He escorted us to the door, and we found ourselves on the sidewalk again, politely but swiftly dismissed.

I turned to Vanzir. He raised his chin slightly, daring me to ask what I wanted to ask. As I glanced around the streets, a cool breeze washed through, and I heard the murmur of whispers caught in it. There were eyes and ears in the night, and not all of them friendly.

“Let’s head out,” I said. “We’ll meet at the bar to discuss what we’ve found.”

Without a word, we split up and drove off, but Carter stuck in my mind for a long time after that.

As we gathered in my office at the Wayfarer, Luke knocked at the door. I motioned everyone to be quiet as I called him in. Werewolves had extraordinary hearing. He didn’t need to find himself privy to what we were discussing. The bar rag hung at a lazy angle over his shoulder, but I could tell he was on edge. He must be feeling the pull of the Moon as she rode toward full, too.

“What’s up?” Luke wasn’t in the habit of interrupting me if he thought I was busy, so something must have happened.

“Trouble, boss.” He motioned toward the front of the bar. “Freedom’s Angels out there, harassing the Faerie Maids.”

Oh shit. The last thing I needed was a group of self-appointed moral watchdogs in my bar hounding my customers. I turned to Camille. “Call Chase and get him over here.” As I followed Luke out to the bar, I could hear the arguments in progress.

There were three of them. They looked a lot like bikers at first glance, but the leather jackets were Value-Mart specials, the blue jeans were new and hadn’t been broken in yet, and the stubble on their faces was about ten hours old. The smell of paper dust and toner and stale office air clung to them like a cloud of old cigar smoke. These men weren’t thugs, but they wanted people to think they were. They might have seen a few scuffles, but I’d bet my right fang that none of them had been in an outright fight. Yet.

The group was hassling two of the Faerie Maids who were drinking at one of the tables up front. The girls might be dressed to attract, but that wasn’t a crime. At least not in my bar. And while the Faerie Maids were notoriously stingy with their orders and were lousy tippers, they were still my regulars.

“Have we got a problem here, gentlemen?” I sauntered up to the trio and insinuated myself between them and the girls. “Because I’d hate to see anybody in my bar feel threatened.”

One of the men—apparently the leader—stepped forward, leaning down so that he was breathing stale beer breath in my face. Apparently they hadn’t heard that a vampire owned the Wayfarer, because otherwise he wouldn’t have been so stupid.

Luke immediately shoved him back, then folded his arms as he stood beside me. I could feel him quivering, and the scent of wolf lingered directly beneath the surface. We were close enough to the full Moon that the stress was taxing him. Werewolves were generally hotheads, anyway. I glanced at him.

“Luke, you need to go home for the night. I can take care of this myself.”

“I’m not leaving you—” His eyes flashed dangerously and began shifting color.

“Yes, you will. I’m your boss; I’m ordering you to go home.” I unmasked my glamour and stared at the werewolf. Luke stared back, but only for a second. I was alpha in the bar. I was his boss.

He lowered his eyes. “Okay, but I don’t like this.” Stalking over to the bar, he slapped the rag on the counter and strode toward the back. I assumed he was leaving by the back exit to avoid bumping into the Freedom’s Angels and setting off a fight. The moment he was out of sight, I turned back to the men.

“What the hell do you want?”

“Listen, little lady, maybe you should think about finding a job somewhere else. Hanging out with this riffraff can’t be good for your . . .” He stopped and gave me the once-over. “Wait, did you say you’re the owner?” With a glance at the others, he shook his head. “No, that can’t be right. I heard the owner is a—”

I opened my mouth, letting my fangs extend, and gave him a wickedly gleeful grin. “What? A vampire, perhaps? You got that right, bud. Now what the fuck do you want in my bar, and why are you bothering these women? Or do I even need to ask?”

Mr. Tough Guy straightened his shoulders and stuck his thumbs through the belt loops on his jeans, giving me a patronizing look. “You’re a vampire? But you’re just an ittybitty thing. We’re here to stake a claim for the Earthborn and lead the stray sheep back to clarity. This is our city and our world, and we’re determined to keep it that way.”

