“It’s gone,” Rozurial said, stepping out of whatever twilight zone he’d been in and offering me his hand.

For once, I accepted, wearily struggling to my feet. The light had left me feeling weak. I didn’t even want to think about what it might have done if I’d been standing out in the open. Delilah moaned, and we helped her up, but she was having trouble standing.

“It was the same one . . . the demon that attacked me in the club,” she said when she was able to speak. “I could feel it trying to get inside my head. I think it has some sort of homing tail on me. There was a weird sense of connection there.” She rubbed her temples. “Damn, I have a massive headache.”

“How the hell did it find you?” I asked. “And if the demon was the threat that broke our wards, then that man—”

“Was sent here from Y’Elestrial, all right, but from Queen Tanaquar,” Camille said, stalking over to glare at me. “We managed to hogtie the assistant to the chief advisor of the Court and Crown. And boy, is he pissed.”

CHAPTER 12

The chief advisor of the Court and Crown was our father, and so the man tied up in the shed was . . . our father’s assistant.

“Oh shit!” Since I’d been the one to coldcock him, I raced on ahead to explain. Father was going to be so pissed at us, and me especially. He’d always been on my back to think things through, to find all the facts I could before acting. Even as a child, I’d been impulsive, if introverted.

I skidded into the studio to find the man sitting on the sofa, arms folded across his chest. He stared at me, anger dripping off him like icicles off the eaves on a cold winter morning.

Camille had untied him, but I had the feeling that wouldn’t exactly make up for the lump on his head or the rope burns that were showing on his wrists. I’d made sure he couldn’t get out of the knots.

Normally, I wouldn’t give a shit. Sometimes we made mistakes; sometimes someone got roughed up who shouldn’t have, but we were fighting demons, and I’d rather be safe than sorry. But we were talking Court and Crown here. Tanaquar was paying us again. We couldn’t afford to lose her money or her goodwill. Too much depended on gathering as many allies as possible.

Camille had dropped into a curtsy. The same with Delilah, though it looked a little silly when she did so in jeans. I settled for a simple bow at the waist. Honor and protocol were expected. Back in Otherworld, Lethesanar had expected her subjects to grovel on the ground. At least Tanaquar wasn’t that power mad, and she’d done away with a number of the stringent Court regulations when she ripped the crown from the Opium Eater’s head.

I kept my mouth shut while we waited. Again: protocol.

“I see you haven’t forgotten all your manners,” he said, his voice a low growl. As he stood, shaking out the wrinkles from where I’d roughed up his outfit, he motioned for us to stand. “Get up. Do you mind telling me why you attacked me?”

I glanced wildly at Camille, but she pressed her lips together. I was the one in the hot seat this time, and she quietly eased back a few steps, leaving me to face him. Hell, I didn’t even know his name. Father must have mentioned it at some point, but for the life of me, nothing came to mind.

“Honorable . . . Assistant . . .”

“Forgotten already? My name is Yssak ob Shishana.” He stood, waiting, hands folded across his chest.

I cleared my throat. “Honorable Assistant Yssak, I am so sorry. I never would have knocked you out if I’d known you were our father’s assistant. I thought you might be on Lethesanar’s side, come to finish us off. You know, of course, we had a death threat on our heads.” I blinked and gazed up at him.

Yssak arched his eyebrows, and he visibly relaxed. Maybe I could pull this off without getting us all in the doghouse, after all.

He was a striking man, really. Not gorgeous, not even terribly handsome, but he had an interesting face: craggy and full of lines worn from battle, not age. His hair was blond and caught back in a braid like our father always wore, plaited with ribbons the color of his uniform. He was tall but not overly so. In fact, he was almost ordinary, yet if I’d passed him on the street, I’d have looked twice, because beneath the simple exterior, the man exuded power. I could smell it—like pheromones from sex or fear.

He sucked in a long breath, then let it out in a slow stream. “I suppose I can see how you might jump to conclusions, given the demonic threat you’re facing and the mood of the prior queen toward your family.”

