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A low chuckle caught h the speaker froent in the room did what he was supposed to do He turned toward the entity overhead and raised his gun, backing around the superheated table to protect the prisoner The agent tossed down several charm disks and barriers rose in a semicircle that separated their corner from the rest of the room His sidearm was probably loaded with a siotten the idea I was certain he could fire through the barrier But I had no idea if the entity couldn’t fire right through in return

"Who are you?" I asked with bravado, like it would answer It had already refused once "What do you want?"

The voice that cahost sis that can appear without forood or really evil "You want answers but are ha table sort of gave it away, but that certainly removed the last question If it had a name, I didn’t want to know it now "I don’t want the help of the de to do with you and yours" I knew not every single demonic entity had been banished when the rift collapsed A number of people had already been possessed by then and not all of theone "Please leave now"

Another laugh made the small hairs rise on the back of my neck "I’m nowhere close to the demonic, Celia But since you asked nicely … I’ll leave For now"

The demonic are well known to lie, so I just rolledwith more than one expert in exorcism if I made it out of here today I’ve already been exorcised twice, once to rid me of the taint froreater dely open

The sparkling ball of energy near the ceiling flickered and began to slide down the wall When it reached about chest height, it floated toward the corner where the FBI agent stood behind the barrier, keeping his gun trained on the entity The energy stopped outside the barrier, right where the prisoner was huddled The captive held the object on the chain toward the sparkling ball as the barrier flared in response

The agent fired once His bullet went right through the entity and splattered against the wall Clear liquid rolled down the cream-colored paint If it was holy water it had no effect That was confusing More disturbing still was that the flickering and flaring of the ic barrier had finally ceased and words appeared--just like on theand the table

Only the truth can set you free

Then the entity disappeared, leaving behind a s table, a ruined ic barrier--because really, if a ghost … even a deic, it’s useless

Of course, that phrase wasn’t soenerally associated with imps and demons Just the opposite, in fact And add in the holy water pooling on the floor Except there were the s threats of pain to consider

"Can we pretend you didn’t come to my house and start this day over?"

Rizzoli seemed a little stunned by what had just happened and let out a slow breath "I will if you will"

I nodded "While we’re pretending, can I just be an ordinary hu toward the door and the proood to ood I’ave a snort of laughter and followed hih a ot as far as the front sidehen his phone rang The prisoner had started to talk again and they needed hi he was going to tell o home But he didn’t

Apparently, the call had told hiht and I had to stop short to turn back The new rooh for the two of us and the Asian agent as now sitting at a recording studio control board

"What do we have so far, Yao?" Okay, then He was Chinese I ad the facial differences in that area of the world I need to work on that

Yao didn’t turn his head to look at Rizzoli He kept watching the scene unfolding behind the tay mirror while he spoke "The sketch artist is still with hi was happening Theat the petite white-haired wo fast across a pad on the table I realized she was holding a pen in one hand and a pencil in the other As I watched, an ie