Demon High (30 page)

My gaze shot to Oscar. He was shaking his head. “You didn’t give him your blood, Lucinda. Did you?”

I hadn’t, not on purpose, but with a demon, did that matter? I didn’t know. Nothing like this had been in Mum’s book.

“If you will just step closer, we can get rid of that pesky mark of my brother’s.” Cresil held out one hand. The other he dropped to his privates and stroked himself.

Revulsion lanced through me. I closed my eyes. I had touched the statue. It had tasted my blood, and I had called Cresil. All of those things were true, but it couldn’t be enough to lose my soul. There had to be more.

I swallowed and held firm to that belief. All wasn’t lost. It couldn’t be. I wouldn’t let it be. I wouldn’t let what had happened to my mother happen to me.

I tilted my head to the side and tried to look confident. “I made no deal with you. If you don’t want me to keep my deal with your brother, you will help me.”

His eyes narrowed for a second. “Oh you made a deal. Step into hell and you, my dear, are mine. So, you see, there is no reason for me to help you. I can just wait until my brother does the job and pluck you from him like the tiny little jewel you are.

He leaned back and scratched himself, hands back to the nether regions. “But really, do you want to go through all of that? Why wait? Just join us now—your mother and I. We have the most delightfully relaxing parties at the Cresil mansion.”

It was direct jab to my heart. I felt it, but I didn’t let the pain show. “Your brother is more attractive,” I stated as bluntly as I could. I bent to retrieve the athame.

“What are you doing?” He moved his hands to his sides and stepped forward.

“You told me the loophole. If I’m not in hell, you can’t claim me. All Kobal has to do is keep me here, on this plane. It doesn’t mean I can’t call him or let his demons through. It doesn’t mean I can’t do everything I can to make him stronger than you.”

Cresil roared and rushed the circle.

My heart stopped, but I stood my ground. I had nowhere else to go, nowhere to run. If my circle didn’t hold, everything was over, and there wasn’t a damned thing I could do about it now.

The demon lord smashed into the barrier and flew backward. A less powerful demon would have landed on his backside. Cresil froze his body mid-flight and then hung there for a second staring at me. Still suspended mid-air, he laughed. “Smart girl, reminding me of your worth. But maybe I have something to offer you too.” His eyes slid sideways in his face, toward Oscar. “He’s working with my brother now. Did he tell you that?”

I didn’t see how that was a point in Cresil’s favor.

“But he used to work with me.”

The demon lord paused. He seemed to be letting his claim sink in.

“You think you hate me because I have your mother, don’t you? But I didn’t lure your mother here, and I didn’t make a second deal with a second demon to lure
you
here.” He turned his head like a snake, his eyes unblinking, his mouth open. His gaze lit upon Oscar and stopped.

So did my heart. Cresil was in my circle. He couldn’t be lying, but he had to be. He had to be.

“Our little untouchable is quite the player, flitting around hell making deals with one brother and then the other. Did you think you could trust him? Your mother did. It’s what cost her, what got her to step across that line right into our world. And it’s what he and Kobal have planned for you too.” He cocked his head to the side. “Now which brother do you want to choose?”

I barely heard his question. Humming filled my ears—my own humming, my body trying to block out a reality I couldn’t cope with.

I looked at Oscar. “You took my mother?”

He let out a breath. I got the feeling he’d been holding it for a long time, maybe since he had first escaped my circle. “I asked you to put me in the circle, Lucinda. Remember that.”

I didn’t reply. I couldn’t. Circle or no circle, I just needed to hear what he had to say.

He continued, “Ten years ago Cresil told me if I came back to Caldera, I could care again. It was all I wanted, all I did care about, filling the void. I let your mother call me and then did as Cresil asked; I lured her into the circle with me.”

I shook my head. “My mother wouldn’t do that. She knew better.”

He smiled. “But she didn’t care. Cresil was behind me, increasing my power. She stepped right inside. Not at first, of course, but eventually. She took my hand.” He stared down at his fingers as if my mother might be there now, reaching for him.

