Free The Lie Spinners (The Deception Dance) by Rita Stradling

Thai than Indian, with delicately sloping eyes; but
their mouths are like no ethnicity’s I’ve ever seen, just
gaping holes bearing sharp teeth. Though they only have one torso and
two legs like a normal human, they have six arms each. But it only
takes the restraining power of one arm to subdue Jones, and one arm
each from the other asura for Cassidy and me when we exit the car.
    “ We
go where she goes, Asura,” Cassidy says.
    Jones’
asura’s middle face says, “Oh, yes, yes, you do singto .
You will be good sport; perhaps we will make you kill each other…?”
    “ No
competition. Singto would win!” Says our asura’s middle face, then all six
faces start to bicker in what sounds like Thai as they drag us into a
side passage in the small alley.
    “ What
are asuras? Are they demons? Why haven’t I heard about them?”
I whisper to Cassidy as we are dragged by the side arms of our asura.
The alley we’re dragged into smells like raw sewage and cramps
tightly around us.
    “ I
assume there was too much to learn, there’s thousands of
creatures…” She whispers, “and, no, not demons
exactly, similar but completely separate. They were human once, but
their selfish single-minded pursuit of the baser aspects of life has
transformed them into,” she motions with her head to the thing
dragging us, “ that .
But what is bad and much more important is that asuras do not follow
the command not to harm you, and neither does the demon Räum…
this is bad; very, very bad. How is your Ars Goetia? Mine is terribly
rusty. I remember that Räum is the fortieth soul of Solomon,
Räum… Ryam… help me here…”
    “ Räum?
You mean they’re taking us to a Soul
of Solomon ?”
My legs lose their solidity, and the only thing keeping me up and
moving forward are Cassidy and the asura, both pulling me on. “How
is that possible? Are you saying… are you saying that The
Gates of Hell are open?” I choke on the now-flavorless piece of
gum I’ve almost forgotten is still in my mouth.
    Cassidy
yanks me up and toward her, and lets go of me for a second to smack
my back until I hack up the gum.
    I
can see Jones glaring at me from the corner of my eye, but I ignore
him.
    “ You
okay?” Cassidy asks. When I nod she answers, “No, the
gates are closed, we would know if they were not. And as far as we know of all the souls of Solomon,
only Andras’ seal has been broken as there are only his legions
of demons on earth. But any of the demon nobility, the souls of
Solomon, can be summoned by a magician or witch. And, I suppose that
any of the lower nobility has the ability to steal and possess a
magician’s or a soul-less body if they escape their protective
circle. Only the lesser nobility: knights, presidents, earls, counts,
dukes, at highest a marquis can possess a human body, even a
demonically enhanced body, without burning straight through it. But I
have never heard of anyone of them beside Andras doing this. The
demons, no matter their rank usually try to kill their conjurer—
but, so far as I know, what Räum is doing is unheard of…”
    “ Why ?”
It seems to me that if any of them could, they’d steal any type
of body to remain on earth.
    “ Because
the other Seals of Solomon are not broken, all of the other demon’s
legions are stuck in Hell; and Andras has thirty legions on earth.
It’s like Räum is a lone-alpha-wolf hunting in another
large and extremely territorial pack’s territory; he should
be hunted down before he can catch a meal… though that doesn’t
seem to be the case this time. This could mean several things; and
none of the ideas coming to my mind are good for us. It seems that
Räum allied himself with creatures outside of the demonic
structure; either his operation has been too small to be detected by
Andras, or Andras and his legions are too busy to deal with Räum.
The other souls of Solomon are making ambitious moves…”
She shakes her head, “Any way about it, the important matter