“Holy crap. Do you really believe the garbage you’re spouting?” Camille’s voice echoed from the door to my office, and I realized that Luke had clued them in on what was going down.

“I can take care of this,” I said, but before I could say another word, Rozurial and Vanzir were flanking me, with Morio, Camille, and Delilah spreading out to form a semicircle.

“Got an idea,” I said, jabbing my finger into the leader’s chest and sending him stumbling back against his buddies with one tiny shove. “You get your sorry asses out of here before I throw you out. And if I ever see you near my bar again, I’ll have you arrested. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll pay a visit to you in the middle of the night when you’re asleep and make sure you leave my bar alone.”

Eyes wide, he and his buddies backed up. His voice took on a threatening tone. “You are a freak. You and all your kind. And we don’t like freaks.”

“And I don’t like repeat offenders,” Chase said as he stepped through the door with two officers at his back. “Toby, I’ve told you before, you’re crossing the line, and you’re going to end up in jail.”

I glanced over at Chase. “Toby?”

“Toby and the boys here work for White Castle Insurers. They apparently haven’t thought through what being arrested for a hate crime can do to their employment histories.” Chase was calm and collected as he swiftly nodded for me to step back. “I can take it from here. Let’s keep this all on the right side of the law.”

Oh, he was good, I thought, watching as his men shuffled the suddenly complacent trio out the door. Chase turned back at the door. “By the way, Turnabout Willy showed up, safe and sound. He was off visiting his sister.” As the door swung shut behind him, I retracted my fangs and turned to the others.

“Thanks for the backup. I had to send Luke home—”

“Yeah, he was a stone’s throw away from shifting,” Delilah said. “It was so strong in his aura I almost changed over myself. As it is, I have a strong desire to shift into panther form and go maul those idiots.”

“Idiots? Maybe,” I said. “But remember, members of that group have killed before, and they’ll do it again.”

“There are more dangerous anti-Fae groups than the Freedom’s Angels,” Vanzir said. “They might not be as flashy, but the League for Untainted Humanity is far more deadly. Nobody’s ever managed to prove it, though. I’ve got a few friends who keep an eye on them.”

I turned to Vanzir. Once again, he surprised me. “Just how many demon friends do you have over here?”

He blinked. He couldn’t refuse to answer direct questions, thanks to the soul binder that had merged with his body during the Ritual of Subjugation.

“I don’t know off the top of my head, but at least fifty to sixty. Nobody knows how many are in the network. The double blind is for everyone’s protection,” he added, his eyes flashing. He did not want to tell me this—that much was apparent.

“Network? What network?” Camille frowned. “I thought you just knew a few demons who were hanging out over here.”

Vanzir let out a low hiss. “All right, I’ll tell you, but it could get me killed if I’m not careful, just so you know. I’ve stumbled onto a network of demons who’ve managed to get themselves Earthside. They’ve been working in concert against Shadow Wing. A resistance is slowly growing, but they can’t stay in the Subterranean Realms. The danger is too great.”

While we already knew some demons objected to Shadow Wing’s plans, we hadn’t known they were setting up an active resistance. But this was not the place to discuss the Demonkin, nor much else, if we wanted it kept secret.

Just then Chase came back through the door. “They shouldn’t bother you anymore. If they do, just give me a call. Those three are relatively harmless, but there are others who aren’t. Just keep your eyes peeled for a while,” he said. “I’ve got to get some sleep. I’ve been on duty eighteen hours, and I need a break. What are you doing?”

Camille broke in. “I think we’re headed back to Harold’s. I was looking over the reports Carter gave us, and it looks like a great deal of demonic activity has been centered around that house over the past eighty years. Evidence of Demon Gate spells have been found a number of times.”

I grimaced. “Great. Demons R Us.”

