Demon Bound

bargained with.
    They could be tricked. The sure and swift fate of those marked by the
cu sith
might not be his, after all.
    We seek the blood-born messenger of the old voices, the girl on the owl’s wing,
the dog rumbled.
    “Can’t help you there, mate,” Jack said. “Kiss me or kill me, but you’re not getting Pete.”
    Crow-mage, in your arrogance do not make the mistake of thinking we will mind the Hellspawn’s bargain,
the dog whispered, and Jack’s stomach went sideways.
    “How do you know about that?”
    We guard the doorways and the byways, the secret places and all who pass. We see much. We see
you.
    The dog let out a howl that could bleed eardrums, that rolled and echoed off the hillside.
    “It’s not Pete you want,” Jack said, the edge of frantic making his voice ragged. “You have to
leave
, do you understand? Leave her alone.”
    We are not seeking harm, crow-mage
, the dog hissed.
We are seeking to keep her from the taint of death, the mud and blood and carnage of the crow. We do not expect you to understand.
    Jack felt his temper fray, a curious physical sensation akin to standing up too fast when you’d gone and tied a few pints on. His shield hex grew in front of him before he was even aware he’d whispered “
Cosain
,” and he felt witchfire curl across his exposed skin as his fury burned in the night.
    Gone was the fear. Now he just wanted the thing in front of him to hurt, burn, and cower before his magic.
    The black dog crouched, nails digging into the mud.
You think I fear a flesh-and-blood thing such as you, crow-mage? Bitch of the war-hag?
    “You’re one to talk about bitches,” Jack said. “And I think you’re scared enough to keep away from me, to skulk around in shadows like a shade. If you want to kill me, you’re welcome, mate. Here’s your open chance. Take your fucking try.”
    The black dog reared, charged, and Jack braced himself for the psychic impact on his hex. It felt like nothing somuch as sticking your head inside a great bloody bell and ringing the clapper, loud and riotously painful.
    Something streaked into his vision from the left, a small form with a silver weapon. Pete swung the crowbar over her head and down, landing it squarely on the black dog’s spine.
    “Go back where you sodding came from!” she shrieked.
    The dog howled at the touch of cold iron, and stumbled. Jack spun out of the way, going on his arse in the mud and avoiding the thing’s claws by inches.
    Cease!
The dog howled.
We mean to take you as our own, Weir. . . .
    “Not bloody likely.” Pete clutched the crowbar, her breath rasping in and out like a saw, lips parted and body trembling. “Now I’m no mage and I’m no sure hand at this but if you come near me again I’ll send you back to the fucking Dark Ages, you mangy git, so take the chance and
fuck off
!”
    She swung the crowbar again, catching the dog across the snout, and it yelped and cowered, eyes fading to a sick shade of orange.
    That,
it told Pete,
was a grave error in judgment, girl.
    “Wouldn’t be the first,” Pete said, her voice icy as the aura surrounding the black dog. “Won’t be the last.”
    Jack gripped Pete’s arm, causing her to lower the crow-bar. The black dog skirted around the edges of his hex, wary now of the iron, its breath leaving great dragon puffs of white in the freezing air. “We need to go,” Jack told Pete. “We need to go
now.
”
    “Couldn’t agree more,” Pete said. She dropped the crow-bar and backed up until she was pressed arm-to-arm with Jack, and as one they turned and ran.
    Jack felt his lungs protest after the first few steps, a cutting sensation sawing against his breastbone. For the first time in his adult life, he wholeheartedly promised anyhigher power listening that if he survived past the next few minutes, he’d seriously consider cutting back on the fags.
    They pelted down the hill, Jack snatching glances into the night behind him, watching for the black dog.
    The baying started when the estate was just within reach, a few hundred meters across the muddy grass.
    On the crest of the hill, Jack saw the black shadow ripple and re-form as the dog stopped to scent him, and then two other shadows join it, all of them raising their snouts to the hidden moon and offering their blood oath.
    “What d’you know,” he panted. “I thought it was just being a pretentious git using the royal
we
.”
    “Less talk!” Pete snapped. “More moving!”
    The house lay so