Thicker Than Water

I was trying to stay calm and detached, but powerful emotions flooded through me: indignation, that my friend should have to endure this; repugnance at having to wake this thing again against all my instincts and Imelda’s arguments; and, bubbling under, the sickening sense of guilt that every contact with Asmodeus brought me - because if I’d been a better exorcist, he wouldn’t even have been here.

‘Who calls so loud?’ the demon asked mildly, raising his head - Rafi’s head - and twisting it around to an unnatural angle so that he could stare directly at Trudie. His voice was razor blades shaving your mind too close. ‘Come a little closer, girl. Let me look at you.’

‘Asmodeus,’ I said, from his right-hand side. ‘You offered me a deal, the last time we spoke.’

‘I’ll get to you, Felix,’ Asmodeus growled, ‘when I’m good and ready. But let me taste the Christian soldiers first, for reasons of decorum. Too much to hope that you’ve brought either one along as a sacrifice, I suppose?’

‘I adjure you to keep in your place,’ Trudie said, trying hard not to flinch as Asmodeus leaned forward the better to examine her. ‘And - and to make no move without our hest, in plain words stated. Qui tacet non consentiri videtur.’

Rafi’s handsome face distorted suddenly, the lower jaw sagging like wax to reveal a gaping, shapeless mouth with too many teeth. Trudie’s shoulders jerked and her hands came up reflexively for a moment, before she got control of herself and lowered them again.

Asmodeus inhaled deeply. ‘Mmmm,’ he rumbled appreciatively. ‘Scrubbed so clean it doesn’t even smell like meat. Pissed yourself just a little, though, didn’t you, sweetheart? You were almost sure your little circle would hold, but there’s always that little niggling do»tleissubt, isn’t there? Suppose God is too busy watching the sparrows fall in the market place. Snap. Crunch. Where’s little Trudie?’

‘You won’t be harming anyone in this house,’ the Ice-Maker said from directly behind him, her voice cold and hard.

Asmodeus snarled - a long, rumbling sound like distant thunder. He didn’t look at Imelda, any more than he’d looked at me; but then, we were known quantities. He’d gravitated towards Trudie because it’s in his nature to test out all the variables before he moves. He lowered his head, Rafi’s joints making audible clicks and cracks as Asmodeus reshaped his fleshly tabernacle more to his liking."

"‘No,’ he agreed. ‘Not yet awhile. You’re as safe as if God himself had gathered you into His embrace, my little doves. And Castor - Castor has even less to worry about. Like he said, we’ve got a deal. Even the meanest little lick-spittle in Hell will tell you that Asmodeus keeps his word.’

Finally his head swivelled round to bring me into his field of vision. ‘How did it go again, Felix?’

Meeting that pitch-black gaze was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but there was no way I was going to give him the satisfaction of blinking or looking away. ‘You said if I gave you a taste of the thing that’s haunting the Salisbury, you’d tell me how to fight it,’ I said.

Asmodeus nodded, scratching absently at his chin - at Rafi’s chin - and leaving blood-red runnels in his wake - because his fingernails had extended into two-inch talons. ‘That’s what I said,’ he agreed. ‘So. Is it Christmas?’

I nodded towards Bic, who was curled up in a foetal position at the pentacle’s nadir. Ever since Asmodeus had made his eerie appearance the boy had fallen still, all his mumblings and muscular tics abruptly stopped. He was like a statue now: a study for the starring role in a pietà.

‘There,’ I said.

‘That little morsel?’ Asmodeus snickered nastily. ‘I need enough to get the taste of it on my tongue, Castor. You want to take advantage of my judgement; my fine discrimination. I can’t make up my mind on the first bite, can I?’

‘The demon at the Salisbury touched this boy first,’ I said, cutting through the bullshit. ‘And it put its hand more heavily on him than on anyone else. Trust me, there’s enough there for you to work with. What I need from you is a promise - a binding promise - that the boy won’t be harmed.’

‘Ah.’ The demon’s gaze flicked back to me, an ironic smile tweaking the corners of his lips. ‘We might have a problem there.’

‘Oh yes?’

‘Oh yes indeed. A binding promise? What in all Creation could bind me against my will?’

‘Then the deal,’ I said, climbing to my feet, ‘is off.’ I unshipped my whistle and put it to my lips, sounding a chord tha»ingm"" t Asmodeus would easily recognise: the same tune I always played when my goal was to push him back down into the depths and give Rafi a little respite: a little time alone inside his own head.

‘No.’ Asmodeus and Trudie Pax said the word at the same time.