Read Online Demon High by Lori Devoti - Free Book Online

laughter: a female’s, high and bell-like, a man’s, deep and disturbing. When I glanced back at the boys, they were stumbling and running away from the circle. I couldn’t blame them for that; I wanted to run too.
    But I couldn’t.
    Behind me Brittany was screaming. I forgot about the boys and concentrated on stopping the nightmare they had created. I slashed at the candle, yelled out the chant, but it wasn’t working. The wind continued to howl and the laughter grew louder, seemed to swirl around me, engulf me.
    “Lucinda!” Brittany calling me. Frantically chanting, I ignored her. My hands were slippery, in the back of my mind I realized I’d cut myself, that my blood could add to the chaos. I wiped my hands on my shirt, still chanting, praying now. My skin was cold, everything was cold.
    Hell was supposed to be hot.
It was the only clear thought I could manage. My hands were shaking, my throat was hoarse, and I couldn’t see. Tears from the cold air and bits of dirt pelting my face blinded me.
    “Lucinda!” A hand grabbed me by the shoulder and jerked me backward. I slashed with my knife, even though I knew it would do no good. The blade could cut the call if sliced through the candle, but would do nothing to stop a demon, not once he was loose in our world.
    “Stop it,” someone yelled. My face stung. The someone had hit me, slapped me.
    “Get your ass in the cemetery.” It was Brittany looking like a raging warrior her red hair billowing around her in the wind. Her face was pale, but determined. I looked down and realized she held my arm. She was trying to pull me to safety—or the closest thing we had at hand, hallowed ground.
    I found my feet then. The candle and athame still in my hands, I scrambled to a stand. I followed her back to the fence and flung my body over, ignored the sharp pain as my side drug across a rusty spike. I fell to the ground and rolled to my stomach. Through the metal bars and weeds I could see the circle. The winged demon stood in the center, his hands raised, laughter rolling from his throat. Behind him there were shadows, slipping away from the circle.
    “Lucinda…I’m sorry…I’m going to kill….” Brittany couldn’t seem to string together a single thought. I could feel her anger, but I couldn’t find the strength to share it.
    Standing on the tiny barrier of hallowed ground, it all was too real and too obviously my fault. I’d called the demons; I’d convinced Brittany and myself that I could handle them. Who had I been kidding? I wasn’t my mother, and look at what had happened to her.
    Disappeared. She’d disappeared. Maybe this is how it happened, what was about to happen to all of us.
    I gritted my teeth and shook my head, as if I could shake the defeating thoughts from my brain. Then I shoved myself to a sit. My legs crossed like a Zen master, I yelled, “Brittany.”
    She was busy shoving college students to the ground and holding down their heads when they tried to get back up. I grabbed her by the arm when she got close and yelled in her ear. “Get them to chant. Like you did before. Help me.” Then without waiting, I went through the ritual again. I started at the beginning as if the shrieks and howls weren’t building, as if the wind was calm, as if everything was calm, including me.
    At first I thought it wasn’t going to work, that Brittany wouldn’t be able to get the distraught college kids to follow her lead, but slowly their voices began to build. “Lucinda Marie Dent, we give you our power. Use it to close this circle.” I didn’t know where Brittany got her script, but it was good, on target. I chopped off the end of the candle. The flame had gone out long ago, but I ignored that detail, prayed it didn’t matter—convinced myself it didn’t matter. Then I closed my eyes and chanted…then I chanted some more.
    The wind began to die, the shrieks and laughter to fade. Still I chanted. Beside me, Brittany and the college kids did the