Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison

            That wasn’t going to happen, and an angry red dust slipped from Jenks as the watching crowd seemed to take a collective breath. “If you win, you can discuss the focus with him yourself, seeing as you’ll be his alpha female,” I said, and Cassie blanched.

            David took Cassie’s arm, the glint of his big-ass rifle showing as his duster furled. “This is hardly fair,” he said. “Cassie, you’re only twenty-five pounds to her hundred and fifty.”

            Parker laughed. “She called me. The challenge stands. No witchcraft assist. If there’s even a hint of it, I win by default.” Eyebrows high, she crossed her arms over her chest to show the breakaway cast. “That includes your spell pistol,” she added, and I frowned, hand touching my pocket where it lay.

            “I came out here alone because I didn’t want to put anyone in danger,” David said, his expression hardening. “This is not your fight. I’m the one she wants.”

            “And we’re the ones she has to go through to get you,” I said, handing him my splat gun so there would be no question about it. “You keep the peace. We keep your back.”

            Parker was snickering at something her second had said. She knew who the mage was. I could see it in her amused smile. “Are we doing this, or just talking about it?” she said, confident that the hour would end with her shoving David into a van and driving off.

            But the truth was, even if Cassie should lose and I somehow failed to keep David safe, the watching mob would not let David go. It was the power of the focus, and the focus didn’t care who died for it.

            Jaw set, Cassie began to disrobe, taking her clothes off with a passionless disregard, as if she was cleaning her sink. Piece by piece, she handed everything to me until she stood alone, her brown skin gleaming in a shaft of late-afternoon sun and her peacock tattoo spreading its feathers in a stupendous display of body art.

            Parker gave her a disparaging look, then began to do the same. I blanched at the scars that Parker’s clothes had been hiding. Old and puckered, they said the woman knew how to fight.

            “The I.S. is staying clear,” Jenks said, his wings tickling my neck. “Tink loves a duck, she’s got a lot of scars,” he added. “Cassie’s got this. Parker clearly doesn’t know how to fight.”

            But that’s not how I had read the story her body told, and I became more nervous yet.

            “Challenger’s choice,” Parker magnanimously said, and Cassie nodded, her eyes taking in every imperfection, every scar before her, reading the damage, analyzing it, deciding where the woman’s defense lacked.

            “I choose to start from human form,” Cassie said, and a soft hush rose from the surrounding mob. Making shifting part of the challenge was uncommon. Most Weres preferred to go to fur before the contest started, eliminating the pain of a forced, fast shift. But being able to shift quickly was an alpha trait and so including it within the challenge was acceptable. It would also give Cassie the advantage, as werefoxes were naturally fast shifters.

            “Fine.” Motions rough, Parker twisted the chakra ring off her finger and gave it to her second. Someone had died to make it, and if my pearl ring had gone black, I would be terrified.

            Reluctant and slow, David moved to stand between them. “As it is I who hold what these two alphas contest, it is I who will begin it,” he said. “Do both parties agree that the results be binding?” He hesitated. “I need a verbal acknowledgment.”

            “I agree,” Cassie said, voice low.

            “They had better damn well be!” Parker shouted, and a small cheer rose from the footbridge. Alphas. They were all alphas, and I didn’t like the answering rumble of threat from the Cincy Weres behind me. If Cassie didn’t bring her down, they would fight. People would die.

            “Any who interfere will be removed,” David said when the noise abated. “May I have six alphas to serve as adjudicators?”

            Mrs. Sarong pushed her way to the front, smiling and flashing her jewelry. Her business rival, Simon Ray, was tight behind her, and then another, head-to-toe-leather-clad alpha with at least six pack tattoos, rough and garnering cheers as he made a fist and stepped forth. There was a quick scuffle at the bridge before two women and a man came forward, completing the thirty-foot circle around Cassie and Parker. They would officiate, and I felt a chill as I studied them. That should be me, I thought, but even as I took a breath to protest, David bowed his head and walked to the edge.