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to reach for Lucifer’s sword, which I’d slung automatically over my shoulder before we’d left.
    I am a city girl. I am accustomed to hearing the sounds of cars on the street, the roar of the El going by, the laughter of drunken Cubs fans. I am decidedly not used to the twitter of birds that are not pigeons, or the crackling of brush as little rodent things run through the forest.
    The clearing had obviously been the site of an attack. Impressed in the dirt were the four-toed claw marks of demons and the paw prints of wolves. Broken shrubbery and bits of torn clothing were strewn everywhere. Therewere splashes of blood on the tree trunks, and the acid-burn streaks that indicated demon ichor.
    Everyone in my party gave me the now-what? look. Beezle fluttered off my shoulder and alighted on a tree branch that gave him an overview of the area.
    “What are you up to?” I asked.
    “Surveying,” he said loftily.
    “Code word for ‘napping,’” I replied. “Gabriel, will you look for any traces of power while the rest of us see what physical clues we can find?”
    Gabriel nodded, but Jude gave an impatient huff.
    “What do you think you will find that I didn’t? I told you, I tracked them as far as I could.”
    “But you were upset and probably not thinking clearly,” I said, trying to be patient. “You may have missed a few things.”
    “This is a waste of time,” he said.
    “Fine, then don’t help,” I snapped. “Just sit there on your ass while we figure out who took Wade.”
    “Are you implying that I don’t care about my pack?” Jude said.
    I threw my hands up. “I imply nothing. Just do whatever the hell you want.”
    I stomped away, sick to death of men and their delicate sensitivities. Samiel followed, tapping me on the shoulder.
    “What is it?” I asked, turning on him with a snarl.
    Don’t take it out on me just because you’re pissed at Jude.
    I ran my hands through my hair. “Okay, okay. Sorry.”
    It’s okay. I just wanted to stay with you while you searched.
    I glanced over at Gabriel, who seemed to be feelingaround the other side of the clearing with his magic, and raised an eyebrow at Samiel. He looked guilty.
    I don’t need a babysitter,
I signed.
    Maybe I do,
he signed back.
    I gave a short laugh at that.
Stay with me if it makes you feel better.
    It does.
    Jude had taken off somewhere while I’d been talking to Samiel, and good riddance to him. I didn’t need him snorting at me and second-guessing everything I did while I tried to help him find his lost pack mates. Beezle, as expected, was already snoring up in the tree.
    Samiel and I started at the center of the clearing. I moved clockwise in a circle and he moved counterclockwise in a slightly larger diameter, each of us carefully checking the ground for anything that would indicate who had sent the demons.
    I sent out a little questing thread of power, trying to see if I might stumble upon anything that Gabriel missed. I’d been trying to practice the more subtle forms of magic, to not let my emotions dictate to my abilities. I was getting better at it, but I was still nowhere close to Gabriel’s mastery. Plus, I still didn’t know how to trace a tiny flare of power to its source the way Gabriel did. But if I found something, I could at least show it to him and let him follow it.
    I was getting a little dizzy walking in circles, my gaze completely focused on the dirt under my feet, but I didn’t want to accidentally miss anything. That was when I noticed something.
    I put one knee on the ground and leaned forward, trying to make out the shape that was pressed into the dirt. It was inside a demon’s footprint, and it wasn’t perfectly clear, but it seemed to be the shape of a small
V
on top of a circle.
    “This looks like a demon’s sigil,” I said, getting excited. I looked up for Samiel.
    I realized that Samiel and Gabriel were gone, too. Beezle snoozed away up on his branch.
    I didn’t know whether to be worried