The doorbell rang and the Dealer strode past me without comment.

I followed him. “So when you say you’re burning them, you mean you were planning to burn them, right? They aren’t actually on fire yet, are they?”

“Sorry, sugar,” he said as he opened the door.

Garrett Swopes stood on the other side of it.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him, taken aback.

“I’m the backup plan,” he said, a sly grin lighting his face. Garrett was a skiptracer who happened to have died recently – an incident that may or may not have been my fault. The doctors revived him, but he’d seen some pretty dark stuff while surfing the afterlife, including Reyes’s father, the big man down under.

“Backup plan?” I turned to Reyes. “Why do we need a backup plan?”

The Dealer tossed a pair of socks and my boots to me. “I cleaned them the best I could,” he said. “They’re still wet, but I don’t have anything that will fit you.”

I took a black athletic sock and hopped on one foot to get it on while following the Dealer into the kitchen. “I need my phone. I have to call my uncle.”

“No can do, sugar,” he said, grabbing a beer out of the fridge. He winked before downing the entire contents in three huge gulps. “Liquid courage.” He pitched the bottle into a wastebasket and went for another.

“I need you sober,” Reyes said, his voice razorlike.

“As luck would have it, your particular needs don’t interest me. My only concern is the reaper. She needs to stay here.”

“You can’t keep me prisoner,” I protested.

“I told you,” Reyes said, stepping close as I hopped into the other sock, “she doesn’t leave my sight. What if they show up here while we’re there?”

“They can’t come in here, demon spawn, or don’t you feel that?”

Reyes stepped back and lowered his head before pasting on a smirk. “You think one minuscule blessing and a little holy water are going to keep them out?”

“You got a better plan?”

Reyes pulled a leather cloth from the back of his pants. He unfolded it in his palm to reveal Zeus, the only knife in existence that could kill a demon, any demon, with one thrust.

“What good will that do you?” I asked him. “You can’t even touch it.”

“I can if it’s encased in leather.” He held it out for my inspection. Who knew a Sham Wow had so many uses? “But it’s not for me. It’s for you.” He took my hand and placed the knife in it sans the chamois. “If they attack, don’t hesitate to use it, Dutch. Not even a microsecond.”

I began to get more and more worried. “What do you mean? Where are we going?”

He gave me a quick once-over and I felt something dangerously close to pride swell inside him.

I took a quick peek myself. Loose Blue Öyster Cult T-shirt, baggy jeans held up by a belt, and my usual dark brown ankle boots.

“We have to go back,” Reyes said, and I froze.

“We have to call my uncle, Reyes. It’s a crime scene now. We have to get the police involved.”

He nodded, then said, “What if you do call your uncle? What if he goes in there, Dutch? What if the same thing happens to him?”

I leaned back against the wall, astounded with my idiocy. “I didn’t even consider that. I’m so stupid.”

“You’re not stupid,” Garrett said. “But why are we going in there again? I mean if these things are so bad.”

“We aren’t,” Reyes said, heading toward the door. “The Daeva and I are. You are staying out front in the sunlight, guarding my fiancée with your life.”

“Oh,” Garrett said. “Okay, then.”

“We don’t even know if that sunlight thing is true, Reyes.” I rushed to keep up with his long strides. “You said yourself, neither of you have any idea what they are capable of. They could frolic in the sun on a daily basis, for all we know.” When he kept going, I added, “They attacked with no warning, Reyes.”

He paused midstride and I almost ran into him. Instead he turned and wrapped one arm around my waist and waited for me to continue.

“You don’t understand. I never even saw them. I just heard a growl. Saw that man’s throat ripped to shreds. Felt their teeth. I never even got a glimpse. We have no idea what they are capable of.”

“There’s only one way to find out,” he said, giving me a light squeeze. “Just keep that thing close.”

“You think Zeus can kill them?” I asked, my voice quivering.

“No,” he said, running a thumb along the cleft in my chin. “I think you can kill them.”

7

Restraint: not just for sex anymore.

— T-SHIRT

We pulled up to the asylum again in two vehicles. Since Misery’s driver’s seat was still drenched in blood, Reyes and I took his black Plymouth ’Cuda while Garrett and the Dealer took Garrett’s black pickup. Black in New Mexico was just not a sane choice, no matter how good it looked, but boys will be boys.

I thought about summoning Angel or even Artemis, but I had no idea if the Twelve could kill them. I couldn’t take the risk. Artemis, a gorgeous Rottweiler, had been sent to guard me, but I would die if anything happened to her. Possibly quite literally.

When we pulled up, Strawberry was sitting on the curb out front, chewing absently on Barbie’s head.