Fear was a cascade of sparkles through me, and I shuddered as my toes touched the earth. “Uh, can we talk?” I managed, and the man smiled wider. His teeth were flat and blocky, like Al’s, and very white.

“Can we talk?” he echoed softly, looking at me in a not-so-nice way. “Perhaps. Hel-l-lo-o-o,” he drawled. “Nice to meet you, little red-haired witch.”

“Let me out, Vivian!” Jenks shrilled, and I tried to see them.

“Don’t you dare…,” I managed, then looked back to Ku’Sox as the grip around my throat shifted to my shoulders and my heels touched the pavement. I could breathe freely again, and my gaze was fixed on the man…demon…Ku’Sox. Washed-out, pale blue eyes flicked behind me, then back.

“I don’t know who you are,” I said boldly, his long, narrow fingers pinching my shoulder, “but you need to leave.”

“Brave,” he said, and I punched him in the gut when he tried to tuck me under his arm.

I didn’t know what my fist connected with, but he dropped me. I got a gasp of breath in, and then the pavement hit me hard. The chalk was still in my hand, and I refused to open it. Ku’Sox’s slippers were inches from my eyes, and my knuckles were bleeding, scraped open when I fell. I still had my chalk. Damn it, I still had my chalk.

I could hear Ivy yelling at Vivian, and I prayed she’d keep her circle closed. “Let me handle this!” I warned everyone, pulling my head up to see Ivy ready to throw Vivian into her own circle and risk all their lives. “Please,” I begged Ivy, and with a pained expression, she let Vivian go. The coven witch hit the car and slid to the pavement, shaken. Trent was a silent observer, and Jenks…

I looked away. Jenks was beside himself.

Ku’Sox only laughed, but he looked cross as he felt his ribs. “You’ll be my first in a long time,” he said, bending down to look at me with his hands on his knees. “Do you have anything in particular you’re not fond of?”

“Shove it up your ass,” I panted.

Ku’Sox straightened. “Lady’s choice,” he said, then reached for my shoulder.

“Owwww!” I howled as he flooded me with energy. Pissed, I rose up under his hand, shocking the hell out of him as I spindled the force and flung it right back at him. “Knock it off!” I shouted as he staggered back, his silver clothes seeming to shift to black in the sun.

Ku’Sox caught his balance eight feet away and blinked, amazement on his thin face. “Who the hell are you, witch who dresses like a man?”

I took a breath to tell him to screw himself, my words going unsaid as my head seemed to explode. Gasping, I fell to my knees. He was in my head. Oh, God, he was in my head! I was seeing snatches of my life with him standing in the shadows: an orderly at the hospital when I was thirteen, his blue eyes mocking my pain as my dad lay dying; then he was at camp on the horse behind mine; then he was at the park, walking the dog I’d seen when I’d made the deal with Al. He hadn’t been at any of those places in reality, but now, as I lived it again, he was there, learning everything, missing nothing.