“Three lower-level Mithrans who guarded the back.” He removed his hand from the windshield and shook his sword. The blood was frozen on the blade. “Shiloh killed the one who had Peg. The vampire was playing with him, rather than turning him over to Konstantin for questioning.”
I went cold and stiff at the words. “Playing with him.” That meant blood and pain endured by Peg. Gorge rose in my throat. Peg had suffered enough in the war. He didn’t need pain because of us.
A fleeting thought.Did Peg encourage the vamp to play? To keep himself alive and demon-free? Hoping we would come in time to save him?
“The vampire’s head is resting on the hood of one of their vans as decoration,” Walter said, merciless satisfaction in his voice. “Shiloh forced the vampire who was hurting him to give Peg enough blood to survive and close his wounds before she eliminated him. Good enough in the short term.”
This was a new, dangerous Walter. I squashed guilt and fear deep inside, chaining the dark emotions, and forced my limbs loose, freed my breathing.
The driver’s door opened. EJ slid into the seat beside me. He held out his hand and I placed my hand into his. He hummed a soft note. Warmth eased into me. Pale yellow light swept across me. His magic. I reached toward it with mine. Instinctive.
“Walter,” my brother said, without inflection, without censure, as if seeing a vamped-out Walter on the hood of a car, gripping a frozen bloody sword, were an everyday occurrence. “Do our enemies know we’re here?”
“No cameras. No attack when their people died. Shiloh is inside, reconnoitering.”
“Four entrances available,” Shiloh said over comms. “Church window, car-sized service door at the back of the old service station with an entry for people, and a second entry on the building’s side near the feeding frenzy. I’d have thought they’d want theirdemonworking to be in the churchy part of the building but there’s nothing there but blood and bodies. Front entrance is blocked by a stack of them.”
“Three teams,” EJ said. “Walter and Shiloh enter from the church access window. Angie with Pretty Thang and Grizz at the service door. Raccoon and Boots with me on the far side.”
“What about me,” PeeWee asked, sounding vaguely insulted.
“Pick a team. You stop anyone else from entering and pick off escaping enemies.”
“Roger that,” PeeWee said.
Shiloh popped into the glare of the headlights. Peewee nearly shot her.
Shiloh’s psychedelic patterned armor flickered and moved, though she stood still. The spangles, colors, and disorienting patterns had to be shocking when she fought, fast and furious, body and swords flying.
Shiloh ignored the guards and the weapons, glanced at Walter. Focused on me. She said, “Loud in there. Music just shut off. I expected them to have the circle set up in the sanctuary but that’s where they stored the bodies they practiced on. Human and vamp.”
I didn’t really want the answer when I asked, “Practiced?”
“Demon possession. I can smell it. They used humans and then killed them, recapturing the demons. They’re stacked three-deep. Been dead about two days, I’d guess. Not much stink with the cold. Kept down the smell.”
I gave no outward sign I heard, but inside, a flame of anger lit. It began to grow. They had killed people in my city.
Ourcity. Mine and EJ’s and Walter’s. Yeah.Ourcity.
Killing vampires who killed humans was the responsibility of the Dark Queen or whoever carried the queen’s banner. We had a banner atop our building. The queen had given us one of her personal assassins. And no one, not Dad and not the queen, had tried to stop us once we headed for this fight.
Shiloh heated and wiped her sword clean with a rag that she then dropped in the icy street. “I also counted ten beheaded vamps. I’m guessing they tested their summoning, collecting, possessing, and re-containing demons multiple times untilthey got it right and didn’t have to kill the possessed. Bet the demons are pissed off in their containment vessels,” she said, laughing, “free, caught, free, caught, free, caught.” Her laughter vibrated against the car windows.
Pissed-off demons, I thought.Hell’s hounds.
“The circle is situated in the dining room,” Shiloh said, “in what used to be the car repair bay area. About a thousand square feet of bare floor and a demon circle with a pentagram chiseled into the concrete. Dried blood in the rough trough. Ritual objects in place.”
“Demon circle? Not witch circle?” EJ asked. “What’s the difference?” He had never seen one while it was active. Only after it was blasted into splinters and blood by heavy armaments and magic.
“Yup, cuz. You’ll see.”
“Where are the vamps?” he asked.
“Didn’t I say?” she asked, her tone cunning, telling that she had withheld it on purpose.
Shock factor.I tensed.
“We’re late. They just finished a major feeding frenzy, and fresh dead humans are in a stack three feet high. Our enemies are sitting at the circle ready to start.”
