“That wasn’t a Possessor.”

“Nope, it wasn’t. It was an orisha. Or a loa. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Whatever branch of magic this guy’s into—”

“He didn’t smell like magic.” Saul paced forward, stopped at my shoulder, and looked down at the mess of the broken bed. “Why didn’t it cut the leather?”

“Leather was once living. And it has a greater elasticity when it comes to that kind of load. No, he didn’t smell like magic. And the Twins don’t usually take people without—”

“The Twins?”

“Yeah. You’ve heard of voodoo, right?” I glanced up. He looked blank. I tried again. “Santeria? Candomblé?”

“Santeria? A little. Popular down in the barrio.” A shadow of a grin eased the tension in his face. He hadn’t even had time to smear warpaint along his beautiful cheekbones, we’d been running so hard and fast. “I suppose now isn’t the time to admit I’m behind on my reading.”

This is why Weres run backup—they don’t have the breadth of knowledge a hunter does. They’re busy with their own spirits, their own particular sorceries. They rarely mess around with human magics.

Or human predators.

“Well, forget what you’ve seen in the movies. Voodoo is different. People don’t just make bargains with hellbreed—there’s a bunch of other inhuman intelligences out there. They make contact for all sorts of reasons. We have things spirits want, they have things we want, and everybody trades.”

“Got that. So, voodoo in particular? Santeria? Candomblé?” His pronunciation wasn’t off by much.

“Basically they interact with the same species of intelligence, but not the same groups. There’s some crossover, but they’re like different families. Spirits halfway between us and God, they say.” I had to choose what to tell him, boiling a complex subject down to a few sentences. “They’re not from Hell, and generally a practitioner is safe from being contaminated by a Possessor.” I frowned down at the shattered bed. “Though they’re not immune to physical harm from a hellbreed. Hell generally doesn’t mix with voodoo.” Now I was thinking out loud, good to do with him in the room.