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away.
    I had a sudden moment of doubt when it belatedly crossed my mind that it might turn out to be half a dozen skinheads hassling whoever she was, but thankfully it wasn’t. It was a night creature, as I had suspected, and I could cope with those. By some miracle there was a streetlight in the alley that actually worked and she had at least had the sense to get under it. The night creature was keeping outside the pool of dim yellow light, its scaly clawed hands emerging from the patch of darkness it had shrouded itself in and darting out at her in short, vicious slashes. She was pressed back against the wall under the light, her long red hair in a wild tangle around her face. There were rips in her little black dress where the night creature had been at her. Have I mentioned I’m a sucker for redheads? And blondes? And, you know, attractive women in general really.
    â€œOi!” I shouted. “Pack it in, you wanker!”
    The night creature turned with a snarl, its long, alligator-like snout pushing out of its shroud of darkness to menace me. I glared at it.
    â€œDo you know who I am, pissant?” I said.
    It growled, and backed off a step. It knew, all right.
    â€œWe’ve got a deal,” I said. “You don’t bother me and I don’t come and bother you, remember? Well you’re fucking bothering me. Now piss off, or come the morning I’ll summon and send something down your holes to eat the bastard lot of you.”
    What on Earth I thought I was going to do if it just went for my throat there and then I have no idea, and to be honest right then I didn’t really care. Luckily, night creatures aren’t very brave or very bright. I forked the sign of the evil eye at it with the outstretched fingers of my right hand and growled a few words of banishing under my breath. I gave it a hard stab of my Will to make my point. Wisps of smoke rose from inside the shadows around it and it hissed with pain. Pain was good. Pain was better than anger. I jabbed at it with my Will again, wanting to hurt it. It backed off again, whined, and turned and ran.
    â€œWow,” the girl said in a shaky voice. “Just… wow.”
    â€œAre you all right love?” I asked her.
    â€œYeah,” she said, and brushed her hair back with one hand. She was wearing a silver bracelet, I noticed, shaped like some sort of snake or something. “No, no not really.”
    She started to cry. I took a half step towards her before it occurred to me that someone who had just been almost raped and eaten by a demon probably didn’t really want a cuddle from a drunk stranger. Apparently I was wrong. She threw herself into my arms, and started sobbing on my shoulder.
    â€œWhat was that thing?” she whimpered.
    â€œA night creature,” I said. “They’re nasty and they’re bullies, but they’re all cowards at heart really.” Well, that one was anyway.
    She pulled back a little and smiled at me, and suddenly she wasn’t crying at all.
    â€œIt’s like it was scared of you,” she said. “It was amazing! Who are you?”
    â€œMy name’s Don,” I said. “I’m a magician.”
    That may have been the single most stupid-sounding thing I had ever said in my life, but I was drunk and it had been a fucking horrific night, and dear God she was cute. She pushed her hair back from her face again. She had very long nails, I noticed, painted a glossy dark red. Now that she was nice and close I could see that her bracelet was in the shape of an ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail that symbolizes eternity. She’d probably got it from one of those awful, naff new age shops in Covent Garden but it was pretty and I was drunk enough to think maybe it was a good omen for once. I could have really used one of those about then.
    â€œWell Don,” she said, “I’m Ally, and I could really, really use a drink about