"I would be careful were I you, Lorenzo. Remember, I hold your priest's life in my hands. Verstanden?" His breath was warm against my face. He released my jaw and stepped back, adjusting his cufflinks. "Now then, where were we? Ah yes, you were about to—"
"Hey, cabrón," Diego's voice cut through. "Catch."
He pulled a flashbang from his belt, yanked the pin, and threw.
The grenade tumbled end over end. Constantine's eyes tracked it, smile vanishing.
I squeezed my eyes shut as the world went white.
Constantine shouted orders that got lost in the chaos. A hand came down on my shoulder and Rafael's voice ground out. "Come on! The door's this way!"
Diego's shotgun boomed twice, muzzle flash lighting the smoke for a split second.
Together, we fought our way through the mass of confusion toward the door. I sliced through three men while Rafael shot two more. If I weren't careful, the bastard was going to get more kills than me.
We burst out of the smoke into the hangar, sunlight blinding after the darkness. The Cessna sat fifty yards across the tarmac.
Behind us, smoke poured from the warehouse. Figures stumbled out, blind and coughing.
"Go, go, go!" Diego was already running.
Bullets sparked off the tarmac. We ran in a broken line, zigzagging to make ourselves harder to hit. Rafael ran beside me, Jasper ahead, and Diego brought up the rear, laughing like this was the best day of his life.
More bullets. One passed so close to my head that I tasted heat. Another punched through Rafael's sleeve, missing flesh by inches.
We reached the plane, and Diego yanked the door open. "Get in!"
Jasper climbed into the copilot seat, katana still in hand, blood still dripping from the blade. I threw myself into the back. Rafael dove in after me, pulling the door shut as Diego fired up the engines.
The propeller caught and roared to life.
"Hold on!" Diego's hands flew over the controls.
The Cessna lurched forward. We accelerated down the tarmac, bullets pinging off the fuselage. I caught a glimpse of Constantine standing in the hangar doorway, watching us go. He raised his arm and waved pleasantly.
The wheels left the ground. Rio dropped away below us, favelas and green mountains and the sprawling Atlantic stretching to the horizon.We climbed, the engine straining, and the warehouse became a toy behind us.
Silence filled the cabin except for the engine's steady drone.
There was blood on all of us. Jasper had his katana across his lap with gore slowly dripping onto the floor. Rafael's sleeve was torn and red-stained. The cut across my ribs burned when I breathed. We looked like we'd crawled out of hell.
When the plane hit turbulence and I started to slide, Rafael's hand shot out and caught my wrist.
Our eyes met and held for a second too long, and he let go like I'd burned him.
I stared at him. We'd just fought side by side. Moved together like we'd been doing it for years. And before that, on the warehouse floor, he'd been all over me. Biting. Marking. Making a mess of both of us like he couldn't get enough.
Now he was acting as if my touch was poison.
Fine. If that's how you want to play it. Be an emotionally stunted prick of a priest.I turned away and stared out my own window, putting space between us.
"So." Diego glanced back at us. "Where the fuck are we going?"
Rafael's jaw worked. "We need help."
"From who?" I couldn't keep the bitterness out of my voice. "Constantine controls the Church. Minos controls the Pantheon. They're the same person working for Zeus."
Silence stretched.
