make much difference."

make much difference."

"Much like police work often is," said Modred.

Loomis snorted. "Yeah. Tell me about it. Damn. I knew I should have stayed in Chicago and retired."

The entity appeared with a sudden rush of wind and a swirling of crackling thaumaturgic discharges.

Wulfgar maintained rigid control over it as it bellowed with rage and he concentrated all his willpower on

the next stage of the spell. The creature thrashed within the pentagram marked off on the floor and then it

seemed to blur, its form becoming indistinct, shadowed by a ghost image as it began to twin. It was

working perfectly so far. Like a cell dividing, it split apart into two identical, slightly smaller creatures,

though no less fearsome and ferocious.

The hammering started on the wall from the neighboring apartment. Wulfgar was concentrating so hard,

he didn't even hear it. Sweat streamed down his face as the beast solidified into two distinct forms.

"Seek," said Wulfgar.

The creatures disappeared. As did another creature that was crouching outside, beneath the front

window of the apartment. Blaize went streaking across the lawn, running harder than he had ever run

before, heading toward the nearest contact point where a patrol car waited, the officers inside it drinking

coffee and convinced that the entire exercise was a futile waste of time.

The first demon appeared smack in the middle of the plaza, bellowing like a freight train. It stood on

squat, muscular legs ending in cloven hooves, its powerful, apelike torso with its long, muscular arms

almost twice the length of its lower extremities, its lupine head with its snapping jaws and glowing eyes

jerking back and forth as it howled, seeking victims. It raked out with its sharp claws and disemboweled

the nearest man as the woman he was with screamed in frozen terror, and then she too fell victim to the

slashing claws. Within seconds, two people were dead and the demon bounded toward others in the

plaza as the square became filled with screams and people fleeing hysterically in all directions, knocking

into each other and falling, some never to get up again as the entity descended upon them.

Loomis had his unit parked across from the plaza, less than fifty yards away. "Jesus!" he said, drawing

his weapon and starting to open the door. Modred pulled him back.

"Stay here!" he commanded, and then flung open the door and bolted out. Billy was out the door in the

same instant, but before Kira could leave the car, the radio came alive, the officer shouting that a

demonic entity had just materialized in Canyon Road, where the shops were open late and people were

crowding the street, promenading among the cafés.

"Twoof them!" said Kira, stunned.

Billy and Modred were already out and running onto the havoc-ridden plaza, within sight of the demon.

With all the screaming they would never hear her. There was no other choice. The runestone in her palm