Page 28

Rome

In a heartbeat, the table was sucked out from under us and a dark fissure corroded the floor with enough noise to wake the dead.

I hastily took that back so I didn’t jinx us. We sure didn’t need the walking dead to add to this disaster.

We all quick-stepped back from the edge of the void spreading at our feet. An acidic fume began to fill the room, making us gag and our eyes water.

“What’s going on?” Mira was calm, at least.

“A breach between this world and Hell.” I looked at the crack as it widened another foot and cut off our access to the door. “We call it a rupture. We need to close it before it spreads any further.”

“Or something comes out of it,” Titus growled.

I looked over at him and—

“Jax, release Kerry!”

An instant later, Kerry was on his feet and lit up blue.

“Gigi, grab the edges!” he yelled. “Reach through space, pull them together, and sew it up!”

“I can’t!” Gigi turned as white as flour. “I don’t know how!”

“Remember when you started to make that net against the shrouder? Same idea. Use your power like a needle and thread.”

“I’m not strong enough!” She shook her head and bit her lip.

“Sure you are, Tennessee. You’re a mistress of time and space, remember?”

“I know you can do this, Gigi,” Jax told her. “You’re the only one of us who can.”

She stared at him for a second, then took a deep breath and disappeared.

I started to shove chairs out of the way and most of them rolled into the rupture. We needed an exit and, if the building was like most, there were only studs and sheetrock separating us from the outer office. I could punch through that in a heartbeat.

Josef suddenly dropped to the floor, out cold, and everything happened fast after that.

The floor gave way a few more inches, and Titus shouted as Josef’s body slid toward the rupture. Jax, the only one near him, dove forward, grabbed his wrist, and yanked him back. Then he slung Josef up in a fireman’s carry and worked his way back to firmer footing.

A tremor ripped through the room and Mimi went down next. She rolled onto her stomach and clawed at the carpeting, but the floor caved into a chute and she slid right to the edge.

“Mimi!” Titus bellowed.

In one amazing move, he lunged forward, grabbed her arm, turned in a quarter circle, and hurled her back. I managed to catch her before she slammed into the wall, but Titus had committed himself. There was no saving him as his momentum catapulted him right into the abyss.

“ Titus! ” Mimi screamed.

Afraid she’d launch herself after him, I held onto her. We didn’t need two people to rescue.

“Holy cats!” Mira yelped.

“What do we do?” Jax came over to us, where the floor was more stable for the moment, and laid Josef down in the corner.

“I’ll get him.” Kerry headed for the edge. “Don’t follow me.”

“No, kid! Wait! We’ll come up with a plan!” I stopped talking to secure Mimi in a better hold. For a little bitty witch, she put up a good fight.

“No time. You gotta get this rupture closed before it takes down the building.”

He was right, but I didn’t like it. He was all but sacrificing himself for someone who, one, hated him and, two, was probably already dead. Out of respect for Mimi, though, I kept my mouth shut.

“How are you gonna get back up here?” Mira yelled. “I don’t see any stairs, dummy!”

“So build me a ladder, artificer!” He grinned as she glowered at him. “Gigi, give me two minutes and not a second more. If we’re not back by then, sew it closed and I’ll find another way out.”

“It’s Hell!” I hollered. “What if there isn’t one?”

“I’ll make one.”

Then the lunatic jumped.

#

Mira

“Build a ladder, build a ladder.” Frantically, I looked around the conference room. “With what? Paper clips? ”

Swearing under my breath, I glanced up—and a wide smile spread across my face.

Hoping the Witch of Endor had good insurance, I raised my hands and brought the ceiling down.

#

Kerry

“You better appreciate this,” I growled as I hauled Titus along.

“I do.”

He staggered against me, and I tightened my hold on the arm slung over my shoulders. He’d landed hard and wrong and rolled several yards away from the rupture. His one leg was all torn up, and he had bad burns everywhere his skin had made contact with Cursed ground.

When he stumbled again and nearly took us both down, I knew I was gonna have to carry him. I didn’t wanna do it, but we needed to move faster, so I hoisted him up and over my shoulders.

