“Eve!”

“Angel.”

She spun to face the two men who charged into the house. Freed from the necessity of watching the wolf, Eve took in the state of the house. Fire licked along the walls from the hallway, rushing toward the fresh air introduced through the front door. The blaze she’d started in the living room had spread to the kitchen. The whole house creaked in protest, shuddering at its impending collapse.

Alec reached her first, snatching her up and tossing her over his shoulder. The sword clattered to the floor.

“Time to go,” he muttered.

The next instant she found herself by the Porsche, disoriented and barely breathing. Around her was chaos. Twin piles of ash dotted the lawn, as did the bodies of two Mark guards. Two wolves fought with those who remained standing. The dragon was acting as cover for the Marks, spewing fire according to the directions shouted from the gwyllion, who stood on the roof of the van.

“Is he d-dead?” she gasped, clinging to Alec as the sky swirled madly above her. “Is the wolf really dead this time?”

Reed’s voice came clipped and furious, “I’d say so.”

“Are you sure?” she persisted. “We burned him up before and the son of a bitch came back.”

Alec pressed his lips to her forehead and released her. “Ash is ash, there’s no coming back from that. Can you get Montevista out of here?”

Eve blinked. “What?”

He gestured to the passenger seat where the guard laid crumbled, his black shirt glistening wetly, his throat torn and gushing. If he were mortal, he’d be long dead. As a Mark, he was damn close to it. Defenseless and vulnerable.

Reed pressed keys into her palm. “Go.”

A piercing howl rent the air. They turned their heads, saw a massive wolf on the front steps. It stared at them with bared teeth and glowing red eyes. The white diamond on its forehead told her who it was, but she asked anyway, “Is that Daddy?”

“Get the fuck out of here!” Alec yelled, his wings snapping free with such force, Eve was plastered to the hood. Reed joined the fray, the two brothers launching forward, intercepting the wolf, who charged at her full-bore while flanked on either side by two wolves.

Black and white wings, powerful masculine bodies, ferocious beasts… She was arrested by the sight. The eternal conflict between angel and demon. The battle cries and howls of pain. The smell of fire and ash, of blood and urine.

“Hollis…”

Montevista’s weak voice snapped her back to reality. Eve slid off the hood. She leaped over the driver’s-side door of the open convertible and hopped into the seat. She turned the key in the ignition and the powerful engine roared like a dream. She squealed out of the driveway in reverse, running over an attacking wolf in the process.

Gripping the stick shift, she slammed the transmission into gear and punched the gas. She adjusted the review mirror, trying to see the fracas behind her. Montevista yelled in terror. Eve’s gaze shot forward and she screamed, too. She stood on the brake. The Porsche’s rear end fishtailed wildly, the car skidding down the street passenger side first…

…straight for the house-sized, flesh-colored beast thundering toward them.

The car juddered to a halt.

“Fuck me,” she breathed, then coughed as her lungs burned. Was that the hellhound?

Turn around and run, Alec bit out. Only Infernals can kill it.

Wasn’t that just really damned inconvenient?

She looked back at the blazing house and the two winged men who circled low over it, combating the wolves that poured out of a widening hole in the ground. Satan was sending reinforcements. They couldn’t deal with the behemoth from Hell on top of that. No way.

One wolf broke free of the melee and raced toward her, foaming at the mouth and lathered at the throat. The Alpha.

Eve restarted the stalled car and spun around, hurtling toward the wolf with the same reckless intent he displayed. If it was just a game of chicken between a canine and a car, she’d know who would win. But against a werewolf… She gripped the steering wheel tighter and shifted gears in rapid succession.

A foot away from impact, the wolf leaped onto the hood, his massive claws piercing through the metal. He roared at her through the windshield, his red eyes wild and filled with evil. He lunged head first into the safety glass, shattering it.

Fucking A.

Downshifting, Eve yanked the steering wheel hard left and spun the car back around, skidding across the empty street and hitting a curb. The bump dislodged the wolf, who slid across the hood and almost fell off before gaining purchase at the very nose.

She gunned it, putting the Porsche through its paces as she accelerated toward the approaching mega-Infernal. Zero-to-sixty in less than four seconds.

“This might not work,” she shouted at Montevista.

“Go down in a blaze of glory,” he said back.

“Give me your gun.”

Montevista pulled the weapon free of his thigh holster and racked it, then handed it over. She aimed and fired through the wolf, the Glock autoloading and discharging again and again and again. The sixth bullet widened the hole in the Alpha’s shoulder and pierced through the other side, hitting the hellhound. Covered in werewolf blood, the bullet penetrated the beast’s hide. Eve continued to fire, punching through the back of the wolf to injure the hound with nearly every shot.

The hound screamed in fury and lunged. Eve punched the gas. With the Alpha as a hood ornament, she hit the beast head on.

