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“Fine!” I said, slowing down a bit though not wanting to admit that he might be right. But I knew I was being a jerk. I was getting too caught up in the excitement of it, and I was being careless. Now was not the time to get hurt in a stupid way. Plenty of time later to get hurt in non-stupid ways.
Vaughn Street was about half a mile away from the outreach center, though the general quality of the neighborhood was the same. I’d come through here the night after speaking with Tio, handing out pictures and doing my best to encourage people who shunned the police to help me with my investigation.
There was no one in front of the diner when we pulled up—not a huge surprise since it was after three in the morning. Even the drug addicts and prostitutes usually found a place to sleep by this hour. I got out of the car, scanning the area, listening for any sign of others. The stores were all closed and dark, and even the diner was silent, with a hand-lettered sign in the window that announced that they opened at six a.m. The waxing moon reflected off the store windows in mute reminder of how much time we had left to find the killer.
Ryan exited the car, closing his door softly, as did I. “We might be early,” he said, voice low.
“Or she might be watching us from somewhere,” I said, scanning. “I told her to stay out of sight until she saw us.” The back of my neck prickled. Someone was definitely watching us. My intuition told me that much. The whisper of arcane brushed me again, and goose bumps sprang up on my skin.
“Something’s wrong,” I whispered. Ryan looked at me, frowning. I eased my gun from my holster, pulse beginning to quicken. Every small sound or scrape seemed preternaturally loud. Out of my peripheral vision I could see Ryan pulling his gun as well.
“I feel it too,” he said, voice almost too low to hear.
The piercing shriek from above gave me barely enough warning to throw myself to the side.
“Ryan! Demon! Take cover,” I managed to yell, even as leathery wings buffeted me, knocking me sprawling. I kept hold of my gun, though, and rolled quickly to my back as I tried to see where the creature had gone. It was a demon, that much I knew, but there’d been no chance to see what manner of demon I was up against. A higher demon wouldn’t have given itself away, I thought frantically. But it had wings, so it had to be at least seventh level. With any luck it was merely a kehza.
Merely. Ha. I couldn’t see a damn thing, nor could I hear the beating of wings, though I knew that the creature was strong and fast and, if it was diving, there was no guarantee I would get a warning the next time. I scrabbled back toward the doorway of the diner, wanting something solid at my back. I swore under my breath. Heavy metal gates across the glass front doors barred any hope of escape in that direction. But at least I was in a slight alcove, which meant that the demon couldn’t dive down on me. Unfortunately, I was also cornered.
“Ryan!” I called. “Are you all right?”
I heard him curse, then he came around the side of the alley and sprinted to me, crouched low, gun in his hand and eyes wide. But, to his credit, he didn’t look panicked. He just looked like a man who had believed in something for a long time but had finally been presented with unavoidable evidence that it was real, whether he wanted it to be or not.
He reached the alcove and huddled up in the sparse cover, scanning the area. “I’m all right. Where is it?”
“I can’t tell. I’m hoping it’s a kehza, a seventh-level demon.”
“Are they easier to kill?”
I gave a humorless laugh. “Sure, the way Everest is easier to climb than K2. All demons are incredibly fast and deadly, but if it was a twelfth-level we’d have serious problems.”
Ryan opened his mouth to speak again, but an inhuman shriek interrupted him. The demon suddenly dropped down in front of us, snarling around a mouthful of jagged teeth and grabbing at us with clawed hands. I let out a startled yelp and fired twice. The demon shifted with a speed that was otherworldly, somehow evading the projectiles, then leaped back into the air, leaving behind a sour-sweet smell like rotting flowers.
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.”
