notes regarding spells and potions I uncovered since leaving the Towers. When I picked it up, I got a whiff of a familiar scent, marigolds and blood.
“Did you get this from my basement at the parlor?” I demanded, sitting up with a jerk.
Of course. You needed to make some notes.
“You can bring things from one place to another?”
As long as they’re connected.
As the words crossed my mind, there was a soft shifting of the stones in the center of the room that contained the demon’s symbol. Simon’s rooms were connected with the parlor because I had drawn the same symbol that Simon used.
“Did he know I used the same symbol?” I asked softly, suddenly wondering if he could have used the same connection to walk right into my parlor during the past several years.
No.
“Can you bring through larger items?”
Size has no bearing.
“What about a person? What if Bronx or Trixie walked into the basement? Could you bring them here?”
It would not be . . . healthy for living creatures.
I could feel the demon’s amusement at the thought and a chill pricked along my flesh.
“It would kill them,” I said, crossing off the idea as a potential way of getting my friends immediately out of danger should the need arise.
No.
“But . . . ?” I prompted when the demon chose not to elaborate.
Their minds would break under the burden of the journey.
Before I could question the demon about what it meant, the book at my feet opened with a snap and the pages flew until it found the proper entry. With a grunt, I picked up the book and placed it on top of the one I had been reading. A quick glance revealed that the original writer of the book had done quite a bit of research on the region where demons resided, or rather where their corporeal form resided.
It wasn’t a pretty place by the sound of it, making the Christian version of Hell look like a summer retreat for girl scouts. Not a place I wanted to visit. Luckily, Lilith had something entirely different planned for me, though I doubted it was much more pleasant.
A groan slipped from my lips as I sat back in the chair again, when I realized that I’d turned the page twice since picking up the book. I wasn’t supposed to be reading this one, but my mind immediately starting soaking up the information, as if it had been starved for too many years. And maybe it had been. It had been a decade since I’d been permitted to study any kind of magic, leaving me eager to study anything I could get my hands on.
“Look . . .” I started and then stopped when I realized that I had been about to use the demon’s name, but didn’t know it. Hell, I didn’t even know if demons had names. Did they need them?
Zyrus.
I flinched at the hissed sound. It was like someone had stabbed a red hot knitting needle through my frontal lobe.
Say it.
“Why?”
Say it.
“Why? Will it give you some kind of power over me?”
The demon chuckled. No.
“Will it give me power over you?”
You mean more than you already have? No.
I hadn’t thought so. There was no power in the name. If you wanted power over someone, you needed a bit of their blood. Or better yet, a chunk of their soul.
“Then why do you want me to say it? I didn’t think that demons had names.”
The pages in the book started flipping again to stop on another section that Simon had written about demon names. There wasn’t much there, but there was no mention of any danger inherent in speaking a demon’s name. A few other demon names were listed there, but I found it interesting that the demon that guarded Simon’s rooms wasn’t listed.
“You didn’t tell him?”
No. Say it.
I could feel that its amusement was fading and it was growing more irritated, but I wasn’t going to be cowed by this creature. It had said that it needed me, that it was the pawn that I had claimed in this game. I wasn’t going to follow its directions without a damn good reason.
“Why didn’t you tell him?”
Say it first.
I frowned, not liking the fact that it was trying to bargain now. Looking down at the book in my lap, there was no warning about saying the demon’s name and I was confident there was no power in a name. Could there be any real harm?
“Zyrus,” I said between clenched teeth.
Zyrus,