I just wished my stomach didn’t hurt at the thought.
I pulled the front door closed, then jumped at the sudden loud bang from inside the house. I slowly opened the door again. “That came from the library,” I said. I started to say that it was probably another book falling off a shelf, but an odd ripple of the arcane brushed me, sending a wave of goose bumps crawling along the back of my neck and reminding me unpleasantly of the encounter in the restaurant. I glanced back at Ryan, not surprised to see his gun in his hand. “You felt that?” I asked.
He nodded, brows lowered and gaze on the hallway. I looked back at Jill, with the intent to tell her to stay on the porch, but was shocked to see that she had her gun in her hand too and an utterly calm expression on her face.
“You felt it?”
She gave a small shake of her head. “No,” she whispered. “But I got your back anyway.”
I couldn’t help but grin, even as another bang sounded, this time accompanied by a harsh clatter and the sound of several objects striking the floor. I gave myself a mental smack. My gun was in my car, in the garage. I hadn’t expected to need it inside Tessa’s house. And the only way into the garage was either through the house—down the hallway that ran past the library—or with the garage-door opener. Which was in the car.
I scanned the hallway in search of anything that could be used as a weapon, but the only possible candidate was a flowered umbrella in the corner by the door. No way. But maybe I did have a weapon. I had the ability to shape arcane energy, right? And I’d once seen Rhyzkahl use potency as a weapon. Of course, that was in a dream, but dreams of Rhyzkahl had strong ties to reality. It was at least worth a try.
I took a deep breath and focused on pulling potency to me, concentrating, visualizing it flowing into my control. I cupped my hands before me, sensing scattered energies slowly coalescing, becoming visible as a quivering blue glow in my othersight.
Holy shit. I was doing it. I was controlling arcane power. I felt a triumphant laugh bubbling up.
Then the arcane glow sputtered out. I frowned at my cupped hands, my triumphant laugh dying out as thoroughly as the power.
“Um, Kara?” Ryan said. “What was that?”
Feeling like an idiot, I sighed and dropped my hands, then stepped over to the corner and hoisted the umbrella. “Let’s just say that I’m not going to be flinging arcane fireballs at anyone.”
I could see the deep amusement in his eyes, but thankfully he didn’t laugh outright. Good thing too, because I had an umbrella covered in giant pink flowers in my hand, and I wasn’t afraid to use it.
“You two are seriously weird,” Jill murmured.
“And yet you choose to hang out with us,” I countered, starting down the hall, holding the stupid umbrella like a sword. Ryan fell in beside me, covering the area with the mundane protection of his gun, while Jill hung back and covered our collective rears.
I cautiously peeked around the door to the library in time to catch a movement that was almost too fast to follow with human vision. Something small and rat-size zinged across the room from one shelf to behind a book on the opposite shelf. In fact, I probably would have suspected that it was a bird or squirrel, except for the fact that I could clearly see—even without shifting into othersight—a trail like arcane dust in the thing’s wake.
“I don’t think your gun’s going to be much good,” I said softly as I stepped inside the library, trying to track where the creature had gone.
“Yes, your umbrella will protect us all,” Ryan replied tartly, not holstering his gun. “What the hell is it? All I saw was a streak of light.”
“Dunno.” Maybe the umbrella would be more useful opened? Then I could use it as a shield. A very thin, wobbly shield. “I don’t know if it’s dangerous either, but it’s definitely something arcane.”
The thing came whizzing out from behind the book, straight at me. I yelped and swiped at it with the umbrella, missing it thoroughly and feeling like I was back in fifth grade softball. I’d sucked at sports back then, and I hadn’t improved in the intervening years. I got a better look at it this time, though, and caught a flash of teeth and wings in a tiny humanoid form. Like Tinker Bell on crack. But Tinker Bell never had such sharp teeth and sure as shit didn’t have a stinger coming out of her ass.
I heard the whiz of wings again and jammed the button on the handle of the umbrella, snapping it open just in time for the creature to glance off. It wobbled away, letting out a thin shriek that was high enough to be barely audible.
