“All you need to do is hold the inner protection circle against all creation,” Pierce said, his blue eyes sharp with an old anger at the reluctance of uptight women. “You don’t need to sully yourself—we’ll do that.”

I dropped my bubble so Pierce could join us, and he took a symbolic step forward. He knew the spell I wanted to use. “My outer circle won’t hold him long. Pierce, you’ll have to be quick in the casting. If he breaks it, the curse will incinerate half of Vegas.”

Ivy looked scared. “Get it right, witches.”

“’Scuse me,” Pierce said with a grunt, throwing another ball of goo at Ku’Sox.

This time, Ku’Sox absorbed it, the black mass dissolving in a cascade of sparkles. He had mastered the countercurse. We had to work fast. “I’m of a mind to see if you’re as grand as you think you are,” Pierce said to me, and I smirked back.

“Same here,” I said, exhilarated even as I was scared to death. “Okay! Let’s do this!”

“Look out!” Vivian shouted, and I jerked as Ku’Sox backhanded Pierce into Ivy. They slid across the floor in a tangle of arms and legs, the spell that Pierce had begun fizzling in a sparkle of green and red. Crap! When had he gotten that close?

“Hey!” I shouted as Ku’Sox wrapped an arm around my neck and started dragging me away. I struggled, trying to break his hold as he headed for the door. Shit, shit, shit! I could still make the outer protection circle, but I wasn’t ready to sacrifice myself to get rid of Ku’Sox. But then I remembered him tearing that woman’s throat out and her silent screams as she tried to breathe. Burning would be better than that. I think.

“You have the nicest hair,” Ku’Sox said as he yanked me up and I felt him touch behind my ear. I stiffened when he ran his nose down my neck, and my breath sucked in as he found the vamp toxins sunk deep in my tissues. “Ohhh, you’re flawed,” he murmured. “How delightful.”

“Oh shit,” I whispered, scrambling for anything to slow us down.

“Shit,” Ku’Sox said speculatively, and he loosened his grip until my heels dragged on the floor again. “I’ve heard that several times now. Is that the word of choice? I do so like all-encompassing words. Verb, adjective, noun. Yes, you are shitted.”

My heels thumped as he dragged me backward. “You’d better let me go!” I cried, reaching out to grab a post. Ku’Sox yanked me off it, pulling me another foot until I snagged a table. I wouldn’t let go, and the added weight slowed him down even more. We were almost to the door, and I could hear radio chatter and yelling people in the street.

“You know why my brethren didn’t kill me?” Ku’Sox said as the table I was dragging hit a post and we stopped. “They couldn’t. Even Newt, and she tried. They made me special, the wonder child of the future, now our ignoble past, designed to bridge the gap between demons and witches and bring us back into the sun, able to walk in reality and the ever-after both, and all of us capable of holding as much energy as a female.” He hesitated, yanking me until my grip slipped and we moved forward again. “You can understand why male demons might want to fix that unfair quirk of nature. I think I turned out quite nicely, don’t you?”