For a Few Demons More Read Online Free PDF

my arm tightened. Yeah, me neither, I thought.
    â€œStay here,” he said as he turned away. “I’ll be back to settle up.”
    Alarmed, I pulled from Ceri. “Whoa, hold up, demon boy. I don’t owe you anything.”
    His eyebrows were high and mocking when he turned around. “I owe you, idiot. The sun is almost up. I have to get out of here. I’ll be back when I can.”
    Ceri’s eyes were wide. Somehow I didn’t think that having a demon owe me a favor was a good thing. “Hey,” I said, taking a step forward. “I don’t want you just showing up. That’s rude.” And really scary.
    He looked impatient to be away as he adjusted his clothing. “Yes, I know. Why do you think demons try to kill their summoners? You’re crude, unintelligent, grasping hacks with no sense of social grace, demanding we cross the lines and pick up the cost?”
    I warmed, but before I could tell him to shove it, he said, “I’ll call first. You take the imbalance for that, since you asked for it.”
    I glanced at Ceri for guidance, and she nodded. The guarantee that he wouldn’t show up while I was showering was worth it. “Deal,” I said, hiding my hand so he wouldn’t take it.
    From behind him, Newt eyed me with her brow creased. Minias’s steps were silent as he moved to take her elbow possessively, his worried eyes darting to mine. His head rose to look past Ceri and me to the open door, and I heard the lub-lub-lub of a cycle pulling into the carport. In the time between one heartbeat and the next, they vanished.
    I slumped in relief. Ceri leaned against the piano, the flat of her arms getting blood on it. Her shoulders started to shake, and I put a hand on one, wanting nothing more than to do the same. From outside came the sudden silence of Ivy’s bike turning off, and then her distinctive steps on the cement walk.
    â€œSo then the pixy says to the druggist,” Jenks said, the clatter of his wings obvious, “‘Tax? I thought they stayed on by themselves!’” The pixy laughed, the tinkling sound of it like wind chimes. “Get it, Ivy? Tax? Tacks?”
    â€œYes, I got it,” she muttered, her pace shifting as she took the cement steps. “Good one, Jenks. Hey, the door is open.”
    The light coming into the church was eclipsed, and Ceri pulled herself up, wiping her face and smearing it with blood, tears, and dirt from her garden. I could smell the stink of burnt amber on me and throughout the church, and I wondered if I would ever feel clean again. Together we stood, numb, as Ivy halted just past the foyer. Jenks hovered for three seconds, and then, dropping swear words like the golden sparkles he was shedding, he tore off in search of his wife and kids.
    Ivy put a hand on her cocked hip and took in the three—no, four—circles made of blood, me in my pj’s and Ceri crying silently, her hand, sticky with drying blood, clutching her crucifix.
    â€œWhat on God’s green earth did you do now?”
    Wondering if I’d ever sleep again, I glanced at Ceri. “I have no idea.”

TWO
    I didn’t feel good, my stomach queasy as I sat on my hard-backed chair in the kitchen at Ivy’s heavy and very large antique table, shoved up against an interior wall. The sun was a thin slice of gold shining on the stainless-steel fridge. I didn’t see that often. I wasn’t used to being up this early, and my body was starting to let me know about it. I didn’t think it was from the morning’s trouble. Yeah. Right.
    Tugging my terry-cloth robe shut, I flipped through the Yellow Pages while Jenks and Ivy argued by the sink. The phone was on my lap so Ivy wouldn’t take over as I searched for someone to resanctify the church. I’d already called the guys who had reshingled the roof to give us an estimate on the living room. They were human, and Ivy and I liked using them,