By some twist of fate, the waiter arrived with Dev and Julianne's check. As Julianne signed for it, Jim Appleton looked a little sad that he couldn't suggest they dine together.

"Well Brígh, next time you and your lady friend go out you'll have to let me know so I can grill her about how she made you play hooky for a week." Beth Appleton pinched Jim's rib.

"You be nice James Theodore Appleton." Dev and Julianne stood awkwardly to the side as his partner and a possible cult leader flirted in front of them.

"Uh, oh, got the full name, I must be in trouble. You kids have a fun rest of your night!" Jim laughed and bade them farewell and went to a table where a host was waiting for them. Dev and Julianne smiled and shook hands and said their goodbyes, then Julianne took Dev's arm and they walked out of the restaurant. Dev started for the elevator bank when she steered him to the front doors.

"No, no. I don't want her to know I'm staying here. Take me to a different hotel." She looked back over her shoulder nervously. "Please." Dev led her to his car and when the Muehlebach was shrinking in the rear view mirror they both let out a deep breath.

"You are absolutely sure that She, my partner's wife, little Beth Appleton, is a murderous magical cult leader?" Julianne nodded. "Fuck."

They drove around for half an hour in silence. Dev was struggling to accept it. Jim and Beth had welcomed him into their home for barbecues. Hell, he had spent a couple Thanksgiving dinners at their table when going home to Boston was out of the question. He had never seen anything to make him suspect... Suspect what, exactly? He had only learned about magic days ago. Was it just Beth? Was Jim somehow involved? It didn't seem likely, but who was to say? Who else in his life had magic? How common was it? Was he somehow the only one who wasn't aware of magic and they had all been laughing at him? Dev shook his head, that seemed unlikely. He realized Julianne was talking to him.

"Dev, we may need to leave Kansas City. She has a small army of magicians at her disposal. If she doesn't already know about you, seeing me with you will probably clue her in."

"I always thought her pies were too good. I couldn't explain it, but they were better with every bite."

"Dev!"

"Huh?"

"Are you listening to me?"

"Hmm? Yes, sorry. We can't leave."

"Why the Hell not?!" Julianne balled up a fist as if to strike him.

"Danny." Her tension released and her fingers relaxed. "We have to bring his killers to justice. As well as the other victims that he mentioned." She shook her head back and forth, mouth agape.

"You are so naive. Dev, they'll kill us and take our power! It's what. they. do. It's what they live for, or rather how they live. And sweet 'Beth' is a Malformed parading around as a suburban Detective's housewife. You know he could be involved, right?"

"I know." Dev nodded.

"Jesus, Dev! How are you not upset about this? Because I'm losing it over here and could use some of your stability." She was breathing heavily. Dev flashed to when he had lost control and dented his car. He pulled into a movie theater parking lot.

"Come on, follow me." He turned of the car and got out. She grumbled but got out of the car. She slammed the door and confronted him on the sidewalk. He was looking up into the stars, a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.

"Well?" He pulled his gaze from the sky and looked at Julianne. Hands on her hips, a flush creeping up her cheeks, she cut an imposing figure. The red of her dress and hair in stark contrast to her pale skin. She was very pretty, he thought as he looked back at the stars.

"Julianne, look." Dev pointed out the Big Dipper.

"Its just stars Dev! We have a serious problem, please focus!" She grabbed his shoulder and spun him to look her in the eye.

"We were just there. We watched as one of the most powerful creatures in the cosmos tried to eat us. Maybe it was luck, but here we are." He waved his arms at the night sky. "And the Bale is out there somewhere, beyond the Threshold. I know that I'm naive when it comes to magic. But I'm not stupid. I hunt killers. I uphold the law. I've been a police officer for a decade and before that, I spent a couple years in France hunting killers. It doesn't matter that they have magic, because now, so do I." At this Dev extends his hand and produces a small turquoise ball of energy. He clenched his fingers and snuffed it out.

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"I didn't want this power. I didn't even know it existed. It wasn't until we were driving I accepted it. I'm going to use this power to do what I do best: Hunt Killers." Julianne stood in stunned silence. She let go of his arm and stepped back.

"Do you know how many times I've heard some fool proclaim nearly the exact same thing? You have magic, sure. But you don't know how to use it. Not like me. Not like they do. You're worse than naive, you think you are special. News flash, you aren't special, P.H. is. Two hours ago you couldn't even defend yourself beyond luck and instinct. So when you die trying to instill your ideals on these 'Killers,' it will all have been for naught. Your soul will be devoured, P.H. will be abused and I'll be alone again."

Dev nodded at her. He was about to rebut when he saw something strange slide through the background behind her.

