I hesitated half a heartbeat as I parsed the quick words and held the bindings carefully. Terms had not yet been negotiated, and I had to be careful not to give too much away yet. I gave a slow nod. “I normally summon on the full moon, yes.”

Its tiny eyes darted around the chamber. “Tessa Pazhel before call me wards for me to make.” I nodded again. That was why I’d called this particular demon. According to Kehlirik, this demon had placed all of the devastating wards in my aunt’s house.

“I am Kara Gillian, the niece of Tessa Pazhel. I have summoned you here to serve me under terms that will honor us both.”

It bared sharp teeth at me and cocked its head. It looked ferocious—and no doubt was—but I knew that the bared teeth were its own version of a smile. “Yes yes yes, offering you have?”

I picked up the canister of Café Du Monde coffee from the floor beside me, still keeping a firm mental grasp on the bindings. Nothing had been settled yet, and even a small creature like this could do considerable damage to my person. I’d shed enough blood already this year, thank you.

It gave a low warble and hopped forward. “Task you wish exchange for?”

I resisted the desire to squirm in embarrassment. “I require wards to be replaced throughout the house and in the library downstairs.”

It blinked at me, then whipped its head around as if seeing its surroundings for the first time. It let out a low croon that was unmistakably sad. “Oohhhh … work gone. Pretty work all gone who make gone?”

I grimaced. “I, uh, summoned a reyza to remove the wards. I needed access to the house and library, and Tessa Pazhel is … indisposed.”

To my surprise, the little demon straightened on its back four legs and puffed out its chest. “Yes yes! Take reyza to remove wards mine!” It hopped up and down, warbling. “Yes yes, agree to terms. Do work again. Pretty-work!”

Sheesh. I’d forgotten what a pain in the ass it was to listen to a faas. Sentence structure wasn’t terribly important to them.

“Agreed,” I said, and handed over the offering. The demon tucked it into one of the pouches at its belt, then waited for me to drop the bindings and protections.

I did so, then gestured toward the doorway, but it was already hopping in that direction. “I think the most important thing is to secure that portal in the library,” I said as I followed it down the stairs.

It let out a horrified squawk and spun to face me, nearly causing me to lose my balance and tumble down the stairs. I grabbed at the railing as it glared at me. “Portal not ward?” it shrieked.

“Um, the reyza took down all the wards. I don’t think he knew that the portal was there.”

The demon bared its teeth, and this time there was no mistaking it for a smile. This was definitely an expression of menace, though I was fairly certain that it was not directed toward me. Fairly.

“Reyza know portal,” it growled. “Feel it strong, know it. Uncovered to use or tell other use. Push through.” It turned and bounded the rest of the way down the stairs and down the hall to the library before I could take a breath to ask it what the fuck it was talking about. I scurried after it, a not-good feeling settling into my gut.

I entered the library to see the demon crouching before the portal, spines on its back flared out and tipped with red. I stayed in the doorway. I’d never seen a faas that angry and upset before.

“What do you mean, push through? There were some creatures here earlier—”

It spun to face me. “Creatures kind? What like?”

“They were small”—I held my hands up, about six inches apart—“with wings and a stinger.”

Zhergalet snorted. “Hriss. Pest. Came through self. Pushed not. Eat scrap feelings.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling as if I was continually several steps behind the demon’s thought processes. “Scrap feelings?”

It fluttered its hands. “Potency. Excess sucks up. Tired you become is all. Pest to swat. Worry little about hriss. Worry more if pushed big through portal.”

I licked my lips. “You … would worry if something big was pushed through? How big? And pushed from where?”

“Big like me not me though. Demon push hard to do. Lower creature push not so hard.”

“Big like … a dog?”

It cocked its head. “Dog what is?”

I held my hand a couple of feet off the ground to show the height. “Black, four legs, long face, mouth full of teeth, tail …” Okay, that could describe half the taxonomy of earth, but apparently the little demon understood my description. It hissed and shook its head.

