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“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.”
“But if we send this one back to the hive, will Delilah be okay?” I didn’t care about the central motherfucker right now; I wanted my sister free from this freakshow.
Vanzir hesitated. “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “But we can try.”
“Then let’s figure out how to get over to the astral.” As I yanked off my jacket, Smoky and Rozurial bounded into the room, fresh from the Ionyc Sea. Without so much as a preamble, I motioned them over. “Come on, boys, we need to go into the astral, demon hunting.”
Smoky glanced at Delilah, then at me. “I can take two of you. Camille and Menolly, you come with me.”
Roz motioned to Vanzir. “I can probably get you safely across, where I wouldn’t chance it with the girls.”
“I can make it on my own, it just takes me longer than it does you or the dragon,” Vanzir said.
“We don’t have longer,” I said. “Go with Roz.”
Yssak tapped me on the shoulder. “What do you want me to do?”
I pointed at the door. “Keep everybody out unless someone named Chase Johnson or Iris shows up. And guard Delilah. We’re going over physically. So you’re her only protector over here on the solid side of things.”
Yssak nodded and patted his dagger. Neither Smoky nor Vanzir asked who he was as we readied ourselves for the crossing.
Smoky spread out his arms, and Camille walked into the shelter of his left, while I hesitantly stepped into the umbrella of his right. While I liked Smoky well enough, I sure wasn’t as entranced with him as my sister was.
As I slipped under his outstretched arm—the man was six four and towered over me—the musky scent of dragon hit me full-on. Just one more reminder that he wasn’t human. You could slice and dice and rearrange the pieces, but in the end, the puzzle formed one huge-ass, fire-breathing, hot-blooded, white and silver reptile wannabe.
Smoky glanced down at me, almost as if he knew what I was thinking, and smiled softly. “Let’s go take care of Delilah,” he said.
