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Froht The pocket door slid open Light speared the darkness Air whooshed down and into the basement I smelled Bethany, Onorios, and humans in need of deodorant Great Just what I needed Not

"Spread out," BruiserHis voice was intended for his dedicated headset, one not tied into h the air, not through the electronics "Get in position Stay well away from the man on the wall"

"Ain’t no man, dude Ain’t human," a human said

"Better reason to stay from him," Brandon or Brian said, humor in his voice

By sound, I knew that they took up positions Their flashlights never caughtme to decide what I wanted to do And I decided not to share my position with them I didn’t kno compromised Bruiser was Or if he was OrIt was too un in two hands, I took a stance with one heel braced on the wall and both knees bent I lowered the weapon and relaxed my shoulders Keyed my mouthpiece and tapped it twice, code for I’m in position

I turned off the ed onna need so as you can hold it Don’t let ured And I had hoped to never do this again Silly me

In the back ofup the forefront of h my eyes, which I kept turned away frolow I stood in the dark, in a room with the Son of Darkness, armed Onorios, an insane outclan priestess, and humans Stupid Really stupid But smart to be quiet if they were not on ether, Beast and I waited

Around the edges of the door I saw flashes of light and heard hollow booms The door thundered, vibrations that shuddered , there was an unfinished room on the other side of the elevator shaft, some twenty-by-twenty feet in size With the elevator secured at the top story of va beyond the doors Very close-quarters fighting On the other side of the closed elevator doors I heard a bellow of anger and the clash of swords

CHAPTER 24

I Probably Shouldn’t Trust Me Either

The elevator doors bleard, justseconds to interpret what I was seeing/hearing/s of combat and explosive residue and his own blood His swords were circling in La Destreza To his right Katie fought, her swords whirling, her clothing catching the light, pulling it all to her, her grace and brilliance see to eon, toward htly, as if in a dance But they had been injured with both swords and gunfire, nurinus followed, lunging, lunging, lunging, his swords flashing Hu vamps From the room where Bruiser and the others waited, shots were returned, steady, targeted shots, not rando raced behind the walls, out of sight Their guns fell silent

The gunfire assured me that whatever Bruiser and his boys had planned, it wasn’t to let Peregrinus hich ood to know

Katiespread pastplace, into the roorinus In rinus was dressed in platelike Iron Man, if Iron Man had worn blue armor splashed with bloody trim like macabre lace He also wore the quartz crystal necklace, with the son

And Katie was still in ain,farther into the room Faster than even Beast could follow At his back another for in a crouch as if dropped from the floor above

Holy crap The Devil

She was still alive

Peregrinus had fed her quickly enough to save her Impossible Unless he himself had already fed from the Son of Darkness Yeah Sure He had done that the first thing when he got here Drink Get stronger Drink down his humans, Naturaleza-style, the ones he’d left in a drained pile Then start whatever cere on Which, if priestesses weren’t necessary for the change, could mean that the Devil was an OnorioHoly crap

The Devil raced through the fighters, avoiding everything, every sword, every gun, her oords spinning with the grace of angels’ wings, steel wings of death Her fighting e-lunge, but rather step-step-lunge, step-lunge, step-step-lunge, like a dance Add in a lunging pirouette with a lunging sword sweep, like a bird’s ith death on the flight feathers, and it was beautiful and deadly and hters fell, their cries and blood and the stench of bowels released in death adding to the chaos And with the rhythm of the Devil’s steps, her dance of death, I had a clear shot

Nohispered to Beast Together we stepped into the Gray Between Time stuttered and shuddered and slowed Stopped Or nearly so Though the Devil’s swords stillbetween the cutting edges The swords slid an inch Two ht If Beast lost control, I would be in several pieces before my eyes could blink I wasn’t sure I could heal if I was in pieces I had never died that way before A shaft of light thrust through the path of the Devil’s blades, illuh, toward her His mouth was open in a scream, his face full of wrath and lethal purpose His blades were out to the sides, like a raptor in flight But he wasn’t going to survive the leap Faster than he was falling through the air, the Devil’s blades turned toward him Only an inch at a time, but I could see the trajectory of the swords and the bloody death to come My heart clenched, a painful contraction No

I stepped close and placed the working end of the Judge against the side of the Devil’s neck, into the freshly healed scars left by va range, and Bruiser out of range of any through-and-through 410 pellets, I squeezed the trigger It took a lot er I squeezed and squeezed, un clicked Shook