Chapter 29

Matt

Gus, the guy who pinned a target on my back and sent out a death squad, looks shell-shocked by my statement, but then he rallies. "Let's do this, then. What do you want to know?"

"Is there a list of all the demons taken and their locations?" Raum speaks first, his urgent gaze burning into Gus, who flinches.

"Not anymore. I'm sorry. Not all of them. The ledger that had all that information was destroyed during the Great Chicago Fire."

That's… convenient. Dylan pulls out his phone and I glance down to see him typing in the Notes app.

Check with Norval where family was in 1871

That's smart thinking.

"But couldn't you make a new list? Don't you have all the demons…" Ian trails off as Gus miserably shakes his head.

"It's… look, if you're going to hurt me for what my family's done, fine, but can you just wait until I've told you everything? I want this to end ."

In other words, what he's about to tell us is going to make us very mad.

"Let's start at the beginning," Ian suggests in his trying-to-be-a-teacher voice. "Geoffrey Martenson was ejected from the Collective in 1735 for abusing a demon. What happened after that?"

Gus winces. "That's not the version we get told. That he was kicked out, yeah, but not that he… What was it exactly that—you know what, I don't think I want to know. The short answer is, he didn't learn his lesson. He started summoning demons again within the year, mostly to help him set up his own compound—though technically it was a farm back then. He got married, had some kids, and their household and farm staff were all demons. That went on for about twenty years, but he… he liked to experiment." He swallows hard, and none of us have to guess about the kind of experimentation he's referring to. Even if the family whitewashed it in the tales they passed down, it wouldn't be of the mustard-or-mayo variety.

"That was when he discovered that circles can be portable—they just need to be fixed."

Am I stupid, or does that make no sense? "Excuse me?"

"Geoffrey's ‘farm workers' were the envy of the district," Gus explains. "They were strong, never complained, and practically inexhaustible. Geoffrey figured if he could summon more demons, he could have them ‘work' for all the other farmers who kept trying to bribe away his staff, and all their pay would come to him. Like… like renting a horse out to stud."

Both demons clench their fists but say nothing.

"The problem was, there wasn't a way for him to control that many demons," Gus continues. "Especially if they were living full-time on other farms that were hours away. He could compel them to work in service for particular farmers, but if anything complicated came up, or a new task, or any kind of loophole to the original requirement, there would be a demon on the loose, free of a circle."

That checks out. It's not exactly the odd-jobs-agency problem Ian posited before, but the theory is the same. A demon can only be controlled within certain parameters that need to be set at their summoning.

"He needed a way to make the summoning circle portable—so that if a loophole came up, the demon would still be within the original circle and subject to Geoffrey's control, even if he wasn't there at the time. It would be unable to k-kill or cause any havoc or reveal its true nature."

"That all sounds nice and logical," Dylan interrupts, "but the problem is that circles can't be fixed and portable. A circle needs to be drawn on a solid surface and the demon summoned within it."

Gus nods. "Yes, and no. It needs to be drawn on a solid surface. The demon needs to be summoned within it. But once the demon is within the circle, it can be compelled to do things, if the circle is the right one. This is where it gets fucked-up. Geoffrey worked out that a circle can be carved—etched—into metal. Like into a necklace. And then when the demon was first summoned, it could be compelled to put the necklace on."

My whole body has gone cold. I can hear everyone breathing, can hear the way Dylan's heartbeat just sped up. "That information doesn't leave this room," I say hoarsely.

"The Collective can't know. Not officially," Dylan agrees. "It can't go into the database or be discussed anywhere the wrong people could overhear." He lets out a shuddering breath. "If you need a team to get this resolved, we'll need to handpick them."

Ian stands and crosses to loom over Gus. "Do not ever repeat what you've just told us to anyone else unless we say it's okay. Understood?" From this angle, I can't see his face, but judging by the way Gus's eyes widen, he's wearing his "I'll shank you cos I've got no fucks to give" expression.

Gus recovers quicker than I expected, however. "Gee, never thought I'd need to keep it secret. Not like I've been told that my whole freaking life."

"While this history is interesting, and certainly relevant to our task, we are limited for time," Marc breaks in. "August, how did the necklaces become generational? Usually a demon is freed once their summoner dies."

"It's in the circle. Geoffrey worked that out too—that if more than one family member is involved in the summoning, it can be coded to the family line and not an individual."

Ian swears as he stalks back to the couch. This time he perches on the arm, putting him closer to Marc. "So as long as someone with the summoners' DNA lives, the circle is unbroken."

Gus nods. "He also worked out that he could compel the demons to protect the necklace. They can't remove it themselves, and if anybody not of the family line tries to remove it from them, they'll fight to the death."

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Jesus. Your great-whatever-grandfather was a monster."

"So he set up an unofficial employment agency," Dylan says. "Presumably at some point he also decided trafficking carnarius demons would be a good idea."

