Clara nodded to me. “I’ll work on it, but I don’t know that I know how.”

“At least your spells aren’t making them more powerful!” I heard a thud from upstairs, then turned my attention to the imps trying to swarm…and do other things to…the people in the room. The gateway was a hole in the floor, in the middle of what looked like a pretty typical summoning circle. Part of it had, of course, been inadvertently erased.

I wasn’t going to ask what they had been trying to do. Use them as an aphrodisiac, maybe? I really didn’t want to know.

I did want the gateway closed. The high priestess was under a particularly large imp pile and sounded like she might not be too unhappy about it. Mercilessly, I started to toss them off her.

She was going to close the gateway and then she was going to apologize. I wasn’t sure to who – the imps seemed to have been quite enjoying themselves when we showed up – but the woman was making me regret having talked the ghost out of possessing her. Efreets and now lust imps.

One of which was trying to braid my hair. I shook it off – maybe I was hotter with braided hair, but I didn’t have time for it. I grabbed another one and threw it onto the one mundane thing here, the pool table. It skidded across the felt and ended up with its tail in a pocket.

“Nice shot!” Clara called.

“Close the dang hole.” I finally got most of the imps off of the priestess. “That goes for you too. I’ll deal with the imps.”
More were trying to climb out through the hole, but Clara seemed to be slowing them down. The priestess glared at me, but did move to help her, albeit with some reluctance.

Good. I was confident it would be closed now.

Somebody threw an imp down the stairs right as the hole irised shut. It bounced twice and landed at Clara’s feet. She casually stepped on it before finishing her spell.

I wondered how much she’d learned from them and how much from other sources. “Okay…that…”

“Why did you call her?” the priestess demanded, indicating me with an elbow.

“Because she’s good at this kind of thing,” Clara noted, mildly. “Oh, by the way. I’m out.”

“Oh no you aren’t. You swore an oath.”

“I did not sign up for being attacked by lust imps and you are not my type.”

Which explained the lust imps. I shook my head. “She’s under my protection now.”

The high priestess blinked, widened her eyes, and then threw a spell at me.

The efreet changed form. He didn’t do it between one glance and the next the way Loki did – there was a flicker of fire that flowed through him, and then he was a young man of about my age. With a sword in his hand. “Shall we?”

I grinned. “I’m spoiling for this,” I admitted.

“You’re…” And then he tailed off. Probably remembering what Will had said about me being taken. I hoped so.

“Let’s go. What’s in there?”

“A veritable plague of imps.”

I laughed. “That makes me almost uninclined to help, but…” A plague of imps might still hurt Clara.

Then, I kicked in the door. And was promptly tackled by two of the small demons. They were reddish in color and warm, but not actually burning. I swatted one of them away with the flat of my blade. It squealed and went flying. Maybe they’d run from me. Maybe they’d run from the efreet – a more powerful being of fire. I found myself wishing they wouldn’t. I sent the other back to hell with a single thrust, then kicked a third out of my way.

“We need to find the gateway they’re coming through.”

“You look for it. I’ll play with imps.” He grinned.

I ducked further into the building – I’d rather play with imps, but I had a feeling I’d have a better chance of closing it than he would. Or at least of forcing somebody else to close it.

I came through the doorway and two of the covenites were tossing spells at the imps. This appeared to be having the primary effect of making the imps larger and hotter. “You might want to stop that.”

“You!” one of them exclaimed and made the mistake of taking his eyes off of the imps. They bowled him over under them and started to remove his clothing.

“…They’re lust imps?”

The other, out of breath, “Of…course…they…are.”

I realized one of my blouse buttons was, indeed, undone. “Where’s the gateway? We need to close it.”

“Won’t that…”

“It’ll stop any more from showing up. Where’s the gateway?”

“Basement.”

I looked around for the door, kicked a couple of imps aside, ignored the one that pinched my butt and then kicked that door in too, heading down the stairs.

There were even more imps down there. Clara was holding her own against one group, although her shirt was torn. She appeared to have found a spell that actually did some good, at least.

“Sorry I’m late.”

“Turn your phone on next time!” she yelled, then cast another spell, which tied an imp up. This attracted the…attention…of the lust imp next to it.

