False alarm, or at least so it appeared. We found Clara and Tasha in a corner of the restaurant, and left again without disturbing them. I wasn’t sensing anything from Tasha other than mundane kid. So, we decided to just stay out and hunt demons.

Not that we really knew where to start, so hunting demons turned into walking through the city together in companionable silence. I hoped we hadn’t been distracted from a real problem by Clara’s apparent disappearance. Or date, for all I knew.

Seb and Clara. I thought about it, and now I thought about it I was pretty sure most of it was on Seb’s side.

Great. I didn’t want to be caught up in any kind of drama between the two, which seemed entirely likely under the circumstances. I shook my head. “You know, is life…is life less complicated if you’re only attracted to women?” I asked Kanesha.

She grinned. “Probably.”

Which was probably all the answer I was going to get out of her. A few minutes later it was all the answer she had time to give.

Maybe the demon had found out we were going after her. Maybe it was unrelated. Heck, maybe it was a friend of Tyz’vel’s.
We got jumped by two war demons. Right in the street. How they had got here I didn’t know or care. I drew my sword to defend myself, focusing what attention I could spare on us not being seen. Our blades clashed, and fire flowed over mine unbidden.

Ugh. I probably didn’t want to do that, especially as demons tended to like fire. But apparently not this fire.

It yelped when it touched it. “Damn you.”

“Coming from you, that’s rich.” I couldn’t spare an eye for Kanesha, except that she didn’t seem to be having difficulties. In fact, the other demon no longer had a sword.

I decided I could trust her to handle herself, and managed to repeat that a moment later, his blade going flying as mine hit his throat.

I didn’t hesitate – it was a demon after all. Straight through.

A moment later, I heard sardonic clapping and sighed. “Not funny, whoever that is.”

At least it wasn’t Tyz’vel. I hadn’t seen him since Kanesha had opened a door to Hell for the angels.

But it was a demon, for sure. A demon in the form of a woman in a long red dress, slit almost to the thigh. “As good as I heard.”

I sighed. Great. We’d given away fighting prowess. “What do you want?”

She smiled. “You out of this city. What would it be worth for you to simply…leave?”
“More,” I said. “Than you could possibly afford.