Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison

            His expression serious, David nodded. “Yes, I am.”

            But we had reached the tables, and the ever-bubbly Lucy was now standing on the bench, working hard to keep Al from cleaning her hand. “Aunt Rachel?” the little girl shouted. “Caramel apple, caramel apple, caramel apple!”

            I winced at the memory of my brother, Robbie, sticking mine in my hair, but then Lucy lost her fire as she saw David. Eyes widening, she tucked in behind Al. That she was afraid of him bothered me. Trent is not going to be happy. . . .

            Al finally got Lucy’s hand and cleaned it with a packaged wipe from the girls’ bag. “Busy morning?” he asked, his gaze lingering on David’s bruises.

            “I was going to ask you the same thing.” I eyed the ring of empty tables surrounded by an even wider ring of overly full ones.

            “Bunch of dewdrop milksops never seen a demon before,” Jenks said.

            Al’s smile became positively . . . demonic. “We are marvelous.” Al encouraged Lucy to sit, her pinky lifted high as she delicately took up her half-eaten doughnut. “I have spent the morning fielding many questions concerning Weres. Together, we have learned how to gather the pack.”

            “Owwuuwl!” Lucy shouted, and from across the orchard, three high-pitched howls returned to make the little girl bounce in excitement.

            “That is a most excellent call, Lucy,” David said. “You could run with the pack and not get lost. I’m Mr. Hue, one of Rachel’s friends.”

            Lucy slumped against Al again, her green eyes going from me to Ray and back to David. I could almost see her thoughts; if Ray wasn’t afraid of him, she wouldn’t be, either.

            “Wolf Sa’han,” Ray said boldly, and Jenks snickered.

            “Well, not exactly,” David admitted. “Weres don’t have a Sa’han.”

            I stepped over the bench with Ray to sit down across from Al. The doughnuts smelled delicious and were still warm from the fryer. Breaking one in two, I handed half to Ray and then broke my part again to share with Jenks.

            Lucy, though, hadn’t taken her attention off David, her doughnut forgotten as she studied him in mistrust. “Do you bite people?” she finally asked, voice high and clear.

            David grinned, and I passed him the doughnut bag. “Only when I’m in fur,” he said as he carefully eased himself down. “And only if I have to.”

            Lucy’s chin lifted. “My daddy can turn into a wolf. But he doesn’t bite people.”

            “Your daddies know how to do magic,” Jenks said as he brushed the sugar from his front.

            David nodded, his dark expression serious. “Magic is more dangerous than biting.”

            The little girl frowned, distracted when a hornet landed on her cup of apple cider. “Ray!” she shrieked, and I jumped, startled when I felt a tug on the lines and the hornet fell over, dead.

            My lips parted at Ray’s smug satisfaction. She’d killed it. With magic. “Ah, Al?” I questioned, and the demon turned to me with a dark look.

            “Do you think for one instant I would give either of those children anything they can harm themselves or another with?”

            “No,” I admitted. “You cleared it with Trent and Quen, right?”

            Smirking, Al used a tattered corn husk to flick the dead insect off the table, where it landed on a veritable morgue of them. “We’ve been practicing our spells,” he said in pride, not answering my question, and Ray scrambled up, doughnut forgotten in her effort to reach him. “You did very well, little elf,” he added as he took her on his hip, and she giggled.

            I sighed, knowing that somehow this was going to be my fault. “Hey, ah, you mind if we talk shop for a moment?” I said, and Al’s eye twitched.

            David stood, motions slow as he maneuvered his sore and battered body out of the picnic table. “Ray? Lucy?” he said, half-eaten doughnut in hand. “Let’s find the best two pumpkins for you and your daddies to carve.”

            “I’m in.” Jenks rose up, clearly intending to serve as a second pair of eyes.