Vengeance of the Demon: Demon Novels, Book Seven (Kara Gillian 7) (13 page)

Sehkeril. One of Kadir’s reyza. That clinched it. “Whose side are you on?”

For the first time, Pellini looked truly flummoxed. “Side?”

“Your Mr. Sparkly is—” I was reluctant to say “enemy” because I didn’t think that was a correct definition of Kadir’s role in all of this crap, “—not an ally of ours. And there are other arcane practitioners who will do, and have done, horrific things to further their cause. The murder victim in the eighteen wheeler? That’s the level of stakes we’re dealing with.”

“I don’t know anything about ‘sides,’” he said. “There’s nothing going on with me and the demons and Mr. Sparkly now. He cut me off twenty years ago.” Anger flashed across his face combined with a shimmer of loss. “Nothing,” he repeated, voice strained.

“Why did he cut you off?” I asked. “What happened?”

Pellini spread his hands. “Dunno,” he said. “After he returned, every third full moon he’d take me to the between-space. This went on for seven years, but that last day he was late, and when he showed up I could hardly see him. He didn’t explain, just reached out and—” He swallowed and rubbed the center of his chest. “I don’t know what he did, but it felt as if he ripped my heart out.” His voice dropped, turned hollow. “He said, ‘hide,’ then vanished. After that, everything fell apart.”

Idris marched off the porch and back onto the nexus. I didn’t know what he was up to now, but at least he wasn’t glaring holes through Pellini anymore. I suspected Kadir had extracted an arcane implant from Pellini when he told him to hide. Whatever the purpose of the implant, I could only suppose that it would have drawn unwanted attention to Pellini.

“Who were you hiding from?” I asked.

“No idea,” he said. “He never told me about enemies.”

My brow furrowed. “And you haven’t seen him for twenty years?”

“That’s right. I kept to myself. He told me to hide, and who the hell would I talk to about that shit anyway?” He paused. “Then you came along with your little marks.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

He took a deep breath. “I didn’t know what I was hiding from. Or who.” He picked at a pulled thread on his trousers. “But then shit got intense and, well, here I am.”

I remained silent while I considered everything. Why hide? What happened with Kadir twenty years ago? “You never asked Mr. Sparkly for his real name?”

“Of course I did,” Pellini replied. “He told me names have power and it was dangerous for me to know it.” He shrugged. “I was a kid. Not knowing his real name made the whole thing even cooler.”

I sat back and regarded him. It was, of course, possible this was all an elaborate scheme to plant him as a mole. But, if that was the case, it made no sense to freak us out by mentioning Kadir. Besides, I’d known Pellini for years. If he was a mole, he’d been put in place long before I finished my training as a summoner. Kadir had been grooming Pellini for a reason, but what? Regardless, Katashi and company would be more than happy to scoop him up and use him against us.

Pellini grabbed his beer and took a long swig. “Who the hell
are
y’all? And what kind of fucked up business ends up with a ritual rape and murder?”

“Idris and I are both summoners,” I said. “What that means is that we have the ability to open a portal between this world and the one where the demons and Mr. Sparkly and others like him reside.” My gaze went to Idris, and I lowered my voice. “His last name is Palatino.”

Comprehension dawned on Pellini’s face. “I’m not usually so slow on the uptake,” he muttered. “There aren’t that many guys named Idris hanging around. The murder victim was his sister, and you were looking for him because he’d gone missing.” He eyed me. “What was the deal with that?”

“He’s talented and powerful, and the faction we’re trying to stop kidnapped him because of that.” I took a deep breath. “The ritual murder of his sister was to enforce his cooperation and set an arcane trap for me.”

“Fuck,” Pellini breathed. “And he thinks I might be an enemy. No wonder he looks like he wants to skin me.”

“Even if you’re not an enemy,” I said, choosing my words with care, “you’re a potential threat. You have unusual skills, and you don’t know what the hell’s going on.”

Pellini threw his hands up in frustration. “I can’t
do
shit. Sure, you can’t move the energy the same way, but so what? Fat lot of good it does me. And maybe it’s best I don’t know who’s who in whatever this war is. I didn’t ask for any of it.”

