Trent leaned toward Vivian. “I don’t see any other way of getting to Seattle in time other than taking 95,” he said softly, his anger just in check.

“I said I’d get you there,” I said, watching Pierce eye two women in shorts, his ears turning red. “Have some faith in the people you ask to protect you.”

Feeling a hint from my last words, Trent leaned back, giving Pierce a good view of the female vamps making out in the corner.

His back against the cushions, Trent unrolled his silverware and arranged it perfectly with stiff motions. “I’ve seen how you protect people. Telling me to have faith isn’t inspiring.”

Oh, but summoning day-walking, soul-eating demons is?

Pierce pulled his eyes from the vamps long enough to snort his agreement, and my face flamed. “Have I ever not come through?”

Trent fingered his knife. “No, but your collateral damage is generally more than I want to pay—Morgan.”

This from the man I had to save by going into a partnership with a demon? I frowned; Pierce looked happy for the first time since he’d gotten here. “And what’s on your mind, demon bait?” I snapped at him. “Enjoying the show?”

Immediately Pierce’s smile shifted to a frown. “I could have killed Al if not for you,” he said, and Vivian started.

“You almost killed a demon?” she asked, eyebrows going high in interest. Her attention flicked from the two women to me and back to him. “Her demon?”

“Aye,” he said, glancing at me darkly. “She stopped me.”

“Who’s going to protect me in the ever-after if not Al!” I said, fumbling my words as suddenly everyone at the table was looking at me like I’d killed Bambi’s mother. “Al is the only thing between me and Newt, or worse! You look at me and think I’ve got this all under control, and I don’t!”

Trent smiled as he moved his nearly empty glass of beer just so. “That’s not what I see when I look at you.”

“Me neither,” Pierce said under his breath, and may God strike me dead if the two men didn’t start to bond.

“What I meant,” I said patiently, feeling like the butt of a joke, “is you think that I’m safe with them, but I’m not. If Al dies, I’m up crap creek.”

Pierce spooned a piece of ice out of his drink. “Not my problem,” he said, teeth clattering against it.

My jaw dropped. “Hey! You were the one who went to him with some stupid idea to be his familiar just so you could kill him.”

“It’s a capital fine idea,” Pierce said indignantly, glaring at me from under his hat. “And it would have worked if not for you.”

Vivian leaned closer. “You tried to kill a demon?”

“I almost made a fist of it, yes,” Pierce said, his features still holding his anger at me. “It was the only reason I did tuck with them, and I opine that if the truth were known, then the coven might have to apologize for burying me alive, and they wouldn’t want to do that, would they?”