“Bad bad. Kzak. Not come self through. Push only.”

I was starting to get a headache from trying to understand it. “Okay, it’s called a kzak. And it was pushed through. Why? From where?”

Zhergalet wagged its head. “Kzak sent damage cause. Hurt and kill. One dangerous some. Pack dangerous very.”

“Wait. They’re sent … to a specific target? Like an assassin?”

It nodded, hopping up and down. “Yes yes!”

A shiver of cold ran down my back. The dog thing had been sent. After me? Or after Ryan? “Kehlirik would definitely have known the portal was there?”

“Reyza know he would. Valuable knowledge. Take back status gain.”

I scowled, feeling oddly betrayed even though I knew it was stupid to feel that way. Kehlirik had done precisely what I’d asked him to do—remove the wards. In the process he’d discovered the portal, and when he returned to the demon world he’d either used that information or sold it to the demon equivalent of the highest bidder. Then the portal had been used to send a kzak after … someone.

I wanted to sit down and hug my knees to my chest, but that wasn’t a luxury I could afford at the moment. It had to be after Ryan. Had to be. Kehlirik didn’t like Ryan, and maybe there were others who felt the same way. Besides, who in the demon realm could possibly want to hurt me? Rhyzkahl? I couldn’t fathom any reason he would do so, especially since he’d stated often enough that he didn’t want me to risk myself.

But what about some other demonic lord—one who knew that Rhyzkahl was trying to wear me down to get me to commit to being his summoner? Taking me out would cut Rhyzkahl off from this opportunity.

I gave in and slid down the wall and hugged my knees to my chest. Zhergalet merely continued to hop in place. “I do portal first. Cannot seal one day in. Take much time and many summonings to secure. But make pushes harder can do.”

“Good, yeah.” I waved a hand. “Do what you can. Make it hard for whoever it is to push shit through.”

The little demon warbled and turned to its work. I knew that I should watch and see what I could learn about warding from the creature, but I was in serious need of comfort at the moment, and there was a pint of chocolate ice cream in my aunt’s freezer calling my name.

Chapter 31

I finished the ice cream and felt a little better—and fatter—then distracted myself by going back to the attic. The storage diagram I’d used for Zhergalet’s summoning was intact and still had plenty of potency. Summoning the little demon hadn’t taken much power at all, and it didn’t take long for me to channel enough to replace what I’d used, plus extra.

By the time Zhergalet had finished replacing the first layer of protections on the portal and the house and had been dismissed back to its own sphere, it was three a.m. and I was fighting to stay awake. I had the unerring feeling that the demon wasn’t pleased to be redoing its work, and I was also more than a bit dismayed to discover just how much work it had been. My aunt had summoned the demon four times to get what were considered adequate protections in place. That had been near the end of last year. However, Zhergalet revealed that she had summoned it again a few months ago—shortly after my first encounter with Rhyzkahl—and had asked it to beef up the protections considerably.

I sighed. I didn’t have the energy to get upset about any of that right now.

I looked around the library. The current wards weren’t much more effective than what I’d placed, though they were a damn sight higher quality. However, I’d learned that these were the arcane version of a base coat and were vitally necessary for creating strong protections, or so Zhergalet had stated. Repeatedly. Tomorrow—er, tonight I would summon the demon again and it could start building decent protections.

I’d also received a rambling and difficult-to-follow lecture in security, which was a sharp scolding at times, one that made me think hard about the security—or complete lack thereof—at my own house. Okay, so I’ve been doing the equivalent of going shopping while leaving my bags on the front seat and my car unlocked. Tessa had spoken of the need for security, but I’d never really taken it seriously. After all, I lived way out in the middle of nowhere and I was a cop.

In other words, after Zhergalet finishes Tessa’s house, I have to get the demon to do mine.

But first, sleep.

My cell phone rang a few seconds after I curled up on the couch. At least it felt that way. But somehow, when I was able to blearily focus on the screen, it insisted that the time was one p.m.