“Holy shit,” Jill breathed.
“Jill, stay back,” I warned. “I have no idea what this is or what it can do.” Or how it got in here, for that matter.
She made a grumbling noise but obligingly stepped back. I shifted fully into othersight, hoping to find where the little bugger had gone to, but I shifted right back out, scowling blackly. There was so much arcane energy scattered about the room from all the books and scrolls, it was like putting on night-vision goggles in broad daylight.
A nearly sub-audible thrum warned me in time to duck under the umbrella as it dove at me. I had a much clearer vision of a stinger aimed for me, but I didn’t even have a chance to swipe at it this time. I was far more concerned with not getting stung. I heard Ryan give a shout as he threw himself backward, into the hall.
I couldn’t let whatever it was escape out into the real world. It was obviously arcane, but I didn’t know if it was something native to this sphere or something that had been brought through from another. But I had a strong enough feeling that it was dangerous.
“You two guard the door!” I shouted. “Don’t let it out of the room.”
“Guard it with what?” Ryan shouted back. “My charming personality?”
“No, I don’t want to kill it just yet!”
Jill appeared in the doorway with an umbrella in each hand, holding them like a samurai with a pair of katana. She thrust one at Ryan. “Here, I found them in the hall closet. It’s been working for Kara.”
Ryan jammed his gun into his holster, muttering something that sounded vile as he took the umbrella. “Oh, sure. Give me the one with the purple ducks on it.”
Jill merely smiled and crouched, opening the umbrella. Hers was orange and yellow with a giraffe head on it. “You go high, I’ll cover low.”
Ryan opened his umbrella. “What are you going to do, Kara?”
“I need to trap this thing!”
“Fuck,” he growled. “And I suppose you have to be in there with it?”
Yes. Out there would have been preferable, but that wasn’t really an option. I quickly shoved a pile of books off the table, cringing as they landed in ugly heaps with the sound of tearing paper. I grabbed a pen off the floor and inscribed a quick and crude circle into the surface of the wooden table, still holding the umbrella over me. Tessa would be livid at the damage to her table, but I didn’t give a shit at this point. I’d refinish the damn thing later. I stepped back and began to slowly pull power again, but this time into the circle. I was going to try a dismissal, but since I didn’t have the faintest clue as to what this creature was and didn’t know its name, the standard dismissal that I used for demons wasn’t going to work. Instead, I was going to open a generic portal and try to keep it small enough so the arcane creature would get sucked through and returned to wherever it came from, but nothing else would.
There were only two things that could screw this up. First, if the thing was actually a resident of this sphere, I’d be spending arcane energy to make a portal for no reason at all. Second, if the thing had been summoned by another and was somehow bound to this sphere, I would need to do a far more specific dismissal.
I kept my attention divided as carefully as I could while I created my mini-portal, fighting to keep the power under control as it began to form and also paying attention to the shelf where I’d last seen the creature go. I’d never tried to create a portal of a specific size before, so I was going strictly on barely remembered th
eory. It also didn’t help that it was hard as shit to draw power when it was daytime during a waning moon. But I didn’t need a lot for what I was hoping to make.
Pain suddenly seared the middle of my back, and my control of the forming portal faltered badly as fatigue slammed into me. I fell to my knees and scrabbled at my back as I mentally grabbed for the portal. My fingers closed on something that wiggled and clawed alarmingly, sending a deep shock through me. A third way for this to fail: There’s more than one creature!
I’d maintained my hold on the portal though, which had widened to a bright slit in the universe a few inches wide. I chucked the squiggling thing in my hand at the portal, grimly pleased when it was drawn in with a sharp pop, like a roach into a vacuum. I could hear Ryan shouting something to Jill, but I couldn’t spare the focus to make it out. The pain had spiraled up, and the strange fatigue had increased to the point where it was taking everything I had just to maintain the portal. I heard a high-pitched whine from the shelf that I’d been watching, and then the other one shot out from behind the book. It grabbed on to the heavy chandelier, wrapping claws around a dangling crystal and resisting the pull of the portal as it bared its teeth at me. I knew that all I had to do was swat at it and it would fall into the vortex, but the pain in my back had increased to breath-stealing proportions, and even the thought of standing made my eyes water with the agony.
