The Demon's Lexicon Read Free Page A

away.
    â€œNo, no,” Alan said at once. “I know all this must look strange, but we can help you. We want to help you.”
    Nick felt himself bound to correct this misapprehension. “I don’t. And we’ve talked about this, Alan. Don’t you think we have enough going on without opening up a charity shop for people who think they need occult”—he let his lip curl—“help?”
    â€œDad would have wanted us to help people,” Alan told him, and then addressed the others. “Look, please come in. I can explain everything.”
    It was a testament to Alan’s powers of persuasion that they did not laugh in his face. It was a testament to Alan’s powers of looking nonthreatening that he could manage it with the door open on their destroyed kitchen, with a corpse on the floor. He rumpled his red hair and adjusted his glasses in an anxious sort of way, and he took a couple of steps back to the kitchen. He let them see the limp: He used that, the same way he used everything.
    Mae and Jamie visibly relaxed.
    Nick gave up, shaking his head and following his brother inside. Mae squared her shoulders resolutely and crossed the threshold into their home. Nick was standing in the doorway and stepped back about an inch, so she had to brush by him. She looked irritated and uncomfortable doing it, and he smirked at her. He saw her hesitate, as if she was about to turn and run, but Alan stood before her looking honest and inviting.
    She stopped, reached up, and tapped the talisman lying against Nick’s chest.
    â€œWhat’s this?” she asked, her voice a little softer.
    â€œIt’s a talisman,” Alan answered gently. “It warns him when magic is being used nearby, and it protects him from smaller spells.”
    â€œProtects him,” Mae repeated. “So you’re talking about black magic, then? The kind that hurts people—that causes trouble.”
    Nick laughed, looking at the broken glass and black feathers around them.
    â€œThere isn’t any other kind.”
    â€œI have a feeling this is going to be one hell of an explanation,” Mae said, and walked into the kitchen and toward Alan.
    Jamie still looked wide-eyed and extremely doubtful about what he was doing, but he dashed in after her.
    Nick closed the door and found himself wondering what had brought this pair to their house. You had to be desperate to come to them.

2
Demon’s Mark
    O F COURSE NICK WAS EXPECTED TO GET RID OF THE BODY.
    He always did it, since Alan couldn’t be expected to haul corpses about the place with his leg, but he seldom found it this irritating. He could’ve had his dinner first, if Alan hadn’t been worried about what the guests would think.
    He twisted the steering wheel more viciously than he should have, since making sharp turns in the narrow roads around Exeter was not exactly advisable.
    His foul mood might have something to do with the fact that these two freaks were from his school. People from his school had seen the way he lived, with the sword and the gun and with ravens and demons. It didn’t seem to bother Alan, but it should have. There were a lot of things about their life that should have bothered Alan.
    He drove along the river Exe for a while, the low-lying city lost behind the car, the faint shapes of buildings in the distance looking like no more than the shadows of a larger city he could not see. He waited until there had been nobody else on the road for ten minutes, then pulled the car over to the side of the road and climbed out.
    Nick bundled the body out of the boot. The man had been tall, he noticed idly, and he wondered if he should check his sigil to see what Circle he belonged to.
    He decided not to. Anyone could come by while he was doing it, and besides, it didn’t matter which Circle had found them this time. All the Circles were after them. It would be a different one next time.
    The presence of