“Kara Gillian here.”

“You’re not at the station. You’re not at your house. You’re not resting. You’re pushing yourself too hard—”

“Shut up, Ryan,” I growled. “You just woke me up, so piss off.”

He chuckled. “Well, since you’re not at your house, you must be at your aunt’s.”

“You really are too smart to be a fed. By the way, when were you going to tell me that I was on an FBI task force?”

“As soon as I got word that it had been approved. I’m assuming it’s been approved since you’re telling me about it.”

“I guess so. My captain doesn’t seem real happy about it, but he can kiss my ass.”

He laughed. “Ah, I see you’re in a pleasant mood today. Can I buy you lunch? Or, in your case, I suppose it would be breakfast?”

“I changed my mind. If you have to ask that, you’re definitely not too smart to be a fed.”

“Smart-ass. Meet me at the Lake o’ Butter in half an hour?”

“Pick me up. My car’s a piece of total shit.”

“Your own damn fault for driving your other one into a river.”

I growled something rude and hung up, but I was smiling.

I jumped into the shower and allowed the hot water to blast me for a blissful two minutes before I reluctantly shut it off. I toweled dry quickly and was just pulling on clean clothes when I heard Ryan’s car in the driveway. Running my fingers through my wet hair, I headed to the door and opened it to see Ryan standing at the edge of the driveway with a slight frown creasing his forehead. “Is something different?”

“Yeah. Come on in while I find my shoes. I had the wards redone. At least partially.”

He nodded, frown disappearing as he climbed the stairs. “Had them done? You summoned?”

“Yep.” I shut the door behind him and headed to the bedroom. “Same demon my aunt used. They’re not finished, though. It’s gonna take a few go-rounds to get it done right, but it’s still better than the crap I’d put up.” I fished my shoes out from beneath the bed. “So please tell me that this task force is not really a white-collar-crimes task force, because I like you, but that financial shit bores me senseless.”

Ryan laughed. “Well, I’m glad that the name of the task force is boring, because that’s the point. Yes, we do our share of mundane investigations, but we also get called to anything ‘not quite right.’ I will admit that your background in White Collar did help with the approval on our end. Anyway, it’s not a full-time gig, but now that we’ve pushed the various approvals through, it’ll be easier to bring you on board for some of our unusual cases.”

“All right, I can deal with that. Being on a task force sounded cool, but I didn’t want to be pulled out of Violent Crimes entirely.”

His eyes crinkled in amusement. “I’m so glad we could accommodate you. Now, hurry up and get your shoes on. Zack’s holding a table for us.”

Zack was in fact holding a table for us, but at nearly one-thirty in the afternoon it didn’t much matter, since he was the only person in the place. “I hear that Ryan’s convinced you to come to the dark side,” he said with a teasing grin as I sat.

“Only occasionally,” I corrected. “I’m not sure that y’all could handle my darkness full-time.”

Zack snorted. “Some things are best left to the unknown. So, anything new going on?”

“Actually, yes.” I leaned forward and lowered my voice, even though there wasn’t anyone else nearby. “I summoned last night to get the wards at my aunt’s house redone and found out some things in the process about that portal.”

The two agents leaned forward in unison. “Spill,” Ryan commanded.

“Well, first off, it looks like the reyza that I summoned to remove all the wards knew darn good and well that the portal was there. He would have realized it the second he made it into the library.”

Ryan grimaced. “And he took that info back and either used it or sold it, right?”

“Most likely.” I sighed. “I want to be pissed, but he didn’t betray me. I mean, that’s how their honor works. He did precisely what I asked him to do.” I was still pissed, but I knew it wasn’t going to do me any good, so I was trying to ignore it. “Anyway, that’s just the beginning. Apparently it’s some sort of connection between the spheres, but not one that large or higher-sentience creatures can get through. However, other creatures can be ‘pushed’ through from the other side.”