The Demon's Lexicon Read Free

hadn’t moved away either. She was still looking up at him, still determinedly calm.
    He knew her now. She was the weird girl in the class above him, who dyed her hair pink and always wore a lot of pentagrams and crystals. Right now she was also wearing giant chandelier earrings and a violently pink T-shirt that bore the words ROMEO AND JULIET WOULDN’T HAVE LASTED.
    He avoided people like her. He avoided anyone who tried to be noticed. That had been one of Dad’s first lessons: Try to act just like everyone else. If you failed to blend in, the magicians would find you.
    â€œYou know him?” she asked James.
    â€œWell, yes,” said James. “He hangs around with a pretty rough crowd at school, Seb McFarlane and that lot, but they’re smoking-behind-the-bike-shed rough. This is different, there were gunshots. My life was going to flash before my eyes, but it decided to hide behind my eyes and quake with terror instead. I think we should just go.”
    â€œI’m not going anywhere,” the girl said. “I saw that bird turn into a man! You saw it too, Jamie. You must have.”
    â€œI don’t know what I saw. It could’ve been a hallucination. You get those from sniffing glue.”
    â€œYou’ve never sniffed glue!”
    â€œI’ve smelled glue,” Jamie said after a pause. “In art class.”
    Nick was about to tell them exactly what he thought of their babbling and exactly what he would do to them if they didn’t go away at once and never breathe a word of what they’d seen, when Alan moved from the doorway into the light.
    â€œMae?” he said, his voice incredulous, and then quickly, “Nick, put that sword down !”
    Mae said, “Bookshop Guy?”
    Nick looked at her, tilting his head and recalling Alan’s wistful speeches on the subject of the pink-haired girl who liked the Beat generation. He put two and two together and came up with the fact that this entire situation was ridiculous.
    This was Alan’s latest crush, then.
    Nick drew the sword slowly away from the girl’s throat and lowered it until the tip almost but not quite touched theground, holding himself ready just in case. He let his gaze follow the blade, toward the ground and away from Mae.
    â€œWhatever you want,” he said softly.
    Jamie was staring at Alan. “You helped me find Catcher in the Rye today and now you shoot people ?”
    â€œHe only shot one person,” Nick remarked. “But the night is young.”
    Alan glanced at him reproachfully, then turned back to Jamie and smiled his slow smile. He’d tucked the gun away under his buttoned-up shirt, along with his talisman, and all trace of the boy who fired to kill and never missed was gone.
    The smile spread just a little bit at a time, coaxing and sweet, persuading Jamie to smile with him. Jamie was wearing a shy, crooked grin before Alan was done.
    â€œForgive him, he has no manners.”
    â€œI get by on good looks,” Nick said.
    â€œI know all of this is pretty strange,” Alan continued, “but you came here for a reason, didn’t you?”
    â€œWe came here because—something really strange has been happening to Jamie,” said Mae, her voice hard. “I was expecting someone who could give us real occult help, though, not a guy who works in my bookshop and a school thug younger than I am. I wasn’t expecting birds that turned into men and weapons and weird necklaces. I don’t know what the hell is going on!”
    â€œIf you’re so disappointed,” Nick said, “get lost. We’re busy.”
    The evening was getting colder and colder, as was Nick’s dinner, and he had to board up the window and call the garage to tell them he was quitting. He did not care what these people wanted, or what was going on with them, or why anyone would use the word occult when they didn’t have to.
    He just wanted them to go