Mac went back to the bar, leaving Murphy and me to finish our bottled ambrosia.

“Okay,” Murphy said in a weak voice. “Where were we?”

“You were about to tell me how you thought I was wrong and that the Chicago PD needed to intervene.”

“Oh,” Murph said. “Right.” She stared after the departed gruff for a moment. “You said that that thing was from the nicer of the two groups causing us grief?”

“Yep,” I said.

“We’ve gone up against the supernatural three times,” she said quietly. “It’s ended badly twice.”

We meaning the cops, of course. I nodded. One of those occasions had killed her partner, Ron Carmichael. He hadn’t been an angel or anything, but he had been a good man and a solid cop.

“All right,” she said quietly. “I’m willing to hold off for now. On one condition.”

“Name it.”

“I’m in from here on out. You obviously need someone to protect you from the big, bad billy goats.”

I snorted. “Yeah, obviously.”

She held up the last of her beer. I held up mine.

We clinked them, finished them, and went back out into the winter cold together.