The oven slid to the outer circle, breaking it. Magics exploded out.
EJ still had breath, even as he sprinted inside, toward the battle. He whistled a single note. The circle’s exploding magics fell silent.
Shiloh landed on Konstantin and leaped to her feet all at once. The silver blade Konstantin had used fell from her side, bloody. It clattered to the floor.
Fractions of fractions of time, each sharp, specific, distinct. He was five feet into the room. His team behind him.
The scion of Prince Oleg was out if not true-dead.
Shiloh was silver-poisoned. As she jumped to her feet, the other vampires in the circle vamped out. Rolled away.
Ever smaller fractions of time.
Nyoka appeared at the door to the church, behind Walter, moving almost lazily toward the circle. She was clothed ingreens and blues that floated around her, her arms bare to the cold air. Her unshod feet were coated in snow, as if she had come in from outside.
Her eyes were like orange flames. Demon possessed.
Karson stood. His gaze on Angie.
EJ was seven feet into the room. Leaping. Clearing the destroyed kitchen wall.
Angie tossed something at Nyoka. Another something at her ex.
Walter screamed. “I demand Sangre Duello of Willim Danil Yorath IV! You will fight me now and die!”
The two vampires crashed together, swords flashing.
EJ caught a flicker of movement. Julietta Ravensport popped toward him at nearly supersonic speed. Swords raised. In Delta Mode it was slower, her steps steady and sure.
He raised his sword and sang out the words, “Stadaidh tú!” It was an Irish command for “You will stop.”
Their blades clanged even as he finished thewyrd.
From behind him, Raccoon dropped to one knee. Fired at Ravensport. Three shots. Mid-center.
As if she felt nothing, Ravensport spun her body around EJ. She pierced Raccoon with her weird shortsword. With her longsword, Ravensport blocked EJ’s attack. Cut across his abdomen.
He leaped to the side. Avoided the blade.
Shiloh pivoted to intercept, out of sync with his deadly dance. He slammed into her. Sent her tumbling.
Pulling the sword from Raccoon, Ravensport spun toward Boots.
As he fell, Raccoon shot the vamp again. Three times more.
This time she jerked. Blood spurted from where her cheek used to be.
Boots leaped upward. Landed on an overturned refrigerator. Fired down at the vamp. Two head shots, one knee shot.
Ravensport’s knee buckled.
Her armor was good. Boots’s headshot was better. Or so he thought until she flipped her sword upward and swept high.
The point entered Boots’s thigh at the knee, at the armor seam. Weak spot in all armor.
Ravensport drove the point home. Deep. Cut higher, carving through muscle and flesh. Blood pulsed out.
EJ cut low to high. Sliced Ravensport through the waist. Hit her spine. Severed it.
