A rock fell behind me, and I turned, my welcoming snarl freezing. It wasn’t Al. Heart pounding, I licked my lips and squinted in the reddish glow at the top of a small slump of rubble. “Oh, hey. Hi,” I muttered, seeing the thin, raggedy figure standing belligerently above me, a bent stick in his grip. His bare foot moved, and another rock rolled clunking to where I was sitting.

“Yeah, I see you,” I said as I painfully got to my feet, and then I yelped, ducking when he threw his stick at me.

“Holy mother pus bucket!” I yelled, dancing back as the surface demon jumped from the rubble to land ten feet in front of me. The slump of debris behind him slowly melted into dust and blew away, and a park bench took its place, only to crack and crumble as the demon inched closer.

“Look, home slice, I got no beef with you,” I said as I hobbled backward, tugging my dress down. “I’m simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Give me a minute, and I’ll be out of your hair. Off your turf. Outta your…crib.”

He snarled at me. Honest, what had I ever done to him? But when he picked up his stick and his black-eyed stare went behind me, I had to look.

“Swell, you got brothers,” I said, rising out of my crouch and putting my hands in the air as if giving up.

Bad decision. One of them threw a rock, and I ducked, pulling heavily on the ley line and wincing as a lame-ass circle wobbled into existence. The chunk of concrete hit my bubble inches from my head and slid down, and the surrounding surface demons edged closer. There wasn’t any salt water around to interfere with my magic, but the more heavily I pulled on the broken ley lines, the harder they were to work with, until it felt as if I were trying to hold a cat going boneless and slipping out of my grip.

The surface demons were wincing even as they crept closer, and I wondered if they felt the line I was trying to hold. It was giving me a headache, too. “Let’s all be friends, okay?” I said as I backed up. “I don’t want to be here any more than you want me to.”

I jerked when two more rocks hit the bubble behind me, but a third one got through, and I gasped when my circle fell and the rock hit my shoulder. “Hey!” I exclaimed, popping my circle back into existence as I rubbed my arm. “Look, I’m not a demon, okay? Well, maybe I am, but I’m not like the rest of them. I can walk under the sun.” Wincing, I added, “At least, I used to be able to. Maybe we can come to a mutual understanding. I help you, and you don’t stone me to death.”

The first surface demon raised his stick, yelling, and they ran at me.