Setting the box on his bed, he took the zippy bag and the longest candle and went into the living room. I heard a thump, and he soon reappeared, dragging the stool that I had put his obligatory housewarming plant on. Still silent, he set the candle where the peace lily had once been.

“Buy your own candles for summoning demons,” I said, affronted.

He frowned as he opened the drawer under the footstool to pull out a box of matches. “They have to be lit the first time on hallowed ground or they don’t work.”

“Well, you’ve got everything figured out, don’t you.” I sourly wondered if the entire night had been an excuse to get those candles. How long had he been calling this demon anyway? Lips pursed, I watched him light the candle and shake the match out. But it wasn’t until he took a handful of gray dust from the zippy bag that I started getting nervous. “What is that?” I asked, worried.

“You don’t want to know.” His voice carried a surprising amount of warning.

My face warmed as I recalled that I use to bring his kind in for grave robbing. “Yes, I do.”

He looked up, his brow pinched in irritation. “It’s a focus object so Algaliarept materializes outside the circle instead of in it with us. And the candle is to make sure he doesn’t focus on anything but the ash on the table. I bought it, okay?”

Muttering a quick, “Sorry,” I backed off. Somehow I seemed to have found the only nerve Nick had and stomped on it. I wasn’t up on my demon summoning; obviously he was. “I thought all you had to do was make a circle and call them,” I said, feeling nauseated. Someone had sold their grandmother’s ashes so Nick could call a demon with her remains.

Nick dusted his hands together and resealed the bag. “You might be able to get away with that, but I can’t. The guy at the store kept trying to sell me this outrageously expensive amulet to make a proper binding circle, not believing a human could close one of his own. He gave me ten percent off everything after I put him in a circle he couldn’t break. I guess he thought I knew enough to survive to come back and buy something more.”