Page 73

A crash of rolling thunder shook the earth even harder than the lightning, the shock waves sending Eilidh falling flat on her face in the mud.

Shay tripped over her own boots and slammed into the truck, grabbing onto the side mirror for balance.

All around them, the trees lining the road went up in flames as more lightning struck their highest points.

“Get in!”Tanner bellowed from the other side of the truck. “SHAY—GET IN!”

Shay fumbled for the handle, electricity prickling across her palms, up her neck, across her scalp, making her limbs twitch and jerk without pause.

By the grace of the gods, she managed to whip the driver’s door open and hurl herself onto the cold leather seat, door thumping shut.

“You sure you’re well enough to drive?” Tanner panted. He hit a button below his window, and the locks snapped down.The keys were still in the ignition, nullifying the protection spells that would’ve incinerated them upon break-in.

More lightning struck with a deafeningclap,felling a tree.

It hit the road behind them, sparks flying, burning branches scratching across the back of the truck like giant infernal claws.

Shay turned the key in the ignition, engine snarling awake as magic flowed through it.

Fists banged on her window.

“You bitch!”Eilidh roared, yanking on the handle. She struck again, glass cracking under her fist.“Open this door, you fucking bitch?—”

Not likely.

Shay smiled like a maniac, lightning weaving through her teeth. “Go to hell.”

And then she threw the gear into drive and stepped on it.

22

Yveswich General Hospital

YVESWICH, STATE OF KER

Not again.

Not fuckingagain.

The others launched into action, tearing the truck apart in search of syringes—the serum that could restart Loren’s heart—as Darien began chest compressions, ignoring the pure agony in his broken hand.

“Where are they?”Ivy shrieked.

“I don’t know—JUST KEEP LOOKING!”Max roared.

Bullets cracked out of guns in rapid succession—closer now, as demons began an onslaught on the parking lot. Metal crunched, and glass buckled and shattered as they leapt across parked and moving cars, their blood-curdling roars and warbling hunting calls ripping through the streets. Cops and Fleet soldiers moved forward in droves, weapons raised, as unarmed civilians ran for cover. Those who had wings took up their positions in the sky, bullets spitting from above.

A snarl rumbled from nearby.

Darien blew a breath into Loren’s mouth. Risked a glance up?—

A monster was bounding this way—teeth gnashing, claws tearing up the frozen ground.

“Roman!”he bellowed.

Lightning-fast, Roman slid across the roof of the truck and dropped to the ground before Darien—right on time to blow out the beast’s brains as it lunged with outstretched claws. Its scream died on the wind, its body tumbling across the pavement in a spray of blood and snow.

Another creature barreled toward Roman’s left, but it was felled by Kylar, who punched a knife through its skull.