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Chapter 1

Someone had recently taken a leak in the alley behind the Beaulac Police Departainst the bricks, and the beaht reflected off the rivulets that led to a broader puddle in the center of the alley Some other sort of noxious liquid dripped frole with the piss, and the dregs in a broken beer bottle added onearoma

I carefully picked my way around the various pools of who-knehat as I round behindin ht as silvery-blue shimmers, and completely invisible in normal vision In front ofthe back end of the building, using nothing but the ers and her will

This side was easy The Beaulac Police Depart lots took up most of a block in don Beaulac We’d started with the back-alley end and the south side that held the detective’s parking lot and the entrance to the Investigations Division Those were unoccupied at this tilass doors faced the street, which would only be tricky if anyone driving by happened to see us and wonder ere doing But the north end of the building--the one that held the entrance to the Patrol Division--would be the h there at all hours

For decades, the station had been a brick and chrome example of seventies’ era architecture, but thankfully it had been renovated in the past year to remove the majority of the chroant southern town" feel that the rest of the buildings along the street were striving for Across fro, built well over a hundred years ago and looking overnment facility, complete with massive columns and a broad balcony The rest of the street was taken up with smaller city offices and about half a dozen small shops and restaurants The city had done its best tosodiuhts with sas laly bolted down along the sidewalk, and large planters interspersed between theance was overshadowed by the cheap and tacky Christmas decorations that the city workers put up a few days prior Maybe next year they’d have enough in the budget to buy decorations that didn’t look quite so sickly

Probably only if they cut salaries, I thought sourly As long as they didn’t cut uely leprous

I shifted out of othersight and peered at ht Four am We’d been at this for nearly an hour and were barely halfway around the Beaulac PD building But Eilahn had been adamant that the places I spent the most time should be protected--at least as much as was reasonable She was a syraza, an eleventh-level deifted? loaned?--to me by the demonic lord Rhyzkahl after it had beco in the demon realm wasn’t thrilled about my association with him And Eilahn took her job damn seriously

The wards on my house had been beefed up into intense and powerful protections, with an outer layer of aversions that would hopefully make intruders lose their desire to continue into my home Needless to say it wasn’t practical or desirable to have that sort of thing on the Police Depart Instead, these protections were the sort that would hly difficult for me to be summoned while I was inside them--necessary since so just that

The wards were undetectable by anyone without arcane abilities At least I sure hoped so But even though they couldn’t be seen by the naked eye, the process of laying them down looked pretty damn weird Hence the reason ere out at oh-fuck o’clock in the --after the bars closed and before the sun calance across the street at the dark and closed coffee shop that had recently opened up next to the city ad of a stea coffee cup on theseemed to taunt edback into othersight, I let the sensations wash over ils Even incoainst my senses pleasantly, like a floater overor poorly scribed, I’d feel it like a vibration in the back of my teeth But no, it was clear that this de

"You there!"

I straightened and turned at the ht shone into ht I could see it was sooing on here?" the officer demanded

I lifted a hand to shield ht please? I’m Detective Gillian Who’re you?"

The officer obligingly lowered the flashlight I tried to blink away the spots that noam in my vision "Oh, hey, Kara It’ssoave a small chuckle

I returned the chuckle Luckily we’d already come up with a hopefully believable fiction for ere tro nefarious I was bringing ot away froesture toward Eilahn-- "and I are trying to see if we can find it now that there aren’t a lot of people and cars around to scare it"

His gaze shifted to Eilahn and lingered there I couldn’t really blame him The form she’d taken after I summoned her was female Or, to be more specific, smokin’ hot chick Tall and athletic, with violet eyes and sleek dark hair that flowed past her shoulders, she soed to look Asian, Jewish, Indian, Swedish, and black all at once Right now she was dressed in jeans, low-heeled boots, and a snug-fitting long-sleeved black shirt Yeah, I’d have stared too if it washer I tried not to think about the contrast between us I was about three inches shorter, with boring gray eyes, poker-straight mud-brown hair that was y, I sure as hell didn’t have anything reseot off shift," he said, gaze not leaving Eilahn "I’d be glad to help you look What’s your cat’s nari to help us look for a cat in the ht "Erm, its name is Fuzzykins"

The dee a whit, but I could feel the withering Fuzzykins? That’s the best you can do? as clearly as if we’d shared a telepathic bond Da we didn’t I really wasn’t sure I wanted to knohat she was thinking most of the ti "I love it I’m Tim, by the way," he said to the demon "I don’t think we’ve met"