EJ whipped his gaze around the room. Back to Walter.
Walter shook blood from his sword, taking in the room. Meeting EJ’s eyes in a fast evaluation before moving on to Angie. He didn’t react, so EJ figured he’d been right. Angie was playing with them. But why?
And then Asshat stepped into view.
In a move that looked like the wings of a falling angel, a move that was eerily similar to one Ravensport had used in the video, Angie took the head of the first vamp. Severed the sword arm of the second. With magic that sounded to EJ like harps, she raced at her ex-husband.
Asshat popped away. Gone.
“Track,” Angie said. Awyrd. Power shot from her. Latched onto Marrazzo. Following Marrazzo’s trail. Raw magic. Like when she was a child. A symphony of directed notes, trailing her quarry. EJ grabbed her null cloak and her staff from the floor. Shared a glance with Walter that said,Battle magic.
A vamp rushed out of the shadows. EJ shot him. Vamp-killer rounds. The vamp slid closer with pure momentum. EJ took his head with the vamp-killer.
Angie threw three amulets at a vamp and said, “Sruthán!”
The vamp screamed as an amulet struck his shoulder and his clothes erupted in fire. His ululation was a death wail as the flames spread. An instant later, the flames snuffed out. His scorched clothes and burned flesh were coated in ice. He popped away.
Konstantin, in the flesh…Ice witch?
Angie raced after him. She’d never catch the vamp. EJ sped after them. Looked over his shoulder.
Walter was bent over the witch. Faster than EJ could follow, Walter whipped his sword through a cage of death arc. Stabbed his bloody shortsword through her heart.
What the hell. EJ halted his run.
Walter withdrew the silvered steel. Wiped it on her naked body. There was something in his eyes.
Crap. He knew the witch. Knew she was possessed by a succubus.
Walter knelt and tried to remove an emerald ring from her finger, but the fit was too tight. There was no way to get it off. With his tanto, he stabbed down and cut off her finger, a clean thrust that jarred his own hand when it hit the marble flooring below.
What the ever-frickin’—
It would take a year or more for the finger to regrow.
Walter was moving at vamp speed, but EJ, resting in Delta, had time on his side. He stepped back so he could see both Walter and Angie. She was still sprinting out the back doors, onto a covered porch.
Walter tucked the bloody ring into his pocket. Ripped off her emerald earrings, bells singing as he did, telling EJ they were magical amulets. Walter placed them in a separate pocket. He glanced along her body, his eyes clinical. He touched a spot on her naked hip. It sang a soft note ofobfuscationandintent.
Walter stood. Beheaded a vampire speeding at him. Dodged the spray as head and vamp fell with forward momentum. He met EJ’s gaze, his expression creating a ripple in the dark waters of EJ’s soul. He gestured to the outer doors and tapped his ear protectors off mute.
Side by side, they killed three more vamps, EJ shooting them, Walter beheading them. They raced through the enormous room, outside, into the cold. A high-pitched roar filled the snow-laden air. A dozen Jet Skis rumbled into the blackness of Chickamauga Lake.
The vampires. Getting away. Out front, several cars started as others and the humans followed suit. Bugging out.
Angie had her head thrown back, screaming as hertrackworking broke. “Come back, you coward. I challenge Karson Marrazzo to Sangre Duello!”
EJ dashed up beside her and folded Delta into place beneath the surface of his soul. The three of them stood on the stone balcony—one of several—overlooking the lake. Angie ground out a low growl of frustration, her face filled with rage.
Walter said, “The battle is done. You will need to remove the demon from Nyoka before it heals her from the sword strike and she escapes.”
EJ said to Walter, “You know her.”
“Ohhh. Yes. I knew her in every way it is possible to know another.”
EJ looked back to the naked vampire. She was gone. The palillos and null cuffs were on the stone floor. He sprinted back in, following a blood trail that led out the front, into the snow. It stopped where a car had been parked, the surface snow-free in the outline of a vehicle.
He was careful, very careful, not to curse.