“I’ll take the imps. You get the door closed!”

What were we going to do with these people? They weren’t just abusers, they were incompetent as well!

They still wouldn’t let us take our phones into class. We had to leave them in our lockers, despite numerous protests from various parents.

I always left mine turned off, and when I remembered to turn it on I had three missed calls and voice mail.

It was from Clara. “Jane. I need you.”

I released a swear word from between my teeth. A Norse one, perhaps thankfully. She gave a location. Out in Old Town. I ran home at full speed to gear up. The frantic calling possibly meant her cover was blown.

It meant she was in danger, and I found myself wishing for a fast way to get there with everything that was in me.

When I came back out with my sword and gun there was a motorcycle outside. I had no idea how it had gotten there, and it wasn’t Thruor’s. Even if it had been, she’d probably have let me borrow it.
The keys were in it. I hopped on board, not bothering with a helmet, and peeled off, activating a bit of a ‘don’t notice me’ field because I didn’t want a cop to stop me for not having a helmet. Or for speeding, which I was certainly doing. Through town, across the river, as fast as I could get there safely. Mostly trusting what I was pretty sure was not, in fact, a bike.

The steed must have heard me calling. Hopefully whoever his or her owner was, she didn’t need her right now.

Definitely her, I decided. I swung through a narrow street, crossed King Street, and was on the receiving end of quite a few loud horn noises.

Screw them. I was in a hurry far more important than their dinners. And I felt good about it, which might have made me a horrible person.

No, I wasn’t glad Clara was in trouble. I was glad I could be the one to help her.

And then I felt the presence of heat and fire. The efreet.

“You on my side or against me?” I asked as I swung the bike to a halt.

“You are not a valkyrie.”

I patted the fuel tank. “Borrowed.” Then I hopped off. “My friend’s in trouble.”

“Then perhaps we are on the same side, perhaps not. It depends on which side she is on.”

“Are they trying to trap you and make you give them wishes again?”

He laughed. “If they were, I would let them, and then turn their wishes into disaster. No. They had something else in mind.”

I nodded. “If it has to do with sex, we’re trying to nail them for…not paying proper attention to the niceties of consent.”

The efreet laughed again. “Well, they are in trouble. I wasn’t going to help them, but if you have a friend in there…”

“She called me. I have to help her.” An obligation. A duty. No matter how much power I had, I would always help my friends.

The next person to confront me on the matter was Kanesha. “Hey.”

I fell in next to her, heading for lunch. “Hey.”

“You need to talk about whatever’s weighing on you.”

“It’s…ever had that feeling that you’re sitting on the sidelines with nothing to do?”

She nodded vigorously. “Yeah. You need a fight or something.”

“Or something,” I agreed. “Sorry I’ve been lousy company lately.”

“You’re no worse than me before a test.”

My lips quirked. “New York.”

“We’ll get there,” she promised. “Of course, the trouble will follow us.”

“It will,” I admitted. “But what can I do? I can’t stop being me.” And I didn’t want to. I thought I remembered something in that moment. My mother’s arms. That was enough for now. It helped, anyway.

“I wouldn’t love you if you did.”

I grinned at her. “It’s my fault for scaring all the…” I tailed off. “…bullies away.”

I tailed off because coming right up behind us was Barry Clark.

“Bullies, eh? Nobody messes with you.”

I grinned at him. “Oh, they try. They remember Kanesha has a black belt and don’t remember I’m no slouch myself.” He’d been indifferent to me lately – which kept me happy. I hadn’t forgotten the kidnapping incident.

If I was going to date somebody it had to be somebody with some basic ability to defend themselves and the inclination to get more.

“Yeah. I guess I know now why you weren’t interested in me.”

“Actually, it wasn’t that…and I know you could be very interesting.” Honesty won out over letting him think I was all the way gay.

“Oh. You just…”

“You aren’t my type, Barry. It has nothing to do with being a guy. You just aren’t my type, but you’re Viola’s.” I’d seen the two hanging out together.

He blushed.

“See? Nothing to worry about.” I grinned and then Kanesha hooked her arm into mine and all but dragged me to lunch.

