“Take it or leave it, milady.” He gave a brief nod of his head. “I hope to see you soon.”
With another nod of his head, the demon collapsed. Like all the strings holding him up had been cut. Rather than crumple into a heap of limbs, he fell straight through the floor.
A moment later and the ripples ceased rippling. The glass eye still hung in the air.
Juliana plucked it out of the air with only a moment’s hesitation. She wasn’t being forced to use it and leaving it lying around didn’t seem a good idea. Perhaps Ylva would be willing to talk to her later on.
For now, she just wanted to leave before Zagan showed up.
— — —
The glass of hellfire shattered in her hand. The room temperature liquid burned her hand as it dripped to the floor. Small whiffs of steam dispersed into the room where the drops hit.
Martina Turner paid it no mind.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing,” repeated that infuriating demon. He was enjoying this. The grin on his face couldn’t mean anything else.
“And the demons that attacked my professors?”
“Nothing.”
Martina was glad she hadn’t reached for a second glass.
“Except…” Zagan trailed off. Waiting.
For her to repeat the word.
Absolutely infuriating. Martina was having second thoughts about summoning up demons as guards. Perhaps hiring on regular humans would be for the best. Less insubordination that way. She wasn’t sure she could handle much more between Zagan and Catherine.
And he still hadn’t continued his report.
“Except?” Martina said through grit teeth.
“I believe the embryonic girl is looking into that. Or the one she calls master.”
Martina flipped through a report on her desk. “Ah, yes. Randolph Carter. Harley Warren. Devon Foster. All aliases. The school’s administrators were rather interested in him following Eva’s little reveal. The self-proclaimed demonologist with no familiar and no–”
“I am interested in him myself. However, he seems fearful of me–”
As well he should, Martina thought with a barely concealed scoff.
“I do not wish to disturb him. He may be the reason I am here.”
“The big upset in Hell?”
“Something like that.”
Martina made a small humming noise as she nodded. He’d been short on details over that particular incident. Whatever it was had been enough for him to submit to a contract. To ask for one, no less.
“The administrators are wanting to hire him on as a special consultant. Likely in relation to these demons that attacked my professors. The demons you continually fail to turn up any information about.”
Zagan just shook his head with a smile. His golden eyes flashed lightly before settling down. “They do not concern me.”
“They concern me!” Martina slammed her hand down on her desk. Shards of glass embedded themselves into her fist. Before she could even feel the pain, the glass vanished from her hand, reforming into an unbroken cup full of hellfire. Martina grasped it and took a quick drink.
The demon in front of her gave a polite smile.
Infuriating.
“Because they concern me,” Martina said, “they concern you.”
“Aren’t you hiring guards for this menial work? Surely they can handle it. The demon I sensed this afternoon wasn’t near as strong as a jezebeth or a carnivean. I have far better things to occupy my time with.”
Martina hit a button on her phone. Audio only, no video. She was once again forced to wait until the very last second before the other end picked up.
“Catherine,” she shouted. With any luck, the demon would have had her phone right up to her enhanced ears. “Would you have been able to deal with whatever demon appeared earlier?”
There was a short sigh on the other end of the line followed by what sounded like the turning of a page. “Undoubtedly. But…”
Martina could feel her blood pressure rising. “But?”
“It would have been too much work.”
Martina slammed the button to disconnect the call. Why that creature was considered a demon of lust rather than a demon of sloth, she would never understand.
“That doesn’t change that she would have been unable to deal with the carnivean and the jezebeth.”
“One would hope that whatever guards you hire would be better equipped to handle combat than a menial secretary, yeah?”
“After said guards are hired, we will be revisiting this conversation. In the meantime, be prepared to investigate any and all unauthorized demonic activity.”
“I don’t suppose you have any kind of time frame for when that will be?”
“October first. I fully expect you to be in attendance to vet all candidates.”
“I look forward to it.” He stood from his seat and turned towards the door.
“Zagan,” Martina said, “you have yet to adequately state your location for that night.”
“I was out of town. Farming. I believe I told you that I had fields to plow.”
The glass, now empty of hellfire, once again shattered. “Get out of my office.”
Chapter 014
“I understand that the dean’s secretary was filling in during my absence, the topic–”
“We discussed rituals again,” Mr. Weston all but shouted out as he hopped to his feet. “At first I thought it was going to be some boring thing we already learned last year. Then she started getting into all the gritty details.” He paused and glanced around the room with a raised eyebrow. “Or should I say gooey details?”
Several snickers ran though several of the students–both male and female. More than a few turned a few shades of color in embarrassment.
“Take a seat, Mr. Weston,” Zoe said a tad harsher than she intended.
“If you have to miss a few days, can we get the same substitute?”
The heads nodding in agreement rippled through the class with only two notable exceptions. Eva and one of the Coggins twins. Zoe wouldn’t put it past the former to already know or even engage in–Zoe shook her head. She did not want her thoughts trailing in that direction.
She tried to avoid looking into Eva’s eyes. It wasn’t that she was afraid of them and their unnaturalness. If anything, they were quite striking.
No.
Those eyes were simply something different. She’d healed, for the most part, and had even found a temporary apartment to live in. As grateful as she was for Eva’s offer of ‘asylum’ at the prison, Zoe had turned it down. It wasn’t the location, or the distance. It was the company.
Though her opinion of Ylva had improved a good deal. Compared to the two sadistic monsters that had destroyed her home, Ylva was a kitten. An imposing giant of a kitten, but a kitten nonetheless.
She still expected to find something wrong with the world that would cause her to snap back to the choking smoke of her own house with another broken limb.
With a suppressed shudder, Zoe turned her head to the other student who didn’t nod her head. Zoe hadn’t spent enough time around Irene, but she worked hard and was always eager to learn. At least her desire for knowledge didn’t extend so far as to want Catherine back.
Oddly, Irene sat at the back of the classroom today at an otherwise unoccupied table. Her usual chair at the front of the classroom sat empty next to Miss Shallows and Mr. Wilcox.
It was a change that happened while Zoe was gone. With a frown, Zoe wondered if Catherine had done something as foolish as call for volunteers for a demonstration. That might have been enough to scare Irene away from them. She gave her head a shake.
“Tantric rituals are covered as part of sixth year theory. I will be reminding her of this. Harshly.” Zoe narrowed her eyes as she looked over the students again. “Are there any questions?”
“You mean,” Max started slowly, “if we take your class in sixth year, we’ll get to–”
Zoe cut him off with only a glare before he could speak even one more word. She kept up her glare until he sat back in his seat. “Discussion only, Mr. Weston. Are there any questions that do not relate to the ill-advised lessons in my absence?”