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“No.”
“No…what?” Gamigan smiled, but I knew my response had thrown it off. The way it twisted Tansy’s lips looked forced and uncomfortable.
“You won’t be the one to come for me.”
And then, ignoring the only advice Secret had given me about demons, I grabbed Gamigan around the throat and hauled it across the salt line with me.
Chapter Thirty-Three
I hit the ground hard, tripping backwards over Tansy’s huddled form, narrowly missing the elaborate pentacle Santiago had laid out.
The demon wriggled furiously, screaming in the most insanely shrill tones I’d ever heard. It was like a pig squealing, but in a higher register. I wanted to cover my ears, but that would mean letting go of the thing.
“The knife,” I said, to no one in particular but anyone who might be close enough to help.
“Give her the knife, Tansy,” Santiago shouted. He was hastily putting the pieces of the spell together. He twisted the lid off the jar of blood, and the second the smell of it hit the air, Gamigan stilled.
“What are you doing?” it demanded.
I smelled it too. The blood in the jar wasn’t human, and it was no animal I’d ever encountered either. It smelled dead, rotten, and if evil intent could have a scent, this blood was thick with it.
Before I could pinpoint what it was, the sharp stink of urine filled the night. Santiago had kicked over the little silver bowl, and the tiger piss was leaking into the inner chalk circle he’d drawn. When the urine and the blood met, Gamigan started to scream again.
“I’ll go back. I’ll go back.” It lashed from side to side, trying to break free of my grip. I had no idea how I was able to hold on, but with my arms and legs wrapped around it, the demon couldn’t get away. It shrieked and hissed. It wrenched me so hard my shoulder popped out of its socket.
I howled, my vision going completely red from the sudden, excruciating pain. Lots of things had hurt me, but having my shoulder ripped from its socket by an angry demon…that might just top the charts.
My breath was reduced to heavy panting, and with one arm now totally useless, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep the thing contained much longer.
“The knife,” I pleaded. “Tansy, do something useful for God’s sake and hand me the knife.”
She moaned and huddled herself into a smaller ball.
Cash appeared out of nowhere, scrambling over the line and pulling the ceremonial blade out of the dirt. It was still stained red with Tansy’s blood, and he hesitated for a moment before tossing it to me.
It landed next to my dislocated arm, and when I tried to get hold of it, I screamed. Even the smallest motion was too much. The arm just wouldn’t work, and any effort to make it listen to my commands sent a new spear of white-hot agony rocketing through me like lightning.
I met Cash’s eyes, his face filmy through the veil of tears obscuring my vision.
“Help me.”
He didn’t hesitate again. I thought he might leave me, might take Tansy and go, or leave her and get out himself. I don’t know if I’d have been mad at him if he’d abandoned me. I’d put him through a lot, and this request was big enough I might have understood if he didn’t do it. Even if it meant me dying.
But he stayed. He hopped over Tansy’s huddled form and scooped up the knife, and asked, “Where?”
“Heart. Heart. Heart.” I said it so many times the word lost all meaning, but I kept saying it anyway. “Heart. Heart.”
He plunged the ceremonial blade right into the demon’s chest, and it let out a scream so awful I was sure my ears must be bleeding. Cash covered his own ears, and Santiago stopped his work and flinched away from the sound.
Gamigan stopped wriggling and heaved several mighty breaths, while cursing a blue streak in a language I’d never heard before. I didn’t need to be fluent to know it wasn’t apologizing for my arm and wishing me a speedy recovery.
“Get it off,” I whispered. The creature’s weight grew heavier as the fight leached out of it, and with my arm out of joint there was no way I could shove it off on my own. “Get it off.” Tears were flowing freely down my cheeks now, and I could tell I was on the precipice of a total meltdown. The panic attack was building inside me, and I needed this demon’s body off me before I started to freak out.
Cash had staggered backwards out of the circle to get away from the sound of Gamigan’s screams.
Wilder was the one who came to my aid this time. He’d been the farthest away when everything went down, and it had all happened so fast it was no wonder he hadn’t been the first into the fray. I was right in the midst of it, and my brain was only now starting to catch up with all the action of the last minute.
He rolled Gamigan off me and, careful to avoid my injured shoulder, scooped me up like I was weightless and held me in his arms. I wrapped my good arm around him as he stepped back over the salt line. “You’re okay now.”
