Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison

            “Let Cassie go,” I said, and Walter shook his head.

            “Walk away, Morgan,” he intoned, teeth bared at me. “Or I’ll rip out her throat. Right now. Right in front of you. She’ll be dead in thirty seconds.”

            Pulse fast, I lowered my splat gun. “Go ahead. She doesn’t mean anything to me.”

            Walter’s brow lifted as he looked at Cassie. “I think she means it. You have no value.”

            Cassie’s eyes widened. “She’s bluffin’, you idiot!” she exclaimed, wiggling to no effect.

            “Behind you!” Glenn shouted, voice faint, and I spun, adrenaline a quick flash.

            It was Parker, and she had a gun. Without a word, the woman pulled the trigger.

            Rhombus, I thought as I fell on David, yanking on the line so hard it hurt.

            Red and gold energy rose up with a sodden crack, and Parker’s three shots went pinging into the dark.

            “What the hell are you doing!” Walter shouted, his face red as he backed up, dragging Cassie before him. “I’m fucking standing behind her!”

            “I. Don’t. Miss.” The wild-eyed woman stood ten feet from me, feet spread and smoke still drifting from the barrel. “That’s an undrawn circle,” Parker said as she closed the gap. “Can it hold up under point-blank range?”

            I pulled David’s deadweight closer to me. “Try it.”

            And then Ivy slammed into Parker, sending them both sliding across the cement floor and into the darkness. Soft thuds and shrill yells punctuated the shadows as they began to fight even before they found their feet.

            The gun, though, was not in Parker’s hand anymore. Parker, I mused, was going to lose.

            “David?” Safe under my protection bubble, I grasped David’s face and turned him to me. “Open your eyes. Open them!” I demanded, relief filling me when he cracked his lids, clearly in pain. The focus was still there, swirling like a chained madness, and I set my splat gun down to snip his zip tie.

            “Who broke the curse?” I asked as I freed his hands, and a soft groan slipped from him. “David?” He seemed okay apart from a massive beating, and relief trickled through me. “Who broke the curse that you were under?”

            “Help Cassie,” he rasped, his gaze fixed to Walter struggling to contain a wildly contorting Cassie. Jaw clenched, I grabbed him under his arms and dragged him to the shelter of a machine. The ley line was a wash of tingles as I broke the plane of my circle and our protection vanished. “Doyle’s gonna be pissed,” David slurred. “You ruined his run.”

            Doyle? I sat him up with a heave, his back against a slab of cold iron. “Are you telling me that Cassie and Doyle planned this? Without me?” I said, voice rising. No wonder she’d ducked out so easily, not answered her phone, gotten me to promise not to move without her. She’d hung with me for as long as it took to find out where Walter was, then ditched me.

            “This is a sucky plan, David, even if she did get you uncursed.” Ticked, I stood over him, not caring that Cassie was fighting for her freedom. She was a big girl, and apparently she didn’t need me. “If I hadn’t shown up, Walter might have killed you, cremated you, then kept your bones to possess the focus.”

            David rubbed his ribs, a rueful expression on his face. “I doubt that. He’d have to cart around my entire skeleton. Easier to have his mage pull it out of me. That guy is whacked.” Breath held, he tried to stand only to fall back with a pained grunt. “He looks like an elf, but he swears like a witch.”

            “Where’s the pack?”

            “Not here,” he said, focus sharpening. “Go help Cassie. She needs your help.”

            “Yeah?” I barked, listening to her struggle with Walter. Ivy and Pike were gone, but I could hear Brad shouting, and there was still some sporadic gunfire. Staggering, I got David on his feet, but getting him up the stairs would be a real challenge. “Ivy! Glenn! We need to move!”

            I had no idea where they were, but Ivy’s voice returned in a faint “Get David out!”

            “That’s what I’m saying!” I shouted, struggling with David’s weight. “I need some help!”