Meljean Brook - Demon Night

And to the Renob Dogs (of the American Society of Barbecued Cats for Breakfast): my sisters, Jen, Kate, and Echo. Sorry, Megan, you were born too late to joinbut, because you live with me and Im afraid of waking up with shaved, green, and/or super-glued hair, I guess this is also for you.

Special thanks to my editor, Cindy Hwang, because the first time might have been a fluke, but you went for a second, and thats more than I ever expected. To my agent, Roberta Brown, for making the second time as smooth as possible. And to Leis Pederson, for making sure that everything gets to me (and that I get everything back to you).

Eden, Arizona Territory

1886

The McCabe boys are coming in, Sheriff. From the west.

A dusty deputy was an unlikely harbinger of doom. Lightning forking across the sky, tremors that fractured earth and ocean those were portents of ruin. Two safecrackers were hardly cause for concern, no matter how many lawmen had died in pursuit of them or how many jail cells theyd escaped, and so it was several hours before Sheriff Samuel Danvers recognized the announcement for what it was.

Danvers eased up from behind his rosewood desk, tipping his hat back and surveying the young deputy. Hed seen rolls of barbed wire less tightly wound.

Randolph found their campfire up on Webb Ridge, Deputy Erwin, and the latest report over the telegraph was a robbery in Tucson. How is it that they are coming in from the west ? A wasteland of scrub and desert stretched for fifty miles in that direction. Nothing to tempt men, whether sinners or saints or all of those in between.

Theyre circling around, Sheriff. Like buzzards. On each word, the deputys Adams apple bobbed with the force of his excitement.

Vultures. Danvers liked that description; the McCabe boys likely wouldnt. If they stepped foot in his town with the intention of bringing trouble, the only carrion to scavenge would be their own.

Danverss smile was slow and long, and Erwin visibly brightened beneath it, straightening his shoulders. Well now, Deputy. Wed best show our visitors the depth of Edens hospitality.

Erwin nodded, muttering, Circling around, sneaky as coyotes. Throwing us off the scent.

As the deputy undoubtedly hoped, Danvers was pleased by that comparison as well. It wont be difficult to sniff them out.

Danvers adjusted the fit of his vest and collected his pistols from a wooden peg, buckling them around his hips. The holsters were a negligible weight, and the threat of their appearance commanded more respect than the gleaming weapons withinso much respect that Danvers hadnt yet fired them.

But then, most outlaws were cowards at heart, and his deputies were eager to please him.

After donning his neatly pressed jacket, he continued, If not directly to the bank, where do you imagine a pair of iron workers dry from the trail would go first, Erwin?