Pausing in the center of the main living space, Eve shook off the feeling of a ghost walking over her grave. The men’s half of the duplex was on the other side of the master bedroom walls and the three other females were only feet away. Yet her body was tense and her stomach was knotted. Every creepy, awful horror flick she’d ever seen was brought to life by the musty smell and unfamiliar noises of the house and surrounding exterior. The illusory perception of some homicidal maniac standing behind her made her want to shiver… if only the mark would let her.

“Damned sadistic imagination.”

Eve. The rumble of Reed’s voice hit her as the sensation of a hot summer breeze–a warmth drenched in the darkly erotic scent of his skin–engulfed her.

She reached back to him, grasping for the thin thread of awareness that flowed between handlers and their Marks. She’d heard that some Marks were able to share whole thoughts with their handlers, but she didn’t have that ability. For her, it was only distant echoes of emotion. She secretly wondered if that was her fault, if she was afraid to let him in because of Alec.

Or maybe… due to more personal misgivings.

Feeling too exposed, Eve retreated both mentally and physically, stepping out of the shaft of moonlight and into the shadows. As she withdrew, she felt Reed lunge for her. She froze, startled by his vehemence. His concern and apprehension were so strong she felt them as if they were her own. Something was wrong wherever he was, something that had him checking on her and assuring himself of her safety.

Eve rolled her shoulders back. Alec and Reed had their own burdens to bear. They had more experience, but their jobs weren’t any easier than hers. She was a big girl and she needed to take care of herself.

I’m okay, she told him. Don’t worry–

A group of dark forms moved through the moonlight, arresting her in mid-thought. Their shadows raced across the patch of light on the hardwood floors.

Frightened, Eve’s gaze shot to the window and out to the view beyond. The street was eerie in its lifelessness. The streetlights were dim, the houses across the way were dark, the road empty of cars.

“Just a flock of birds,” she whispered, wishing she was one of those people who weren’t afraid of anything. “You need sleep, that’s all.”

A large hunchback shape lumbered across the lawn toward the men’s side of the duplex, moving in the opposite direction of the shadowy figures.

“Christ,” she breathed, then winced as the mark on her arm burned in chastisement. Her marked enhancements woke with a start, stealing her breath. Heat flared across her skin, misting it with sweat and blackening her vision. She’d ridden on a rollercoaster once that had made her feel much the same. The car had shot from the station like a bullet, building speed with every second, hurtling her toward a towering precipice framed with a ring of fire. Her fever returned with a vengeance, but instead of wiping her out with exhaustion, she was possessed by a wild, edgy energy.

Eve sprinted to the front door and disengaged the locks. She looked outside, engaging her nictitating lenses to see. The two guards who had been stationed at the front and kitchen doors were already in motion, running stealthily around either end of the hedge fence that bisected their property from the neighboring one.

But they were heading in the opposite direction of the hunchbacked form.

Her gaze lifted beyond their retreating backs. There were other unwanted visitors out there. She could see what looked to be half a dozen tall and lean forms moving rapidly in a disjointed pack. They prevented her from calling out to the guards or even whistling.

She glanced down the hallway at the other bedrooms and considered waking the girls or at least grabbing her gun. But Infernals had hearing as good as hers and trying to keep quiet while performing either action would eat time she didn’t have. If that lumbering thing was after Gadara, she couldn’t allow it to get any closer.

Threats are to be neutralized, not minimized, the archangel had taught. Do not prevaricate. They learn with every confrontation and you do not want to give them the chance to ambush you in the future.

“Go,” she muttered to herself grimly. “You can scream for help after you stop it.”

Locking the door behind her, Eve took off around the front of the house. Blood lust spurred her stride and her muscles flexed in anticipation. Her senses were so acute she could hear the faint sounds of a television show coming from an occupied house a couple blocks away.

Usually archangels were ensconced in buildings filled with Marks who acted as an early warning system. It was impossible for a stinky Infernal to sneak past all of them and get to an archangel. At least it had been impossible before the creation of the Infernal mask. Now, all bets were off.

Gadara had only four guards to protect him and a class of newbie Marks who couldn’t even smell whatever the poodle had detected.

Kicking off her sandals, Eve ran barefoot across the coarse dead grass that covered the shared lawn. Ahead of her, the bulky creature rounded the front of the duplex and disappeared down the cement pathway that led to the entrance of the men’s side. A light was on in the living room, but a sheet had been draped over the window, blocking the view of the interior. As Eve ran past, she heard Gadara speaking. The resonance of his voice betrayed his power, creating a potent lure to an ambitious Infernal.

You can do this. She deliberately ignored the size of the Infernal she hunted. The demon was easily six and half feet, with massive shoulders and a protruding back. Eve had no idea what class of Infernal fit that description or what its specialty might be. It could have razor sharp teeth and claws, or it could spit fire like the dragon that killed her on Sunday. Or perhaps it had some other, deadlier talent.

Don’t think about it.