Page 173 of Dukes Are Forever
A Doeppler Orb.
"I can't use it," Lark cried, "but Malloryn made sure we all had one."
Hope flared.
"Cover your mouth!" Adele yelled, cupping both hands around the Doeppler Orb.
Lark fell back as Ingrid took a blow to the ribs, jerking the filtration mask up over her mouth and nose. Every blue blood in the Company of Rogues had one tucked about their person somewhere, what with the dangers of Black Vein.
Adele twisted both halves of the orb as Ava had shown her, and then threw it toward where Ingrid and Dido were grappling. Diffused steam hissed out from it as the orb clicked apart, tendrils of fine mist curling around Ingrid and Dido, where they fought.
It wouldn't affect Ingrid, but Dido was another matter.
Ingrid lashed out with both knives and Dido leapt up on the daybed to avoid them. She'd lost one of her swords somewhere.
Adele kicked the daybed.
Hard.
Thedhampirshot her a murderous look as it jerked beneath her feet, and Ingrid managed to bury one of her knives in the woman's side. Dido hissed through her teeth and slammed an elbow into Ingrid's head, sending her staggering.
The mist from the Doeppler Orb started to stutter. Black capillaries bled through Dido's face, but perhaps the room was too large? It didn't seem to be having the same effect as it had on Jelena.
"Get her out of here!" Ingrid yelled, her eyes flashing a fierce bronze.
Lark hauled her toward the door.
"Not without Ingrid!" she insisted.
"Malloryn's orders," Lark replied grimly.
"Bugger Malloryn and his orders," she insisted. "No Rogue left behind. Isn't that the COR creed?"
Lark hesitated, and Adele cursed herself for being so spectacularly useless in the face of violence.
As if to taunt them, Dido drove her knife between Ingrid's ribs.
"Ingrid!" Lark cried, moving forward and then hesitating.
"Go!" Adele told her. "I'll manage."
Arms locked around Dido, Ingrid staggered back as Dido knifed her again.
It was all happening so fast. Adele didn't know what to do.
Lark reentered the fray as Ingrid staggered back a step, one hand slapped to the bleeding wound at her side.
Adele could see what was going to happen.
With Ingrid injured, Lark was no match for the vicious assassin.
Turning around, she grabbed an enormous Chinese urn off a nearby pedestal and lifted it over her head.
She slammed the urn down on the back of Dido's shoulders. A hand lashed out, knuckles filling the center of Adele's vision, and then she was staggering backward, dropping the urn on the marble tiles. Heat spread across her face, her eyes watering. Good God, was her nose broken?
Ingrid's eyes flashed bronze as she shot both Lark and Adele an anguished look. "Tell Byrnes I love him."
And then she muscled Dido to the side, throwing her back against the window. Glass shattered, and Dido's eyes went wide as she clawed at Ingrid's shoulders.
