I continued to slow. “Nope. State police have all blue lights. We have red and blue, as does the sheriff’s office. Shit.” I wiped my hands on my jeans. There was no reason for them to want to look in the back of the truck, but there was also no way to warn Kehlirik to remain quiet and still. This U-Haul didn’t have a window between the cab and the truck. I was just going to have to hope that Kehlirik would wait until I opened the back door to emerge. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if he came out in the middle of about a dozen state troopers.
A wicked grin crossed Ryan’s face. “I dare ya to sic the demon on them.”
I tried not to laugh, but I wasn’t very successful. “Stop that.”
“I double-dog-dare you. I’d love to see them scatter, screaming like little girls.”
“Shut up! I knew it was a mistake to bring you along,” I said, thwacking him on the arm. But the mental image was there, and I couldn’t help but snicker. “Okay, that would be pretty damn funny.” I glanced at him, matching his grin with one of my own and allowing myself to enjoy the brief moment of shared silliness. Then I forced my face into an overly serious expression. “Now, behave yourself,” I ordered, as I slowed to a crawl and joined the short queue of cars going through the checkpoint.
“Yes, ma’am!” he replied, drawing such a dour and stern face that I almost burst out laughing again.
“Why do I put up with you?” I asked in mock despair.
He sighed tragically. “You’re obviously madly in love with me.”
I let out a snort of amusement, even as a silly thrill ran through me. “And you’re obviously on drugs!”
Then we were at the roadblock and I had to school my expression into a less giddy one. I didn’t recognize the trooper who waved me to a stop, but I didn’t have much cause to deal with troopers either. The road we were on was a state highway, which made it the troop’s jurisdiction, though usually the only time anyone gave a crap about that was when there was an accident and we had to decide who would write the report.
“License, registration, proof of insurance,” he recited, tilting his head back to look up at me, which I could tell bugged the crap out of him. I’d worked plenty of checkpoints, and I knew that I liked to be able to see into the person’s car and smell their breath.
I gave him a friendly smile and handed him the rental paperwork, then pulled my license out of my wallet, positioning it to be sure that he caught sight of my badge. I expected him to say something about that, but he didn’t, which only made me more nervous. Not that I was a staunch believer in “badging” one’s way out of tickets or DWIs, but this was one time when it would be seriously nice to just be waved on through. I kept my ears trained on the back of the truck while the trooper looked over my paperwork. Ahead of the truck and to the right, I could see another trooper administering a field sobriety test to a dark-haired young man beside a yellow Mustang. My lips twitched as I watched the man stagger and nearly fall on his face during the walk-and-turn. Yeah, he’d be taking a ride in the back of a car real soon.
I returned my attention to the trooper as he lifted his eyes from the paperwork. He glanced over the truck, mouth drawing down in a slight frown. “Why are you driving a rental truck at midnight?”
I shrugged and smiled. “I worked late today, and this was the only chance I had to get over to my aunt’s house to clean some of the crap out of there.”
The frown stayed on his face. “Have you been drinking tonight?”
“No, I’ve been working a case.”
I heard the sound of claws on metal from within the truck, and it took every ounce of control I had to keep from reacting. I had a brief frisson of hope that it hadn’t been all that loud, that I was aware of it only because I’d been listening for a sound, but I wasn’t that lucky. The trooper’s gaze snapped toward the back, and his frown deepened. “What’s in the truck?”
I gave a sigh. “I think one of my boxes fell over. Look, I’m not trying to be a pain, but I don’t want to be up all night moving this stuff.”
His eyes narrowed. “Do you mind if I take a look?”
I could feel Ryan tense beside me. For all of his joking, I knew that he was aware of how disastrous it would be if anyone caught sight of the demon, and I was suddenly thrilled that I was a cop. Not because I was able to badge my way out of situations—which obviously wasn’t going to work here—but because I knew my rights.
