Page 4 of Fool Me Twice

Roma’s moment of elation shatters. “You’re welcome,” she snaps to empty air, and she takes off towards the summoner, her ax back at the ready. JJ jerks away in shock at her approach, but she determinedly ignores him, ducking between his and Chester’s twin offenses just like she used to during training sessions‍?—

Her ax slices down the summoner’s torso. He quickly goes ashen and crumples to the ground, his magic dying along with him, and all at once, the cacophony around Lakeside drops by a few decibels.

Roma looks from the neophyte demons‍—now evenmorefrightened and erratic without their summoner‍—to Bryant’s nonplussed expression to the shell-shocked men on either side of her and resists the urge to scrub her hand down her face.

All she wanted was some poutine, damn it.

Ez warily eyes the three anxious demons in front of her, giving the winged spider a particularly wide berth as it nervously swings its legs around. “Well, this isn’t ideal.”

“It never is,” Obie agrees, and he pulls out his phone. “I’ll call Maggie. She’s always been the best at calming down neophytes, and she can bring them straight to the Education Department to register them. Cass, you and JJ should probably make yourselves scarce before she gets here, since you’re technically fugitives and all. Where’s Desi?”

“I rifted her home and told her to protect her dragon plushies. She should be fine for a little while, but I don’t like to leave her alone for more than‍—‍” Abruptly, Cass goes rigid, his eyes widening.

Frowning, Ez turns around to follow his gaze. The summoner is collapsed in a bloody heap on the grass, as expected, and in a small semicircle around him are Roma Gutierrez, Chester Locke‍?—

And JJ, who’s backing away from the two hunters with tense shoulders and an unreadable expression.

“I’ve got him,” Ez says quickly, and before Cass can argue, she snaps open a rift to transport herself across Lakeside, stepping through to JJ’s side. “Let’s go, Jackson. We’re calling in the big guns to deal with the neophytes.”

JJ flashes her a grateful look. “Thanks,” he says quietly, and he shifts towards her‍?—

Just as Roma steps forward, a hard glint in her eyes. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Chester and I killed the summoner. Those demons are ours.”

Ez’s temper spikes. “This isn’tfinders keepers,Gutierrez. These are actualliveswe’re dealing with, and there’s no way we’re letting Blondie over here take them home and torture them.”

Chester’s flinch at the words is all the confirmation Ez needs that she didn’t mistake his identity. Definitely the same interrogator from the Sanctum’s prison who refused to tell them where Cass was being held last month. Her dislike of both him and Roma ticks up a few notches.

Roma doesn’t back down. “Us against you? I like our chances.”

Before Ez can even begin to react to that laughable statement‍—or just blast Roma away with magic like the gnat she is‍—JJ suddenly puts himself between them. “Stand down, Gutierrez,” he says, a low thread of danger in his voice as he shifts his grip on his escrima. “This isn’t a battle you want to fight.”

Roma and Chester both stiffen. “So that’s how it is now?” Roma demands, eyes narrowed. “We’re enemies?”

JJ doesn’t move. “I don’t want to be. Just‍—just leave them alone. Leave my friends alone.”

Ez doesn’t know whether to be touched or roll her eyes. “As heartwarming as this is,” she says, putting two fingers on JJ’s shoulder and nudging him aside, “we have nothing to worry about. Maggie Khan is on her way to transport the neophytes to the Chain, and she’s one of the few demons alive who intimidatesme,so I’d love to see the Sanctum even try to cross her. Let’s get out of here.”

For a long moment, JJ stares Roma and Chester down. Roma just looks bitter and angry, like she’s still pissy that she didn’t manage to kidnap him two weeks ago, but Chester‍?—

Chester looks more sad and worried than anything else. So Ez supposes it isn’t entirely surprising that, when she waves open a new rift to take her and JJ home, Chester unexpectedly steps forward, grabbing JJ’s arm. “JJ,wait‍?—‍”

JJ jerks away so fast that he stumbles into Ez, gasping in pain. On his bare forearm, right where Chester’s hand was,angry red blisters are already erupting, cracked and bloody and oozing.

Corrosion burns. Ez’s stomach plummets. Sanctum hunters have a lot of enchantments baked into their bones‍—enhanced senses, increased speed, superhuman strength‍—but the most infamous one is a spell that makes their skin physically caustic to demons, leaving excruciating burns after even fleeting touches.

Now that JJ is half-demon, he has that weakness, too.

Roma and Chester both reel away, eyes wide and horrified. “Thehell?”Chester stammers, staring at JJ’s arm. “JJ‍?—‍”

Roma’s voice, quiet and disgusted and a little bit sad, cuts through Chester’s. “What did theydoto you?” she asks, her accusing eyes snapping to Ez.

Before Ez can retort, a rift peels open between her and JJ. Cass stalks out of it and grabs his boyfriend’s arm, pulling JJ behind him. “What didwedo to him?” he hisses. “What didyoudo to him? Gutierrez here tried to kidnap him, Lockecut him openon orders from the Council‍—JJ is safer with us than he ever was with you sociopaths.”

Roma bristles.“You‍?—‍”

“Guys.” Ez almost jumps when Obie appears between them. He definitely didn’t rift over‍—she would’ve noticed the magic‍—but he apparently walked up so silently that no one even noticed him. His hands are shoved casually in his pockets, but his shoulders are stiff and his voice is flat. “This is neither the time nor the place to make a scene. We’re in a civilian area that’s crawling with witnesses. We all need to disappear.”

Automatically, Ez glances around. Maggie Khan is currently coaxing the three terrified neophytes into standing down and not lashing out at everything in sight; Bryant Nehemiah still has an arrow nocked and held at the ready like she’s not sure whether to attack the newly summoned demons, Ez’s posse, orboth; the civilians are starting to poke their heads out from their various hiding places, sensing that the danger is nearly over‍?—

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