“I did not!” I said indignantly. “I did not do one thing to resist arrest. If I had, I wouldn’t have been arrested! Where’s Captain Edden?” But as the vampire continued to smile at me, I was starting to have doubts. I hadn’t done anything wrong except fudge a little on why I was down here, but once you went into I.S. custody, they could make you sit in a room for over a day before they had to charge or release you.

And here I stood, my magic gone because I played by the rules. I could almost hear Al laughing at me, telling me I deserved to be locked up if I expected a demon to get a fair shake.

“Cormel wants to talk to you,” the vampire whispered.

“Back up, fang breath,” I said, and his nasty smile faltered because he hadn’t scared me. The reality, though, was a little different. Cormel? Great. He wouldn’t accept that this was madness. I couldn’t help him, and even if I could, I wouldn’t.

“You’re making a mistake,” I said softly, gaze flicking to Ivy being hauled up from the pavement, sullen and angry.

The vampire looked back at her. I didn’t like the way his lips curled in satisfaction. “Cormel wants you to fix this. Give him his soul.”

“And be blamed for it when he commits suncide?” I snarled. It was starting to thin out this side of the barrier, though it would probably be at least an hour before traffic would be allowed to resume.

“That way,” the vampire said, shoving me into motion. My mother was behind me, and Ivy in front. The I.S. van was dead ahead, and I wasn’t going to get into it. Once you went into the I.S. tower, the law didn’t seem to matter anymore. And they are afraid of demons? I asked myself, heart pounding. What did they know that I didn’t?

“He wants his soul,” the vampire said, pinching my shoulder as he pushed me along. “You either get it for him, or Ivy dies.”

My pulse raced. I looked at Ivy, then the van. I tensed to do something, spinning when Edden’s voice echoed out, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing, Uric? These are my people!”

My knees almost gave way, and the vampire, Uric apparently, stopped, hands scrabbling to catch me as he suddenly had my entire weight to hold. “Edden,” I breathed. “Thank God.”

Uric hauled me back up, and the entire group of us came to a halt, mere steps from the I.S. van. “Since when?” he said boldly, and I jerked when he twisted the band around my wrist to make it hurt. “She can’t work for you. She’s Inderland.”