The demon grunted, but continued forward like she wasn’t even attached to him. He grabbed Alexander and threw him up and over the Volvo to land on the pavement on the other side. He landed with a sick-sounding thump and didn’t move.

Melanie stood her ground, her eyes wide. She inserted herself between the demon and her daughter, who sat pale and staring in the passenger seat of the SUV.

Isabelle tightened her grip on the demon’s neck, squeezing until she wanted to cry out from the effort, but the demon barely noticed her. She sank her teeth into the demon’s ear, but quickly remembered the acidic blood and released it. Instead, she coursed magick up through her chest and down her arms, willing the water in the thing’s body to boil.

Please boil, she prayed to the Lord and the Lady. Please.

This time she got a reaction, though it wasn’t the one she’d been looking for. The demon backed up fast and hard against the Volvo. Isabelle’s back made impact and her breath crushed out of her. Exploding pain clouded her vision white for a moment. Her grip faltered and she fell to the pavement at the thing’s feet.

The demon just continued on as though he’d swatted a gnat.

As soon as she was clear, Adam and Thomas attacked. From her left came a pulse of power. The air sizzled as Adam threw a fireball at the demon, followed quickly by a rush of solid, powerful earth magick that felt as deep and wide as the Grand Canyon.

The demon blocked the fireball with one hand, extinguishing it, but Thomas’s bolt rocked him to the right a little. That much magick would kill a witch or a non-magickal, but it only made the demon stumble.

The creature turned and shot alien magick at them. Thomas threw a barrier up in front of himself and Adam just in time, but the blast still made them stagger backward. The air rippled with the backlash of power. Oddly, it felt like earth magick, though the blast held that same dry-bitter dirt scent, the scent of demon.

Boyle turned back to Melanie. “I’ve come for your daughter, not you,” he said in a deep, smooth voice with just a trace of a strange, inhuman accent. “Stand aside.”

“The hell you’re taking Katie!” Melanie pushed her palms against the demon’s chest and funneled all her power through her hands.

Earth magick pulsed. Isabelle’s ears popped and her mouth went dry with the taste of dust. The demon staggered backward, then gripped Melanie and threw her over the Volvo to land near Simon.