The dealer’s laughter met her ears as she waited for excruciating pain to take over her body. When none came, she glanced back at her attacker again.

“You’d best hurry your little ass out of here, or next time, I might not miss!”

Hearing the gunshot had somehow focused her. Thankfully, her head stopped spinning and her eyes became fixated. A rush of adrenaline had her taking the stairs two at a time. She reached the bottom landing and ran toward the door. Before she could push her way out, a man stepped in front of her, blocking her path.

McAllister.

“I thought you’d show up here eventually,” he said as he grabbed her bicep.

She struggled to pull away from him, but he held her with an iron grip.

“There’s a man up there shooting at me!” she said through gritted teeth. “Why don’t you do your damned job and go arrest him?”

He laughed and pulled her away from the door. “I’ve got more important things to worry about than a dealer.”

As McAllister dragged her over to his tan, unmarked Malibu, she continued to struggle away from him.

He slammed her up against the side of the car face-first and kicked her legs wide.

“It took me hours to put my files back together after the mess you made,” he said looming over her and placing his mouth next to her ear. “At first, I felt sorry for you, Avery. But you’ve proven to be nothing but a huge pain in my ass.”

The detective stepped closer behind her as he leaned his weight into her, trapping her between his body and the car. He still gripped her arm hard enough to leave a bruise.

“I’m going to cuff you, and then we’re taking a trip to the prison.”

Paranormal or human?

She didn’t wait to find out. If he got her in the cuffs, she’d never find out who had killed her mother. Instead, she’d rot in jail. For how long, she had no idea, but she’d fight him until she had nothing left.

With her free hand, she reached back and found his genitals, then squeezed as hard as she could.

His screech almost deafened her as he tried to get away. She continued her assault until his knees buckled, and he released her.

Avery sprinted down the street, her breath heaving in and out of her lungs. What in the world was I thinking? She’d just assaulted a police officer… again!

She kept running blindly, unsure of where she was or where she was headed. She just needed to get away, to stay out of McAllister’s clutches. She wouldn’t go to jail, and after what she’d just pulled, she worried he would physically harm her. If the roles had been reversed, she’d be out for blood.

When she took a right turn, she heard his footsteps echoing off the street not too far behind her. Her chest tightened as panic gripped her. She stopped and checked around for a place to hide, some place where she could lose him. Wedged between two warehouses, she quickly decided to go inside and take her chances on what she’d find there.

She ran for the door and tried to yank it open. Crap! Solidly locked.

“Avery!” McAllister boomed, his angry voice reverberating from one empty building to the next.

Ignoring him, she rushed around the side of the warehouse and found the back door wide open. She knew she was entering someone’s domain but had no choice. Avery feared what McAllister would do if he caught her, but the unknown beyond the door also terrified her. What if another drug dealer had made the abandoned building his home? What if he didn’t just scare her like the other guy, but aimed to kill?

McAllister drew closer and Avery decided she’d have to take her chances. She sprinted through the door.

Once inside, she stopped in the middle of the room, frantically checking her surroundings. In the dim moonlight filtering through the window panes above, she noticed shelves lined the walls, and she was able to make out objects that resembled paint cans lined up on a few of them.

The air around her seemed to explode. With a scream, she turned to find McAllister staring at her, another energy ball forming between his hands.

She hadn’t even had a chance to try and hide.

Sticking a hand out in front of her, she magically shifted the shelving closest to him. Her plan had been to slam it on top of him, but she didn’t possess enough power. Instead, it scraped along the old, wooden floor chasing McAllister for a few feet and leaving a trail of dust in its wake.

At least she’d bought herself some time. It seemed the detective couldn’t run and form his energy orbs at the same time.

When it became apparent he could outrun her weapon, she focused on smaller things.

McAllister stood under an old fluorescent light fixture. She concentrated on it, and slowly it came loose from the ceiling. It crashed to his left, the sound almost ear-shattering in the empty building. He cursed as he brought his arms up to cover his face, and she turned to escape, not bothering to wait to see if she’d done any damage.

As Avery ran farther into the empty room, she noted a stairway around the corner to her right.

If she went upstairs, he’d certainly follow, and she’d only get cornered. Yet, as another energy globe exploded over her head, she knew she didn’t have any choice. She had to put more distance between them. If one of those powerful balls connected, it could temporarily disable her, giving him plenty of time to capture her.

Her feet practically flew up the stairs. Each time her boot connected, a puff of dust exploded around it. Before she got to the top, she began coughing, the grime clogging her throat with each inhale. Her eyes watered, but she frantically pressed on.

When she reached the landing, Avery stepped to her left and took a second to look around, very aware of McAllister’s thundering footsteps climbing the stairs. More shelving littered with everything from paint cans to stacks of newspapers hugged the walls. She hid near the side of one where he couldn’t see her when he reached the top.

When he did, she used her power to send a stack of newspapers toward him, just above his head. With a grunt, she focused on them coming apart, leaving him surrounded in a swirling storm of newspapers. She then pulled two paint cans from the shelf, and while still remaining hidden, sent them over to him where they slammed into his gut, yellow paint oozing down his legs.

McAllister doubled over with a gasp, then a curse, and she continued to put more space between them. Maybe, just maybe, she’d be able to lose him if she kept moving.

She found another flight of stairs and bounded up them. As she wiped sweat from her brow, she realized her worst fear had come true—she had cornered herself.

Now what? Did she just wait and turn herself in? Between the anxiety and the dust, she couldn’t get enough air. How am I going to escape him when I ran into a room with nowhere else to go?

