Free The Trouble with Demons by Lisa Shearin Page A

around here. I didn’t want to be in any of them. I was sure I’d get another shot at Carnades. I was just lucky that way.
    I put a hand on Phaelan’s arm. I knew which dagger he was going for. Carnades saw and smiled slowly.
    “By all means, Captain Benares. Give me an excuse to take you as well.”
    I took a step forward, leaving scant inches between the elven mage and me. I had to look up to meet his eyes, but that was fine with me. Carnades could have reached out and touched me. I wanted him to. I also wanted him to remember what I’d done the last time he’d made the mistake of touching and threatening me. I’d do it again, and this time I’d have a squad room full of watchers as witnesses.
    He knew it and kept his hands to himself, but he didn’t back down. I knew he wouldn’t. That was fine with me, too.
    “Paladin Eiliesor is questioning the demons; I merely want to question their accomplice,” Carnades said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “The dark mage who used her Saghred-spawned power to open a Hellgate, releasing her demonic minions to do her dirty work. Though I can’t imagine anything being beneath a Benares.”
    I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. “ Minions? I’d ask if you’re serious, but no doubt you believe that you are.”
    Silvanus’s pale eyes glittered. “You are a danger to everyone on this island. I’ve said that you should be locked up—and today I’m here to see it done.” The elven mage smiled. “On the authority of the Seat of Twelve, you’re under arrest for practicing black magic and consorting with demons.”
    Carnades’s pronouncement lost some of its effect when a man shouted in fear and surprise from a back room, then swore in utter disgust. It took me a moment to realize the man’s disgust wasn’t a reaction to Carnades’s speech.
    A watcher came through a door in the back of the room dangling something by a bony, yellow foot. It was about a foot long, mostly arms and legs, with a round torso that kind of merged into a head. No neck. It was naked, it was hairless, it was wrinkled, and it had to be the ugliest thing I’d ever seen in my life. And it smelled like—
    “It jumped out of the latrine!” The watcher looked like he was about to be sick.
    Yep, that was the smell.
    “Damn,” breathed Phaelan from beside me.
    I couldn’t have agreed more, especially considering that the thing was still dripping. And it looked just a wee bit larger.
    I looked closer. “Am I imagining things, or . . .”
    The watcher who was dangling the thing by its heel grunted at the abrupt increase in weight. The thing twisted and squirmed, and since it was still wet, the watcher couldn’t hold on, and I didn’t think he wanted to. The yellow beastie hit the floor and scuttled under the nearest desk. Around the room, weapons were drawn, my own included. Phaelan had drawn steel and jumped on a chair. Carnades retreated to where his mage cronies waited.
    “Cowards,” I muttered.
    “Cautious,” Phaelan corrected me. “Do you know how much these clothes cost? No way in hell that thing’s getting near me.”
    Considering where it’d come from, I didn’t exactly want it rubbing against me, either. Some smells just didn’t come out.
    The wood the desk was made of creaked and then groaned. That was not good. Then the desk’s legs rose about eight inches off of the floor, lifted by something underneath. Something yellow, stinky, and growing entirely too fast.
    That was very bad.
    Most of the watchers did their duty and stood their ground; other watchers took the duty-be-damned approach and started backing away. I wasn’t a watcher, I had no duty, but I stood my ground anyway. Sedge Rinker stepped up beside Vegard and me.
    Sedge kept his voice down. “Ma’am, you and your cousin might want to take advantage of this to leave.”
    “Finally, a lawman I can agree with,” Phaelan muttered.
    The growing demon stood up, and then up some more. The damned thing was so big