The efreet changed form. He didn’t do it between one glance and the next the way Loki did – there was a flicker of fire that flowed through him, and then he was a young man of about my age. With a sword in his hand. “Shall we?”

I grinned. “I’m spoiling for this,” I admitted.

“You’re…” And then he tailed off. Probably remembering what Will had said about me being taken. I hoped so.

“Let’s go. What’s in there?”

“A veritable plague of imps.”

I laughed. “That makes me almost uninclined to help, but…” A plague of imps might still hurt Clara.

Then, I kicked in the door. And was promptly tackled by two of the small demons. They were reddish in color and warm, but not actually burning. I swatted one of them away with the flat of my blade. It squealed and went flying. Maybe they’d run from me. Maybe they’d run from the efreet – a more powerful being of fire. I found myself wishing they wouldn’t. I sent the other back to hell with a single thrust, then kicked a third out of my way.

“We need to find the gateway they’re coming through.”

“You look for it. I’ll play with imps.” He grinned.

I ducked further into the building – I’d rather play with imps, but I had a feeling I’d have a better chance of closing it than he would. Or at least of forcing somebody else to close it.

I came through the doorway and two of the covenites were tossing spells at the imps. This appeared to be having the primary effect of making the imps larger and hotter. “You might want to stop that.”

“You!” one of them exclaimed and made the mistake of taking his eyes off of the imps. They bowled him over under them and started to remove his clothing.

“…They’re lust imps?”

The other, out of breath, “Of…course…they…are.”

I realized one of my blouse buttons was, indeed, undone. “Where’s the gateway? We need to close it.”

“Won’t that…”

“It’ll stop any more from showing up. Where’s the gateway?”

“Basement.”

I looked around for the door, kicked a couple of imps aside, ignored the one that pinched my butt and then kicked that door in too, heading down the stairs.

There were even more imps down there. Clara was holding her own against one group, although her shirt was torn. She appeared to have found a spell that actually did some good, at least.

“Sorry I’m late.”

“Turn your phone on next time!” she yelled, then cast another spell, which tied an imp up. This attracted the…attention…of the lust imp next to it.

“I’ll take the imps. You get the door closed!”

What were we going to do with these people? They weren’t just abusers, they were incompetent as well!