"How sticky a wicket is it?" I asked as Esme ushered Alis into the room, shushing her and whispering in her ear.
"Well..."
I sighed. I didn"t have time or the energy to cope with much more. "Let me put it to you this way-do you know if it"s possible to defeat a demon lord?"
She nodded. "You can defeat anything, if you go about it properly."
Well, that was hopeful. Kind of.
"Okay, next question: Do you know how to defeat a demon lord?"
She shook her head.
"Do you know someone who does?"
She shook her head again.
I started to get a bit desperate. I knew that because I had the overwhelming urge to giggle. I must have been more tired than I thought, because a couple of giggles slipped out as I asked, "Have you ever heard of anyone defeating a demon lord?"
She smiled as my giggling grew stronger. "No, I haven"t."
I gave it up and just sat back in the chair and howled, wiping tears from my already damp face as I laughed the laugh of the mentally and physically exhausted. Esme hovered with a worried look on her face, Honoria snickered, Jem demonstrated his prowess by wrestling a chair to the ground, Alis (restrained by Esme"s warning) honed her ancient-crone glare until it could split stone, and Antonio seated himself on the arm of Noelle"s chair and proceeded to ask very personal questions about her preferences in men. By the time he got to whether or not her s.e.xual partners had to be technically alive, I had managed to gather the few wits remaining to me and arranged them in a formation where I could think again.
Esme had detached herself from Honoria long enough to pat me on my right shoulder. "Overtired, poor child."
My arm went numb.
"Perhaps you"d better tell me everything from the beginning," Noelle said, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees despite the fact that Antonio was not very subtly peering down her blouse.
I thought about the strength I"d need to tell her everything, decided on an abbreviated version, and quickly hit the high points of the last few days, intimacies with Christian excluded.
She chewed on a fingernail. "Hmm. Very sticky. This triumvirate you mentioned is clearly being fed by Asmodeus. That might work to your benefit."
I rubbed my aching forehead and tried to follow her thoughts. "You mean that feeding them would weaken him? I can see that, but what good is a weakened Asmodeus going to do me when I have the triumvirate breathing down my neck? I barely managed to get Sebastian out without bringing the house down around our ears, and that, I"m positive, is only because Christian was distracting Asmodeus enough that he couldn"t throw his power into the triumvirate."
She sat back, apologizing as her arm slid through Antonio"s thigh. "Asmodeus is by far the more powerful of the two ent.i.ties."
I nodded. "Right. So it makes sense to take him out first. I understand that, but the triumvirate-"
"Is made up of humans."
That stopped me cold. I looked at it, prodded it, and decided it was good. Then I realized what her meaning really was, and the little bit of common sense that had remained with me tossed up its hands in despair, packed an overnight case, and headed off on a long, long vacation. "You mean I call up a demon to take care of the triumvirate?"
She nodded.
"Oh, my!" Esme"s eyes were round with worry. She scooped up Mr. Woogums and hugged him and Honoria against her ample breast. "Are you sure that"s wise?"
"Pish." Antonio snorted, patting his chest. We all turned to look at him. I had never actually heard anyone say the word pish before. It was a bit frightening. "I will protect mi corazon from any demon. I am "er courtier most brave."
"It"s perfectly safe as long as you keep the demon under your control," Noelle said slowly, considering me with a critical eye that didn"t seem to like what it saw. "I think, upon reflection, that it would be a good idea if I were to accompany you on this venture. I should hate to think what would happen if a demon you raised were to run amok through London."
"Earthquakes, ma.s.s "ysteria," Antonio said.
I glared at him.
"Rain of locusts, the sky set afire, the oceans turned to blood," Esme added.
"Yes, thank you, I think we get the picture," I said. "What exactly would the demon-"
"Ehn wahnah ahgha mwaaaah," Jem said with a sorrowful shake of his head.
"Oh, yes, definitely a plague or two," Esme nodded. "And you"re absolutely right about the rats."
I glared at them all, then turned my gaze back to Noelle. "What exactly would the demon do?"
She told me.
They had to carry me to bed after that. The exhaustion and Noelle"s suggestions were just too much for my poor little brain. Fortunately, between the two of them, she and Antonio were able to get me into Christian"s bedroom and onto the bed beside Sebastian without either of the Turners noticing, or Sebastian waking up.
I dreamed of Christian encased in a block of ice, standing in the corner of the bedroom, just watching me as I lay sleeping. The ice turned to gla.s.s, and I knew that if I reached out for him, if I tried to touch him, the gla.s.s would shatter and pierce his heart. I rose from the bed and stood before him, my arms empty, my heart torn apart by the need I had for him and the knowledge that in order to free him from the gla.s.s I"d have to give up everything I had fought for. I wept tears of blood and watched him until his image faded away into the dull gray of the day.
