The bottom half of one of the two arched Hell Windows on the south wall of the mansion was busted out. Through it I saw wings and fur and bodies. I tried to listen past the roaring of the chopper’s flames. Barking, yipping, screeching, yelling, gunshots.
Going in the front wasn’t an option, but phase one and phase two were keeping the fallen angels busy. Maybe I could sneak around the back and bust out a basement window, get in that way.
The nearest corner of the Dark Mansion was the east wing, the one facing the old fence row. With the light from the windows and that Molotov-fire messing up my night vision, I couldn’t make out anything but shadows over there. I thought I saw movement.
I checked the smashed-out Hell Window and the doorless front entry for shooters, then I hugged the rifle to my chest and ran for the east side of the mansion.
The thing I’d seen in the shadows over there started running at me. A body, long orange-red hair, pale skin, and a .45 with mother-of-pearl grips.
Willow? What the hell?
She stopped short when she saw me, raising the .45 into a shooter’s stance before she realized who I was. Just before she put a round in my face, it registered.
“Tough?” She lowered the gun, then took two running steps and pistol-whipped me.
I stumbled back a few steps.
“You jerk!” she yelled. “Let me think I was a part of this and then try to keep out? If Dodge was in on this, too—”
It was probably a good thing I didn’t have a voice anymore. Otherwise, I would’ve yelled at her for leaving her fucking kid with Owen while she ran off to get herself killed like Dodge. I grabbed Will’s arm and dragged her back into the shadows she’d just come out of.
“Where’s Dodge?” she asked. “Has anybody seen Rian or the sword yet? Which phase of the attack are we on? Where do I need to be?”
I really didn’t want her near the serious fighting or any place she might accidentally catch sight of Dodge’s body, so I touched her shoulder, pointed at the ground where we were crouching and slapped myself on the shoulder.
“I don’t…”
I pointed to my eyes, then over my shoulder at my back.
“Watch your back?” she asked.
I nodded.
“Where are you going?”
I pointed along the east wing of the mansion, then hooked my hand around.
“Okay.” She got up and held the .45 pointed at the ground. “Lead on.”
I shook my head, pointed to the ground where she was crouching, and mouthed the word Stay.
She opened her mouth to argue.
Something was moving behind her. Angel wings, black riot gear, rifle. I grabbed Will by the back of the neck and shoved her to the dirt.
No muzzle flash, just a burst of too-quiet shots. The rounds shattered my breastbone and fragmented in my chest.
Maybe it was because the bullets liquefied my heart and blew tunnels through my lungs, or maybe it was because I’d been focused on arguing with Will, not expecting to get shot. Whatever it was, the pain caught me off guard. It hadn’t hurt that bad when the foot soldiers filled me full of lead earlier. This time the pain radiated out from the bullet wounds in waves of hot and cold. My arms were dead weight. The rifle fell out of my hands. I dropped to one knee in the dirt.
“They’re coming around front!” Willow screamed. She scrambled to get to her feet and bring her .45 up to firing position. “Foot soldiers coming ar—”
The foot soldier who had shot me put two in Will’s forehead. Blood, bone fragments, brain, and orange hair exploded out the back of her head and splattered across my face and neck. She dropped, all crumbled in on herself.
I tried to go after the foot soldier, but my legs wouldn’t move. The pain in my chest was getting worse, throbbing until I felt like I was going to puke. My head hung forward. Vamp venom and saliva dribbled out of my mouth onto my jeans. Except the venom didn’t taste right anymore. It tasted like blood.
I heard the thud of heavy boots hitting the ground and wings rustling. I managed to turn my head just enough to see the line of soldiers creeping toward the pasture.
The quiet, flashless shots—they had suppressors. That foot soldier had shot me and Will with a suppressor because he didn’t want to attract attention from up front. They were going to sneak around back of where the barn used to be, surround the humans and couple of NPs still dug in out front, and pick them off from behind. That was why Willow had been yelling—she’d been trying to warn everybody.
But who knew if anyone had heard her over the noise of everything else going on?
I had to stop the foot soldiers or at the very least attract enough attention for somebody up front to realize what was happening.
I couldn’t yell. I tried to reach for my rifle, but it felt like my arms were made out of ice blocks. They wouldn’t move.
The pounding in my chest was getting worse. Waves of pain washed all the way down my arms to the tips of my fingers now. My vision blurred with every wave, then sharpened back up.
The foot soldier who’d shot Will and me came my way. It took until he pulled out Mikal’s flaming sword for me to realize which dipshit he was.
“Enjoying that Destroyer blood?” Rian asked, a big dumb-fuck grin on his face. “Took it out of your girlfriend’s hide—and trust me, she did not want to give it
