“I don’t know.” I tried not to snap at him; he was helping after all. “Sorry, you just interrupted a flow of thoughts.”

He laughed softly. “I know who and what you are, Rylee. You don’t need to apologize to me.”

From the back seat, Erik let out a grunt and leaned back, lacing his fingers behind his head. “I see why Liam doesn’t like him. Does your friend here act like this around your wolf?”

“Yes.” I rubbed my head. “Is Deanna at the police station?”

“No. She’s out of town, on some sort of druid business.” Will’s hands flexed on the steering wheel and I wondered what kind of business a druid could have. Not that it really mattered unless she was trying to unite her people against me. Which she might very well be with her ridiculous ideas of peace.

“Will she side with us? When the time comes, will she actually fight?”

His eyes slid to mine then back to the road. “I don’t know. I’m trying to bring her around. All the shifters here will, and of course my cats, the destruction, is with you. I don’t have much connection with other supernaturals, which is where Deanna comes in. And she wants this to end peacefully.”

So we had help in the form of Will’s destruction, a pack of cat shape shifters and not much else.

That was exactly what I was worried about.

“She’s an idiot.” I struggled not to cuss his sister out. I wanted to, but I didn’t. How could she be so blind as to not see we needed all the help we could get to fight Orion and his demons?

“All the prophecies I read,” I said, “talk about how Orion will break through, that it is just a matter of when and where. It’s that point we have to take him out.”

Erik leaned forward, putting his arms on the edge of the bench seat. “You mean to let him come through?”

“Shit no. I will stall him as long as I can because we need time to get our own allies together. You saw the ogres. Orion isn’t fucking stupid, though I wish he was. He’s dividing us so I will stand alone, or close to it, when he finally breaks free.” The words were harsh and they were the first time I’d said them out loud. The weight of them wrapped around me and made it hard to breathe. All the prophecies, all the things I’d learned, finally came together in one big swoosh inside my brain. Divide and conquer, that was Orion’s game. And it was working.

“We are in deep shit; I had no idea how bad it was,” Erik said.

“Are you telling me you don’t know this? You don’t know any of the prophecies?” I twisted in my seat, and he shook his head.

“I’m taught how to fight demons, not prophecies. Big difference.”

Will shot a glance at Erik in the rear view mirror. “No history lessons about the creatures you were learning to kill at the academy? My understanding was that it was one of the most important parts of being a Slayer. Learning what had happened, and what was coming.”

Erik’s face paled, and then went bright red. But he said nothing. And I knew then he truly wasn’t trained as a proper Slayer. Fuck, just my luck to get a second rate trainer when it came to saving the world from demons.

Still, he was all I had.

“Lay the fuck off, Will. Unless you suddenly have a degree in demon hunting.”

The two men sat silently and I tucked myself deeper into my seat. There wasn’t anything I could do about Erik. I needed him and every scrap of knowledge he had. I hugged Liam’s clothes to me. His scent wafted up, soothing, and Will wrinkled his nose.

I didn’t care; he could damn well suck it up. I only wished Liam was with me now; just being there would be enough to help with the fears boiling inside my head.

The police station came into view and my anxiety rolled back full force. Last few times I’d been here, things had not gone well. Zombie outbreak, big ass panther guardian trying to kill me, Liam trapped by Milly. Yeah, not much good ever happened here.

Will went in first but I found myself dragging my heels.

“Bad memories? Get locked up as a kid?”

I glanced at Erik and saw he wasn’t teasing, he was serious.

“Bad memories, yes. Locked up as a kid, only once.” I walked forward, not really afraid, more apprehensive. But then, Liam would be inside, waiting for me. Yeah, that helped. I jogged up the steps and opened the door.

Inside, the SOCA agents worked diligently, in fact not one looked up. That was a bit odd. Then I saw Denning. The biggest douche in Britain, if not the world. His eyes flicked to me and I saw the glimmer in them, a flash of red, and something shimmered around him. I squinted, using my second sight, my eyes widening when I saw confirmation of what I suspected. Motherfucker, I would take his head right now.

I straightened my shoulders and strode toward him, loosening my swords. The world seemed to slow as Erik strode behind me, somewhat oblivious. How could he not have seen what I’d seen?

Denning was demon possessed. Which explained why he wanted the world to know about the supernatural—it would only forward Orion’s position.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Will, saw him nod. The asshole kitty cat knew about his boss.

And had brought me here to clean up the mess. Lightning fast anger zipped through my synapses.

I would deal with Will soon enough. Denning saw us, raised an eyebrow and then opened his mouth. I expected him to yell at us, to try and bluff his way out.

Nope, not this time. Black vomit flecked with pieces of what I knew was intestine spewed out of his mouth as the demon broke free of its human prison.

“Come on, bitch!” I wove my blade in the air, making it burn. Prepping it to drive into the demon who pulled himself out of Denning like taking off a Halloween costume.

Slimy with Denning’s remains, the demon unfolded itself, head touching the ceiling. Like a stick bug on steroids the thing was long and gangly, joints all over the place so when it reached to drive a long pointy stick leg through a SOCA agent sitting stunned at her desk, I wasn’t surprised.

“Erik.” I moved to one side, and he flanked the demon on the other.

“It’s a Stick demon. We like to keep it simple. Slow it down by taking its head.”

Sure, that was going to be simple. More and more long, dangerous stick legs unfolded from the fuckers body and I was through waiting. The more legs he had out, the harder he would be to deal with.

I leapt in, swinging both swords, reverberation going through the tough exoskeleton running up my arms and down my spine. The demon didn’t screech, didn’t even moan.