The sound of McAllister’s footsteps on the stairs jarred her into action. She ran toward the door on the far side, hoping it would lead to the outside. Maybe there was a fire escape ladder or something she could use to get down to street level again. However, all the Fae would have to do was send one of those energy orbs raining down on her, and she’d splat onto the pavement. She had to take her chances. She wasn’t going to prison and didn’t want her life to end at McAllister’s hands.

Avery jammed one shoulder against the door, and it opened. She stood on a small, flat rooftop. Based on the number of cigarette butts on the ground, she assumed this had been an allocated smoking area when the warehouse had been functioning as a business.

Peering over the railing, she didn’t see a way down to the street, but when she turned around, she noticed a ladder leading farther up the building.

As she glanced through the small window in the exit door, she saw McAllister had made it to this floor. His shoes and pants were covered in yellow. If he hadn’t been angry with her before, she imagined the paint had completed the job.

She climbed the ladder up to the roof with nowhere left to go. No doors. Nothing but mechanical equipment here. She rushed to the edge of the level and realized she was now fully trapped.

As Avery stared at the adjacent warehouse, an idea came to her. It wasn’t a smart idea, and she’d most likely end up maiming herself if she was lucky; if not, she’d be dead.

“If he catches you, you’re already dead,” she muttered. She couldn’t imagine spending time in prison. Being penned up in a small cell with no sign of the outdoors was a fate worse than death. But if McAllister actually caught her, who knew what he’d do to her?

“Avery!” his voice echoed from behind her. “It’s over! Quit running!”

She turned to see him forming an energy ball.

Since she’d started her quest to figure out who’d killed her mother, she’d had a lot of bad ideas and had made a slew of horrible decisions. A part of her just wanted it all to end, but a small voice inside insisted she keep going.

Maybe it’s the crazy part of me.

She sprinted toward the lip of the warehouse while keeping an eye on the roof of the other building.

“Avery! Stop! You’ll kill yourself!”

She pumped her arms and willed her legs to carry her faster. As she closed in on the edge, she realized she would never make the jump, yet she kept going.

“Avery!”

When her foot landed at the threshold, she pushed off with all her might. She windmilled her arms, hoping the action would somehow propel her closer to the other roof.

For a few brief seconds, she took flight. Her world went utterly quiet as she soared through space. She didn’t dare glance down, instead concentrating on her destination. Memories of her mother and Victoria flashed before her eyes—good thoughts filled with smiles, laughter, and love. They played in her head like quick snapshots, just brief glimpses into a time when her life had been simple and happy. The visuals filled her soul with joy, and she once again wondered why she’d allowed herself to fall into this current situation.

For a second, she thought she would make it to the other structure, but then quickly realized she wouldn’t. Her chest slammed into the side of the building, knocking the wind out of her. Excruciating pain radiated from her sternum and throughout her body as she gasped for breath.

As she slid toward the ground, she grimaced and cried out in pain. Her forearms were torn up by something. Spikes in the concrete wall. She tried to catch her breath and cursed as she grabbed onto them. They dug into her hands as she held on for dear life. They bent under her weight while tears streaked her cheeks. Glancing down to the street, she imagined herself in a pile of mush when she hit the pavement. The investigators would need a pressure washer to clean up her remains.

From above, someone grabbed her wrists and pulled. She stared in disbelief as two men hauled her up without much effort. She collapsed at their feet. The gratitude overwhelmed her. She rolled to all fours and curled into a ball as she tried to catch her breath and stop the tears. After a brief moment, she caught a glimpse of McAllister running for the staircase on the other building.

She got to her knees and slowly stood, pulling up the sleeves of her sweatshirt to quickly assess the damage on her hands and arms.

While meeting the gazes of her saviors, she realized she’d jumped from the proverbial pot into the fire.

“She’s Fae,” one of the men whispered, his fangs gleaming in the moonlight.

Honestly, can this get any worse?

She pulled out the baggie of spices from her sweatshirt and threw what was left at them.

They shrieked as their exposed skin bubbled, and she turned to run. Maybe she could beat McAllister down to street level and lose the vampires.

This pair chased her, which was the opposite effect the concoction had had on Everett. Since these two could move at fast speeds, they caught her in a second and tackled her to the ground.

“Please!” she yelled. “Please don’t hurt me!”

She curled her legs up into a fetal position as fangs sank into her forearms and a tongue lapped at the blood from the open wounds.

Their weight pinned her, and after only a minute of struggle she didn’t fight anymore. She shut her eyes and tried to think of happier times. Avery didn’t know how long had passed, but all energy had completely dissipated from her body. Her chest hurt like nothing she’d ever experienced before. Her hands and arms had gone numb, yet the vampires continued to drain her blood.

An excruciating booming sound literally vibrated the ground, then another. A gun. Someone had fired a gun. The weight of the vampires was lifted from her, and she opened her eyes. McAllister was stabbing the first vampire with a stick directly through the heart. Her attacker writhed on the ground for a moment, then went still. The second had been temporarily stunned by the bullet to his abdomen, but after making sure the first vamp was dead, McAllister finished him off, too.

Silence blanketed them except for the pounding of her own heart and McAllister’s deep breathing. Avery tried to move but couldn’t. Without the much-needed sleep and food she’d deprived herself of, she had no resources to call up. Her limbs weighed heavy like concrete slabs.

McAllister stood over her, his gun pointed at her face. In the moonlight, she noticed the sweat pouring from his brow, his mouth in a harsh, thin line. His nostrils flared as he breathed heavily. His eyes resembled two black pits in the nighttime shadows, making her think of the Grim Reaper.

Avery stared up at the cop for a second and then shut her eyes. She didn’t want her last vision to be his face or his weapon. While struggling to bring up fond memories once again, she desperately wanted to go out with something resembling happiness in her heart.

“This is the end of the road for you, Avery,” he said.