“Come here, ya little fucker!” I heard Jill cry out. I watched through pain-slitted eyes as she bounded into the room with a garbage bag in one hand and a pair of tongs in the other. Her lips pulled back from her teeth in a fierce grin as she snapped the creature up into her tongs and yanked it off the chandelier, crystal and all, then stuffed everything into the bag.
“What now?” she shouted over the strange whine of the vortex.
“Into the portal,” Ryan and I shouted at the same time. Or, rather, Ryan shouted and I wheezed. Jill wound up and winged it right at the slit in a beautiful underhand throw that would have made any fast-pitch softball player proud. I had a split second of panic that it would be too large to go in with the garbage bag and tongs—then it shifted and disappeared.
“Kara, close the portal down!”
I shuddered, then yanked the power free of the circle, sending it down to ground into the earth. The sudden quiet seemed deafening, broken only by our collective harsh breathing.
I tried to stand up and whimpered. Ryan snapped his head to look at me. “Ah, shit.”
The pain in my back was well on its way to excruciating now. He grabbed me and pushed me to lie facedown on the floor, ignoring my breathless scream at the motion.
“Jill, get hot water, a knife, and matches or a lighter,” Ryan commanded. “Also, any salt you can find.”
Jill dashed to the kitchen again. I couldn’t help but think that she was enjoying this introduction to the arcane far too much.
“Just stay still,” Ryan said, voice unnervingly calm as he pulled my shirt up. He didn’t have to tell me that, though. Moving hurt too much, and the pain was spreading.
“How bad is it?” I managed to get out between clenched teeth.
“Bad enough,” he replied honestly. I was grateful for that, because if he’d told me that it wasn’t bad I wouldn’t have believed him.
“It’s not going to be easy, but I think I can get you through the worst of this,” he continued. Jill careened back into the room, holding the items out for Ryan.
He took the knife from her hand. “Okay, Kara, this is going to really fucking hurt.”
Maybe honesty wasn’t such a good thing, because he was right. I heard someone scream, then realized that it was me. My vision went dark and I fought it briefly, then decided that maybe going with my instincts to pass out was a good idea right now.
So I did.
Chapter 19
I WOKE UP TO THE SAME AMOUNT OF PAIN IN MY BACK, or so I thought at first. But after a couple of cautious breaths, I was forced to admit that it was nowhere near as excruciating as it had been before I passed out. Now it was merely on the level of hurts like shit.
I was lying facedown on my aunt’s bed, the yarn of her afghan tickling my nose. I shifted to get a tuft out of my nostril, grimacing at the dull spear of pain that accompanied the movement. I heard a chair scrape, then Ryan bent down, crouching beside the bed. Behind him I could see Zack leaning against the wall, his arms folded over his chest and his brows drawn down.
“How do you feel?” Ryan said, voice soft and thick.
“Like someone decided to shove an ice pick into the small of my back. Otherwise, peachy.” I moved carefully, relieved when I was able to roll onto my side without the pain becoming overwhelming. I gingerly reached to feel my back and discovered a wad of gauze and tape. There was a thick smell of garlic as well, so I had to assume that it had been used somehow in the treatment of the sting. Though I had no idea where they’d found garlic. Certainly not in Tessa’s pantry. I’d tossed out anything perishable some time ago.
“Okay, so what was that thing?” I looked at him, eyes narrowed. “You sure knew what to do with it.”
He glanced at Zack and a shadow passed over his face. He lifted a hand and scrubbed at his eyes, as if to brush the troubled expression away as well. “It … it’s like dreams I had,” Ryan said, looking back at me. “I mean, I sit here and rack my brains and I know—just know—that I’ve never in my life encountered anything like that.” His eyes were shadowed, green and gold like the middle of a forest on a summer day. The light from the window caught his face just right to make him look like a rugged statue with marbles for eyes. Then he sighed and shook his head, and the image was gone. “I did what felt right, then called Zack. He knew how to deal with the sting and brought some supplies over.” Zack gave a small nod of acknowledgment.
