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“Exactly. So there’s just no way it could have flown here to dump the body.”
Ryan glanced around to make sure no one else was close enough to overhear our conversation. Fortunately, Harris was still pontificating to his own people. “And I guess it’s pretty silly to think that the killer drove the demon and his victim to someplace close, just so that it could fly over and deposit the body.”
“Right. It doesn’t make any sense. And the timing doesn’t work either. We were at the diner barely fifteen minutes after Belle called. Even if she’d already been brought out here, there’s no way that the kehza could have flown back to town in time to attack us. And it couldn’t have killed her and dumped her afterward, because it had been sent back to its own plane.” I cursed softly. “That must mean that there’s a second demon, a higher-level demon—probably a syraza or a reyza. Either of those would be more than strong enough to snatch her from that street and fly her all the way out here to kill her. The kehza was just there to find out more about me.”
“And using that syraza or reyza gives the killer an alibi,” Zack pointed out. “If he lets the demon snatch his victims and take care of the bodies, he can be anywhere else.”
That was an unpleasant thought.
“How could he have sent the kehza after you and also had this other demon to take care of this body? I thought you said that it was almost impossible to summon and hold two demons?” Ryan asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
“I did. It is. Crap. There must be another explanation.” There was one, but it was one that deepened the feeling of dread within me.
“I don’t like the look on your face, Detective,” Ryan said.
“Damn. It’s possible—possible—that he has formally allied with the higher-level demon, which would mean it wouldn’t require the same level of effort to summon.”
Kind of like what you could have with Rhyzkahl, the thought crept in. But, no, this was different. This was an indication of a degree of cooperation that was rarely seen between summoners and the beings they summoned. The thought of a demon and a summoner working together to summon and control a Demonic Lord spoke of conflicts that ranged far beyond this sphere. In fact, having a higher demon as an ally would probably be the only way a summoner could ever hope to succeed in summoning and binding a Demonic Lord.
“Okay, this is starting to feel really, really bad,” I said, as I stepped away from the body.
“Care to share?” Ryan said. “I mean, besides the obvious stuff that even I can figure out.”
Harris chose that moment to wonder what the three of us were up to. He huffed up to us, shirt straining.
“I’ll take care of this,” Zack murmured. “Ryan can fill me in later.”
I gave him a look of relief as he neatly intercepted Harris and deftly guided him away from us. I could hear him asking the rotund detective about the traffic that usually traveled the highway and then could hear Harris eagerly launching into a story about drug trafficking and bike gangs.
Damn. Talk about taking one for the team! I motioned with my head for Ryan to follow, walking well away from the others to a point near where the ground turned soft and the swamp began. “If he’s allied with a demon,” I said, speaking low and quickly, “it’s almost definitely a syraza or a reyza—eleventh- or twelfth-level demons—since the lowers don’t have enough control or power to be capable of a worthwhile alliance. And the only reason one would ally with a human, even a summoner, would be if it was worth his while. If he was going to get something out of it.” I frowned and stuffed my hands down into my pockets. “In every summoning, a summoner has to give the summoned creature something in return. It’s totally a power struggle, and the creature is bound, but only a small portion of that binding is arcane in nature. It’s all about the honor. During the summoning, after the initial binding, the summoner offers the demon something that would be considered valuable to the demon—enough to satisfy their bruised honor—and what it is depends on the demon.”
“What sort of something are we talking about?”
“Like I said, it depends on the demon. Some of the smaller ones like chocolate or beer. Others like books. Some want information. Others merely want the summoner to spill his or her blood to show their commitment to the summoning. It depends on the demon.”
“Okay,” Ryan drawled. “And what could our Symbol Man have offered this demon in exchange for his help?”
I dragged a hand through my hair. “Power, of some sort. Certainly not here in this sphere, because that would be worthless to a demon below the level of a lord, but most likely a chance at power in the sphere of the demons.”
“Ah. Sort of like the Klingon method of promotion.”
I stared at him blankly. “The what?”
Ryan’s eyes went wide. “You can’t be serious. As over the edge as you are, you don’t watch Star Trek?”
I scowled. “I’m not over the edge, and I do so watch Star Trek. Did. A couple of times.”
Ryan rolled his eyes dramatically. “And here I thought you were my perfect match.” He grinned at me while I struggled for a response. “The Klingon method of promotion,” he continued, “is where you kill your superior to get their job.”
“Oh. Right.” Funny. He didn’t look like a nerd. “Okay, yes, that might be it in a way, though a reyza can’t actually become a lord. It would be like a panther trying to become a tiger. But it could be one of the lord’s generals. Or, more likely, it’s a rival general working for his own lord to bring down this other lord. My aunt tells me that the power struggles in that sphere are constant and devious.”
Ryan frowned. “Is there a way to find out who the demon is?”
I started to tell him that there wasn’t, then paused. There was a way, but, holy shit, it was risky.
“Kara? What is it?”
“Well,” I said, “I can’t tell, but another higher demon—or a more powerful being than that—could probably read the traces on the body and be able to identify it.” I thought about Rhyzkahl’s statement about his mark on me.
