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“You don’t think…” Tanner began.

Darien merged into the farthest left lane, Ivy and Jack doing the same behind him. “You bet I fucking do.”

They needed to stop here anyway to charge their vehicles, so taking a look at what had caused these multiple casualties would be worth their time, especially now that Darien had heard the cops make a connection to their home city.

Darien took the eastern road into Paradisi—a sprawling, desert metropolis protected by a forcefield and walls. He’d hoped to evade the traffic jam, but the roads eventually connected, causing the vehicles to bottleneck once more.

There was a collection of cars with flashing blue and red lights parked just ahead, a few cops directing traffic. Darien caught sight of a brawny warlock standing among them, the badge on his plain black jacket glinting.

Well, isn’t this a coincidence? he thought.

He turned in his seat, unbuckling his belt to reach his hat on the floor.

Joyce was awake now, though still groggy. She passed the sports hat to him. “Here.”

He put it on and lowered his window, whistling sharply to get the attention of the warlock—the Head Detective of Angelthene’s Magical Protections Unit.

Finn Solace turned, looking mildly surprised at the sight of Darien beckoning him to his truck. He excused himself from the group and jogged over.

As soon as he was in earshot, Darien spoke. “What are you doing here?” he demanded. “And make it quick.”

“I was called in to take a look at a security breach. A demon killed several people before escaping into the sewer system. They asked for my help in identifying it because…” The look in Finn’s eyes became guarded, his voice tapering off.

“Finn,” Darien warned.

He sighed. “Because they thought it looked just like the monsters that were in Angelthene during the Blood Moon.”

Shit.

Tanner prompted, “Was it the same?”

Finn sighed. “Yes.” He studied Darien, his eyes briefly flicking to Jack and Ivy in the car behind him. “What are you doing here?”

“Just passing through.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, but from the way Finn nodded, Darien understood that the detective knew it wasn’t the full truth.

He would accept it without prodding for more. Darien had blacklisted Finn after he’d lied to him about Gaven, so trusting Finn again wasn’t something Darien was willing to do just yet—maybe even ever. Darien had taken some time to think through Finn’s actions these past few days, and although he understood his motivations, he didn’t like liars—especially not when those lies put the safety of his family and friends on the line.

Darien inched the truck along, Ivy and Jack following on his tail.

Finn walked alongside the truck. “Listen, if you have any pointers for how my team can handle this thing if it shows up again—”

“I don’t,” Darien said. “They’re hard to kill.”

“But you’ve done it before,” Finn insisted, still walking beside the truck. Night had thickened, and the city glimmered with lights, LED lamps flaring to full brightness.

“Right,” Darien said, “I’ve done it before.” Seeing the desolate look on Finn’s face, Darien added, “My best suggestion is to stay away from those things. If your men see one, tell them to run the other fucking way.”

“Running isn’t something we encourage in the MPU.” Horns blared as Darien held up traffic.

“Then you’ll have to find yourself a new team because your old one will be dead in seconds.” Traffic started to move quicker. Darien added, “Find out where it got in and reinforce the spells.” He stepped on the accelerator, leaving Finn behind.

Finn cupped his hands over his mouth. “It materialized in a hardware store!” he called.

Darien flicked the button on his window, rolling it up. He drove into the city, not wanting to acknowledge what that meant, but knowing full well that it was exactly as he feared.

The monster had materialized inside the city. Which meant it hadn’t come from Angelthene—it was new.

Darien leaned against the driver’s door of his truck and watched the needle on the energy gauge of the cristala charging station tick upward.