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Hiding things that make him dangerous to Vampires? Ryder wondered. But Demos seems completely unaffected by him.

“Five,” Demos grunted. “Not good. But not terrible.”

“We’ve handled more loads of times,” Ryder said.

“Two against five doesn’t sound like good odds to me,” Grayson said. “Isn’t there any other way out of here? Maybe we can get up onto the roof and jump to the next building?”

That icy, warrior scent rose up from Grayson. Ryder swallowed thickly. “They’ll be on us from both sides before we make it halfway across.”

“You said she was fast, right?” Demos pointed out. “She can jump high too. Vampires are the best acrobats you’ve ever seen.”

“So there’s no way out?” Grayson’s heart was thrumming again.

Ryder grimaced and swallowed again. “We can handle them. You need to let us take care of this, Grayson.”

“Right. Sure. I can’t do much against Vampires,” Grayson said with a shrug, but that icy smell was so much stronger.

“Grayson,” Ryder put a note of warning in his voice, “whatever you did before to get past these Vampires won’t work twice.”

“Okay,” Grayson lied again as the scent had Ryder by the throat.

He glanced over at Demos. His Blood Brother showed no sign of smelling that odd scent.

Am I going mad?

Ryder grimaced. Demos’ expression was shrouded. He hadn’t bought Grayson’s story of Sect of Dawn Vampires, but it looked to be true. Yet like Ryder he sensed something was off here.

But he’s not being affected by it like I am.

“Where’s the plan?” Demos asked. “Like that time in Egypt?”

Ryder grinned. “I was thinking more about Brazil.”

Demos’ eyebrows rose. “Brazil? Well, well, well, someone’s intent to turn this evening around.”

“Egypt? Brazil? What are you guys talking about?” Grayson asked.

“We’ve been getting out of tough spots for a long time,” Ryder explained. “This is no different. We encountered situations like this in those places.”

“That Vampire out there she’s… she’s different,” Grayson said and swallowed.

The fear in his eyes had the opposite effect of the scent and the heart. Ryder felt a flush of shame. This boy was terrified. He was in need of protection. And that’s what Weryns offered.

At least now we do.

“We’ve dealt with crazy before, Grayson. It’s been sort of our bag,” Demos answered.

Grayson frowned, but neither of them explained. The Immortal War had needed soldiers. Each Bloodline had made Vampires based on their level of aggression, no other trait was necessary. The crazier the better. While they had been ideal as foot soldiers, they couldn’t be trusted afterwards to keep the existence of Vampires a secret.

They killed without compunction and mostly just for fun. They were sloppy leaving drained bodies like party favors strewn across cities. And he and Demos hunted them. They called these lost Vampires War Children. Lawson had called Balthazar a Master-killer, but from all Ryder had seen, Roan Tithe had been one of the War Children. He had just hidden it better than others. Maybe this woman and her minions were War Children. That would make sense though bringing the Sect of Dawn into it was odd. But that was just one more odd thing about this night.

“Are you down with Brazil?” Ryder asked.

Demos nodded and strode past them towards the front of the church.

“Where’s he going?” Grayson asked, eyes widening and breathing becoming heavy once more.

“Don’t worry about that. We’ve got this,” Ryder said.