1

  “Eat the damn kid already,” I said.

  The woman on the other end of the park bench edged away from me, horror contorting her perky blondeness. Her hand clutching her coffee cup shook. Nice touch. “I beg your pardon?”

  I motioned at the munchkin stomping through sandcastles and terrorizing the other droolers on the far side of the playground. “She’s an asshole.”

  “She’s a toddler!”

  I shrugged. “Calling a toddler an asshole is neither illegal nor immoral.”

  Unlike your plans for her.

  I tipped my black cap back, tilting my head so she could see my stubby goat horns. Fake horns, but she’d never know. We demon hunters had this shit down to an art. “Drio.”

  Her eyes swept my body, so I obligingly stretched out my legs for her to note the shorter right one. Amazing the transformation possible with lifts. The blinding distraction of a hideous, tight, turquoise silk shirt that I’d borrowed from my buddy Kane didn’t hurt either. His batshit ugly wardrobe fit the hit-and-run fashion that nivoglio demons were known for.

  The tension drained from her shoulders. She smiled, sliding closer, and held out her hand.

  “I’m Ally.”

  Ally the ala demon. Mamma mia. No points for originality.

  “I’m charmed.” I kissed her hand.

  She giggled and scrunched her nose. A disturbingly adorable gesture from a fiend that sucked the marrow out of babies’ bones. “Don’t try any of your tricks on me.”

  “Bella, I wouldn’t dream of it.” Maybe one trick. Unlike an actual nivoglio, mine would involve less kissing and stealing of memories, and more killing. I’d been on Ally’s trail for a few

  2

  days now, one frustrating step behind, until my break this morning. Asshole or not, that little kid was going to live a long life.

  “Hmm. I don’t know.” Ally took a sip of her coffee, much more relaxed. “The last time I ran into one of you guys, it took me three days to piece that night together.”

  I cocked an eyebrow. “But was it worth it when you remembered?”

  She grinned.

  The asshole child let out a wail that cracked my skull open, stomping through my brain like an invading army to set up camp as a sharp pulse somewhere behind my left temple. “Then let me apologize for my rude kin by offering you first dibs. Per favore. Eat her. You’ll be providing a public service.”

  “I know, right?” Ally’s eyes glinted. “I don’t suppose you’re free for an early dinner?”

  “I am kind of hungry.”

  “Then perhaps we should get to know each other somewhere a little more private.”

  “Potluck?” I said, and she laughed at my joke and playfully swatted me. I had her.

  Soon I’d have justice for the little boy who’d been lured away from his dad at the Fairview Slopes Fire Station Family Day last Sunday. Justice for all the families who’d never know what had happened to their children. Ala demons found humans good to the last drop.

  I gave her my most attentive smile.

  The clouds above us went from steel to charcoal, and the air crackled with the threat of rain. Even if I hadn’t been certain of her identity before, this clinched it. Ala demons couldn’t help calling up thunderclouds when they got excited, jizzing hailstorms of rain when their emotions could no longer be contained.

  3

  “Ally? Ohmigod!” A petite brunette with a pixie cut, brown eyes, and a silver eyebrow ring, stood there clutching one of those massive purses that had to weigh almost as much as she did. Her wide-eyed shock as she met my eyes was wiped clean suspiciously fast in favor of a bright smile. “I’m so glad I ran into you? Didn’t you get my texts?”

  “Jackie, hey. Yeah, sorry,” Ally said. “I’ve been busy.”

  “No problem?”

  As this Jackie chick nattered on, I couldn’t help but wonder if her obliviousness to Ally’s

  “get lost” vibes was genuine or deliberate. Something about her made my neck prickle. And made my teeth grind together at the way she turned everything into a question.

  “So you wanna grab a coffee?” Jackie asked Ally.

  “Actually,” I said, “Ally and I were discussing dinner plans.”

  Jackie gave an embarrassed laugh. “Oh? Was I interrupting?”

