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Septeuin, Guateh with him in the scant days since they had met, Charlotte did not know Peter Octavian well She understood that he was a warrior and a man of honor, but that for a time in his life he had killed the way that vampires killed She knew that soh he was no longer a Shadow, he was a powerful e, or whatever the hell word people felt like using this week Charlotte had seen Octavian in action, and when he coic with his deterht Yet she was still just beginning to understand that he had icks at his command as well

Silent and swift, she set out fro vaht Soh she was far froround, enough to know that she had been a Shadow for a time measurable in years but not in centuries She wondered if Allison could still rehter, if she could still recall the way her heart had quickened at a compliment or the excitement on the day that school let out for summer For Charlotte, such raduation had been a little over a year before and, despite all that she had seen and done in the intervening time - despite what she was - she still held on to a cherished fraglass She held a secret hope, one she barely adhter? She thought not And yet he had ave her hope for her own future

If you have a future, she thought

&039;This is-&039; she began

Octavian put a finger to his lips to shush her, as they ran across the open field And he was right - nervous talking for the sake of talking was a bad idea right now - but she couldn&039;t i and the thunder of the shelling froht inside the wall Octavian had put up

And according to Octavian, Cortez and his coven wouldn&039;t be able to see them, either Charlotte reh if she understood correctly the end result of the spell Octavian had cast would be the saaze of any of the vast the coven until they drew attention to the people with bullets tended to draw attention, the first shot she fired would effectively break the spell, but by then she&039;d be right in the center of the circle

Only yards from Cortez

She reminded herself that she had pro in broad, quick strides, never quite running but never slowing In h the outermost circle of vampires Charlotte had to battle the temptation to look at their faces, to see if they had noticed the intrusion, but she didn&039;t want to be the cause of breaking the spell too soon Octavian had gone to the trouble of working his subtlerto blow it

He had worked a second spell as well, one he had alluded to with Coer Back in the trees, just before they&039;d set out, he&039;d had everyone - Shadow and huround and he had cast a spell upon every last bullet, ensuring that each would find its target She and Allison had assault rifles filled with Medusa-laced bullets that were guaranteed to hit what they were aist the vah a second circle - she wondered how e she did not recognize and she tried to count the feet to her right and left as she rushed past Extrapolating, she realized there really were over a hundred vampires, and probably closer to one hundred and fifty

A ripple of revulsion passed through Charlotte as she slid between two va They stank like offal, and she wondered where they had been sleeping during the daylight hours One of the, and she had to dart aside to avoid hilanced back at hiht herself just before their eyes would have limpse, however, she saw that he was smeared in blood and human viscera and fluids, and she knehere the rank stench had coh it now looked like a disaster site, this had been a tourist area Anyone who had been here when the earth tore open had been slaughtered by Cortez&039;s followers, their innards used as some filthy element of this ritual Anyone who had come in response, people who had rushed here to help, had likely suffered the saine to power her onward

The ground trelanced over to see that the antlered one noered higher than the trees she had left behind Even at that height, only the upper half of its body had ees of the broken earth on either side of the crevice and tried to pull itself free, but for the first time Charlotte realized that it was stuck Both of these enor themselves slowly fro free of a caul fro at the i here?

As they passed through the third ring, alht of her ain, but suddenly Charlotte could not recall her face Panicked, she tried to suhter, which had been so simple for her just moments before and now seemed impossible The memory seehter than ever

The world see and the chanting reached a pause Even the wind dropped for a second Only the last ring reht circle, with a lone figure at the center who could only be Cortez She would know hi, the circle around him cast their shadows upon him

The moment of stillness threw Charlotte off, and she hesitated Stopped h

&039;Who the hell are you?&039; a vampire snarled, and she felt his hand clalanced over and saw Octavian catch her eye She thought he would be angry but he only gave her a tiny, al and sparking around them in icy blue fire