"The sex trade was already full of trafficked and unwilling workers. That was an easy one for him. But it's also where we'll run into the most issues finding demons. Once the family began actually selling them, rather than… leasing… the only way to know where the demons were was by checking the ledger and keeping an eye on their owners."

While Marc is keeping his cool reasonably well, I can see that Raum isn't taking this talk of demons being owned and sold all that well. I hope he holds on to his control, because we need Gus right now.

"So losing the ledger means that there are a lot of demons currently unaccounted for," I sum up, and Gus nods.

"Some of the clients were regulars, which helped to track them down, but as far as I know, there's somewhere between a thousand and fifteen hundred demons, mostly carnarius, that we don't have a location for." He winces. "And they've been in servitude for a long time."

Hundreds of years. That's going to make for some angry demons when they're freed.

"What about those you do have a location for?" Dylan asks intently. "Do you have access to that list?" He glances toward me, then Marc. "I think we need to prioritize freeing those we can immediately locate, and then begin the task of searching for the others."

"There may be a faster solution," Raum says coolly. "What would happen to the circle necklaces if everyone of the family bloodline was dead?"

Gus's face pales, but to his credit, he doesn't falter. "I don't know for certain. My ancestor was the vindictive type, though, so probably the same thing that usually happens when the creator of a circle dies—the circle will fail. He wouldn't have had a problem with unleashing furious demons for the Collective to deal with, as long as his family wasn't affected."

From the look on Raum's face, he thinks this might be the best option, and I exchange a glance with Ian. "Bringing that kind of attention from the Collective would be counterproductive," I say. "The last thing we want is for them to discover the existence of the necklaces. If we can deal with this under the radar, that would be better for both sides."

"And safer," Ian adds. "Demons freed after hundreds of years of slavery will be angry—rightfully so—and cause a lot of damage. They're not likely to stop when faced with the hunters who're sent to deal with them, and that could end with dead demons. I'd rather see them returned home."

Raum only looks partly convinced—we all know an angry demon can be hard to contain or kill, and with thousands on the loose, hunters will be stretched thin—but Marc says firmly, "We protect lives and the truce. August, where is the most current list of demons and their locations?"

A single tear rolls down Gus's cheek. "My grandfather has it. I tried to convince him to let me digitize it, but he refuses. It's an old ledger, and he keeps it in his safe."

"Do you have access to his safe?" I ask, but Marc scoffs.

"There isn't a safe in existence that can keep me out." His stare bores into Gus. "Is there anyone in your family who is likely to aid us?"

Another tear follows the first. Gus knew this question was coming. He knows what it means. If we want to prevent chaos and wholesale slaughter, Geoffrey Martenson's bloodline can't be killed off. But only one of them needs to be alive to assure us of that… which means that right now, Gus needs to decide which of his family members live or die.

"Incarceration isn't an option?" he asks desperately, but I can see in his face that he already knows the answer. The Collective doesn't keep prisoners. Even if we weren't keeping this whole operation highly classified, there is nowhere we can put prisoners—and no way to stop them from talking about what they've spent the last centuries doing.

The only way to end this permanently is to kill everyone who was involved. Gus's survival is dependent on his willingness to help us search for and free the lost demons.

"I'm so sorry," Dylan says compassionately. "If any of them can be trusted to help us, we can protect them—you. We'll set up somewhere for you to live, and once all the demons have been found, help you move on with jobs. If you want to join the Collective, we can possibly arrange that…." He trails off, because we all know there's a "but" coming, and it's not a happy one.

For a long moment, Gus says nothing. Then his head gives a single shake, and he closes his eyes.

Fuck.

Marc crosses the room unhurriedly and crouches in front of the chair Gus is sitting in. "August."

Gus opens his eyes again, the picture of misery. He's just condemned his family to death.

"If you believe any of them can be shown the error of their ways and eventually join our efforts, I can keep them incarcerated for the short term. What you are doing, difficult as it may be, is the right thing. You see people where they see chattel. Your actions not only protect humanity and the truce, they serve a higher purpose in saving lives. If any of your family can be made to see that, we will do what we can for them."

The offer surprises me—I hadn't expected that kind of compassion from Marc. Raum looks like he'd just as soon revert to his preferred plan of killing the entire bloodline and letting the demons get some vengeance. Gus, though, takes a deep breath and thinks about it.

"P-Possibly my cousin Rachel," he ventures at last. "Her parents are in charge of the branch in New Hampshire, so I don't see her that much, but we chat online a lot. Sometimes I get a vibe that she feels like I do, but it was too risky to…" He swallows. "One of my aunts questioned once. I was a little kid still, but I remember. She had doubts about the ethics of… everything."

We wait while he stares into the distance, remembering.

"Grandfather had one of the visier demons kill her. His daughter. Because the family legacy has to be protected."

Okay, I totally wanna watch while Marc kills Gus's grandfather.

"We will see how Rachel reacts," Marc promises. "If she can be trusted, she will come with us."

Gus nods.

"Let's make a plan to get phase one done, then," Dylan declares. "The sooner we're sending demons home, the better."