Page 139 of Grave Beginnings

“You can’t.” A dry, humorless laugh escaped him, then twisted into a cackle that scraped against my nerves. His body shuddered, bones cracking like snapping twigs. The illusion of Jonah’s face melted away, skin splitting like wet paper, revealing a dark, skeletal creature beneath.

His limbs elongated, fingers tapering into clawed talons. Hisjaw unhinged, stretching too wide, to reveal teeth sharpened into needle points. Shadows pooled in the hollows of his sunken eyes, and his voice warped into a guttural rasp.

“You think walls hold me? He wants you, Jude Alexander Holt. What reward will he give me for this gift?”

The lights flickered. The wards on the walls flared red, then dimmed. An alarm pierced the silence, and I took an unconscious step back as the changeling swiped at me. Angel’s arms locked like steel around me, yanking me out of its reach as sparks skittered with a pop of color where the creature’s fingertips barely missed my throat, the attack hitting an invisible barrier instead. Was that some part of the prison defense?

The cell door opened. Angel and I were yanked out, Kerry and Victor slamming it shut, and Galen appeared at their side like he’d been summoned. Shadows climbed the walls of the cell, and the noise dug like a chisel into my brain. The alarm silenced a moment later as the creature’s laughter echoed, distorted, lost beneath the wave of darkness oozing from the cell.

“Jude, Jude, Jude,” it hissed, then the shadows vanished as fast as they’d appeared, leaving only the stench of ozone and the echo of its cackle hanging in the air. The changeling was gone, the cell empty, as if the creature had never been there at all.

“I think, in this case,” Victor said after a long moment and the lights stabilizing, “there might actually be justification for hellhounds.”

“So many hellhounds,” Angel said, wrapped around me.

“Can they at least be house-trained? I’m hoping to get my security deposit back.”

“The building and the cells are warded by dozens of species and practitioners,” Kerry said. “How the fuck did it get out?”

“We’ll have to search the building,” Victor said with a long sigh. “But I suspect it’s gone.” He eyed me. “Your shield is better than our wards.”

“Huh?”

Angel tugged me away. “He needs training.”

What shield? I glanced back at Angel, but he put himself between me and Victor.

“Why do you smell like fae?” Victor asked.

“Is that him?” Kerry wondered, leaning in as if to sniff me.

I’d forgotten about the creature I’d rescued, but if he was still attached, I couldn’t sense him at all.

“No one is SV, DV, and FV all at once. It’s not possible. They cancel each other out,” Victor said.

“Any questions you have can be directed to Sergeant Hanna,” Angel said. He tugged me backward; glanced at Wade, then Galen. “Can we get some hellhounds on request?”

I sighed. “If I have to have hellhounds, please make sure they are cat friendly. Are they flammable? Because they sound flammable. Maybe hellhounds aren’t a good idea.”

Galen grunted and lumbered away.

“I’m taking Jude home,” Angel said.

“We should ward his apartment,” Wade said.

“I’m taking him to my place.”

He was?

Angel grabbed my hand and tugged me out.

“Are Ivan and Grandpa safe if this thing comes looking for me?”

“The twins are there, remember?”

“And they are stronger than whatever that was?” I asked as I pointed behind us.

“Yes.”