The Stenton Building was dark and dingy, most of the windows boarded up. It had apparently been some kind of light manufacturing unit, but was now gathering dust. The sign outside read St n on.

I kept one hand inside my coat, then forced myself to relax.

“No. Let the uniforms go in first, it’s their job.” Hargrove shot me a steel gaze.

“It’s our job if they find a demon,” I told Hargrove. “Let Thea go with them.”

To my surprise, he agreed to that compromise – more willing, I suppose to risk a grown woman than a teenager.

If it was a compromise. Thea winked at me, then moved in with them. I waited, but if I sensed real danger I’d go in. Hargrove looked in about the same state.

I didn’t ask him about the mob guy. I didn’t want to know what deals got made in the underworld. That they did I had no doubt of, none whatsoever. But…well…what they were was not something I wanted to think about.

Deals involving people’s lives. Deals to keep the city quiet and at something resembling peace. It wasn’t my problem.

The feeling of fire inside the warehouse was. I broke for the door, got it open, got inside.

Mundane fire licking around some of the crates. Mike and Warwick were dangling from the catwalk. They were both alive, but unconscious. And Thea was fighting a group of thugs. She could have beaten any one of them, but they had her outnumbered. Two of the cops had ducked behind. A third was dead on the ground. And I wasn’t sure who had started the fire, but there was also tension. It wasn’t quite another blaze. It wasn’t quite magic. It was…something.

Thea yelled something it took me a moment to understand.

Blood magic.

I then realized she hadn’t spoken in English. I didn’t worry about it right then, but moved between more of the thugs and the fallen cop. They couldn’t get his blood. That was the meaning of her warning.

The special treatment for Mike and Warwick? Both of them had some talent. They were hunters and these people had something in mind for them. Something I wasn’t going to allow to come to fruition. I struck open handed at the first one, sending him spinning. One of the cops shot the other, although he was not injured enough to end the threat. He did, though, slow down.

“Their boss already ran!” Thea called.

I didn’t answer and rather thought she should save her breath. Hargrove had ducked behind cover with his men.

I looked past the guys I was tussling with to see how they had the two suspended. Then I backed up, pulled my gun, and shot through the straps holding Warwick. I’d rather have freed Mike, but it was a much tougher shot.

The young cop landed in a bit of a tangled heap, but was already picking himself up. One down, one to go.

Their boss might have fled, but at least he didn’t have his prey.