The door clicked and opened, and Officer Lucy Thornton came in with two styrofoam containers stacked in her hands. Amber thought about reverting, then decided to stay as she was.

“Chow time,” Lucy announced, passing them their lunch. She didn’t blink at Amber’s appearance.

“You know about demons,” Amber said.

Lucy cracked a smile. “We’re hard to find, but they do find us.”

“We’re not here to cause trouble,” said Milo. “There’s something about this town, though – it stops certain types of people from entering. Do you know how?”

“I’m paid to do my job,” said Lucy. “And right now that means giving our prisoners their lunch.”

“We’re not the bad guys,” said Amber.

“Maybe,” Lucy replied. “Maybe not. But here in Desolation Hill we have a zero-tolerance policy as far as strange demons and other supernatural phenomena go. If we see it and we don’t like it, we get rid of it.”

“It’s not only demons you have to worry about,” Amber said, pressing her face to the bars as Lucy walked off. “The guy we were arrested with, he was a serial killer. There’s more on their way. We can help you.”

Lucy opened the heavy door, but turned before she stepped out. “We deal with serial killers all the time,” she said. “We deal with demons and murderers and even vampires every once in a while. We are, as far as I know, the only police force in the world that deals with these kind of things on a regular basis, and we’re very good at our jobs. You two really did pick the last place on Earth that a demon would ever want to end up. Seriously.”

Then she was gone.

Chapter 20

KELLY AND LINDA HAD lunch in the small dining room in the motel. Their waiter, Kenneth, was also their cook, and he was also on duty at the front desk. He wasn’t a very good waiter, and wasn’t a very good cook, but Kelly wanted to believe he was wonderful at checking people in.

“Still thinking of going vegan, are you?” Linda asked as she watched Kelly pick at her food.

“Meat’s never held sway over me, you know that,” Kelly replied. “But how do I exist in a world without scrambled eggs? How do I do that?”

“Unhappily, I’d imagine.”

“Yes,” said Kelly, jabbing at the air with her fork. “Unhappily indeed. I’m gonna need support, you know. I’m gonna need someone there to make sure I’m sticking to vegan principles of … whatever the hell vegan principles are.”

“Warrick would be good at that.”

“Warrick thinks a vegan is an alien on Star Trek.”

“Ronnie then,” said Linda.

“Ronnie’s way too practical. Most of what we eat is junk food by necessity. He’d only tell me to eat what’s available. Picky eaters are hungry eaters. He actually said that to me once.”