“That’s about the size of it,” she said, twisting a curl of her hair. “Chase, would you have one of your men look through your records to find out the number of women who’ve gone missing around that area over the past fifty years or more? Anybody who was last seen walking in the area, headed toward the area, who never made it to her destination?”

Chase nodded. “Will do,” he said. “Be careful.”

Delilah moved forward and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. “We promise,” she said. “Go home and sleep.”

As the detective headed into the night, I looked at the others. “I guess it’s come down to this. We’ve run out of options. We have to go back in that place and see what we can find.”

There was nothing more to say. I told Chrysandra to watch the bar for the rest of the night, and we took off, back to the home of Dante’s Hellions.

CHAPTER 24

As we headed back to Harold’s place, I glanced at the sky. The Moon Mother was nearing full, and we had to take care of things tonight. Otherwise, Camille and Delilah would be helpless. Not to mention, the full Moon brought with her so much power for Fae and Supes that it would attract the Karsetii back through the Demon Gate. I was sure of it. I usually didn’t have premonitions, but this I knew.

“When we get there, we sneak in the way Delilah and I did before, but we all go. We can’t take any chances. Delilah and I heard a lot of voices in there, and we need all the bodies we can get on our side. If they catch us, well . . . it’s not like that hasn’t happened before. We’ll deal with it when it happens.”

On the way to Harold’s for the second time in as many nights, I worried. It was one thing when we were going up against the demons themselves, but these were humans, easy to kill, easy to harm, and easy to bring the wrath of the community down on our heads if we made any mistakes.

Just what were we going to tell Harold’s parents if we had to take him out? Mr. and Mrs. Young, I know this sounds shocking, but your son was the leader of a demonic cult who’s been kidnapping and murdering Fae women. Even if we could prove it, I had my doubts that they’d be on our side, given what we’d just learned about the history of the house. It sounded like Dante’s Hellions had been around a long, long time.

Our run-in with the Freedom’s Angels hadn’t helped my mood any. Right now, I wasn’t feeling all too charitable toward my mother’s side of the family tree. Demons, I could deal with. Ghouls and wights and beasties that went bump in the night—all occupational hazards. But evil seemed too conniving in humans—too easy to hide, too easy to put a facade over.

We parked a few houses down and slid through the shadows. The lights were still on; it was barely eleven P.M., but we didn’t have time to wait. The yard was empty except for a big-assed van. The boys were out, or they were summoning up another demonic playmate or hooked up to their computers playing War World or one of the other online games.

Apparently they hadn’t discovered that we’d infiltrated their underground labyrinth, because the entrance looked the same as it had the night before. Once again, Delilah picked the padlock, and I took the lead, motioning for Roz to fall in behind me, then Delilah, Camille, Morio, and lastly—watching our backs—Vanzir.

We climbed down the ladder, then followed the tunnels, silently creeping through the dim passage, retracing our route. The only sounds were the distant rise and fall of voices, the sounds of small creatures creeping through the dark—rats and cockroaches and shrews—as they crossed through the shadowy passage, surrounded by the compact walls of earth.

There was a feel to the night that only those of us who routinely lived under the Moon could fully grasp. A sense of camaraderie. We were the silent partners of the world, the lurkers who went about life with the veil of secrecy forever shrouding our footsteps. Those who lived by the day were noisy, their actions visible in the light. Unfortunately, the night not only sheltered the mystical creatures but also the dregs: the serial killers and rapists and those who specialized in shooting others in the back.

We made it to the door that led into the underground complex. I held a finger to my lips, motioning for the others to stop fidgeting. Pressing my ear against the door, I listened. At first, all I could hear were the shallow breaths of the others behind me, but then, as I focused my attention, their breathing dropped away. I could still hear the rats and cockroaches, but they, too, disappeared as I narrowed my attention further.

And then, there it was: the low chanting again, coming from the distance. Only it was deeper than before, more concentrated. I needed Camille to see if she could sense any magical energy coming from it, but for that, we’d have to enter the complex itself. I listened again for the sound of anybody lurking on the other side but could sense nothing.