Levi tightened his grip on Noose’s handle, ignoring the squirming of the recently captured and handcuffed possessed guy that had done a number on Cary. He grabbed a cigarette from the pack in his shirt pocket, lit it, and took a deep drag as a warm breeze blew through the back street. The scary part was that the night wasn’t even over.

His gaze shifted to Cary, who studied the ground alongside her, staring at empty space. There was nothing there, just her, him, and the two jumper demons; one was still trapped by Noose.

Cary scratched her head before glancing up, her expression a mixture of confusion and fear. “Still sucking on your cancer sticks?” she asked.

“If something’s gotta kill me. I’d rather it be the cigarettes than these things.” He tipped his chin at the dark mist fizzling up and pouring out of the possessed man’s body.

The black miasma shriveled out of existence, morphing into fast flying moths. Levi batted them away. They exploded into dust. “Disgusting insects.”

After retracting Noose from around the man’s head, he moved him to the sidewalk next to the other possessed guy. Together, they slumped against the brick wall. Levi then seized the pebble from the street and offered it to Cary.

She took it and shoved it into her pocket without a word. He expected a remark or a reaction, but nothing. Something was up with her. Silence and distance replaced her usually flirty and snappy personality.

“You all right?” he asked.

“Yeah. I swear those two were waiting for us.” She didn’t move from her spot near the store front, but kept glancing at the space next to her. What was she staring at?

He scanned the sidewalk, the shadows, and both sides of the road. Nothing. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

She snapped her attention back to him and half smiled. “Yeah.”

Levi was startled by a loud sound coming from an adjacent street. He jerked around to find a white car zipping past. Exhaling, he unclenched his fists and thought about how he couldn’t wait for this shit night to end.

Four beasts. That was a new record.

He pushed strands of hair off his face and tucked Noose on his belt. The demon he’d just fought insisted Levi was going to Hell with him. People couldn’t physically be taken into hell, so what was it going on about?

And when the possessed man had Cary pinned against the wall, Levi had heard him snarl, “I know what you are.”

Was that why Cary had freaked out? Demons knew what hunters were, but not usually who they were. Surely, the one attacking Cary lied. (The fuckers did excel at lying.) But Cary knew that, so why was she letting it get to her?

She stepped closer and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. Blood smeared across her cheek.

“My place is close. We’ll get you cleaned up,” he said.

“I’m fine. Just a small bump and a bloody nose. I’ll survive.” Crouching low, Cary checked the man’s pulse. “He’s alive.”

“The other’s alive, too.” Levi glanced over at the older guy propped up against the wall. “Look, I've seen you exhausted before, but never like this. Let me get you off the streets.” Maybe then she'd open up.

“I’ll call paramedics,” she said, “but we should leave. Not in the mood for questions. From you or them.”

“Yeah, all right. Our names will end up on two hospital reports tonight already, and it's too complicated to explain how we just happened to stumble across several unconscious men on the same night.” He smiled at her. “Talk about suspicious activity.”

Cary’s hands quivered by her side, her posture wavered. She shifted closer but tripped over her own foot and stumbled forward. Levi lunged forward to catch her.

Her hands shot up as a barrier between them, and he halted.

“What’s going on with you?” He glanced at the sidewalk around her, curious about what she was staring at. The pavement? “Did you hit your head, hard?”

When she glanced up at him, Levi saw the fear behind her eyes. She offered him a wary smile, reminding him how close she had come to death tonight. The idea of never seeing her smile or hearing her soft voice stung.

Losing her would be unbearable, and the built-up rage from the fight still burned through his veins. For the past few months, he’d blinded himself to how much Cary meant to him, and now it slapped him in the face. She always had this effect on him, even if she pushed him away. He should have gone and seen her in Detroit instead of hiding in Ann Arbor.

What if she got hurt or worse? Marcos was dead. A memory shoved forward in Levi’s mind: Marcos attacking him with the kitchen knife. Marcos sneering, growling. It confused Levi at first, but he had no time to think. “Act fast and shoot him” seemed like the only option at the time.

