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off archdemons.
    “We need to get out of here,” Colin said, surveying the damage from Anna’s rescue. Anna and Luca helped Colin to his feet, and only then did she remember Lacey had been outside with her. She doubted she’d actually gone back inside the restaurant.
    Colin sighed, “Luca, go find Lacey. She was probably still outside. She may need to go to a hospital.”
    Luca ran back toward the restaurant as they heard the sirens in the distance. Their car had been among the tumbleweeds that had been propelled across the street. Anna and Colin were going to have to find another way back to their hotel. And quickly. They stayed in the shadows as much as they could, only running when they were out of sight from the spectators who had come out to gawk at the mysterious explosion. They passed several bus stops before finding one with a bus picking up passengers.
    It took several connecting buses to get back to their hotel, and by the time they reached their room, they really were exhausted. Anna collapsed on the bed and Colin lay down next to her. “I should call Luca, see if Lacey is ok,” he said.
    Anna mumbled something about that being a good idea. Colin yawned and pulled out his cell phone. His call went to Luca’s voice mail. “He would have called if something were wrong,” Colin insisted as he leaned over to switch off the lamp. Anna’s eyes were already closed. Fighting semi-immortal creatures of Hell could be so damn tiring.
    A rapping at their door woke them. Colin peeked at the clock on the hotel nightstand. It was morning already. The knocking continued and he rolled off the bed while Anna muttered about Luca’s insensitivity to people who didn’t appreciate getting up before sunrise. Colin reminded her the sun had already risen; Anna ignored him and pulled the blankets over her head.
    Anna tossed the blankets back down as soon as Colin looked through the peephole in their door though. Luca wasn’t the one knocking.
    “ What the hell is Dylan doing here?” Anna asked, even though Colin had no way of knowing that anymore than she did.
    Colin opened the door, but he wasn’t sure if he should invite Dylan in or not. Dylan had made it pretty clear in Baton Rouge he didn’t want to work with them or be friends with him, so why was he here?
    Dylan stared at Colin for a few seconds before asking, “Is Anna not dressed or something?”
    Colin stared back at him, feeling like he must have a stupid expression on his face. “What?”
    “You just gonna let me stand out here in the hallway?” Dylan sounded exasperated, but Colin was just confused.
    “Depends. Why are you here?”
    Dylan glanced down the hallway to make sure no one was around. “Because I followed it here. And it must have followed you and Anna. I want to know if you’ve killed it yet.”
    Colin sighed and finally backed away from the doorway so Dylan could enter their room. He mumbled something at Anna that may have been “Good morning,” but Anna couldn’t really hear him. He sat at the table near the window and looked between Colin and Anna, waiting for them to speak.
    “It found us last night at a restaurant. But you must have known that if you’ve turned the news on at all,” Colin told him.
    Dylan nodded. “That’s what I thought. And is it dead?”
    “We don’t know,” Anna answered. “We were fighting it in the back of the parking lot between the buildings when one of those invisible archdemons threw Luca and Colin across the lot. It was strangling Colin so I blew it out, but I didn’t see what happened to Jeremy.”
    “It’s not Jeremy,” Dylan reminded her.
    Colin sat on the edge of the bed next to Anna, sorry that their friendship with Dylan had ended like this, but he had no purpose here now. If these archdemons were following Colin and Anna, then staying in Boulder would only lead to Dylan getting hurt. “Luca’s staying with us until we figure out what’s going on with these archdemons, and it’s obvious