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“Well, when you put it like that…” He shakily exhaled. “You said we’re on the same side. Are you hunters too?”

“Yeah, we hunt all the time,” Raiden said. “Demons, mostly.”

“A damn human trying to play hero,”Galen told me and Raiden telepathically.“Waste of our time. We should put him to sleep and leave.”

Making people fall asleep was one of our powers. It only required a simple touch to their temple, and they were out like a light.

“Be nice.”I peered up at my big, wrathful brother.“At least he’s trying to help make the world a better place.”

“Smalls has a point,”Raiden said.“See how stacked this dude is too? He obviously has some training. Probably military.”

I studied Mason. Raiden was right. He had the body of someone who spent a lot of time building muscle. He stood at six foot three with bulging biceps and delicious pecs I could see beneath his snug-fitting T-shirt and open coat. His light brown hair was cut short on the sides and slightly longer on top, and his sharp jawline and heavy brow, combined with his stern expression, made him look tough.

Totally hot as hell too. Call me a squirrel because I wanted to climb him like a tree. Maybe gobble up his nuts too.

Mason wiped off the bloody blade of his dagger before sliding it into his inner coat pocket. “Thanks for the assist tonight.”

“Assist?” Galen scoffed. “We did all the work.”

I wanted to chide him for being mean, but my eyelids got super heavy, and my muscles weakened. I swayed on my feet.

“Whoa.” Mason grabbed onto my arms to keep me from falling on my face. “You okay?”

A spark went through me at the contact, and that weird fluttering in my tummy intensified.

“He’s fine.” Galen pulled me away from the human.

“You should let him speak for himself,” Mason responded.

“And you should mind your own fucking business, hunter.”

Slumping against Galen even more, I forced my eyes open. “Someone find Simon before Galen eats the hot human.”

Mason adjusted his stance a bit, eyes on Galen. They both looked ready for a fight. I would’ve sighed if I’d had the energy to do so. Freaking alpha males.

Raiden laughed, the sound cutting through the tension in the air. “All right. I think we all need to take a deep breath. And then eat some pizza. That’s always great after a kill.”

Most dudes wanted sex after a good fight. But not Raiden. He always wanted pizza.

I felt it then, a prickling at the back of my neck. Raiden and Galen felt it too.

“Shades,” Galen said with a growl. “They’re close.”

We had the ability to sense shades. On patrols, it was how we tracked them down. Their scent gave them away—a nauseating rot mixed with ashy char, like a moldy steak left way too long on a grill.

“Shades?” Mason asked.

“Lower-level demons,” Raiden answered. “They’re ugly little bastards too. Kind of hard to see at night ’cause they blend in with the shadows.”

“Do they burn bright orange and turn to ash when you kill them?”

“Yeah. How’d ya know?”

“I hunt them too,” Mason said. “But we—the other hunters and I—call them smokers.”

Galen faced the street. “Well, whatever you want to fucking call them, they’re heading right toward us.” He led me over to the porch and gently pushed me onto the middle step. “Sit right here. This won’t take long.”

“But I wanna help,” I whined.