In a Corner of My Soul: The Pack: Invoking Eyghon

[dragonyphoenix]

Masterlist for In a Corner of My Soul

The town of Seaview, an hour-and-a-half up the coast, differed from Sunnydale in only one important particular. It had no Slayer. Weirick had located a home, near the shore but hidden from its neighbors by vegetation and curving roads. The single occupant, an aging man, someplace in his seventies from the look of him, had been easily overwhelmed.

Giles had debated whether or not he should even bring Tucker. The lad was far too attentive when it came to the darker arts, but he was also lazy. The Latin of the ritual would be beyond him. It was safe enough and Giles preferred to have a minion perform the banal work. “You're certain we won't be interrupted?”

“I've been watching the place all day. Nobody comes up here.” Tucker nodded at the old man. “Anyway, if you're worried, we could beat the info out of him.”

“That won't be necessary.” Weirick leaned in close to the man. “He doesn't have any friends left, much less relatives concerned enough to check up on him.”

When Weirick had suggested a specific home, Giles had wondered if he had a connection to the occupant. Apparently the old man was someone who'd wronged him. Something to do with the zoo perhaps? “They can't trace you through him, can they?”

Weirick's shock would have been laughable if it were only his skin on the line. Apparently the idiot didn't realize he'd given away that he knew the old man. “No. No. It's been months. There's nothing to connect us.”

“Fine.” Giles should have known better than to let someone else pick the victim, but it was too late. The old man had seen his face. “You, set up the ritual space.”

Tucker grumbled but spread out the cloth with Eyghon's Mark. In the zoo, Weirick had set out the ritual space in paint, but Giles couldn't afford to have this mark seen. Weirick's Mark, now that was permanent. It was a risk, tattooing it onto the man, but it was insurance of a sort. If Weirick did decide to betray Giles, the demon could be drawn down into him and left there to eat the man from the inside out. It was a last resort, one Giles hoped he'd never have to use. The amount of damage that Eyghon would inflict in the area, before Weirick's body wore out, could draw the Council's attention. “Are you ready?”

Weirick nodded.

“Bring him.” As Tucker dragged the old man from his chair into the sacred circle, he rough-handled the man more than was necessary. He really was a malicious little brat. No wonder Eyghon wanted Tucker.

Giles held the man tightly to him. “Ex inferiore voraginibus sedete Eyghon resurgere. Agit de tenebris cor mundum Eyghon resurgere. A pessimo corde Eyghon resurgere.” He drew the knife quickly, cutting off the man's whimpers, sending the blood spurting across the demon's sigyl. “Consurget Eyghon. Consurget.”

Weirick writhed as the power transformed his body, and Giles wondered if Eyghon would, this time, finally kill him. If he didn't constrain the demon, it would have been destroyed decades earlier, but demons weren't big on logic or restraint. Eyghon had attacked him once, but hadn't killed him. As on the previous four times Giles had released Eyghon, it left him behind for more enticing targets. Weirick/Eyghon ran for the crowds partying on the beach. Youth. Sex. Drugs. They drew Eyghon like a siren's song.

“Cool. Can I follow?” Tucker sounded excited. Damn. Giles had hoped this show of power would teach the lad obedience, would show him what could be turned against him if he didn't obey. Giles should have known it would only excite the idiot.

“Certainly not.” Better to harness the lad's destructive power. He tossed the cloth, inked with Eyghon's mark and spattered with blood, to Tucker. “Here, burn this. Make certain there's nothing left but ash.”

“I don't see why he gets the demon,” Tucker grumbled. “I've been working with you longer than he has.”

“Because he's provided me with invaluable assistance. You have turned up nothing on either the Master or Angel. Prove your worth and then we'll see.”

Tucker didn't stop grumbling but he did keep his complaints down to a low mutter. Giles sighed. It was going to be a long night.