Secrets of the Demon (Kara Gillian 3)

She accepted the clothing with a gracious nod, then, without a blink of hesitation, dropped the robe from her shoulders, standing unashamedly naked in my kitchen before pulling the sweats on.

“We can go to my place,” Ryan said. I flicked a glance to him to see his reaction to Eilahn, but he was very carefully looking at the opposite wall. Smart man. “I highly doubt Moran knows where that is. I’ll call Zack and let him know.”

I nodded, suddenly realizing that I had no idea where he lived either. He’d mentioned something a while back about renting a house in the area, but I’d never asked where it was. Good thing he was driving.

“Then let’s roll,” I said, feeling like a badass.

Chapter 32

My badass attitude lasted as long as it took for me to get into the car, put my head back against the headrest, and close my eyes. The next thing I knew someone was gently shaking my shoulder.

“Kara,” a vaguely familiar voice said. “You have rested long enough now. It is time for you to wake.”

I opened my eyes, instantly confused to see that I was in bed—and not my own. I rolled over to see Eilahn standing beside the bed. Behind her Ryan stood in the bedroom doorway, scowling darkly. I sat up and scrubbed at my face. I had the vaguest whisper of memory of being carried from the car to inside a house. I was pretty sure it was Eilahn who had carried me, too, which might have possibly explained why Ryan looked pissed.

“How long have I been asleep?” Sunlight streamed through the blinds covering the window, but I couldn’t see a clock anywhere in the room. Or anything else that wasn’t an absolutely necessary piece of furniture. Bed, nightstand, dresser, and armoire—all in a very sturdy-looking blond wood. The bedding was in muted autumn tones and the walls were a dusky blue. It looked exactly as I would have expected Ryan’s room to look.

“It is midday,” Eilahn replied.

I grimaced. “Shit. I wish you hadn’t let me sleep so long.” Small wonder that I’d crashed so hard, though, between the scant sleep and the normal exhaustion of performing a summoning. I tried to run a hand through my hair, but the tangles made that impossible.

“I tried to wake you a couple of hours ago,” Ryan said sourly. “She wouldn’t let me.”

Eilahn inclined her head slightly. “It is truth. You were in dire need of rest, and those few hours would have been insufficient.”

I stood up, feeling as if I’d slept in one position the entire time. Someone had been kind enough to remove my boots and gun at least. “That’s great,” I said as I tried to get my vertebrae to behave and line up properly. “But there’s too much that needs to be done.”

“And you need to be clear-headed and at your peak performance for such tasks,” Eilahn replied, slight smile curving her lips. “The kiraknikahl briefed me on the nature of the threat you are facing in this construct, and I concluded that it was highly probable that you would need to employ your arcane abilities in order to thwart it. Thus your need for further rest.”

I glanced again to Ryan. I didn’t think anyone could look more annoyed at the moment. I sighed. “Eilahn, his name is Ryan. Please cease referring to him as ‘the kiraknikahl.’ ”

“As you wish,” she replied.

I suddenly realized that Eilahn was dressed in something other than sweats—black jeans, form-fitting gray T-shirt, and boots. She looked like a fashion magazine version of How to Look Fabulous in Urban Casual. “Did you two go shopping?”

Ryan’s scowl deepened, if that was even possible. “No,” he gritted out. “She refused to leave, and made me go shopping. For her.”

I tried to picture the tough FBI agent shopping for women’s clothing and failed. “How on earth did you know her size?”

He folded his arms across his chest and glowered at the demon. “I estimated and bought a bunch of shit in a bunch of sizes, and tomorrow I’ll go and return all the shit that doesn’t fit.”

“Oh. Thanks for taking care of that. I’ll pay you back.”

“No, you won’t.” He smiled tightly. “She owes me, not you.”

I looked doubtfully between the two. I wasn’t so sure it worked like that since Eilahn was here to serve me, but to my surprise she merely gave Ryan a slight nod coupled with a faintly amused smile.

I heard a door open and close somewhere in the house. Ryan glanced down the hall. “That’d be Zack. I told him to bring food. C’mon and eat, lazybones.”

My gun and bag were on the nightstand and my boots were on the floor beside the bed. I quickly donned boots and gun, then grabbed my bag. But I paused before following Ryan out of the room.

I turned to Eilahn after Ryan was out of earshot. “Did Lord Rhyzkahl tell you why I needed protection?”

She dipped her head in a brief nod. “He advised that there had been attempts to interfere with you, and that you might be at risk for being summoned to the demon realm.”

“What would happen if I was summoned?” I asked, gut tightening.

“It is the same as when you summon demons to this sphere. There are bindings, and terms are negotiated. Save for one difference.” She paused, and whether she intended it to be or not, it was seriously ominous. “Only a demonic lord would be capable of opening a portal to summon you to the demon realm. And a lord would have more than sufficient potency available to bind you against your will, negating any need for your willingness to set terms.”