Mark of the Demon (Kara Gillian 1)

“I’m a big fan of thorough research.”

I watched the interplay, arms folded across my chest. Why the hell had he checked my aunt out? Had he already known that she was a summoner? Well, he certainly did now.

Tessa raised an eyebrow and released his hand, then turned back to me. “I know you’re ticked at me for prying, sweets, but I’ve been worried about you. I thought you might try to summon on the dark, and I hadn’t heard from you in a while. I’ve been out of town for the past few days, so I figured I’d check that everything was all right.”

I abruptly realized I was scowling, but I didn’t make much effort to modify my expression. “I’ve been busy. Remember? Serial killer? I’ll summon again in about a week, on the full.” Then I straightened. “Wait, if he’s gearing up to something big, it’s going to have to be on this month’s full.”

Ryan’s forehead creased in a frown. “Why? What happens after this month? I thought you just needed a full moon to have enough potency for big summonings.”

Tessa shook her head. “The convergence of the two spheres is more important than the phase of the moon. We just came out of a period of a few years where the convergence was so small that it was darn near impossible to summon anything higher than eighth level. Right now the convergence is nearly as high as it can possibly be, but after this month it will start to taper off to more-normal levels.” She nodded her head toward me. “Kara would have been a full summoner some time ago if she hadn’t been forced to wait until the convergence was high enough to allow for a summoning of a twelfth-level demon.”

I could see him mentally filing that information away. “So anyone seeking to summon anything of any decent size or power would do so on this next full moon—which means we have less than a week to catch him.”

I moved to the kitchen and dropped into a chair at the table. “Right. That also means he’s going to be doing more murders between now and then, building up a strong reservoir of power.” I tapped the table thoughtfully. “But I’m hoping that it’s going to be harder for him to find victims. I spent the last few nights going around and showing the other photographs from Cerise’s house, trying to get the word to these people—and everyone else as well—to be careful.”

Tessa’s brows drew together. “Cerise? Greg Cerise?”

I nodded absently, then sat up straight. My aunt didn’t know about him yet. “Oh, shit, Aunt Tessa. I forgot that you knew him.”

Tessa sat down slowly, eyes on me. “Knew? You’re speaking in past tense, sweets.”

“Shit. I’m sorry, Aunt Tessa.” I hesitated, but there was no easy way to break this sort of news. “He’s dead. I’m so sorry.”

Tessa looked down at the table. “What happened?” she asked, voice calm and even.

“Symbol Man,” Ryan said quietly. “We think that Greg was somehow connected to him. We found pictures, photographs, and drawings of all the victims plus several others who we haven’t been able to identify yet.”

Tessa pursed her lips, silent. I looked at her with a tinge of worry. I knew that my aunt had been close to Greg when they were younger, but had they still been close?

“Greg wasn’t a summoner,” Tessa finally said.

I flicked a quick glance to Ryan before looking back to my aunt. “Yes, I know. I went to talk to him a while back, asking about that comic—trying to find out more about Rhyzkahl. I really hadn’t thought there was any connection between Greg and the Symbol Man at that time. But then one of the other agents on the task force made the connection between Symbol Man victims and characters in Greg’s comic. We got a search warrant, and …” I sighed. “When we made entry, we found Greg dead and then found pictures of all the victims.”

Her expression was bleak as she looked at me. “Do you think he helped kill those people?”

“No,” I said with as much conviction as I could manage, knowing that there was a good chance I was lying to her. She probably knew it, too, but it was what she needed to hear right then.

“Do you know of anyone who might be connected to Greg?” I asked. “Anyone he worked with or was close to?”

Tessa spread her hands. “I hadn’t seen him in well over twenty years,” she said, voice colored with regret. “So someone is killing the people Greg drew? Why?”

“Greg tended to use people who were homeless or drug addicts as his models,” I said.

“People who weren’t quickly missed,” Ryan added.

I glanced at him and nodded. “This killer needs a lot of victims. I figure he’s attempting to perform a major summoning and that’s why he’s gathering so much energy.”

“Yes,” Tessa said with a nod. “You’ve been thinking that for a while now.”

I took a deep breath. “But now I think it’s Rhyzkahl that he’s trying to summon. And not just summon but bind as a slave.”

Tessa’s expression sharpened. “And what makes you think that? That’s one hell of an ambitious summoning, and one fraught with considerable danger. Binding an unwilling Demonic Lord? Especially Rhyzkahl? That’s insane!”

I hesitated. Ryan didn’t know about the dream visits. For that matter, neither did Tessa.

“Er, well,” I said, trying not to squirm, “I kinda got that impression after I … uh, last spoke to Rhyzkahl.”

Tessa didn’t twitch a muscle, but Ryan shifted, clearly startled.