on the Omega, as if he could will the evil back to Dhunhd.
Through slack lips, he began to pray. “Hail Mary, full of grace…”
The Omega’s laughter rang out in Butch’s brain. And you think that will help?
The suffering intensified even further.
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
At the moment of his death, Butch thought of Marissa, of course. Vishous, too. And also the others who had stayed back home. They were going to be mourners for the rest of their lives and he hated it.
And then there was Wrath. He was never going to get over this. Almost all of the Brotherhood lost and most of the fighters in the house gone, too? Thank God he had Beth and L.W. to keep him from spiraling. He had spent so many centuries after his parents had been murdered by the Lessening Society angry and disconnected.
He had to continue to lead. He had to rebuild.
The vampire race had to go on after this carnage.
As the suffocation get worse, Butch could feel his heart slow down. Slower. Slower…
“Marissa,” he choked out.
His last thought was of the way they had kissed goodbye. That final moment would have to last until they met in the Fade. Assuming there even was a place to go after death now that the Omega had won. What kind of spoils would come with the evil’s victory?
Butch drew his last breath picturing the aristocratic female who had saved him from his gray, alcoholic existence, rescuing him with her love and her—
The screeching noise was something between a jet airplane skidding out on a tarmac, an industrialized balloon being popped with a pin, and seven thousand air horns going off at the same time.
And then Butch was able to breathe a little. And a little more.
And finally, fully.
With air in his lungs, his sight came back—not that that helped much. Because he had no clue what the hell he was seeing.
The Omega was still sending out all his claiming power, but there was a deflection. A block. A…
Something standing between the source of the evil and Butch was taking it in the—
It couldn’t be.
She couldn’t be.
Butch staggered up to his feet, using the building behind him as a crutch because his balance was for shit. Wheezing, but breathing, he gave his eyes every opportunity to come clean with what was really going down.
Nothing changed.
The woman who had introduced herself as his sister’s former friend, who had showed up with a busted face and a bad story, who had taken him back to a crib which twenty-four hours later didn’t exist, had staked herself in front of him and was taking everything the Omega could throw at her.
With her stiletto heels planted, and her beautiful body straining, and her brunette locks flowing in an unholy wind, she had extended her own palm and was channeling the evil into herself.
And suddenly the balance of power seemed to change.
The Omega was no longer throwing the shit out. The woman—female—whatever the fuck she was—was sucking him in. Butch knew this because the Omega took a step back, and another—and then it seemed unable to go any further.
The woman moved forward. And got even closer.
A wind began to swirl around them, currents made of air that were strong as steel, and the woman yelled out a curse—
The Omega’s white robe rotted away, the folds staining brown and gray and then going threadbare, revealing the dense, black hole of malevolence that they covered. A face emerged from within the stain, a tortured face, a face that was screaming—
Right before it blew apart.
The evil exploded, waves of energy released, breaking windows and blowing holes in the brick walls of buildings. But then came the sucking in, the ownership, the claiming of the power.
In the aftermath, there was only the woman left in the alley. The woman… and the bodies of Butch’s brothers and his fellow fighters. And his sister, Jo Early.
The woman looked at him over her shoulder. Then she turned around.
“Who are you?” Butch said hoarsely. “Really.”
“I did a good job with your sister’s friend, didn’t I?” She smiled in an almost shy way. “I got into your mind and looked around. I figured it was my best shot.”
“Tell me.”
“I have been known by many names, but I have always been female so it would be rude of you to ask my age. I am the Omega’s little sister. I am Devina.”
Butch weaved on his feet as he tried to understand what she was saying. But then things came back. “That night