Joy and Roxy woke me up three hours later. I was disoriented at finding them in Christian"s room, even more so when I realized the person lying in bed, tucked in under the covers, was Sebastian, not Christian.
"I"m sorry to wake you, Allie, but Noelle said not to let you sleep any later than noon."
"You met Noelle?" I pushed myself into a sitting position and looked down at Sebastian. His face didn"t look nearly as wan and gaunt as it had earlier.
Roxy waved toward a metal apparatus standing next to him. "Noelle arranged this. It"s an IV; isn"t that clever of her? She even got the blood from one of the blood banks."
"We met her when we stopped by to see how you were after last night. She"s taking a shower."
"Oh." I rubbed my eyes, the feel of the dream"s blood tears still heavy upon my cheeks.
"You look a bit muzzy yet. Come on; we"ll get you into the shower, then let you have some of the soup Mrs. Turner made. What a very odd woman she is," Joy prattled as she bustled me out of bed, out of my clothes, and into the shower even before I gathered together the thought to protest.
A half hour later I was washed, dressed, and fed. Fifteen minutes later Roxy and Joy stood at the door of Christian"s house and waved us off as Noelle and I climbed into a cab. Ten seconds after that I realized I was squishing one of the bobbles and spent the rest of the cab ride frantically resuscitating a flattened yarn bobble.
An hour and seven minutes after waking up, I stood with Noelle outside the Trust"s house and prepared to raise my first-and hopefully only-demon.
Three minutes after that I looked at my demon and burst into laughter.
"What?" the demon asked, turning its head 360 degrees to examine itself. "What"s so funny? Why is the Summoner laughing and crying at the same time? I don"t see what"s so funny. I"m a demon; where"s my respect? Where"s the fear and cowering before me?"
"Erm..." Noelle examined it from the tips of its shiny patent leather shoes to the top of its big pink bow. "Demon, what is your name?"
"Oh, right, like I look like I fell off the stupid truck?" it asked, its pudgy little hands on its flat hips. "You can"t ask me that, Guardian. Go read the rule book. Sheesh. Amateurs."
I wiped my eyes and hiccupped a couple of times, blowing my nose on the tissue I stuffed away in my bobble-free pocket. "Okay, I think I"m better." I looked at the demon and felt my lips twitch. I couldn"t help it; the sight of it was too much for my fragile nerves. "What is your name?"
"Tirana."
"Who do you serve?"
"Oriens. Now would one of you mind telling me why neither of you is averting your eyes from my dreadful presence, so monstrous that my very being is unbearable to humankind?"
Noelle snickered, quickly converting it into a cough.
"Well, possibly," I said, feeling my lips twitch again. "But maybe first you would tell us why you chose to manifest yourself in the form of Shirley Temple as last seen on the "Good Ship Lollipop"?"
The demon twirled around, its big pink sash fluttering as it smoothed down its dress and frilly little petticoat. "My grotesque form isn"t making you sick with fright?"
We both shook our heads, Noelle with a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. "Shirley Temple at her pinnacle was frightening," I finally told it, "but not in the sense I think you mean."
The demon"s little golden curls bobbed as it stamped its foot. "It"s that Morilen! He told me that this form would strike terror in the hearts of humans! Well, he"d just better hide behind the legion of Paymon, because when I get back to h.e.l.l-"
It"s never pretty when a demon swears, but it"s positively ludicrous when the demon in question is an exact duplicate of America"s little sweetheart.
"Have you heard of Tirana?" I asked Noelle while the little demon was stamping around cursing its companion.
"No, but Oriens is the weakest of all the demon lords. I would say,"-she paused a moment to watch the demon jump up and down on a late-blooming flower-"that you have raised one of the lesser demons. In fact, I"m fairly certain it"s the bottom of the barrel, demonically speaking."
My shoulders sagged for a minute. I couldn"t even raise a proper demon; I had to get the runt of the litter. How could I possibly save Christian with a demon that wore lacy ankle socks and a big pink sash? It just wasn"t possible.
"I think it says a lot about the purity of your spirit that the worst type of demon you can raise is... well... Tirana."
I took a little comfort in that fact until the cold, watchful gaze from the house had me straightening my shoulders, the knowledge that somewhere within the house the man I loved was being held strengthening my resolve.
"Right. I can do this. Tirana, stop trying to squash the flower; you"ll get your nice shoes dirty. We have work to do. I command thee to my will."
