Page 78 of Cold Curses

He worked his jaw, as if trying to dislodge an unpleasant taste. “You bring a warrant?”

“In process,” Theo said. “But you’ll want to talk to us.”

He extended his screen, which showed a picture of one of the demons he’d managed to photograph.

Dante paused, then gestured to his minions to give him room. He stepped forward, studied the image.

“There are a dozen more just like this,” Theo said. “All dead and left in a field. We know you put them there.”

Dante looked genuinely surprised—and then angry. “I didn’t put anyone there. I’ve been here.”

Theo glanced blandly at the other demons. “Powerful guy like you has people to do the work for him.”

Dante ran a hand over his slicked-back hair. “I wouldn’t kill my people.”

That confirmed one suspicion.

“I want to see them,” he said.

“They’re gone,” Theo confirmed. “Left in place only long enough for us to get a look, and then destroyed.”

There was only fury in Dante’s gaze now. Magic was a whisper around us, pungent and prickly.

“What did your minions fight over today?” I asked. “What part of Chicago is the upstart trying to take? Where are her headquarters? Tell us who she is,” I said, “and we’ll bring her in.”

Frustration, or at least that’s what I thought it was, curled Dante’s lip. “I’ve already told you, I don’t have a name.”

“Then give us a state,” Theo said. “If she’s not from Chicago, where is she from?”

“California,” he said.

“Where in California?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“We found your note to Buckley in the hand of one of the dead demons. It said you’d be taking back what Buckley took from you. So, what did he take? And where is he now?”

Dante looked confused now, uncertain. As if unnerved by his uncertainty, his minions glanced around, shifted on their feet.

“Who had the note?” Dante asked.

I described the demon who’d held it. “He’s gone now. Turned to ash like the others.”

Dante stepped closer to us, which was entirely too close. I shoved Theo behind me.

“You’re lying,” Dante said.

“About what? We obviously didn’t make up the note; you haven’t denied it.” I cocked my head. “So, what did Buckley take from you? Money? Things? People? Did he steal from you in New York and run to Chicago?” I thought of the property records Petra had found. “He bought that condo, what, five years ago? So, maybe that’s when he set up shop here. Was it with your money? And being a demon, you couldn’t follow him. But now you’re here, so you decided to take back whatever it was. And had to punish him a little, right, by blowing up the warehouse?”

Dante’s eyes glowed yellow with anger, the color bright enough to leave spots in my vision.

Then he murmured something in a language I didn’t understand, the sounds short and harsh and full of power. I took a step backward and closer to Theo as magic began to pool at our feet, a gray-green miasma.

Stay down,I reminded monster.And do not collect demon magic. It hurts me, which hurts you.

“Stop using magic,” I said aloud to Dante, my voice as hard as I could manage. “We are sworn Ombuds, and if you hurt us, you won’t survive the night.”

“I don’t have to hurt you,” he said. “I just have to let you hurt yourselves.”