I froze as Piscary said its name. The taste of burnt amber coated my tongue, and a haze of ever-after red melted into existence within the summoning circle. “Oh, look. A demon,” I whispered, dragging myself to the fallen table and pulling myself up. “This just keeps getting better and better.”

Swaying, I watched as it swelled to grow into a six-foot-high figure. The ever-after red soaked inward, coalescing as an athletic, amber-skinned body dressed in a loincloth decorated with stones and colored ribbons. Algaliarept had bare muscular legs, an impossibly thin waist, and a magnificently sculptured chest that would make Schwarzenegger weep. And atop it was a jackal head, alive with pointing ears and a long savage muzzle.

My mouth dropped open and I looked from the vision of the Egyptian god of death to Piscary, seeing the vampire’s features with new meaning. Piscary was Egyptian?

Piscary stiffened. “I told you not to appear before me like that,” he said tightly.

The death mask grinned, fascinating in that it was alive and part of him. “I forgot,” it drawled in an incredibly deep voice that seemed to set my insides resonating. A thin red tongue slipped past the jackal teeth to caress its muzzle. There was the clopping sound of teeth and lips.

My heart pounded, and as if hearing it, Algaliarept slowly turned to me. “Rachel Mariana Morgan,” it said, its ears pricked. “You are the little gadabout.”

“Shut up,” Piscary said, and Algaliarept’s eyes narrowed to slits. “What do you want for making her tell me what she knows about Kalamack’s progress?”

“Six seconds with you outside your circle.”The sheer desire to kill Piscary in its voice was like ice down my back.

Piscary shook his head, his cool compassion unshaken. “I’ll give you her. I don’t care what you do with her as long as she doesn’t walk this side of the ley lines ever again. In return, you will make her tell me how far Trent Kalamack is in his research. Before you take her. Agreed?”

Not the ever-after. Not with Algaliarept.

Algaliarept’s canine grin was pleased. “Rachel Mariana Morgan as payment? Mmmm, I agree.” The Egyptian god clenched its hands and took a step forward, halting at the edge of the circle. Its jackal ears pricked and its doggy eyebrows rose.

“You can’t do that!” I protested, heart pounding. I looked at Piscary. “You can’t do that. I don’t agree.” I turned to Algaliarept. “He doesn’t own my soul. He can’t give it to you!”

The demon spared me a glance. “He has your body. Control the body, control the soul.”

“That’s not fair!” I shouted, ignored.

Piscary came close to the circle. He put his hands upon his hips, taking an aggressive stance. “You will,” he intoned, “not attempt to kill or touch me in any fashion. And when I say, you will leave and return directly to the ever-after.”

“Agreed,” the jackal head said. A drop of saliva fell from a fang, hissing as it flowed down the ever-after between them.