“Get out of there!” he shouted at the woman as he raced up three cracked cement stairs toward her. He could hear the heavy footsteps of Madoc and Logan pounding behind him.
She didn’t turn to look at him, or even bother to acknowledge that she’d heard him. In fact, she showed no sign of the greasy, paralyzing fear the Synestryn usually caused in humans. She appeared to be completely calm, as if she waited for demons to attack her every day.
The sgath closed in to within fifteen feet and showed no signs of slowing. He was still too far away to help her. He was going to see her die before he even had a chance to touch her and learn whether she was meant to be his, whether she could save him.
She fired her shotgun at the closest sgath. Her body rocked slightly against the force of the weapon and the deep boom echoed in the stillness of the night. She’d hit one of the demons. It flew back a couple feet, spraying black blood across the warehouse. Beneath the thick, oily drops, the wooden floor began to sizzle as the caustic blood ate away at it.
If any of that blood had hit her, it would eat away her skin just as easily.
Paul finally reached the woman. He wanted to stop and touch her, but there was no time. Another sgath was right there, only feet away. Whether or not she could save him, the fact that she faced the sgath down without fear proved she was a rare gift and had to be protected at all costs.
Paul shouldered her out of the way and charged through the doorway, sword poised and ready to strike. She hit the wall a little harder than he’d intended and let out a pained grunt, but at least she was out of harm’s way.
An uninjured sgath saw Paul charge and its eyes lit with a sickly green fire of excitement and hunger. It lifted its muzzle and let out a haunting howl to the rest of its kind, likely alerting them to the food that had just arrived. There was nothing the demons liked more than to feed on the flesh and blood of a Sentinel, and Paul and his companions were a walking feast.
It took Andra a couple of seconds to recover from being slammed into the brick wall. Good thing it had been her shoulder that had hit first instead of her head. Otherwise, she’d have been out cold. When this was over, she was going to have a long talk about manners with the man who’d pushed her, but right now she had to get Sammy out of here.
By the time Andra had shaken off the impact, two of the three men who’d shown up were already inside the warehouse. She wasn’t sure who they were, or why they were here, but she wasn’t about to question her good fortune. Or their swords.
The monster she’d shot was still on the floor, but it was moving sluggishly, lapping up pools of its own blood with its long, forked tongue. She knew from experience that if it got enough of its blood back inside, the thing would stand up again, all patched up and good as new.
Andra couldn’t help but shudder at the sight. It was one that was going to stick with her for a lot of nights to come.
Great. Like she needed any more nightmare fuel.
Another monster was backing away from the man who’d pushed her. He had dark blond hair and stark, angular features. He wielded a sword a little shorter than his arm, and from the muscular width of his shoulders and the ease with which he moved the weapon, it was obvious that he’d had plenty of practice with it. Thank God he was apparently on her side.
The monster crouched, then sprang up unnaturally fast, but the man was ready for the attack. He ducked below the monster’s leap and swung the sword in a powerful arc that sliced open its belly. The man leapt aside gracefully, dodging the spray of filth and gore that spilled from the monster.
The thing landed with a wet, squishy sound and let out a roar of defiance as it tried to regain its footing. The man moved in what appeared to be an almost lazy circle, and his sword gleamed in a dim yellow arc of light. When he came to a stop, the head of the monster lay ten feet away from its body.
Black smoke rose up from where the thing’s blood pooled on the wooden floor, burning it. The smoke created a stench so violent that Andra had to fight back the urge to puke.
“How we doing, Madoc?” asked the man, never moving his eyes from the remaining threat.
On the far side of the warehouse, Andra watched the second man—an angry-looking guy with blunt features and thick black hair—as he cut down another one of the monsters. He wasn’t even breathing hard.
“One down, one to go,” he said as he prowled closer to the last monster standing. The thing had backed itself into a corner, and Andra was pretty sure that it wasn’t going to make it back out alive.
“I smell more closing in,” said a deep voice from behind her. Too close.
Andra jumped in surprise and whirled around, pointing her shotgun at the third man in the group. As she laid eyes on him, her brain leaked out her ears and she stood there, staring, unable to do anything else.
He was beautiful. Heart-stopping, seizure-inducing beautiful, with dark hair, bright silvery eyes and a cover-model face. He was a little thin for her taste, but he made it work well enough that she changed her mind right then and there.
He gave her a knowing smile full of bright white teeth and said, “I’m Logan. My friends and I have been looking for you.”
Andra gave herself a mental shake and blinked so she could stop staring at him. “I’m not taking on any new cases right now. Kinda got my hands full with Sammy here.”
He frowned slightly in confusion and waved an elegant hand. “We’ll talk later. Right now, we need to get inside before the rest of the Synestryn show up.”
Just then, Andra looked over his shoulder into the surrounding darkness and saw the faint glowing green eyes of more monsters closing in. “Right. Inside.”
Andra peered through the door into the warehouse and saw both men slicing and dicing the remaining monsters. They had their hands full at the moment, and Logan didn’t look like he’d be much good in a fight as thin as he was. In fact, he looked downright breakable, which revved up her protective instincts.