With a twang, I felt him set a circle. Jenks was at the ceiling shouting something, and the little white pills bounced harmlessly against Minias’s black sheet of ever-after.
I had to get out! There were too many pipes and wires in here to set a demonproof circle.
“What the hell?” Minias said, his goat-slitted eyes confused as he picked up a pill and looked at it. He had broken his circle to do it, and, scrambling, I grabbed Ivy’s hair spray.
“Get out of my church!” I shouted, spraying him.
Orange-scented detangler hit Minias square in the eyes. Yelping, he stumbled backward into the hall to hit the dark walls. Arms and legs askew, he slipped to the floor. I didn’t wait to see if he was down. I’d seen enough movies to know better.
Pulse hammering, I lurched out over him. He grunted as my foot hit something, and I gasped when he went misty and my foot slipped through him and found the floor.
My hands touched the walls to pull me forward, and I ran for the kitchen. I had a circle there, still set with salt. Jenks was a blur of gold dust ahead of me.
“Look out!” he shouted, and I went down, my feet pulled from under me.
Memories of Al poured through me. I couldn’t go back there. I couldn’t be someone’s plaything. I silently fought, kicking at anything, my years of martial arts forgotten.
“What is wrong with you?” Minias said, then grunted when my sandal hit something tender. He went misty, his grip falling away.
I pulled myself forward, almost crawling across the kitchen until the expanse of my circle was between us. Minias was close behind. “Rhombus!” I shouted, tapping the line and slapping my hand on the line etched in the linoleum.
Ever-after coursed in. Fear caused my control to slip, and more power than I liked raced through me, hurting. The circle went up, and Minias ran smack into the interior wall of it.
“Ow!” the demon exclaimed, purple robes furling as he fell back against the island counter. Hand over his nose, he looked at the smut crawling over my bubble. His hat had fallen off, and he glared at me from under his curls, turning almost choleric when he realized that his nose was bleeding. “You broke my nose!” he exclaimed, bright red demon blood pouring forth.
“So fix it,” I said, shaking. He was in a circle. He was in my circle. I took a breath, then another. Slowly I pulled my legs under me and stood, cold despite the warmth of the night.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he asked again, clearly furious as a sheet of ever-after slithered over him. He took his hand from his nose to show that the blood was gone.
“Me?” I said, burning off some angst. “You said you’d call first, not just barge in!”
“I did call!” Minias roughly adjusted his robes. “You never answered, and then,” he shouted, flicking a finger under my expensive chalkboard to make it hit the floor, “instead of a simple ‘I’m busy, could you call back again later,’ you slam the door in my face! I want this mark between us settled. You are rude, ill-mannered, and as ignorant as a toad!”
“Hey!” Face warming, I leaned to look around the counter to find that my board had cracked. “You broke my chalkboard!” Then I hesitated, drawing back with my arms over my chest. “You were the one making me sneeze?” I said, and he nodded. “I’m not allergic to cats?” I looked at Jenks, elated. “Jenks! I’m not allergic to cats!”
Minias crossed his arms and leaned against the counter. “Ignorant as a toad. Rude as an unwanted guest. Al is a saint for putting up with you, the novelty of your blood aside.”
Jenks was shooing his kids from the window, assuring them we were all right and to not tell their mother. “Me…rude?” I stammered, tugging my shirt back down where it belonged when Minias’s gaze slid to my midriff. “I’m not the one just showing up!”
“I said I would call first.” His demon eyes narrowed. “I didn’t promise it. And I’m not the one flinging pills and mace,” he added, scooping up his hat and jamming it on his head. His curls were sticking out all over, and damn me to hell if he didn’t look good like that. Immediately I sobered. No, no, Rachel. Bad girl. And remembering what Ivy had told me this spring about my needing the threat of death to prove to myself that I was alive, I quickly shoved aside any idea that Minias was attractive. But he was.
Minias saw my anger fizzle, and, clearly used to dealing with volatile females, he dropped his gaze. When it returned to me, he was visibly calmer, though no less angry. “I apologize for startling you,” he said formally. “Obviously you thought you had something to fear, and grabbing you probably wasn’t the best idea.”