“What now?” I asked out loud with a huff. And then I felt something hard clamp over my mouth and I was pulled behind a tall bush.

I thrashed at my assailant at first, but then I was enveloped in Talbot’s warm scent and I heard him whisper, “Shhh. They’ve got supersenses, too, you know.”

He uncovered my mouth, and I turned toward him. “They?” I whispered so softly I was practically just mouthing the words. “So they’re here?”

Talbot nodded. “See if you can tell how many.” He tapped my ear to indicate that I should listen carefully.

I held my breath, My heart still pounded from running, and I willed it to calm. I listened beyond the crickets chirruping in the bush with us, and pushed away all nearby noises until I could concentrate on the sounds behind the walls of the house. “There are three of them,” I whispered. “There’s someone snoring, and another two people who sound like they’re sitting at a table.”

“Four,” Talbot said. “There’s someone else on the second level. The one sleeping is probably a Gelal. Akhs don’t usually sleep.” Talbot took off his backpack and opened it. He pulled out what looked like a short sword, the hilt wrapped in black leather cording, and a thick piece of wood, whittled into a point at the end. “You prefer steel or wood?” he asked.

“What?”

“You look as if you like wood,” he said with a smirk, and tossed me the stick … or stake, I guess I should say.

My hand snapped out and I caught it in midair without even thinking. I could definitely get used to these reflexes. “What are you doing? We’re not seriously going in there?”

“Of course we are.” Talbot unsheathed the sword. It looked awfully sharp. “Four against two. Those aren’t bad odds.”

“Okay, no way.” My hand shook so hard I almost dropped the stake. “This is a little more than basic training for my first day. I can’t go in there.”

“Yes, you can, Grace,” Talbot whispered. He stared at me with his piercing green eyes. “What if this was your one chance to rescue your brother, and you just walked away? What if he’s in there right now? What if they’re holding him captive? Maybe that’s who’s upstairs. For all you know, they’ve got him chained up in there and they’re saving him for their next meal. Don’t you want to make them pay for that?”

I could feel that tight, flaming knot forming in my stomach—the same feeling I’d had when I saw that masked Gelal with that gun to Talbot’s head. Suddenly, I could picture Jude tied up in that house, bloody and bruised. A monster crouched over him, threatening to tear him apart. I wrapped my fingers around the stake. “Okay, let’s do this.”

62.5 HEARTBEATS LATER

Talbot kicked in the door, and the two of us burst through the doorway. A man and a woman, who had been sitting at a table playing cards, shouted when they saw us. A third man, who had been asleep on a couch, suddenly shot straight up, looking confused and feral. He lumbered toward us and took a wild swing at me. I easily deflected his blow and pushed him away. The woman threw the table aside, accidentally knocking over her companion, and lunged at Talbot. Talbot punched her in the gut, and she stumbled back. She snarled and threw herself at him again.

The noxious demon smell in the room made me dizzy and nauseous. The feral man snarled at me. I assumed he was Gelal from his sour-milk stench. He threw another punch toward my face. I ducked and was about to sweep at his legs with a kick when I caught the glint of steel out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head toward the flash as Talbot swung his sword at the woman’s throat. It sank deep into her skin with the sound of a knife plunged into a watermelon—and, with a spray of blood, her head separated from her body.

Talbot had cut off her head!

I screamed. Like I didn’t know I was capable of screaming. Talbot killed that woman! I dry heaved, and I scrambled back away from her head as it rolled toward me, an expression of sheer surprise on the face.

What had just happened? What had Talbot done?

He killed her!

I didn’t know what I’d expected before we crashed in here. We’d subdue these criminals and leave them for the cops?

But not murder them!

The woman’s headless body took another step toward Talbot, then crumpled to the ground … and shattered into dust before my very eyes. Her head disintegrated, too.

“What did you do?!” I screamed at Talbot.

And then I took a direct blow to the face from the Gelal.

I flew backward and slammed against a picture frame on the wall. I could feel the glass crunch against my shoulder and pain rip into my back. I dropped to my knees. I was stunned, the whole room swimming before my eyes, when the man lunged at me. His fingers elongated into pointed claws, aimed at my throat. Talbot flung his sword at the man. It skewered him through the back and out through his chest. Black ooze spurted from the wound and onto my face. It burned like acid on my skin, and I tried to wipe it away. The man fell over at my feet, clutching frantically at the sword sticking through his chest, but unable to do anything but slice open his own clawed hands.

“Oh, God.” I scrambled forward and reached out to help him.

“Don’t touch him!” Talbot shouted. He was now in a hand-to-hand struggle with the guy who had been at the table.

The man in front of me shook with agony and then suddenly went rigged. His stiff body rocked back and forth and then exploded into ooze. I jumped to the side just in time to miss the brunt of the burning acid.

I shook as I stumbled as far away from the sour-smelling mess as I could get. I steadied myself against the banister of the stairs that led to the upper level. My breathing came too fast. My stomach lurched. I was about to lose the contents of it when somebody grabbed me from behind. My feet left the ground before I could even react, and whoever had grabbed me flung me toward the couch. I landed half on, half off it, but I had no time to move before someone jumped on top of me. A woman. With pink-and-black hair, and sharp, pointy teeth. She grabbed me by the throat.

Where had she even come from?

She must have been the one who’d been upstairs, I realized, which meant Jude wasn’t here at all.

“Don’t look her in the eyes!” I heard Talbot shout.

But it was too late. The woman had locked eyes with me, and I couldn’t shake the gaze of her coal-black irises. Couldn’t will myself to look away or close my eyelids. I could hear the woman chanting something—some other language—but her lips weren’t moving. I’d experienced this before, but I suddenly couldn’t remember how or when.