“Isaac,how could you?” Alex’s voice sounded wrecked, and a sob rattled out of him.
“He was just a demon, Hawk,” Isaac said, rolling his eyes. He jerked his head at the woman. “I take it you’re Lilith? Do you have my money?”
“I do.” From behind her back, she withdrew a fairly small black bag. He guessed that a million dollars in large bills probably didn’t take up as much space as the movies suggested. “But first, I want to hear it from him.” She dropped the bag and stepped closer, walking right up to Alex and grabbing him by the face. Her bright red nails dug into his cheeks as she forced his head up. “Is Talon really dead?”
Alex sucked down a loud gasp. Tears tracked down his face. “Yes, yes, he’s dead. I can’t believe Isaac killed him.” He squeezed his eyes shut, his shoulders shaking.
Damn, he was a pretty good actor.
Lilith’s face split into a nasty grin. Her red eyes met Isaac’s. “You can go,” she dismissed. “Take your money and disappear. I never want to see you in my city again.”
Go? Just like that? “What about Hawk?”
“Oh, he’s mine now.” She smiled down at Alex. “I’mgoing to take my time with him.” When she looked at Isaac again, all the humor was gone from her face. “I said go.”
He lurched into motion, easing past her as though to go for the bag of money. His eyes scanned the cliff around them. Where was the cavalry? Where were Shadrach and Talon?
The familiar sound of an unsheathing blade caught his attention, and he turned to see Lilith withdrawing a knife from her pocket. Alex’s eyes widened as she brought it down toward him, and Isaac lunged for her?—
Talon appeared between them, grabbing her wrist. She whirled—awayfrom Talon—so fast she became a blur and screamed, “Now!”
Aboomechoed across the cove. Isaac ducked instinctively, and something slammed into Talon. Black blood sprayed from his chest, and he went down with a shocked grunt of pain.
“Talon!” Alex screamed. He had a knife in his back pocket; he could cut his wrists free. While he did that, Isaac distracted Lilith, drawing a holy knife hidden at his lower back.
“You!” she snarled, swiping at him with her knife. He caught it and swung at her chest, but she ducked under his arm and twisted herself free, slamming her other fist into his solar plexus. He staggered, gasping for breath, and she turned toward Alex, who was still sawing through the duct tape.
Isaac was willing to concede that he’dmaybeused too much.
Talon, with black blood dribbling from his mouth and soaking into both the front and back of his shirt, stumbled between her and Alex. He looked like he barely managed to stay upright. What the hell had they shot him with?
She scoffed.
There was another ear-splittingboom, and anotherthinghit him at center mass. It blew straight through him this time, whizzing over Alex’s head and splattering black blood all over him. He gasped in shock, and Talon fell backward, half on Alex, who struggled to catch him while he was still half-trapped in duct tape.
It was a gun. A very big gun, by the sound of it.
Isaac spun, desperately scanning the cliffside. “Shadrach!” Where the hell was he? Somebody had to stop that gunman.
“I came prepared,” Lilith said. “I knew there was a chance you were still alive, and I knew you’d never let any harm come to your little human. All I had to do was threaten him, and if this was all some kind of trap, you’d barrel right in.”
She was leaning over Talon, snarling in his face, and Isaac approached her silently from behind, his sneakers sinking into the soft sand. Alex’s hands were free now, but Talon was sprawled on top of him. He wrapped an arm around him, trying to drag him away from her.
Isaac swung—and she whirled around. She wasn’t fast enough to catch his wrist, and his holy blade sank into her chest as a sharp pain exploded in his abdomen. For a wild moment, he thought he was shot, but he hadn’t heard another of those deafening booms. She gasped, her face going slack as the life left her, and he staggered, letting his blade fall with her body as he looked down.
The hilt of her knife protruded from his stomach.
“Isaac, ohshit,” Alex said. He and Talon both stared at the knife.
This was not the good kind of pain, he thought wildly as his knees wobbled.
Strong hands caught him before he could fall, easing him to the sand. “Pull it out, killer,” Shadrach said. “It can’t heal while it’s still in there. That’s it.”
His hands shook as he pulled the knife free, a low moan squeezing out of his tight throat.
“I know, I know,” Shadrach murmured in his ear. “Stay with me. It won’t take long. Keep pressure on it so you don’t lose too much blood.”
“What the hell happened?” Nathan called as the others reached them. There was a splash of black blood on Luke’s T-shirt, but otherwise they all looked unharmed.
