surrounded the Alzheimer’s wing. Outside of the windows, standing on the grassy ‘moat’, were four model-gorgeous Nephilim already in the courtyard. My heart sank as I recognized them as fallen angels we had already fought—and thought we had destroyed. One of them was definitely Coffee Guy, back to cause more trouble. With him were Baldy, Blondie, and Ginger, the ones who jumped us in Dueler’s Alley.
“We’ve got to get everyone out now,” I said to Judy, going to help push Miss Henderson’s wheelchair to the door. I looked toward where I had last seen Helen Butler. She and another patient were still in the garden off to one side. They were talking with a nurse and didn’t seem to notice the intruders. But I knew that the Nephilim were bound to notice them soon.
Shit. I had my athame up my sleeve, Bo’s collar on my left wrist and my chakram was in the small backpack I used instead of a purse, along with Josiah’s pistol. I had hoped to speak privately to Mr. Thompson about the gun, since he was a descendent of Winfield’s. I’d taken a hell of a chance bringing a weapon into the nursing home, but now I was glad. Sorren had gone to ground, and he’d be no help in the bright sunlight. I could speed dial Teag or Father Anne, but it might all be over by the time they got here.
Something big exploded nearby. I wheeled, and realized that the kitchen was on fire. Another explosion rocked the building, and the alarms shrilled. Sprinklers clicked, but no water sprayed from them.
Trapped. In the distance, I could hear the nurses cajoling the patients to stay calm as they moved them into the hallway and away from the kitchen and common room. I felt sick. Everything in me wanted to get the elderly residents out to the parking lot and away from the fire, but I knew that with Nephilim around, it was more dangerous out there than it was in here.
The smoke was getting thicker. Two of the orderlies were trying to put out the kitchen fire with extinguishers, but it was too much for them. The alarms were ringing loud enough to be heard even for residents who had turned off their hearing aids, and strobe lights flashed to warn the deaf.
“Three of us, four of them,” Chuck said tightly, coming up to stand next to me. He released a hidden clasp, and his umbrella became a short sword. Mr. Thompson sat in his chair facing one of the windows. He held his cane like a lance, steadied on the arm of his walker. I tucked Baxter into my backpack and I took out Josiah’s pistol and the chakram, fastening the pack closed. The pistol went into my waistband at the small of my back, and the chakram snapped into a leather strap on my belt I had worn, just in case.
“Four of us.” I looked behind me and saw Nurse Judy. I had not noticed the silver pentacle she wore on a chain around her neck. Maybe she had kept it hidden before, but now it lay outside the neckline of her scrubs. I remembered the jolt I had felt when our skin touched.
“What are they, and what do they want?” she asked.
“They’re fallen angels, and they want to kill us to settle an old score,” I said.
“Then screw them,” Judy said, as if it was the kind of thing she heard every day. “Nobody messes with my patients.”
We stood facing the broken windows. I searched the garden for Helen Butler and her companions, unsure whether they had managed to come inside or whether they were still outside. Either way, they were in danger. Commotion filled the hallways as orderlies and nurses tried to move confused residents along the escape route.
“I’ve got to find Mrs. Butler and the people who were in the garden,” I said. “We can’t leave them out there.”
The alarms blared and I heard voices raised in confusion. “Is it the Germans again?” I heard a frail voice ask. “Do we have to go to the bomb shelter? I’ve forgotten where it is.”
“Quit burning the roast!” a man shouted. “How many times do I have to tell you to turn down the oven!”
“Everyone stay next to the wall and move toward the door!” one of the nurses ordered, a calm, confident voice in the midst of chaos. The smoke was getting worse, and without the sprinklers, the fire would spread