If she can stay just one step ahead, she should be okay. Maybe she’ll even live long to collect her fee…
Excerpt:
Two
hours.
No
luck.
And
it was getting dark.
As
we cut back up the street, I had to admit that Keeli, whoever she was, just
didn’t want to be found.
Okay.
Maybe
we’d try to come back—
“Hey.”
I
heard the low, wasted rasp of a voice and looked down the alley.
Damon
caught my arm.
I
stopped and glanced at him. I wasn’t an idiot.
Popping
my wrist, I turned to the sound of the voice and waited.
A
shadow moved. “Hear you’re looking for Keeli.”
“You’ve
got good ears.” Or you’ve just been in the area for the past few hours, I
thought sourly.
The
shadow crept closer. Light reflected off a man’s face before he eased back into
the shadow.
“I
can tell you where to find her…but it will cost you.”
Wow.
What a surprise, that.
Fishing
a bill out of my pocket, I knelt down on the ground and found a rock. I wrapped
the bill around it and tossed it into the alley. “There.”
Silence
stretched out. “That’ll do, kid. But…trust me. You don’t want me shouting this
news. You’re looking for news on the Alpha’s boy, right?”
Damon
tensed at my back.
“What
do you know?” I asked, staring into the alley.
I
could see him.
Dirty
face. Young. Grimy.
He
smiled at me.
“I
know all sorts of things, girl,” he murmured.
My
skin crawled, but if he knew something…
I
slid Damon another look. His eyes were glowing. His hand gripped my arm. But
when I stepped forward, he was right there by me.
They
went for him first.
Through
the roar of blood in my ears, I heard Damon swearing. That was kind of funny.
There were four of them and he was cussing them out?
But
then one of them howled… A death scream. One that made the skin on my nape
crawl as I slashed through the air with my blade.
She
was made like a rapier, but heavier. I could hack away for hours if I had to,
and the fool in front of me was bleeding from more cuts than even I could
count; he was either too weak or too underfed to heal them well. He made
another lunge at me and I drove the blade through his heart, twisting it and
jerking upward. Skin smoked as it met
the silver and I watched as the life in his eyes faded.
Jerking
my blade free, I turned, braced for another attack.
All
I saw was Damon. Walking toward me with blood dripping off him, falling in fat
drops from his fingers.
“Show
off,” I muttered.
A
flash of white appeared in his face. I almost thought he was smiling.
But
that faint smile was gone in another second as shadows came rushing at us from
all around.
I
found myself shoved to the ground.
There
was a rumbling sound—something I couldn’t identify.
And
another sound—one I could.
The
ground was shaking, I thought. As I pushed up onto my elbows, I saw a giant
shape rushing into the alley.
Goliath.
Hell
was about to break loose.
Then
a cat roared and I heard somebody scream. Maybe it already had.
As
the fighting raged over my head, I rolled to the side and flexed my wrist. My
blade was gone. I managed to get my back to the wall of the busted, broken
building behind me, using it for support and shadow as I surveyed the mess in
front of me.
Five,
six, seven—yeah. Seven scraggly wolves fighting Goliath and Damon. The wolves
had shifted. Damon and Goliath hadn’t. Two wolves were trying to take Goliath
down and he casually caught one, ripped its head off. My gut went a little
queasy at the sight.
The
second one didn’t fare much better.
Damon
wasn’t quite so casual.
Quick,
brutal.
But
for every one they took down, several more came crawling out of the shadows.
What
the hell—
Panting
for breath, I flexed my wrist and called my blade.
Off
to the side, I heard a snarl.
The
wolf came for me just as I turned to face it.
I
never even got my blade up.
