meant Teag and I had to protect Alicia as well as try to get out of this alive, and it was four to two. Lousy odds.
I shot first. Fire surged from the old walking stick. The heat raised sweat on my forehead, and the blast of fire hit Baldy square in the middle of his Italian designer shirt. The beast inside roared as the force of the strike threw him back toward the mouth of the alley, his clothes aflame, flesh burning.
Bo’s ghost was already in motion, bounding down the alley at Ginger, who looked like the answer to a Scottish bad girl’s wildest dreams. Bo leaped, managing to get three feet of air under him, and tackled Ginger like a lineman. Bo’s teeth clamped down on Ginger’s shoulder, and his front claws raked down through a black silk shirt that probably cost as much as most people’s monthly mortgage payment.
Teag moved in fast while Ginger was down. He’s earned every one of his martial arts trophies, without using magic. Now, I heard him chanting under his breath, raising his power. Ginger tore loose from Bo’s grip, losing a chunk of flesh in the process, and was halfway on his feet before Teag hammered him with his staff. The crack of wood against bone echoed, followed a split second later by a flash of light. Ginger went down like he’d been Tasered, only Teag’s bolt of power carried a magical jolt.
Bo went low; Teag went high. Bo lunged and caught Ginger in the left calf, as Teag used his staff as a fulcrum and leaped, planting a boot with silver-tipped cleats right in the Nephilim’s chest. Ginger dropped like a rock, and Teag smashed the butt of his staff down through the pretty-boy’s face, following it up with another wallop of magic that made Ginger convulse once and then lie smoking and still.
Blondie was heading my way, while the dark-haired Nephilim hung back as if he was going to let his friends do the heavy lifting. He had coal-black hair and sharp features that made me think of a bird, so I mentally nicknamed him ‘Crow’. If he thought he was going to get out of this without rumpling his Armani jacket, he had another think coming.
Half way toward me, Blondie broke into a run. I had spent the afternoon practicing with Josiah’s dueling pistol, and I knew its range and expected its kick. I’d used normal bullets for practice, and saved the silver-tipped, holy-water-blessed shot for tonight.
Just a little closer. The damndest thing about dueling pistols is that they were made for short-range fighting, not distance, and they only had one bullet. That meant I had to hold my one shot until Blondie was within forty paces, which was too damn close for comfort.
That’s when Crow charged.
I heard a roar behind me, and knew that Baldy had managed to regroup. Teag had his hands full. I had a split second to get off a shot at Blondie before he went for my throat. Alicia was between me and Crow, which meant I couldn’t fry him with my walking stick without getting Alicia, too. As fast as Nephilim moved, it looked like both of them were going to hit me at the same time.
A thick fog came out of nowhere, coalescing between me and Crow. Not fog, spirits. I caught glimpses of faces and shapes, hazy gray. Josiah isn’t the only dueler who never left the alley. Though the ghosts of dead duelers looked insubstantial to me, they had enough supernatural heft to slow down the dark-haired Nephilim, making him fight his way through the fog to get to us. Bless you, Alicia, I thought.
Alicia’s ghosts bought me the few seconds I needed. I took my shot at Blondie, and got him in the gut. The impact of the shot stopped his momentum, and put a big bloodstain on his abdomen. But I knew what really hurt was the silver and holy water combo, since his veins lit up through his skin from the inside-out and he went down screaming as his whole body started to smoke.
“Alicia – move!” I shouted. The alley ghosts were doing their best to slow the fourth Nephilim, but he was strong enough to fight his way through, tearing free from the spectral hands that snatched at his clothing and pulled at his arms and legs. Crow was almost on her, half transformed. I had seen what those claws could do. I dropped the gun