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“It makes lightning?” Petra asked. “I didn’t see much before it stopped.”
“Yeah. It projects a beam of light that generates lightning. I think it’s intended to strike the demon. And it made her look a little green.”
“Green?” Roger asked.
“Not quite a glow, but a strange tint to her skin. Maybe designed to make her stand out.”
“Very different from the first one,” Roger said.
“Maybe that’s part of the strategy,” I said. “Each defense challenges her in a different way, like looking for a weak spot.”
“There’s millions of dollars of property damage out there,” Gwen said grimly. “They couldn’t have picked a better spot for a lightning rod?”
“We’re within the boundary of the Great Fire,” Petra said. “This area was annihilated. They probably wouldn’t have thought more than a century would pass before it was triggered.”
Gwen nodded. “I know we can’t blame them—they did the best they could with the technology they had and while trying to predict the future.” She looked around, kicked a bit of glass off the curb. “And sometimes getting it very, expensively wrong.”
“Is that what did all this damage?” Roger asked. “The lightning?”
“No,” I said ruefully. “That was mostly Rose.”
“She did this?” Roger asked, awe and horror in his voice.
“Not directly. Chaos demon does chaos,” I said.
“Like the butterfly effect,” Theo said.
“The what?” I asked.
“You know, something minor happens over here, and it makes something big happen over there.” He moved his hands together as he explained. “Throw a rock in the water at Navy Pier and deer turn blue in Sheboygan.”
“That’s not how it works,” Petra said.
“Close enough,” I said. “Her magic is... chaos. Making the improbable happen. A vehicle skids into scaffolding, which damages the building, which begins to fall. It almost makes me miss good, old-fashioned fireballs. Oh,” I said, “what about the panther?”
“Zoo staff are already on scene,” Gwen said. “They’d been tracking it. It really attacked you?”
“Not on purpose, so this shouldn’t be held against it.” I didn’t want it put down because it had “attacked” me, when the attack hadn’t been its fault. “The demon magicked it. Another chain reaction.” I looked at Gwen guiltily. “I had to give up the chase. I was afraid she’d bring down more buildings.”
“Every cop has pulled off a chase,” Gwen said. “Sometimes you have to protect the city and hope you get another chance at the bad guy. I don’t suppose you got a picture?”
“If you’ve seen a picture of Rose, you’ve seen the demon,” I said drily. “Just imagine more lipstick and better clothes. But I bet some of these buildings have camera security, especially with all the bars. Maybe there’s video?”
Gwen gestured to an officer, who understood the implicit instruction and hurried out.
“If she was in this neighborhood to find something,” Roger asked, “did she know the ward was here?”
“If she could feel the first ward,” I said, “I’d think she could feel this one, too.”
“So,” Connor said. “Which came first? The demon or the ward?”
Gwen looked at him. “What do you mean?”
Connor looked at her. “Was the ward in this neighborhood because the Guardians thought she might come here, or was Rose in this neighborhood because of the ward?”
“In other words,” I said, “we’re back to asking what she wanted.”
“I don’t suppose you saw the sigil?” Petra asked.
