Page 29 of Demon and the Raven

In answer, he meowed pitifully.

“Okay,” I sighed, clutching him tighter, and cast a circle of protection around myself, drawing it in the air, then adding my breath to the warm, sultry breeze blowing softly.

I felt electric pinpricks on my skin, like my power was rising in response to something, which was odd. I wasn’t on my land, so that shouldn’t be happening, and yet, from the earth, there was grounding, a shoring up, and I felt rooted and strong, belonging to the night. To the strange blue summer evenings I always loved. I’d forgotten for a moment there was nothing to fear in the dark.

Argos was suddenly his normal size, slipping through my embrace like water, and stood in front of me, pawing at the ground.

“Maybe I was wrong and Kathy was magic,” I said to him. “Perhaps she imbued her surroundings with her power.”

His eyes narrowed before he pressed his nose to the grass as if searching for a scent. Perhaps he was checking for anything numinous. I had to do the same.

Shoving my fingers into the dirt, sending out a call deep into the ground, I summoned the magic from the earth. Faintly, there was an answer, like the roll of thunder from a great distance. I knew that was Corvus, miles away, straining to reach me.

Freeing my hand, I glanced over at Argos, who was now as big as a dog, gazing at me through bright-red eyes.

“I get the point,” I told him. “I was right, it’s my power, she didn’t have any.”

He shrank quickly, a black cat moving in close beside me, then stepping back into the shadows, blending in so thoroughly, only his eyes were visible.

“I feel like maybe we should both go home,” I told him.

The purring told me he agreed.

We were quiet after that, Argos and I, both of us huddled together, watching strange shadows slither by, not encroaching on my protection circle, but almost pacing at the edge. And I wasn’t afraid, simply aware that there was something there.

“Maybe whatever came through the rift is out here walking around,” I said to Argos, who kept his rapt attention on the shapes moving in and out of the darkness as well.

There were sirens then, layering on top of one another, before red and blue lights bathed the street and house. A whole group of people emerged, in gloves and booties, and followed two guys in scrubs into the home. We waited together beside Kathy’s neighbor’s residence, pleased they weren’t there so I could lean back against it, legs crossed, daemon next to me, still as stone but for his continually flicking ears, listening to all, missing nothing. Finally, the body was taken away, and Lorne came into the backyard. He looked around but didn’t see us, which was strange, since we were only twenty feet away. My circle must have created an even better shroud than I thought.

“We’re here.” I waved.

He gestured for me, and I crossed the yard quickly with Argos right behind me.

“What’s with him?” he asked as I reached the bottom of the stairs leading to the tiny porch where Lorne stood.

“He wants to go home. Something has him spooked.”

He pointed at Argos. “He’s scared?”

“Maybe not scared exactly, more wary.”

When Lorne crouched down, Argos shot up the stairs and vaulted onto his shoulders, balanced there so that when Lorne stood up, Argos was curved around the back of his neck, tail swishing on one side, making biscuits on the other.

“Yeah, this is weird,” Lorne said, holding out booties and gloves for me as I climbed the stairs to him. “I had no idea anything could rattle him. I mean, he gets a bit bigger than this, yeah?”

“You know he does,” I stated, taking the coverings from him, slipping the booties over my sneakers first, then putting on the gloves. “Normally I would tell you to put him down and we’d have him stay out here, but I don’t think he’ll leave you.”

“I can’t have him jumping down in the middle of a crime scene.”

“I think he was happy to have found me, but he’s even happier you’re here.”

“But you’re the powerful witch.”

I tipped my head at Argos, who was now surveying the house, happy, it seemed, with his new vantage point. “Corvus makes me powerful, but you’re physically stronger, and I think he needs that at the moment.”

“Weird, but okay,” Lorne said softly, reaching out and fisting his hand in my henley, easing me in close. “I’m really glad you’re here.”

I was going to say I was happy to do anything for him at all, but he bent and kissed me, and all my words abandoned me. It was a kiss meant to reestablish a connection, so it was quick, his lips on mine, and then gone, but still, my pulse raced and my body flushed with heat because there was love there and my magic flared, rolling through me to him and then back again, the sacred loop I’d discovered by accident making me catch my breath.