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  Heidi had started to sob quietly. She crossed her arms tightly across her chest and pulled her feet in close. Sebastian wanted to comfort her, tell her everything was going to be all right, but he knew he wouldn’t sound very convincing.

  No matter what Jessie and the others said or did, there was no way this was going to happen. He wasn’t a rapist, he wasn’t going to force himself on Heidi. The situation may be making the psycho evil magic-vampires horny, but he was as far from aroused as a guy could be. He was whatever the opposite of aroused was.

  Sebastian had to convince them, but what then? Would they immediately kill him? Probably yes, they would, but there was no alternative. “I can’t. Seriously, there’s no way any of this,” he gestured to his flaccid equipment, “is going to work under these circumstances. It just doesn’t happen.”

  “Are you trying to say Heidi is ugly? That you don’t find her attractive?” Jessie was incredulous. “We gave her a shower, washed the kennel stink off her beautiful skin, she’s not fat, and she has pretty eyes.”

  “No, it’s not—”

  “Then what’s the problem?” Jessie roared, her voicing dropping an octave or two and her eyes flashing black.

  Sebastian froze, anticipating a painful swipe from Jessie’s clawed nails. When no attack came, he let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

  “I’m sorry. That was rude,” Jessie apologized. “The thing is, this is going to happen. We just thought that at least you two could enjoy the experience a little . . . you know . . . as a treat. But if you refuse, well then we will just have to milk you.”

  “Milk me?”

  “Yes. You saw the lab. We will strap you down, shoot you full of an amazing piece of modern magic called Viagra, and milk you dry.”

  Sebastian tried to swallow, his mouth was as dry as paper.

  Jessie continued, “Then it’s turkey baster time for our little flower,” she patted Heidi’s hand.

  Something exploded.

  At least that’s what it sounded like to Sebastian. A concussive boom ripped through the air, and the entire room shook. It felt like a small earthquake. Jessie jumped to her feet instantly alert. Megan and Kerri untwined themselves and sat up, their eyes flashed black simultaneously, and Megan let out a low growl.

  Freaky.

  A second smaller boom brought Megan and Kerri to their feet. They sniffed at the air, as if they could smell whatever was causing the disturbance. For all Sebastian knew, they probably could. Even he could feel the tension and it was becoming oppressive. Whatever was about to go down he didn't think it was going to be fun and the couch was ground zero. He glanced at Heidi, she, too, was looking around, trying to discern what was happening. He waggled a finger to get her attention. When she looked over at him, he nodded ever so slightly toward the back of the room—it wasn't perfect but hopefully being out of direct line of sight would provide some safety. She glanced at Jessie, Megan, and Kerri, they were focused on whatever was causing the building to shake.

  Heidi locked eyes with Sebastian and nodded her agreement, but before they could move, the door along with most of the surrounding wall exploded in a shower of plaster and wood. Heidi screamed in surprise, throwing her hands up to protect her face.

  Sebastian grunted, and then he saw who was standing in the middle of the blown-out door, and for the second time that day, he almost fainted.

  Lucy the intern, dressed in head-to-toe black leather with a wicked-looking dagger grasped in each hand, stood framed in the smoking hole in the wall. She smiled and said, “Hiya, boss. Wow. Four chicks at once, you are a stud muffin.”

  Chapter Eight

  Megan let out a banshee scream, and with blinding speed launched herself at Lucy. Megan’s nails had become talons . . . full-on rip-the-flesh-from-bones talons. Sebastian started to shout a warning at Lucy but didn’t have a chance to even utter the first word, because as it turned out, the warning wasn’t necessary.

  Lucy shot her hands forward, daggers gleaming, and an unseen force swatted Megan so hard that her body catapulted through the air, flying over Sebastian’s head. She crunched into the bookshelves at the back of the room, unconscious. Lucy wasn’t even breathing hard.

  Lucy was a magic wielder.

  Lucy touched a spot under her right ear and said, “I found them downstairs to the left.”

  Okay, not just a magic wielder but also some sort of magic- wielding commando. Did she work for the government? Was she a freelancer? Why was she working as his intern? And whom was she talking to? Sebastian received an answer to the last question immediately.