“I stand corrected,” I snapped. “You’re a potential threat
and
a danger to yourself and others because you’re untrained, and you have no fucking clue. This
war
is heating up and isn’t going away.”

Anger flashed across his face, but before he could retort he jerked back in his chair as if grabbed by an unseen hand. His eyes went wide, and his face blanched paper-white.

He’s having a coronary!
I barely had time to form the thought before the same force grabbed me and pressed me down in my seat like a lump of iron above a giant magnet.
An attack?
On the other side of the table Bryce gripped the arms of his chair, breath hissing through his teeth. Idris stood on the nexus, unaffected.

Fury burned away my shock.
Idris
was doing this to us. It had to be an unplanned assessment of Pellini. I seethed as I forced myself to breathe through the pressure. He could’ve at least given Bryce and me some goddamn warning. Or, better yet, found a means that didn’t
suck
quite so hard. As arduous as it was for me, it was exponentially worse for Pellini since the ritual targeted him. Guilt swam through me as panic and agony contorted his face. No matter the intent for inviting him to my house, he was a guest. This was
so
not
how we did shit in the south. And what if this gave him a heart attack for real?
Oh, so sorry we KILLED you.

The pressure eased, only to be replaced by the unnerving sensation of being naked while fully clothed. Comprehension clicked into place. The naked sensation was the complete lack of the arcane. Idris had pulled it all away from Pellini in order to make a true evaluation of him. Bryce and I had the crappy luck to be caught in the area of effect. Didn’t change my level of pissed-off, but at least I knew what was happening.

It stopped as quickly as it had begun. Like a stretched rubber band returning to normal, the arcane snapped back into place. From the roof Eilahn let out a shriek of rage, dropped to land in a crouch by the porch then bounded to me, concern twisting her features.

“I’m okay,” I told her as soon as I caught my breath, then turned to where Pellini gasped like a stranded fish. “I’m sorry,” I said with deep chagrin. “I swear I didn’t know that was going to happen. Are you all right?”

He lifted a trembling hand to wipe sweat from his face, mouth pressed tight as if about to vomit. I subtly scooched my chair back a few inches. Just in case.

From the nexus, Idris cursed as he closed down his ritual, obviously not at all happy with whatever he’d learned. I forced down my residual anger at his methods. One way or another, we needed to know what Pellini’s deal was. The stakes were way too high to have an unknown player on the field, even if he insisted he wasn’t playing the game.

Bryce staggered to his feet and peered at Pellini with concern. “Breeeeathe,” he told him, resting a hand on his shoulder. Pellini inhaled noisily then blew out hard, but his next breath was more controlled. The grey cast left his face, and a hint of normal color crept in.

After a moment he lifted his head with obvious effort. “God damn,” he croaked.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated. “I didn’t know he was going to do that.”

Pellini managed to straighten. “Why . . . ?”

Idris bounded up the stairs. “Bryce, watch him,” he ordered with a jerk of his head toward Pellini. “Kara, with me.” He beckoned imperiously and moved to the far end of the porch.

Pellini scowled and tried to stand, but Bryce touched his arm and gave a slight head shake. “Probably best if you sit until you get your color back,” he said, tone mild. Pellini’s scowl deepened, but he settled back in the chair. Though he’d been around Bryce for less than an hour, he had enough cop-sense to recognize him as a man of action with skills honed by ugly experience.

I was dying to tell Idris what he could do with his imperious beckoning but since I really did want to know what he’d discovered I went ahead and followed him.

“I hope that stunt was worth it,” I said with a black scowl, though I kept my voice low.

“He’s marked by Kadir,” Idris replied matching my scowl and volume. “Head to foot. Inside and outside. Even with all potency stripped, he reeks of Kadir’s resonance.” Suspicion darkened his eyes. “I don’t know
what
he is, but I know he absolutely can’t be trusted.”

The declaration put my back up. “I agree that we don’t know what he is, arcanely,” I said, “But the not trusting him part doesn’t necessarily follow. He said ‘Mr. Sparkly’ came to him in his backyard, which leads me to believe it contains a valve.”

