Marissa would have sworn the gargoyle was watching her through the doubled-paned glass cage. Its body was made of sterling silver, its belly a ruby-colored stone the size of the lenses in her Lennon glasses. Smaller rubies were embedded in the demon's eye sockets.

Finely engraved taloned claws stretched to form the sides of the collar necklace. Marissa imagined what it would feel like to clamp the talons down over her shoulder bones.

She wanted the monster -- wanted it badly.

But it was trapped in the display case, just as surely as she was trapped in the Sun King's Occult Book Store. She'd come at her boyfriend's urging. After-hours Pharaoh, the store manager and the Sun King's servant, did body piercings, tattooing and pagan earth ceremonies in the back room.

Marissa's excursion into the front room was a brief reprieve. Any moment Rudy would come looking for her to drag her back for her turn in the chair. Rudy wanted her to get her nipples pierced, promised to buy her a gold chain to suspend between them. Probably wanted to yank on it while he was doing it to her.

She wouldn't mind having a gold chain. But she didn't see how he could afford it when he'd begged ten dollars off her that afternoon to help pay last month's rent. She'd taken it out of her old man's wallet. With any luck he'd be drunk before he noticed it was missing. He didn't hit as hard when he was drunk.

She rubbed her hand over her breast, the flannel softly comforting her. It would hurt. Last week Mindy had cried for half an hour. It had taken forever to stop the bleeding. When she finally left, the whole front of her shirt was red with blood.

The ruby eyes flashed again. The gargoyle was laughing at her for being such a chicken-shit. Marissa turned away from the display case. Maybe she'd have one done, see how it felt.

She pulled her worn leather jacket tighter around her and drifted down the aisle. She scanned the Ancient Egyptology book section, then turned away in boredom. The next counter held incense and candles. She wrinkled her nose, disgusted at the smell. Still, she liked the little brass burners, they were dainty, delicate.

She heard the beads in the doorway clacking. Probably Rudy looking for her.

"Come on, Marissa. You're going to lose your turn," Rudy whined.

Marissa studied her boyfriend. He wasn't much to look at. Tall and too thin, with dirty brown hair that fell past his shoulders. But he was one of the oldest guys in the group and he could French inhale his Camel cigarettes. Marissa had to be careful. A lot of the girls would be happy to steal him.

"I'm comin'," she said, shrugging. Her leather jacket squeaked loud in the silence. "Wanna show you something first."

She led him to the counter and crouched down in front of the display case. He hunched down to see what she was pointing at.

"Isn't he beautiful!" Marissa whispered.

"'s okay."

He pointed to the card sitting beside it. For Display Only. "Means it's expensive."

He sounded more interested now.

"I heard about this necklace," Rudy told her. "The guys were talkin' about it last week. It's supposed to be magic. The last piece the Sun King made. The night before he went to jail, they had this big midnight ceremony, took a blood sacrifice from all three of his kids."

"That's why his belly glows," Marissa murmured.

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