  Two things happened almost simultaneously. First, a kid—well, a teenager—dressed in a hoodie, Levis, and slip-on Vans popped into existence behind the couch. Second, another small earthquake shook the building right before a monster bear crashed through the wall, apparently entering from the stairwell just beyond. The bear was the size of a Volkswagen, and Sebastian immediately understood that all the shaking must have been caused by this behemoth crashing around the building.

  The bear snorted some plaster dust from its nose and then roared. Sebastian’s eardrums came dangerously close to bursting. Even Jessie and Kerri rocked back from the skull-splitting force of the noise.

  “Orson, stop showing off,” Lucy scolded the bear and then said, “Wyatt, grab the naked guy and go.”

  Orson?

  Wyatt?

  Sebastian shook his head as if that would jump-start his brain to start processing information correctly. If the bear was Orson—which, by the way, was a ridiculous name for a monster pet bear—then the magically appearing kid must be Wyatt.

  Sebastian’s eyes went wide. “Wait! She’s with me!” He intuitively grabbed for Heidi’s hand. Wyatt grabbed Sebastian’s shoulder, and poof, he, Heidi, and Wyatt were no longer on the couch. Instead, the three of them bounced off the wall next to the large hole Orson had created with his grand entrance, falling back into the room in a tangle of arms and legs.

  “Uh-oh,” said Wyatt.

  “Spelled against teleportation?” Lucy stated with some surprise. She turned to Jessie and Kerri. “How did you pull that off?”

  Sebastian was certain that nothing scared Jessie, she carried herself with the arrogance that only an apex predator was capable of. So it was very telling that it took her a couple of moments to overcome the shock of being attacked on her home turf.

  Jessie lashed out with a hand, which, like Megan’s, had become an inhuman claw. A ring of fire exploded out in a fast-moving circle, and Sebastian prepared for searing pain, but the bear leapt between Sebastian, Wyatt, and Heidi and the oncoming fire. He moved quicker than anything his size should be able to move, and as the fire reached his massive fur-covered side, it just disappeared. It was almost as if the bear’s body absorbed it somehow.

  Lucy also had no problem with the fire, it just kind of slid around her. She quickly sheathed both of her daggers or were they swords? Sebastian wasn’t sure at what length a dagger became a sword, but whichever they were, they fit snuggly in a harness that crisscrossed her back. Lucy then performed a very deliberate hand movement that extinguished the fire.

  Lucy pointed at the kid and said, “Wyatt, keep them as safe as possible. Orson,” she paused, smiling at the bear, “destroy.”

  The bear snorted again, but this time, Sebastian was sitting right next to the beast, and the snort seemed more like . . . a laugh . . . an anticipatory chuckle. The bear was chuckling with relish at the thought of ending Jessie and her magic vampire friends.

  Sebastian glanced at Heidi, who watched the unfolding scene with hopeful awe.

  Wyatt whispered to Sebastian and Heidi, “We may need to blink a few times. It will be super quick, and it’s probably going to make you yack. Sorry.”

  A groan from Megan at the back of the room signaled that she was coming around. Jessie and Kerri looked at one another and grinned. They apparently liked the odds of three against two. Sebastian thought they were nuts, Orson
the bear counted for at least two if not three.

  “Megan, sweetie, we could really use your help right about now,” said Jessie.

  Megan slowly stood, cracked her neck, flexed her pointy talons, and growled. Sebastian should have been peeing himself with fear, but instead, he was fascinated. He was witnessing a battle of magical beings. It was something straight out of The Lord of the Rings. His reporter skills kicked in, and he started cataloguing everything. He was going to write the bestseller of the century . . . no, two centuries.

  The room thrummed with power. Sebastian could feel it tingling on his skin like static electricity. There was an abrupt spike in the power, it actually ruffled Sebastian’s hair as it passed over him. Sebastian blinked, and the sexy ladies of Singularity BBQ were gone. Left standing in their place were creatures out of a Sunday school teacher’s nightmare.

  Demons.