I was out of sorts all the next week. It was starting to feel like spring, as if the winter was finally beginning to thaw. Birds started to sing.

I was still out of sorts. Kanesha did her best to cheer me up, but I’m afraid I was a burden on her, dragging her back down. It wasn’t the winter doing it. It was just the way I felt, partly because I hadn’t got into a good fight – I sparred with Thruor and she kicked my butt several times, but it only helped so much.

I was starting to get honestly frustrated with myself. Nothing, it seemed, was going to get me to calm down and get my head on straight. The early hope of spring was alternating with the iron grip of winter.

I had to do something about this. I wasn’t sure what that something was, but if I carried on like this I’d end up hurting somebody.

“You’re really out of sorts.” Thruor set the practice weapon down.

“I’m worried about Clara.”

The valkyrie shook her head. “I think there’s more to it than that.”

“Well, whatever it is, I can’t shake it. Maybe it’s just the weather.” I didn’t believe that, either.

“Or some disturbance you’re particularly sensitive to.”

I tossed down my own practice blade, with rather less care than usual. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to be sensitive to or not sensitive to,” I grumbled.

“Who does? Odin might have some clue. So might your parents. But…” Thruor tailed off. “Your energies are all over the place, though.”

I nodded. “I don’t need anyone to tell me that. I’m a mess. I know most of it is…are people like us susceptible to stress?”

“Heck yes.” Thruor grinned a bit. “The best of us are.”

I imagined Odin getting stressed out and fighting with Frigga and managed to return the grin. “I think what I need is to do something productive. Achieve something. I feel like I’m spinning my wheels.”

“That’ll do it for anyone, mortal and otherwise.”

“I tried to go vampire hunting. Couldn’t find any.”

“We’ve scared them all off, I think. Okay. Leave this with me and Mike. I’ll try and come up with something.”

I picked up the blade and racked it. “Thanks. I’m…going for a walk.”

“That hasn’t helped before.”

“It’ll help me not end up snapping at somebody,” I snapped at her. Oops.

I teased Seb at some length – he deserved it. And I might even set a fairy on him, but I hadn’t seen any for a while. Maybe they hibernated. Or were hiding in Faerie until things warmed up. If they were ever going to.

Given Father Will was apparently covering for me, I decided not to head over to the church, not unless I needed his specific expertise. They were probably reading some really dry old books anyway. Researching something they would be really excited about but which would make me fall asleep even to think about it.

Of course, Kanesha might want to join them. She was big on the book stuff too. I wasn’t – maybe I should fix that, but I wasn’t in the mood to start with something Will would be researching with an efreet.

Nope. I decided to leave well enough alone and worry about our other problem. Clara and the Coven. That sounded like a band name, I thought wryly. Not a very good band, either.

A bad band…no, given some of the scandals around rock and pop stars, I was pretty sure a band would be just as much trouble except for hopefully not having magic involved.

Or Satan summoning, anyway. Backwards lyrics and all. No, wait, it was backwards recordings. Such a trope. I was fairly sure that wouldn’t summon a demon unless you embedded a true name in it or something.

So, yeah, I was worrying about Clara and her problems when I got ambushed. I didn’t get time to reach for my gun; and that was probably a good thing. I put the first of them on his butt with one smooth motion, and then whirled on the second.

He thought better of it, turning to run. I grabbed his friend and hauled him to his feet. “What was that about?”

“Uh…uh…”

“Tell me it was just about my purse,” I said with disgust. “My foster dad’s a cop.”

He turned pale.

That reaction told me it was just muggers. They were lucky I hadn’t killed them – probably lucky I’d had a recent experience with people who weren’t entirely culpable for attacking me.

“I see we understand each other.” I kept one hand on the front of his shirt and tapped 911 speed dial on my phone with the other.

I couldn’t go after his friend, but one of two was better than nothing. My blood was up, though. I wanted a real fight, not pathetic losers like this.

I was almost wishing the efreet had turned out to be an actual threat. But I talked to the dispatcher without letting go of this guy – not an easy feat – and handed him over to the uniforms when they showed up. Then I decided I was going to go find myself a nest of vampires.

Of course, you can never find things like that when you actually want to.

