The Hollows Series Books 1-4. Kim Harrison

pain in here?”

      “No,” I said dreamily. “I like pain.” Face going slack, Nick’s gaze shot to mine and then to Jenks’s. “No one takes demonology,” I protested weakly, wanting to giggle. “It’s, like, the most useless thing in the world.” My gaze drifted to the cabinet. The doors were still shut, but the panels had been broken by Nick’s hammering and me being thrown into it. Beyond the splintered wood was an empty spot the size of the book on the floor beside me. So that’s what they hide in a locked cabinet, in a locked room, behind a locked door, in the basement of a government building. I squinted at Nick. “You know how to call demons?” I questioned. God help me, but I felt good. All light and airy. “You’re a black practitioner. I arrest people like you,” I said, trying to run a finger down his jawline.

      “Not exactly.” Nick took my hand and set it down. Shaking the cuff of his sweatshirt past his hand, he used it to brush the blood from my face. “Don’t try to talk, Rachel. You lost a lot of blood.” He turned to Jenks, his eyes frightened. “I can’t take her on the bus like this!”

      Jenks’s face looked pained. “I’ll get Ivy.” He dropped to my shoulder and whispered, “Hold on, Rache. I’ll be right back.” He flitted to Nick, the breeze from his wings sending more waves of euphoria through me. I closed my eyes and rode it, hoping it would never end.

      “If you let her die here, I’ll kill you myself,” Jenks threatened, and Nick nodded. Jenks left with the sound of a thousand bees. The sound echoed in my head even after he was gone.

      “It can’t get out?” I asked, opening my eyes as my emotions swung from one extreme to the other and tears welled.

      Nick shoved the big book of demon spells in my bag. His bloody handprints were all over both of them. “No. And when the sun rises, poof, it’s gone. You’re safe. Hush.” He tucked my knife in my bag and stretched for my coat.

      “We’re in a basement,” I protested. “There’s no sun down here.”

      Nick ripped the lining from my coat and pressed it against my neck. I cried out as a pulse of ecstasy shot through me from the lingering effects of the vampire saliva. The bleeding had slowed, and I wondered if it was from Jenks’s pixy dust. Apparently it could do more than make people itch.

      “It’s not sunlight that pulls a demon back to the ever-after,” Nick said, clearly thinking he had hurt me. “It’s something about gamma rays or protons. … Damn it, Rachel. Stop asking me so many questions. It was taught as an aid to understand language development, not to learn how to control demons.”

      The demon was Ivy again, and I shuddered as it licked its red lips with a bloodstained tongue, taunting me. “What grade did you get, Nick?” I asked. “Please tell me it was an A.”

      “Uh …” he stammered as he covered me with my coat. Looking frantic, he gathered me up in his arms, almost rocking me. My breath hissed in as my wrist throbbed in time with the pulses from my neck. “Easy,” he shushed. “You’ll be all right.”

      “Are you sure?” came a cultured voice from the corner.

      Nick’s head came up. Cradled in Nick’s arms, I stared at the demon. It was back to wearing a gentleman’s frock. “Let me out. I can help you,” the demon said, all congeniality.

      Nick hesitated. “Nick?” I said, suddenly frightened. “Don’t listen to it. Don’t!”

      The demon smiled over its smoked glasses, showing flat, even teeth. “Break the circle and I’ll take you to her Ivy. Otherwise …” The demon’s brow furrowed as if it was worried. “It almost looks as if there’s more blood outside of her than in.”

      Nick’s gaze darted over the blood splattered on the walls and books. His grip on me tightened. “You were trying to kill her,” he said, his voice cracking.

      It shrugged. “I was compelled to. By binding me in your circle, you rubbed out the one that was used to summon me. With it went any compulsion to do his bidding. I’m all yours, little wizard.” It grinned, and my breath came in a quick, fear-laced pant.

      “Nicky …” I whispered as my blood-loss induced stupor was stripped away. This was bad. I knew this was bad. The remembered terror as it savaged me rose high. My pulse faltered as my heart tried to beat faster.

      “Can you get us back to her church?” Nick asked.

      “The one by the small ley line?” The demon’s outline wavered as its expression turned startled. “Someone closed a circle with it six nights ago. The ripple it sent through the ever-after shook the cups on my saucers, so to speak.” It tilted its head in speculation. “That was you?”

      “No,” Nick said weakly.

      I felt ill. I had used too much salt. God help me. I didn’t know demons could sense it when I drew on a ley line. If I lived through this, I’d never use them again.

      The demon gazed at me. “I can take you there,” it said. “But in return I want no compulsion put on me to return to the ever-after.”

      Nick’s grip tightened. “You want me to let you loose in Cincinnati for the entire night?”

      A power-filled smile edged over the demon. It exhaled slowly, and I heard the joints in its shoulder crack. “I mean to kill the one who summoned me. Then I’ll leave. It smells over here.” It looked over its smoked glasses, shocking me with its alien eyes. “You won’t ever call me—will you, little wizard? I could teach you so much that you want to know.”

      Fear fought with the pain in my shoulder as Nick hesitated before shaking his head.

      “You won’t hurt us,” Nick said. “Mentally, physically, or emotionally. You will take the most direct path and do nothing to endanger us afterward.”

      “Nick Nicky,” the demon pouted. “One might think you didn’t trust me. I can even get you there before her Ivy leaves if I take you through a ley line. But you’d better hurry. Rachel Mariana Morgan seems to be failing fast.”

      Through the ever-after? I thought in panic. No! That’s what had killed my dad.

      Nick swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “No!” I tried to shout, squirming to get out of his grip. The stupor from its saliva was almost gone, and with the return of movement came pain. I welcomed the hurt, knowing the pleasure had been a lie. Nick was white-faced as he tried to keep me unmoving and hold the lining of my coat against my neck.

      “Rachel,” he whispered. “You’ve lost so much blood. I don’t know what to do!”

      My throat was too parched to swallow. “Don’t—Don’t let it out,” I insisted. “Please,” I pleaded as I pushed his hands off of me. “I’m fine. The bleeding has stopped. I’ll be all right. Leave me here. Go call Ivy. She’ll pick us up. I don’t want to go through the ever-after.”

      The demon’s brow furrowed as if it was concerned. “Mmmm,” he mused gently, touching the lace at his throat. “Sounds like she’s going incoherent. Not good. Tick-tock, Nick Nicky. Better decide quick.”

      Nick’s breath hissed in and he tensed. His gaze roved over the pool of blood on the floor and then me. “I’ve got to do something,” he whispered. “You’re so cold, Rachel.”

      “Nick, no!” I shouted as he set me on the floor and lurched into a stand. Reaching out with a foot, he smeared the line of blood.

      I heard a frightened wail. I covered my mouth as I realized it was coming from me. Terror pulsed through me as the demon shuddered. It slowly stepped across the line. It ran a hand across the bloodstained wall and licked its finger, never taking its eyes off of me.

      “Don’t let it touch me!” My voice was high-pitched. I could hear the hysteria in it.

      “Rachel,” Nick soothed as he knelt beside me. “It said it won’t hurt you. Demons don’t lie. It was in every text I copied.”