Page 52 of Blood Bearon
“Therapist. Lieutenant back in homicide. The Sheriff. And now you,” she said heavily, finally looking up at him.
Khove bit back a pained gasp as he saw the emptiness in her eyes, the despair. This was it all over again, he realized. She’d finally opened up to a partner of sorts, let someone in close—close for her, at least—and now that person was also going to die. It didn’t seem to matter that she was, that was an afterthought.
“I still wanted to help people,” she continued. “But I couldn’t work with anyone else there. Not in the same city. I needed to work alone, somewhere killings didn’t really happen. A nice peaceful sheriff’s office in the middle of nowhere.” She snorted. “At least, I thought this was a sleepy little town.”
“We’re not going to die today,” he assured her. “Do you hear me? Neither of us is going down.”
Rachel looked at him and nodded, but it was clear she didn’t believe him. Her head was moving up and down, but her body language, the set of her face, it all betrayed her. The blues of her eyes were dull, the vibrancy that was always there vanished as she accepted her fate.
Without thinking, Khove stepped forward, cupped her face and kissed her. She beat at his chest with her free hand, but every second that passed, her strikes got softer and softer, until she cried softly in defeat and accepted it.
“I said we’re not dying tonight,” he snarled quietly. “Help is on the way. All we have to do is hold them off if they return before it gets here. Do you understand me?”
Rachel stiffened, and he prepared himself to deal with more denial.
“Too late,” she whispered. “They’re already here.”
Khove disengaged from Rachel, following her gaze past his left shoulder. Out in the darkness, things were moving. They were too faint, too blurred, for either of them to make out distinct figures, but with every passing second, the blobs became more defined, growing hard edges.
“There’s a lot more of them,” she muttered. “Like a lot.”
“They’re essentially cowards at heart. They don’t like to do anything solo.” He grabbed his knife, wishing desperately for a blade, preferably one tipped with radiation-spewing uranium.
“Right. Any tips on how to kill these assholes?” Rachel asked, slipping the safety free and pulling the rifle into her shoulder.
“Ever played any zombie shooters?” he asked, rolling his neck to loosen it.
Rachel’s face split in a grin and she lined up the weapon as the first face appeared out of the murk. “Aim for the head,” she muttered softly, and a second later, the minotaur’s head exploded in a welter of gore.
“Exac—” Khove’s voice trailed off. “Uhhh, are you seeing this too?”
“They’re retreating,” Rachel said in disbelief as the Fae paused in their advance, then began to back away. “Did I kill the leader or something?”
“No,” he said absentmindedly. “If any of the Fae Lords were on earth, we’d be long dead. Those guys don’t mess around. I don’t know what happened. But I’m not about to act ungrateful for it.”
“You’d better not,” another voice said from behind him.
Khove wheeled to see someone emerge from a gash in the very fabric of reality. The edges of it glowed with a sullen red ochre, flashing slightly brighter each time someone came through.
“Kasperi!” he barked, happy to see the Magi of House Ursa, their most powerful magic user.
“Shall we go?” the magic-using shifter asked impatiently as half a dozen of the House Ursa guards fanned out. “Before they realize this is a rescue party, not an assault.”
“Right. Of course,” he agreed, taking a step forward. “See, I told you neither of us was going to die tonight.”
Rachel didn’t reply. He frowned, then saw Kasperi waggling a finger, pointing behind Khove. Turning, he saw Rachel standing where he’d left her, rooted to the ground, mouth hanging open.
“Hey, Rach?” he called softly. “Hello. Earth to Rach.”
Grabbing the barrel of the rifle, he reached up and gently patted her face. She tensed and tried to bring the weapon up as he snapped her out of her spell, but fighting against his grip was useless. The weapon didn’t move.
“They came out of the air,” she said, eyes darting between him and the rent. “Khove, they just walked out of mid-air.”
“Remember,” he said. “Magic? I told you it exists.”
“I didn’tbelieveyou,” she said.
“Well, now you’ve seen a first-hand example of it. Well, a second first-hand example. The Fae are magic too.”
