He gave me a light squeeze. “Do I have any redeeming qualities left?”

I sighed and tilted my head back to look at him, not breaking away from his hold. “Well, you still give a fuck. So that’s nice.”

He gave me a soft smile, then surprised me by kissing me lightly on the forehead. A thrill raced through me, followed by a massive tsunami of confusion. A kiss on the forehead? What the hell was that? Should I do something? Should I try to kiss him? Was that a “we’re great friends” kiss? Or was he holding back because he didn’t want to get burned?

He tightened the hug briefly, then stepped back, making the tsunami of confusion somewhat moot—at least as far as the “should I kiss him” part went. “I do give a fuck,” he said, still lightly gripping my shoulders.

“I appreciate that. I’m sorry I slapped you.”

He frowned. “You slapped me? I thought that a mosquito had landed—” He ducked and laughed as I swung at him again.

“You are such a jerk,” I said, trying to glare without much success.

“I think that’s been well established. C’mon, I’ll give you a ride home.”

I hesitated. “Ryan, when I get there, I’m going to—”

“I know,” he said. “You’re going to summon Rhyzkahl.” He gave my shoulders a squeeze. “It’s okay. I know you need to do this.”

I searched his face for any flicker of regret or pain or angst or anything, but if he was feeling it, he was keeping it under unspeakably tight control. “Thank you.”

“I’m trying,” he said, voice low and rough.

“I know,” I said, hiding a smile. “And you have no idea how much that means to me. Which makes what I have to say next even harder.”

His brows drew together in a frown. “What?”

My lips twitched. “I’m actually not summoning Rhyzkahl. You totally wasted all of that control and maturity.”

He smiled. “Well, damn!” he said, though there was relief in his eyes.

“But I still appreciate the sentiment.”

“Good thing,” he said. “I don’t have a whole lot of control and maturity to waste on false alarms like that. So, if you’re not summoning the lord, then why do you need to go back to your house?”

“Well, you were close. I am going to summon, just not the demonic lord. But, I know that you um ...”

“Don’t care to be insulted and growled at by demons?” he offered.

“Well, yeah. I know you’re a real weenie like that.”

He laughed. “You’re definitely hanging out with me way too much. You’re becoming an asshole.”

“I’m learning from the best!”

Chapter 30

Despite our earlier banter, neither of us said much on the drive back to my house. Even though I wasn’t summoning Rhyzkahl, it was guaranteed to be an odd and tense situation with Ryan present, which was why I didn’t intend for him to be in the basement for the actual ritual. This summoning was a bit too crucial and I didn’t want to risk something going wrong because I was distracted by worry over Ryan’s safety.

Dawn was sending pink fingers creeping across the sky by the time he pulled into my driveway. I’d grabbed the extra ammo out of my own car before leaving it to be towed and had reloaded on the drive back to my house. We both scanned my yard cautiously before getting out of the car. I gripped my Glock, extending every sense possible in the hope that I’d be able to sense an imminent threat. It didn’t escape my notice that Ryan’s gun was in his hand as well.

My front door was ajar and slightly askew in its shattered jamb. What if it’s in the house? I’d damaged it, but I had no idea if it was capable of repairing itself or if it could only stay active for a set amount of time. We moved up the porch and through the house, guns at the ready, silently clearing it and checking for threats. Crumbles of clay littered the hallway—remnants of the creature’s leg—but no other sign remained.

I holstered my gun after we finished searching the house from top to bottom. “It creeps me out that the wards didn’t affect it at all,” I admitted to Ryan. “Do you mind staying up here while I do the summoning?”

“I was going to suggest it.”

I glanced at him and could see that, again, he understood. Great, he’s capable of being all understanding about the demonic lord and the summoning and all of that. So why can’t he be more understanding that I want to know where he and I stand? Or maybe by keeping me at “just friends” he was letting me know.

Now was a bad time to start getting all moody about that particular emotional train wreck. I did my best to shove it from my mind. “Okay, well, lemme go get ready.”

He gave a short nod. “And I’ll go raid your fridge.”

“I bought a new brick of cheese yesterday. Go wild.”

I grinned as his groan of despair followed me down the hall.

I quickly showered and wrapped my bathrobe around me, then sent Ryan into my bedroom to wait and count to fifty while I did my superstitious little routine of going down to the basement naked.

