Page 59 of Demon's Bluff
“Mmmm,” she finally said. “I could do this if I had a snow crystal. I’ll have to check Vivian’s things.”
Thinking she was baiting me, I ate another ribbon of dough. “That’s not a spell. It’s a curse,” I said, and Elyse beamed at me.
“As long as no one dies, it’s legal if you’re coven,” she said, and I took a slow, steadying breath. I was so tired of the hypocrisy.
I finished my coffee, lips set wryly at the last grainy dregs. My boots were unlaced, and I bent to tie them up. I had a busy day, and it would start with spelling her to sleep so she wouldn’t follow me and muck things up.
“So…” Elyse’s sneakers hit the floor and she pushed her rolling chair back a few feet. “I’m dying to know how you got the demon mark. I’ve heard rumors.”
My gaze went to the cabinet Al had thrown me into, and I felt myself warm. “I’d think you’d be more curious as to how I got rid of it.”
“I don’t care how you got rid of it. I want to hear what you got in exchange for it.”
I finished one boot and started on the other. “I got it because my boyfriend at the time didn’t read the fine print.”Which might account for him being overseas at the moment.I would have rather gone to Nick’s abandoned apartment last night, but I’d be taking Kisten there tonight, and I didn’t want to disturb anything.
Grief hit me, twice as potent as it was unexpected, and my fingers faltered on my laces. Crap on toast, he was going to die tonight, and here I was playing nanny to a coven member. I should have been in and out of here already.
But when I came up from my boots, Elyse was waiting for more, that little-girl look of hers on her face as she eyed me over her book.
“Oh, for the love of the Turn,” I muttered. “Piscary sent a demon to kill me because he didn’t like that Ivy thought I might be able to help her escape his hold on her. The demon caught up to me here, actually.” Again I glanced at the busted cabinet. The glass had been swept up, but they hadn’t bothered to get the wet-vac down here to pull the blood out of the flat, dirty carpet.
“That’s my blood,” I said, and Elyse lost some of the mocking lilt to her brow. “He busted my head against the cabinet there, then ripped open my wrist, all the while wearing the image of Ivy. Filled me with enough vampire spit to bind a cow.”
“Merlin’s mistletoe,” she said, and I blinked at the odd curse.
“He would have killed me, but Nick circled him.” I fiddled with my empty cup. “That broke the hold that Piscary had on him, and Nick made a new deal that rubbed out the one he’d made with Piscary. Ugly story short, the demon saved my life in the end by getting me back to my church, but I got a mark in exchange for it. So did Nick.”
Mood sour, I stared at nothing. Nick was alive at the moment. If it wouldn’t mess up the timeline, I wouldn’t mind fixing that.
“The second mark I got was Lee’s fault,” I said, waggling my foot at her. “He abducted me, took me to the ever-after to sell me to the very same demon. But I didn’t fight back and Lee looked like the more powerful magic user, so Al took him instead. You should have listened to me when I told you he was a dippy-doo.”
Elyse’s brow furrowed. “Wait. Al?” she questioned. “You’re telling me the same demon who tried to kill you is now yourteacher?”
“More or less, emphasis on less.” Because as much help as he gave me in getting here, he felt more like a mentor. There was a difference. Teachers give you information and teach you how to use it. Mentors are simply two steps ahead of you, able to lift you up or bring you down by what they share. Avoiding her, I began going through my bag to make two piles: one to take while talking to Newt, one to leave here to pick up later. I wasn’t going to risk bringing anything I couldn’t replace.Like the book that got me here,I thought as I set it aside—then looked at Elyse with mistrust.
“Mmmm.” Elyse scooted closer, her finger marking her spot in her closed book. “How did you get rid of them?”
Empty splat gun…stays,I thought, setting it on the book. Newt would only be insulted. “I thought you didn’t care.”
“Just curious.”
Elyse was silent as I put a stick of magnetic chalk on the “take” pile. “Hey, um, can you snap a picture of this for me?” she asked.
She was holding out the book to that blood-freezing curse, and I gave her a look. “I’m not going to put an illicit curse on my phone for you to call me a dark practitioner with.”
A hurt expression drew her childlike face in. “That wasn’t my intention. My phone didn’t make the trip.”
She set the book on the table with a thump, frowning when I ignored it. “What are you doing?” she asked as I fingered my new transposition charm. If I left it here, anyone might find it, but if I took it with me, Newt might say I stole it, seeing as it was hers, or had been, or whatever. Grimacing, I reluctantly put the stone next to my splat gun, trusting the ancientbook locker to keep it safe. Elyse might take it, but she was going nappies before I left.
“Prepping to trick a crazy demon into giving me something for nothing,” I said, remembering she’d asked me a question. Maybe I could stop at the coffee shop on the way. Demons would give a lot for a cup of sweet coffee untainted by the stink of burnt amber.Actually, that’s not a bad idea…
Elyse glanced at the two piles, her lower lip between her teeth. “I saw half a dozen good spells you could use.”
“Newt has better ones.” My fingertips touched my pocket with the snapped stirring rod. The necessity to keep it safe warred with the need to keep it with me, and I left it where it was.Memory charms—take. Zip-strip snipper…definitely.
“Not for trading, for fighting,” she said with a grin. “I for one wouldn’t mind stopping at a spell shop first.”
Crap on toast, she thinks she’s coming?I scowled at her. “You can’t fight a demon. Ever. You get them curious enough not to drag you away immediately, then stall for time, wedging in what you really want amid your teasers.”