Ashes to Ashes

My second foray into the world of Kim Harrison. Evie and Ash are my own characters, but Rachel, Jenks, and Al make cameos in this one. Of course I don't own any of them, but they were fun to play with for a little while.

If you have not read "The Scar" you may wish to do so before you dive into this story. If you don't mind a little spoiler, here's a very brief summary: Eve narrowly avoided being kidnapped by the demon Ash as a teenager. Her four friends (Red, Greg, Judy, and Toby) weren't so lucky, but Eve survived with a scar on her face. Her past has found her thirty years later, in the form of Red's grandson, who discovered her teaching at his university and got the whole story out of her. That story is told in "The Scar" and this story takes place immediately following that one.

Part one: In Which The Decision is Made To Consult the Naked Witch

The two weeks following my meeting with Derek, son of Mary, daughter of Red, were filled with anxiety, sleepless nights, and seventeen- seventeen!- full-blown panic attacks.

You might say the kid had hit a nerve.

Just my luck that a kid from my Colorado hometown had scored a scholarship to my university. Just my luck that he'd decided to take one of my demonology elective courses. Just my fucking luck he saw the scar and put two and two together. He was so earnest and fresh, and he had Red's accusing eyes. It was so not fair. I'd spent the better part of thirty-plus years trying to put those accusing eyes and that whole horrifying experience behind me. I'd devoted my life to demonology, an act of defiance, penitence, and self-defense. Certainly not to put to practical use, damnit!

I could have sworn there was no force in heaven or on earth or in the Ever After that could have moved me to consider participating in a real summoning, but I was wrong. All it took was a skinny goth kid with big doe eyes.

Well, no, that's not entirely accurate. I downed half a bottle of scotch after I banished the kid from my office. Then I spent an awful week trying to forget him. So in reality, it took...let me think...yes, it took a skinny doe-eyed goth kid, a trip to the ER after I collapsed hyperventilating in a supermarket, four new emergency therapy sessions, several deleted emails and another interview with Red Jr. Jr after he caught me in the hallway after a class, and the rest of the scotch that evening.

And a final admitting to my cowardly ass that if I didn't help the kid, I would never be able to put back together that wall of justifications and excuses that had just been smashed to bits. Especially if he just went and did it himself, and got his sorry ass dragged off by Ash too. If he hadn't come to me, it wouldn't have made a difference- one more headline in a newspaper that made me go "Aw, what a shame", but shit, I'd just given him the fucking keys to the gates of the Ever After on a silver platter with my story. Instead of scaring the kid, I'd made it look easy-peasy, just stand in a line and chat. And fall under Ash's spell, and become another tragedy plaguing the family. Except it would be my fault this time. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Crap.

I had to admit, finally, that there was actually a potential for closure here. The past had found me, and if I didn't stick my neck out it might just go down the exact same way. I could change it this time. Not that I would nobly sacrifice myself to save anyone, or anything. It's not like you can rescue a familiar once they've been caught. Hell, I didn't even really want the details of what had happened to Greg and the others, not really, but...

But I could do this for Derek and his family. And me. One quick summoning, and then I never intended to do it ever, ever again.

Yup, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And a shitload of scotch and Xanax charms.

"So," I explained to the kid after summoning him back to my office with a short and surly email, "the only practical difficulty here is that I don't have any of their summoning names. And you can't pay me enough to stand in a line until I meet another one of them. And that line that I met Ash in is back in Colorado. So here's my thought: I'm going to see if I can reach that witch in Cinci—"

"The naked one?" he asked, grinning.

Rachel Morgan was probably the most infamous witch in the States. Not only did she actually summon a demon into a friggin' courtroom to testify, of all things, but a few weeks ago she'd pulled some publicity stunt that got her picture on every newspaper in the nation. You can go on the net to find the same pictures with the black bars removed. The blond politician who's standing next to her? His expression is fucking priceless.

"Yeah, the naked one. See if she'll give me her bad boy's summoning name. Meanwhile, you think about just what you're going to ask, and what you're willing to pay. I don't know who you'll get, but if he's anything like Ash, he'll like juicy gossip. The more damaging, the better. Blackmail kind of stuff. The kind of thing that could lead to death or dishonor if it- when it- gets into the wrong hands."

Derik shifted uncomfortably.

"Did you think they'd want money? They want slaves, kid. You want news of your grandpappy, you'll have to pay for it in their currency. Information. It can be your own info, if you want, though I wouldn't recommend it. You do NOT want Ash getting into your head."

"Fine," Derik mumbled, looking sick. "I'll see what I can dig up."

"Right." I picked up the phone, dialing the number I'd dug up off the internet.

"Vampiric Charms, Rachel speaking, can I help you?" The voice sounded young, suspicious, and very, very tired. "And if this is another crank call—"

My throat suddenly went dry, and I cleared it. "No, no, no, um, it's real. I have a problem and I need your advice."

The voice did not sound convinced of the call's non-crankiness yet, "About what? Shrinking charms? Where to find elf porn? Demon summoning? Sorry, can't help you."

My heart skipped a beat when she said the last one. "This is Dr. Eve Johnson, of the University of Florida?" I hated how my voice sounded, a mere shadow of the confident woman I'd been two weeks back.

She paused. "Oh. All right, how can I help you?" She'd obviously never heard of me. Not surprising.

"I'll be frank with you- I need a summoning name."

I heard a snort on the other end of the line, and a new voice came on, "Tink's knickers, woman, are you insane?"

"Jenks! Get off the line!"

"Look, lady, if you want to commit suicide, there's a lot of nicer ways to do it," the second voice continued, ignoring her.

"He's right," Rachel said after a moment. "Do yourself a favor, and leave the summoning to the professional idiots with a death wish."

"I have a kid here whose relative was taken for a familiar," I said quickly. "He just wants to know what happened. Information only, no doomed rescue attempts or anything."

There was a pause. She sighed. Jenks' voice sounded amused. "Great, you've set off her underdog neuron. Again."

"Shut up, Jenks," she snapped. "And you're going to do the summoning?"

"I'll be holding the circle, and there is nothing on this earth that could make me drop it. I'm excellent with binding circles. I have a masters in Demonology and a doctorate in line manipulation. I promise, Miss Morgan, that I won't let the kid do anything stupid."

After another very long pause, she said quickly, "All right, I might be able to help. Big might. Don't get your hopes up. Make an appointment to see me and we'll talk."

"I'm in Florida," I said, and I could hear the shrug over the phone.

"How bad do you feel for this kid?" she replied. "There's no way I'm giving you a summoning name over the phone! If he even agrees to let me give it out to you, that is."

We hammered out a date and time for the following month, once the school year let out and right before she left on her road trip. I hung up feeling like I was ready to vomit, but I flashed the kid a grim smile.

He looked relieved and guilty. "Sorry to put you through the all this trouble," he said.

"S'OK, kid…this is more for me than you, anyway. Though you'd better do a better job on the final than you did on the midterm, because I'm totally ready to flunk your ass right now just out of spite."