Page 20 of Midnight Witch

Cortes’s lips twitched. He stiffened when Popo started grooming his hair with his beak.

“Who’s the bestest sorcerer in the world, huh?” the parrot crooned lovingly. “Come here, let me give you a hug!”

Cortes growled. “I swear to God, I will skin you alive if—”

His familiar’s colorful wings struck him in the face and muffled the rest of his threat.

CHAPTER10

“You guys are gonna giveme an ulcer,” Jared grumbled.

“Yeah, well, this isn’t exactly how I anticipated my Friday night going either,” Mae muttered.

Jared eyed her dress before glancing toward the ballroom. “Was this one of those schmooze parties Bryony insists you guys attend? The ones you and Nikolai keep bitching about?”

Bryony’s expression grew pinched. Mae avoided her accusatory stare.

They were standing in a hallway in Chateau Monteville. Lights from the ambulances and fire engines parked on the road outside washed across the interior of the Élysée Room through what remained of the roof of the atrium. Although there had been injuries among the guests, none had been too serious. Luckily, there had been healers among the attending covens.

As for the hotel staff, they were pretty much suffering from shock at the horrors they’d witnessed.

Alicia appeared at the end of the corridor. She joined them and handed a bottle of antacids to Jared. “Here.”

He eyed it like it was poison. “Is this from Hell?”

The Soul Reaper Queen made a face. “It’s from the drugstore around the corner.”

She looked beyond the NYPD officers guarding the entrance to the ballroom to the forensics team examining what remained of the hellbeasts.

“I know this is a rhetorical question, but are they really going to find any clues inspecting those?” Bryony said skeptically.

“No.” Alicia frowned. “That ash will be gone in a few hours.”

Mae had to concur. The same thing had happened at the movie theater.

She chewed her lip and squinted at Jared. “How bad is this gonna be?”

“On a scale of one to ten? Twenty,” the Immortal said sourly.

Mae slumped.

“The Special Affairs Bureau is already on my ass looking for answers as to why monsters from Hell are suddenly terrorizing this city,” Jared added.

He directed a shrewd look at Alicia.

The Reaper Queen shrugged. “Hey, I’m as much in the dark as you are.”

They leveled a questioning stare at Mae.

She sighed. “I still have no idea what this is about either.”

Footsteps rose behind them. Mae turned.

Nikolai was headed their way with Valentina Flores.

“There are no signs of Sergio Mendes and his coven anywhere in the building,” Nikolai reported in clipped tones. “Vlad and Cortes are out looking for clues to where they might have disappeared to.” He lifted the carrier bags in his hands. “They got you guys these before they left.”

Mae’s stomach grumbled as the appetizing smell of burgers filled the air. Hellreaver started to drool.

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