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Ana cracked her neck, welcomed the rush of adrenaline that slid through her veins. She was gonna need a shitload of it, too. It sounded like she was surrounded by more than a just few of the bastards. Her fangs hung, ready for attack, and she held herself as loose as she could, considering her feet kept sinking into the soft sand.

A howl rent the night and her hair stood on end as a cacophony of growls accompanied it. Heavy breathing blew down the pike and she wrinkled her nose as the otherworld stench of the hellhounds came with it.

“Bring it on,” she whispered. She shook out her fingers but luck was not hanging with her this night. Any extra mojo she’d ingested from Declan was long gone. There wasn’t even a tingle.

She held her breath as everything faded away and when several sets of fiery eyes appeared, all emotion fled.

She needed to survive this. She would survive.

The beasts were impressive in height. Tall, shaggy things with powerful jaws that held several rows of serrated teeth. She glanced down at the dagger in her hand. Somehow it didn’t seem fair.

The leader sported two heads; the smaller one blew plumes of fire at her as the hellhound stopped a few feet away.

Long moments stretched between them and a wave of nervous energy rolled over Ana. She hissed, showed her fangs in defiance, and shouted, “What the hell you waiting for?”

Ana DeLacrux had never been a girl who waited for the shit to hit the fan. She’d rather be the one flinging it.

She flashed the dagger, rolling it easily in her hands as she advanced toward the pack. There were five of them. All of them were massive, easily topping her height of five-foot-two. Their hair was long, coarse, and they stank like the foulest shithole imaginable.

She would have only one chance to surprise them. Ana decided the best defense was to attack and take out the leader. Lightning bolted across the darkened sky, cutting through the strange red sheets of energy that shifted in the wind.

The hellhounds howled once more, but Ana was already on the move, her small body twisting in the air as she aimed her dagger at the double-headed pack leader.

She spiraled as high as she could, a savage yell falling from her lips as she slid through the darkness and fell between them all.

Chapter 24

Declan heard howls in the distance as he trudged through the dunes. Hellhounds, no doubt. Seth would use creatures such as them to guard the many treasures he held.

The cold, biting wind and sand were constant, pounding his body as he headed toward Seth’s compound. It was not far, hidden between two massive mounds of sand.

The demon had an impressive display of collectables, stolen from both the human realm as well as every corner of Hell. There were whispers that he housed several items taken from the Holiest of places—Heaven itself. Pieces that had been lost for thousands of years.

Seth was in fact a cross between an art collector and a garbage man who had some strange ability to land on both sides of the fence without getting burned.

He answered to no one and was free to come and go as he pleased. For reasons unknown, Lucifer had bestowed on the demon great boundaries in which to exist.

It was one of the reasons Lilith hated him so. And why she’d stolen one of his most prized possessions over five hundred years earlier, the stone of the Nile, an ancient necklace worn by Nefertari herself.

Seth had been trying to retrieve it ever since, with no luck. Declan planned to get it back for him—as long as Seth agreed to accompany him to District Three.

He was well acquainted with Lilith’s private quarters. He’d seen the prize. He knew where she kept it. If it wasn’t around her slimy neck it was hung on a golden rod near her bed. His mouth thinned at the thought of Lilith. Rage, pain, and fear mingled, forming a toxic soup that waited to be unleashed.

He’d love nothing more than to rip her head from her body. He wanted to make her suffer for the things she’d done to him. The things she’d made him do.

He shook such thoughts from his mind as he ventured deeper into the dunes. He needed to focus. His goal was the teenagers and Ana. Nothing more.

Thoughts of the vampire warmed him, bled through the cold that had settled upon his soul. He felt the strength she’d imparted to him, the vampire blood that now fused with his. It was a marriage of power—the brute, cunning strength of a vampire and the seductive magick that lived inside him.

He might be a fool but for the moment Declan felt invincible.

The sky above him flickered, with sheets of white energy rippling along the ribbons of red that hung there. Yet another storm was brewing. Everything down here was extreme and Declan pulled the collar of his leather coat higher as he picked up the pace, and jogged through the sand. By his calculations Seth’s compound was just beyond the next dune.

A sharp howl, followed by a scream, ripped through the night and Declan paused, his nostrils flaring as he whipped his head around. What the hell was that?

Fog slithered over the sand, whirling in a macabre dance with bits of garbage and sheets of mist. Adrenaline flooded his body and a tingle rippled along his skull. It was a weird sensation and at first he didn’t know what it was. What it meant.

He took another step and was about to take another when he dug in and came to an abrupt stop. A familiar scent rolled over his nose and his gut clenched hard.

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