“Bad aim,” Sean said, pushing back the jostling bodies with a grin. “Whoops.”
“Are youexcitedabout this? What kind of a pain goblin are you?”
“The kind who likes a good fight.”
“Fucking pixies,” David muttered under his breath before his gaze darted behind Sean. “Don’t do that,” he said with a voice that was more like rock candy than honey—the kind of sugar that shreds.
Sean spun to find a purple-eyed man pause in the act of pulling a gun from a hidden holster. Autumn leapt behind him and drove the creature from his body. The gun dropped to the ground.
The police arrived, shouting at the crowd.
Kywyn grabbed Sean’s wrist. “There are too many now. We must go.”
The five of them pushed through the frenzied crowds. Behind them, a gunshot rang out, and Sean tried to see who or what was hit,but David urged him onward. “They thrive on emotion, remember? This is how they get it. Just run.”
The creatures gave chase. Outnumbered, Sean’s group battled through at least a dozen possessed humans, many with deadly weapons, who only dropped them because David compelled them to.
Sweat soaked Sean’s clothes, and ahead of him, he noticed a dark stain and a rip in Bel’s dress. She’d been hurt and healed.
How had he missed it?
Fairway rides and food trucks flew past as they ran with the swarms, and it seemed the police had been diverted by the fight—or the gunshot—because none followed.
The exit loomed in the distance.
Autumn appeared next to him, winded. Her white shirt was stained bright pink in places. “We just have to make it to some trees, and the mist will appear.”
She pulled up short as a horde of purple-eyed humans formed a line, impeding their exit. Sean skidded to a stop, and Bel stepped in front of him like a human shield.
“I know you,” said a girl in the middle, her short, dark curls soaked with sweat. “I know your face.”
Sean said nothing, but he sensed David sidle closer.
“You are the scourge,” she said to a chorus of hisses from the others.
“Well, that should put a dent in your ego, Savior,” David murmured beside him. Unpossessed humans bolted for the exit around them, and the creatures let them go without a glance, too focused on Sean. Their hands rested on weapons beneath their clothes.
“Move aside!” Bel snapped, but none paid her any attention.
Sean swore inwardly. Why had they come unarmed? The puny blade at his ankle would do very little against firearms. No wonder the Exorcism was failing.
Maybe this was why Bowenn seemed to have given up. This warwas strangled by logistics and morality clauses. Loss was a given in these circumstances.
Fuck, his neck hurt.
“A gun would be nice right about now,” David muttered, mirroring his thoughts.
Sean had never even shot a gun, but he’d vastly underestimated the danger of hunting Indies. Lhynion made it look so easy…
Kywyn stepped forward. “Let us pass, and we will leave in peace.”
The woman ignored him, too. “So the rumors of your return are true?”
Again, Sean said nothing.
A teenaged boy nudged the girl’s shoulder. “Kill him now and save us all. Release the plague and let the Followers reign!”
There was that word again.Plague. Were the Indies Followers, too? Why would they want to enslave humans when they’d already invaded them so covertly?
