“Finn?” The one in front stared right into Finn’s green eyes. “You always were the troublemaker,” he said, and we all came to the same conclusion at once.
“Kastor,” Finn said.
The leader of Pandemoniawasthe demon who’d escaped us in the stairwell, and he’d since convinced a dozen of his citizens that the Kastor they’d all loved in the marketplace that evening was an impostor.
“Assuming you haven’t already been infected,” I said, stepping up to Finn’s right side, flames tingling just beneath the surface of my left palm, “your best bet would be to flee the city. Now. We’re all three highly contagious, and by this point, so is most of your city.”
“We’ve been spraying our saliva on your food all night,” Grayson added, and I almost laughed at how ridiculous our plan sounded, boiled down to its basics. But it was a good plan, and I had no doubt it would work, assuming no one warned the citizens in time for them to flee the city.
Kastor’s brows rose, and I recognized the expression, even on his new face. “So you think we’re just going to let you walk out into the badlands and spread your disease worldwide?”
But I could see through his intentions as if they were made of glass. “You know the Church won’t let that happen. As soon as they’re sure we’ve taken out Pandemonia, they’ll hunt us down like dogs in the street. They wanted atargetedexposure.” But we were willing to spend the rest of our lives widening that target.
Kastor didn’t give a shit whether we spread the demon plague to his enemies or not. The anger raging in his eyes said he was after revenge, pure and simple.
“If you think you can stop us from leaving…” Finn spread his arms. “Come—”
Kastor pulled something from the waistband of his jeans.
“No!” I shouted, the instant I realized he held a pistol.
Grayson lunged as Kastor fired at Finn. If she hadn’t been triggered, she would have been too slow to get in front of the gun. But exorcist Grayson was just fast enough to catch the bullet high on her right side.
She flew backward from the force and landed on her back on the pavement. “Nina…,” Grayson gasped, and I dropped to her side.
A rage-filled sound ripped from Finn’s throat. He lunged at Kastor, faster than I’d ever seen him, or anyone, move. He was amazing in Carey’s body—but he couldn’t fight twelve demons on his own.
I charged down the alley half an instant behind him.
Finn slammed into his father’s new, young body, and the gun went off again. One of Kastor’s men screamed and stumbled into the wall of the alley, blood blooming high on his chest from the bullet hole. Four others fled, evidently terrified to make contact with us and our contagions.
The other five all pounced at once.
I kicked aside the first demon who came at me. My left hand burst into flames. Finn’s was already burning. The alley flickered with shadows of violence, cast by fire.
Finn growled and tossed a demon over his back. He threw a punch, and Kastor’s gun slid down the pavement toward Grayson, where none of his men were willing to go while she leaked contaminated blood all over the ground.
I burned through the next demon that lunged at me, then used his flailing body to deflect the next. When the first demon collapsed, I turned my flames toward the next. A third grabbed my neck from behind, and when hehauled me off my feet, the monster hanging from my palm came with me, stuck to the flames like a magnet to metal. Blisteringly hot, flesh-melting metal.
On the edge of my vision, Finn stood and kicked his father’s corpse aside. Another demon leapt for him, and Finn shoved his fiery left hand into the air. The demon landed on his hand in midair, speared by the flames and seemingly weightless.
The demon behind me squeezed my neck, and I gasped in pain as cartilage popped. The flames in my hand blinked out, and the monster that hung from them crumpled at my feet. I tried to twist and fry the monster behind me, but he grabbed my left arm and held it away from us both.
Thunder boomed through the alley, and the hand around my neck loosened. Something thudded to the pavement behind me, and I turned to find the demon who’d had me by the neck now lying on the ground with a small hole in his chest.
Shocked, I spun again to find Grayson still aiming the pistol in her right hand, her left pressed against the bullet wound in her side. “Good shot!” I said, but she only shook her head.
“I was aiming for his head.” Her voice was weak. Her face was pale, in what little moonlight shone into the alley.
“Finn!” I raced toward her.
He finished frying the last of the demons, then pulled his shirt off on his way down the alley. “Here. Press this against the wound.” He laid the wadded-up material over her side, and I held it there with as much pressure as I could apply. “We have to get her out of here.”
“Where can we get a car?”
“At the gate. They’re mostly used for trips into the badlands.” Finn picked up Grayson, then carried her down the alley and across the street. Everyone we passed was headed for the blazing building. None of them even looked closely enough to realize who we were.
Until we got to the gate five endless minutes later.
