Chapter 206

Chapter 206: Chapter 206

Heather

I threw three vials as I backed up, but that didn’t stop it. I would’ve turned and run, but the wolves

jumped in front of me. Brent dodged and Lucas almost got a mouthful of it.

Adrian flew at it, but the demon slashed out with its nails. Adrian yelped, tumbling into a pew.

Shit.

Shane got to his side first, chucking vial after vial, but the demon saw Adrian’s blood and kept heading for him.

"Hey!" I tossed a vial and invoked it. It exploded on the demon’s back, sinking a small crater in its skin. That got its attention.

As the demon started for me, I spotted Cosette and Van slinking into place behind it. We’d talked out this scenario on the plane. We just needed a little time for the fey to get in place. Then, Claudia, Shane, and I would throw our potions, and Cosette—and now Van too—would go for the head. The wolves would keep it distracted and herd it where we wanted.

"You will not defeat the mistress." Its voice was a hair-raising, high-pitched rasp.

I stopped moving.

It talked. Holy shit. Was it talking to me? About Luciana?

"If you tell us where she is, we’ll defeat her," I said, trying to bait the little monster. "Don’t you want to be free of her control?"

It hissed, and goose bumps ran up my arms. "The mistress is not Luciana. Not anymore." It laughed the same laugh I’d heard from Raphael not so long ago. Not a similar laugh. The exact same laugh.

I spotted Raphael on my right, twisting the bat in his hands. His jaw was clenched tight and little lines formed around his mouth.

The woman coughed from the back of the room. It sounded wet, like she was bleeding. Hurt.

We needed to end this, and soon. But if we got some information before we killed this thing, even better. "I bet your mistress is too scared to face us. She ran all the way here, but we’ll find her."

It laughed again as it levitated off the ground. It hadn’t even turned to listen to me. Instead, it stared straight at Raphael "I remember you," it said. "Your soul was tasty. Kept a few bits of it for myself."

Raphael roared and swung the bat, aiming for the demon’s head. Light flashed as it connected and the demon flew across the room, slamming into a pew. Wood splintered around it.

I strode to it, holding a vial ready. No more beating around the bush for this girl. Not if it was going to torment my cousin. "If your master is so powerful, then where is she?"

"Not telling."

I threw the vial. It screeched in pain as its skin melted, steam rising as the potion bubbled. The smell it gave off—like burning plastic—reeked.

"Where is she?"

"Not—"

I threw another vial. Then another. Claudia and Shane started lobbing potions, too. Its skin made a sickening crackling noise as the potions hit, but it was still breathing. Still alive.

The demon gave off an ear-splitting cry as it flew in the air.

I dodged, throwing myself on the ground.

Shane yelled, and my blood went cold.

We needed to end this now.

I kipped up, and threw three more vials before reaching in my bag. Claudia met my gaze, her hand raised with her own vials. "Cosette!"

Claudia and I threw our vials in unison.

"My pleasure." Cosette hooked arms with Van and he launched her into the air. She flew, sword raised and glittering. The blade came down, decapitating it in one glowing strike.

The earth cracked open with a roar and flash, sucking the demon back to hell.

Eerie silence echoed through the church for all of five seconds.

Then a gun cocked.

"SFPD. Drop your weapons. Now." No less than ten cops swarmed into the sanctuary, guns out. Some of them wore Kevlar vests, others had shotguns instead of handguns, but all of them looked like they weren’t fucking around.

Wolf-Brent nudged me with his head, and I closed my eyes. This was so not happening.

"On the ground. All of you. Any wolf that makes a move toward us gets a silver bullet right through the eye."

A gunshot, we could heal. But I wasn’t so sure about silver bullets, let alone a silver bullet to the head. I lifted my arms in the air and got to my knees.

"Everyone. On the ground."

I spared a glance for the others.

Shit. Me and my cousins were the only ones cooperating. A bead of sweat rolled down the nearest cop’s cheek. All of them reeked of the sickly sweet scent of fear. One wrong move and they’d all snap.

Help me out, Brent. We have to cooperate. "You guys have to get down," I said just loud enough for the Weres to hear.

"No," Donovan growled the word. He must have just shifted back. I peeked at him, off to my right. Even standing there, naked as the day God made him, he looked fierce. Waves of alpha energy rolled off him, and my throat tightened.

This could go bad. Very quickly.

"Yes. You will."

"They have a gun pointed at my mate. I’ll not be surrendering." The other wolves growled.

"You should listen to your friend. Down on your knees," one shotgun carrying cop said as he took one step forward.

"You all will shift back and be nice to these police officers." I raised my voice loud enough for everyone to hear. "We have to make a choice. We could force our way out of here, but is that the right thing to do?"

"Maybe Donovan has a point," Shane said. "If we don’t leave, we’ll be tied up with the police, just like Luciana wanted."

Brent’s anger rolled through our bond. Even my own mate thought I was being dumb, but I couldn’t give in. A mistake here could destroy the trust between humans and werewolves forever.

I swallowed down my nerves. "I’ll call the FBI, and they’ll help clear this up. We need to show the humans we can work with them or they’ll see us as nothing more than animals. If we don’t go with them now, peacefully, we’ll ruin any chance of them trusting us. Monsters like Luciana will come and go, but the rest of our lives with the humans—we can’t throw that away."

I cleared my throat. "Officers. The wolves are going to shift now, and they’ll need the clothes from our car. I’m sure you’re already searching it, so if you’d please bring the bags here for them, we’ll happily go with you. We have two injured humans. One badly hurt. I don’t know if she’s still alive. And Shane? You okay?"

"Hurts." His voice was strained. He just had to hold on. A few minutes more.

None of the cops moved.

"Please. We’re going to need an ambulance."

"We already called one."

I let go of a little bit of tension. I was going to have to get the EMTs to use holy water on them, but maybe... "We haven’t done anything wrong here. This is the work of Luciana Alvarez. It’s exactly the same as what happened in Cedar Ridge, Texas. If you get us the clothes, we can sort this all out."

"She needs to drop her weapon."

I looked at Cosette. She bit her lip as she eyed the

door. "Would you rather I just made this all go away?"

Tempting. Really tempting. But I shook my head. "We tried that last time and look where it got us. We have to cooperate."

"Fine. But I’m not kneeling in demon ashes." Her sword winked out and she brushed her hands on her jeans.

"What the fuck was that?" A cop yelled.

Ugh. Way to diffuse the situation. I waved my hands, drawing the cops’ attention back to me. "Please don’t be afraid. The wolves are going to shift now."

One by one, the guys took their human forms until only Serena was left. She huddled against Donovan’s legs and I didn’t blame her. "Now, we need our clothes. Please."

A cop disappeared and came back a minute later with one of the Cazadores’ duffels of clothes. He tossed it toward us.

The guys held their hands out and slowly reached for clothes. Everyone was moving very slowly. Carefully. Making sure there were no mistakes. It was necessary, but we didn’t have this much time. Adrian and Shane—not to mention the woman—needed help now.