Afterward, the putrid demon had expelled itself from his friend’s body, and Levi didn't know what any of it meant.

He was tossed into a juvie psych-ward while the police processed the forensic evidence with the speed of snails on holiday. Weeks later, he was cleared of suspicion of murder... only because they couldn’t prove it wasn’t self-defense. After a few months, Argos showed up, helped him understand what demons were, and warned him to keep his mouth shut about what he’d seen. They trained him in demon hunting, and Levi would have sworn they were the good guys, until he learned the truth.

Once Argos hired him, everything changed. He dropped out of school and started hunting demons. He’d been determined to avenge his best friend’s senseless death, and he wasn’t willing to let anything stop him. Not then.

And if Cary was a target, certainly not now.

Her voice snapped his attention back to the present. “Shall we head off?”

He nodded, pulled out his phone, and made a quick call to 911.

With his arm snaked around Cary’s waist, he drew her near, but she nudged him away and started walking. “I can manage on my own,” she said. “I’m not that hurt.” She pulled away from him and stumbled a few feet before catching her balance.

He was all too aware of the physical reaction his body had around her. Speeding pulse, sexual overdrive tightening his pants… Yet it was more than that. Every fiber in his body demanded he protect her and prevent what happened to Marcos.

Plus, if he was to ever choose a partner in the hunting business, he'd pick Cary. He was confident in her hunting abilities. Except tonight, Cary’s behavior worried him. She pushed him away more than usual—and shut him out. If something scared her, he had to help her. Whatever it took.

“You can barely stand on your feet.” In the distance, sirens wailed. “Let’s get going,” he suggested, wrapping an arm around her lower back. He was eager to get off the streets and keep Cary safe. Plus, the heat of summer was stifling, or was it the strangeness of the night dominating him?

She staggered up the sidewalk out of his hold, again.

He bit down the words backing up in his mind, gritted his teeth, and sprinted after her.

Be calm. “Maybe I care what happens to you,” he said when he reached her side. “You can talk to me about anything.”

She released a long breath and kept her gaze straight ahead. “Thanks. I know.”

He took her response as a step forward to making progress, though her detachment burrowed a hole through his heart. At the end of the street, they swung right as a warm wind collided into them. Behind them, ambulance lights flashed on the road. “Can I make a suggestion?” Levi asked. “Rather than using martial arts, try a hard punch to the nose, chin, or temple. Then lasso them.”

“That’s not my thing. I do fine my way.”

“Right. You’re just bleeding for the fun of it?”

“Back off, all right.” She faced him. With a hand holding her nose to stop the bleeding, her voice resembled a muffled chipmunk, and yet she still managed to give him a go-to-Hell look. “Stop telling me shit about how I should do things. I’ve been doing this most of my life and I’m still alive. You might have been some hot-shot demon hunter at Argos, but it doesn’t make you Mr. Know-It-All. So, fuck off.”

Despite the anger marbling her words, his first reaction told him to lean in and draw her into a hug for no reason other than to wrestle the anger from her system. Well, he had saved her once tonight, so his system must work. “I’m only looking out for you.” He reached for her.

She spun on her heels and quickened her pace down the path.

He should have kept his trap shut, except he’d never be able to live with himself if she got hurt when he could have prevented it. Cary could do the job, but it bugged him that she insisted on hunting in a round-about way. Despite having met her several months ago, he cared for her more than he should. Something about her stubbornness and the way she worried for innocents reminded him of Marcos.

Ahead, she swung left onto a side street packed with apartments. His side street. She wanted to go back to his place, whether she admitted it or not. Levi jogged ahead a few steps so he could get there just before she did. He fished out the keys and unlocked the front door, opened it.

“After you.” He swept an arm out across the entrance.

As she passed him, a half smile slipped across her lips. Levi wondered for a moment and then realized what was bothering him.

She’d never been to his place before, but she knew exactly where it was.