She made a good play before I managed to disentangle myself. Immortality for Kanesha. Large amounts of money. All kinds of stuff I had less than no interest in. Or rather had less than no interest in getting as bribes from her.

Demons, I’d come to realize, had a pretty limited playbook. Sex, immortality, money, power. She’d had the sense not to offer me one or four.

Power I wasn’t sure I wanted. Power I was pretty sure I would have more of than I wanted.

But she didn’t attack me. That was, perhaps, demon honor. They didn’t attack during a negotiation, even if it went against them. I respected that enough not to fight her.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t watching her and focusing on her and trying to work out exactly how I could fight her when and if the opportunity came up.

I decided that in a straight physical fight I could take her easily. Which meant she wouldn’t go for a straight physical fight. She’d try something else.

Most of my friends were forearmed. Or, I thought, she’d hire some thugs to help her. Maybe bring in some war demons if she could.

All three were good possibilities. I was almost more worried about the spy types. Sure, they knew, but did they really know in their bones? How many of them had actual experience with demons as opposed to just reading it in some kind of spy manual of the supernatural.

Which made me want to get my hands on a copy of my own file. I probably had one. They were the kind of people who kept files on people.

And they were watching me. I spotted their tail easily, and in a moment of mischief wandered over to him. “Got a light?”

“Didn’t…”

I grinned. “Practice. And no, I don’t smoke.”

“Thanks. Now they’ll have to switch me out.”

“Go home,” I told him. “I don’t need protection and the world doesn’t need protecting from me. You’re just going to get in the middle of a fight.”

“I can handle it.”

He looked to be maybe twenty. Older than me in some ways, not in others. “I hope you can.” That was a more politic answer than saying he couldn’t.

He shrugged. “I’m armed. Now move away before people realize we’re together.”

It was probably too late, but I shrugged in return. Of course they’d switch him out. I was pretty sure the replacement would be no better at hiding from me… Or from anyone who meant me harm.