Druid Bond Read online

  I looked over all three circles now and their powerful sigils. Aiming my sword, I spoke softly. One by one, the circles lit up with power. As an added precaution, I drew a vial of slick wizard potion from a coat pocket. Suspended bits of crystals super-heated at my word, turning the potion from gray sludge into a steaming green liquid. I swallowed it in three gulps, then set the empty vial aside along with my folded coat. Cold air hit my sweat-damp shirt. I stepped inside my protective circle, where the entrapped air had already begun to warm.

  “If you see me in any kind of distress,” I said to Malachi, “start the exorcism.”

  He nodded uncertainly and held his Bible closer to him. “I’ll do my best.”

  As I lowered myself, I could feel the potion taking effect: an oily film was beginning to slick my skin. Something similar was happening on a soul level. In the event of misadventure, it would make me that much harder to grab. Depending on the power of Demon X, that would either buy me seconds or fractions thereof.

  “Ready?” I asked Malachi.

  “Yes. Be careful, Everson.”

  As I closed my eyes, I saw Vega and our little sweet pea and experienced the stabbing sense that I was taking way too big a risk. But my magic was also talking, suggesting the risk carried a big payoff.

  Pushing both thoughts aside, I began to incant.

  I opened my eyes to a watery blackness, my body weightless, suspended. My first instinct was to stroke upward, but I didn’t have to. I could breathe. Centering myself, I uttered, “Iluminare.”

  Light swelled from the end of what I’d thought was my cane, but I was clutching an actual staff, long and knotted with a beautiful white stone at its end from which the light radiated. In my other hand, I gripped a silvery sword, its sequence of runes more ornate than the ones etched down the side of the blade from my father.

  I’m in a parallel plane, I thought. Somewhere between my realm and the demonic.

  And outside the bonds of the material, I was seeing everything in its truer form. I willed the crackling orb of light out further. As I did, something emerged from the darkness ahead of me. I kicked backwards before recognizing the large floating thing—more by its position than its appearance.

  Finn.

  The Stranger was lying on his back, arms across his chest, just as Gorgantha had arranged him. But he wasn’t the handsome devil from the surface. No, down here he was one of the monsters he’d changed the merfolk into, only more gruesome. A jutting shelf of lower jaw dominated his face, its crowd of fangs jabbing toward his forehead. His body was a mosaic of ragged, battle-scarred scales. Back at his mouth, long catfish-like tendrils writhed from the motion of the water. Beneath a flutter of ragged hair, Finn’s empty eyes stared upward, his mind still wrapped in the fae enchantment.

  I ventured nearer and searched until I spotted what I was looking for. Starting at the back of Finn’s neck, a thin cord twisted away into the inky blackness below: his connection to Demon X. The cord was translucent, and I could see thin currents of sulfur-yellow energy slipping back and forth inside.

  Like an astronaut on a spacewalk, I had conjured a similar tether between myself and my protective circle. After testing it with a few gentle tugs, I maneuvered until I was beneath the Stranger. Severing Finn’s cord was out. I didn’t wield that kind of power. Few did. And any attempt to do so would only alert Demon X. Instead, my plan was to send enough obscuring magic into the connection to scramble the signal. Then Finn and I would have our Q&A until the magic wore off.

  Assuming this works…

  Picking a spot on the cord, I aimed my sword at it. “Oscurare,” I whispered.

  Magic trickled down the idealized blade and wrapped the demonic cord in a shadowy discharge. Through a kind of osmosis, the magic began to seep inside the cord. So far, so good. Though the slowness of the process was painful, I couldn’t force it, couldn’t risk broadcasting what I was doing.

  Just a little at a time, I thought as I invoked again.

  My magic, my unfiltered essence, was entering into direct contact with demon essence. Something powerful and watchful could take advantage of that. And down here, there would be little I could do to stop it.