"That spell you did to protect the hotel, can you do that anywhere?" He asked her. She watched as Dev's scarred eye started glowing. His hands crackled with turquoise static and he held them in front of him like a boxer. She quickly started the spell and moved to stand beside him.

"Renders." She spat the word. She barely finished the spell as a dozen misshapen bodies oozed from dark shadows around them.

"What are...?" Dev couldn't finish the sentence. One of the shades slid along a long shadow and slammed into him, sending him flying back into the barrier. He got to his hand and knees and looked at the creature. It was a body of wrong proportions with missing and too many limbs. Its legs were arms with hands poking out at odd angles. Its head was sunken down into the chest cavity and it wheezed and coughed black bile and mucus at Dev. He raised a hand at it and pointed a finger. A beam shot from his eyes and the upper half of the creature vaporized.

Dev chanced a glance at Julianne and saw flash of red streak through a gathered bunch of the abominations. She was holding a parking meter like a sword and Dev could see Kushiel enshrouding her. They slashed and amputated four of the creatures with ease. Dev stood up and one of the monsters grabbed him, pinning his arms to his sides. Dev concentrated his power to his arms and back and felt the grip loosen. He shrugged, imagining his shoulders as giant stone, and crushed the one behind him.

The power to shape reality; Pandemonium. As Julianne dispatched three more, Dev waved his hand at the last three. He didn't want them to exist anymore. So they ceased, vanishing into black dust. Dev laughed.

"Ha! You hit harder than those things did!" Julianne rushed over and stood back to back with Dev.

"It's not over!" She yelled as something bombarded her barrier. It faltered at the top and let something in. "If you don't want anyone on this street to die, cover me while I strengthen the dome!"

Dev nodded as she wove more magic into the protective barrier. The creature before them stood up, a Malformed. More humanoid that the other he had seen before, this one looked like a big football player. Its body was covered in bulging, abnormal muscles. It's head sat between massive trapezius muscles, cradling the face. Three long, serpentine tongues sagged out of its mouth. It inhaled deeply and then it spit at Dev. He held his hands up to shield his face and felt pain as his they were pierced by the Malforms magic. His flesh began melting away, revealing bone. Dev clapped his hands together with a grunt of effort and then formed his fingers into a sphere. He pumped magic into the shape and felt his hands begin to heal.

"I'm surprised. I understood that you were like a babe, fresh and ready for the taking. Before I kill you and your delicious looking companion, tell me. Who is your Numen?" Dev fired the beam from his eyes again. It stopped short of the Malformed, fading out with a sizzle. He focused more energy into his hands.

"Adorable. I'll tell you my name first. I am called Amadeus, not that you have much longer to call me anything." Dev shot the eye beam twice more. It swatted one away and let the other hit it. "Tell me your Numen, child." Dev had an idea. His hands weren't melting anymore so he changed his focus from regeneration and kept focusing the energy to a singular point in the center of the sphere. He changed his hand shape to circle instead, his fingers and knuckles crunching to make a perfect circle. He fired his eyes again.

"Stop, that tickles." Amadeus laughed. Then it screamed as Julianne stabbed it with the parking meter. "You bitch!" It swung its arm and knocked her into the barrier. It pulled the meter out of its stomach and advanced on her. Dev shot his eye beam dozens of times, each getting weaker as he focused on his hands. He felt Amadeus' hands around his throat before he saw the creature before him. "My mistress will just have to understand that killing you was worth more than bringing you to her alive." It tightened its grip.

Dev felt his eyes bulge and roll back. It was all he could do to keep focusing his energy into his hands. He wanted to laugh but his throat was being crushed. He envisioned a magnifying glass like a comic book private detective. He opened his mouth like P.H. had done the when he revealed his form in Dev's home. Brighter than the sun, a blue-white light shot forth, through Dev's focus. He felt his skin pop and burn with the intensity of the beam. Amadeus was screaming in agony.

When Dev finally got his vision back, Amadeus was lying on the ground, one arm seared off at the elbow, one into the chest cavity. Part of its face was also burned away and it gurgled and screamed its pain. Pandemonium Harmony strode out of Dev in its Cosmic form. It held out its hand toward the severely damaged Malformed. Amadeus started unraveling like a ball of yarn, individual strands burning in different hues. Dev felt the souls cry out and the beginning of a soul storm formed in a fiery vortex.

"This isn't over, my Mistress has an insatiable hunger for the willing. And she never goes hungry. I AM YOURS, KEEPER OF TEMPTATION!" A mouth appeared in the pavement and swallowed what remained of Amadeus. The soul storm spun out without tearing Dev or Julianne's soul out. She climbed to her feet and looked over at Dev in awe which quickly turned to fear. His face was cracked and burned from his own attack, arms missing at the elbows. He stumbled.

"Dev, oh God!" She rushed to catch him as he fell.