Page 7 of The Wolfing Hour
“What you’re telling me is no one would miss you.”
“Hey, that’s not what I’m saying at all.” He sat up taller on the chair. “My cousin Horticulous would. He’s in Hell—for now. Our uncle doesn’t like him, either.”
I held up my index finger. “One last chance, Gnath. One. One chance and one favor, no conditions. No bargaining.”
My anger must’ve shown in my eyes, because he nodded. “I swear on Lucifer’s crown that I won’t return to this realm—unless summoned by my true name, because I can’t help that—and I will grant you two favors. Now will you put out that fire? It’s already singed off my toenails.”
The computer lit up behind him, and he eyed the monitor with real fear. “Please. I’m caught in the dead space between this world and Limbo. You have to release me,” he said. “I won’t hurt anybody. I just want to live.”
“Release you on this plane? Not on your miserable life.” I pulled a bundle of my home-grown and specially dried rosemary and a lighter from my back pocket. “But I will do one thing for you.”
“Probably not going to be something nice,” he grumbled.
A few months ago, I would’ve needed to chant a banishment spell and draw a tremendous amount of my energy and personal magic to power it. Now that I’d connected with my home soil, I needed only to say the words. The magic was already with me.
“Gnath, servant of iniquity, commander of the second brigade of malfeasance, demon of Highway 86, I banish you, body and spirit—to Hell.”
His body crumpled until it resembled a damp pile of laundry rather than a living being. A ball of green light burst out of his remains.
“When I call upon you, you’d better show up,” I said. “You owe me a favor.”
The demon's essence blinked twice—I took that as a yes—then shot into the computer screen. The monitor glowed digital green, and a stream of stench like thick, black smoke seeped out of the vents. Cecil and I coughed.
Fennel sneezed then broke the containment circle with a stroke of his tail so Gnath’s spirit could leave this plane.
The screen went dark.
“Goddess, he’s a pain in my ass,” I said between coughs. “A stinky pain.”
Cecil chittered something that sounded like agreement and yanked the plug out of the wall. Fennel sneezed again.
I stepped into the broken circle and bent over the discarded human form of the demon. It was already disintegrating. In another few seconds, there’d be nothing left of it.
The monitor screen lit up again, this time an empurpled shade of crimson.
“Who calls my name? I sense a child. A delicious child.” The voice was hundreds of tiny worms wriggling into my ears.
It wasn’t Gnath. Not only did he not sound anything like this, I’d banished him to Hell, which was where he wanted to be. Sure, his uncle could cast him right back out again, but I didn’t think so. Gnath wasn’t the sort of demon you kept watch over. He was more of a fly you swatted when it started buzzing around the potato salad at the picnic.
“Chiiild.”
“Fennel, Cecil, fix the circle—now.” I took more soil from my jeans pocket and dusted my bare arms. It sizzled below the surface of my skin and into my bloodstream. Magic crackled in the air.
The creature pushed its, for lack of a better word,facethrough the screen as if the display were liquid. I couldn’t tell the gender, and perhaps it didn’t possess one. If Ihadto gender it, I’d have said it was female, but it could just as easily have been male. Gender was complex and multifaceted in the human world, but it was a veritable kaleidoscope of intricacies for otherworlder denizens, particularly demons.
Fennel fixed the salt circle, and I took a moment to redo the spell. It didn’t take long, only a few more ear worms.Ick.
“Come to me, chiiild.” The voice went sing-song and yet remained wriggly and slick in my ear.
“Who are you?” I wanted to pump my fingers in and out of my ears the way I did after a swim. It was as if the sound of the creature’s voice was leaving an oily residue in my auditory canal.
“I am the one who was summoned.” The head, one shoulder, and two arms punched through the screen. The arms were hairy and tapered to a single sharp claw that clicked against the glossy desktop as it fought for purchase.
“No one summoned you. Go back where you came from.”
“The child summoned me.”She smiled, her teeth as white as a grain of rice.“By name.”
Her other shoulder popped free, and she slid out of the monitor with a wet squelch. It was disturbingly reminiscent of a human birth. Blood splashed my face. It covered my boots, soaked into my jeans and spattered my T-shirt. Hers or someone else’s?