  The three of them looked identical—Satan’s triplets. They had black eyes, pointy teeth—not just fangs, but a mouthful of pointy great white shark teeth—and their skin had a pebbled texture with a blue hue, it was almost reptilian.

  Heidi let out a small sob. Her friends had become monsters. A shudder passed through Sebastian because he understood that this was their true appearance. The gorgeous, super model bodies and sexy smiles had just been disguises . . . nothing more than Halloween costumes.

  Wyatt gave a low whistle. “Dang, you don’t see that every day.”

  The creatures that had been Jessie and Kerri both unleashed some kind of spell directly at Lucy, while demon-Megan sprang through the air screeching, all talons and pointy teeth. The intention was clear, the spell was supposed to distract or incapacitate Lucy, and demon-Megan would finish her off the old-fashioned way—by tearing her apart.

  Lucy threw up some kind of shield spell or something, because the brunt of the attack only managed to push her backward, her feet sliding along the rug beneath her. But whatever kind of magic demon-Jessie and demon-Kerri had tossed, it was strong, because some of it got through Lucy’s shield and sliced up her forearms a bit. Lucy gritted through the pain and turned to face the attacking demon-Megan.

  Lucy shouldn’t have worried. Demon-Megan never made it halfway across the room before Orson launched himself into the air and transformed mid-leap into a half-bear half-man hybrid thing that was even scarier looking than the monster bear he had been an instant before. Orson tackled demon-Megan to the ground and, with a quick, efficient swipe of one of his bear-man hybrid monster claws, took her head off.

  It happened so fast that it took everybody by surprise. Demon-Megan’s head spun across the floor like a top, and you could have heard a pin drop as it thudded to a stop in a far corner of the room.

  The silence was broken by Demon-Jessie, who screamed and unleashed hell. She let loose with what to Sebastian seemed like magic hand grenades. Explosive balls of fire rained down from a spot up near the ceiling, they just popped into existence already moving at a high rate of speed. Demon-Jessie didn’t seem to be able to aim the burning balls of death, they just fell helter-skelter through the room, blowing up furniture and starting small fires. Lucy quickly shielded herself right before two fireballs slammed into the floor next to her.

  Orson swatted at the fireballs that dared fall within arm’s length of him, and his touch seemed to snuff out them before they could explode. Unfortunately, he missed a couple, and while the resulting explosion didn’t so much as singe him, the concussive force knocked him across the room.

  Sebastian watched in horror as a fireball fell straight toward him, Heidi, and Wyatt.

  “Hold on to your butts!” shouted Wyatt.

  In a dizzying blink, the three of them were on the opposite side of the room, the fireball that had been threatening them exploding harmlessly against the far wall. Sebastian’s equilibrium wasn’t sure which way was up, and just as it started to even out, Wyatt yelled again.

  “Hold on! Incoming.”

  Sebastian, Heidi, and Wyatt were now at the back of the room against the bookcase. Sebastian’s stomach was threatening to revolt for the second time that night. Waves of nausea hit him as the room seemed to tilt left and then right. He felt as if he was on a crazy man’s teeter-totter. Sebastian noticed that they had ended up near demon-Megan’s head, and that didn’t help his nausea one bit.

  The room settled into a more tolerable swaying motion, and Sebastian was able to focus on the battle raging before him. Demon-Kerri had used the fireballs as cover and was now attacking Lucy from behind, hammering Lucy’s magic force field. She was using her claws, swiping ferociously, and with every blow, a slime-green light bloomed at the impact zone. Whatever she was doing, it looked like it was working, because slime-green cracks were appearing in the air around Lucy, giving definition to the protective bubble she was standing in. Lucy’s attention was focused on demon-Jessie. She flung bolt after bolt of what looked like laser blasts at demon-Jessie, who was having a hard time deflecting them all.

  Orson was up and back in the fight. He leaped straight for demon-Jessie, claws out for a killing blow. But Demon-Jessie was not going to go out like demon-Megan. She threw her arms wide and then brought her hands back together in a giant clap. A sound like thunder filled the room, and a shockwave blasted from her like ripples in a pond. Orson was ent spinning backwards through the air once again and both Lucy and demon-Kerri were brought to their knees.

