I snapped awake, jerked forward, and smashed my chest against the wheel.

My heart hammered, smothering the pounding of the rain on the roof of the pickup.

I blinked into the darkness and dragged in a shuddering breath.

The rain. The compound. The dream.

I reached for my chest and touched the faint line from the night hag’s nails. Still there…still there…as the numbness faded, the muffled growl of a four-wheel drive echoed in the distance.

My pulse was deafening, trembling my body with each boom…boom…boom.

Just a dream…the words cut through my mind. But I knew that was a lie.

Not a dream, no. A promise…

Headlights cut through the trees to pierce my eyes. I slipped low in the seat and hugged the high windows of the old pickup as the vehicle came closer.

White lights filled the cabin of the truck, spilling across the black steel of the Glock on the passenger’s seat. I clenched my grip around the one in my hand and then carefully reached for the other.

The crunch of gravel slipped through the crack of the window as one four-wheel drive passed and then another. And slowly the Unseelie nightmare slipped away. It was her…the hag. First the truck stop…then the diner—and now here.

I thought she’d come for me when I killed Henry…but it seemed he was right. He was just a pawn in this game…

Headlights splashed through the car as another vehicle passed, this time a little slower. I curled tight, gripping the handle and ducked my head down low.

I waited for the night to rush in once more before I raised my head. A shadow slipped through the trees to my right…someone was there…someone was coming for me.

My fingers were cold and stiff as I yanked the handle and eased open the door. A flashlight skimmed the rear of the truck as I slipped free and closed the door behind me.

Sticks snapped under the weight of boots as the flashlight came closer, carving through the dirty windows. I hunkered low and crept around the rear of the truck, keeping close.

The guns warmed in my grip. I reached around, slipped one in the waistband of my jeans against the small of my back and kept on moving.

The crackle of a two-way cut through the air. “Any sign of trouble?”

I eased around the corner as the guy peered inside. All he saw was maps and a bag on the floor.

“Nah, nothing here,” he muttered into the two-way. “I’ll catch up with you.”

“Copy, Echo One, out,” the voice growled and then fell silent.

“I’m the one who has to stay behind all the fucking time,” the guy muttered as he glanced at the rear of the truck once more. “Next time they can jam it up their ass…like I’m fucking disposable.”

Heat lashed my palm…the call of Hell singeing flesh and bone. But instead of pain, there was a need…power welled inside me, urging me to stand. I took a step, and then another.

The harsh glare of the flashlight blinded me as I stepped around the corner of the truck.

“Hey, you, stop right there!” he roared.

“It’s okay,” I murmured, and lifted my hand. “It’s okay, I’m not here to hurt you.”

“I have a gun!” The guy roared. “Stay right there, I have a gun.”

And the power in me flowed toward him. Hate mingled with power. He resisted…just like I somehow knew he would. This wasn’t me…wasn’t me doing this…wasn’t me manipulating him…this was something else. “I want you to do what I say, okay?”

I stepped closer, his face blurring in the harsh light. “Lower the light, please.” Sparkles danced in my eyes as the brightness dimmed. “What’s your name?”

“Travis, ma’am,” he murmured.

I could sense him how, sense his mortal mind…human…they sent a human after me. Didn’t they learn the last time? “Now, you’re going to be nice, aren’t you, Travis? You’re going to go and get your four-wheel drive from the compound and you’re going to stop here for me.”

“Yes…yes, ma’am,” he answered.

Pain carved a line through my head…stop doing this…the night hag whispered. Stop fighting me.

The sigil across my palm flared to life. Midnight flames burned bright, tinged with blood red. Hell was fighting…Hell was carving through her hold. It was the same power I’d felt at the mountain…the same power that called my name.

“Go now,” I murmured. “Make sure you stop here for me.”

There was no nod of the head, no answer in return. He just turned and raced through the rain toward the compound.

“Jesus,” I muttered, and stared at my palm.

This power wasn’t anything I’d felt before. This was protection. This was strength, and as the strength of Hell flooded my body, I knew this was Hell inside me. It called me…and somehow I answered.

I went to the passenger’s side of the truck, opened the door, and grabbed my pack and the bag of weapons. I’d leave the pickup behind and come back for it later.

When this was all over.

Headlights flared as the Jeep came closer and then pulled to a stop. I opened the rear door, climbed inside, and then tugged the door closed behind me. “Let’s go, Travis. Take me to wherever Jerry is.”

The guard took his foot off the brake and the vehicle surged forward. I wiped the water from my eyes and clenched my fist. Heat flowed through me, dispelling the chill as the mortal drove in silence. I watched the markers, keeping track of where he was going as he turned and then turned again, weaving his way back along the Killman Bay Rd. until he turned along an unmarked gravel road that led deeper into the brush.