All of this got in the way of me actually finding the efreet. Which might, I thought, have been Loki’s intent. Maybe he didn’t want me going after the guy unprepped.

I was inclined to do that, but I really didn’t know much about him. And as a couple of days passed with no sign of him, I decided I’d been simply overreacting. He wasn’t really that interested in me.

I couldn’t assume every guy who looked at me like I was cute was going to be a stalker trying to climb into my pants. I couldn’t live like that, although it seemed some girls did. Some girls thought every guy who looked at them like that was a prospective rapist. I wished I could believe they were wrong in all cases.

Of course, if anyone tried to rape me, I’d kill him. I doubted I’d even think about. I was pretty sure Kanesha was every bit as capable.
Clara?

Clara knew what she had gotten into, but I hoped that flee into the distance wasn’t the last I’d see of her. I was probably worrying more about her than she was worrying about herself, I thought wryly.

Still, she was in that situation in part because of me, and because of angry ghosts…

…and then somebody else was waiting to snag me out of school. “This is starting to get to be a pattern. Need me to beat something up?”

Seb shook his head. “I sort of wanted to talk to you without something to beat up. Unless you count the efreet hanging around, and I don’t think he’s much of a threat.”

“He thinks I’m hot.”
Seb laughed a bit. “He also thinks Father Will is quite interesting, in a different way.”

So…that was where he was hiding. “Has he been asking about me?”

“Will told him you were taken.”

That intrigued me. As a Catholic priest, Will wasn’t supposed to approve of mine and Kanesha’s relationship. Unless he was saying it in general terms to help me out. I wished for a moment that “not interested” carried the same weight as “taken.” The latter might be true in my case, but I’d seen more than one boy refuse to back down from the former.

Men respected other men more than women. Mike was an exception. I was pretty sure Seb was. “Oh, I wanted to talk to you anyway.”

“Oh?”

“Know anyone who could train somebody with magical talent and a possible interest in hunting.”

Seb perked up. “I could find somebody. Is it a cute girl?”

I mock-punched him, although Clara was definitely a cute girl, and not that much younger than Seb.

“Hey!”

“Shouldn’t make a difference, right?

“It makes one to me.”

I watched her go, wondering if I had done the right thing. Wondering if I should have stopped her from doing this. I’d never encouraged her. I told myself it was on her, the consequences, the choices.

“You can’t protect mortals from themselves.”

“Hi, dad,” I said without even turning around. I could sense him, but not quite see him.

He moved into my field of view, carrying a very nice silver topped cane. It probably had a sword in it. “But don’t worry. I have my eye on that one. She has talent.”

I laughed. “Trickster.”

“And what does that make you?”

“Provider of cayenne brownies?” I suggested, moving to walk down the street. “She’s scared.”

“She’s got considerable talent. They might not be experts, but she’s getting enough training to wake it up.”

“Hopefully Bruce can find somebody to teach her properly.”

“Seb might be more appropriate. Or no. He’s too straightforward.” Loki shrugged elegantly. “Depends on her choices.”

“As long as…I’ll feel bad if she gets really hurt.”

“Feel bad for her opponents.” He stopped outside a deli, and pointed at it with his cane. “Join me?”

I grinned. “Alright.” I wasn’t about to turn him down, especially as he seemed to have actual time to hang instead of being off doing vitally important god stuff. Or playing pranks on Thor. “Anyone toss you in the reflecting pool lately?” I asked.

“No. They tossed me in a snowbank.”

I laughed at that, not asking who it was. “Snowball fight. You know…when did…”

“Are you suggesting something so undignified?” His eye had a twinkle in it.

“You’re the trickster.” I headed into the deli – trusting he’d made a good choice. Not that I’d let him order for me, and I knew anything in here labeled spicy would actually be potent enough to make my eyes water.

But I also trusted it would be good food. And maybe spicy wouldn’t be so bad a thing. “Oh, I have…”

“Somebody else after a one night stand?”

I grinned. “Efreet.”

“Oh, he’ll be after a very secret one. I’ll laugh if he comes to me for advice.”

“Don’t you dare,” I informed him firmly. “I don’t want to end up with him shapeshifted into Kanesha.”

