Page 36 of Sin and Salvation

The second Crow had fired began the free-for-all. I dared to open my eyes, afraid of how quiet my guys were even as they fired incessantly.

Several feet away, where Aeron had been crouched behind his own table, there was absolutely no sign of him—but his gun had been left behind.

Then I heard the snarl of a hellhound, and dared to peek around our table.

He was in his full form, black as night, eyes dripping flames, tearing a demon from one of the open doors of the SUV. The vehicle had crashed into a light pole, and I caught a glimpse of the driver slouched over the wheel, a single neat hole through his temple dripping blood.

Aeron was ripping more demons out of the crashed SUV. I saw a dark suit shredded under vicious paws before Crow pulled me behind the table again.

“Stay where I put you,” he ordered, not looking down. He fired another shot, and a screech cut through the air.

But when I turned, I saw the table on our other side.

Zane crouched behind it, calmly reloading his gun. He didn’t react at all to the shots still being fired, until one hit him in the shoulder.

He winced, gritting his teeth as the gun fell from his suddenly-limp hand, but didn’t make a sound. My stomach flipped and turned, especially when he gripped the wound and blood gushed through his fingers.

I couldn’t stay silent. “Zane! Crow, he’s been hurt.”

Crow ignored me, picking another target in a window of the building across the street and taking him out.

Who had sent these guys? How many were there?

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the blood now spreading down the length of Zane’s sleeve. If I had a gun, I could do something…

But Icoulddo something. I had a demon from the House of Wrath protecting me.

Without disturbing him from his post, I yanked Crow’s shirt up, splaying my hands across his muscled chest. Right over his heart.

“What are you doing, Venus?” he growled, firing again, but then I took that omnipresent thread of energy humming within me, and shoved it into him.

To his credit, he never took his eyes from the fight as I pushed my power into him. I felt it within him, beating like a heart in my hands; he felt like dark fire and ash, a deep-seated rage hidden deep inside him.

Crow exhaled, face going pale. Then he grinned, a dangerous smile that showed his sharp teeth. “Now there’s a good girl.”

He dropped the gun, standing up in the same motion.

One of the demons had fired, and Crow had stood right in its path. Crow raised a hand, and the bullet stopped dead in mid-air, dissolving into ash. He clenched his fist, eyes glowing with black flames that played around his fingers.

The SUV, along with the demons hiding behind it, shuddered. One of the demons tried to make a break for it, only to be run down by Aeron. I averted my eyes from the shuddering form on the ground.

With a scream of twisting metal that made most of the demons around us clap their hands over their ears, the SUV crumpled, like a massive fist had balled up a piece of paper.

Crow jerked his hand, and the entire orb of crumpled metal went flying.

But one demon had been missed. Standing next to Crow, my mouth dropped open to shout a warning, but the rest of my body hadn’t gotten the memo to duck.

He was the bodyguard who’d watched as I’d vanished into Black Hearts territory, and now his face was twisted in a scowl, a handgun pointed right at me.

Something pushed me, two more shots were fired, then the street fell silent.

Maxime’s guard crumpled slowly, a hole through his throat.

Pain radiated through my side.

I looked down at the rip in my shirt, as clean as if a knife had been dragged across it. The red graze beneath, tracing across my ribs, began to drip blood sluggishly.

If Crow hadn’t shoved me when he did…

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