No one said anything, the silence broken by a stifled laugh from the rafters. I looked up, but the pixies had hidden themselves.

“Guess what she’s doing tonight?” Jenks said, leaving me to escort a quickly retreating David and Howard to the door. “Making a list of people who want to kill her, followed by ways to detect demon summoning.”

“She told me.” David retied his coat closed and headed for the door. “Don’t forget to put Nick on there.”

“Got him,” I said, flopping into my chair and scowling at Ivy. She chased David away almost every time. “Thanks, Jenks,” I shot at the pixy, but he wasn’t listening as he opened the door for David and rose up out of the cold draft.

David turned at the threshold. Behind him, Howard was heading down the steps to an unfamiliar station wagon. Parked by the curb was David’s gray sports car. “’Bye, Rachel,” David said, the light over the door glinting on his black hair. “Call me tomorrow if I don’t see you. Summoning demons usually results in a claim or two being filed. When I get back to the office, I’ll see if anything unusual has come in.”

My eyebrows rose, and I made a mental note to add insurance claims to the list. David worked at one of the largest on-paper insurance companies in the United States and had access to just about everything, given time. Actually, maybe I’d call Glenn at the FIB to see if they had any complaints recently. They kept great records to compensate for their utter lack of Inderlander talents.

“Thanks, I’ll do that,” I said as David followed his old partner out and shut the door.

Ivy frowned at the dark foyer, sipping her drink as one foot bobbed up and down. Seeing me track the motion, she forced it still. I jumped at the high-pitched burst of noise from my desk, eyes widening as four streaks of silver raced out from it and into the back of the church. A crash brought me around in my seat, and I wondered what had just fallen off the overhead rack in the kitchen.

And so it begins….

“Jack!” came Matalina’s shrill cry, and she zipped out of the desk after them. Jenks intercepted her, and the two had a rapid high-pitched discussion in the hallway punctuated by bursts of ultrasonic sound that made my head hurt.

“Honey,” Jenks coaxed when she slowed enough that we could hear them again. “Boys will be boys. I’ll talk to them and make them apologize.”

“What if they had done that when your cat came in!” she shrilled. “What then?”

“But they didn’t,” he soothed. “They waited until she was secure.”