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He nodded, laid her down carefully, and quickly rushed out of the bar.

I turned back to the possessed man, doing my best to stay calm. “Who are you?”

“Your worst nightmare,” he said.

I couldn’t help it; I snorted. “First, that was embarrassingly unoriginal, and second, my nightmares are a lot worse than a creep like you.”

“You want to play with me?” he asked. “I wonder if your insides are as pretty as your outsides?” He rushed me again, and this time he was shoved back by the salt barrier.

It’d hold him for a little while, but we couldn’t hang out in this bar indefinitely. The cops were coming, for one thing.

“Where did you come from?” I tried again.

He moved forward, as close as he could, and I held my ground, my blade gripped tight in my hand while I reminded myself that the face this monster was wearing wasn’t his own. This was some poor, unsuspecting human. He could have a wife or kids at home.

Killing had to be the last resort.

A crash came from the back of the bar, and I turned as Ren, in his fox form, my bag gripped in his mouth, rushed in. He made a chuffing sound, a warning.

“The cops?”

He yipped.

Shit.

He dropped the bag and I scooped it up, my heart racing. There wasn’t time for this. It took time to mix the oils, to get in the zone, to prepare the room. My hands started to shake.

I was failing.

I was failing my family, and I was failing this man and the women the fucker possessing him had murdered.

The door crashed open, a gust of wind rushing in as an officer charged through it. A section of the salt circle was swept away, and the spirit charged me. Ren jumped up, flying at him. The man grabbed him by the ruff and flung him hard across the room. The cop fired off a shot, and the man dropped, the bullet hitting him in the shoulder.

Something hit me, an energy like forked lightning carried on molten wind, knocking me off my feet. I landed hard on the ground.

The cop was shoved aside by invisible hands, his shoulder hitting the wall, knocking him down as well.

The man screamed suddenly, his eyes wide and filled with horror, staring at the blood on his hands. The agonized cries he made as he scooped up one of the dead women lifted the hair on the back of my neck.

“What have I done?” he choked out in horror. “Why…why did I do this?”

The spirit had exited his body, leaving him with the living purgatory of remembering everything he’d done while he was possessed.

The cop by the door wasn’t moving, but there were more police coming. And there was nothing I could do—for either of them.

I needed to get out of there now.

I ran to Ren. He was too big for me to lift and far too heavy. He may be a fox, but he was a shifter, which meant he was a lot bigger than one in the wild.

“Can you walk?”

He nodded, and we rushed out the back, ducking into an office when more police busted down the back door and ran into the bar. As soon as the coast was clear, we quickly left, sticking to the shadows in the parking lot. Pulling a scarf from my satchel, I tied it around Ren’s neck and hoped like hell he’d pass for a dog. Just a random woman walking her dog at night.

We made it back to the truck, skirting the crowds gathering, and Ren jumped into the front with a yelp of pain. I fired the Morris to life and got the hell out of there before the street was cordoned off and we were stuck. Ren shifted back into his human form and opened the glove compartment where he kept a spare pair of shorts and slid them on.

I glanced over at him. “Okay?”

He nodded, but said nothing. He wasn’t okay. And I wasn’t just talking about the horrible gash in his side. He should be with a witch who could give him what he needed. The witch I used to be, full of fun and laughter. Having adventures that didn’t involve him having a woman die in his arms and being attacked by a man possessed by an evil spirit.