  As I counted down to the next dose, I caught my thoughts drifting back to Vega and our child. Who did I have a greater responsibility to? The Upholders, or my family? Could I even separate the two groups? After all, were I to ditch my work here, Vega and Tony would lose their places at the safe house.

  And Arnaud’s still out there…

  The bloody image of Blade and the vampire hunters’ apartment jagged through my thoughts.

  Above me, Finn’s body jerked.

  My heart pounded as his arms came off his body and his tail flickered. A reflex? Inside his cord, the sulfur-yellow currents were damming up behind my obscuring magic, only slipping through in threads. Still, I was two doses from finishing the job. I whispered one of them quickly and waited.

  Finn’s next jerk was a thrash. A wall of water pushed against me, but it was arriving from below. I peered between my kicking feet. Something was surging up from the blackness. Something massive. I made out a pair of coal-like eyes. They radiated heat, hatred. And they were growing larger.

  Demon X.

  I rushed the final dose of obscuring magic into the cord and shouted, “Ritirare!”

  The cord that anchored me to my protective circle tugged to bring me home. At the same moment, a hand closed around my sword wrist. Finn had turned over and seized me. A large grin showed beyond his writhing tendrils.

  “Oh, do stay,” he hissed through his mass of teeth. “We’ve been wanting so badly to meet you.”

  Below me, the approaching eyes grew to the size of footballs, their light illuminating the contours of a kraken-like face. I kicked frantically. A pair of massive jaws yawned wide. I struggled to bring my sword around, but the arm was still in Finn’s grip. My gaze went to the cord trailing out behind his neck. The demonic flow was a gossamer thread now, filing through one cell at a time.

  Work! I thought at my magic.

  The flow stopped. Beneath me, Demon X stopped too. His furnace-like eyes searched the darkness. With the connection blocked, he could no longer see or sense us. His monstrous form circled the depths.

  Finn’s smile shrank. “Master?” he called.

  I spoke a Word, and the banishment rune glowed a brilliant white. Finn shied away, his grip faltering from my wrist. With the help of the slick wizard potion, I yanked my arm free. The cord to my protective circle did the rest, retracting me like a supernatural winch, drawing me back to Staten Island.

  9

  I jerked upright with a grunt, my face cold with sweat, heart slamming in my throat.

  The rotunda room. I stared around. I’m back in the rotunda room of the yacht club.

  I was sitting cross-legged in my protective circle, but the entire room seemed to be rocking up and down and side to side. Still gripping sword and staff, I pressed my fists to the floor to stop the motion. Malachi was standing behind me, reciting the first lines of the exorcism. He broke off.

  “Everson?”

  “I’m all right,” I rasped. “I’m back.”

  I expected him to be leaning this way and that to keep his balance, but he wasn’t. The motion was my own vestibular system working overtime to transit from a watery medium back to a solid one.

  “You were struggling,” he explained.

  “Was I?” I grunted out a humorless laugh. “It was a close shave, but the Stranger’s quarantined.”

  The room vacillated a final time and then steadied. I turned from Malachi’s concerned eyes to Finn. His body remained in the glowing casting circle, wrists and ankles bound. Though he looked like a merman again, eyes staring upward, lips angled in a rakish grin, I couldn’t help but see him as the horrid monster I’d just encountered.

  “We don’t have long,” I said, imagining the sulfuric currents damming up around the blockage.

  I incanted, igniting a p
air of sigils on either side of Finn’s head. I’d constructed the circle not only to contain the Stranger, but to get him talking. It meant a bigger energy cost, but resorting to threats like I had with Despus would have been too time consuming and with no guarantee of results. As I continued to incant, the light from the sigils spread over Finn’s head, covering it in a caul that in magic circles was known as a mirage mask.

  His body jerked.

  “Finn, can you hear me?”

  “Yes, master,” he answered.

  Good. The mirage mask was designed to convert sensory stimuli into the illusion that the wearer was engaging someone in authority. It sounded like Finn had gone straight to the top brass. Just as I’d hoped.

  “Tell me my true name,” I ordered.

