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I stood and fished it out I was just about to take a good look when Reyes grabbed et her out or spend the rest of your days drinking yourout of Reyes’s grip, I stuffed the license in my back pocket, then jammed my hands on my hps as I turned to hih," I said I lifted an index finger and poked his chest That’d show hiht a gli dark and sleek like a panther, only five ti at once Its coat appeared and disappeared as the muscles underneath it rolled with movement like very well-controlled smoke Then I saw a set of amber eyes They disappeared the second I focused on thelimpse of an ear, tall and pointed Or was it a horn?

It all happened so fast, I’d barely had time to draw a breath when a h the air In the sa on the other side of Reyes surfaced out of the void of e around it as its monstrous jaws opened wide and sank into Reyes’s shoulder

Before either of us could react, a third beast clamped down on my calf and jerked ged me across the floor But all I saas Reyes pushed to his knees as he tried to fight off the beast

A searing pain shot throughwould co and disappearing sleek black muscles, attacked the Dealer himself He tried to scramble out of the way, but five slashblood in an eerie pattern across his shirt The last thing I saw before grabbing Zeus fro white teeth as they opened behind the Dealer’s head

I heard bones crunch and a final sharp crack that echoed along the walls Theto the floor as I lunged forward and sank the blade blindly into the now invisible hellhound But the blade did its job The beast yelped, materialized in its entirety for a split second, then disappeared I sat stunned for a solid five seconds It was massive, the size of an elephant, darker than a starless sky, its coat sleek like wet ink

"Get her out!" Reyes shouted, catapulting me to attention

Garrett obeyed without hesitation He wrapped his ared

"No!" I shouted, grabbing for Reyes Blood gushed out of the wound at his shoulder faster than I i me dizzy and nauseated with fear

He fell forward onto his hands, and only then did I see the wounds on his back The beast’s paw had hit hoh the air, trying to hit a target thatthere, invisible to us When we reached the door, I fought harder, but Garrett was not budging He wanted out of there and he was not about to leave me Just then I realized Arterowled at what I could only assume was a beast I couldn’t see it, but apparently she could I had a target

"Garrett, wait!" I shouted, but he kept his hold strong, not giving me an inch this time

Until he did

His hold broke and I fell forward, racelessly, Zeus wrenched from my hand to slide under the prep table I looked over ainst a far wall and tuulfed o cal ti halt And in the brief second between the momentum of time and its opposite, its constant, they e, there were only three of theot a good look I’d never seen anything even remotely similar to these creatures A cross between a panther and a Doberman, but the size of a s beasts Their groere a uttural Volatile and angry I could still see the sleekness of theirtheir bearings, as though adjusting to the shift in time After a couple more seconds, they were able totheir invisible bodies as they turned on me, all three of the as I tried to see them As I tried to assess from which direction the deathbloould coraze of their shi teeth, and I would cease to exist

It killed et his wish That I would die before having the chance to face hi once Beep was born safely on earth But he was essentially killing both of us and guaranteeing his chance of survival forto the prophecy, it wasn’t o I was now carrying

As one hellhound drifted towardwith each step it took, I dived for the prep table I barely fit underneath it as I scraainst the filthy floor, but I couldn’t let Satan win Sadly, I couldn’t reach Zeus froe either, so I went for the wooden spoon I’d seen earlier