“Not often a kid seeks me out.” Mike leaned across the table. Small cafe. Opposite the cop shop. Good donuts.

That was a cliche there. The good donuts. I munched on one. “I don’t even know how to start on this. But…do you believe in demons? Not the demon rum or whatever but actual, literal demons.”

He paused, then nodded. “You know. I’ve been on the streets for twenty years. I’ve seen things that I haven’t wanted to remember and probably things I haven’t remembered. We had a vampire hanging around the Black Cat a few years back. A real for true blood sucking vampire. We don’t talk about these things. We’re keeping people safe. But some of that excessive force you hear about…”

I let out a breath. “Three demons. Two of them are succubi. I’m less sure on the third one. I have a priest handy, but…”

“You need to set a trap for them.” He studied me. “The third one.”

“Male. Wants in my pants. For the challenge, I think.”

“Statutory rape.”

“Possibly. He seems to be whatever age he wants.” I elected right then not to tell Mike I was anything but a girl who’d got pulled into this stuff.
“So, this is what’s going on with you. That big blonde you hang out with’s a Hunter, isn’t she?”

I paused, because it wasn’t quite true, then nodded.

“You should still think about what I said. Like I said, you’d be surprised how much we cops know about the real world.”

My lips quirked. “Some of you probably know more than I do.”

“And I think I have a good idea of how to trap a couple of succubi. They’re not the smartest, from what I know. No direct experience, but… One thing to remember. Succubi and Incubi are the same thing. They…”

“…change sex depending on their target. Got it. That makes sense.” I should have thought of it. Or maybe remembered it, but I wasn’t sure.

There was no guarantee I’d ever known anything about demon hunting. But my instincts had led me to the right man. I just hoped he wouldn’t get hurt.

I rather liked Mike. He was another antidote to all the jerky XYs out there, another breath of fresh air. And it was nice to know that there were some good cops in town. Something else I’d often wondered, especially when Kanesha or Lugenia had complained about yet another black kid being arrested for something a white kid could have got away with.

“Right. But once they’re locked onto somebody, they’ll do stupid stuff to get to them. They’re hyper-aware of the location of churches, though. They know that somebody will run into one.”

I considered that. “And Christians don’t do temporary consecration like witches do.”

“Maybe we could use a witch as well.”

“I know a couple,” I thought out loud. “I’ll talk to them. Depends on whether the Father will work with them.”

“Always the question.”

No real rivalries. I stored that comment up in my mind. It wasn’t the gods that fought but their followers? Maybe.