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his shoulder like a bag of golf clubs. She fought and
screamed. The whole scene made Jonah’s head ache.
    “Why did we move this up a day?” He looked straight at Foy.
    “Because this young lady would be dead if we hadn’t.”
    Foy had an amazing gift to see visions of victims when he
meditated. Nothing like that ever happened to Jonah when he cleared his mind. The
others he trained with all seemed to have small doses of mystical abilities
too. Everyone but Jonah.
    Knowing that anyone else would have no idea what he spoke
about, but that Foy always somehow understood what he meant, he let himself ask
a question that seemed forever on his mind.
    “Did you make a mistake when you picked me?” Had he just
been pitying the boy whose parents lived but didn’t want him? When everyone
else in the program had been alone in the world because of death, not
abandonment? Had he just felt like if he didn’t give Jonah a shot there would
be nowhere else for him to go?
    “No.” Foy shook his head then charged up the stairs with the
woman in his arms. “You’re bleeding. Go to the ER before you pass out.”
    That was apparently all his Master had to say on the
subject. Jonah sighed, clenching his teeth. Finally, when he could take a deep
breath, he looked at Braxton. “Do you need help here?”
    “Nope.” Braxton patted the Satan-worshiper on the back. “I’ll
take care of this.”
    Jonah didn’t have to ask what he meant by that. Sometimes
things had to be “taken care of” by making people who wanted to cause the world
paranormal harm disappear. He’d done it himself. If Braxton really had this
under control, Jonah would go find a doctor and get himself on the way to
healing.
    Clutching his side, he limped up the stairs. He rounded the
corner out of the house and a gust of cold Chicago winter hit him in the face.
He couldn’t help but think about how lovely Mindy looked in the moonlight when
he’d followed her earlier.
    There had been a time when he’d charged in to rescue her. And
he’d failed her. Horribly. It was no wonder she hated him as much as she did.

Chapter Two
     
    Mindy stormed through the door of the martial arts studio
where she worked. Then she rounded the corner toward the private residence in
the back. Master Foy lived on the Highland Park premises with whatever member
of his blood-oathed students whose presence he happened to require. For now
that was Jonah. And that was who she needed to see. Immediately.
    When she moved to Chicago, Jonah helped her get a job as a
receptionist so she could train at the studio too. Few of the students knew the
seemingly innocuous mansion, featuring a small martial arts studio in the front
of the building, had a dual purpose. Most simply knew about the teachers for
those who wanted to study karate. Only a select few knew Master Foy ran a
program for those seeking blood oaths to combat evil…
    Jonah had been picked out when he was a small child to
receive the training and he worked at Foy’s side fighting back that which would
hurt humanity. Mindy hoped, after her own dealings with a demonic clown left
her permanently altered, the master would let her into the program too.
However, Foy looked straight at her and shook his head silently before walking
away in silence.
    That was fine. The man could take his program and shove it. She
felt lucky to get to work for him so she could pay her bills. Beyond that, she
didn’t need Foy to teach her how to be strong enough to fight evil. Martial arts
made her stronger, leaner, and she’d found a good collection of books in the
library for study of what she needed to know.
    Her days of selling software for a tech company in Austin
were behind her, destroyed by the events that had bleached the color from her
hair. She would devote herself to making sure no one else ever went through
what she had.
    She banged on Jonah’s door. He was going to answer some
questions before she gave him a piece of her mind. Mindy waited a few