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“You leave my beautiful nuts alone.”

“You leave my shoes alone and we’re square. Let’s go visit Delilah.”

I might have my reservations, but Pan was right. If this didn’t go completely ass up, it might be a whole new era for monster hunting.

Ididn’t own a car, but Rainer had a bunch of vintage muscle cars he restored. He let me borrow them when I wanted. Driving and parking near the Quarter was a nightmare, so I tried to avoid it. The entire state was basically a giant swamp, and I also tried to avoid walking in a thunderstorm when it felt like a mouth outside.

Rainer had no problem with me grabbing a set of keys and taking one of his cars and Pan loved car rides. He taught me how to work on cars. It was unspoken that the ’76 Mustang Cobra was mine. I put in all the work on it and dealt with Rainer calling me a damned heathen for adding a computer system to it. I wanted my GPS, hands free calling, and music.

Guys thought their cars got them laid all the time, but my Mustang got me attention from men all the time. Sometimes, I gave it back. And other times, my Hellhound chased men off because he didn’t like any of it.

Hellhounds were pretty much indestructible, but I made Pan buckle in the back seat.

“This is demeaning.”

“You want a car ride, right?”

I slid into the drivers seat and my phone went off playing Reverend Horton Heat’s The Devil is Chasing Me. What the fuck? I picked up my phone and saw a photo of Saul grinning with Pan. That menace didn’t just program his number in. He set a contact photo and ring tone.

Why was he calling instead of texting like a civilized person?

“Hello?”

“Get to the house. Caleb actually did ask his superior about the intel you gave us. The bishop thinks you’re lying to keep us away from the house. Instead of giving us time to gather any information about what’s going on, we’re being ordered to go in now. Caleb and Solomon are getting the holy water and crosses together and then we’re leaving. The house isn’t far from us and with New Orleans traffic, we’ll probably get there before you.”

Motherfucker.

“Stall. If you can’t keep them from leaving, keep them from getting near that house. Did you fuckers really have to do an exorcism when everyone is getting off work? I thought we were going to OSHA your team? You fight the monsters when people are at work, Saul. Working in a cubicle and having to commute is probably Hell, but I’m sure those people would much prefer that than getting eaten by a werewolf or possessed by a demon. And y’all think women don’t think logically.”

“Logan, I agree. The bishop in charge of Venatio Daemonum is an academic. He’s never actually been in the field. If it makes you feel better, none of us like him. I also never said that. I can stall, just get there as fast as you can.”

Saul hung up, and I looked at Pan in the backseat. Fuck me. I never asked him to do this. We were a team. There were times I couldn’t take him with me, but we always did the buddy system on jobs. Pan always told me I could and that it would be an asset if he did, but I never asked. I was debating doing it now.

“You’re going to have to let me go ahead and scout. I can hide in the shadows and not be seen.”

That was the problem. I knew that. Pan was perfectly capable of protecting some priests without them knowing. There was a lot I didn’t know about Hellhounds because Delilah only told Pan. Some of the other demons I knew didn’t think Pan should be pretending to be a regular dog and acting like my pet. Delilah got it and tried to help.

She helped Pan, but I didn’t know if Hellhounds had a weakness. I’d never hurt him and if he ever decided to leave me and go back to Hell, I’d miss him, but I wouldn’t stop him. A demon would know and there were a bunch of them in that house. I wasn’t worried about Pan taking down virtually any supernatural, but I had no idea if demons could hurt him.

“Stop thinking about it. That vein in your forehead is doing that twitchy thing. I’m a hound, Logan. I have better senses than a shifter. I can scent you’re getting sick before you even notice. It’s my job to protect you and you need to let me. I can figure out what we’re dealing with inside that house without alerting anyone inside. And I can stall the priests until you get there too.”

“Motherfucker. These bitches. Pan, don’t let the priests see you’re a Hellhound if they see you at all. We don’t know anything about their lore and their methods are different from ours. They might know how to hurt you or at least trap you again. The demons might too.”

“And you’d stink if you got turned into a werewolf and try to bite me if a vamp turned you. You’re cranky before you have your coffee, but I’m not going to trade you for a demon either.”

“Dick. Make me proud, baby.”

Pan disappeared in a puff of smoke and I started my car. I loved driving this thing, but on the open road when I could enjoy it. Bumper to bumper traffic and moving two inches every thirty minutes while worrying some fuckwad was going to molest my bumper because it was raining wasn’t my idea of a good time.

I put the car into drive and started making my way towards that Airbnb. Hopefully, these stupid priests didn’t end up dead or possessed by a demon before I got there.

Ididn’t need Logan’s permission to leave and go scout. I just never pressed the issue unless the situation was like this because I didn’t want to leave her side. There were plenty of other reasons for that I couldn’t tell her yet, but I was protecting her.

I was kept in a warded cage and half starved by the people who bought me when I was a pup. I wasn’t in the room when they were discussing most of their plans. They’d only tell me what they wanted me to do and promise to feed me if I succeeded.

Logan didn’t know this, but she was the target that night, not her mother. I still didn’t know why, so I hadn’t said anything. Delilah was helping me look into it and other things. I got to that house and scented her in the floorboards. I had no idea what it meant, just that I had to protect her. I killed everyone I could, but someone opened a portal and took her mother. I stood guard and waited. I would have killed anyone else who came in, but I could scent the man who came in was her kin.

She’d be fine in the car until she got here. I didn’t like this. It wasn’t normal for this many demons to get out and supernaturals rarely gathered with people different from them. Even the different types of shifters stuck together. It wasn’t illegal for them to mix or be in relationships with each other, they just rarely did it.