“To where?”
“Wherever. Anaheim. Mexico. Hell. You might end up there anyway within an hour or two.”
Her jaw tightened and she crawled over to the driver’s seat. “I’ll meet you there. Don’t get yourself killed.”
He was already gone.
Eve stared at the teenage son of the Alpha and wondered how he could look the same, yet different. She’d guess he was sixteen. Seventeen at the most. His hair was still a mop of dark waves that fell to his shoulders. He still had a weak chin, and a pouty, sullen mouth. But his hazel eyes were colder, more barren than before. Soulless, and drowning in malice and bloodlust.
He was also buck nak*d, which gave her the willies. Pubescent boys had never been her thing. She’d kept her virginity until she was almost eighteen, then she gave it to Alec. A virile, potent man . . . several centuries her senior.
The pounding at the door resumed, Reed shouting words she couldn’t understand. His near-panic, however, was palpable and gave her courage. The wolf was using his magical side to keep Reed out.
I’m coming, Reed thought grimly. You stay alive until I do.
No worries, she said with pure bravado. In truth, she was scared nearly witless. A wolf with magic. Just what she’d always wanted.
In response, Reed bolstered her the best way he could. The mark on her arm began to tingle and burn, pumping celestially enhanced adrenaline through her system. Her senses honed, her muscles thickened. Permission granted to kick some demon ass.
“He can’t come back for you, you know,” the wolf murmured, circling around Richens’s corpse. “I’ve locked us in a warding/containment spell.”
“Great. No one to interfere while I kill you.”
“For years,” he continued, “I couldn’t control my wolf or my magic. Now, thanks to being cooked in Mark bone and blood meal, I can control both.”
As understanding dawned, Eve exhaled in a rush. He’d been locked in with the kiln in Upland when it exploded—a kiln that had been stuffed with all the ingredients to make the Infernal mask, including Mark blood and bone meal, which were remarkable for their regenerative properties.
It’s how they made the hellhounds, Alec said.
Hellhounds?
I’ll explain as soon as I get in there.
Alec was outside with Reed. Her heroes. Unfortunately, it looked as if she would be stuck saving herself. Against a wolf with magic. Without a weapon she was proficient with.
She sidestepped in opposition to him, keeping him directly across from her. At least the gurney hid the lower half of his body from view, although it kept Richens’s mutilated cadaver a bit too close for comfort. She tried not to look. “I really don’t give a damn about your existential angst or your shitty childhood,” she retorted. “All I care about is how to kill you so you stay dead.”
Smoke tumbled across the ceiling, black and gray, like specters on the hunt. In the rear of the house, the fire ate through wood and drywall with gleeful cackling. To make things worse, she was facing a hybrid who had a lot more experience than she did, despite his youth.
“Aw, gimme a break,” he teased, as if they were friends or people who liked each other. “I don’t want to kill you. I want to turn you over as a gift. You’re not a believer anyway. What does it matter which side you’re on?”
Eve choked on smoke. “You’re k-kidding.”
“I’m going to get a car out of my dad for this.” His dead eyes brightened at the thought. “A Porsche like the one in the driveway. The bitches will love it.”
She’d love to run him over with it, the little bastard. She tossed a flaming dagger at his right side just for the hell of it, then followed it up with another to the left. When he ducked away from the first, the second nicked him on the shoulder. Then it smashed into a jar of something on a crate behind him that exploded into flames. The ignited liquid splattered on him and he cursed, tamping the fire out with swats of his hands.
Eve raised her arms in triumph, relishing the wild aggressive energy the mark was pumping through her veins. “Yes!”
“Stupid whore.” His lips curled back from his teeth.
“Asshole,” she countered.
He feinted to the left, then the right, trying to psych her out. She laughed instead. It was a shaky, rather unconvincing sound, but it was still a shock to hear, which was the point. Sometimes bullshit was all a Mark had to keep the tension even.
The wolf growled and shoved the table at her, prompting her to jump back. Richens’s body tumbled to her feet.
Then she realized she had a weapon after all—his temper. She’d seen it before, the last time they met. When she provoked him, he’d become careless and violent. He’d run straight into her roundhouse kick and gotten his dumb ass knocked out.