“And my brother,” Cresil added, “opportunistic prig that he is, figured if the untouchable worked on your mother, he would work on you too. Of course, I might have put that idea into his head.” He smiled.

And Oscar
had
worked. I’d fallen for him. The chill that had washed over me earlier returned, but this time it encased me, made it hard for me to keep breathing, hard for me to do anything.

“I didn’t realize Kobal’s plan was to take you, Lucinda. And I didn’t know Cresil was involved at all. Kobal told Nellie and me exactly what I told you, that he wanted to grow his power by having you call him, by getting his demons through.”

I held up a hand. I didn’t want to hear anything more.

But Oscar kept talking. “This time, though, it was different. This time I did care. I do care. I care about you.”

He cared about me. It was what I’d wanted, what I’d dreamed of him saying, but now I knew the real truth. He was the reason I’d lost my mother.

My mind went blank, my soul dead. If Oscar continued to talk, I couldn’t hear him. If Cresil stroked himself or threw power my way, I didn’t know.

I just knew I was done. Wanted to damn them all to hell. I was tired of playing their game and being tossed around like a plastic game piece that didn’t matter. Time for me to do some tossing. Time for me to blow their game to hell.

I started chanting.

The temperature in the room dropped. I pulled air into my lungs and felt them collapse into themselves. I slapped my hands over my face trying to warm the air before breathing again, but I didn’t stop.

Someone or something shrieked. The noise was in the room with us, but it wasn’t. It was coming from the other side of the veil. It was coming from hell. I chanted louder.

The ground shook. I widened my stance to keep from falling and staggered forward. My foot came within an inch of breaking the circle. My lips still moving, I forced myself backwards.

Another shriek. This one from Cresil. Then his brother, wings unfurled and his body vibrating, appeared in the circle next to him.

Kobal spun on one foot. His dark complexion showed shades of red, and his eye brows bulged from his forehead.

He opened his mouth and roared, “Who brought me here? Who dared?” He lifted his arms and his wings expanded until they brushed the edges of the circle.

Back under control, Cresil heaved out a sigh. “Enough with the drama, brother. Your little protégé is to be thanked.” He flicked his fingers toward me.

Kobal’s feathers rippled one after the other, like dominos falling. He pulled his wings in toward his body and turned.

His gaze was tangible.

“Lucinda?” His gaze shifted left then right. “I remember this place.” He smiled. “Your mother chose me; you know that, right? My brother—” The wing closest to Cresil rippled. “Deceived her, tricked her.”

“The untouchable tricked her,” Cresil corrected.

I hadn’t looked at Oscar since he’d admitted his part in taking my mother from me.

“Lucinda knows what happened, knows the untouchable had the same planned for her.”

Oscar’s voice interrupted him. “Cresil tricked you and me. He tasted Lucinda’s blood, then got you to send me here, knowing when things got out of her control I’d tell her to call him—”

Cresil made a swatting motion. Oscar slammed into the wall behind me.

Despite myself, I cringed.

“Hmm.” Kobal fluttered his feathers. “That does change things a bit.” He raised one hand.

The temperature dipped again, not as drastically, but still noticeable. Knowing I wasn’t going to like whatever he had done, I stiffened.

“Lucinda? What?” Brittany stood across the circle from me. Standing beside her with her fingers wrapped around Brittany’s wrist was Nellie. At first I thought they were apparitions, but they were too clear, too real. Then I realized somehow Nellie had brought Brittany and herself to my basement.

Kobal grinned. “Lucinda and I already have a deal.” He glanced at Cresil. “She is working for me, you know. So, she can’t enter hell quite yet. That doesn’t mean we can’t still have a nice long partnership. Eventually, I will win, brother.”

Cresil ran a finger along the curve of one horn. “I do have my own little ace. I hadn’t planned on bringing her out, but—”

This time there was no temperature drop, no warning at all—just my mother standing next to Cresil. He took her hand in his.

