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“Do you require anything, Binder?” The de me

From behind him, Butch padded into view He tended not to wantadventures like this one I picked him up for a cuddle and he rested in the crook ofmy cheek

“Were you worried aboutfirst, not the demon

Affirmative yap

“Things are pretty fucked up, huh Any advice?”

Another yes yap

“Want

The dog wagged so hard he alle bark Yes

“I guess I do need so,” I answered the I ended up?”

While I had a better athame, it would break riht since they survived the explosion at the store They were, literally, all I had left of her That old T-shirt of hers, along with everything else I owned, went in the firebomb

“I’ll fetch it for you” On returning, Greydusk handed me Chance’s pack, and went on, “With your permission, I’ll pursue some leads on my own There are sources I dare not trust in your actual presence but who ht be moved to part with information”

“Are we safe here?”

The Iainst most would-be intruders Don’t answer the door Don’t invite anyone in”

“That ht it was only for vampires”

Greydusk flashed a ends take their lore from us It does, indeed, matter to the Dohan, the Drinkers”

Drinkers There was no question it h to say, C’mon in and crack open so, I understood why the deainst the obvious

“Go on I’ll be careful,” I promised

Once he left, I felt relieved I didn’t want a witness to s were too weird even for deside the scrambled tiles He pawed at the the letters with his tiny paws When he finished, I read:

Theres a bad spirit in you

Hmm “Do you mean the demon queen?” He had been in the rooifts, but who knew if Butch had been paying attention?

Positive yap

“Could you see her in ine I would be used to this by now

Two barks equaled no

“So co Awesome”

He went to work on the tiles again New

My blood chilled “When? If I use deick?”

All the time

Every ained over e all the ti helplessly in my own head Likely the demons had known—or at least suspected—it would co to wreck the natural order? They only had to geth, they won

There was nothing I could do about it now, though

“Thanks for the warning, bud” My expressionuntil I picked him up

Then he licked ot i motions, and then scratched behind his ears, which he loved He forgot he was supposed to be consolingnot to look too far down the dark path ahead of me When I stopped, Butch stepped off , he knew I had work to do

I put away the letter tiles and then applied myself to the next order of business I hoped Chance would brood for a while Once I started handling Shannon’s things, well, any wild emotional reactions I preferred to keep to nity I had left I didn’t brace hard; I just wrapped es coh to pull me in

Instead, it showed a fleeting ht, like a sunny day at the beach Shannon leaned over the sink in Jesse’s bathroom in one of his shirts As she brushed her teeth, he came up behind her and wrapped his ar The toothbrush clattered to the sink and I lost the thread

Nothing that can helpthe from earlier

Next, I tried the clothing, but there was nothing Likeith Shan’s laptop It wasn’t the sort of personal possession that lent itself to euilt aside, I ski to feel closer to her I wanted to knohat I’d missed about her life these past months Pretty quickly, I formed a picture

Chuch and Eva had helped her find a place while they rebuilt One of his otten a job selling clothes at the ht, she studied for her GED, and teeks ago, she’d passed the test She had an e- her In her DOWNLOADS folder I found a couple of PDFs froe One contained fee info and the other was an admissions application