She pulled into the parking lot of a community center and found a spot. A guy got out of his car a few rows back and joined her, and they began walking toward the community center.

I parked my car on the road where I could keep an eye on anyone arriving. Another woman walked past the entrance to the community center, checked her surroundings, and then backtracked, ducking into the entrance. Smooth.

I called Samael. “Any luck with the IP address?”

“We’ve found six humans who were connected to the attack on my security.”

“Yeah, well I’ve found a few more. You wanna help a girl out and send some demons?”

“Now you want my help?”

“I’m only one woman. I don’t want to shoot them all, which leaves me with a few options.”

“And where is Vas?”

The demon appeared next to my car, a wide grin on his face. I jolted. “Standing next to me.”

“If I do this, you will owe me.”

“You know what? Forget it.”

I hung up, ignoring my phone as he rang back. Samael would loathe being hung up on. Served him right.

I couldn’t find a parking spot, so I flicked my hazard lights on and double parked like an asshole.

Then I skedaddled to the other side of the street and crouched behind a car.

“What are you doing?” Vas asked.

“Shh, get down. I want to see how many of them turn up, and if they see me, they’ll run.”

Vas sighed but crouched next to me. Then he sniffed. “You know, you’re starting to smell like Samael,” he said.

“Not the time, bro.”

A quick grin, and then he leaned forward. We both peered around the side of the car.

“I can barely see anything,” I complained. “Holy shit, I know that guy.”

“What?”

“You do too. That’s Gas Station Bob!” Vas looked at me blankly. “I knew there was something familiar about the guy in the picture Steve sent through. He’s the manager of the gas station in Brightleaf— the one where–”

“Tarel’s body was left. The humans were spelled.”

“Yeah. The witches used a mass spell of forgetting, and Bob was pissed. Pissed and terrified, which, as we can see, is a terrible combination.”

We both watched silently, but it didn’t seem as if anyone else was coming.

“Not gonna lie, I wish we’d had a chance to visit Hannah. A look-away spell would be real handy right now.”

Vas sneered at me, and we both got to our feet.

“They’ve put Bob on the door. Makes sense, since he’s wearing that fucking belt.” That meant there was a pretty high chance either Bob, or someone he was close with was the one shooting at me in Merrill’s store.

“I’ll take him out,” Vas said.

“I don’t think so.”