Page 341 of Castings & Curses

Avery looked down at the concrete smear and swallowed. “James,” his voice broke. “It was James.”

Goddess.

He’d been her first partner when she’d barely cut her teeth at the department.

“Shit.” She glared up at her. “What was he doing out here without backup?”

“He had backup. He just didn’t use it.” A blonde woman in nose bleed heels made her way into the alley, her eyes red and her face blotchy. The rest of her was as polished as it got. Hair pulled into a tight ponytail, not a strand out of place. Her suit jacket crisp over a white button-down shirt and dress jeans, she looked like she’d just come from a night out instead of wading through a crime scene.

“Graves, this is Cappelli. She and James were partners.”

She couldn’t help but size her up and the other woman knew it, judging by the way her eyes narrowed.

Devi gave her a courtesy nod. “Where?”

“Follow me.”

Devi trailed behind Cappelli as she made her way down the back alley, avoiding the congealing pools of blood, her heels clacking against the wooden floor as she entered the building. The place was much like she remembered it. Permanently stuck in the fifties, the décor was faded, the band posters dated, and the worn booths cracked and peeling.

Absently, she wondered when it had closed. The scent of old grease and salt warred with the sickly-sweet aroma of blood and other things. Devi tried to breathe through her mouth before she gagged.

CSI techs began to roll in. The scene was getting busier than she liked. Avery stood in the doorway, a haggard expression on his face. “I wouldn’t have bothered you, but this one needed your particular…expertise. You knew him.”

Cappelli gave her a cold stare and continued into the recesses of the diner.

The acrid scent of familiar demon magic met Devi’s nose and her animal hissed, ears flattening.

I know.

Demon magic had its consequences. James must have found that out the hard way. But she wasn’t going to say it. Not yet. She’d helped him to contain it once, but judging from the carnage, he hadn’t listened.

Avery nodded and stared past her into the room. The diner looked like any other, save for the trail of blood that came through the doorway. Tired linoleum and worn fixtures made up the scene. She had spent hours in places just like this wherever she landed. The prices were cheap and the grease flowed easy.

She narrowed her eyes and moved past Avery and Cappelli into the main part of the room, mindful of her steps. Her boots barely made a sound. The trail of blood stopped in front of a worn wooden booth with cracked red vinyl seats. There, on the tablem was a small wooden box, a sinister glow coming from the small space where the lid had been haphazardly replaced and not sealed.

“What the hell?” Devi’s heart thudded in her chest.

Fuck.

She knew that box.

It had been the center of most of her nightmares since her parents had been killed when she was a girl.

Her familial history had been dotted with ocelots tied to demons or witches that harnessed demon power. Most of them hadn’t lived long, but once you have a demon on your tail, you were screwed. And that fucking box was supposed to be buried in consecrated ground.

Again.

Cappelli cleared her throat. “He said he was taking this box to someone. Someone who would know what to do with it. He’d found it under his house last month.”

“Last month?”

Cappelli nodded.

That was a load of horseshit. She’d helped him bury it before she left town. Under his house, in sanctified earth.

Why the fuck did he mess with it?

The damn thing had almost killed him before.

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