“Zack,” I gasped,“get in the car. There’s something—”
He grabbed me by my arm, almost yanking it out of its socket as he took off at a run, near dragging me along. “No! Car’s not safe. You need to get as far away as possible before it forms!”
I struggled to keep up with him, and only his fierce grip on my arm kept me from sprawling face first. “Before what forms?” I managed to ask. I expected him to veer between the houses, but he kept to the street. Apparently distance was more important than cover.
“It’s a portal,” he said through clenched teeth, pulling me along even though I was running as fast as I could— which, admittedly, wasn’t all that fast. “Can’t you feel it? It’s a summoning!”
I stumbled as his words penetrated, then my shock tripled as Zack hoisted me up onto his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. “Hang on!” he ordered. And then ran.
I’d only thought he’d been running before. I clung for dear life as he nearly doubled his pace, sprinting flat-out like an Olympian, and as if he didn’t have my not-so-light weight draped across his shoulders. Holy shit, the man had some seriously inhuman speed.
Oh, shit. The realization slammed home. Zack’s not human.
A few seconds later—though it felt like a few hours—he slowed and stopped, then set me on my feet. He held me carefully to make sure I was steady before releasing me, then stepped back. He didn’t say anything. He seemed to know what I was going to say.
Too bad I didn’t know what I was going to say. “Are we far enough away?” I finally asked.
Zack nodded, eyes steady on me. He looked oddly expectant and bereft at the same time.
I swallowed and took a deep breath. “How did you know it was a summoning?”
“I’ve felt them before,” he answered, voice low.
Them. More than one. “Was it directed at me or you?”
“I have no way to know that,” he said, still terribly calm and quiet.
“If you were to guess,” I prompted.
“I would guess that it was directed at you,” he said with a slight nod, as if to congratulate me on the handling of the question.
A summoning of me. Someone from the demon realm was trying to pull me through a portal, the same way I pulled demons into this world. My knees wanted to shake at everything that implied, but I forced the panic down with every ounce of control I had and took another deep breath. “Are you human?” My voice cracked, but I didn’t care.
He closed his eyes, naked pain on his face. “I cannot answer that.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Both,” he replied in little more than a whisper. “I’m bound by oath.”
“You’re a demon,” I breathed. He didn’t move or answer, but I didn’t need him to. What kind of demon can look like a human? I’d never heard of a demon being able to shapeshift. Then again, there was a lot I didn’t know about the demonkind.
“Is Ryan a demon?” I squeaked.
He opened his eyes and met my gaze. “No,” he said, voice soft but firm. Relief swirled through me and for an instant I thought I saw a flash of pity in Zack’s eyes, but then he looked away.
“Is he a summoner?” I was more than willing to keep asking questions as long as Zack would keep answering them, especially since it kept me from thinking about the extremely scary thought of someone trying to summon me.
He hesitated for so long I began to think he wasn’t going to answer. “He has the ability to open a portal,” he finally said, voice very low.
I could feel a knot in my chest relax ever so slightly. A summoner, though perhaps one who’d never been trained in the art. “The demons hate him,” I persisted. “They call him a kiraknikahl. Why? What did he do?”
“I cannot say,” Zack repeated, voice tight and pained. “Only that his punishment was dire. And just.”
I took a step closer to Zack. “Please. I want to help him. He’s my best friend.”
Zack met my eyes. “I know. It’s why I could risk revealing myself to save you from being drawn through the portal.”
The way he phrased that struck me as strange, but before I could pursue it he put his hands on my shoulders. “Kara, I know this pains you deeply, but I am oathbound. I cannot tell you more, either about Ryan or about me.”