Sebastian

the egg-money jar again, spilling a few coins on the kitchen floor. Mam's sharp eyes hadn't noticed the penny next to a leg of the kitchen table. But Lynnea had seen it—and had convinced herself that the sunlight coming through the windows at just that moment, casting the shadow that had hidden the coin, meant she was supposed to have the penny in order to have this one chance to make a wish.
    Holding her hand over the wish well, Lynnea whispered, "I wish…" But there were so many wishes crowding up inside her, she didn't know which one to choose. And all she had was a penny. Maybe you could get only a small wish granted if you dropped a penny in the well. But a small wish wasn't what she wanted. What she really wanted…
    I wish I lived in a different place. I wish I could have friends. I wish I could do things right instead of always doing the wrong thing, no matter how hard I try. I wish 1 could find someone special to love. I wish someone loved me.
    Something strange and powerful washed through her, startling her so much her hand snapped open.
    The penny dropped into the well, and the feeling faded.
    Lynnea stepped away from the well, wiping her hands on her much-mended skirt. Then she glanced at the sky and felt fear—such a familiar sensation—ripple through her. The farmhouse was beyond the other side of the village. If she didn't hurry, she wouldn't get back before the others got up and discovered she'd been out.
    Wondering if anything good would come from the risk she'd taken tonight, Lynnea lifted her skirt above her knees and ran back to the farmhouse.
     
     
    Sebastian stood at the end of the alley. The colored pole-lights that gave the Den's main street a festively decadent appearance barely touched the entrance, as if even created light didn't want to enter that dark space.
     
    He was a demon. This was his landscape. But he didn't want to walk into that dark, didn't want to see whatever was at the other end of the alley.
    Didn't matter what he wanted. The crowd that had huddled at the edge of the alley, waiting for Teaser to fetch him, simply watched him now. Humans and demons alike, they watched him.
    Beside him, Teaser extended a hand and took the torch someone passed to him.
    "I'll go with you," Teaser said, looking pale and sick.
    "I too," a voice growled. "Go with you."
    The crowd parted for the bull demon. Big, mean, and not too bright, they came to the Den to drink in the taverns and bellow at the dancing girls. The wickedly curved horns could gore a man, and despite the bovine cast to their features, it was said they ate raw meat… of any kind.
    This one held a thick wooden club that ended in a ball filled with metal spikes.
    Walking into a confined space with a bull demon that was carrying a vicious-looking weapon wasn't something any sane person would do, so feeling relief at the offer told Sebastian better than anything else could how deeply he feared what had been found in the alley.
    "Thank you," Sebastian said. He closed his eyes for a moment, gathered his courage… and walked into the alley.
    Something wrong here. The ground felt soft, fluid… as if it might ripple under his feet at any moment.
    No. Hard-packed ground didn't shift, didn't ripple. He just felt sick, a little dizzy. Which was understandable considering what he expected to find.
    As they walked forward, the torchlight finally unveiled the other end of the alley.
    The three of them froze. The bull demons breathing suddenly changed, sounding harsh and wet.
    The body of the succubus they'd found a week earlier had been bad. This one was worse. Much worse.
    Female. So mutilated he couldn't say if he'd ever seen her in the Den before, could barely say with any certainty that the thing spilled over the alley was female.
    "Human," Teaser whispered.
    Sebastian jerked, breaking the awful hold the corpse had on him that had kept him staring at it. He looked at Teaser. "You recognize her?"
    Teaser shuddered. "The bracelet. She always wears that wide gold bracelet. Has a rich husband. She's a mean bitch who likes to play rough games in bed. Husband likes meat-and-potato sex, so she comes here to roll in the muck and do it naughty."
    She's not going to do anything anymore , Sebastian thought, worried about the way Teaser talked as if the woman were going to sit up at any moment and laugh at them for being taken in by her hideous joke.
    "Let's—" Fear suddenly clamped icy hands around his spine. "Did you hear that?"
    The bull