Release party excerpt & giveaway: DEMON HIGH by Lori Devoti
Lucinda Dent never planned to call demons. She wasn't stupid, after all. She saw what the addiction did to her mother. But her mother has been gone for ten years, sucked into hell by a demon, and all Lucinda has left is her grandmother and the house she grew up in. Who could blame her for using the only thing her mother gave her, a talent for demon calling, to save them?
Lucinda teams up with an old friend and together they set up business, calling demons. But soon things go terribly wrong.
Demons are loose in Caldera High, and not only is Lucinda responsible, she just might be in love with one of them. Can love conquer all or is Lucinda about to lose everything–her home, her new love, and her soul?
A circle drawn with white paint dominated the floor. It was impossible to miss. I knew it was paint without touching it. My mother had made a lot of jokes about people who drew their circles with chalk–said they were one smudge away from "home." Most people thought of home as a good place, but I'd known by how she'd said the word, it wasn't.
Mum must be "home" now too. I drew in a breath and let my body adjust to the cold clamminess that had suddenly formed on my skin. There was moisture in the corner of my eyes too. I blinked that away. Even when I was six Mum hadn't hid the dangers of what she did from me. She'd raised me to be pragmatic.
Mum was gone. Nana and I were here…in this house. I needed to keep it that way.
I stepped closer to the white line. I let my foot break the circle. My feet were bare. I didn't like wearing shoes when I didn't have to. My toes looked strange poking into that circle, made the whole demon thing seem like something I'd dreamed, but then I looked up and saw my mother's leather pouch laying open on the other side of the room. It was flat, empty.
I looked in the circle then. An athame and stone bowl lay near the center. The athame was shoved hilt to dirt into the floor, but the bowl was turned over. The dirt was darker around it. I didn't want to think about what had been in that bowl that the stain was still there ten years later. So I shoved that question into a little box in my head where I kept my grief and shut it off too, concentrated on finding the rest of Mum's tools instead.
They were all there, but they were scattered–as if a big wind had exploded from the center of the room…the circle…and blown them to the four corners.
I didn't think about that, either. I just went about picking everything up and shoving the items into Mum's leather pouch.
When the bag was bulging, I turned to leave. I got as far as the door before I stumbled. My bare toes made contact with something hard and cold. A shiver shot through me and it took all the courage I could muster to look down and see what had stopped my step.
It was a statue, about six inches tall and carved out of something white–bone. Had to be from a big animal–or a human. I gripped the bag tighter. My hands were sweating now. If Mum had been there she would have laughed. Here I was wanting to call demons and the sight of a little bone statue almost sent me running.
Not just the sight, I corrected mentally, the touch too. It had been…slimy. Crawled up my leg and wrapped around my calf. I could still feel it even though the object was no longer in contact with my skin. I picked up my foot and shook my leg.
It was a silly thing to do, but it made me feel better, broke the tension somehow.
I managed a chuckle at myself then, and ordered my knees to bend so I could get a closer look at the figure. It was one of Mum's tools. I might need it.
I should take it.
I reached out thinking if I grabbed the thing fast, I'd get past the part of my brain that was screaming no, but it didn't work. My hand stopped three inches above the small statue and hovered there, shaking.
I started humming, a bad habit I was trying to break. I managed to stop the sound, but gave up on picking up the figurine. I lowered my hand to the ground beside the thing instead and stared at it.
I knew instantly I was looking into the face of my mother's killer. Horns sprouted from his forehead and curled down the back of his head, ending at his shoulders. His face was long and angular, but strangely attractive…aristocratic.
A demon lord. Where had my mother found the object? And more important, why had she called him up?
His eyes seemed to glimmer, to watch me. Something urged me to pick up the statue. My hand even moved toward it. I curled my fingers into the dirt. A nail broke off into the packed earth, and pain shot through my finger. I winced and glanced at my hand.
Blood beaded where the nail had been; it mixed with the dirt.
Someone exhaled, sighed. I thought for a second it was me, like my humming, but then the statue turned his head and his tongue, skinny and white, flicked from between his teeth and lapped at the blood-stained earth.
I picked up the bag and ran like hell–from hell or "home" or whatever lived in my basement.
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Find out more about Lori Devoti and her books at her website.
One lucky commenter will win an e-copy of Lori Devoti's DEMON HIGH. Comment on all 26 DRAGON BLUES Release Party excerpts for a chance to win more free books! Winners will be announced on Monday, Feb. 28. If you'd like to look at the schedule of events, click here.
