Diana Rowland - Secrets of the Demon

I leaned back in the chair, frowning. “Well, yeah. Someone else was definitely involved since I doubt Adam sicced the thing on himself and then drove it away from the studio. But I’m still wondering if the fact that Adam wrote some bad checks to Vic Kerry has anything to do with either murder.” I chewed my lip in thought.

Zack skimmed the paper in his hand again. “If not for your ability to sense the golem, we wouldn’t know that there was any possibility of a connection between the two murders.” A frown furrowed his brow. “But why not stage Adam’s death as a suicide?”

“I don’t think the golem is sophisticated enough to do what that would entail. No windows to throw him out of at the studio. Maybe they were hoping it would look like an accident.” Damn, but this chair was comfy. I needed to get something like this for my own office.

“Ah. That makes sense. All right, well let’s say that the attack on Lida went too far. So maybe Adam started to get cold feet, and the golem was sent after him to keep him quiet.”

“That makes sense, especially considering the amount of pressure that Ben Moran’s been putting on the department to make it all go away.” Then I grimaced. “Except for the murder of Vic who might have been mistaken for Roger, or the fact that Adam wrote bad checks to Vic, or for the fact that Vic might have loaned money to Adam ...” I pinched the bridge of my nose and grimaced. “Here comes the headache.”

Zack continued to shuffle through the papers. “Let’s focus on one scenario at a time.”

“I’m more than willing to go with that for now,” I agreed, then had to stifle a yawn. “Okay, I’m dying here. Let’s finish this shit up. I’ve had a helluva full day.” I stood and gathered up the papers.

We went through the rest of the house, not finding anything else interesting or incriminating, and nothing that would point us to who the other involved party was. We collected Adam’s laptop and filled a box with papers and various documents to look at later, then headed out.

We exited into full night with the moon high in the sky. “I’m afraid to look at my watch,” I said with a mock-whimper.

Zack grinned. “Why it’s barely eight P.M.”

“Liar,” I replied as I shoved the box and the laptop into the trunk of my car. “But I appreciate the effort.” I slammed the trunk closed. “I think I’m going to start sleeping every other night. This ‘regular sleep cycle’ thing is for wimps.”

“There’s a great science fiction series about people who’ve been genetically engineered to not need sleep,” Zack said, looking up at the sky with a slight frown.

“That’s what I need!”

A slight smile crossed his face. “The books or the not needing sleep?”

I made a rude noise. “If I didn’t need to sleep I might have time to read a book occasionally. I mean, other than for research.” He was still looking at the sky, and I followed his gaze. It was a clear night and the moon was almost three quarters full, but I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “Whatcha lookin’ at?”

He dropped his gaze and shook his head. “Nothing. Just had a strange—”

A sharp cold wind slammed into us, cutting his words off and whipping dirt into our faces. Good thing I already put the papers in the trunk, was my first thought, quickly chased by a spasm of fear as the wind died.

That felt like the thing at the City Towers building ...

“Zack,” I gasped,“get in the car. There’s something—”

He grabbed me by my arm, almost yanking it out of its socket as he took off at a run, near dragging me along. “No! Car’s not safe. You need to get as far away as possible before it forms!”

I struggled to keep up with him, and only his fierce grip on my arm kept me from sprawling face first. “Before what forms?” I managed to ask. I expected him to veer between the houses, but he kept to the street. Apparently distance was more important than cover.

“It’s a portal,” he said through clenched teeth, pulling me along even though I was running as fast as I could— which, admittedly, wasn’t all that fast. “Can’t you feel it? It’s a summoning!”

I stumbled as his words penetrated, then my shock tripled as Zack hoisted me up onto his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. “Hang on!” he ordered. And then ran.

I’d only thought he’d been running before. I clung for dear life as he nearly doubled his pace, sprinting flat-out like an Olympian, and as if he didn’t have my not-so-light weight draped across his shoulders. Holy shit, the man had some seriously inhuman speed.

Oh, shit. The realization slammed home. Zack’s not human.

A few seconds later—though it felt like a few hours—he slowed and stopped, then set me on my feet. He held me carefully to make sure I was steady before releasing me, then stepped back. He didn’t say anything. He seemed to know what I was going to say.

Too bad I didn’t know what I was going to say. “Are we far enough away?” I finally asked.

Zack nodded, eyes steady on me. He looked oddly expectant and bereft at the same time.

I swallowed and took a deep breath. “How did you know it was a summoning?”

“I’ve felt them before,” he answered, voice low.

Them. More than one. “Was it directed at me or you?”

“I have no way to know that,” he said, still terribly calm and quiet.

“If you were to guess,” I prompted.

“I would guess that it was directed at you,” he said with a slight nod, as if to congratulate me on the handling of the question.

A summoning of me. Someone from the demon realm was trying to pull me through a portal, the same way I pulled demons into this world. My knees wanted to shake at everything that implied, but I forced the panic down with every ounce of control I had and took another deep breath. “Are you human?” My voice cracked, but I didn’t care.

He closed his eyes, naked pain on his face. “I cannot answer that.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Both,” he replied in little more than a whisper. “I’m bound by oath.”

“You’re a demon,” I breathed. He didn’t move or answer, but I didn’t need him to. What kind of demon can look like a human? I’d never heard of a demon being able to shapeshift. Then again, there was a lot I didn’t know about the demonkind.

“Is Ryan a demon?” I squeaked.

He opened his eyes and met my gaze. “No,” he said, voice soft but firm. Relief swirled through me and for an instant I thought I saw a flash of pity in Zack’s eyes, but then he looked away.

“Is he a summoner?” I was more than willing to keep asking questions as long as Zack would keep answering them, especially since it kept me from thinking about the extremely scary thought of someone trying to summon me.

He hesitated for so long I began to think he wasn’t going to answer. “He has the ability to open a portal,” he finally said, voice very low.

I could feel a knot in my chest relax ever so slightly. A summoner, though perhaps one who’d never been trained in the art. “The demons hate him,” I persisted. “They call him a kiraknikahl. Why? What did he do?”

“I cannot say,” Zack repeated, voice tight and pained. “Only that his punishment was dire. And just.”

I took a step closer to Zack. “Please. I want to help him. He’s my best friend.”