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Seeing his face was the first time I’d felt an ounce of guilt since this whole conversation had begun almost twenty minutes ago. His world had just been shredded in front of him.
He had thought he was escaping the insanity of the paranormal when we broke up, and ended up dating a demon-summoning murderer instead.
And I thought I had a complicated love life.
“Give me your knife,” I repeated, holding my palm open in front of Santiago.
“It’s my knife.”
“I’ll give it back.”
He hesitated. I knew how valuable a ceremonial knife was, especially one of Memere’s. So valuable, in fact, Cain had been willing to trade me favors to get his hands on one. I understood why Santiago didn’t want to give it away like a prize, I really did, but now was not the time to get possessive over magical artifacts.
I left my hand open and waggled my fingers at him, giving him a look that said I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
Heaving a great sigh, he withdrew the knife from the back of his belt and placed the handle in my palm.
“You.” I pointed the knife at Tansy. “Come with me.”
“Uh, no?” She was staring at the knife, and her eyes were wide with fear.
“Do you want this to end?” I asked her.
“Not if it means you’re going to kill me.”
“Not to sound clichéd, Tansy, but if I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t be wasting time arguing with you, I’d just kill you.”
She swallowed so hard I could hear the gulp sound in the back of her throat. When a quick glance at Cash didn’t offer her the support she was hoping for, she got to her feet and moved towards me.
“Stand in the circle.” I pointed to the salt line. “You know what this is, I take it, since you made one.”
“The book drew it,” she said. “I just copied.”
“It’s a calling circle. It’s used to summon a demon. In your case, it was used to help the demon bond with you.”
Tansy stepped over the salt line and stood inside the circle, avoiding all the items strewn about within its border.
“What now?”
I turned to Santiago, wanting his confirmation on how to proceed. I was acting like I knew what to do, but up to this point I’d been faking my way through it, basing each step on what I assumed would come next. I’d been right so far, but it wasn’t going to last forever.
“This began with blood,” he said, rising from the bench and moving to the opposite side of the circle from me. “And now it ends with blood.”
While Tansy was still watching him I grabbed her hand and sliced the ceremonial knife across her palm.
She shrieked, but I had what I needed.
I drove the knife into the ground inside the circle and screamed, “You want blood, come and get it, motherfucker.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
“What the hell, Genie?” Tansy held her bleeding hand to her chest, immediately staining the light-blue material of her sweater. Now it looked like I’d stabbed her in the chest instead of just slicing open her hand.
I ignored her question, scanning the area around us, trying to see if anything was moving in the shadows outside the building.
Though I could sense the coming dawn, it was still night for a little longer, and that made it difficult to see anything more than a few feet away from us. My night vision was good, but in human form it was limited, and I couldn’t see much outside the brick walls.
“Come on,” I muttered.
