I didn’t need to get the apartment number from Zaid. The heat washed around me, as if I was immune to it. But it was there.

I kicked in the door. One smooth motion. Hinges side.

They hadn’t summoned a particularly big demon, and it looked like they’d known enough to make a proper summoning circle.

They hadn’t known enough to actually seal it properly. The demon was hammering against it, and I could see the weak point. “Run.”

“What, we…”

“…you’ve got a gap in your circle. Run. Now. I’ll deal with it.” I didn’t have my sword, and I probably didn’t exactly look like an avenging angel.
The demon burst from the circle, then went for the nearest of the wannabe witches. I launched myself into the gap between the two, unblocking the doorway so they could run.

One of them decided it was easier to escape by a different route and crashed through the window, the sound of tinkling glass breaking the silence more thoroughly than my voice had.

“This is none of your business,” the demon rasped, a growling voice neither male nor female, but not beautiful as Zaid’s was.

“I have a soft spot for idiots.”

He charged me. No doubt he thought he could take me, unarmed as I was, and I wasn’t about to try and call fire. Instead? I took a leaf from Kanesha’s book and stepped to the side and tried to grab his wrist.

I got it and he went flying into the kitchen. He landed on a kitchen table that was covered with half eaten pizza. Getting up, he dripped sauce and rancor.

Waste of good pizza. The kids were all trying to get through the apartment door at once, giving a distinct keystone cop effect.

I ignored them. “Go back to hell or I’ll send you.”

“Can’t. I have to…” The demon shook more pizza stuff off himself.

I charged into the kitchen. Yes, there was a very sharp knife. I grabbed it, and thrust towards the beast’s throat.

It went home, and demon ichor, hot and black, sprayed from the wound. I twisted, and he crumpled into dust.

“That was too easy,” I said out loud.

The one who had gone out the window was climbing back in. “What did we do wrong?”

“Summoning demons in the first place, but…” I walked over to the circle. It was drawn on a rug. “You had pizza sauce on your circle.”

“Pizza sauce.”

I shook my head. “We’re going to have a little talk about proper use of magic, I think.”

At which point Zaid and Kanesha herded the others back into the apartment. Not that they’d got far. Now I could count that there were six of them.

“What do…”

“If you have any talent at all, you know what I have to do with it.”