I kept my tone even and polite as I met the trooper’s eyes. “I don’t think there’s any need for you to look in the truck. I really don’t have time for that, and unless you have probable cause”—I stressed the two words very lightly—“to believe that I’m involved in something illegal, I’d appreciate it if you could let me get on my way.” Because this was what too many people didn’t realize: Just because an officer asks to look in your vehicle doesn’t mean you have to say yes.
His expression hardened, but I could tell that he knew he was stuck. He could still make my life difficult by asking me to take a field sobriety test or finding other ways to delay me. It was even possible that he would call for a drug dog to come out to the scene—and I didn’t want to think about what the dog’s reaction would be. But to my intense relief, he handed the paperwork back without a nod or smile. “Have a nice night.”
I could tell he didn’t mean it.
I took the paperwork and my license, keeping the smile plastered on my face. “Thanks. You too!”
I didn’t mean it either.
He stepped back and I eased the truck forward, my pulse finally slowing to normal once we were past the roadblock.
“Well, he was a tight-ass,” Ryan said, as if remarking about the weather.
I laughed. “He definitely would have screamed like a little girl at the sight of a demon.”
The rest of the drive was blessedly uneventful, and it was with deep relief that I made it to Tessa’s house. I backed into her driveway, as close to the garage as I could get and still be able to open it. I shut the truck off and hit the remote for the garage door, then hopped out, moved to the rear. I tugged the back door of the truck up.
Kehlirik crouched in the center of the truck, holding on to the straps that I’d provided for him. He peered at me as I opened the door. “Did you have any problems in here?” I asked him.
He blew his breath out in a snort. I’d never seen a reyza smile, but the expression on his face was one that I could have sworn was delight. “A unique experience. I am appreciative of the opportunity.”
I had to bite back the laugh. I didn’t want to offend him, so I kept my expression sober and merely inclined my head in acknowledgment. “I am pleased that it suited you.” I stepped aside and gestured into the garage. “If you would follow me, honored one?”
He released the straps and made a graceful leap into the garage. He apparently understood the need for secrecy. Which was good, because the last thing I needed was a neighbor seeing a ginormous winged beast going into my aunt’s house.
“C’mon, Fed Boy,” I said to Ryan as he climbed down from the truck. “Get your ass inside so I can close the door.”
He shut the door of the U-Haul and quickly moved inside the garage, while I punched the inside button to shut the garage door. As soon as it was closed, I flipped on the lights and led the way into the house, with the demon following.
Even though Tessa’s house was more than one hundred years old and in the tourist section of town, it was clear—to me, at least—that she was accustomed to having visitors of the demonic variety. The most telling feature was the broad staircase that led to the attic. At least twice as wide as normal and sturdily built, those stairs had been designed to make it easier for the demons she summoned in her attic to come down to her library. In fact, after I got the library wards cleared, I needed to get into that summoning chamber. Those wards didn’t appear to be quite as nasty, however, after my experience with the library wards, I wasn’t quite ready to take the chance.
I adored my own summoning chamber, but I wanted to have the option to use hers. After all, it had cost me close to a hundred dollars to rent the truck for one night, which only added to my annoyance. I was a cop. I wasn’t rich.
I entered the hallway, stopping a few yards away from the door to the library. I looked back at Kehlirik and gestured to the door. “I need to get into that room and have free access to everything within. I also need the wards restricting access to the summoning chamber in the attic cleared. Can you do that?”
Kehlirik narrowed his eyes as he moved slowly closer. He crouched, his gaze traveling over the frame, the door, and even the wall. I knew what he was looking at. To anyone without skill in the arcane, it was just a pretty white door set in a wall that was papered in an elegant flowered design in muted tones of rose and gold. However, to anyone with any skill in the arcane, the door and wall crackled and hissed with power, crawling with blue and purple wards that writhed and coiled malevolently. I grimaced. It hadn’t been so bad before I’d started dinking with the damn protections. Apparently I’d unwittingly triggered something nasty earlier, and now it looked like the level of protection had quintupled—like cutting off one head of a hydra.