The track was well worn, widened at the edges…and out of the way. We drove for what felt like a mile until he leaned forward, grabbed the two-way, and spoke. “I’m here.”

Lights flickered through the trees in the distance as the headlights of the Jeep splashed across a massive gate. There were too many here…too many to not be a damn massacre. “Jerry, where is he?”

The guard flinched at the sound of my voice, turned his head, and pointed to a sprawling timber mansion. “The far right, that’s his wing.”

“How many are here…how many guards?”

“Four inside with him and four more out there.” He turned his head and glanced toward the trees.

Eight all told. Not many for someone like him. I expected more. “There’re others…other guards, right?”

“They’ve gone to Harbor to protect the Captain.”

The Captain? I tried to think as Travis pulled the Jeep up alongside the two other four-wheel drives and then climbed out.

“Wait,” I growled, grabbing my pack and slipping the straps over my shoulders. The weapons bag I could hide, find a way to come back for it.

I scooted across the seat and pulled open the door to stand beside him. “You’re armed, right?”

He turned and fixed dark eyes on me. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Then you’re taking me in there.” I glanced toward the mammoth house. “Shoot to wound only. I don’t need any more mortal deaths on my damn conscience.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered, and then dragged a pistol from the holster at his thigh.

I didn’t want this. Didn’t want others to be collateral in this goddamn war. But that wasn’t my call to make. I could feel the night hag pushing against my power, trying to crawl back into my mind.

I dropped the black bag of weapons, knelt, and grabbed four more magazines from the side pocket before I shoved it behind the rear wheel of the Jeep. “Let’s go, then.”

The guard moved fast, weapon drawn, and headed toward the side of the building. All I saw was the lights in the other wing, and all I felt was that sense of urgency…

Lorn, they’ve moved up the date to disconnect the life support. It’s in two days.

Two days…two days…

My boots crunched on the gravel as I gripped my pistol and followed. Gravel gave way to grass before we stepped onto the stone floor of the patio.

Voices filtered out from inside. There was the bark of command before muffled answers. I hung back as Travis stepped up to a door, turned the knob, and then slipped inside.

I waited for a second and then followed, past a room filled with racks of wine, to a massive kitchen.

“Hey, Travis,” a male called.

A shot rang out, deafening inside the space, and a scream followed. I stepped through the hallway and into the kitchen, catching sight of Travis as he lifted his pistol to aim at the center of the man’s head.

“No, Travis. Wounding only, remember?”

He lifted his head and glanced toward me. There was no life of his eyes, no soul. In this moment he was a puppet and he danced for me. The sight was a punch to my stomach. I hated that. I hated stealing his free will away. But two days, remember? Two fucking days and it was all over…there was no coming back from that. I lifted my hand as obsidian flames speared between my fingers.

The bleeding male on the floor opened his mouth to scream.

“Silence,” I whispered.

And there was silence. There was nothing for a whole second before gunshots broke out from the hallway in front of me. Travis stumbled backwards and then dropped to his knees. Blood bloomed across his chest. There was a look of confusion before he fell backwards and hit the floor.

They came for me…came with their guns and their screams. I lifted the Glock with one hand as I opened my palm. The sigil burned, swallowing fingers and flesh as I squeezed off a shot. The bullet went wide and hit the corner of the wood paneling as the gun kicked in my grip.

I was punched, knocked sideways, and slammed into the wall. The Glock flew from my grip to hit the floor. Pain roared…pain like I’d never felt before.

“The tranq,” a male commanded.

The sting of a barb came at my thigh, the point wedged in tight. I shook my head as they filed in from the hallway.

The first guy lifted a semi-automatic rifle and the red laser danced across my chest. No…not like this…

And out of the corner he came…Jerry Leander. Brown eyes glinted with excitement as my knee buckled and I hit the wall. I tried to lift my hand, tried to hold on…and he just smiled.

“Hit her again,” he commanded.

The pop came once more, this time hitting the wound in my thigh. A cry ripped from my chest, low and sickening, as the floor rushed up to meet me.

I tried to shove forward, tried to close my hand around my gun. But the hallway swayed…and then she was there…stepped up behind him…her long cloak floating on the floor.

I told you, she whispered…I told you I’d find you…

My lips trembled as a whimper slipped free as Jerry turned to look at the hag, his words warped and dull inside my head. “What do you want us to do with her?”

Movement came from the corner of the room…and I was caught on the sight as someone stepped from the shadows, lifted a gun, and fired.

Blue eyes…

Blond hair…

I knew him…

that kid.

Ace…

I blinked, and he turned his head to look at me, and then in another instant, he was focused as he squeezed the trigger…bang…bang…bang…

They scattered, lunging sideways, as I crawled forward and scrambled for my gun. Midnight flames swallowed my mind. Black and red…and in the middle…in the eye of the inferno was blue, burning right through the claws inside my head.

