Raised in Fire (Demon Days, Vampire Nights World Book 2)(8)

It’s MIA. We’re hunting, came his reply. So he was on scene as well. That was rare. This thing had to be a doozie.

I did love a challenge.

Bring it in and we’ll get you partnered off, he sent. Their whereabouts came next.

“Um… nope,” I muttered to myself. Working with one of the other agents would only slow me down.

“Dude, have you seen the display?” a passing guy asked me, holding a pink plastic container half filled with a cocktail.

I slowed and gave him my attention. His friend laughed and pointed the way they’d come. “It was gnarly. Seriously. Some guy in a costume went after some other guy. They staged the whole thing so people could see.”

“It was awesome!” The first guy, younger twenties and with a shining upper lip from his drink, grinned. “Blood and guts all over the place. You should check it out. They’re probably still going.”

I saw a cluster of people gathered in front of a doorway down the road, all with wide eyes and open mouths.

Bingo.

“I will, thanks,” I said.

“Wait, was that a sword?” I heard one of the guys ask as I broke into a jog.

“Gross,” a woman said as I neared, her eyes big and a smile curling her lips. “That’s really great makeup.”

“It’s got to be a costume,” another said in a hush.

I stopped beside them, peering into the open doorway protected by a small chain. The sign dangling from it told tourists it was a private residence and not to enter, and warned of a camera watching.

I’d been past this residence a million times, and if the occupants were home, this door was usually open. They liked to be one with the Quarter.

Bad move, it turned out. It had made them easy pickings.

At the back of the room, hunched over a still form lying on its back, was a creature with a leathery torso and muscular legs ending in huge wolf paws.

Blood spread along the cream-colored linoleum floor. Pretty gross.

“Well, ’ullo, lovely,” I said in a horrible British accent. “’Ave you come for tea?”

The creature’s head jerked up, and the crowd jumped as one. Blood dripped from its remarkably human face.

And I thought the vampire monster form was gross, with the swampy look and the claws. This thing was way worse.

“Scatter, you guys,” I said to the bystanders around me, slashing the chain with my sword.

“Are you a part of it?” someone asked as the creature straightened up.

“No, but you might be if you hang around.” I launched into the room. A chair tumbled as I pushed it out of the way.

The creature lashed out at me. I dodged, letting the long talons on the ends of its three-fingered hand sail past my face. It screeched like a bird of prey before blasting into a swarm of birds, much too close together to be natural.

“Holy shit,” someone exclaimed. “How did he do that?”

“Magic,” someone else said as the mass of birds swirled around me, scratching at my head.

I sliced my sword through the air, hitting one or two birds before the swarm rushed through the house. Without delay, I followed, jumping over a couch and seeing an open back door. Maybe it hadn’t snuck in through the front after all.

Once outside, I watched it swoop into the air, rolling and swirling, like ink in water, before heading west. I took two fast steps and leapt onto a small storage shed before launching myself onto the wooden fence. I ran along it, my balance perfect in the heat of the moment, before jumping onto a rooftop and taking off across the city after it, using the jammed-together houses as a kind of multileveled sidewalk.

In the distance, barely discernible, I saw the swarm dive downward. The creature didn’t plan to go far. Good.

At a gap in houses, I dropped down and ripped out my phone.

“Captain,” I said, barely out of breath. “I’ve got a sighting. That sucker flies.”

“What’s your twenty?”

“Heading east. I’m at Ursulines and Dauphine. It touched down four or five blocks away. It turns into a half man…thing, and a half big-legged wolf…thing. That’s when it isn’t a flock of birds.”

“Reagan, if they’re old enough, they can change sex at will. They can also adopt a true human form, though usually disfigured. These things start out human. Stay vigilant. I’ll meet you there. And whatever you do, don’t engage on your own.”

No promises.





Chapter Four

A car honked as I darted out in front of it to cross the street. When I hit the sidewalk, a tourist stepped in my path with his hands raised, beads swinging from them. “Show me your tits,” he yelled.

I punched him in the throat.

He made a choking sound as his hands fell from the sky. Served him right. I wasn’t that kind of girl.

I pushed him out of my way as his friends screamed with laughter.

Idiots.

A deep-throated shout caught my attention. Then another from the east. A lithe and agile wolf ran up ahead. One I recognized. It was a shifter. A real shifter, not an aswang turned shifter. They also helped police the Brink, which was what we called the human world, from supernatural creatures.

Boy, hopefully there weren’t more of those aswangs, because that might get confusing for the poor shifters.