“There’s more,” Camille said softly, moving to stand beside me. “The wards on our property were breached a short while ago. We were out hunting for the cause. Menolly came upon you before we found the real intruder—a demon we haven’t been able to identify, who we can’t seem to fight.”

I gave her a grateful smile. Just because Yssak worked for our father didn’t mean we were home free when it came to slipups like this. Father was tougher on us than any of our bosses.

Delilah had slumped onto the sofa. She looked pale.

“Excuse me, Honorable Assistant, but our sister was attacked by the creature. May I tend to her?” I hated standing on formality, but again—protocol. Father had drilled it into us from birth. Breaking free of his patterns when we were in the actual presence of the Court and Crown would be like having teeth pulled. Not so much fun to contemplate.

Yssak blinked. “Why didn’t you say so before? Good heavens, girl, I’m irritated, yes, but I wouldn’t have made you wait if you’d asked. Your father would have my head if I put one of his daughters in danger.”

He stood back as Camille and I knelt by her side.

“Are you okay, honey?” Camille took her hand, then felt for her pulse. She turned a worried look on me. “It’s rapid, way too fast. Shit, did that thing get its tentacles linked into her silver cord? I can’t read her signature, I’m too close to her.”

Roz pushed her aside. He tipped Delilah’s chin up, gazing into her eyes. Delilah murmured something soft. Roz whipped around. “Damn the gods—that thing is still attached to her. Her energy is being slowly siphoned off.”

“Can you take us onto the astral where we can fight it?” Camille asked. “Smoky can carry me over.”

“Smoky’s much more powerful than I am,” Roz said. “I can’t erect enough of a barrier to carry all of you during the transfer. But I can go find him. He’s out at his barrow.” Without so much as a blink, he vanished onto the Ionyc Sea.

Camille motioned to me. “Bring blankets. We have to keep her warm. Brandy or port, too—anything to keep her strength going. Hell, hell, hell. We have to find out what the fuck those things are and how to fight them.”

Yssak hurried over to my side. “How may I assist? Tell me.”

Frantic, I shook my head. “I don’t know. I don’t know. Stay with Camille while I go get the blankets and booze.”

He nodded—one curt bob of the head—and took up guard duty while I raced out of the shed, galloping back toward the house. Times like this, I didn’t mind being a vampire. My increased speed meant I could summon help a lot faster than either of my sisters.

I burst into the house to find Iris standing watch with Maggie, keeping her eye on the door. She was armed with her wand. Iris might be short, but she sure as hell could wreak a buttload of damage with that silver and crystal contraption.

I was relieved to find Vanzir there, too.

He frowned. “What’s going on?”

“Those fucking demons—one has hold of Delilah’s silver cord. It’s the same one that attacked her earlier. The beast must have traced her through the astral or something, because she’s losing energy. Iris, get me a warm blanket and some brandy or port.” I turned back to Vanzir. “We have to find out what they are and how to kill them, or we’re going to be in a world of hurt.”

Vanzir laid a gentle hand on my arm, startling me. He seldom touched any of us. I stopped, staring at him.

“I know what they are,” he said. “That’s where I went—to do some research.”

I paused. “Go on.”

“It comes from an ancient race of demons found mainly Earthside, on the astral plane. Summoned thousands of years ago by the great sorcerers of a culture that predated Sumer, they’re known as the Karsetii.” Vanzir looked pale. When a demon pales—especially one who has seen and done what Vanzir has—you know you’re in trouble.

“You don’t look so hot.” I glanced over at Iris, who had just returned with the blanket and a bottle of brandy. She handed them to me. “Stay with Maggie, Iris. We’ll be back in a few minutes.” Motioning to Vanzir, I headed toward the back door. I could run faster alone, though. “Meet me at the studio. Pronto.” And then, I was off.

Roz hadn’t returned yet by the time I reached the studio, so I helped Camille arrange the blanket over Delilah and fed her some brandy. She didn’t want it—she was conscious but seemed woozy—but we made her drink it.

