of potential baddies until I find out otherwise.”

“Guilty until proven innocent,” Bryce said.

“When I’m dealing with the Mraztur and summoners, hell yeah.”

Bryce let out a snort of agreement. His gaze returned to Paul’s screen, then he frowned and jabbed a finger at one of the pics. “Paul, that one. I need to see that one bigger.” Paul tapped a key and the thumbnail enlarged to show Rasha much older, with an utterly gorgeous young woman at her side. Perfectly styled long black hair, medium dark complexion, full lips with a deep rose color, and a voluptuous body.

“I know that girl,” Bryce murmured. “I’ve seen her before.”

“That’s her granddaughter, Jade,” Paul said. The printer hummed again.

“Where have you seen her, Bryce?” I asked.

“At the compound. The Farouche Plantation.” He tapped his chin. “I know I’ve seen her there.”

My eyes narrowed. “The granddaughter of a known summoner is associated with your ex-boss? Is she a summoner too? What was she doing there?”

A grimace flickered across his face. “No idea. I saw her in his wing of the house a few times this past year. She came and went with . . .” He trailed off, blinked. “Mystery Man Twenty-two. The guy who was last off the plane with Idris in Amarillo. Fucking hell, she came with Mystery Man Twenty-two!”

Paul made a frustrated noise. “Why did I give B.M. my secrets?” He spun the chair to face us. “I can’t pull archive surveillance vid to show you, ’cause Big Mack followed my instructions and installed the firewall of doom on his servers plus took surveillance vids offline. I couldn’t even leave a back door for myself because, well—”

“That’s acting against his interests which triggers the fear,” I said with a nod of understanding.

“Exactly.” Paul scowled. “Trust me, I tried. Once.”

I heard footsteps on the back porch. Bryce drew a sharp breath. “Damn,” he murmured. “You can really feel when Mzatal gets close, can’t you? Wasn’t as noticeable in the demon realm, but here, wow.”

“I’ve grown used to it,” I confessed, though now that I focused on it I knew exactly what Bryce meant. Like an invisible pressure wave that grew more and more tangible as the demonic lord approached.

Mzatal stepped through the doorway. Instantly the feel of the office shifted from roomy to cramped broom closet. Yep, he certainly does have the whammy , I thought wryly.

He went still for the span of a heartbeat—reading and assessing the current status and the discovery of the ring’s bearer—before leveling his full attention onto me.

“You believe Rasha consorts with Farouche,” he stated.

“It’s very possible,” I said. “Her granddaughter certainly does. However, the ring wasn’t on a woman’s hand, so I want to find out who has it now and who Bryce saw with Jade.”