The mages grimaced. Pain flashed through Agnon’s human shell, the body still reacting to its nervous system. The being followed the chemical reaction before severing the connection. Pain was not a pleasant feeling when in one of these vessels. The being did not like experiencing it.

“Now,” Agnon said, taking a look around with its new eyes. The human had barely passable vision. What a nuisance. “We must put our plans into effect. I must see what the girl can do, which means we must test her.” The mages stared at him with fear-soaked eyes. They were frozen with barely contained panic. That would not do. “If you fulfill my wishes, I see no reason to harm any of you.”

“But I summoned a level-four demon. How did a higher level come to be in my circle?” the leader asked, standing rigid. He did not plan to let this go. Failure and the fear of humiliation pinged through his thoughts. It would cripple the situation.

“I do not need to be summoned to walk above,” the being said, mustering its patience. “But I desired willing human minions, and there was no easier way to find them than to answer a summons. Humans under the illusion of safety, and hungry for power, are foolhardy. Blind. I promised you the vast sources of the underworld’s power, and you rolled over like mongrels, begging for orders. You are shortsighted. It was only a matter of time before these games of yours backfired. Nevertheless, this has worked modestly well so far.”

“But we didn’t summon you,” another of the humans said.

Agnon rotated his head, hearing the loud pop of its shell’s neck bone breaking. As expected, the head became heavier as more effort rested on Agnon to keep it upright. The being shouldn’t have broken that bone so early. No matter—in a day, it wouldn’t be an issue.

A ruddy-faced female human shrank away from its notice, her eyes fearful.

“A demon of high power can intercept a summons once it can maintain a form on the surface,” Agnon said. “Your ignorance may seal your fate. We shall see. Now. I promised you power when first I met you. I will impart that to you now in anticipation of meeting the girl. If she is the rightful princess, you will need every ounce of my help in order to survive.”

Chapter Seventeen

After a day’s worth of fitful sleep, I woke up to a hovering vampire. At least I felt pretty good about our plan for the night, thanks to Lily.

Callie and Dizzy soon headed off to a watering hole that Lily had heard harbored some of the more powerful mages in the area. Members of the guild were among that crew, something that had hardened Callie’s already hard bulldog expression. She wasn’t a fan of that corrupt governing body. I really hoped she didn’t mention that to them. Or get into a magic duel. I’d told her and Dizzy to keep a low profile. I didn’t want news of my presence spreading around. That made people ask questions, and questions were bad for business.

The first item on my checklist found me and, of course, Darius outside a condo that belonged to a man Lily was nearly certain was involved with the case. She’d overheard him conversing with someone about victims and screaming. It had unnerved her enough that she’d taken his name from his credit card and put it in a little book of disreputable characters. Normally, she would’ve banned him, but she’d wanted to keep her eye on him. Except he hadn’t come back in since.

What she’d heard was good enough for me. If he wasn’t involved directly, he probably knew something about it.

“Okay,” I whispered as I walked slowly up to the clean white door. My hands were out, feeling for spells. So far I hadn’t encountered any. “We’re just going to walk right in and get the jump on him. I’ll lob a few questions and we’ll see how we get along.”

“Don’t kill him or you’ll put us back at square one.” Darius drifted along behind me, calm and serene. He was using me as a shield for any magic that might unexpectedly come. Mr. Bodyguard, indeed.

“I will try my best not to kill him, yes.” I reached out near the wood. A hum of magic infused my palm. I pushed my hand closer until it was actually touching the door, reading the magical current. “It’s a pretty common security spell, I think, designed to trigger some sort of alarm if we cross the threshold. It’s using the wood as an anchor, but it also runs along the inside. Which means…”

I blew out a breath and looked behind me at the darkened street. The streetlight closest was out, the glass broken. Someone had busted it, and I had a pretty good hunch as to who. A car rolled past, followed by another in the opposite direction. At the far end of the street I could just make out a shape wandering along. It wasn’t late enough to go mostly unnoticed.

“Which means what?” Darius asked, now standing beside me. His spicy cologne mixed deliciously with his masculine scent. Unlike mermaids, vampires—thankfully—didn’t smell like their other forms.

I shook my head. “Unless I use my fire to burn away the door and the spell attached to it. If there is one thing people notice, though, it’s fire. Humans are drawn to it. They’d come to check it out, realize I was up to no good, then call the cops. That kind of racket would alert the mage. All bad things.” I took out my sword.

“He must have heard us by now if he’s home.”

“We’re being quiet, and he doesn’t have excellent hearing like you do. We’re fine. He’ll hear me kicking down the door, though. As would the whole neighborhood. How annoying. I would really like to bust it in.”

“I have never understood your infatuation with kicking things in.”

“We all have our vices.” I twisted my mouth to the side, thinking. “Trying to cut through the door would also be heard. This street is too quiet. There’s no way I can get through without triggering the spell. As soon as I open the door, no matter how quickly I cut out that spell, it’ll go off.”

“Then after you get in, you best hurry and find him.”

“Boy, you’re Mr. Obvious tonight, huh? Thank goodness I brought you.” I grabbed the door handle, twisted, and pushed. It didn’t budge. “Can you unlock it, please?”

“Yes. And in keeping with my obvious assertions, I can also unlock windows.”

I hesitated with my hand on the knob, tilting my head in thought. I hadn’t considered that route because I’d figured we would have to break a window—and the sound of shattering glass would be an immediate giveaway.

“I’m not sure I realized you could do that,” I muttered.

“Which was why I mentioned it,” he said patiently. “Things are only obvious when you already know them. With you, there is no telling what knocks around in your head.”

The window beside the door wasn’t capable of sliding open. The next nearest window was off to the side with the curtains drawn.

I stepped off the stoop and threaded my way through the plants. “Opening it won’t break the plane,” I muttered. “The alarm won’t trigger unless someone goes through it. There is an additional spell one can apply to address that issue, of course. Did our mage take the extra precaution?”

I felt the vibrations of the spell through the glass, not anchored well because of the difference in material.

“No, he did not,” I whispered. “He thinks he’s at the top of the food chain. These spells are nothing more than precautionary. He’s probably thinking of human burglars. Little does he know that his safety is an illusion. What a horrible surprise he’ll have tonight.”

I glanced back at Darius, who still waited near the door. A moment later, he nodded. The lock was ready to go.

The window squealed as I pushed it up. I ground my teeth, stopping when it was halfway open, and listened. A truck rumbled by. In the distance, a dog barked. Silence hung heavy inside the house.

I passed my sword through the open space, splitting the security spell and unraveling it. The magic winked out, leaving residue that would soon start to deteriorate. I returned to the door and eased it open, thankful it didn’t also creak. Darkness greeted me, lacking even a distant glow from any light sources elsewhere in the house.

The screen of my phone said 9:08. It was much too early for him to have gone to bed, and normal people didn’t sit around in the dark. There was always the chance he was upstairs, though.