The efreet, who introduced himself as a long name starting with Abdul, choosing to protect Clara was a weight off of my mind.

Maybe.

From the way he was looking at her I figured I was now safe from his advances, but she might not be fortunate. I mouthed ‘jailbait’ at him as I left. It might be okay in his culture, but Clara was only fifteen.
She wasn’t old enough to be allowed to date an adult even if she was up for it. On the other hand, there was clearly no arguing with him and I was rather worried that if I tried I’d end up in a sword duel I wasn’t sure I’d win.

So, I let it lie for now, and trusted Clara to tell him where to go if he pushed things too far. The motorbike was waiting for me. I hopped back on and rode it…her…back to the house.

“What happened?” Mike asked. He’d pulled up at about the same moment.

“Invasion of imps.”

He rolled his eyes. “Great. Was somebody…”

I found myself blushing scarlet. Mike wasn’t my dad, but I was even less comfortable talking about sex related stuff with him than I would be with my actual father. Far less, in fact.

“Oh…those kind. Got it. You need hot chocolate.”

He ducked inside. I parked the bike and followed him, leaving the keys in. I was pretty sure the keys weren’t, after all, even real.

Mike made hot chocolate while I stripped off my jacket and then cleaned imp blood off my sword. Not that there was much – it mostly seemed to have evaporated. But still, I had to look after the blade.

Then I curled my hands around the hot chocolate. “Things came to a head with that coven.”

“Is Clara alright?”

“Alright and she has a phone recording of the high priestess trying to…uh…push her into bed. But she’s got herself a new protector.”

“Oh?”

“That efreet. I warned him to stay out of her pants.” At least assuming Abdul had understood that warning.

“I’d hope so. She’s underage. Which means we can nail miss…”

“Lady Jonquil Iridescence. Or something. What is it with witches and names like that?”

“Self-importance?” He settled down with a mug of his own. “So, it’s resolved. Unless we end up having to beat on that efreet.”

“I hope I won’t. And I have…a feeling which way I should send her now.”

Mike nodded. “Good.”

“She’s good. She’s already better than they were. So…I think she’ll do fine.” And I could stop worrying about her.

I hoped.