She hadn’t changed, still petite and cute, dressed in an outfit that wasn’t in style even when she disappeared. Like mother, like daughter, in way too many ways.

Seeing her propelled me forward, but Oscar was beside me immediately. He jerked me back, kept me from breaking the circle. I tried to shake him off. His fingers formed a hard, unbreakable band around my wrist.

“Think,” he hissed. “Remember what I said. That isn’t your mother, not as you remember her. It may not be her at all. She may be nothing but an illusion.”

My heart fluttered in my chest. Tears pressed against the backs of my eyes. I wanted to get to her. I wanted to save her.

“And she is to believe you?” Cresil shook his head. “Really, Oscar, you surprise me. Besides, my brother is the one attracted to parlor tricks. If I’m going to make an effort, I will produce the real thing.” Cresil squeezed my mother’s hand. She fell to her knees.

Only Oscar’s fingers around my wrist kept me from bolting forward. I leaned forward as far as I could, jerked and pulled. His arm slipped around my waist, and he jerked me back against his chest. “You enter the circle and you are his, Lucinda. His. Do you think she wants that?”

I quit struggling, but my heart was still hammering, still telling me to go to my mother and save her. Tears streamed down my cheeks. “Let her go.” I called.

“Now why would I do that?” Cresil shook his head.

Behind him Brittany screamed. She fell to her knees and clawed at her clothes. Her fingers tore at her hair, face, body. Her nails left ugly red scratches in their wake.

“It’s Nellie,” Oscar whispered, his arm still tight across my middle, so tight it hurt. “She’s playing with her mind, making her…” He shook his head and quit talking.

I closed my eyes. “Let me go,” I begged. I didn’t know what I would do once freed, but anything would be better than standing here helpless listening to Brittany suffer.

Cresil glanced over Kobal’s shoulder. “Pleasure so close to pain. I do envy you that one, brother. He waved his hand toward me. “Perhaps after this is sorted out we can strike a bargain for the succubus.”

Nellie’s eyes glinted, but she didn’t stop whatever she was doing to Brittany. If anything, Brittany’s cries and struggles increased.

I fisted my hands. Brittany was innocent; if anyone was responsible for getting her in this mess, it was me. But my mother…. I didn’t look at her; I couldn’t.

“It shouldn’t be such a hard choice. Mother or friend? Acquaintance really. I’ve heard talk. You’ve been alone, with no one except your Nana.” Cresil smoothed his fingers over one horn.

My cheeks still damp with tears, my head snapped up. “Don’t use her name. Don’t even think it.” I ground out the words.

Cresil’s eyebrows shot upward. “I believe we’ve missed the obvious, brother. Still, a mother, surely she is worth something.” He shoved my mother forward, pulling her arm up behind her in what would have been an impossible position had she been alive. Still there was no missing the pain on her face. Cresil tugged at her hair and whispered in her ear.

Her eyes glassed over. I thought she was going to pass out, but her lips parted and words came out as if she was spitting them at me. “Stupid girl. You are a stupid girl. Did I teach you nothing?”

My stomach clenched. I bowed as if she’d kicked me in the gut. It felt as if she’d kicked me. Oscar’s arm grew tighter around my middle. Trembling, I stared at my mother. She was acting. She had to be. I knew I’d see it in her eyes, but her gaze was dead and sullen, like a forgotten housewife who had no joy left but cheap wine and daytime TV.

 Oscar let go, and this time I didn’t rush forward.

Cresil curled his fingers into his palm, and my mother dropped to the ground, lay panting against the dirt.

I didn’t look at her. I didn’t let myself. Fear and indecision curled around my spine, made it hard for me to stay standing.

“I can give you everything. I’m already stronger than my brother.” Cresil’s eyes glimmered. “Just step across that line, and it will be enough for me to overpower him. I can free your friend. I can give you back your mother. I’ll even let both of you live out your normal lives here in this house, happy.” He gestured overhead, to my house, my and Nana’s home. “Money problems? Not if you declare yourself to me. Life will be good, easy, worry free.”