“He’s not cursed, per se,” Clara said, finally, dipping into her bowl of chocolate ice cream.

“Then…”

“Tracking spell.” She glanced at Derek. “Demons can’t touch our souls, but they can put tracers on us.”

“So I was right and he’s being stalked.”

“I dispelled it, which is only a short term thing.”

“Can,” Derek asked, “You trace it back to the source?”

“Demon.”

I sighed. “I’d lay bets it’s the same demon that was pretending to be your guardian angel.”

“Clara said I should learn magic.” Derek looked down a bit. “I always figured I’d only learn the very basics and…”

“If you have the talent, you should learn,” Clara said, firmly. “Otherwise you really might end up doing it without realizing it and causing all sorts of trouble.”

I couldn’t resist, “Yeah, you could accidentally let out a python.”

Apparently, Derek had never read Harry Potter, because he just looked vaguely confused. “Alright,” he said, finally.

Clara nodded. “I’ll hook you up.”

With training he’d be less dangerous if we could trust him. More if we couldn’t. I couldn’t shake my doubts.

“And I…” A pause. “Promise not to hurt innocent supernaturals.”

I grinned. “Go after the guilty ones. There are plenty. Not that I’m that innocent.”

He mock-punched me. “You know what I mean.”

I grinned. “I do.”

But I needed to lay my doubts to rest. How could I know for sure? I couldn’t. The demon would lie. Derek would lie if he was secretly a bad guy. I couldn’t read his mind, and wouldn’t want to if I could.

And his father might cause trouble too. I definitely would have been happier if Derek left town. Went somewhere else. Somewhere where he wouldn’t be my problem. Maybe that was selfish, but I had enough on my plate.

I reminded myself that I might not trust Derek, but I did trust Clara.

“Okay,” Derek said, finally. “Just let me know how we’re going to start.”

“I’ll talk to some people tomorrow.”

She meant her coven, obviously. I hoped Derek fit in there. I hoped that they could keep an eye on him.

“Can you put some wards on him?” Seb asked, abruptly.

“I can. Against tracking and scrying at least. The demon will notice, mind.”

“Good,” I said, firmly. “If he notices he’ll come out of the woodwork. I’m going to go talk to Father Will about a book.”

Clara grinned. “You do that.”

“Book?” Derek said, confused.

“One that might help us get your demon friend’s true name so we can banish him.”

“Oh.” He sounded oddly unconvinced about that. Probably because he had yet to see Will in action.

Well. He’d learn. Or he’d warn the demon, and then we’d know. Or would we? I tried to clear my head on the matter, but I knew I wasn’t entirely sure who was in charge and in control.

What if Derek was being…no. Clara would have found mind control, as long as she spent on it. I forced that thought out of my mind. “We’ll get rid of him for you.”

“Thank you,” Derek said, finally, if uncertainly.

I put it down to him not being sure we could rather than not being sure he wanted to. For now.