  There was nowhere for Wyatt to teleport them to escape the force of the wave, and it crashed into the three of them, tossing them in separate directions.

  As Sebastian slid to a stop, he noticed the air behind demon-Jessie begin to warp. It looked like space was bending in on itself.

  “She’s opening a portal!” Lucy shouted.

  Orson grunted, regained his feet, and jumped.

  From her prone position, Lucy pulled one of her daggers and threw it with experienced precision.

  Demon-Jessie laughed and back flipped through the warped air.

  And she was gone.

  Sebastian squinted, but the air just looked like air again. Lucy’s dagger sailed through the exact spot where an instant earlier demon-Jessie’s head had been, and Orson landed in the now empty space with a growl. He swiped the air a couple of times just to make certain demon-Jessie was gone, she was.

  Sebastian glanced over at Wyatt. “Can’t you . . . just . . . you know,” he waved his hands, “go after her?”

  Wyatt shook his head. “What I can do and what she just did are two completely different things and somehow this room’s been magic’d against my ability. Heads up, this isn’t over.”

  Sebastian turned to see Lucy and Orson turning to square off with demon-Kerri.

  “Your friend,” Lucy spat out the word, “left you to die, but that doesn’t have to happen.”

  What does she mean ‘that doesn’t have to happen’, thought Sebastian. These things—vampires, blood-mages, demons . . . whatever the correct term was—were straight-up people eaters. Death seemed like the only viable and sane option.

  Lucy had one hand out in a gesture of peace, and the other rested on her second dagger. There was no way Orson could make himself look less menacing, so instead, he moved slowly to the side, which allowed Lucy to draw the focus to herself. Of course, even at the slightly different angle, Orson was still within range of a quick attack.

  Demon-Kerri’s creepy black eyes darted around her head in what was clearly abject panic. She started to emit a low keening sound. It wasn’t quite a moan and was not loud enough to be a shriek, but it built in intensity. Sebastian thought it had to be fear.

  She was afraid.

  She should be scared, Lucy, Orson, and Wyatt had crashed the party of this little house of horrors and totally kicked ass.

  Demon-Kerri’s keening was getting louder.

  No.

  Wait.

  That wasn’t keening, she was chanting something. Sebastian had time to think, Oh, this can't be good.

  And it wasn't.

>   Lucy shouted, “Crap!”

  Too slow, she and Orson were too slow. Even as Lucy threw her second dagger and Orson lunged forward to make a grab for demon-Kerri, she rose into the air in a whoosh of wings.

  Demon-Kerri had sprouted a pair of giant, leathery, bat-like wings. And that wasn’t all, her feet had morphed into wicked-looking claws to match her hands, and Sebastian was pretty sure she was sporting a pair of horns.

  The metamorphosis was complete. The incredibly sexy woman Sebastian had flirted with not hours earlier was now a flying demon—a visage straight out of every nightmare vision of Hell that artists had been portraying for centuries. Maybe those artists had been so accurate in their portrayals because what they were painting was not some imagined fantasy but an eyewitness account of living, breathing evil. Sebastian had no delusions that the ladies of Singularity BBQ were the first to discover whatever nasty magic had transformed them into what they had become. Somebody had written the book that had started all this, and that fact sent yet another chill down his spine.

  Lucy, Orson, and Wyatt were proof that there were at least two groups of magic users—one that embraced the darkness and a second that fought against them.

  Sebastian’s thoughts were interrupted when a spike of pain shot through his skull. He almost blacked out, and then an all-encompassing, full-body agony replaced the sharp pain in his head. Sebastian felt as if someone was trying to rip his skin from his body. No, not his skin, it was something else . . . something inside of his body. It wasn’t his muscles or his organs . . . it was something less physical.

  Life force?

  That was it, he was being drained not of blood but of life.

  Heidi cried out weakly. He turned his head, and it felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. Sebastian saw her lying a few feet away, her hands clasped to her chest and her eyes shut tight. She was feeling it, too, and it was killing her. Sebastian shifted his eyes back to demon-Kerri. Whatever evil magic she was doing, it was literally tearing their souls from their bodies.