  I’d have bet everything I had that she knew damn well she was. More than that, I’d swear we’d met before. “Yes.”

  I crossed my arms and waited for her to go away.

  Her eyes glinted, almost like the acknowledgement of a challenge. “Are you Spanish?

  Your people are so beautiful.”

  “I’m Italian,” I growled.

  An unholy “Noooooo!” came from the sandbox. The little shit-disturber flung sand in a wide arc, bullseyeing it into the faces of two of the three kids around her and blinding them. The injured duo burst into tears, the other one joining in for the hell of it.

  Her mom ran over to try and control her daughter, but it was clear who was running this show.

  4

  I rubbed my temples, desperate to kill something. “Ally, let’s–”

  “Hang on,” Ally murmured, distracted by the arrival of a boisterous group of chubby preschoolers. Or more precisely, her take-out smorgasbord. She jumped up, coffee cup in hand, meandering toward the garbage cans–and the children.

  I stood up to follow, then grunted, crashing back on my ass as Jackie thumped her purse into my arms. “Hold this a sec? I can never find my phone?”

  “Non farmi incazzare.” Continue to piss me off and see what happens.

  Jackie stopped rummaging through her bag to blink at me. “Huh?”

  I shoved the purse back at her. “Va bene. Now run along and–”

  Only years of training at keeping my emotions under wraps kept me from startling at the spark that coursed through me when my hand touched her arm. I’d felt that connective heat before. It was as unwanted now as it had been then. I stretched out my arm along the back of the bench. “You’re Nava’s friend.”

  Another innocent blink. “Who?”

  I snapped my fingers. “Leonie. Odd running into you here. In disguise.”

  I didn’t know what her game was–yet–but she was stalking a demon. She knew Nava was a hunter and had to know I was as well. So, what? Was she some demon groupie or severely deluded into thinking that demons were like genies and could grant wishes? Either way, if she was going to these lengths to get close to one, then she was either insane or dangerous.

  Probably both. Her fate depended on how much of either.

  The smile I gave her was dagger-sharp.

  5

  “Don’t be silly?” She shoved her purse at me again, and I grabbed it, intending to toss it down. The second my hands were full, I heard a snap. Cool metal clinked around my wrist.

  She’d chained me to the bench.

  I tugged on the cuffs, arching an eyebrow at her smirk. “Extremely unwise, bella.”

  “I just need an hour, then she’s all yours.” Leonie slung her bag over her shoulder, glancing back at the sandbox where the pigtailed hellraiser was currently braining her peers with a plastic shovel. “That kid is such an asshole,” she said and followed the demon.

  Was she a demon too, or just the most annoying human ever? If she was evil and had Nava fooled? Well, I’d killed demons who’d gotten close to people before and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Shame to destroy her, though. She kind of glided when she walked, her hips swaying in a hypnotic rhythm.

  Almost as if she felt my gaze, Leonie threw a finger wave back over her shoulder. I crossed my legs at the ankle willing down my hard-on, and let her get away.

  Or so she thought.

  ***

  I’d made short work of the cuffs, the fake horns, and the lifts, and had been tailing Ally and Leonie for the past forty-five minutes. They had no idea that I’d flashed in behind them at the front door of the Store It Unlimited or that I was spying on them from around the corner now.

  Leonie was still in her Jackie disguise. “Like, I totally appreciate you helping me move this table?” Her “totally” had two extra syllables, while Ally’s “Yeah, sure,” was a mumbled single one.

  Leonie unlocked her storage unit door. As she bent over to roll it up, I zipped down the hall toward them, using my flash step powers that were too fast for the human eye to see, and

  6

  snapped the ala demon’s neck. Then I fired more magic in to Ally’s shattered cervical vertebra, directly into her kill spot.

  It was over before Leonie had rolled the metal door up a quarter of the way. She whipped her head around, but Ally was gone. Literally. Like all demons, her body disappeared when she died.

