Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex: Demonized #1)(47)

Tae-min stepped in front of Zylas. He and the demon were the same height, and the guild officer stared into Zylas’s crimson eyes. “You have a legal contract? I’ve never seen a contracted demon move that fast.”

“Yes,” I lied, wishing I could sound as cool and bored as Amalia. “It’s legal.”

He nodded as he reached under the back of his shirt. When his hand reappeared, he held a short knife with an engraved hilt. Did all mythics carry hidden knives around?

“What are you—” I began shrilly.

His dark eyes skimmed my face, then his hand snapped out—the sharp, deadly blade slashing at Zylas’s throat. I lunged forward.

Blood splattered the floor.

The knife pressed against Zylas’s cheek, dark blood running down the blade. My hand was clamped over Tae-min’s, stopping the weapon from cutting any deeper.

I scarcely remembered moving—I only recalled the piercing urgency that had driven me forward to grab the knife. Sharp pain dug into my inner thumb and a tremor ran through me, but I didn’t loosen my hold.

“What are you doing?” My hard, chilly demand surprised me.

Tae-min pulled his weapon back, easily breaking my hold, and I curled my fingers into a tight fist. Tucking the blade under his shirt, the guild officer assessed my demon. Through it all—the sudden attack, my lunge, the cut—Zylas hadn’t so much as twitched. He must have nerves of steel.

“I had to be sure it’s fully under your control,” Tae-min explained casually. “Your handling of the demon is superb. How do you do it?”

My mouth opened but I had no idea what to say.

Amalia jumped to my rescue. “We aren’t about to reveal our family secrets to you plebeians.”

An annoyed grumble ran through the mythics.

“Well …” Tae-min rubbed his smooth jaw. “I’ll talk to the GM.”

As the officer walked off to a private corner to make the call, I looked up at Zylas. Blood darker and thicker than a human’s dripped off his chin.

My fist tightened, pain flaring through my palm, and I hoped no one noticed the slow dribble of blood squeezing between my fingers, its tempo matching Zylas’s almost perfectly. Something told me a contractor slicing her hand open to stop a blade from touching her demon might raise suspicion. Even I could hardly believe I’d done it.





Chapter Nineteen





“I’m sorry,” I muttered for the fourth time.

Arms folded, Amalia glared across the road. We were standing in the alcove outside the Grand Grimoire’s front door, waiting for Tae-min to join us. Pattering rain coated the pavement and heightened the colors of the spray paint that marked the opposite building.

No matter where I looked, the street was ugly, but I should get used to the view. This was my guild now.

Whatever Tae-min had told the GM had done the trick. I was officially a member of the Grand Grimoire, and Tae-min was putting through the preliminary paperwork right now. More forms and waivers awaited us but until the MPD lifted their “escaped demon” alert, no one would be processing anything.

I assessed the heat level of Amalia’s glower. “I really am sorry. When he asked if you were my champion, he seemed to expect a ‘yes.’”

Her scowl deepened.

“You never said you weren’t planning to join the guild with me,” I added.

“Of course I wasn’t!” she blurted furiously. “I was already in a guild! But you had to go and tell him I’m your champion and it would’ve looked suspicious if I’d corrected you.”

My hands tightened and pain flared. I’d balled a few tissues against my cut thumb to stanch the bleeding, but it hurt a lot. “Why didn’t you explain champions to me before?”

“I forgot you didn’t know,” she replied grouchily. “But don’t you think it’s kind of obvious? Controlling a demon in a fight takes concentration. Contractors can’t defend themselves at the same time, so they need a protector.”

And that protector was their “champion,” a mythic partner who guarded the contractor’s back.

“It’s a good thing your crazy demon can fight on its own,” she added, “because I’ll be a useless champion. But remember”—she leaned close and lowered her voice—“if he fights, he can’t use any magic. It’ll be a dead giveaway that he’s not—”

The door behind us opened, causing Amalia and me to jump. We exchanged alarmed looks and I vowed to be more careful about what we discussed in public.

Tae-min stepped outside, accompanied by another man—almost as thick and muscled as Burly, but several inches shorter. “This is George. We’re partnering for the search. Let’s go.”

Since Tae-min was a sorcerer—he’d been waving around sorcery artifacts earlier—that would make George a contractor. The guild was half contractors, half champions.

The officer led us out of the alcove, and I pulled my jacket tighter around me as I followed him into the cold rain. His car was parked in the alley adjacent to the guild and we piled into it. As the vehicle pulled out onto the quiet road, I hunched in my seat, wishing I could wake from this nightmare.

Thanks to Zylas, there was a demon loose in the city, and every combat mythic from every guild was hunting it. The Grand Grimoire, as the city’s primary Demonica guild, was crucial to the hunt—and Amalia and I were now part of the search effort.