Page 3 of Demon Hunger
Regina preened herself like some sort of swan ready to spread her wings and fly. “I do.”
“Excellent. Could you explain it to the rest of the class?”
She nodded, her blond hair swinging lightly. “A stark summoning is performed without a summoning circle, and when the demon in question is known to be in our realm already.” She smirked, looking pleased with herself.
Drevan raised his eyebrows, urging her to go on, but it seemed that was where Regina’s knowledge on the subject ended. Looking disappointed, he glanced around the circle again. His gaze landed on me for the second time. I itched to provide the answer and show my classmates that I knew, but I would not give him the satisfaction.
Tentatively, Jenna put her hand up
Drevan turned his attention away from me, though not before a flash of discontent crossed his expression.
“Yes, Ms. Griffin.”
“You also need a summoning stone,” she answered, sounding a bit uncertain, but when Drevan smiled and nodded in approval, a wide smile parted her lips.
“And what else?” Drevan pressed.
Jenna’s smile quickly disappeared.
“No one? It was part of the assigned reading material.”
We had received said assignment only a few minutes before we were directed to come here. The only reason I knew the answer was because I’d been reading ahead in ourSummoning for the Agestextbook. Yeah, I had turned into one ofthosestudents, and I didn’t know whether to be proud or ashamed of myself. Regina had been reading on her phone on our way here, but clearly, she hadn’t gotten to the end of the chapter.
“The demon in question has to be within a hundred-yard radius,” I said in a tired tone, “which probably means our target is inside of Hades.” I pointed toward the club.
I’d been inside once, the night Drevan threw Sage over a balcony thinking my friend was being impersonated by an evil angel. He had brought me here using a demon portal, which was one of his favorite methods of transportation, one that left me feeling ready to puke every time he dragged me along.
“Very good, Ms. Sunder,” he praised me, his eyes sparkling, just the reason I didn’t like answering questions in his class, which kind of defeated the purpose of reading ahead.Bummer. Still, someone should tell him he wasn’t supposed to play favorites with his students. Maybe I needed to mention something to Director Grant.
Across the circle, Regina’s mouth turned upside down in exaggerated disgust.Shit!Why couldn’t I learn to keep my mouth shut?
“What did you do to ingratiate yourself with Professor Veneres?” Regina, the bitch, had asked me yesterday after Drevan praised the precision of a summoning circle I’d drawn in class. Of course, I hadn’t honored her question with an answer, though it had taken a lot of teeth grinding and inner cursing not to fall prey to her taunting.
Pushing his long coat out of the way with a flourish, Drevan reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a summoning stone, an artifact imbued with a demon’s essence that facilitated the process of calling the creature forth. Drevan tossed it in the air and caught it again.
“This summoning stone was created by none other than Konrad Striker.” He handed the stone to Sage. “Examine it and pass it around, please, Mr. Donnelley.”
As the summoning stone exchanged hands and everyone took a close look, Drevan explained who we were about to summon.
“The essence contained in that stone belongs to a demon by the name of Eisheth. Does anyone know what type of demon she is?”
I bit my tongue and avoided glancing in Regina’s direction. I knew what type of demon she was, and I didn’t like this one bit. She was a level D creature, even more dangerous than Phenog, which was one level down.
“Eisheth is a succubus,” Drevan continued, when no one answered. “Her first recorded sighting in our realm was in 300 BC. After that there have been three others, all recorded this week. As you well know, demon sightings have drastically increased in the past few months. It is the reason why first-years such as yourselves are receiving advanced training.”
The summoning stone finished making its way to me. I turned it over in my hand, puzzled over the fact that it had been created by Striker—the greatest demon hunter of all time who, by the way, also happened to be a demon. According to the Demon Hunter Register, he had been the first one to quell Eisheth and send her back to hell. He even took the time to capture her essence to make the summoning stone I now held, a smooth river rock with no special markings.
I wondered, not for the first time, what demon dwellers made out of someone like Striker. Also, why he hadn’t used Blazebringer to quell Eisheth since she was still alive. His sword was forged in heavenly fire, which was the only type of weapon that could kill an angel, a Nephilim, and a demon. Maybe he played favorites or maybe he never used Blazebringer to quell because he didn’t want to kill his friends. Now, that was a thought. I made a mental note to read the true version of Striker’s biography. It was something I’ve been meaning to do since I learned what he was after I got my Truesight.
“A D level demon such as Eisheth has no business being here,” Drevan went on, “so we’re here to summon her and send her back to where she belongs.”
“Yes!” Sage pumped a fist in the air.
So far, E was the highest level of demon we’d summoned and quelled in class. Talk about stepping things up.
“Who wants to do the honors?” Drevan asked.
Jenna, Sage, and Regina’s hands went up faster than I could sayirresponsible.
