Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison

            “I appreciate you not messing with my stuff anymore, Constance,” I said as I took out a handful of pearls, then hesitated. I had nowhere to put them. “Ah, you want me to take them into the garden? There’s a lot here.”

            Constance shook her head, pointing for me to set them in the bowl with Getty’s scraps.

            “Bloody Whiskers here thinks you’re doing a piss-poor job of running Cincy,” Jenks said, his arms over his chest as he kicked his phone to make Constance chitter at him.

            A handful of pearls went pinging into the bowl, and I sat down. Constance began squeaking, gesturing at the screen with a white paw. The bowl was too small, and I began stacking the pearls, frowning as I read, She’s a bad leader. Her wolf is hurt because of it and now she has to do his job too. The witch is in over her head.

            “Don’t listen to her, Rache,” Jenks scoffed. “Like she could have done any better.”

            “Yeah,” I breathed, but a feeling of guilt flickered as Constance began patting at the phone’s pop-up keyboard.

            Five minutes with me and Vincent would be my puppy or he’d be dead. You let him live. Fatal mistake.

            The mouse pointed at the screen, her beady black vampire eyes fixed on mine. It was probably a good thing she was so small, or her angry-vampire pheromones would be hitting me hard. She was pissed. I wasn’t sure why. I didn’t think she had ever cared about the city’s residents, only that she was in charge of them.

            “Killing Walter Vincent won’t solve my problem,” I said, my rising justification faltering when the mouse adroitly switched the keyboard to the emoji menu and hammered at the poop symbol three times.

            “Says you,” Jenks muttered.

            “The only reason Walter could down David was because of the mage’s magic,” I said as Constance began picking words again. “And I have that now.”

            The mouse rocked back and gestured at the screen. Jenks leaned over it. “You’re still doing the dog’s job,” he read, bristling. “Killing Vincent sends a message. Not killing him says, ‘Take advantage of me.’ ”

            I squirmed, feeling the rebuke. “If I kill Walter, I go to jail.”

            Constance pulled her lips from her teeth in a weird grin, patting out, That’s what I’m saying. You are ineffective. You have to kill to rule.

            “No. No, I don’t,” I said. “The mage is my responsibility, and I will take care of him.”

            But she was at the keyboard again, and I leaned over to read, The next time you are challenged, David will die. You are a bad ruler, sacrificing your people to keep your soul clean. Learn the art of killing, or let someone else do it.

            And with that, the guilt hit me hard. She was right. David was hurt because I wasn’t doing my job.

            “Rache, the furry blood bag don’t know anything,” Jenks said, and Constance gave him a pink-pawed one-finger salute.

            “No, she’s right.” Guilt made my chest hurt. Head down, I stacked the last few pearls in the bowl. But they were round and I was distracted. One rolled off to send the rest into a rattling cascade over the table.

            Frantic, Constance scurried after them, catching and stuffing two in her cheek pouches before four more bounced off the table.

            “If you kill Walter, you go to jail,” Jenks said, ignoring Constance as she crawled from the table and began chasing down the four pearls rolling noisily across the oak floor. “You aren’t a vampire living above the law. She don’t know pixy piss.”

            “Maybe that’s her point.” Sighing, I put my elbows on my knees and cupped my chin in my hands. “The only reason David is hurt is because he’s supporting me.”

            “That’s not how I see it.” Jenks’s gaze flicked to Getty as the pixy flew into the sanctuary from the kitchen, clearly concerned about the noise.

            But as I stared at Hodin’s door, doubt took a stronger hold on me. Constance might be cruel and half-crazy. Her bedroom tastes might cross the border into the sadistic. But she was also right, and I wasn’t sure if I could keep putting my friends in danger anymore.

            And then my lips parted when Constance followed a rolling pearl right under Hodin’s door.