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Hunt’s brow furrowed. “You were on the scene, though. You saw it.”
“I saw it in the hall, not in the apartment. Danika, the pack, and the other three recent victims were in piles.” She could barely stand to say it, to think about it again.
These past five days had been … not easy. Putting one foot in front of the other had been the only thing to get her through it after the disaster with Sabine. After the bomb she’d dropped about Danika. And if they’d been looking for the wrong fucking thing all this time …
Bryce held up the photo. “These wounds aren’t the same. The kristallos wanted to get at your heart, your organs. Not turn you into a—a heap. Danika, the Pack of Devils, Tertian, the acolyte and temple guard—none of them had wounds like this. And none had this venom in their system.” Hunt just blinked at her. Bryce’s voice cracked. “What if something else came through? What if the kristallos was summoned to look for the Horn, but something worse was also there that night? If you had the power to summon the kristallos, why not summon multiple types of demons?”
Hunt considered. “I can’t think of a demon that demolishes its victims like that, though. Unless it’s another ancient horror straight from the Pit.” He rubbed his neck. “If the kristallos killed this dryad—killed these people whose bodies washed into the river through the sewers—then why summon two kinds of demons? The kristallos is already lethal as Hel.” Literally.
Bryce threw up her hands. “I have no idea. But if everything we know about Danika’s death is wrong, then we need to figure out how she died. We need someone who can weigh in.”
He rubbed his jaw. “Any ideas?”
She nodded slowly, dread curling in her gut. “Promise me you won’t go ballistic.”
51
“Summoning a demon is a bad fucking idea,” Hunt breathed as night fell beyond the apartment’s shut curtains. “Especially considering that’s what started this mess in the first place.”
They stood in her great room, lights dimmed and candles flickering around them, Syrinx bundled in blankets and locked in his crate in Bryce’s bedroom, surrounded by a protective circle of white salt.
What lay around and before them on the pale floors, reeking of mold and rotten earth, was the opposite of that.
Bryce had ground the block of obsidian salt down at some point—presumably using her fucking food processor. For something she’d dropped ten grand on, Bryce didn’t treat it with any particular reverence. She’d chucked it into a kitchen cabinet as if it were a bag of chips.
He hadn’t realized she’d only been biding her time until she needed it.
Now, she’d crafted two circles with the obsidian salt. The one near the windows was perhaps five feet in diameter. The other was big enough to hold herself and Hunt.
Bryce said, “I’m not going to waste my time snooping around town for answers about what kind of demon killed Danika. Going right to the source will save me a headache.”
“Going right to the source will get you splattered on a wall. And if not, arrested for summoning a demon into a residential zone.” Shit. He should arrest her, shouldn’t he?
“No one likes a narc, Athalar.”
“I am a narc.”
A dark red eyebrow arched. “Could’ve fooled me, Shadow of Death.” She joined him in the salt circle. Her long ponytail pooled in the collar of her leather jacket, the candlelight gilding the red strands.
His fingers twitched, as if they’d reach for that silken length of hair. Run it between them. Wrap it around his fist and draw her head back, exposing that neck of hers again to his mouth. His tongue. Teeth.
Hunt growled, “You do know that it is my job to stop these demons from entering this world.”
“We’re not setting the demon loose,” she hissed back. “This is as safe as a phone call.”
“Are you going to summon it with its unholy number, then?” Many demons had numbers associated with them, like some sort of ancient email address.
“No, I don’t need it. I know how to find this demon.” He started to answer, but she cut him off. “The obsidian salt will hold it.”
Hunt eyed the circles she’d made, then sighed. Fine. Even though arguing with her was nearly as enticing as foreplay, he didn’t feel like wasting time, either.
But then the temperature in the room began to drop. Rapidly.
And as Hunt’s breath began to cloud the air, as a humanoid male appeared, thrumming with dark power that made his stomach roil …
Bryce grinned up at Hunt as his heart stopped dead. “Surprise.”
She’d lost her fucking mind. He would kill her for this—if they weren’t both killed in the next few seconds.