Ryan let out a low whistle. “It looks worse now.”
The reyza pulled his attention away from the sinister energies to peer at me. “You have attempted to get through.”
It wasn’t a question, and I twitched a shoulder self-consciously. “Yes. Quite unsuccessfully, as you can see.”
“And you survived.” His nostrils flared. “I am surprised.”
My gut tightened. “It was … close.” I said, my mouth a bit dry at the memory. “I really didn’t think my aunt would put something so lethal in place.”
“She did not,” he replied, returning his focus to the door. Hands on knees, wings tucked along his back, he fell silent again.
My gaze traveled over the roiling potencies on the door. “Then who did?”
The reyza rumbled softly deep in his chest before speaking. “She summoned another to do so. This looks like Zhergalet’s work. He is merely a faas, but his skill with wards is unique and admired.”
“Oh, so my aunt subcontracted her alarm system,” I said with a relieved laugh. Kehlirik turned his head and blinked at me. “Sorry. I thought she’d done all of this work herself, and I was feeling pretty inadequate since I couldn’t even dream of doing anything this intricate. But now that I know she summoned someone to do it for her, I don’t feel so bad.”
Kehlirik looked back at the door, then stood, shifting his wings on his back and folding his arms across his chest. “It is an impressive piece of work. There is an underlayer of protections here that seems to be fairly standard. It would prevent the average human from entering and would prevent most from even recognizing that the door exists. Aversions,” he gestured with a clawed hand to a coil of purple energy, “to make one reluctant to be here.” But then he shook his head. “But those have been in place for years. Zhergalet placed deep protections on this door recently—perhaps three turnings of this world’s moon.”
Something my aunt had been working on three months ago? Then I went still. That was about the time that the Symbol Man murders had started again. Right about the time that I first encountered Rhyzkahl. Could that be why she wanted to close her library off? To keep me out? Or to keep out Rhyzkahl? Surely she trusted me more than that. I felt hollow but also incredibly confused. The wards in place were extreme and deadly. Why the fuck had she become so protective of this room three months ago?
I scrubbed at my face, disturbed on innumerable levels. “All right, can you get in?”
He was silent for several heartbeats, then gave a grave nod. “It will not be swift. It will take me until tomorrow night.” Then his gaze locked on mine, and his lips curled back from his wickedly sharp teeth. “Usually I would request renegotiation of terms or demand an admission of debt, but as you are the favored one of Rhyzkahl, I will grant this service as my gift to you.”
I quickly controlled the shocked expression that was surely on my face and produced a weak smile instead, thinking furiously. I didn’t know which lord Kehlirik served. I assumed he served one, since that was one of the best and easiest ways for demons to gain status—to serve a high-standing lord. And from what I knew of the demon realm, and from what my aunt had told me, Rhyzkahl was one of the highest of the lot.
But did Kehlirik serve Rhyzkahl, or was he trying to curry favor with him? Either way, I had no idea how risky it could be to accept such a gift. Few things were truly gifts among the demonkind. On the other hand, refusing a gift could definitely be construed as a major insult.
Shit. I needed that library available to me. I looked back at the reyza. “Honored Kehlirik, your gift is precious to me, and it will not be forgotten.” He inclined his head gravely as I controlled the urge to sigh. I had no idea if I’d just screwed up colossally by accepting it, but rejecting it seemed like a quick ticket to an insulted retaliation.
Whatever. I didn’t feel like worrying about it at that moment. I had plenty to worry about already. And normally I would have loved to stay and watch the demon work and perhaps learn some new techniques and skills, but, despite my earlier nap, fatigue dragged at me. Summonings of reyza were exhausting affairs. “Kehlirik, do you need me to stay here with you while you work?”
The demon shook his head, already beginning to tease layers of arcane energy apart. “No, summoner. But you will need to adjust the anchors holding me in this realm to permit me to stay through the day.”