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Yep, it was going to be one of those days

I slid to a halt in the well-appointed, low-ceilinged, brightly lit roo room with a s roo from the man she’d just downed, her eyes full and black and her shirt torn She grinned at the twothe, and I ducked, falling to a crouch and spinning without of the bathroo down into a controlled fall and rolling free of ht into the arms of another man He shis nose The o, and un at ain as I broke his hold Breath held, I spun hiun see shield at the shooter, not knowing if he was shot or I was shot or we had both lucked out

Ar, my would-be attacker fell into the shooter and they crashed into the sun, I shot them both One last spasm, and they were still

"Ivy!" I spun, then went down on one knee as another gun went off and fire engulfed asp and h A , Ivy blocked a swinging laing, she planted her right foot and plowed the other into theback into theHe hit with a thud, shaken but not out The lah, throbbing to un pointed Two puffs of air to put him out--and then I fell alht-headed, I sat on the couch, not letting go of un as Ivy took a last look around the room and strode forward Blood was a slow but steady leak frootten them all, but where was Landon?

"You okay?" Ivy asked, winding her hair back into a bun as Jenks dustedThere was no exit wound It was still in there

"I don’t know" I strained to see the other side as the pain retreated into a heavy throb

Ivy reached to touch it, and I jerked away "It doesn’t look bad," she said

"Well, it hurts like hell"

"That’s good then," she said, her worry lines beginning to ease "Where’s Landon?"

"Look out!" Jenks shouted, and ht I’d doas aiuns at us

"Move!" I shoved Ivy and brought up ed I lunged for the floor, aiun echoed, drowning out the puff ofinto the couch slid throughthe otten him

Ivy stood as the man’s head hit the floor with a thud "Should have double-tapped him," she said as she extended a hand to me

"I was a little busy" With a heave, she had me back on the couch Where was Landon?

Ivy wiped her hand under her nose as Jenks flitted over the roo that they were all down "None of theic," she said uneasily

"You noticed that too?"

Jenks’s wings clattered as he rose up A door slid open and Landon strode out, flanked by two uns "Because very shortly there won’t be any and I wanted to be prepared," Landon said "Shoot theed for the cover of a fallen chair I yanked her back toa circle of protection around us Bullets pinged off it, and Landon ht line, and I thought he looked ridiculous in his traditional robes and that stupid flat-topped hat Newt could get aith it, but not him

"Landon, you’re an idiot!" I shouted, the scent of spent gunpowder h the barrier where bullets couldn’t "I’riaze to the doorway, and I dropped the circle

Ivy was a blur, leaping to the doorway to hide behind a wall as they sprayed it I rolled to the broken coffee table, peeking out to see Landon standing alone as his men advanced on Ivy I didn’t knohere Jenks was If you’ve hurt hi between the uns Onefor her He froze in shock as his buddy went down in a spray of blood--and then Ivy was on him A kick to the back of his knee sent hi wrapped around the last ht back, sending the throbbed as I stood I had to lean heavily on the couch, pointing to Landon, then me, as if in invitation Ivy could handle two men with automatics Landon was mine Where is Jenks?

"Trent chicken out?" Landon said, and I lurched a step closer as the unfocused hter and ex-fiancée out to lunch"

His lip twitched as he followed the ramifications of that "Call your vampire off andthe pain as I pulled e I can do first"

"Call her off, and maybe she lives," he amended, and in the split second my eyes flicked to Ivy, his hand flaain pain exploded, this time in led to breathe, to keepIn his hand was a twisted mass of my hair, taken probably froet-specific spell, and I couldn’t fight it