Ace was gone when I lifted my head. Gone in the barrage of bullets and screams. My pulse picked up speed. Not Jerry…not Jerry…I wanted him…that bastard was mine.

Her feet scraped against the tiled floor…scrape…thud…scrape…thud. Cold and dead…and haunting…taking me back to that night on the side of the road…back to the sting of the taser tearing through me…and then to that alley…that terrifying moment when I thought my life was over.

I lifted the gun, desperation taking me over as the room greyed and spun, “Get out of my fucking head, bitch!”

I squeezed the trigger and the shot went wide, hitting the corner of the wall next to her. Still she kept coming, stepping closer…closer…closer.

She lifted her hand, long yellow claws ready to tear and shred. The gun wobbled, sight arcing wide as I slapped one hand against the floor and shoved.

A sickening hiss slipped from the blackness of her face…low and infernal, like she was part snake underneath all those rotting robes.

“I fucking hate you! I fucking hate you!” I stumbled forward, the bitter scent of gunpowder filling the air as I squeezed the trigger again…and again.

Until the dull click of an empty magazine echoed.

There was no blood…not a drop…not a fleck.

There was nothing.

Hell’s fames roared through me…I couldn’t fight before…I couldn’t save us. And in a heartbeat, I was snatched from that hallway and back into the Unseelie cell once more…with Gabriel’s screams filling my head.

You couldn’t save him because you didn’t want to…the sickening sound of her words filled me. You don’t love him…and he doesn’t love you…you wanted him dead…wanted him gone…you wanted—

I lifted my head, took a step forward, and then lunged. I hit her hard, tangled in decay and death as dust bloomed from her clothes and the scent of a thousand years billowed out.

She hit the ground with a crack, and instantly I was back in that hallway once more. It was all in my head…she was all in my head. Twisting and turning…and implanting like a fucking bomb.

Claws came for me as she swung her hand. But there was nothing more she could do to me now…no more power she could take…

I clenched my fist and the infernal flames of Hell blazed hotter, and then I drove it right into her face...

Her head snapped backwards, and the shroud slipped back. I saw her then…saw this thing…graying skin, sunken eyes, sparse strands of long gray hair stuck out from the scalp.

Instead of claws tearing me, she flailed. Screams tore free as the midnight flames licked and swallowed. I held on, opening up to that call of Hell’s power, and emptied all my hurt and my pain into her.

“You wanted me?” I screamed, and cocked my fist, lashing out again and again, smashing my fury into her face. “Here I am, you fucking bitch. Here I am!”

A roar came from nowhere. I lifted my head to see Jerry Leader charging across the room, his wide eyes focused on me. I tried to pull away from her…tried to ready myself as we hit.

A sickening crunch ripped through my head as I hit the floor. Sparks collided…sparks and pain as Jerry turned to see the flailing mess on the ground.

“What have you done!” he roared, and lifted the gun in his hand. “What the hell have you done?”

Through the sickening thud…thud…thud…of pain I saw her flail no more.

She was burning…she was dying…

Laughter tore from my chest and slipped from my lips. It didn’t matter now…nothing mattered. Jerry Leander was a blur as he stepped toward me and looked down.

I tried to move…tried to raise my hand…midnight flames danced along my fingers as Jerry Leander raised the gun…all I saw was the barrel…and all I saw was them…

Titus…

Rival…

Gabriel…

Redemption…

Redemption charging toward me, dark eyes blazing with hate.

I loved him…

Tears slipped from the corners of my eyes…

I loved him…

A crack tore through the room. Jerry stumbled backwards, his arms swinging wide. Crack…again and again.

Jerry stumbled and fell to his knees…there was no immortal blood in him…no blood at all…crimson spilled down the middle of his chest as he crumbled and hit the floor.

I tried to breathe, tried to move. Jagged wheezing sounds filled my ears. I was caught by the perfect shine of his boots as Redemption dropped to his knees beside me.

“Lorn…Jesus fucking Christ…Lorn…”

He was here…he was right here…and yet I couldn’t feel a thing. “C-cold,” I whispered. “S-so c-cold.”

Ace strode through the room…blue eyes cut to Redemption as he knelt in front of me. “Is she…is she going to be okay?”

He wasn’t a kid anymore…he was beautiful…power rippled from his fingers as he leaned closer.

And I was seized by the sight of the medallion he wore. I watched the circle twist and twist and twist…and the engraved words captured me. Convent of Heavenly Christos…

Something…something about that name…and there was something about the medallion.

No…not this medallion…

A medallion…

I tried to understand…tried to put the pieces together as Redemption leaned closer and slid one hand under my knees. My pack…I tried to say the words…My pack…don’t leave with…

But I was lost…lost in the darkness…

Lost, with the medallion in my mind glinting as it turned and turned…

And turned.