“Devon,” Eva called out as she entered the women’s ward.
“In here, girl,” came a voice from the kitchen. It sounded as if his mouth was half full of food.
Sure enough, Eva walked in to find Devon shoveling a bowl of ramen down his throat.
He held up a set of calipers in his tentacle and waved her over with them, not bothering to actually verbalize anything as he slurped up another noodle.
“The demons aren’t gone just yet,” Eva said. That actually got him to glare at her. Before he could empty his mouth and start berating her–or worse, not empty his mouth and start berating her–Eva said, “but I think you should talk to Catherine first.”
His narrowed eyes blinked wide open. A moment later, he leaned back in the chair and looked up with a long groan at the ceiling. “The harsh words… it liked them, didn’t it?”
“Not really. Probably. Actually, she wants to be part of an experiment.”
Devon shifted, looking back at her. “What sort of experiment? I am not interested in most things that a succubus would consider experimental.”
“Catherine wants to be in the center of the treatment circle.”
His fingers tapped against the table, beating out an irregular rhythm. He stared. The gears turning in his head was almost audible. Slowly, Devon’s gaze shifted to his notebook.
“It wouldn’t work,” he eventually said. “The succubus wouldn’t gain anything. Not unless…”
Devon trailed off. Ramen forgotten, he picked up his notebook and started flipping through the pages.
“She says that she knows a few modifications that would need to be made. And, the reason why all the demons are still here is to run this second experiment. I think she wants to do it tonight. Like, now. Or as soon as the modifications to the circle can be done.”
Eva had been hoping that telling him why the demons were around might help entice him further.
She should have known better.
Devon’s eyes narrowed. “The pillar wants to do it,” he said with a flat voice. “It wouldn’t stay here otherwise.” He snapped his notebook shut with a loud clack. “Forget it. I’m not playing into a bunch of demons’ hands. And definitely not the devil’s.”
Really should have known better, Eva thought. But still, this was Catherine’s request. Zagan might have known about it, but he hadn’t forced Catherine to suggest it as far as Eva could tell. Not only was she using up a favor in asking to get him to come, but she was a friend.
Tentatively.
Could she just leave it with him declining? Catherine wanted to use up a whole favor on this, so probably not.
“Ah,” Eva said. “That’s a shame.” She turned towards the kitchen exit. “I suppose I’ll just go tell Catherine and especially Zagan that you don’t want a thing to do with them. I’m sure that Zagan will be only mildly disappointed that he wasted his time by waiting around.”
Eva started walking away. Slowly. All while counting down in her head.
The second she hit zero, Devon spoke.
“Eva.”
Eva stopped, glancing back with a vapid smile on her face.
He did not sound happy.
“I know what you’re doing.”
“I know you know. That doesn’t change the fact that I wouldn’t want to anger Zagan. And that’s taking into consideration that he wouldn’t kill me on a whim for the simple fact that he is interested in finding out what lies at the end of my treatment.”
Eva turned, facing the door again. “Besides, what do you want me to do? Sit around so they end up waiting even longer? Zagan might just be more angry at that. Glad to know that you’ve got such confidence in your abilities though.”
Devon didn’t move. Not to speak. Not to get up. So, Eva left.
By the time she reached the wall around the women’s ward, Devon was scrambling after her.
Chapter 008
It had taken about an hour for Catherine and Devon to discuss the changes to the circle. Considering that it had taken almost an entire month for Devon to design the latest version of Eva’s treatment circle, that was essentially lightning fast.
Either Catherine was really a genius at understanding how rituals worked and how to change them, there hadn’t been all that many changes to be made, or Devon just cared so little for Catherine’s safety that he wasn’t too interested in checking, double checking, and ensuring that everything was protocoligorically correct.
Eva was leaning towards that last point if it wasn’t all three. Which was actually somewhat flattering for her. It was nice to know that Devon cared. Even if all that care was just for her as a test subject and not as a person, friend, or anything similar. But she really didn’t expect any of that anyway.
After sketching out a preliminary circle in Devon’s notebook, they had started on the larger circle. Something they had been working on for about another hour. One would think that it would go faster with the two of them erasing and redrawing everything, but no. Not really. They kept getting in each other’s way, going over sections that had already been done, bickering, and all sorts of other nonsense.
Frankly, it was amazing that they had managed to sketch out the changes in the first place.
Though, perhaps not quite as amazing as the lack of fireballs while working on changing the circle itself.
Eva was staying far away from it all. She had sat in and watched during the notebook phase. It had taken all of her willpower to not fall asleep. She should have been paying attention and she should have been learning.
Devon’s ritual circles were so beyond her own abilities that she couldn’t understand a thing about them. He and Catherine had been speaking another language as far as Eva was concerned. Zoe might have enjoyed it, but she was off collecting new prospective students for Brakket Academy.
Whether or not she actually came back with any remained to be seen. Eva was well aware that she had several misgivings about how Brakket was being run.
But, that wasn’t too relevant to what was going on at the moment.
Eva stood back at the edge of the converted basketball court while Devon and Catherine argued over some line or other on the circle.
She still didn’t know what Catherine hoped to gain from the experiment. Well, that wasn’t true. Power was likely the answer. But in what form? Some abstract ‘blip’ on a map?
Zagan’s motivations were actually clear for once. Based on his conversation with Eva when she had asked him to participate, Eva could guess that he wanted to see some new variation of a demon. Even if it was still based on Catherine’s ‘template’ or whatever.
“So,” said a voice to Eva’s side, “that seemed pretty intense.”
“Not something I’ll look forward to in three months.”
“Three months?” Serena just about jumped out of her boots. “You have to do it again?”
Eva turned to glance at the vampire. Now that she mentions it… “Actually, I’m not sure. I’ll have to ask Devon about any changes to the schedule. Until now, however, I’ve been doing a similar thing every three months since I was nine-ish years old.”
“Nine?” Serena trembled a little.
It looked fake. Like an actor on the stage of a play. But it was entirely possible that she couldn’t emote properly, being a vampire. Maybe she was exaggerating her motions in a forced attempt to emulate the living–a way to put regular people more at ease. Eva really didn’t know enough about vampires to say one way or the other.
“I don’t think I could have done something like that when I was nine.”
Eva laughed. “Oh it was far worse back then.”
“Worse! How?”
“All that blood in the air? It had to be transfered through needles in the old version of the ritual. You don’t even want to know how much of a baby I was about having a needle stuck in me.”