  “Y-you said never to speak it.”

  “I’m telling you to speak it now.”

  “You threatened me with eternal torture if—”

  “Speak it!” I shouted.

  Finn hesitated. “Is this a test, master?”

  I could feel his resistance, dammit. If I pushed too hard, the illusion would come apart, mirage mask or not. That was part of why I’d wanted Jordan outside for this part. Subtlety wasn’t his strength.

  “Very good,” I said, swearing inwardly. “You have passed.”

  The Stranger’s body relaxed. “I am sorry the wizard escaped my hold.”

  “We needn’t worry about him right now,” I said. “What of the merfolk?”

  “They laid a trap. A group was there, the wizard and some others. I couldn’t pull our forces back in time. Many were slain. We will have to wait for another opportunity to seize them.”

  “I need an army,” I said, testing my theory.

  “Yes, but merfolk are scarce. We can search the waters further south?”

  “What did I tell you?” I demanded, as though challenging his memory.

  “T-to remain close to Manhattan.”

  And why would that be? I wondered.

  I scoffed. “Do you remember the next step?”

  “You’ve given no orders beyond claiming the merfolk.”

  “Then don’t presume anything.”

  “No, master.”

  “And the others?”

  “Others?”

  “The ones like you.”

  “The Four? I’m never to speak of them either.”

  Four? There were four Strangers?

  “I’ve lost contact with them,” I said.

  “All of them?” Doubt crept into Finn’s voice.

  Distracted by our limited time, I’d stupidly said the first thing to come into my head. Losing contact with minions was a sign of weakness, something a demon master would never confess, least of all to an underling. I could either back-scrabble or press on, and there wasn’t time to back-scrabble.

  “I’m taking you into my confidence, faithful servant.”

  “Yes, master.” I could hear the hunger in his voice. Trust meant promotion.

  “Someone is trying to frustrate our plans. I suspect magic.”

  “Perhaps the wizard?” he offered. “And there were others with him.”

  “Perhaps. Do you have a way of contacting the other Four?”

  “I’ve not seen them since you separated us.”

  Damn.

  “I did ask Myss-u-traal-slaagth where she was being sent,” he babbled on. In his eagerness to please me, he’d slipped up and uttered a demonic name. I locked it away. “She wouldn’t tell me, but she did say the question wasn’t where she was being sent.”

  “What did she mean?”

  “I-I don’t know, master,” he confessed.

  “And what about the druids?” Jordan asked, striding into the room. “Who is with them?”

  The son of a bitch had flown out only to slip back in. Who knew how long he’d been standing outside the rotunda room.

  “Master?” Finn said.

  I waved for Jordan to back off, but he continued forward.

  “The druids,” he repeated. “Where were they taken?”

  “Who are you?” Finn demanded.

  I sensed the illusion coming apart, and not because the magic that quarantined the Stranger was tapping out, but because of Jordan’s bull-headed move. Power swirled around the end of his quarterstaff as he advanced. Malachi left his protective circle to head him off. I pushed more power into the mirage mask.

  “Did you talk to the others of the Four?” I asked Finn.

  He began to jerk, trying to escape his confinement. The jig was up.

  “Listen to your master,” I ordered in an attempt to bring him back.

  He stopped and seethed, “You’re not my master. You’re that wizard.”

  I felt the pent-up demonic energy in the cord tremble and then break through my obscuring magic. Finn’s back arced fiercely until only the top of his head and the ragged fins of his tail contacted the floor. Smoke began seeping from his body. Jordan and Malachi stepped back. Finn screamed as dark-yellow fire burst around him. As the flames washed over the hardened cylinder of air, I could feel their heat, their anger. When the flames vanished, all that remained of the Stranger was a scattering of gray ashes.

  Demon X had reclaimed him.

  With a series of words, I broke the circles. The smoke dispersed in a foul gust. I stood slowly and sheathed my sword back into my cane.

  “So what did you learn?” Jordan asked me, standing too close.