“And I intend to check that out,” Idris said. “However, right now this dude needs to be locked down.”

I counted to five in my head. “Yes, he’s a loose cannon and a
potential
threat,” I said. “He can stay here until we know more or can train him.”

Outrage flashed across Idris’s face. “
Train him?
That’s like loading a gun and passing it to the enemy!” He flicked his hand out as if brushing my comment aside. “You don’t know that he’s untrained.” He sneered. “You’re taking his
word
for it.”

My hand itched to smack the sneer off his face. “I’ve known the guy for a long time,” I countered hotly. “If he’s a mole he’s a damn good one. But, hey,” I continued, loading my voice with sarcasm, “maybe we should kill him to be on the safe side.”

“I didn’t say anything about killing him,” he shot back. “But I
do
say lock him down in the demon realm until he’s cleared. Neither of us knows what Kadir could pull off through him—even if he’s as innocent as he claims to be.”

“Right, because locking a potential threat down in the demon realm worked out so damn well when you and Mzatal did that to
me.
” Or had he forgotten that they had, in fact, fucking kidnapped me?
And
that it nearly ended in disaster when I escaped? “Sure, send him to the demon realm where he can be closer to Kadir. Great idea!”

A vein pulsed near his temple. “Yes, closer to Kadir, but away from people and places on Earth!” Tension held his shoulders stiff as he took a step toward me. “You don’t seem to get it. Kadir set him up to use him
here.
”

Lifting my chin, I held my ground and matched his anger with my own. “And Rhyzkahl set me up to use
me
,” I replied in a snarl. “You remember how close Mzatal came to killing me because of that?”

“I remember,” he said. “I also remember that, against all odds, he rescued you after he spared your life and you ran to Rhyzkahl.” His eyes went stone cold. “If he hadn’t pulled you from that ritual, the Mraztur would have turned you into Rowan, and everything would be fucked.”

I could only stare at him, gut punched by shock. “You . . . you think it would’ve been wiser for him to
kill
me?” I managed to reply, literally trembling. “You who were under the influence of the Mraztur for
months?
”

“I’ve been cleared,” he snapped. “And I didn’t say he should’ve killed you. I just want you to get what we’re dealing with and the potential damage that could come from the wrong decision.”

“I do get it, Idris,” and I managed to not add
you condescending fuck
to that. “Trust me, every time I look in the mirror and see the scars, I get it. But even so, I think it’s really shortsighted to lock up everyone we don’t understand or who might pose a threat. If you want to make more enemies, that’s the way to do it!”

“This is
not
simply someone we don’t understand!” He flung his arm in a harsh gesture toward Pellini. “Kadir has imprinted him.
Kadir.
One of the goddamn Mraztur.”

My eyes felt hot and gritty. “Your solution is to lock him down indefinitely all because he played in the wrong goddamn patch of sand when he was a kid.”

“Until he’s cleared,” Idris corrected, but I saw in his eyes that he knew it might not be possible to clear Kadir’s influence from Pellini—and wasn’t swayed by it. “And
if
his sandbox story is true,” he went on, “then no, it’s not his fault, and that sucks, but we can’t let a time bomb loose out of pity.”

“It’s not pity, it’s compassion,” I snapped.
Learn it
, asshole, I added silently. “
Maybe
we can gain an ally instead of guaranteeing we end up with an enemy.”

Bryce stalked over and pierced us both with a glare. “Pellini has more fucking sense than both of you put together,” he said, voice scathing.

“Excuse me?” I asked then realized with chagrin that Idris and I hadn’t kept our voices low.
Crap. Pellini heard all of that.

“He gets that he’s between a rock and a hard place.” Bryce’s glare didn’t let up one bit. “He also gets that the entire situation is dangerous and
he’s
a danger.” He snorted. “He was smart enough to figure we weren’t going to let him leave. All he’s worried about is his dog alone at his house. You two hot shots need to come to a compromise between damnation and ‘Fly! Be free!’”