Mark of the Demon (Kara Gillian 1)

I groaned. I wasn’t at all willing to risk summoning him, but here I’d had a powerful arcane Demonic Lord in my dream and I’d completely missed my chance. I could have asked him about the traces and the symbol!

I sighed and poured my coffee, adding significant amounts of creamer and sugar to dull the bite of the chicory. I wonder if Rhyzkahl would really tell me what I want to know if I called him. Though it would probably help if I knew what this “call” entailed. He said “call,” not “summon,” I mused. What was the difference?

I took my mug out to the back porch and sat on the wooden swing. The view was limited to a small wooden shed and the woods that surrounded my house, but it was quiet and serene and usually allowed me to forget about the outside world. I didn’t maintain anything resembling a lawn around the house, and this time of year, wildflowers sprang up in chaotic arrangements anywhere there was enough sunlight. A mockingbird sang lustily from somewhere nearby, and I tucked my feet underneath me while I curled my hands around the mug, warming my hands against the morning chill and trying to settle my nerves.

“Right, settle your nerves by slugging down some double-strength coffee,” I muttered to myself. But coffee was one of my comfort foods, and next I’d go after the chocolate and the potato chips.

The memory of Rhyzkahl’s visit was vivid, unlike a dream, which would have faded to haziness by now. Had he merely touched my dreams? I had to admit, there was no physical evidence on my body or in the room, which would have been there had he been present in the flesh.

Justa dream. Justa strange and erotic and unsettling dream visit from a Demonic Lord with whom I had a one-night stand. Nothing at all to get worked up about.

I scowled and finished my coffee, then showered and dressed. And on the way to the office stopped and bought a half dozen chocolate doughnuts.

I spent the morning in my office on the Internet, running queries on absolutely everything I could think of, from demons, to symbology, to blood magic and anything else that popped into my head. By lunchtime, I’d come up with a ridiculous amount of useless information—most of it inaccurate—and had eaten all of the doughnuts.

I groaned and leaned back in my chair, feeling slightly ill from the massive quantity of sugar and fat slogging through my bloodstream and frustrated and uneasy about my lack of progress on the case.

Oh, yeah, and my dream visitor who sure as hell didn’t feel like a dream. That was just one more piece of fun to throw into the mix.

A dull headache began to pound behind my eyeballs. I sighed and rubbed at my temples, then on a whim leaned forward, pulled up a search engine, and typed in the name of the comic book that my aunt had shown me.

“Hot damn,” I breathed. It was apparently a fairly popular graphic novel, with a pretty comprehensive website devoted to it—ordering information, history and storyline, and even quite a few sample graphics.

Including pictures of Rhyzkahl.

Okay, it probably wasn’t actually him, but how the hell had this guy managed to draw something so damn close? I hit the print button on my computer as I continued to scrutinize the pictures. I hadn’t examined the comic very closely at my aunt’s house, so I took the opportunity now.

It was him. The more I looked at it, the more certain I became. The white-blond hair, the Adonis-like build, the enigmatic smile, and the crystal-blue ancient eyes—holy shit, the eyes! Somehow this artist had seen or met Rhyzkahl before.

I clicked through the site, looking for information about the artist, but it was surprisingly bare. That was odd. You’d think that an artist would want to promote himself. Or herself. There was only a name: Greg Cerise.

But even if there wasn’t much artist information on the site, there was a page all about how to order and where to order from. To my surprise, the address for mail order was a local P.O. box.

“So how did this artist encounter him?” I murmured to myself as I did another search on the artist. On a whim I pulled up LexisNexis.

I narrowed my eyes at the information on the screen. Now, wasn’t that some shit? Not only was there actually a person named Greg Cerise, but—surprise, surprise—he lived in Beaulac.

A thrill of excitement ran through me. I could go talk to him, find out what he knew about Rhyzkahl—get a viewpoint other than my aunt’s. And I could even justify going while on duty, since I knew that the murders were connected somehow to the arcane, right?

Okay, so that was a stretch. The guy drew pictures of my demon lover. That hardly qualified as a connection. I suppressed my insistent twinge of guilt and tried to ignore the voice that reminded me that the chief had recently chewed me out for acting like a nutjob. Yeah, well, the chief has no idea that the Symbol Man is working in the arcane.

I allowed myself a smug smile as I quickly printed out the address information. Being a nutjob might prove to be a job requirement.

Chapter 10

The house didn’t look like much, just a single-story brick thing with unadorned windows and lackluster landscaping. The lawn had been mowed in the past few days and there was no trash in the yard, but it had a kept-up-just-enough look that made me suspect Mr. Cerise rented the place. A dark-blue Toyota Corolla with two flat tires was parked in the driveway, and a quick peek inside revealed what looked like a gym bag in the back seat, a pile of papers that looked like they might contain drawings, and several crumpled bags from various fast-food establishments. I jotted down the license number in my notebook on the off chance I might need it later, then made my way up the cracked walkway.>“Well, damn,” I breathed shakily. It was sorely tempting to grab him and pull him back for more, but the memory of Tessa’s warning about his nature stayed me. Why is he doing this? There’s just no way he’s this smitten with me. “I, uh … am flattered to know I have that sort of effect on you.” I took a steadying breath. “But please don’t do that again.”

He lifted a silky eyebrow. “You have regrets?”

“I … don’t know,” I said honestly, relaxing a bit now that I knew he wasn’t really in the room with me. I grimaced and pushed my hair back from my face. “The thing is, I don’t usually do that sort of thing. I mean, the casual-sex thing.” I met his eyes. “And if not for the fact that you gave me your word, I’d be worrying that you had somehow compelled me.”

His expression hardened ever so briefly. “I did not break my word. The choice you made was your own.”

I nodded. “I know, and I’m glad that you let me make that choice.”

He stood and folded his arms across his chest, looking down at me. “I wish for you to trust me.”

“I don’t even know you,” I said with a touch of asperity. “And you’re a Demonic Lord. Why do you care if I trust you?”