  I planted myself in front of Nava’s friend. With about ten inches and at least eighty pounds on her, there was no way she was getting past me. But instead of launching into some pathetic excuse or trying to cute her way out of this, she scowled at me, shoving me with her shoulder hard enough to jostle me sideways.

  Amazing. She was outdoing even Nava in being annoying. At least Nava didn’t knowingly consort with demons.

  “You idiot.” For such a short person, she had a fucking loud roar. “You know how long it took me to put all this in place?”

  My brows drew together. This wasn’t a stalker with a need to confess. Sounded more like an assignment.

  “...How long I had to go around speaking like a freaking twit?” She wasn’t I talian, but she’d nailed those angry hand jabs as she spoke that were a sign to take cover. I’d learned that the hard way from my nonna when she went on and on about me sleeping in.

  Leonie was ranting about how she’d busted her ass on this gig and I’d ruined it, her mouth curled up at one end just enough to make you wonder if she loved slinging vicious epithets more than she cared about you causing the problem, or if she just plain hated you, deep and simple wrath, and was mocking you because you didn’t get it.

  She looked like she could do damage.

  7

  My dick hardened.

  “Cosa?” I tried to regain my footing. She was... lush. She didn’t even reach my shoulder but her body was exceptional. In my head, a bomb whistled and detonated. Man, what a hatefuck this would be. Stupid and hazardous, but damned if I didn’t want it anyway.

  Except I didn’t do hook-ups that upended me.

  Not anymore.

  Besides, she was probably one of those women who got all offended when you said you didn’t kiss. “Listen–”

  Stalking past me, the boxes stacked on the wall of shelving units, and an ugly-ass plastic kitchen table, she rose on tiptoe and reached for a battered box.

  I tilted my head, following the smooth curve of hip between her risen-up shirt and low-cut jeans. Her skin was so pale.

  “Don’t just stand there. Help me.” She jumped and missed. On closer inspection, she was gunning for a silver jewelry box on a high shelf.

  With a sigh, I gently pushed her aside and retrieved it, keeping it out of reach. The box wasn’t very heavy though it rattled a lot. Even though there was no lock on it, the lid didn’t budge. “How were you going to get her to open this?”

  “Taser. I just needed her thumbprint. Not her cooperation.”

  I kept my expression stony, mentally applauding her.

  She crossed her arms. “Well?”

  I held the box up higher. “Talk and get a remote chance of me handing this over.”

  She glared at me. “I’m a criminology student and I work part-time for a P.I.”

  “A demon P.I.?”

  8

  “No.” Her chin jutted up. “Demons figure we pathetic humans are too shit scared of them to try and cheat them.”

  “Cheating them ends you up dead or a giant pain in my ass,” I sneered. “Why don’t you just run along and play with something less monumentally lethal?”

  “I’m following my passion.”

  I blinked. “Your passion is child-murderers? What? Arms trafficker not work out for you?”

  “It was repo woman for life support systems actually, but there are only so many plugs a girl can pull before it stops being fun.”

  I refused to let her see my amusement. My hand tightened on the jewelry box. She willingly worked for the evil creatures I’d sworn to destroy. Enjoyed destroying. Her moral abyss trumped me finding her hot.

  She rolled her eyes. “Look, you can either pretend the monsters don’t exist under your bed or you can face them head on.”

  “And get well paid.”

  “Cha-ching.”

  I failed to keep the contempt off my face. “This box?”

  “None of your business.” She grabbed for it.

  She was faster than I thought. My hand missed hers and brushed the side of her chest, warm and soft.

  Leonie’s nostrils flared. She stepped back. “Give it.”

  9

  Chivalry is not one of my strong suits. Yeah, okay. I had just accidentally touched a breast. It happens. She didn’t seem to be making a big deal out of it. There was no reason to keep replaying the sensation over in my head. I was an asshole, not a pervert. “No.”

  She broke out the sexiest smile I’d seen in a long time. “Play you for it?”

  “No.”