“You realize it’s dangerous to give me ideas, right? Even for you.”

“Oh…” I shut up and just ordered my food.

I didn’t find the efreet that night, but I had a good thought as to where I might find him. If he didn’t find me, which was always a risk.

Who found me, after class, was Clara. She fell in next to me as I headed out.

“Well, you were right about them. One of their so-called priests keeps coming on to me and I don’t think he’ll take no for an answer forever.”

“If you can’t take it, pull out, I’ll make sure they regret trying to get you back.” I’d break a few bones if I had to. Whatever it took. She was under my protection…although I didn’t feel the same about her as I did about Kanesha. Not just that I wasn’t attracted to her. Something else. Something I’d worry about later.

“Thanks. I might be able to get enough evidence to go to the cops. Might have to let him try something.”

“Groin shots do work,” I quipped.

She grinned. “Or the high priestess. I think she’s the one we really want to nail.”
“As many of them as we can.” I knew my tone was grim. “They disgust me.”

“And you’re upset about something.”

I made light of it. “Somebody was hitting on me. I’m kinda tired of guys trying to get in my pants.”

Clara sidelong-glanced at me. “I can see why guys…and girls…would.” Then she blushed.

“I trust you to remember I’m taken.” She did definitely feel some attraction towards me, I could tell, but she seemed to be respecting my boundaries. “But it’s…I tend to attract rather interesting suitors.”

“Demons?”

“I sent that one back where he belonged.”

She blanched. “Uh, I was…”

“Joking. I know. Anyway. Be careful.” That was all I could say that I hadn’t already said. I needed her to be careful. I needed her to be ready to pull out.

“I always am. But after this I’m finding a real teacher. A good one.”

“Bruce can find you one. I’m not the one to ask.” I didn’t really hang out with witches, although maybe I should fix that. There was Seb, too, if she wanted to go that route. His people could also train her.

“I know. You’re something quite different.” She turned to face me for a moment. “I’m starting to feel that, to feel something from you. It scares me.”

It, not you. “I won’t hurt you.”

“I think I know that. I’m more worried I will hurt me.” Then, she fled down the street.

Only to run right into Thruor. “Hi.”

“Heading out?”

“I have an efreet who wants in my pants.”

She laughed. “Well, he probably won’t follow through.”

“What, because I’m…”

“You’re the wrong pantheon. Demons are all into that. Efreets still play by their boss’ rules. He might want a sneaky one night stand, but he’s not going to court you.”

“Hopefully he’ll listen when I tell him I don’t want one, then.” I flickered Thruor a grin. “Thanks. I already warned Kanesha not to accept any wishes.”

Thruor shuddered. “I knew somebody who wished to live for a very long time. The djinn turned them into a tree. A very long-lived tree.”

I tried not to laugh. I couldn’t quite succeed. “Sorry, but…”

“Those stories you hear about djinn and wishes? Tip of the iceberg. They enjoy the game. Of course, they do love it if somebody manages to word a wish they can’t wriggle out of.”

I thought about it. “Maybe she’s not the only person I should warn.” I myself had nothing to wish for. Well, no, I did, but I knew better than to think I could word a wish a djinn or efreet couldn’t wriggle out of. Kanesha would have more of a chance.

“Maybe. If he’s hanging around hunting for idiots, then he’ll probably find some. People who’d follow a leprechaun.”

I frowned. “I hear you can sometimes get the gold.”

“Or dead. Leprechauns are more dangerous than people think.”

I brushed back my hair. “I’m still going to make sure he knows I’m not interested.” I’d lost some interest in tracking him down if he wasn’t going to be that persistent. At the same time, I needed to be doing something.

“Good luck.”

I got a distinct feeling that her bike was nuzzling me as I walked past. I grinned and made scritching motions.

“She’ll be after peppermints next,” Thruor warned.

I grinned, feeling even better, and walked away.

She was probably looking for or meeting Mike, I thought. It was a little warmer than it had been, the air promising some degree and level of spring. Some warmth to melt the winter we had had, but not that much, not yet.

The ice box was still a little bit open, and I thought about where I would be if I was a being of fire in this.