“I don’t know, but it has to be the same guy as before,” she whispered back, our voices now drowned out by the roaring buzz of conversation that filled the night air. “The, um, body was in the same position. And her throat was cut like the others.” Suddenly, she seemed to notice I stood alone. “Where the hell is your demon?”

“I don’t know,” I replied. “He got an alert on his watch and vanished just before…”

Serena’s eyes narrowed. “Just before the murder? Mia.”

I pressed my lips together. “It looks really bad, but I don’t think it was him.”

“Why not? It makes sense.”

“I don’t know. It’s just…a feeling I have. I can’t explain it. Trust me, I’ve had my doubts and my questions. But every time I wonder if it’s him, it just doesn’t fit right. It’s like a puzzle piece that doesn’t fit the gap.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know it doesn’t, but I don’t know how else to explain it.” I glanced around. Half of the roof had emptied now. No one wanted to stick around at a party where people got murdered.

The distant sound of sirens blared through the night air. They were drawing closer. My stomach dropped, and I latched onto Serena’s arm. “The cops are coming.”

She nodded. “Someone must have called them.”

“Don’t you have, like, supernatural cops or something?” My voice was rising as the panic clawed at my gut. I couldn’t help myself. Rational thought rarely stuck around when my old fears rose up from the ash.

“Not really,” she admitted. “We should. They’re going to want to speak to everyone at this party, and there are things they aren’t going to understand.”

“I can’t be here, Serena,” I breathed. “If I talk to them, they’ll look me up, and they’ll find a way to blame this on me. A girl, our age, dead, at a party? The media will get ahold of it. It will be my senior year of college all over again!”

“Okay, calm down.” Serena glanced over her shoulder at the crowded hallway that led to the elevators. Everyone else heard the sirens and had similar thoughts. I tried not to think about what that meant. I wasn’t the only one here running from the cops. “We’ll get you out of here before they arrive. Dammit, Asmodeus, where the hell did you go?”

“I don’t think we have time to find him,” I whispered, my stomach twisting into knots. “I can’t stay here, Serena. I won’t go through all that again. I can’t.”