It was disconcerting to see two young boys going at each other like bar toughs.
Bianca’s anger thrummed beneath her skin, and she clenched her fists.
One boy threw a punch.
“Is nobody going to stop them?” Bianca examined the houses for a concerned parent. The doors remained shut.
Bianca flung open her car door.
Lucifer came after her. “Bianca.”
The boy who’d been punched scrabbled for his hockey stick and swung.
“No.” Bianca broke into a run. “Stop.”
At the rate their fight was escalating, someone was going to get seriously hurt.
The door to the house on her left opened, and a woman charged for the boys. “Hit him. Riley,” she screamed. “Pick up your stick and hit him back.”
The boys were rolling, grappling, and punching.
Another door opened further down, and a man ran for the fighting children. “How about I hit you, you fucking cunt?”
More doors, more people, more yelling.
The man and woman almost collided. She slapped him. He grabbed her by the throat.
One boy was bleeding from the nose and lip. The other from the eyebrow.
A second man flung himself on the man who had the woman in a chokehold and pounded him.
Someone started screaming.
Strong arms fastened around Bianca’s waist and pulled her back. “Stay clear,” Lucifer said against her ear.
Punches flew. Faces locked in rage, eyes hard and deadly.
“It’s the rage demon,” Lucifer said.
Bianca watched in horror. These people—neighbors—were trying to kill each other. “Do something.”
“Cease!” Lucifer’s voice echoed through the neighborhood.
A wash of power hit the combatants.
Bianca caught the outer edge of it and staggered.
The fighters stood frozen in their grisly tableau.
Lucifer took a huge spring that launched him over the still scene and halfway up the garden behind. His wings released. Two sweeps of their glittering black and silver span took him as high as the treetops.
Wind whipped his hair around his face as he searched. He locked on something and arrowed for a garden shed. A glittering black blade appeared in his fist, and he disappeared behind the shed.
Something issued a pained bellow, and a light flashed.
The pressure in Bianca’s chest eased.
People on the street started moving again, looking at each other in confusion, exclaiming in shock.
Bianca’s anger drained away.
Witnessing people’s horror as they realized what they’d done to each other was nearly as bad as the fighting. She wanted to turn away, but her gaze stayed stuck in sick fascination.
Lucifer strolled out from behind the shed.
People went silent and watched him as he approached Bianca. “Come on.” He took her elbow in a firm grip. “Time to get out of here before the questions start.”
She allowed him to bundle her into the car and get behind the wheel. It took four blocks before she could produce a coherent sentence. “A rage demon caused that?”
“Yup.” His face settled into grim lines as he checked the cross street before entering the intersection. “We don’t allow them on the earth plane for obvious reasons.”
“Shit.” It didn’t bear thinking about what would happen if one of those things got hold of a large crowd.
Lucifer glanced at her. “Quite.”
“What did you do?”
“I ended him.” Lucifer drove toward the center of town. “And he was a lot stronger than he should have been.”
