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of his and James’s positions in the room.
    “Okay,” she said slowly, as if she’d bite and play his game. She glanced at James, but her gaze fixated over his shoulder. Nix shot a glance in that direction and thought he saw a flash of blue material. “Why did Micah send you? More importantly, what does he want?”
    “I’m here to protect you—”
    Madison snorted, a delicate sound Nix deemed charming. “If he worried about our protection, the bastard wouldn’t have left us.”
    “—and ready you both for his return.”
    “Tell him to save the airfare and go to Hell instead because he isn’t welcome here.”
    Amos twisted in her arms to look at the Mimicker. She tried to turn his head away, but the boy refused to be deterred.
    “Go away. Now.” He rubbed at a sleepy eye with a curled up fist.
    The Mimicker screamed as a hole seamed open beneath his feet, a wave of black rippling outward and swallowing him whole.
    “Christ!” Nix jumped back away from the edge of the sudden, gaping fissure. “Christ!” he screeched when the void grew bigger before disappearing as quickly as it had appeared.
    He’d never seen that happen before. Unsure what exactly had happened, he couldn’t guess what type of creature could produce such power without any effort. The hardwood remained unmarred by the hole to Hell. Nix forced his eyes off the floor and stared at the five-year-old boy in her arms, an uncomfortable suspicion turning him wary. Didn’t he say “Go now,” and the dark hole suddenly loomed? Nix wasn’t sure what to think. Or if he wanted to think for that matter.
    The door burst open and Gage pounced into the room a few seconds too late to help.
    The child popped his thumb in his mouth, sucking loudly, reminding him of Linus in a Charlie Brown cartoon. His pale lashes fell drowsily over light blue eyes, rimmed in a deep shade of sapphire. Victims often recounted demons coming to them as humans with milky white skin, pale hair, and blue eyes. All features of the boy—and his mother—but they’d already ruled out him being a demon.
    So what type of creature did that make him? Because he wasn’t wholly human either, couldn’t be, and send the Mimicker down the creepy-brick-hole.
    Nix and James traded speaking glances, while Gage wore an expression detailing the level of his confusion. Obviously the mother in Madison could read their silent speak. “Amos did not do that, so don’t even think about blaming him.” Conviction darkened her sexy Southern twang.
    Nix rubbed his bottom lip and considered her. “You can’t discount the Mimicker left when he told him to.”
    Had he thought her pretty with her pale features and blue eyes? He’d been dead wrong. She fairly sparkled when angered. Her gaze spitting mad, a rosy blush coloring her cheeks. He couldn’t help but wonder how much of her body would flush when aroused with desire. He shook his head. Those were not thoughts he should be considering. Most especially not at a time like this.
    “You can go—” She seemed to check herself, glanced at her son’s blond head and quashed the remainder of her sentence, but Nix got the idea of what he could go do, and figured the word rhymed with ‘duck’ and the sentence ended with yourself. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d inspired such sentiments from the fairer sex. He wasn’t there to be her best friend. He’d like to be her lover, the man-whore inside him pointed out. He hit the imaginary mute button. His mission was to figure out what stalked this family and how he could resolve the supernatural forces harassing them, not fantasize about all the things he wanted to do to the mother.
    Always the mediator, his uncle attempted to mollify her. “We’re all a bit shaken. Never seen holes to Hell open up before.” He shook his head, rubbed his nape, and looked more rattled than a bag of popcorn. “Pointing fingers isn’t going to help.” He glared at Nix, but he offered no apology to his