It was a standoff. I didn’t do anything other than, well, stand there.

“She’s a friend,” Seb protested.
“She’s a demon. No matter what she may have told you.”

One of the women was half a step behind the other. “That thing you just threw?” I said, evenly. “It’s called a spirit bomb. It damages souls. Including yours.”

“Doesn’t matter. It kills demons.”

I still wanted one of those bombs. Or better yet, to lure Tyz’vel into a meeting with these two. Let them take care of him. It wasn’t just tempting…or Loki-like. It genuinely struck me as a good idea. Then deal with them.

It shouldn’t be too hard, I thought. I didn’t tell them I wasn’t a demon. “And if anyone dies at the same time one goes off, it’ll destroy their soul.”

At least they didn’t have a second one. If they did, I was sure they’d be triggering it right now – and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t survive. Would it destroy me?

I didn’t know…and then I heard a very sweet sound indeed.
The sound of bikes. “Also, you don’t have another one, and you’re about to be badly outnumbered.”

They took the hint and ran. Seb looked at me. He sighed. “Some hunters are like that. They don’t see the difference between you and Tyz’vel.”

“Did you have a vampire problem?”

He nodded. “A bad one. That thing just…turned them to dust.”

“Well, at least it didn’t leave a body. I was going to call you to ask about spirit bombs.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it. But I might be able to find out where those two chicks came from.” He added, “They’re hot, too.”

I hadn’t thought either of them was particularly hot next to Kanesha. But…well…

I was biased. And Seb had never looked twice at her, so clearly we didn’t share a similar taste in women. I’d rather have Seb himself than either of them. “Sorry, not seeing it.”

“It’s…”

“Plus, it’s not fine. I had a fyrhund with me. I think they killed it.” That hit me. I wanted to cry.

“Oh…that’s not good.”

I tugged off my jacket. “Neither is this. That’s what that stuff did to me.”

“Looks like you went out in the desert southwest without sun cream.”

I shuddered. “I need to see if Thea has any idea what to do for it.”

It hurt, too. It hurt worse than, say, being shot. I wished I didn’t know that from experience.