From the ruckus outside, she guessed they were brawling. Hopefully against the Infernals and not with each other.
Bummer, she thought, I was hoping to hang out here awhile. It’s so pleasant and—
Eve! they shouted in unison.
“You should have dropped the glamour before you killed Laurel,” she said to the wolf, “let her see what she’s been fucking the last three weeks. Or were you afraid to?”
“I’m not afraid of anything! I’ve done what no other Infernal ever has.”
The smoke began to thicken and lower from the ceiling, swirling around their heads and blistering their breathing passages.
“She said you sucked in bed,” she went on. “No finesse. But the Antonio glamour was hot enough to make it bearable. Wonder what she would have thought if she’d seen that you’re just a kid.”
“I’m not a fucking kid!”
Eve opened her mouth to continue, but he threw a bluish glowing ball straight into her sternum. The impact lifted her feet from the floor and slammed her into a crate the size of a refrigerator. She crashed through plywood and into sawdust, the room spinning from the force of the blow.
“Is that all you’ve got?” she wheezed. “No wonder Laurel was bored.”
He leaped across the overturned gurney and landed in a crouch. “You should have heard her begging for it,” he snarled. “She couldn’t get enough.”
She squirmed free of the crate and fell to her knees, sucking scorching, ashy air into beleaguered lungs. The mark helped her to heal fast, but it didn’t make her invincible. At least there was less smoke closer to the floor. “So you say . . . but that’s not what she told me.”
His fingers and toes lengthened into claws. The skin across his back rippled with fur, then returned to skin. “I’ll show you,” he growled, stalking forward. “I’ll fuck you till you scream.”
The ground fell away. Eve found herself levitating a foot above the hardwood floor, then slammed backward into it, splayed. Magic stayed her. She couldn’t move more than her head, fingers, and toes. Fear coiled insidiously through her gut, despite the steady pumping of adrenaline and bloodlust through her veins.
The wolf came closer, half boy and half beast. He was leering, his eyes triumphant, his cock hard.
Eve laughed softly, knowing she was either going to succeed beautifully or fail miserably. “Do your worst,” she taunted. “With a dick that small, I won’t even feel it.”
He pounced, altering into his wolf form midleap.
She waited, holding off until the last possible moment, shaking like a leaf and grateful she couldn’t vomit.
As if in slow motion, he came at her, hovering over her. His mouth was wide, his teeth bared.
“Now,” she whispered, crossing her fingers that she wouldn’t be denied. A flame-covered silver sword appeared in her hand, facing upward and ready.
He speared himself cleanly, the blade sliding through fur and flesh like a hot knife through butter. A horrendous howl turned into a sick gurgling. As the magical hold he’d had on her released, Eve rolled, taking the top. She lurched to her feet, yanking the blade free and swinging it downward with all her might. The instant the tip hit hardwood, both the severed head and body disintegrated into ash.
“Eve!”
“Angel.”
She spun to face the two men who charged into the house. Freed from the necessity of watching the wolf, Eve took in the state of the house. Fire licked along the walls from the hallway, rushing toward the fresh air introduced through the front door. The blaze she’d started in the living room had spread to the kitchen. The whole house creaked in protest, shuddering at its impending collapse.
Alec reached her first, snatching her up and tossing her over his shoulder. The sword clattered to the floor.
“Time to go,” he muttered.
The next instant she found herself by the Porsche, disoriented and barely breathing. Around her was chaos. Twin piles of ash dotted the lawn, as did the bodies of two Mark guards. Two wolves fought with those who remained standing. The dragon was acting as cover for the Marks, spewing fire according to the directions shouted from the gwyllion, who stood on the roof of the van.
“Is he d-dead?” she gasped, clinging to Alec as the sky swirled madly above her. “Is the wolf really dead this time?”
Reed’s voice came clipped and furious, “I’d say so.”
“Are you sure?” she persisted. “We burned him up before and the son of a bitch came back.”
Alec pressed his lips to her forehead and released her. “Ash is ash, there’s no coming back from that. Can you get Montevista out of here?”
Eve blinked. “What?”
He gestured to the passenger seat where the guard laid crumbled, his black shirt glistening wetly, his throat torn and gushing. If he were mortal, he’d be long dead. As a Mark, he was damn close to it. Defenseless and vulnerable.
Reed pressed keys into her palm. “Go.”
