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"What do you suppose he meant when he said it was too late to parlay?" Chance swiped a hand across his forehead, s his face with blood and less identifiable fluids He slowly sank to the ground, the rifle still gripped in his hand

Heabout his mother

"I don’t know I hope Chuch and Eva are okay Was killing hih?"

I didn’t necessarily expect an answer As I knelt next to Chance, adrenaline trickled away and leftempty I felt every scratch and bruise, felt nauseated with shock and the increasing reek of the women’s remains

But Kel replied, "It should be"

God’s Hand stepped over the warlock’s body, dark with gore and bright with satisfaction If he felt the pain of his wounds, he ignored the down on Chance and me

"Let’s find out" I wiped my hands on my ruined khakis and whipped outall the way there

The phone rang six times before someone picked up "Bueno"

"Chuch," I breathed "Thank God Is Eva all right?"

"Yeah, she’s right here What the fuck is going on? I had soht? So I wake upand I think we been robbed" He hesitated "Expensive shit too The garage is trashed and now there’s this weird Chihuahua watching ht?"

I foundstory We’ll be back soon I hope" With that, I hung up

"We should get out of here," Chance said "That s to attract attention and I don’t think ant to be here when--"

Sirens interrupted hihts sped down the drive, and a faht to check the dead warlock for ID, hoping we’d then be able to figure out who he worked for

Oh, Christ

We’d killed Nathan Moon

Eye of the Storar floor we had a dead cop

By my side stood a convicted killer with a knife in his hand Shit, this did not look good We came out, hands in the air

The siren cut off with a yelp and Jesse Saldana slid out of his car "Drop your weapons! Get down!"

While he trained his gun on the three of us, I flattened round, as instructed Chance hesitated only ahis rifle I didn’t think Kel would coht not even stop him

To et him out of this too Saldana looked ill as he approached us, both hands on his weapon He took in the destruction and the s house

"Stay down No sudden moves I called for backup and two more cars are on the way" His eyes said, How could you? "Moon calledto kill hiunfire"

"Jesse, give ht to re you say can and will be used against you in a court of law You have the right to an attorney If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you Do you understand the rights I have just read to you? With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?"

I droppedolder than my twenty-seven years The men on either side of me possessed the sense to keep quiet, at least Jesse radiated steely purpose This can’t be the saazed down at us The fact that Moon was nowhere to be seen didn’t matter Saldana knew deep do this battle had played out, and uy but cops didn’t let people get aith killing their own

How could he not know, though? The air stank with foul ick, and ere surrounded by corpses Before, I’d suspected a dirty cop must be behind our trouble in town, but I’d suspected Jesse I just hadn’t turned ht not be too late for Min if we could get ether Of course, a lot depended on the next five o Once the other officers arrived on the scene, ere done

"Moon lured us out here," I said desperately "He’s the one who did Maris Enslaved her Don’t you get it? The reason he caht was to see if he’d successfully breached the wards" I paused and took a breath, gauging his response

He looked unsure; he was listening So I went on, "After he went for me in the cemetery, he didn’t have power to burn, so he needed tome was just a bonus Afterward, he attacked Chuch and Eva in their own home and tried to add the on their turf and in person for mundane reasons--DNA and forensic evidence could tie hiht he could control the outcome and then clean up, nobody the wiser"