The world had held its breath Now it seemed to shatter

She twisted, tore her arer Bullets punched into vaance and confusion combined were their worst enemies They had not anticipated an attack fro she saw the saer followed by a shot, and then the horror etched in their faces as they realized the Medusa toxin was coursing through their blood

Sorabbed her hair and she tore free, darted and fell and rolled and popped up again A huge va, tearing her flesh, and Charlotte turned and fired a bullet into her facewaited a second and fired again, killing her on the spot She didn&039;t want to waste Medusa, but if they took her down before she had hit as ed the odds for everyone

Shouts arose The last of the chanting died as gunfire echoed She heard Allison&039;s gun barking off to her left, hts flashed as Octavian tore through clusters of vaic

Sounfire erupted and she knew that Metzger, Galleti, and the others had arrived and were trying to kill as many of the Medusa-afflicted as possible

And all the while, all she could think was don&039;t shift, don&039;t shift, don&039;t shift - because none of theht happen if she and Allison shapeshifted with their guns loaded with Medusa toxin If she went to ht never be able to shift back

Abruptly, there was space around her

Charlotte spun, aiets In the splashes of light froures that looe&039;s own version of Medusa

Half a dozen vaun with a speed only her species possessed, she shot each one Then, with Metzger&039;s people too far away and the vauard, she realized that she had made it to the center of the now-shattered circle A pair of naked human corpses lay on the earth, wrists and ankles staked to the ground, torsos flayed open From their faces she took them to be twins, one e

Beyond them stood Cortez, clad in black trousers and a simple white cotton shirt now drenched in blood

With his sad eyes and wispy, pointed goatee and the black hair he wore at shoulder-length, he looked more like a poet than a htmares with all the pain and humiliation she had ever felt She switched her weapon over to continuous fire

Cortez scowled at her in disgust &039;Prodigal You, I did not expect But perhaps I&039;ll have use for you yet&039;

Any other day she ht have mustered up an insult or a profanity Instead, she took ai a dozen bullets at his face and chest

With a gesture, Cortez threw up a shield of purple-black light When the bullets struck it, they round

Charlotte stared, hope fading

Cortez was a e, like Octavian She had never seen a hint of it before, never seen hiic, but there it was Gunfire still punctured the darkness so she knew that Allison and soer&039;s people were still alive, and so were so that e was hts, Octavian stepped out froure of a dead va with flaold

&039;Hernan Cortez,&039; Octavian said &039;I thought you were dead&039;

Cortez turned to face hi &039;Aren&039;t we all?&039;

Octavian burned with the er to be unleashed The sorcery within him had a clearer connection to his heart than to his e to incinerate Cortez on the spot nearly overwhelic to shield himself from Charlotte&039;s bullets -inside Cortez, coiled and ready to strike - and he knew he had to be wary

Hands at his sides, fingers splayed like a gunslinger at high noon, he moved two steps nearer to Cortez, careful not to stray too far from the nearest of the vampires he had turned to stone They were statues now, frozen in death, but they could provide cover

&039;Peter?&039; Charlotte said, her weapon still in her hands

He ignored her, hoping his silence was h They had passed the point where her presence could be helpful More than anything he wanted her to go, to just take cover, but he feared what ave Cortez any reason to think that her fate mattered to him

&039;It&039;s over, Cortez,&039; Octavian said

&039;Is it?&039; the va the air between theht up as if electrified, and little particles of earth swirled, s

Gunshots ripped the night sky, but fewer than before Allison and the TFV soldiers were still fighting The Medusa toxin and the ele good on it Devil-bats wheeled and darted overhead, but they seeround ruan to roil across the ground, rolling off of the death gods Octavian saw a serpent coiled around the upper arods, while black birds roosted on the antlers of the giant who had climbed three quarters of the way out of the breach

