Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex Demonized #1) - Annette Marie Page 0,73
In others, not as fast. In the First House, almost never. In my House, we are never taken. The others hate us because we are safe from hh’ainun.” He slowed to a stop, his crimson eyes unreadable. “Until me. I was taken, but I do not know why.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s because Uncle Jack got my mother’s grimoire. It had your House name in it. Humans can’t summon demons from a House without its name.”
His brow furrowed. “Why did your mother have my House name?”
“I don’t know.” My nerves prickled and I hurriedly resumed walking. The Grand Grimoire building was just around the corner.
Why had my mother protected that grimoire? Had she concealed it because it had Zylas’s House name? Or because it had the name of the First House? Or some other reason?
“Anyway,” I muttered, “I think the grimoire has important information about summoning that could help send you home. We need to get it back from my uncle.”
He trailed after me. “Is it something you need? Or do you want it because it is yours and not his?”
I inhaled sharply. Zylas was easy to underestimate, but he saw and understood more than I cared to guess—including this.
“I want it because it’s mine,” I said, staring at the ground. “But it might also help with my research.”
He walked beside me, his tail swishing against the sidewalk. “I will help you.”
My head snapped up. “You will?”
“If he used this grimoire to take me, I will help you get it back—and you will purge my name from it so my House cannot be taken again.”
“Oh.” I sighed. “I thought you were offering just to be nice.”
“Nice? Ch. ‘Nice’ is for stupid hh’ainun.”
Annoyed, I marched toward the corner. “There are benefits to doing nice things for people, you know.”
“Zh’ūltis.”
“There are! They’ll do nice things for you in return, things you might not think to ask for. It builds trust and comradery and—”
“How is that useful?”
As we turned the corner, I glared at him. “You, selfish demon, are completely ignorant about a whole lot of ‘stupid human’ things.”
“If they’re stupid things,” he mocked, “why do I need to know them?”
“I mean you think they’re stupid when they’re actually—”
He planted his hand on top of my head and pushed downward as though trying to shrink me. “Small and weak and stupid, payilas.”
“Stop calling me stupid!” I whacked his hand. “And let me go!”
“I will if you—” Jolting in surprise, he dragged me to a halt beside him.
Two dozen yards down the sloping sidewalk, a streetlamp dimly lit the Grand Grimoire’s green awning, and standing in front of the door was Burly—or rather, Todd, the guild member who’d greeted me and Amalia.
He stared at me and Zylas, his mouth gaping in silent horror.
He’d seen Zylas talking—something a contracted demon couldn’t do. He’d seen me trying in vain to push Zylas’s hand off my head—further damning evidence that I couldn’t control him.
I opened my mouth but my brain had ground to a standstill. This was exactly what we’d needed to prevent. This was the worst-case scenario. My secret was out. The MPD would brand me a rogue and bounty hunters would kill me.
Todd’s shock broke before mine. He whipped his infernus out of his jacket and red light blazed over it. His demon appeared in a swirl of crimson, towering seven and a half feet tall.
Zylas leaped forward.
I watched him dash down the slope, silent and lethal. Todd’s spiky demon swung its huge fist. Zylas ducked the lethargic blow and sprang past the demon. His fingers were curled, red magic streaking down his hands to form six-inch talons.
He didn’t turn on the spiky demon’s back. He kept going.
And I realized his intention.
“No!” My shriek echoed through the silent night—but it was too late. A rasping tear. The splatter of liquid hitting the ground. The thud of a falling body.
Todd’s demon, frozen in mid-swing, straightened. The blankness in its face melted away, and a mixture of rage and triumph twisted its bestial features. It turned around, the shift of its huge body revealing what lay behind it.
Zylas stood beside Todd, his crimson talons dripping. The man lay prone, blood spreading under him and trickling down the sloping concrete.
“Gh’athirilnā nul thē,” the spiky demon rumbled.
Zylas sneered at his kin. “Ait eshilthē adahk Ivaknen īn idintav et Vh’alyir.”
Crimson magic bloomed across the spiky demon. Its form dissolved into a cloud of light that shot at Todd. Glowing power hit his body, illuminating it from within like a scarlet