"Command, schommand," it groused, obediently following me.
Noelle touched my arm gently as I started up the walk to the front door. She pulled an amulet off over her head and slipped the chain over mine, then traced a symbol on my forehead.
"For luck," she said with a half smile.
I fingered the amulet. It was warm and gave me a sense of serenity that was greatly lacking in my present state. "Thanks."
"You remember what I told you?"
I hoped so. I was busy almost the whole of the cab ride trying to desquish one of the ghosts" bobbles, but I felt pretty confident that I had remembered her instructions.
"I wish I could go in with you."
I gave her a little smile that I hoped looked more sincere than it felt. "I know, and I appreciate all the help you"ve given me. You"ll wait here?"
She nodded.
I turned and faced the house again. I could feel Asmodeus inside, gathering his power. My hand closed around the bobbles as I cleared my mind and gathered my own power. The amulet seemed to hold the power, magnifying it slightly. I raised my chin, held up my hand, and commanded the door to open, then marched into the dark, gaping maw of the house armed with a borrowed amulet, a demon that looked like it should be dancing with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, five helpful ghosts and one petulant one, and a heck of a lot of determination.
The doors to the library had been thrown open. Guarda, Phillippa, and Eduardo stood in the middle of the room in a triangle, not yet a triumvirate, but capable of forming one with just a touch of Eduardo"s fingers to the women"s necks. Asmodeus stood to the left of them, Christian to their right.
I smiled at them all. "I hope it"s no bother, but I"ve changed my mind. I"d like Christian back, please."
The front door slammed shut behind me.
Chapter Nineteen.
"How very curious," Asmodeus drawled as he stepped forward. "I had not thought you would return, but when we saw you arrive I realized just how clever you had been."
"She lied; I told you she lied," Eduardo said with a snarl.
"She did not lie; she told the truth... the truth as it was at that moment. Yes, it was very clever indeed. I almost regret that such a keen mind and undaunted spirit should be lost to give me new life, but alas, that is the way of things."
I had been watching Christian while Asmodeus circled around me, but suddenly the amulet glowed red-hot, making me jump. One of my feet stepped outside of the circle Asmodeus had been about to close around me.
"Tricky," I told him, trying to calm my racing heart.
If he had been a second faster, I might even now be trapped within the power of his circle. "But not tricky enough."
He smiled and I lost a few years of my life keeping my eyes on his. "It was worth a try."
I looked from him to Christian. He stood silent and still, his face pale, his eyes dulled with pain and suffering. I thought of the dream warning and knew I couldn"t look to him for help until I freed him from his bonds.
"Tirana, come forward. See thou that human?" I pointed to Eduardo. As the strongest of the triumvirate, he was my target. "Know thou what my will is?"
Tirana sighed and crossed its chubby little arms over the ruffled bib front of its dress. "Can we skip the hokey medieval-speak and just get to what you want me to do?"
"Destroy him," I said simply.
Eduardo shrieked and reached for Phillippa and Guarda. Tirana leaped for Eduardo and was immediately thrown backward. The protective ward in front of me burned green, then white, then a shimmering silver as the triumvirate blasted me with power. I braced my legs apart, lowered my head, muttered a protective spell, and gathered my power. The amulet glowed silver with the wards as I gave my power form, then quickly turned it and slammed it into Eduardo.
The sudden wave of my power rocked the triumvirate. I threw my head back and laughed with the joy of it, unleashing the full power of my love for Christian, power that flowed in a silver stream from my hands to pour over the triumvirate.
"Never underestimate the power of a ticked off Beloved," I told them, giving them a dose of my determination and willpower, and a healthy dollop of respect for the living and the dead. Phillippa screamed and crumpled.
My joy was short-lived. Eduardo snarled an oath and hauled a limp Phillippa back into place, pounding me with wave after wave of excruciatingly painful raw power. It was tainted as he was tainted, foul, draining me by the very nature of its dark source. I fought it with everything I had, but the combined power of the triumvirate would overcome me in the end. I withstood it for a moment, my eyes on Christian. He watched me silently, impa.s.sively, apparently not aware or not caring that I was being torn apart by the people he had given himself up to. It was useless, a hopeless attempt at rescue that was doomed from the very start. I couldn"t beat the triumvirate and Asmodeus together. For a moment I considered the possibility of just giving in.
Thoughts of Christian filled my mind. Memories of him, of his love for me, of us together merged with those of the ghosts, and how they had so bravely prepared to fight Sarra for us. They were more than just ghosts; they were my friends.
"I am not a quitter," I said through my teeth, then shouted the next few words. "I will not let the monsters win."