“And how did you know?” I challenged, looking at Zack.
“Dealt with something similar on a case several years back,” he replied. His expression was pleasant, but I got the distinct impression that he was not going to be forthcoming with any further information.
I was silent for nearly a full minute, then cautiously pushed up to a sitting position. My back throbbed, but it was already starting to fade to a manageable level. “How long was I out?”
“Two days.”
“What!” I straightened in shock, which sent a fresh throb of pain through my back. I groaned as Ryan smiled.
“Just kidding,” he said, eyes twinkling. “Two hours.”
I groaned again. Two hours was still pretty impressive.
“Jill went to get food,” Zack said. “There isn’t a damn thing to eat in this place except for some red beans that she turned her nose up at.”
I laughed weakly. “Yeah, she doesn’t think much of the instant stuff.” I carefully levered myself to stand, taking slow breaths until the wave of dizziness passed. “All right. So did we manage to get all of those things out of the library before I lost it?”
Ryan nodded, expression sobering. “Looks like it.”
“Then the next questions are: What were they, and how did they get in there?”
His face clouded again, then he gave a small shudder, as if throwing off a chill. “Zack said that they’re some sort of very nasty pest but … not from here.”
“From where?” I didn’t look at Zack. I wanted to see how much Ryan knew.
“From an alternate plane. The demon plane, I think. Like that dog.” Ryan’s frown deepened, and I could feel a chill walk over my skin. His eyes were shadowed pits as they lifted to mine. “Don’t ask me how I know this, Kara. I don’t know.”
There was so much I wanted to ask him. No, there was so much I wanted to shake out of him, like, Who the fuck are you?
“Okay,” I said instead. “So it didn’t kill me. That’s a good thing. Then I guess I need to figure out how it got into my aunt’s library.”
“That I think I can help you with. There’s a section of the library that feels really wacky.”
I rais
ed an eyebrow at him. “Wacky?”
Ryan laughed, only slightly forced. “Yeah, that’s a technical term.”
“How can you even tell in that library? There’s arcane crap everywhere!”
He thrust his hands into his pockets, smiling sheepishly. “Um, we kinda moved a bunch of stuff around while we made sure that all of those things were gone.”
“Ooooh, you are gonna be in so much trouble when my aunt comes back. For all we know she had a system in place.”
He made a sour noise. “Well, it’s a system of a big pile on the floor now. And there’s a place that looks wacky. Are you feeling well enough to take a look at it?”
I started to respond, but the banging of the front door caught my attention. I heard pounding footsteps, then Jill came careening around the doorway, bags of fast food in each hand. The intense and worried expression on her face cleared instantly at the sight of me standing.
“Well, it’s about time you got over your little mosquito bite,” she said, flouncing into the room and plopping the bags on the desk. She crossed her arms over her chest, eyeing me. I grinned and hugged her.
“Get off me, you crazy bitch,” she grumbled, but I could hear the relieved laugh in there as well. “Here—Ryan and Zack said you needed to eat. And I need to as well. I’ve been spending the last couple of hours perched in the damn disaster area your aunt called a library with a fucking fishing net, waiting for another one of those psycho pixie things to pop out, while Ryan and Zack moved books around and muttered to each other.”
I had to laugh at the mental image. “Okay, food first, then fun with fishing nets.”
TWO ALEVE AND a hamburger and fries later, I was ready to deal with my aunt’s library again. The ache in my back had settled to merely sore, and I managed to make my way down the hall with only one or two muttered invectives.
I brushed my hands over the library door frame. It felt odd without any wards on it. As I stepped in, I felt a crawl of sensation—not the usual beaded-curtain sensation of going through wards but more the feeling of approaching a source of wrongness. I now knew exactly what Ryan was talking about when he said “wacky.” There was a section of the floor in front of the bookcase on the east wall, an area almost two feet across, that was wrong. I forced myself to step closer, certain that I had to be stepping near a diagram or circle, because every sense I had was screaming at me that this was a portal.