  I had expended a ton of energy and was physically, emotionally, and magically spent. When I answered, it was more in weariness than the anger I felt. “Less than I would have if you hadn’t barged in.”

  “I barged in because you were making a mess of the interview.”

  “Thank God you came then,” I said, meeting his gaze. “Tell us, Jordan, what did you learn?”

  His jaw line hardened. “You think this is a game?”

  “Guys,” Malachi said, trying to restore the peace.

  “No, I don’t think this is a fucking game,” I said. “I risked my life to get him talking. As a minion, he has scant information—it’s like looking for scraps of meat on a bone—but I was finding them. Then you came along and snapped the damn bone over your knee. And now look.” I gestured at the ashes. “So, yeah, excuse me for being a smartass, but I’m not real happy with you right now.”

  When I turned to leave, Jordan grabbed my arm. “You’re not happy with me?”

  I could put up with a lot of things, but being handled wasn’t one of them. I wheeled toward him. “No,” I said. “And if I wasn’t so sympathetic to your situation, I’d be playing tether ball with your raven form.”

  Jordan brought his quarterstaff into both hands. “I’m right here, buddy.”

  “Guys,” Malachi tried again.

  “You brought me in as an authority on demons, right?” I said.

  “He did.” Jordan cocked his head at Malachi. “And now I’m really starting to wonder.”

  I’d had my next response prepared, which was, Then let me do my job, but his retort effectively short-circuited it. When the sigil on my hand began to pulse, I realized Malachi had activated it to call the others. Jordan glanced at his too. A moment later, Seay raced into the room trailing fae light.

  “Is everything all right?” she asked, peering from the circle with the Stranger’s ashes to us.

  “It’s done,” I said, taking a final look at Jordan. “I was able to score a little info.”

  “Oh, yeah?” she said.

  “Let’s give Gorgantha a chance to get here,” Malachi said.

  “She and her pod took off after another group of mercreatures,” Seay said. “What happened to Finn?”

  “Demon X recalled him,” I said.

  “So that’s it? He’s gone?”

  Jordan grunted. “Until Croft decides to tell us different.”

  I ignored his dig and began cleaning and folding up the polyethylene sheets. After checking to ensure no magic lingered on them, I conjured my cubbyhole and sto
wed the sheets away along with the reference book I’d pulled.

  “You said you scored some info?” Seay asked as I finished.

  “Finn revealed the true name of one of the Strangers,” I said. “I don’t know which one—there were four according to Finn, but—”

  “So what good is that?” Jordan interrupted.

  I managed my temper by slipping into my professor’s voice. “Knowing a demon’s true name doesn’t give one absolute power over it, as many stories would have you believe. Otherwise, demons would never share that info with their underlings. But the names carry enough power to act as focusing objects. Indeed, demons use them as an efficient way to locate one another for communications and councils.”

  “How does that help us?” he pressed.

  “With the demon’s true name, I can track it.”

  The hard muscles in Jordan’s face let out as understanding sunk in. The Stranger in question could be the one who had infiltrated his druid circle and possessed his wife. He nodded in what seemed readiness.

  “Then what are we waiting for?”

  “It’s going to take time,” I cautioned. “But I’ll get started on it right away.”

  10

  It was after two a.m. by the time I got back to my apartment. I shucked my coat, immediately losing twenty pounds, and tried to hang it gingerly on the rack. The potions clinked anyway. Tabitha, who was curled in her usual spot on the window-side divan, peered over and let out a monstrous yawn.

  “How did it go?” she asked.

  Ever since joining the team at Epic Con, she seemed more interested in what I was up to.

  “Under the circumstances, okay. Might have a new lead. Thanks for asking. I was sure you were going to tell me how badly I reeked.”

  “I was getting to that.”

  I pulled off my mud-caked boots, scratched my big toe through the sock only to discover it didn’t itch anymore, and padded to the kitchen. “I’m gonna make coffee. Can I heat you up some milk?”

  “Coffee? At this hour?”