Page 20 of Dark Stars
"Brace yourselves," Harold called out, thensnapped his fingers, sending sparks along the edge of the circlehe'd drawn in a mix of chalk and blood. Sickly rust-colored lightburst from the summoning sigil, and a moment later a long, sinuousserpent the same rusty, old-blood color slithered up into view. Itwas caged by the sigil, but that didn't mean Leviathan wasn't stilldangerous.
"My turn," Bobby said. "Get back, all ofyou."
Leviathan hissed, voice a deep rumble thatshouldn't have been possible from the mouth of a serpent. His fangsdripped venom that hissed as it landed on the cement roof. "You'rethe get of the Secret One and a piddling human. They whisper ofyou, playing at human, playing atgood. What does her whelpwant with me?"
"Him," Bobby said, eyes glowing faintly,nodding his head at Alejo, now held protectively by Jones.
Snarling, Leviathan lunged, hissing andspitting venom when the sigil crackled like lightning and forcedhim back. "Well made, witch."
Harold grunted.
"Bargain with me, Serpent of the Deep. Youhave no use for a boy."
Leviathan hissed. "I have use aplenty inbinding a child of the dark stars to me. Did you think we would notnotice such a creature, primordial one? You are still a childyourself."
Bobby laughed. "Not so much a child as that.Bargain with me, Leviathan, Lord of the Deep, Master of EnviousHearts. You know what will happen to you if you refuse."
Another hiss, but then Leviathan twined andtwisted and curled in on himself until he gave the impression of aking on his throne. "Blood, whelp. If I must release my fairlybargained mate—"
"Debatable," Bobby cut in.
"Then I want a full measure of yourblood."
"Quarter."
"Half, then," Leviathan snarled.
"One third measure."
The whole building seemed to tremble, butLeviathan at last gave one last, petulant hiss. "One third measureof your blood, pure, uncut, unaltered, in exchange for the promiseof soul-binding."
"Done," Bobby replied, even as Harold andJones roared in protest.
Flicking his fingers to turn nails intoclaws, he sliced open his wrist and turned it to spill out, hisblood purple-black and faintly glittering, twining itself into aball, compacting down and down until it was roughly the size of abaseball and harder than rock. He flicked his wrist, closing thewound, then picked up the ball of blood and tossed it through thebarrier.
Leviathan hissed, making the whole buildingshake again, and a moment later the binding slammed into Bobby withenough force to send him stumbling back a step. His chest burned,ached, like a thousand hot needles driven into him at once. Thenthe burning ache crawled up his body to coalesce on the back of hisneck, blue-green with fleck of firefly green deep within itsdepths, the anchor mark to Alejo's remade binding.
Nearby, Alejo cried out in his sleep, andthe mark on the back of his neck writhed and twisted in and arounditself until it took on a new shape. The color changed from oldblood to a faintly glowing, dark blue green with flecks of fireflygreen in its depths. Though it was stationary, it seemed to pulseand shift, as though restless and eager to be free. Any mortal wholooked at it too long would find themselves suffering a cripplingmigraine—at best.
Harold stepped forward again, and with a fewsharp words, banished Leviathan, leaving only scorch marks wherehis sigil had been.
"Are you fucking stupid!" Jones bellowed."Giving a demon like that your blood?"
Bobby rolled his eyes. "It's fine. Do youreally think I'd mess around with such dangerous matters withoutprotections in place? You need to better remember I'm older thanyou, vampire, and I've been dealing with the likes of demons formost of that time. It's not demons that worry me, it's humansforming cults to who even knows which of my relatives. Hopefullyit's just Grandpa again."
"Yes, what a relief that the cult wouldonlybe to Cthulhu," Harold said with a snort.
"If I never hear that stupid phrase thecults love so much again, it would still be too soon," Jonesmuttered. "Let's get back inside. Being out here is giving me theheebie-jeebies."
Once they were safely back in Bobby's room,Harold leaned against the dresser the TV was on and asked, "Solearned anything fun about your little cult?"
"Not really. They seem to operate out of achurch and the high school, though I think the latter is mostlyjust a meeting place for larger events than the church could coverfor. The church had a secret tunnel into an underground lair, butsome people showed up before we could really explore. River, boat,blood wine, the whole cultish kit."
Jones hissed at the mention of the wine."Fucking dandy. No clues at all who they're worshipping?"
"Worshipping," Bobby repeated derisively."Not yet. The only clues I've found so far only narrow it to a few.I'm sure I'll figure it out tomorrow when I resume looking. How arethings back home?"
"Busy," Harold said. "I'm trying to pin downthe mischief in the woods. "If you don't need us further here,we'll get back to it."
