“I’m in.” I dug a dollar from my pocket—part of my remaining laundry money—and handed it to Reese, who winked at me. Normally, I wouldn’t have voluntarily parted with a single dime of my hard-earned pay, but considering that the exorcists had fed me, protected me, and saved my life twice in less than a day, a dollar seemed like the least I owed them.

Reese caught my gaze as he stuffed the crumpled bills into his front left pocket. “Your turn. You ready?”

I frowned. “Do I have to…?” I mimed snatching a demon from the air overhead, and Devi laughed again.

“If you ever get that good, I’ll eat my own underwear.”

“Make it Reese’s shorts, and you’ve got a bet.” Finn slid his arm around my waist, and warmth grew in my cheeks in spite of chills both from the cold and from the sound of the degenerates bearing down on us.

“Heads up!” Reese shouted before Devi could reply, and by the time I swung my gaze skyward, Finn was already pulling me out of the way.

Another degenerate landed where I’d stood an instant earlier, catlike on stretched limbs and clawlike fingers. Her bare feet were too long, and what remained of her hair hung in her face, half hiding mad eyes too murky to be any color other than black. Her skin had once been dark, and maybe smooth, but now it was ashen and mottled, and it clung to her mutated bones.

And this one smelled. Sweat and dirt and foul fluids matted the filthy dress to her torso, and I was glad to see the cloth was mostly intact.

Then I was horrified to see that her dress was actually a Church cassock, maybe originally pale blue. This demon had once been a teacher.

So much for faith protecting the faithful.

She snarled at me, and Devi shoved me forward. I stumbled to within three feet of the monster, and Finn cursed Devi behind me, but this time he didn’t pull me back. They were going to let me take this one. Or maybe they were going to let this one take me.

“Breathe,” Finn whispered. “Your body knows what to do.”

Yeah, well, my head didn’t. My special exorcist hand didn’t seem to be in the know either.

The degenerate crawled toward me on her hands and feet, each motion eerily smooth in spite of limbs that no longer seemed to fit her body and joints that cracked with every movement.

Devi heaved a dramatic huff. “Just do it alr—” Then something hit the pavement behind me, and I heard her and Finn struggling with what was hopefully the third and last degenerate in the advance wave.

“They’re fine,” Reese said from my degenerate’s other side. “You focus on this one.”