Fane thrust once more, and this time the blow pierced both demon and man.
Another screech, unfettered by the human throat, ripped through the church. Alyce cried out and tucked against Sid’s chest as the shock wave of ether blasted past them. He held her tight, wishing he could make himself bigger by force of will to cover every millimeter of her. Whatever force destroyed the djinni, he couldn’t risk letting the backlash touch her.
The intruder, human again without his demon, sagged on the point of Fane’s sword. The faintest line scored the warden’s forehead between his eyes as he yanked his weapon free.
Sid pulled himself to his feet, hauling Alyce behind him, to finally do as Nanette had suggested and get the hell away.
The djinn-men had obviously come to the same conclusion. Two lay incapacitated on the floor at Archer’s feet, and Fane’s hallowed sword swept hungrily through them in twinned screams. But the other four pounded toward the door.
The one in the rear paused to slam the butt of his trident against the mosaic in the doorway. The blue and gold tiles fountained around him.
“Next time,” he shouted.
He and his brethren vanished, leaving the low sun to shine through the broken door across the devastation.
Archer pursued but skidded to a halt amidst scattered glass and tiles, his cursing drowned out by the squeal of tires. “Next time?” He whirled his bloody-edged axe at the nearest innocent wall, but he hauled up short when Sera snapped his name.
Nanette crept from the hallway where she’d taken shelter. “Mr. Fane? Cyril? Are you hurt?”
From his hunched stance over his sword, Fane straightened abruptly. “They didn’t touch me.” His glance at the talyan was scathing. “You demon-ridden are fine, of course.”
Sid touched Alyce’s trembling shoulder and clenched his jaw to keep from reminding the warden that beneath their demonic overlays, the talyan were as fragile as any of them. “What the hell was that about?”
Sera toed the withering corpse nearest her. Without djinni energy to hold the years since possession at bay, time was rapidly reducing flesh to bone and bone to brittle shards. The bloodstains had already turned to dust. “They’ve never come at us before.”
Sickle-man’s body caved in with a soft, stinking sigh. Fane’s lip curled in disgust. “Have you forgotten Corvus Valerius already?”
“He was alone,” Sid pointed out. “And two thousand years of possession had made him insane. This”—he spread his fingers at the corpses—“was calculated.”
Archer bumped the axe restlessly against his shoulder as he returned to their little circle. “Not so special. We’ve seen feralis packs ever since that damn Bookie weakened the Veil and brought through the demon that possessed Sera.”
Sera rolled her eyes at Sid. “I tell you, chick talyan and nosy Bookkeepers really put a hitch in the league get-along.”
Archer tangled his fingers in the chain around her neck and reeled her closer. The stone in his ring reflected the same coruscating whorls as the pendant at the end of the chain. “You know I’d go through hell for you, love. Because I have gone through hell for you.” As if having her close made the axe redundant, he collapsed the sheaved blades and tucked the weapon into the fold of his coat. “The horde gathering is old news. Corvus even kept his own collections of lesser tenebrae.”
“We’re not talking about the lesser demons,” Nanette pointed out. “Corvus, by himself, opened a doorway into hell. Imagine all of them against us. That hasn’t happened since the First Battle.”
Out on the freeway, an ambulance wailed, on its way to or from a siren-worthy accident. Though its haste implied there was still hope for someone, somewhere, by the time the sound reached them, the timbre had shifted, like waves through distorted glass, with overtones of malignancy.
Alyce whispered, “What was the First Battle?”
“When the traitors were tossed out of the divine realm,” Fane said. “When hell was born.”
“Oh. That’s bad.”
Talyan and angel-touched looked at her disbelievingly. She ducked a little farther behind Sid.
He gave a decisive nod. “It is bad. By definition, the djinn don’t gather for good.”
“It’s been to our advantage that evil hasn’t played nice with others,” Fane said. “Even other evils. If that’s changing …”
“That’s bad,” Nanette and Alyce chorused.
“As bad as the stench in here,” Fane agreed. “How convenient I have body bags in my van.”
“Certain advantages to owning a disaster restoration business,” Archer muttered.
As they headed down the hall toward the back exit, Sera peered into the darkened rooms. “What could they have wanted?” She cast an apologetic glance at Nanette. “There’s just not much here except you. And an intermittent healing touch isn’t much use to a demon-possessed immortal.”
Archer snorted. “Maybe they wanted a flaming sword of their very own.”
At the back door, Fane held up one hand, stopping them all in their tracks. “Speaking of swords. Just in case …”
Sid tightened his fists as Archer, Sera, and Fane all drew steel. Why hadn’t he grabbed the djinn-man’s sickle? Other than because he’d be worse than useless with it, of course.
Nanette fished in the front pocket of her jumper. “Daniel makes me lock up when I’m here alone. Here’s the key—”
Archer booted the door hard enough to bash anyone on the other side, and the three armed warriors fanned out. Alyce crept after them, and Sid paced right beside her.
The parking lot spread in front of them, cold and gray in the building’s shadow. A white van stenciled LAST CALL CLEANING was pulled up near the door. Just beyond was a green sedan in the only other occupied space.
The driver side door was open, and a man’s knees stuck from the car, his dress shoes flat on the ground, as if he’d started to get out and then sat back again. A dozen sunflowers lay scattered across the pavement, bright yellow petals half-submerged in a spreading pool of blood.
Nanette screamed and bolted through the door. Alyce grabbed the denim straps of her jumper. The devil inside her did not rouse, silent in the face of the inevitable, and she grappled with the other woman’s distraught strength.
Nanette twisted against Alyce’s hold. “Daniel! No!”
“Sidney, help me,” Alyce gasped.
Together, they held Nanette back while the other two talyan and Fane ran for the car. All three halted short of the vehicle, faces set in identical stark lines, and Alyce’s heart withered.
Her fingers slipped loose. Sidney held on for another moment until he met her gaze. She gave him a small shake of her head.
Nanette wrenched away from them and dashed to the car. Fane caught her before she slipped in the blood. Her cry wavered and cracked as she reached out to the figure slumped down across the seat.
Alyce turned her face away, concentrating on Archer’s slow prowl around the parking lot. His fixed glare promised annihilation. Would she ever have that kind of power? She waited until he ended his loop beside Sidney. “No chance?”
The big talya shook his head. “Across the throat, deep. No sound, no struggle, no chance.”
Sidney jerked his chin at the van. “They slashed the tires too, maurauding through, and he was just one more thing in the way.”
“We killed them too easily,” Archer snarled.
“It was not that easy,” Alyce reminded him. “And there will be more.”
Sidney pulled off his spectacles and pinched the bridge of his nose. “If only we’d heard something.”
“We were too busy sparring with Fane.” The axe handle creaked under Archer’s violet-knuckled grip.