Page 63 of The Devil You Know
Fuck. Vampires.
“Stay behind us,” Joe snapped, moving toward the pair on the right as Johnny shifted to the left. The vamps came at Joe in a blur. One went for his throat, while the other grabbed an arm, going for the artery only to recoil when Joe’s steel skin didn’t pierce like human flesh.
“Break a fang?” Joe taunted as he closed his meaty fists around their necks and snapped them with a twist.
On the left, Johnny held out one hand, freezing the other two vampires in place with magic. Then he snapped his fingers and set them on fire.
Evan took a step back, realizing on a gut level just how out of his element he was. A new vampire rose right in front of him, lips drawn back and teeth bared.
He swung his machete, but the vamp easily dodged the blade. Before he could swing again, the creature gasped and arched as a piece of rebar stabbed him from behind. The vampire slumped, and Evan saw Seth holding the rebar, haggard and covered in black blood. Evan thought he was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“What the fuck!” Parker yelped into the comm link.
“There were three human guards farther down the track. I took care of them,” Seth told them.
“How did you get here?” Evan could hardly believe that Seth was alive and with them.
Seth shook his head. “Later. I’m just glad I made it to the party.”
Seth didn’t look well, but he was on his feet and fighting—and alive. Evan figured that if they lived through tonight, everything else could be fixed.
Screams tore through the tunnel again, desperate and fading.
“Time to move,” Joe growled. “Keep an eye out—there might be more surprises.”
“Parker—time to go radio silent,” Evan ordered. “You might not want to watch.”
“Screw that. I’ve got your backs,” Parker snapped and silenced the link.
Evan and Seth let Joe and Johnny lead the way, watching to make sure no new threats rose from the darkness. Evan kept stealing glances at Seth to make sure he was there.
“Fuck, he’s started the ritual,” Evan muttered as the light from inside the control room changed from the glow of fluorescent lights to the violet hue of magic.
Joe barreled through the doorway, sending the remaining guard inside the room sprawling with a roundhouse punch.
Derek Nelson lay stripped and bloody on a table in the middle of the old control room. Deep cuts gouged his chest and arms, and the glazed look in his eyes suggested that he was either drugged or going into shock.
“Help me,” he groaned, his voice ravaged from screaming.
Behind him, Willis Osborn greeted them with a triumphant grin. “You’re just in time for the main event.” Blood spattered his white shirt and painted his forearms to the elbow.
An iridescent scrim of energy separated them from Osborn and Nelson, a magical curtain designed to keep anyone from interfering. Behind Osborn, a pinprick of violet light told Evan that despite them breaking Osborn’s anchor, the witch disciple had siphoned enough energy from his captives to start the ritual and summon the trapped ghost of his old master.
Johnny blasted the energy curtain with a stream of glowing power. The transparent barrier held, growing brighter as it fought the attack.
Maintaining the scrim cost Osborn energy, so strengthening it against Johnny’s barrage would drain the witch disciple. Evan knew from experience that shooting at the barrier or hitting it with an object would cause a potentially deadly rebound.
Joe stepped forward and pressed both open palms against the barrier, making it spark and sizzle as his patron’s power protected him from Osborn’s magic.
Osborn raised both hands, palms out, and the barrier glowed more brightly when he sent his energy into the scrim. Evan feared that fending them off wouldn’t stop the warlock from opening the rift to Gremory’s trapped spirit.
Nelson lay still, no longer calling out for help.
Evan spotted the ornate garnet ring on the witch’s right hand and tightened his grip on the machete, poised to spring. He spared a worried glance at Seth, who stood beside him shoulder-to-shoulder, still holding the wrench and rebar.Seth looks like he might fall down at any moment. If he does, how can I get both Nelson and Seth to safety?
The barrier flickered like the overhead lights,and Evan could see the strain in Osborn’s face. Where Joe’s hands touched the scrim, the barrier glitched.
“Get ready,” Seth murmured, tensing to strike.