You’re so stupid, I chided myself as I pulled my summoning garb off the hook at the bottom of the stairs. You have no problem at all letting Rhyzkahl see you without a stitch on, but you freak the fuck out at the thought that Ryan might catch a sight of tit. Maybe my subconscious was telling me I really did want Ryan as a friend and nothing more? Or maybe Ryan’s opinion of a naked me mattered more.

I gritted my teeth and yanked on the silk pants and shirt. Stop thinking about this! My wayward emotions were going to get me killed at this rate.

I carefully made the changes in the diagram for the calling of a syraza. I didn’t summon them very often, and so I pulled out my heavily warded, well-hidden, and barely-legibly-written summoning notebook to be sure I was doing it right. Usually I summoned a reyza if I needed a higher demon. Syraza weren’t known for skill in warding or other arcane areas that I might want information or instruction in. They weren’t big and scary-impressive like the reyza, or even unnerving like the zhurn Skalz.

But obviously Rhyzkahl felt this demon would be a competent guardian for me. Maybe this one owes him a favor or something. That made more sense. But I’m going to have to buy an SUV or something to carry it around, I thought with a sigh. How the hell was this going to work?

I reviewed my notes one more time, then tucked the little book back into its hiding place.

The power flowed smoothly from the storage diagram into my control as I set the bindings and protections. The glyphs and sigils around the summoning circle began to glow in my othersight. Carefully manipulating the potency, I began the weaving of the portal itself. The icy wind swirled through the room as the light from the diagram increased to near-blinding incandescence. I felt the portal widen as the wind whipped my hair about my face, and I spoke the demon’s name.

“Eilahn.”

The wind dropped to nothing as the light vanished. I held the arcane bindings, waiting for my vision to adjust. A few seconds later I could see a figure on one knee in the middle of the diagram. Its skin was a pearlescent white that caught the light from the fireplace and shimmered with hints of orange and red and pink. It was slender, almost birdlike, with long graceful limbs. Its head was smooth and hairless, with large and slanted violet eyes set in a delicate, almost human, face. Its wings looked as fragile as tissue paper, but I’d once had the chance to see syraza in flight, so I knew that somehow those wings really were strong enough to support the creature.

I paused, suddenly uncertain what to say. Usually there were forms to be followed for setting terms and bargaining for service, but this was different. I wasn’t the one who would be paying the price.

At least, not in the usual manner.

“I am Kara Gillian,” I finally said. “Lord Rhyzkahl bade me summon you and said that you could provide me with protection.” It ended up sounding more like a question than I’d meant. But how could this creature—who looked like a strong breeze could carry it away—offer me protection ...

My thoughts trailed off even as the syraza lifted its head. Kara, you’re awfully dense sometimes. I was pretty sure that Zack was a demon, and he sure as hell didn’t look like one.

“I am Eilahn,” it replied in a voice that sounded like birds singing and bells chiming all at once. “I have given my oath to Lord Rhyzkahl to give you protection and support.”

I lowered the wards and bindings. “I am grateful for your service.” I paused. “Please forgive me if I give offense, but are you able to, um, shapechange? I mean, your current form is quite pleasing,” I added hastily, realizing that it sounded as if I didn’t like the demon form. “But I wonder how you’ll be able to give me protection without revealing yourself as a demon.”

It rose with sinuous grace to its feet. “Yes, I am able to shift my form, though it is not simple. I will require your assistance.”

I nodded, feeling surreal. I was right. Zack is a demon. Ha! “Just tell me what I need to do.”

It inclined its head, though its violet eyes stayed on me. “First we must complete the bond so that I may remain in this sphere.”

A bond? A wave of uneasiness passed through me. “I performed an adjustment to bindings once before so that the reyza Kehlirik could remain past sunrise,” I said. “Is it the same sort of thing?”

“Similar,” it replied and stepped to me. “But this will go deeper. I will guide you in the process.”

I didn’t have a chance to ask how deep. Eilahn slipped a hand to the back of my head in a lightning-fast move and placed the other hand on my face, touching my forehead and cheeks with the tips of its fingers. A brief frisson of shock and fear surged through me, amplified by the fact that I could feel the strength of the grip that held me in place. Eilahn looked wispy and delicate and its fingertips seemed to be barely touching me, but I suddenly couldn’t move my head a millimeter. My survival instinct screamed at me to struggle, but before I could twitch I felt a jab of potency spear through me, freezing me in place. It was a trap! I thought in sudden panic. Rhyzkahl hadn’t sent this demon to me. This is a demon sent to kill me or capture me—