Page 100 of Want Me, Take Me, Haunt Me, Make Me

All the force of Maxwell’s binding slammed into him in a second, more violent than it ever had been, a river that carried away his will. He knew he couldn’t resist and struggled anyhow, even as his body marched forward like a windup Christmas soldier.

The demon took the opposite route as it, too, dashed toward Hazel. It either couldn’t or didn’t want to cross through the middle of the room by the head, but its spidery legs covered a lot of ground with each step. As she bent to pick up the gray box, Perthrux lashed out at her, talons missing her neck by a hair.

She spun around to face it. For a second, they stood like chess pieces: the small woman with the upraised knife, the gaunt red demon towering over her. Then Hazel flicked the knife through the air, leaving a glowing trail behind, and shouted a few words in what sounded like Greek.

Blue light filled the space between her and Perthrux, throwing the demon toward the center of the room and away from Hazel. She turned again and raced for the wall. From there, Maxwell thought, she’d clearly try to get to the head from the opposite side, keeping herself out of Perthrux’s range. It was a decent approach.

It also put her directly in his path.

He threw himself against the binding, succeeded in doing morethan locking his knees for a second, and then kept advancing. One of his arms snapped out, then turned over, leaving his cupped hand turned upward. A dark flame appeared in it. Maxwell drew his arm back.

Blessed pain shot through one of his legs. He staggered, the flame vanishing as his body’s response overwhelmed his magical training, and looked down to see a blue shape: Casper had locked his jaws on Maxwell’s calf. Here in the ethereal, it wasn’t only a gesture.

The dog shook his head back and forth, and Maxwell felt his skin rip.

Good boy. Very good boy.

Then the demon was shouting again—“Get it away”—and Maxwell’s body obeyed, grabbing Casper by the head. As his mind sobbed in protest, his hands yanked Casper off his leg and threw the ghostly dog against the wall as hard as he could.

Hazel cried out, but Casper made no sound, even when he hit.

Maxwell didn’t have the chance to see if the dog moved afterward. Perthrux’s commands were turning him back to Hazel, summoning the flame again, and the best he could do was control his own mouth for a moment. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Her eyes found his across the too-small distance between them. Maxwell saw pain there, yes, but not despair. She held his gaze as she raised the knife—it wouldn’t do much good against him, not when he had a spell ready, but he loved her for trying—and as she brought it down into the gray box with all her strength.

Static roared into the room in waves that drowned out all other sound, not just louder than before but more resonant as well, with pure silvery notes behind it that Maxwell could almost make out and couldn’t hear fully if he listened for a thousand years. He heard Hazel’s voice, though, cutting clear and warm through the chaos.

“Maxwell St. James Redfern,” she called as he reeled from the onslaught, “I bind you to the world where you were born, to the man you want to be, and to a far larger power than the demon Perthrux.”

Her voice shook the universe.

* * *

Black flame slammed into the pinioned figure a few feet away from Hazel. The shape crumbled away in seconds, leaving the humming chorus one throat short, though Hazel couldn’t hear any difference above the static. Music appreciation wasn’t her main priority just then, anyhow.

Maxwell couldn’t be either. He stood frozen in front of her, mouth open and eyes blank. The rune-engraved portable radio, the knife, and the incantation had donesomething, that much was clear, but Hazel had no idea whether she’d freed him, stunned him, or completely wiped his brain. She didn’t have time to find out, any more than she had time to check on Casper. Her last resort protection spell had shoved Perthrux away and maybe dazed it for little while, but no more, and she could hear the demon charging toward her.

She’d taken the leap, and now the ground was coming up fast—either she flew or all of them hit hard.

Hazel yanked her knife free of the radio, which spit sparks at her, and threw it blindly in the direction of the thudding footsteps. As it hit the ground, she whirled and sprinted toward the floating head. Maxwell became only a shape in the edge of her vision. Hazel thought she saw him start to move, but couldn’t spare a look to find out. Perthrux was coming up on her other side, ignoring its previous reluctance to go near the dais.

Its tongue snapped out toward her again, but she knew that trick now. As the black, barbed column reached for her, she fell to one knee and ducked under it, then rose and veered around Perthrux as it rushed onward. Momentum took her past the demon’s body and back toward the dais. She crouched, leaped—

—and a blow from Perthrux knocked her sideways. She tumbled down, hitting the floor stomach-first and clipping her chin too. Black spots exploded in her vision.

Shit shit shit oh God gotta get up.

Her body wouldn’t move. She didn’t have enough air. Hazel could hear the demon stalking toward her as she feebly tried to push herself up, and its burned-tire odor fell on her, stinging her eyes and closing her throat. “This will befun,” it gurgled. One clawed hand closed on Hazel’s shoulder, and Perthrux picked her up with ease, dangling her in the air in front of its maggot-white eyes. “Too fast, but fun.”

The demon opened its upper mouth.

A bolt of crackling black energy hit it squarely in the back, sending up a cloud of dark, reeking smoke. Perthrux’s claws opened as it convulsed in agony, and Hazel wiggled free, falling to the floor again. This time she got her legs underneath her quicker and rose in time to see Maxwell launch himself toward the demon, his face grim and his eyes blazing green.

“You,” Perthrux shrieked. One side still turned on a dime as it pivoted toward Maxwell, but the other lagged a fraction behind, not quite in sync any longer. “You can’t.”

Maxwell’s laughter filled the room. “I beg to differ, youbastard,” he snarled back. At his gesture, a wall of dark fire rose up in front of him. “I had a century to learn from the best, didn’t I?”

The flames began to spread.