Page 45

“Eh?” He stopped, and frowned. “What you say?”

I grabbed his shoulders, and with a burst of inhuman strength, spun him around and kicked him in the chest, sending him flailing backward. The masher’s enormous plate lifted. The general toppled backwards onto the belt. His eyes widened. The gigantic plate reached its highest point⁠—

Wham!

Warm splatter dashed my face.

I jerked, then stumbled, tasting metallic wetness on my lips, and wiped my eyes clear of startling pink goo. At least I had the mask on. Although, it hadn’t saved my clothes, now glistening with sticky bits of General Copernicus.

Two thick, severed legs schlopped to the floor.

Nothing else was left. Just Copernicus filling everywhere.

“Oh dear.”

“Adam.” Zee grabbed my arms and peered into my eyes. “Are you hurt?”

“What?” I blinked through the gunk.

“Are you hurt, Kitten?”

Reynard staggered into sight, holding his head, and my racing heart swelled. On seeing me, he smiled. He was alright. They were both alright.

“Adam, talk to me.” Zee’s panicked face got closer. “Don’t die.”

“I’m okay. I’m not going to die. I’m just a bit messy.”

He pulled a face. “I’d hug you, but you’re kinda gross.”

My shoes squelched. “Yeah.” Blood dripped from my fingers. “Can we go save the furbabies now?”

We retraced our steps to the cage room—my shoes squishing the whole way—this time with Reynard close behind us. And after some thorough searching, Zee found the master override outside the room, near a fire exit. He hit the switch, opening all the cages. Reynard held the cage-room door open, while Zee held the fire-exit door open, and the pets streamed out. Some of them needed persuasion to leave their cages, but Zee was on hand, coaxing the scared ones out.

I hung back, since they were probably scared of me.

“I suggest now would be a good time to leave,” Reynard said, nodding toward the black smoke forcing its way through an inner door.

With all the animals free, I followed Zee and Reynard outside. We pulled off our masks, and watched hungry flames devour Fido’s Fillings & Flavors.

“We did a good thing,” Zee said, bathed in shifting firelight.

“Yeah, we did.”

The fire raged, gobbling up the building until its roof collapsed. Then the LAFD trucks arrived, and it was time to go home.

Reynard summoned his driver, and the three of us waited in a quiet part of the industrial yard, in a comfortable silence. Zee sat on a wall, legs crossed at the ankle, tail relaxed. I’d have sat with him, but didn’t want the congealing squishiness to travel into places it had no business squishing into.

“Is there a shower on the plane?” I asked, peeling congealed bits of splattered demon off my clothes.

“There is,” Reynard replied. He plucked a slimy bit of something from my hair, then tossed it aside. It splattered out of sight. “That was quite something, Adam.”

He seemed impressed, which was nice, but I felt a bit . . . yuck. And not just because I was smothered in gore.

Zee faced away, watching the far end of the street for the car’s arrival. His cheek twitched. He hadn’t said anything, but I’d killed his general. That seemed like a big thing, that we should probably talk about when I wasn’t covered in his general.

“I hadn’t meant to end it like that,” I whispered.

Reynard’s left eyebrow arched. “Didn’t you?”