As he turned to leave, though, I thought I spotted something. “Careful.”

“Careful what?”

“On that bench.”

“What…oh, I think…”

He had enough of the Sight to spot it, as I’d suspected. “Let’s just walk casual.”

“And not start anything…”

“Too many people.” De-loose-cannoning Derek was going to be a tough job.

“…alright. But…”

I didn’t like the idea of letting a minor demon go either, but…it wasn’t doing anything right this second, so there was no sense starting a risky fight.

Until it got up and followed us.

“Now…”

I shook my head. “Wait. We’ll lead him somewhere and find out what he’s up to before sending him home.”

The hard way. He wasn’t significant enough, I could sense that. I probably wasn’t his target. I turned down a side street.

The demon followed. Derek was starting to relax. He wanted a fight. A nice, straightforward fight.

He was going to be disappointed – this wasn’t that type of demon. Once we were off the street I stopped, turned, “Did you think I wasn’t going to notice you?”

“This isn’t any of your business, Asgardian.”

My lips quirked. “I’m here.”

“You’re losing your way, Derek.”

Derek looked at me. Looked at the demon. “You just admitted she’s not one of you.”

“But she’s not an angel either.”
This was the little voice that had told Derek to hate everyone. This was something that had influenced him.

“No, she isn’t, and I don’t entirely trust her, but I know what you are now.”

I grinned. “Derek, was he pretending to be your guardian angel?”

“Yes. He told me it’s…”

“Very difficult for a novice to tell the difference. Which it is.” I grinned back at the demon. “Time to give up.”

“Don’t know why I put in so much effort on a worthless kid anyway.”

“Hey!”

I put my hand on Derek’s arm. “He’s trying to rile you now you’ve seen through him. They do that.”

The demon shrugged. “Alright. I’m going home. But the next one to show up won’t be nearly as nice to the kid.”

And he vanished in a poof of brimstone.

“That was too easy,” Derek complained.

“He was trying to get you killed and in trouble. He might just have decided I’m likely to do that job for him.”

He looked at me, then he managed a short, harsh laugh. “Maybe. I’ll probably do it myself.”

At least he acknowledged that he was in danger. But it had been too easy. We hadn’t seen the last of that one.

Or, as he’d promised, worse.