debris, and Jim’s landing soaked him again.
Twitch touched down immediately after Jim, and she and Eddie pulled the singer from the water.
“Downstairs!” Eddie barked. “The water’s draining, so there must be a way out!”
“Water can drain through a toilet,” Adrian pointed out reflexively, and regretted it. However bossy he was being, Eddie was probably right. There was probably a way out on the bottom floor, at the level of the river. Depending on how long the rain lasted, they might not have much time to take advantage of the fact.
Semyaz rolled in the water, regaining his feet. Yamayol wiped blood from his eyes and blinked to recover his vision, and Ezeq’el shook her head. They’d be after the band again in a moment.
“Hey,” Mike said, and picked up something from the flotsam of the dam. It was Jim’s sword, and he held it out to the singer.
Jim took his weapon and grabbed Adrian by the front of his jacket.
“Can you make wards of commanding?” he demanded.
Adrian hesitated. There was a crazy light in Jim’s eyes, even crazier than his normal driven mania. “Sure,” he said. “But there’s no point, without the true name of the person being bound.”
“Get downstairs,” Jim snarled. “Do whatever you have to, and turn the downstairs into a ward of commanding. I’ll give you as much time as I can, but that will be very little.”
“What are you doing, Jim?” Eddie asked. “Let’s run.”
“I’m not leaving Elaine.” Jim’s skin was whiter than usual from the cold, and the veins in his temples and the cords in his neck stood out with the effort of speech. He turned back to the Fallen, who were lumbering in their direction.
“And the names?” Adrian said. “For want of a nail … you know.” Jim was very tall, and his leaning over Adrian reminded Adrian of his own diminutive stature.
“Leave them blank,” Jim told him. “And be ready.”
He spun around and bounded back to the attack, sword slashing the air in front of him.
Elaine?
Adrian remembered something he’d glimpsed through the Eye earlier, so he held it up and looked again. It was still there: a pulsating red light on Semyaz’s chest, in the shape of a rose. Elaine, when she looked like Mouser in Adrian’s dream-shadow nightmare house of flesh, had been wearing pajamas with roses on them.
That was what the Fallen had come to try to barter with Jim. They had his lover, and were offering to give her back. Her presence in the … object on Semyaz’s chest, whatever it was, had led to her being trapped in Adrian’s shadow with the rest of them.
Adrian had a sudden sick feeling in his stomach that Semyaz’s offer was probably really, really attractive to Jim.
No time to worry about that. He turned and ran.
Adrian climbed over the debris at the top of the stairs. On the other side, water poured down the steps in a shallower stream. He shivered from the storm’s cold and dug with numb fingers in his pockets.
He had chalk.
The stairs zigged one direction, zagged the other and then the four of them sloshed into a short hallway lit by flickering fluorescent tubes. The water was up to Adrian’s waist again, and he noticed with disappointment that the ceiling was plenty high enough for the Fallen to force their way through. Of course it was. They’d chosen the location for the trap.
“Mike,” Eddie gruffed. “Wait here for Jim.”
“Carajo,” the bassist said. He snapped the clip out of his M1911 and pushed a few bullets into it. “Why me?”
“’Cause if it’s you,” Adrian joked, “at least you’ll have your brother to keep you company.”
“That ain’t as funny as it must have sounded inside your head, man,” Mike complained. “But maybe a good joke about your uncle would make us all laugh.”
Adrian’s shoulders drooped. Ah, hell.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “Sorry.”
“I’m the better sentinel, anyway,” Twitch offered. They all looked like they’d been roughed up, but she looked the worst. The hurricane of wind and water weren’t enough to wash away the blood from the wounds she’d received when she’d been smashed head-first into the concrete ceiling. Fairies were tough, Adrian thought. If he’d been in her place, he’d have left his brains behind.
“I wish you were better-armed,” Eddie said, offering her his Glock.
“Why would a girl need to be armed,” Twitch asked with a grin, “if she’s winged?”
“Too much banter.” Adrian started off down the hall, looking for a room. He needed to enclose all three of the Fallen in a