is, how many of your people do I have to kill first?”
“Scatter,” Zakarriyyah said—unnecessarily. We were already doing it, with me and Louis-Cesare heading for my bike until it was crushed under the massive body slithering this way. It loomed up in my vision, a solid wall of gleaming scales, blackness smothering the light and swallowing the earth—
And swallowing us, or flat out running us over, crushing our bones into powder. Except that I’d been wrong earlier. Louis-Cesare hadn’t used the Veil, his own personal master power, after all. It took a huge amount of energy and couldn’t be deployed again for hours.
So, if he had, I wouldn’t be looking at the world through a haze of white, like a London fog had just rolled in.
Or staring in disbelief as a river of scales slammed into me, yet didn’t hurt.
The creature passed right on through us and out the other side, leaving me staring around wildly, confused, disoriented, and seriously skeeved out.
“All right?” Louis-Cesare asked.
I nodded breathlessly. That was a lie, but the truth wouldn’t help us right now. Not when I could still see the massive creature stopped in the middle of the room, not ten yards away.
But it couldn’t see me.
Like Hassani, I simply wasn’t there anymore.
Louis-Cesare was able to slip out of phase with the world for a short time, transitioning into some kind of non-space I didn’t fully understand. I doubted he did, either, since he couldn’t stay there for long. A minute, maybe two—probably the former since he’d dragged me along with him—and that was it.
We didn’t have much time.
“Come on!” I said, pulling on him, but he wasn’t budging. Unless you counted going the other way—toward the snake. “What are you doing?”
“You bought us time; we used it,” he told me. “But we have to finish this—”
“How?” I demanded, holding onto him.
“—and the chance will pass by if you don’t trust me.”
“Like you trusted me?”
He at least had the grace to blush. “Dory—”
“Later,” I said, and released him. He nodded, although he did not appear to be looking forward to later. Personally, I’d just be grateful if we had one.
Especially when he started climbing the goddamned snake.
I married a crazy man, I thought, hugging myself to keep from going up there after him. Louis-Cesare could survive being flung against a stone wall. I doubted that I could, especially now.
But damn it, climb faster.
The great beast wasn’t making it easy. The skin was slick, and the creature wasn’t staying put to hunt for us, because we weren’t the target. Hassani was. And to flush him out, any of his people would do.
The huge body suddenly moved like quicksilver, spotting some of the fleeing vamps and crossing the room after them in seconds. But they weren’t staying still, either, and had jury rigged a few surprises in the short time they’d had. Including working together to topple one of the already cracked pillars, sending it crashing down onto the beast and causing huge, broken pieces to scatter everywhere.
One passed through me as I ran after them, but didn’t kill me because of the Veil. But we had seconds left there at best, and Louis-Cesare wasn’t even half way up the great body. I could see him through the dust and debris, looking impossibly small next to those acres of scales.
Hurry up, I thought savagely. Whatever you’re going to do, do it now! Before we’re both—
Back.
A flying bit of rock cut a line across my cheek, a burning warning as I stumbled back into real space. I looked up, and sure enough, Louis-Cesare was visible, too, clinging to the great hide as the creature lunged after the fleeing vamps. Who were suddenly fleeing the other way.
I stared in disbelief at those crazy bastards, who swarmed the huge body, not one or two of them, but all of them, all at once. It was futile, like a bunch of ants charging a bull elephant. But for a brief moment, it worked, causing Sokkwi to pause in confusion.
And a moment was enough.
A blade flashed, high on the scaly hide; the great head reared back as if in pain, and a stream of poison spewed wildly everywhere. Several of Hassani’s people cried out and then were silenced, their bodies dusting away to ashes when the droplets touched them. And something that looked a lot like a long, jagged fang arced through the air—
And was caught, but not by me.
Not by Hassani, either, although he was there, in the shadows of