The house is on fire, Alec said.
No shit? I thought it smelled like barbeque.
You’re going to be barbequed, Reed snapped, if you don’t get the hell out of there.
From the ruckus outside, she guessed they were brawling. Hopefully against the Infernals and not with each other.
Bummer, she thought, I was hoping to hang out here awhile. It’s so pleasant and—
Eve! they shouted in unison.
“You should have dropped the glamour before you killed Laurel,” she said to the wolf, “let her see what she’s been f**king the last three weeks. Or were you afraid to?”
“I’m not afraid of anything! I’ve done what no other Infernal ever has.”
The smoke began to thicken and lower from the ceiling, swirling around their heads and blistering their breathing passages.
“She said you sucked in bed,” she went on. “No finesse. But the Antonio glamour was hot enough to make it bearable. Wonder what she would have thought if she’d seen that you’re just a kid.”
“I’m not a f**king kid!”
Eve opened her mouth to continue, but he threw a bluish glowing ball straight into her sternum. The impact lifted her feet from the floor and slammed her into a crate the size of a refrigerator. She crashed through plywood and into sawdust, the room spinning from the force of the blow.
“Is that all you’ve got?” she wheezed. “No wonder Laurel was bored.”
He leaped across the overturned gurney and landed in a crouch. “You should have heard her begging for it,” he snarled. “She couldn’t get enough.”
She squirmed free of the crate and fell to her knees, sucking scorching, ashy air into beleaguered lungs. The mark helped her to heal fast, but it didn’t make her invincible. At least there was less smoke closer to the floor. “So you say . . . but that’s not what she told me.”
His fingers and toes lengthened into claws. The skin across his back rippled with fur, then returned to skin. “I’ll show you,” he growled, stalking forward. “I’ll f**k you till you scream.”
The ground fell away. Eve found herself levitating a foot above the hardwood floor, then slammed backward into it, splayed. Magic stayed her. She couldn’t move more than her head, fingers, and toes. Fear coiled insidiously through her gut, despite the steady pumping of adrenaline and bloodlust through her veins.
The wolf came closer, half boy and half beast. He was leering, his eyes triumphant, his c*ck hard.
Eve laughed softly, knowing she was either going to succeed beautifully or fail miserably. “Do your worst,” she taunted. “With a dick that small, I won’t even feel it.”
He pounced, altering into his wolf form midleap.
She waited, holding off until the last possible moment, shaking like a leaf and grateful she couldn’t vomit.
As if in slow motion, he came at her, hovering over her. His mouth was wide, his teeth bared.
“Now,” she whispered, crossing her fingers that she wouldn’t be denied. A flame-covered silver sword appeared in her hand, facing upward and ready.
He speared himself cleanly, the blade sliding through fur and flesh like a hot knife through butter. A horrendous howl turned into a sick gurgling. As the magical hold he’d had on her released, Eve rolled, taking the top. She lurched to her feet, yanking the blade free and swinging it downward with all her might. The instant the tip hit hardwood, both the severed head and body disintegrated into ash.
“Eve!”
“Angel.”
She spun to face the two men who charged into the house. Freed from the necessity of watching the wolf, Eve took in the state of the house. Fire licked along the walls from the hallway, rushing toward the fresh air introduced through the front door. The blaze she’d started in the living room had spread to the kitchen. The whole house creaked in protest, shuddering at its impending collapse.
Alec reached her first, snatching her up and tossing her over his shoulder. The sword clattered to the floor.
“Time to go,” he muttered.
The next instant she found herself by the Porsche, disoriented and barely breathing. Around her was chaos. Twin piles of ash dotted the lawn, as did the bodies of two Mark guards. Two wolves fought with those who remained standing. The dragon was acting as cover for the Marks, spewing fire according to the directions shouted from the gwyllion, who stood on the roof of the van.
“Is he d-dead?” she gasped, clinging to Alec as the sky swirled madly above her. “Is the wolf really dead this time?”
Reed’s voice came clipped and furious, “I’d say so.”
“Are you sure?” she persisted. “We burned him up before and the son of a bitch came back.”
