Lincoln Shaddock stood behind her, longsword raised, bloody, already curving to the side. Blocking the sword strike of another.
Koun was on his feet, dancing away, fighting a third, his two short swords forcing him to dart inside the opponent’s long swords.
I fired at a fourth, but he disappeared, vamp-fast. So I shot the fifth one.
Eli slid in, a black form in the dark. Cummerbund and white shirt, the only things on him that might reflect light, were gone. He was bare-chested beneath the black coat. No armor, no protection, Firing, he took out two more forms rushing in from the night.
Koun, now holding longswords taken from his victims, beheaded all the downed warriors. “Roof,” he said.
“And the pathway to the woods behind us,” Eli said. He handed me a handful of healing amulets. “Liz sent ’em. Use ’em.”
I shoved them under the half-clotted dressing, into the wound that had destroyed Bruiser’s shoulder and throat. He grunted. Breathed. Coughed. Stuff living bodies did. I started shaking. Beast pushed something into my bloodstream and I steadied. Warmed.
“Lincoln Shaddock, Master of the City of Asheville,” Koun said, with all proper formality. “Would you care to accompany me to the roof?”
“Sounds like a party. I’d be delighted to attend, kind sir. I grabbed a couple extra longswords that somehow happened to be hanging in the Fraser Fir, yonder.” Linc pointed his sword at the corner of the church.
“How convenient,” Koun said, “to find weapons hanging in a tree.”
“Make no mistake,” Linc said. “I put weapons within reach, because what is a royal wedding without perfidy and violence.”
Koun tossed and caught the two swords removed from the attackers. “I am equally well armed thanks to our foolish foes.”
Together, they vanished, the popping sound of air displacement unheard by my damaged ears. Vamp-speed.
Leo said, “I will protect my George. I will get him to a limo, where he is safe.”
Because all Leo’s limos were armored. Right. But, they were my limos now. More or less. But definitely this: “My Bruiser,” I snarled.
Leo laughed, that smooth as silk sound that moved across my skin like warm velvet. I wanted to punch him in the face for that.
“Leo. Go,” Eli said. “Take Jane.”
“Like hell,” I said. “I have attackers to behead.”
“Kiii . . . Kiii.” Bruiser stopped.
I wrapped my arms around him, my ear to his mouth.
He licked his lips and tried again, his breath almost too fast to talk. “Kick some . . . ass, Love. Be safe.”
I kissed him quick but gently, the taste of vamp blood now on my lips too. “Get well.”
Leo picked up his once-primo and vanished into the dark, moving so fast I saw only a faint streak of white from Bruiser’s ripped, bloody clothes.
It was all I could do to not race after Bruiser. I needed to stay and fight, but I didn’t have comms.“Update,” I demanded of Eli. “Molly? Angie?” I asked, focusing on the battle that seemed to be in a stalemate.
“Supposed to be heading toward a limo with Big Evan and the rest of the Everharts,” Eli said, kneeling in the dark behindthe trunk of a tree, “but the kid is not agreeable to following orders.”
I traced his gaze to the tree where Linc had hidden his swords and saw Angie in her pretty teal dress standing on top of a white-linen-covered table. Her hands were up and she screamed, “Inimicus moritur!”
Magic like lightning fell across the church grounds.
A body fell from the chapel roof in a tangle of limbs. A long rifle clattered after.
At the same instant, Big Evan appeared from the dark and scooped Angie up. Vanished beneath a working. Safe.
“That kid,” was all Eli said.
