Page 30 of Demon's Bluff

“Relax.” Ivy dropped the half-eaten pizza on the hall table. “We don’t want you. We want a book.”

I couldn’t bring myself to shoot him, and I held my splat gun behind my back and tried to find a soothing smile. That is, until someone tapped the nearest ley line. Hard.

“It’s the kid!” I said when he dropped into a stance, arms moving dramatically as he gathered enough ley line energy to fry a cow. His short black hair lifted, and his focus fixed on me with an odd, anticipatory gleam. “Ivy, he’s packing!”

Definitely one of the coven kids in waiting,I decided as I yanked on the ley line and his gaze shot to me.

“Do something, Rachel!” Bis said from the ceiling, and the kid’s attention shattered.

Line energy sizzed to make my hands tingle and my legs a wobbly mess. I knew better than to engage the coven using magic, and so I swung my pistol up instead.

The kid’s eyes dropped from Bis.“Rhombus!”he shouted, and a thick circle rose up around him. Purple and green, his aura-tainted circle took my first two shots until he rolled and broke it. I followed, hoping that when his circle fell, I might get a shot in.

Every single one missed, and I pushed past Ivy to follow him into the townhome.

“Why didn’t you shoot him at the door?” Ivy practically snarled, ghosting past me with her vampiric speed.

“Kid gloves, Ivy!” I shouted as I got a glimpse of a cozy, well-appointed living room, a gas fireplace going before an overdone couch and chair. The TV was on to the news, which I thought was odd, but it was the thick, ratty book on the end table that kept my attention. The faint scent of burnt amber tickled my nose, but it wasn’t coming from the book Al wanted. It still had the black napkin in it to mark the curse that could bring Kisten back as a ghost.One down, one to go.

Ivy had pinned the kid against a wall of leather-bound books with her hand around his biceps. “Where’s the book to recover Kisten’s ghost?” she demanded as she hunched over him and showed her small, sharp fangs.

“Bad move, Tamwood,” the kid said—and then Ivy cried out as a purple and green haze shocked through her, shifting her aura into the visible spectrum for an agonizing instant.

Ivy fell to the floor, and suddenly I didn’t have a problem shooting him.

“That was a mistake,” I said as I pointed my splat gun at him and inched toward Ivy.

The kid looked nothing like a ten-year-old as he snickered, handswreathed with line energy while he backed away from Ivy. “I told Elyse you wouldn’t show at the office. Glad I drew the short straw.”

“If you have hurt Ivy, I will not be gentle,” I threatened. She was at my feet, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off him to see if she was okay.

“Good.” He squared up and beckoned me closer. “Show me what you got, demon girl.”

Demon girl?I thought, jerking clear when the kid threw an unfocused ball of energy.

I hit it with my own, and the two fizzed and popped until they spent themselves on each other. It had been a test throw, both to see my reaction time and to find out if I could sense how much energy he was packing. This was not ten-year-old behavior, coven apprentice or not.

“You and me. Right now,” he said, sounding like an old man despite his high voice.

“I got her, Rachel,” Bis whispered. “She’s okay.”

That was all I needed. “Now works for me,” I said, then threw a ball of raw energy to his right.

The kid predictably turned to get it, almost missing the real spell I threw at him. And I say almost, because he managed to catch it after deflecting the first, holding the second in his hands as if to take control of it.

“Voulden,”I intoned, giving the raw energy we both claimed direction. The spell was elven, and I was betting he didn’t know it.

Shock lit through him at the delayed invocation, and then the spell triggered, racing over him with little sparkles of my aura until they soaked in and shorted him out. Choking, the kid dropped, out cold before he even hit the floor.

“I don’t have time for you,” I said, angry as I spun. “Ivy?”

“She’s breathing.” Bis stood at her head, a craggy hand touching her forehead. “Her aura is fine. What did he hit her with?”

I glanced at the kid to make sure he was still out. “I think I know what this is,” I said as I put a hand to her as well and a tingling hint of the spell he used whispered through my thoughts. “Vivian tried it on me once.” Iexhaled and ran a light trace of ley line energy through both of us. Feeling it, Bis pulled his hand away. “There’s a reason Vivian and I argued without bringing the lines into it. Until she quit trying to impress me with her magic, she taught me oh so many good things,” I added, then focused on Ivy.“Corrumpo,”I whispered, letting only the faintest hint of the demon curse race through her.

It was one of Newt’s. I’d seen the insane demon take down one hell of a circle with it, and I figured it would break anything the coven would know. Sure enough, it did. I eased back on my heels when I felt the charm flake away and Ivy took a deeper breath. “Give her some space,” I warned as Ivy sat up in a quick spasm of motion.

A shudder raced through me at the utter blackness of her eyes, pupil dark until she realized where she was. “He shocked me, the little shit,” she said, fingertips pressed into her head.

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