“They’d go where the people are. At this time of night, they’d be around the bars and clubs,” Dez continued. “There is a club where many of them hang out. Roth has or had a place above the club. He could take a look around, but I have no idea if a Fallen would go there—if demons can sense what he is or what he’d even do to them.”

Considering that none of the Wardens had any idea where Roth and Layla were currently, I murmured something along the lines of getting Roth to check out this club.

Dez shifted back into his human form as we neared the parked SUV. He pulled on a plain, dark-colored shirt he’d snatched somewhere from the back seat area, and I wondered exactly how many of them he had stowed away.

Then we were off, and I told myself not to get hopeful. Which was pretty much like telling myself not to eat the whole bag of chips.

Even though it was well past most people’s bedtime, there was still traffic, but we reached the ice cream parlor in record time, slowing down for Dez to check the building out. No lights on. No apparent signs of a break-in. My hope took a blow, but that had been a shot in the dark. Ten minutes later, we arrived at our second destination.

The National Mall.

There was a surprising amount of people about for the time of night. Dez remained in his human form as we started walking, and it didn’t take very long before I felt the heavy tingle of awareness along the nape of my neck.

My senses sharpened as I eyed a group huddled under a tree. I couldn’t make out any of their features, but I knew what I was feeling. “There are demons here.”

Dez followed my gaze. “I see them.”

They didn’t seem to notice us as we passed them. “I think they’re Fiends.”

Fiends were lower level demons who were virtually the pranksters of the demon world, the living embodiment of Murphy’s Law. They liked to mess with things, especially electronics. Though I supposed if someone was stuck in a traffic jam because one of them was bored and decided to brush up against several blocks’ worth of streetlights, I guessed some wouldn’t see them as harmless little pranksters.

“I’ll keep an eye on them,” Dez advised.

I glanced up at him. “You don’t want to dispatch them to the fiery rings of Hell?”

He snorted as the wind lifted his hair from his forehead. “If they’re not hurting anyone, I don’t have a beef with them. You?”