Page 26 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

“It appears as if one of Lev’s people left a cage unlocked and at least one kraken escaped.”

Lev? Who’s Lev?Luc apparently sensed my confusion as he turned his head toward me to say, “Leviathan,” before turning back to the demon. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He pressed his fingertips to his forehead, taking in a long, cleansing breath, or it could’ve been a suffering sigh, given the situation. The two sounded so similar, it was kind of hard to tell. But Luc looked at me again. “Stay here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

I shooed him off. “Not to worry. Tell Lev I said ‘hi.’”

Both men looked at me like I had just gone round the bend and I got the distinct feeling that Lev wasn’t nearly as personable as Luc.

“Or not,” I mumbled, but neither of them heard me, as they’d both already left the office. Still, it couldn’t have worked out better for me. I gave Luc plenty of time to forget I existed, which equaled about another five minutes, before I said, “I don’t want them to see me.” Just as before, my body faded from view. I watched myself starting with my feet become invisible, but it was like I could still see myself at the same time. Magic rocked, but it was also screwy.

No one saw me as I walked out of Luc’s office. No one saw me as I took the spiral stone staircase up to the cemetery. Then, after I whispered, “Don’t let anyone in the cemetery see the door open,” no one saw me leave the mausoleum and join the group facing off in the dark. Eerily dark. The unnatural kind—or what I considered unnatural.

It seemed smart to hang back and get a feel for the situation before I joined in the rumble. Connor had his back to me. He growled one of those deep, rumbling,shook the ground beneath uskind of growls.

Badass.

Well, except for the acid drool that singed the ground as it soaked in. That was pretty gross. My other half was a drooler. The singular Connor stood between the mausoleum and six brawny, angry, gritty-looking men. Beetle’s men. Not only did I know it because I simply felt it, but I recognized most of them from Monnie's.

The hulking figure who stepped forward, cloaked all in black, narrowed his beady eyes on Connor. “Give us what we want,” he said.

Connor didn’t speak as he was in death hound form, but he growled again, and I got the feeling that Beetle’s man understood exactly what he said.

“You’ll regret that,” the man warned, then the six of them lunged. At my Connor. Uh… forget that. OnlyIgot to manhandle Connor. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. I’d never actually manhandled him aside from that time I’d kneed him in the boys, but—focus, Simone.

“The war starts now,” another man shrouded in a dark cloak shouted, lunging toward Connor with some kind of black, glowing knife while Connor was occupied defending himself against the other five. I didn’t even think, jumping into action, pressing my taser fingers to the dark figure’s exposed skin on his neck. He literally never saw me coming.

The air in the cemetery went wired when he screamed and dropped to his knees. I kept right on pressing until he passed right out. Beetle’s men looked frantically around trying to figure out what they’d just witnessed. Connor took the opportunity to lunge at another. I went after another man, too.

We’d taken out all the men save one. We left him standing. His hood had fallen off during the fight and really, with his dark beady eyes and that thick scar running down the length of the right side of his face, he looked like every stereotype a girl could come up with to describe ahenchmanfor abad guynamedBeetle. Then a very naked Connor shifted back from his death hound form. I bit my lip to keep from giving myself away, but the man just did it for me. I couldn’t help it. He stared down the last man in quite the menacing fashion. “You tell your boss that he’ll get her over my dead body, and I’m damn hard to kill.” When the man just stood there, Connor barked, “Go!”

That lit a fire under his feet. As the man ran like a coward, Connor then shifted back to his hound form, but not before yelling, “Simone, back inside.Now.”

Clearly, I’d given myself away with my sizzle fingers. As I headed back down, a group of demons passed me and instinctively, I knew they were the cleanup crew. Well, Connor could be angry all he wanted, but I did the right thing going out to help him.

He found me back on Luc’s sofa waiting patiently. Okay, so Connor didn’t need to slam the door. I sensed when he walked in the room now. That was complete overkill. But I looked up and smiled. “Hey, how’d it go?” I asked, hoping to both head him off and make him think I’d been in here the whole time.

“How’d it go?How’dit go?” If he wasn’t careful, his head might explode.

“Yeah. You’re here, so I take it you took care of things.” I blinked big eyes to appear innocent.

One second, he stood by the door running his fingers through his hair and the next, he stood right in front of me, lifted me up with a firm grip around my arms, flipped us around so he could take my spot, and deposited me on his lap. “What in all of Hades were you thinking?”

“First of all, can you put some clothes on before you yell at me, especially while I’m in your lap? I find your nakedness distracting. Secondly, what do you mean?”

“Simone.” He shook his head. I smiled as I bent in to peck his nose. “You’re going to be the death of me, I just know it.”

“No. It’d hardly do me any good for you to die.”

He sighed. “Where’s Luc?”

“Kraken escaped in quadrant three.”

“Please tell me you aren’t serious.”

I shrugged. “Lev’s people aren’t very reliable.”

“What do you know about Lev? Did he come here? Did he see you?”

“No. One of Luc’s guys popped in to give him the good news.”

---