Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison

            “Fight and die,” she whispered, voice like ice. “Or you will simply die.”

            “Elyse . . .” Gasping, I dove for the shelter of a car. Energy cracked the air, and I yelped as her spell hit the vehicle. Lips parted, I fell on my butt, staring as wisps of red and purple raced over the car and it began to shake. It rattled and groaned, and then it sank inward. I watched, shocked as it imploded to the size of a basketball. Air smelling of gas and oil shifted my hair as I found myself sitting on the damp pavement, nothing between us as little rills of energy raced over the crushed car and vanished. Holy crap on toast, what are they teaching these kids?

            “Lee killed Vivian,” I said, then lurched to my feet and simultaneously threw a ball of unfocused energy to meet hers. “He did it in my own church to hide his blame!”

            “You lie!” she shouted as our energies hissed and popped against each other. “You’re a liar!”

            “Then why won’t he let anyone take a sample of the pentagram?” I inched away from the smoldering car. Little pings of sound still came from it, audible over Lee’s directive shouts at the circle. “Why is he hiding evidence, Elyse?”

            “Because you tampered with it,” she said as the first chants rose from the circle. They were beginning to gather their power. And when the sun fell? After that, they would do the curse.

            “You are a dark practitioner,” she said. “You are a demon!”

            “I am a demon.” I’d reached the center of the street, and I stopped. This was where I wanted her, and I would retreat no more. “But I didn’t trick Vivian into making a second chakra ring. Think, Elyse. I already had one. Why would I need another? She was my friend, and my only crime is that I failed to trust she could protect me from the rest of you. Maybe if I had, she wouldn’t have trusted Lee.”

            “You are a demon. I will never believe anything you say.” Smooth expression twisting in heartache, Elyse threw another spell.

            I deflected it with a burst of power, but my confidence faltered when it hit a light pole and spun toward a bus. There were people in it.

            My God, I thought, remembering the crushed car. “Detrudo!” I shouted, imagining a huge bubble of force under the bus. I couldn’t reach the spell in time, but I could move the bus, and with a sodden thump and groan, the bus majestically tipped up onto its right wheels . . . and slowly fell over. The chanting at the circle faltered as the bus hit the pavement with a terrifying crunch, but Elyse’s spell spun through empty space to hit a stunted street tree instead.

            White-faced, the young woman stared as the thin trunk exploded, and I ducked to avoid splinters and branches flying like shrapnel.

            “You need to stop throwing that shit,” I said, shaky as yellow burning leaves sifted down to eddy about my feet. Cries for help were coming from the bus, but the riders were alive, bruised at the worst. Elyse was out for blood. She didn’t care about the truth, only her hurt. She moved from grief, not true hatred—and I understood that.

            “Vivian was my friend, and I am going to miss her,” I said, choking as the heartache of her loss hit me hard. “You are doing exactly what Lee wants you to do,” I added as the glowing embers of red and yellow leaves spun up in a whirlwind about me. “If you down me, no one will stand up to him. He will take this city to the detriment of everyone in it. That’s why he killed Vivian. That’s why Vivian’s ghost attacked him. She’s there. Still in my church. Ask her.”

            Elyse hadn’t moved, her sudden uncertainty obvious. Either my words had finally reached her, or the wonder that I had saved a busload of people from her lethal spell had broken through. She licked her lips and glanced toward Lee, clearly unsure. “You saw her? You saw her ghost?” she asked, and I nodded, my grip on the ley line never easing.

            “She was angry when she died, betrayed and angry enough to linger. I should have shown her the curse when I found it,” I said. “But I was afraid of what she’d think of me, and I don’t have enough friends to lose any. And I lost her anyway.” I swallowed hard, my throat closing. “Please don’t let your grief give Lee what he wants. I’ve known him since I was ten, and he’s a selfish, manipulative, cruel bastard, all the way to his core.”

            Again Elyse half turned to the plaza, the red and purple haze about her fingers faltering. “I can’t let myself believe you,” she said, but there was doubt, and my pulse hammered.