Page 34 of Wayward Daughter

“Sometimes, they do. They are strong with super powers, but they are very flammable. The new vampire apparently has arson problems and they don’t want to go near him. The Ninth Ward is a mix of humans, the Flame, and supernaturals and the humans know the truth. This vampire is hunting humans and burning things.”

He had that in common with Logan. I could tell she enjoyed burning that house down. It was strangely erotic. I dreamed about it for days. I knew now she wasn’t bewitching my dreams with magic. It was all me.

Caleb dialed William. He told him about the vampire and made it seem like this big heroic job that we couldn’t take because we had a lead on breaking his curse. I held my breath, but William agreed to take the job.

Thanks to Saul’s petty theft, we knew exactly when he left because we could track his phone. William didn’t do nearly as much research as we did before we went on jobs, but I realized we didn’t do half the research Logan and the Flame did.

“Amateurs,” Logan muttered as we watched them head towards the vampire.

“You can’t take the Mustang this time. The giant is too big,” Rainer said.

“You bitches are cramping my style, but I love you anyway.”

“We’ve got an SUV.”

“Gross.”

“Delilah is going to meet you there. She’s a family friend and a demon, so the rest of you be nice.”

I was still getting used to that—the idea of good demons. She had helped us so far and Logan said she helped her and Pan as well. I could be civil and I wasn’t completely unreasonable. I believed in what I couldn’t see, but I believed what I saw too.

Caleb programmed the address into his GPS, but Logan stopped him.

“That’s going to take you through lunch traffic. I know short cuts. Go to the end of the street and take a left.”

Driving in New Orleans wasn’t my favorite. There were all these one-way streets and aggressive drivers. Logan flipped some man off when he refused to let Caleb merge, but we eventually made it to where we needed to go. Logan had us park down the street like there was ample street parking available.

She kissed Pan on the head.

“Go have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“What do we do now?” Saul asked.

“We wait. Pan is going to scout ahead. They portalled away from the house when I set it on fire, so it’s possible they’ve managed to bring more people in William didn’t see. There was also a gap between them escaping and William getting here, so more demons could be inside.”

Huh. That was handy. We didn’t have much information on Hellhounds. It was written they were mindless killing machines and agents of Satan, but there was so much we didn’t know. Pan could communicate telepathically from a distance. He let us know it was just the demons and one witch inside and they were fighting. He also let us know it was safe to approach the house because his magic had negated the witch’s ward. He could also use his magic from the shadows to circle the house with salt.

That just left us and our spray paint. Pan said this must be the blood witch’s house. If I hadn’t known a blood witch was living here, I would have suspected meth was being cooked inside. The yard was blighted, the paint was peeling, and the windows that weren’t broken with a board over them had been painted black.

I was still worried about separating. I knew every last one of us was trained for this, even if that training might be different. I wasn’t being a sexist and only worrying about Logan because she was a woman. We were all in danger. We were up against magic and we were all human. I used to think our talismans and faith was enough, but then Caleb was hexed.

“Be safe, everyone,” I said.

“Hellhound perks, Solomon. Pan was trained by Delilah, who isn’t here yet. His shadows can cloak us too, but whoever finishes their sigil first is going to alert the demons, so paint fast. If someone is too slow, it won’t close the loop. Witches and demons can both summon wind to blow away the salt. It doesn’t have to be pretty or perfect, it just has to be finished. It’s a lot easier when it’s just one demon because you can just paint one big sigil and have Pan chase them into it. Sometimes, you crashed my job and acted like you knew better after I’d already had them contained.”

Which would actually come in handy because I had to throw holy water at them to distract them while Saul knocked them out so we could tie them up. If we hadn’t spent so long demonizing the Flame, we could have learned so much from them. Of course, you had to be willing to learn, and I knew plenty of people who just didn’t want to.

I hadn’t known Logan long. I knew of her and I’d been dreaming about her for ages. But I actually trusted her more than some of the other priests in Venatio Daemonum. I was listening now, and I believed her that Pan could hide us.

I still crept up to that house like I could be seen. I did it quickly since we needed to get the sigils finished as synced as possible. I got to the side of the house. The windows were completely boarded up on this side, but I stayed away from them. I started the circle part of the sigil.

And then the nozzle jammed and the can stopped spraying.

Icould paint this sigil in my sleep. Rainer didn’t make me write lines as punishment. If I mouthed off, I had to write pages of sigils. It was annoying at the time, but it had saved my life more than once. The one to trap demons was just three interlocking triangles in a circle. It didn’t have to be precise and was pretty easy to throw down with a can of spray paint.

I did mine a little slower than usual because three other people had to paint theirs and as soon as one was finished, the demons inside would know.

“Ladies and gentle bitches, please do not panic, but Solomon’s spray paint can is clogged. Whoever is closest needs to get over there and get the sigil painted. This house smells like burnt hair and body odor, but I’ll go in and make sure they can’t come out. Stay away from windows.”