Blood of the Demon by Diana Rowland Page A

handfuls. Finally she lowered her gun and holstered it.

    I let my breath out in relief. “How did you get in here?”

    She gave me an exasperated look. “I walked in the goddamn front door. I live on the next street over, and I drive past here every day. I saw your car out front and thought I’d pop in and see how you were holding up after today. I rang the bell, but there was no answer.”

    I couldn’t keep the laugh contained. “Well, the bell’s broken, and you weren’t supposed to be able to walk in the goddamn front door.” Then I winced. “Crap, I took down the wards when I came in.” Nice, Kara . Good thing it was only Jill.

    She scowled and put her hands on her hips. “Kara, who the fuck is that? Or what the fuck?” She flung her arm outto gesture at the demon—who I would have sworn was staring mournfully into the depths of the empty popcorn bowl.

    I jammed my fingers through my hair. “Okay, come into the kitchen while I stir the beans and I’ll explain. Or at least I’ll try to.” I glanced at Kehlirik. “If you come too, I’ll make more popcorn.”

    The demon stood quickly. “That would please me, summoner. I find this pahpcahn quite appealing.”

    Too fucking weird. I turned and headed to the kitchen and stirred the beans, which were about to burn. I turned the heat down, then threw the Minute rice into the water. I’d never claimed to be a gourmet cook. If it wasn’t for the invention of the microwave, I’d have starved a long time ago.

    Jill followed me in, slowly pulling herself onto one of the stools on the other side of the counter, her eyes staying on the demon as he stood by the kitchen door. I didn’t miss the fact that he had effectively blocked the one exit. I pulled another popcorn bag out of the pantry and stuffed it into the microwave. After I had it going, I turned back to Jill.

    “Okay, long story short, I have the ability to summon creatures from another plane of existence. They’re called demons, but they’re not the ‘demons from hell’ that you were taught about in Sunday school.”

    Jill gave me a withering look. “I’m Jewish.”

    I blinked. “With a last name like Faciane?”

    She gave a funny little shrug. “It was my late husband’s name. I didn’t feel like changing it back after he died.”

    Jill was a widow? “Oh. I’m sorry, I—”

    She waved her hand impatiently. “It was a very shortmarriage. Very. But it’s also a very long story. So please get back to the subject at hand? Hmmm?”

    “Sure. Sorry. Anyway, the demons are arcane creatures from a different plane of existence. I can create a portal between our two spheres. And … um … I summon them.”

    Jill’s eyes were narrowed. The microwave dinged, and I tore my attention from her long enough to pull the bag out and pour more popcorn into the bowl that the demon still clutched. I turned away and busied myself with pouring the rice into a bowl, then dumping the beans on top. I stirred it up quickly, then passed it over to the demon, who had already finished off the popcorn.

    Jill groaned. “Blue Runners and Minute rice? Dear God, my mama would be having a stroke if she saw that.”

    Jill was from New Orleans, with a mama who probably cooked red beans and rice every Monday, according to New Orleans tradition. With real red beans that had been soaked overnight and real rice.

    “What, you thought my aunt was going to teach me how to cook?” I snorted, then looked at Kehlirik. He was carefully scraping the last dregs from the bowl with the side of the spoon. My mouth twitched. “That was acceptable, honored one?”

    The demon rumbled. “Most acceptable. I have never had reason to sample the food of this realm. I find it quite interesting.”

    “Great. Put him on the Food Channel,” Jill said sourly. “Can we please get back to this whole business of you summoning demons?”

    “Look, they’re not evil. Demon is just the term that they’ve had for centuries, and