Hell was breaking through into his world, but none of it see that mattered was the cruelty of the creature in front of hiht shoulder and knew that Charlotte had not gone far She had taken cover behind one of the stone va I&039; Octavian began, and then faltered He tre to Cortezyou did to distractNikki, the breaches in Europe and IndiaIf you wanted to keepHad you done nothing, odds are I wouldn&039;t be standing here right now&039;

The s a littered in his eyes When he sneered, his fangs glistened in the rowled &039;As for killing your matethat was mostly for pleasure If you&039;d heard the way she screamed-&039;

Octavian raised a hand, cold ht sliced a broad arc across the darkness, aimed for Cortez&039;s h what he really meant was, Die

Cortez held up both hands and a sickly yellow light flashed around the that scarlet arc in two so that it passed on either side of his bared, and sketched at the air with contorted fingers, drawing into existence a pair of silver silhouettes, like the ghosts of wolves, apparitions that dove through the air, jaith silent hunger

Octavian shook his head in disdain as he waved the as it touched the ground He still had questions, things he did not understand, but he could live without knowing the answers He required only one thing of Cortez

Mees flashed inside hiicks he had studied and the torture he had endured as he learned, only to rise up and make demons scream As powerful as he was, Octavian had locked thoseback, right alongside ile word burst forth froe never before spoken in the huic that flowed froave off The lines that traced the air froers to Cortez&039;s flesh were like rips in reality, gli such erous sorcery, but he would risk anything to put Cortez down

The vah him, and Octavian saw it as justice He had opened breaches in the flesh of the world and now Cortez had been speared through by other di on the air, iers of another reality, and then they vanished and he collapsed to the ground

The sky erupted with the sound of the tanks shelling the outside of the wall Octavian had erected around the breach The ground trembled and he realized that his barrier iving the arh But for their own safety he would not allow that

&039;You think you understandtoward Cortez The vampire looked pitiful, with his dark, oatee &039;Did you really think you could resurrect these ancient gods and they wouldof the world?&039;

Cortez stared down at the holes in his chest and gut They were knitting closed, but far more slowly than any ordinary wound Octavian felt sure that the vampire would try to shapeshift and escape Charlotte had not been able to shoot him with the Medusa-laced bullets, but Octavian would not allow Cortez to elude hi to turn to mist the vampire looked up at Octavian, weak and disoriented but with a kind of lunatic pride in his eyes

&039;I have no dreams of my own,&039; he whispered, and his voice seemed different So&039;

Octavian froze, cocking his head to one side He stood above Cortez, ready to kill hiicks to do sobut the words ive hi the truth, if he was only a servant

&039;Who do you serve?&039; Octavian deed hi

&039;The one king,&039; the vaht flowed frorass beneath Octavian&039;s feet

Octavian jumped aside, but the spell did hi of Hell&039;

A rustling came behind him but Octavian turned too late Powerful hands clamped on his arlow of ray faces of two vampires he had turned to stone, sohtly, stronger by far than he was, but Octavian struggled only a ht sparked and swirled around his fists and misted around his eyes He needed no spoken words to turn them to rubble

Still, in that instant he wondered In a handful of days Cortez had gone froade varandeur, but now to discover that he was a ic? It had taken Octavian a thousand years in Hell Cortez ht not be his equal, but he had skill and power

Someone called his naer stueant Galleti along beside him Galleti clutched at her abdomen, and blood dripped from her hands Both soldiers took in the scene before thean to raise their weapons, turning theal,&039; Cortez spat, face etched in pain froh

The words sank in just as Octavian released the concussive spell that had been building in hiround even as he turned toward Charlotte He saw her copper-red hair and those ice blue eyes glinting in the distant glow of the spotlights and the pale shine of the n of her tattoos beneath torn clothing, and saw the way she raised the assault rifle in her hands and turned the barrel toward him

Her body jerked like a marionette Her eyes ide

&039;It isn&039;t&039; she said, unable to finish She didn&039;t need to He understood

Either now, or long ago, Cortez had rinned &039;Fire&039;

&039;No!&039; Charlotte screaer