“Hang on.” I grumbled. “We’re almost there.”

“We going to grow wings?” His voice bounced with each step I took. “Or did you learn to teleport?”

“Mira will come up with something.”

You hear me, Boots?

“Sure, Harker. Well, I guess dying to save my girl is the way I’d want to go. It’s only too bad it has to be with you .”

“Likewise.”

Neither of us mentioned the creatures rushing at us from all sides.

When we reached the spot where I’d landed, I dropped Titus and looked up. We were directly below the rupture, and Mira needed to hurry if we weren’t gonna become demon chow.

Did you call me?

I jumped as a voice sounded outta the air.

“You say something, Harker?”

“Not me.”

A shadow of a girl appeared next to us. She had short, dark hair and sad, dark eyes.

Did you call me?

“No, I didn’t. It was my friend, Jax—” I shook my head. “Look, whatever Reilly Argaud was up to is connected to some things that are happening now.”

Are you trying to bring him to justice?

“He was tried and sentenced to The Box. I’ve already talked with him.”

Then what do you want with me?

This conversation was going nowhere fast.

“I have no idea what Jax wanted to ask you.”

He made me do it, you know.

“Who made you do what?” Titus narrowed his eyes at her.

Pull the trigger. Reilly made me put the gun in my mouth and pull the trigger.

“You know what she’s talking about, Harker?”

“Yeah. Aspen, why’d he do that?”

I was breaking free of his control. He couldn’t risk me telling what I knew.

“Then you’re a murder victim, not a suicide,” Titus said. “How did you end up in Hell?”

I don’t know.

Okay, now I was gonna have to rescue her, too.

“You got a reliquary or something on you, Wray?” I asked.

“I have a pyx.”

“That’ll work. Get Aspen in it.”

But —

“What—”

“Hurry up!” I snarled. “We’re getting outta here!”

Somehow.

Aspen zoomed into the pyx, and Titus snapped the lid closed right as the first of the Diabolical creatures reached us. Throwing up a hand, I whirled in a circle and spewed out power. The smallest of them fizzed into nothing; the rest piled up around us.

“That was stupid, Harker.” Titus shook his head. “You just lit us up like downtown Vegas at night.”

“No worries.” I pointed with my chin. “Our ride is here.”

A cage was dropping down from above. It was flimsy and narrow and swayed on its metal cable—and only one other sight had ever looked as beautiful to me.

“Seriously?” he grunted. “That contraption will never hold us both.”

“You first, then.”

“No, I’ll stay and fight.”

“It’s you they want, moron, not me.” I rolled my eyes. “The way I smell, they won’t know I’m nephilim. ’Sides, you’re wounded, and you’re girl’s probably going crazy up there.”

“They’ll still swarm you in a frenzy.”

“Aw, I need the practice. Just promise me one thing.”

“What?”

“If I don’t survive this, save my girl for me and tell her—”

Tell her what? That I love her? I’ll be dead and it would only hurt her more. Tell her I’m sorry? Pretty sure she’ll know I was sorry. Tell her I wish we coulda had centuries together? That would only make her cry harder. Tell her to move on and forget me? She’d do that, anyway.

The cage hit the ground and an ash cloud puffed up around the base. Inside, I could see a string dangling from the top with an index card paper-clipped to it. As I shoved him inside, I asked what it said.

“Pull when ready.”

“If I don’t make it, rescue my girl and tell her I said thank you. Tell her she’s the reason I died a man and not a monster.” I met his eyes for a second. “Swear it.”

“On my life, it will be done.”

In a hurry now, I wedged him in the cage and accidentally whacked his injured leg. He groaned, his eyes rolling back in his head. Needing him outta here, I yanked on the string, then jumped back as something bumped into my foot.

“Wait!” He fell forward. “The pyx!”

Too late. The cage glowed gray and zoomed up way faster than it had come down.

As I called up my katana, I looked at the pyx where it fell. It’d be okay until I figured something else out. For now, all I could do was swing my katana fast enough to stay alive.