  She pulled her wig off, her silky red hair spilling down her back like a waterfall. “Come on. Unless you don’t know the difference between a straight and a flush?”

  I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my jeans so I couldn’t give in to the temptation to tuck that single strand along her cheek back into place. “Let me guess. Texas hold’em.”

  “Strip.”

  I dropped my cocky smirk.

  Hers grew larger. She trailed her fingers up my chest and I hissed. “Scared the odds aren’t in your favor? I mean, I am wearing more clothing than you.”

  “Not for long, bella.” Keep the box and see her naked. I didn’t want to fuck a demon enabler but I wasn’t a saint. I could see no downside to this plan.

  Until I reached for a chair to sit down and play, and found myself handcuffed to a metal shelving unit, watching Leonie walk away with the jewelry box.

  Twice with this girl. In one day. Porco dio.

  Her glower when she reached her car to find me sitting on her hood was gratifying.

  “Planning on getting a different demon friend to open it?” I asked.

  “Ally’s magic. Only she could undo it. Fuck!” She opened and slammed her car door.

  Twice. Then she just deflated, the weight of her failure slumping her shoulders and bowing her head. All the fight had fled.

  10

  Oh cavolo. It was one little box, not the end of the world. I slid off the hood. “I could help.”

  She shook the box. “There is no way into this thing other than getting the lid off. And that includes blowtorching it.”

  “Dynamite?”

  “Can’t. I need what’s inside undamaged. That’s why I couldn’t melt it either.”

  I held out my hand for the box and after a moment’s hesitation, she reluctantly sat it in my palm. I flipped it over and ran my finger along the seam between the lid decorated with these curly vine things and the box itself. Smooth and sealed tight. No hinges either. “The magic has a tight hold on the lid, which means the only way in is through the sides or bottom.”

  “We need something between blowtorching and dynamite,” she said. “I have no idea what that is.”

  “I do. Force equals mass times acceleration, and I’m a hell of an accelerater, bella.”

  The parking lot for Store It Unlimited was a long straight stretch and mostly empty. Ideal conditions. By the time I’d zipped to the far end and thrown the box, the force on that bastard as it struck the ground, decimating the concrete into a tiny crater, caused the box to crack wide open. Except for the lid that didn’t even dent.

  Items spilled out of it like a piñata, though it took another second for me to make sense of what I was looking at. I knelt down, sorting through some of it: a toy racecar, a small plastic dinosaur, and a tiny gold bracelet with the name “Ava” engraved on it.

  Leonie snatched the bracelet out of my hand.

  “It’s trophies. From her kills,” I said.

  “Give the man a medal.”

  11

  I picked up a baby tooth, closing my hand around it. Anger speared my chest and I wished I hadn’t been so hasty to kill Ally. She deserved long, drawn out, and exceedingly painful. “You weren’t working for a demon.”

  “Not on this, but how do you think I found out about the box in the first place?” She stroked her thumb over the bracelet. “Today I get to go to a mother who’s been grieving for eight months, and maybe help her find some closure. If working with demons is the trade off?” She shrugged and scooped the box and its contents up.

  It was hard to remember the last time I’d misread someone that badly. You’d think my psychology degree would keep me from messing up like this, but no. She wasn’t out for the money at all.

  By the time I could wipe my jaw off the ground and move, she was gone. And since I’d rather sit through repeated viewings of the Housewives of Whatever-The-Fuck City than ask Nava for her friend’s phone number, a different approach was necessary.

  I waited until Nava was with Kane in the kitchen, pestering him to make her dinner. Then I flash stepped to borrow Nava’s phone and grab Leonie’s number. I didn’t want to freak Leonie out, so I phoned first.

  The call was already doomed to failure: I had to make up some lie about getting her number from Nava and wanting to check in about the box and making sure it didn’t have a curse on it. Total bullshit. But Leonie, like most humans, didn’t have much experience with magic, and didn’t call me on it. Then again, she sounded pretty awful.

  “What happened?” I growled. “It didn’t go well?”

 

1 2