“I wish her twin could help. She’s on the spirit plane,” Camille said.

“Yeah, but the spirit plane isn’t the same as the astral. Arial might not be able to cross over to the astral that easily.” The name still sounded strange on my tongue. We’d only recently discovered that Delilah had a twin who died at birth. Apparently her twin had been a wereleopard and was watching over her. The emergence of Delilah’s panther form might be connected to Arial, or maybe not. We weren’t clear on the whole situation yet, and Father only begrudgingly talked about it. Even then, he told us as little as he could get away with.

Vanzir showed up just as Kitten finally let me give her a shot of the amber liquor. He took one look at her and pressed his lips together.

Camille quickly introduced him to Yssak. “Vanzir works with us now.”

Yssak nodded. “So I have heard.” Turning to Vanzir, he said, “You’re a brave creature to undergo the Ritual of Subjugation.”

“Whatever,” Vanzir mumbled. “I was just telling Menolly that I found out what the demons are.”

Camille caught her breath. “Thank the gods. Finally, some good news. What are they? How do we kill them? Do you think they’re aligned with Shadow Wing?”

“You may not think it such good news when I tell you what I know. They’re Karsetii, a race of demons spawned in the astral planes. They get most of their sustenance from people.”

“You aren’t talking about spirit demons, are you?” Camille asked.

I glanced at her. “Good thinking. Spirit demons are very, very bad. But they can be hit from the physical plane if we use silver.”

Vanzir shook his head. “No, though they’re similar in nature. But Karsetii are worse than spirit demons. They’re also known as demons from the deep, and until now, no one’s spotted one since well over two thousand years ago.” He let out a long sigh.

Holy shit. Then the creature was probably pretty damned hungry. “Two thousand years? Then it must be Shadow Wing’s doing—”

“Not so fast,” he said. “Unlike typical spirit demons, the Karsetii don’t live in the Subterranean Realms. I’ve never heard of them over there. Carter, one of my friends, is an expert on demonology. He’s a demon himself and he confines his interests to the study of the Demonkin. I went to him. He’s convinced it can’t be Shadow Wing summoning them, because the Karsetii refuse to obey any other demons.”

Vanzir knelt beside Delilah and felt her pulse. “I can sense the creature attached to her. It’s feeding off her. We have to keep her alive until we figure out how to destroy this thing.”

“So the demon isn’t part of a Degath Squad?” I almost wished it was. We could take down the Hell Scouts, though they were getting harder to handle each time.

“No.” He shook his head. “They aren’t part of the Hell Scouts, and they don’t make alliances or allegiances. They live on their own terms. And like I said, Carter combed his records—he’s got them all on computer now—and hasn’t come up with a verified sighting in two thousand years.”

I tapped my finger against the table. “How do we kill it and free her?”

“That’s the part you aren’t going to like. You can’t touch it from the physical plane. You have to be on the astral in order to kill it.”

“Great.” Camille paced over to the window, then turned back, leaning over the sofa to softly brush Delilah’s bangs out of her face. “So we have to travel to the astral plane to hack it to pieces. And then figure out how the hell it got here.”

“There’s more.” Vanzir lifted his head, staring at me with wide-open eyes the color of . . . whatever color they were, it wasn’t one I had a name for.

“Tell us everything,” I said.

“I don’t know exactly how to kill it, for one thing. Nobody does. It’s been two thousand years since one of these creatures showed up to cause havoc. And for another, most likely the demon attached to Delilah is just a sucker spawned off the hive mother.”

“Say what?” This did not sound promising.

“The demon that has hold of Delilah and the other demons that killed the patrons of the Avalon Club are all just avatars of the mother demon. There’s only one Karsetii loose, but she’s like this giant hive that can spawn off incarnations of herself. These shadows then travel out to seek nourishment, which is absorbed by the mother. Even if we step out on the astral and manage to vanquish the one that has hold of Delilah, the demon will just re-form back as part of the mother.”