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“Then we did some looking around. Eventually, bones were discovered. Bones with markings. The human pathologists wrote it off as animals. But they weren’t animal bites. Well, not normal animal bites anyway. That along with the height and the skin, and we knew we were onto something. The problem is, no one knows anything. Or, if they do, they aren’t talking.”
“Who is no one?” I asked. “Oh, come on,” I said when she looked away. “What the fuck am I going to do? Tell them to stop talking to the enemy? I don’t give a shit what they do. It doesn’t impact me.”
With a sigh, she nodded.
“We have contacts inside the supernatural community. Some witches, even a few vampires and demons.”
“Why do they talk to you? What’s in it for them?”
“Not dying,” she said, shooting me a smirk. “But the witches and warlocks sometimes just don’t like something one of the creatures is doing, so are just happy to help.”
“But not help with a baby eater?”
“I don’t think the witches are keeping anything from us. I think they just don’t know. The demons? Them I’m not sure about.”
“Have you been to any of the houses or places where the abductions took place?” I asked.
“Not soon enough after one,” Dale said, running a frustrated hand through her hair. “Everything was cold before we got there.”
“So your superiors have you chasing a ghost, but expect you to solve this case in, what, a couple of days?”
“Pretty much.”
“They’ve been out of the field too long.”
“Probably,” Dale agreed. “But this is how it is. And they’re harder on me, so I have to be better than the others.”
“They’re harder on you because you’re a woman.”
It wasn’t a question, but she answered anyway.
“Yeah.”
“You’re not the only female demonslayer.”
“No, but there are only a few. And I’m the only adult one here right now. The others have been dispatched out to other hot zones. So I get the extra scrutiny. And I get to let down all of us when I fuck up.”
“That’s a lot to take on.”
“It is how it is.”
“Dale…”
Her gaze slid to me, and it seemed like she was immediately aware that I could sense the conflicting emotions battling it out inside her body.
“Fine. It sucks. It’s not fair. It is a lot of pressure. And I’m angry about it.”
“That’s probably the first time you’ve been able to say all that,” I observed, watching the way her shoulders relaxed a bit at getting the words out.
“I have a good mentor. He understands how it is and that it isn’t fair.”
“But you can’t complain too much to him either.”
“No,” she agreed.
“Bitch all you want to. You won’t find any sexism here.”
“Right. Because some ancient demon from hell is going to be more progressive than humans. Even those of us with extra powers.”
“This ancient creature from hell has watched you humans for a long time. Sure, the men have always gone off to war. But the women bore the brunt of the burden of everyday life. Raising kids, keeping house, hunting and gathering. Then, later, gardening and preserving. Meanwhile dodging the attentions of other shitty men or invading armies. Women have always had more strength and resilience than they’ve been given credit for.
“Besides, you forget, we have a woman in our club. And she’s every bit as capable as the rest of us.”
“I heard Red is gone,” Dale said, surprising me.
“Where did you hear that?” At her sideways look with a raised brow, I exhaled hard. “Right. Well, she took off after an old friend. We haven’t seen her since. The others, well, they were starting to worry that you…”
“That I what?”
“Not you, the singular. You, the organization.”
“You think we took her?”
“You’re trying to tell me you haven’t taken demons and held them captive like dogs?”
“Are you trying to tell me that we should allow rabid dogs on the street to bite and infect whomever they see fit?”
“Who has Red ever hurt?”
“Oh, our records indicate that Red has done plenty of damage.”
“To fuckheads who had it coming,” I countered. “We don’t hurt humans. We’re generally content to watch them ruin their own lives. And afterlives.”
“Oh, please. Those little parties you throw would make Caligula blush.”
“Please, we give them what they want. Drugs, drinks, music, fucking, and fighting. It’s not our doing that they are wired to like that shit.”
“And, what do you get out of it? Make Devil Daddy proud?”
Devil Daddy.
Christ, this woman.
“Maybe we just like fucking too,” I suggested, watching as her eyes blazed for a second before she banked it down. The problem was, I could practically feel the way her insides warmed at my words.
But there was something else there, too. Just simmering under the surface of her desire.
It was something heated too, but in a different way.
I’d only ever really felt it a handful of times in my long life.