A piercing howl rent the air. They turned their heads, saw a massive wolf on the front steps. It stared at them with bared teeth and glowing red eyes. The white diamond on its forehead told her who it was, but she asked anyway, “Is that Daddy?”
“Get the fuck out of here!” Alec yelled, his wings snapping free with such force, Eve was plastered to the hood. Reed joined the fray, the two brothers launching forward, intercepting the wolf, who charged at her full-bore while flanked on either side by two wolves.
Black and white wings, powerful masculine bodies, ferocious beasts . . . She was arrested by the sight. The eternal conflict between angel and demon. The battle cries and howls of pain. The smell of fire and ash, of blood and urine.
“Hollis . . .”
Montevista’s weak voice snapped her back to reality. Eve slid off the hood. She leaped over the driver’s-side door of the open convertible and hopped into the seat. She turned the key in the ignition and the powerful engine roared like a dream. She squealed out of the driveway in reverse, running over an attacking wolf in the process.
Gripping the stick shift, she slammed the transmission into gear and punched the gas. She adjusted the rearview mirror, trying to see the fracas behind her. Montevista yelled in terror. Eve’s gaze shot forward and she screamed, too. She stood on the brake. The Porsche’s rear end fishtailed wildly, the car skidding down the street passenger side first . . .
. . . straight for the house-size, flesh-colored beast thundering toward them.
The car juddered to a halt.
“Fuck me,” she breathed, then coughed as her lungs burned. Was that the hellhound?
Turn around and run, Alec bit out. Only Infernals can kill it.
Wasn’t that just really damned inconvenient?
She looked back at the blazing house and the two winged men who circled low over it, combating the wolves that poured out of a widening hole in the ground. Satan was sending reinforcements. They couldn’t deal with the behemoth from Hell on top of that. No way.
One wolf broke free of the melee and raced toward her, foaming at the mouth and lathered at the throat. The Alpha.
Eve restarted the stalled car and spun around, hurtling toward the wolf with the same reckless intent he displayed. If it was just a game of chicken between a canine and a car, she’d know who would win. But against a werewolf . . . She gripped the steering wheel tighter and shifted gears in rapid succession.
A foot away from impact, the wolf leaped onto the hood, his massive claws piercing through the metal. He roared at her through the windshield, his red eyes wild and filled with evil. He lunged headfirst into the safety glass, shattering it.
Fucking A.
Downshifting, Eve yanked the steering wheel hard left and spun the car back around, skidding across the empty street and hitting a curb. The bump dislodged the wolf, who slid across the hood and almost fell off before gaining purchase at the very nose.
She gunned it, putting the Porsche through its paces as she accelerated toward the approaching mega-Infernal. Zero to sixty in less than four seconds.
“This might not work,” she shouted at Montevista.
“Go down in a blaze of glory,” he said back.
“Give me your gun.”
Montevista pulled the weapon free of his thigh holster and racked it, then handed it over. She aimed and fired through the wolf, the Glock autoloading and discharging again and again and again. The sixth bullet widened the hole in the Alpha’s shoulder and pierced through the other side, hitting the hellhound. Covered in werewolf blood, the bullet penetrated the beast’s hide. Eve continued to fire, punching through the back of the wolf to injure the hound with nearly every shot.
The hound screamed in fury and lunged. Eve punched the gas. With the Alpha as a hood ornament, she hit the beast head on. The wolf’s head sank muzzle-first into the hellhound’s belly before he disintegrated into ash. The Infernal bellowed, then exploded, spraying Eve and Montevista with a deluge of gore.
Unable to see, she ran the Porsche over a curb and crashed into an oak tree. The air bags deployed and her head slammed forward into the pillow, then back into the headrest.
The world came to an abrupt stop.
Eve groaned and looked at Montevista. He was slumped over the dash, eyes open and sightless. Crying, she tried to open the driver’s-side door, but was unable to.
Strong arms plucked her out. She fell into Reed’s embrace with a sob of relief. “He’s dead. Montevista’s dead.”
The arms that held her were shaking. “You’re fucking nuts, you know that? Absolutely insane. What the hell were you thinking?”
Thinking? Her brain had stopped working when Alec beamed her out of the house. “I—”
A massive explosion shook the very ground they stood on. Looking around Reed’s shoulder, she saw flames from the duplex shoot toward the heavens. Another enormous boom! had her ducking her face into his chest.
Then her feet left the ground and they were moving.
“What—?”
“Gasoline,” he bit out, tossing her over his shoulder as Alec had done.