I gasped for breath in the sudden silence, the sound echoed by Ryan as we both hurriedly checked ourselves for injuries. Though not as large as an eleventh- or twelfth-level demon, a kehza was still plenty dangerous—about the size and build of a human, with a face that bore an uncanny resemblance to a Chinese dragon, skin of iridescent red and purple, and plenty of sharp teeth and claws.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Ryan breathed. “I’ve never seen anything move that fast.”

“They’re fast,” I agreed, though I’d never realized they were that fast. It had fucking dodged a bullet! “But I was right. It’s a kehza.”

He slid a narrow-eyed glance to me. “And this information helps us how?”

“Oh, it doesn’t. I think the only way we’re going to wound it is if it gets distracted and one of us is able to shoot it.”

Ryan frowned. “How many shots will it take to kill something like that? Where’s the best place to aim?”

“Well, you won’t be able to kill it,” I said, still scanning anxiously. “It’s not from this plane, so if you deal it a mortal injury, it’ll return to its own plane and re-form there. It … discorporeates.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “Is that really a word?”

I gave a bark of laughter. “It is now. Basically you’re just doing a really harsh dismissal ritual.”

“Well, sending it back to its own plane is good enough for me.” Ryan scowled, scanning the skies. “Otherwise, it looks like we’re trapped here until it decides it’s tired of playing with us.”

I shifted my grip on my gun. “Shit. I can’t figure out what it’s doing. If it really wanted to kill us, we’d be dead.”

“Well, I’m not going to just sit here.” He looked longingly over at my car, which sat so invitingly a mere fifty feet away. It might as well have been a mile. “No chance we can make it to the car, huh?”

“Yeah, right,” I scoffed. “Go for it, tough guy.”

“Well, you did say that one of us needed to distract it.” He smiled without humor.

I scowled at him. He had no idea what we were up against. “No, I said that it needed to be distracted. Not necessarily by one of us.”

He continued to scan the area. “Do you see anyone else here wanting to help?”

My scowl deepened. “You don’t realize how fast these creatures can be.” I rubbed my eyes with my free hand. “This is stupid. You’re right, we can’t afford to be stuck in here. We don’t know if Belle is anywhere near here either.”

“Yeah, I have a bad feeling about that,” he murmured, expression dark.

I let out a shuddering breath. Had the demon already taken her? Then what was it doing attacking us? But it easily could have killed us by now, so maybe it’s just stalling us. I didn’t have any answers. I only knew that I was blowing it again and another victim was going to die. “Cover me,” I said, and before Ryan could form a protest, I took off running toward the car.

I heard the whoosh of air and I dove to the side, not thinking about tactics, just hoping that random evasion would work the best. Wings slammed at me and I went rolling, seeing teeth and claws as a line of fire seared my shoulder. A clawed hand seized my wrist in a grip of iron, then abruptly released me, sending me sprawling. My gun went flying from my hand as I tucked, but I heard gunshots anyway.

An agonized bellow erupted above me. I rolled, scrambling to get my back against the car as I saw the demon hit the ground in a crumpled heap, bright white light streaming from two places in its chest. It shrieked again, pushing up from the ground as the light spread and widened, then it collapsed, the shriek dying into an almost piteous whine.

I pulled myself to my feet and the demon lifted its head shakily, locking eyes with mine.

“Sssummoner,” it said in a weird, hissing croon, then the light flared to blinding levels and I heard the earsplitting crack of a dismissal. When I could see again, the demon was gone, with just the smell of rotting flowers and ozone lingering.

I looked up to see Ryan running toward me, his face a mask of fury. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he yelled, grabbing me by the shoulders and giving me a shake. Then he released me so suddenly I almost fell. “Christ, you’re hurt!” he exclaimed, looking down at blood on his hand.

I blinked at the sudden change from furious to solicitous. As if his words were a switch, my shoulder started to hurt. “Crap. Yeah.” I sighed and craned my head to look at my upper back by my shoulder. “I don’t think it’s bad, though.”

“It’s going to need stitches.” Ryan scowled blackly. “What the fuck was that stunt? That’s not what partners do!”

I hunched my shoulders unconsciously under the verbal barrage. “Sorry. I was thinking that the demon was keeping us there long enough for Belle to be grabbed.”

Ryan swore under his breath again and jammed his fingers through his hair. “Yeah. Okay. But, next time, fucking tell me. I mean, give me some warning other than ‘Cover me!’ I was fucking reloading!”

I winced. “Sorry. I’m not used to this partner thing. You’re right.”

He blew out his breath. “No. No, it’s cool. I’m sorry I yelled. Its full attention was on you, which made it possible for me to shoot it. We need to get you looked at, though, and see if our girl is still here.”

“We’re probably gonna have help in a few minutes,” I said, as I retrieved my gun and holstered it. “I’m sure someone around here will call in the fact that they heard gunfire.”

Ryan scanned the street, then looked back at me. “How are we going to explain this?” he wondered aloud. Then he let out a colorful oath. “You’re bleeding pretty badly. Where’s your radio?” He took me bodily and pushed me down to the curb.

“I’m all right. It just got me with a claw.” Now, as the adrenaline wore off, I was starting to feel it more. I could also feel what would soon be a bruise on my wrist where it had grabbed me. It grabbed me and then let me go. It had what it needed. “Radio’s in the car,” I said. Then I gave a rough laugh. “Good place for it, huh? Though I don’t know how I would have called this one in. ‘Officer needs assistance, under attack from demon.’”

“That would go over well,” he replied dryly. He reached inside the car and grabbed my radio out of the charger and a T-shirt out of my gym bag.

“I need to call something in, quick,” I fretted. “Something to explain why I got hurt and why we fired shots.”

“Got it covered,” he said with a smirk as he lifted the radio. “Agent Kristoff, Dispatch. Unit 723 and myself in foot pursuit of burglary suspects, headed down”—he paused, glancing at the street sign on the corner—“Vaughn Street at Alfred Drive, southbound. Shots have been fired.” He spoke in an unbearably calm voice, eyes on me. Then he lowered the radio, picked up a brick from the gutter, and heaved it through the diner window.

I groaned and dropped my head. “I cannot believe you just did that.”

“You want to tell them we were fighting a demon?”

I shook my head, laughing. “You’d just better hope that there’s no video surveillance on any of the businesses on this street.”

“Oh, shit,” he said, suddenly chagrined. He glanced up and down the street, then relaxed. “I don’t see any. Probably why he chose this spot. Wouldn’t want his demon to get caught on tape.” He gave me a quick grin, then keyed up again. “Agent Kristoff, Dispatch. We’ve discontinued foot pursuit. Officer in need of assistance. Subjects last seen headed southbound.

“Before all the troops arrive,” he said, as the sound of sirens became audible, “can we expect any more of these nasties?” He handed me the radio and pressed the shirt from my gym bag to the bleeding wound on my shoulder.

“Highly doubtful. It’s almost impossible to summon and hold more than one demon at a time.”

He sat down beside me on the curb, holding the shirt to my shoulder. “You know, this kind of sucks ass,” he said, tone jarringly conversational.