Page 79 of Demon's Bluff
“Be silent!” Newt shouted, and we both jumped. “She can. I think she will. What does she owe you anyway? All you’ve given her is misfortune and distrust.”
“No,” I forced out through my clenched teeth. “Kisten dies. He dies on that boat. I saw it. I can’t change that. Elyse wins. You lose, Newt.” It hurt.I knew better, though. Newt wouldn’t offer unless it was possible, but something would intervene and I’d be bereft of everything. Demons were like a wish, and wishes always bit me on the ass in the end.
“As you say. But if you change your mind, come see me. That is, if you survive the next five minutes.”
My head snapped up. “Survive what?” I said, then followed her gaze to the door.
It was Scott, a crow on his shoulder. The bird saw Elyse and began bobbing his head. It was her familiar.Son of a troll turd’s moss wipe.He tracked Elyse down through her familiar.
“Rachel is right,” Newt said casually. “You have far too much to learn to survive a night alone in the Hollows. What are your other names, Elyse?”
Newt moved liquidly fast, snaking a thin arm around Elyse’s neck and yanking her close.
“Hey!” I shouted as Elyse shrieked. “Hands off!”
Newt’s eyes glinted behind her glasses, knocked askew by Elyse’s struggles. “Don’t ruin my new view of you, Rachel,” she said as I tapped a line and energy roared in. “Us girls have to stick together,” she whispered into Elyse’s ear. “You can’t help it if you are ignorant, unless you fail to learn when given the opportunity.”
“She is not for sale!” I shouted, angry at my own naivety. I had trusted Newt to play by the rules, and Elyse was going to pay the cost.Not happening,I thought, ready to rip the bar apart to keep Elyse this side of the lines.
“Lucky for you I just found someone better,” Newt whispered as she shoved Elyse out of the booth and onto the floor. “Be smarter,” she added as she stood up and stepped over her, an odd glow with gold flickering with black sparks at Newt’s hands.
Elyse rolled under the nearest table, her bruised wrist held tight to her chest. Her synapses were burned. She couldn’t tap a line, helpless.
But she’s free,I thought, wondering. “You let her go? You agree she is not for sale?” I said, and Newt stood amid the tables, her robes misting into existence as everyone scattered, stampeding to the doors at the sudden scent of burnt amber.
“No,” she said as I felt her tap into a ley line. She ran a hand over her hair, and it vanished. “I don’t want her now.Heknows more.”
I tensed as I realized she was looking at Scott.Aw, for ever-loving pixy piss…
Teeth clenched, I yanked on the ley line, understanding why Newt was bald half the time as my hair sparked and haloed. “Everyone down!” I shouted, and then,“Corrumpo!”
A pulse of air slammed into the four walls and ceiling, knocking everyone standing to the floor. From the ceiling, an ominous crack sounded, and dust sifted from the old beams.Oh, no. Not again,I thought as Newt got to her feet, her black eyes wrathful. I hadn’t attacked her directly, which was probably why she was staring at me instead of slinging spells.
“Run!” I shouted at Scott, waving violently at him. “Get out of here!”
“Implicare!”Newt exclaimed, and Scott backpedaled, his aura fizzing as he failed to evade the black field settling over him. Newt made a fist, and it tightened. Gasping, the coven member dropped, a hand to his chest.
“Honna tara surrundus!”I countered, throwing the break spell at Scott, not Newt. It was elven, but it worked, and the man got in a gasp of air.
“Hinc et inde,”the man croaked to join his will to mine, and Newt shrieked in anger as our combined strength broke hers and the curse fractured.
“Who the hell are you?” Scott got to his feet, white-faced as Newt shoved a table out of the way to make more room. “A demon summoner?” he added, and then his gaze flicked behind me as Elyse scuffed to a halt at my shoulder. “You can’t be Elyse. I just talked to her.”
That bird of hers was on her shoulder, bobbing and cawing. That, I decided, was how he had found us, and I frowned as she put up a hand to soothe him.
“YouareElyse. You traffic with demons?” Scott added, and Elyse’s soft words to her bird faltered. “That’s the only way you could have gotten here this fast. What have you done?”
Elyse sidled closer. “There goes my career. Thanks a hell of a lot, Rachel.”
“It’s not over yet.” I fingered the forget potion in my pocket. I wasgoing to need two, and I flicked a glance at my shoulder bag. “Think you can distract him for a second?”
“Are you serious?”
“Would you rather fight Newt?” I said, yanking her closer as Newt made another play for the man and Scott snapped a protection circle about himself. Exuberant, Newt stomped forward to hammer on it in delight.
“She’ll never break Scott’s circle. We need to get out of here,” Elyse said.
But I knew Newt would, and I yanked my bag from the bench seat, digging through it to find another forget charm. The two vials felt small as I turned to Newt pushing a fist into Scott’s circle, plumes of energy rising from her hand like solar flares, black and gold and Scott’s own purple and red. The strip club had emptied, but someone would have called the I.S. We had to be done by the time they arrived.