Page 49 of Silver Claw

“I’m the fucking boogeyman,” he muttered, “but between you and that crazy hillbilly you have working for you, I’m beginning to get a complex.”

I hadn’t brought gloves, because I was cleaning houses of ghosts, not animals or demons, but that was a mistake I wouldn’t make again. I never knew what I’d run into.

“Expect some scratches,” I told him. “Just try not to get bitten.”

“Scratches are the least of my worries,” he said. “Just hold the bastard still so I can get him in the trap.”

“I’ll do my best.” The demon would already be aware that we were after him, and I could tell by the wicked gleam in the staring cat eyes that he wanted to play a little. He wouldn’t know me, and he wouldn’t know my demon blade.

He wouldn’t think we could do anything as he flung himself from cat to man to woman and took one of us out into the streetsto cause some havoc. Maybe he planned to have Remy turn on me, or vice versa.

There were many things a demon could do.

“Don’t lose the demon trap,” I told Remy. “Here he comes.”

The cat jumped, only it wasn’t really the cat. The kitty would be in there somewhere, but she wouldn’t be strong enough or aware enough to fight for her space.

I was ready when sharp claws raked down my arm, leaving trails of fire behind, but I wasn’t ready when something inside me took that fire and pain and twisted it into something I could use.

But I wasn’t going to analyze it. I was just going to go with it.

The cat actually screamed when my demon blade leapt into my hand, when the demon possessing it felt the heat and power. That was the moment all thoughts of nastiness and wreaking havoc left the demon’s mind. All he cared about now was surviving and somehow getting back to his world.

He saw me as a master demon with a terrifying demon blade.

I only cared about obliterating him.

I needed to hold the cat so Remy could do his job, but the thing was slippery as a furry eel. Fast, too. Before I could get a decent grip on her—which wasn’t easy considering I held a blade in one of my hands—she slashed my face to ribbons. Blood ran down my skin, wet and hot, sizzling like my face was a frying pan and someone had thrown in some raw bacon.

The last thing I wanted to do was kill the cat. The homeowners weren’t going to be understanding of that, whether she was possessed or not. And also, unlike Remy, I really wouldn’t hurt an animal.

He’d have already killed it, slammed the trap against its mouth, and gotten the hell out of Dodge.

I wrangled the cat against my chest and squeezed it against me with one arm, then pressed the demon blade against its belly.

“Not helping, Kait,” Remy yelled.

The cat was squalling so loud I was sure the neighbors would call the cops.

I didn’t let up with the blade, though. The blade would hold the demon inside the cat until Remy could get the trap over its mouth. But the blade was making the cat frantic. It thumped its head against my chest, side to side, then back and forward, and once again somehow managed to bury its claws into my arm.

Finally, Remy slammed us both back against the wall, holding the cat’s face with one hand while he shoved the trap against its mouth with the other.

I didn’t need him to tell me it was time. I slid the tip of the blade into Jeannie’s chest, trying not to go too far, but I was in a hurry and she wouldn’t hold still. The demon was losing his mind. The agony and terror he was feeling from the blade, a blade that had come from one of his masters, would make him more than eager to leave the cat’s body.

And Remy was waiting with the trap. “Got you, you bastard,” he said, then pulled the trap away and shook it in the air, his stare intense.

“Are you hoping to see eyes or something?” I asked him. Other than swirling colors that would fade over time—as the demon faded—Remy would see nothing, no matter how hard he looked.

“Can I have this one?” he asked. “I returned the last one.”

“The one you stole from me,” I said drily. Then I shrugged. “Sure, you can have this one. You know he’s not forever, right?”

“Yeah. I don’t care. It’s enough that he’s in there right now. That’s some freaky shit, you know?”

I did know.

I tended Jeannie as best as I could, but the owners were going to notice some blood and her little wound. I’d claim the demon did it. Right after I told them they’d had a demon instead of a ghost, and that their cat had been possessed.