Alec pressed his lips to her forehead and released her. “Ash is ash, there’s no coming back from that. Can you get Montevista out of here?”
Eve blinked. “What?”
He gestured to the passenger seat where the guard laid crumbled, his black shirt glistening wetly, his throat torn and gushing. If he were mortal, he’d be long dead. As a Mark, he was damn close to it. Defenseless and vulnerable.
Reed pressed keys into her palm. “Go.”
A piercing howl rent the air. They turned their heads, saw a massive wolf on the front steps. It stared at them with bared teeth and glowing red eyes. The white diamond on its forehead told her who it was, but she asked anyway, “Is that Daddy?”
“Get the f**k out of here!” Alec yelled, his wings snapping free with such force, Eve was plastered to the hood. Reed joined the fray, the two brothers launching forward, intercepting the wolf, who charged at her full-bore while flanked on either side by two wolves.
Black and white wings, powerful masculine bodies, ferocious beasts . . . She was arrested by the sight. The eternal conflict between angel and demon. The battle cries and howls of pain. The smell of fire and ash, of blood and urine.
“Hollis . . .”
Montevista’s weak voice snapped her back to reality. Eve slid off the hood. She leaped over the driver’s-side door of the open convertible and hopped into the seat. She turned the key in the ignition and the powerful engine roared like a dream. She squealed out of the driveway in reverse, running over an attacking wolf in the process.
Gripping the stick shift, she slammed the transmission into gear and punched the gas. She adjusted the rearview mirror, trying to see the fracas behind her. Montevista yelled in terror. Eve’s gaze shot forward and she screamed, too. She stood on the brake. The Porsche’s rear end fishtailed wildly, the car skidding down the street passenger side first . . .
. . . straight for the house-size, flesh-colored beast thundering toward them.
The car juddered to a halt.
“Fuck me,” she breathed, then coughed as her lungs burned. Was that the hellhound?
Turn around and run, Alec bit out. Only Infernals can kill it.
Wasn’t that just really damned inconvenient?
She looked back at the blazing house and the two winged men who circled low over it, combating the wolves that poured out of a widening hole in the ground. Satan was sending reinforcements. They couldn’t deal with the behemoth from Hell on top of that. No way.
One wolf broke free of the melee and raced toward her, foaming at the mouth and lathered at the throat. The Alpha.
Eve restarted the stalled car and spun around, hurtling toward the wolf with the same reckless intent he displayed. If it was just a game of chicken between a canine and a car, she’d know who would win. But against a werewolf . . . She gripped the steering wheel tighter and shifted gears in rapid succession.
A foot away from impact, the wolf leaped onto the hood, his massive claws piercing through the metal. He roared at her through the windshield, his red eyes wild and filled with evil. He lunged headfirst into the safety glass, shattering it.
Fucking A.
Downshifting, Eve yanked the steering wheel hard left and spun the car back around, skidding across the empty street and hitting a curb. The bump dislodged the wolf, who slid across the hood and almost fell off before gaining purchase at the very nose.
She gunned it, putting the Porsche through its paces as she accelerated toward the approaching mega-Infernal. Zero to sixty in less than four seconds.
“This might not work,” she shouted at Montevista.
“Go down in a blaze of glory,” he said back.
“Give me your gun.”
Montevista pulled the weapon free of his thigh holster and racked it, then handed it over. She aimed and fired through the wolf, the Glock autoloading and discharging again and again and again. The sixth bullet widened the hole in the Alpha’s shoulder and pierced through the other side, hitting the hellhound. Covered in werewolf blood, the bullet penetrated the beast’s hide. Eve continued to fire, punching through the back of the wolf to injure the hound with nearly every shot.
The hound screamed in fury and lunged. Eve punched the gas. With the Alpha as a hood ornament, she hit the beast head on. The wolf’s head sank muzzle-first into the hellhound’s belly before he disintegrated into ash. The Infernal bellowed, then exploded, spraying Eve and Montevista with a deluge of gore.
Unable to see, she ran the Porsche over a curb and crashed into an oak tree. The air bags deployed and her head slammed forward into the pillow, then back into the headrest.