“You have got to be kidding me,” Kat said. “What do they plan on doing with that?”
Its gun moved toward where we all stood, glowing like damn Hit Me Now, Please and Thank You signs.
“Crap,” Archer said.
Racing across the cars, Andrew slammed his fist into the hood of a truck. Flames erupted as he used the truck to Molotov the tank. Soldiers streamed out of the hull, scrambling away seconds before the thing blew. The M1 went up in the air like a firecracker, flinging across the Boulevard. Hitting the gardens in front of the Venetian, it rolled across the parking lot.
Heart pounding like a jackhammer, I willed the pieces of broken asphalt off the ground. I flung them toward the cops, forcing them back. Everything was happening fast. Soldiers were coming out of everywhere, and Luc was going after them, holding nothing back. Cops were coming down the Boulevard shooting at just about anything that breathed. People—innocent people—were hiding behind cars, screaming. Dee was trying to usher them off the road, out of harm’s way, but they were all frozen in fear. After all, she was glowing like a damn disco ball.
Dee slipped into her human form in front of a man and woman clutching two children. “Get out of here!” she screamed. “Go! Go now!”
They hesitated a second, and then the couple picked up their kids and raced back toward the median where Ash still stood guard before Beth.
Red light streamed past my face, spinning me around. A bolt of white light arced, and I heard a body hit the ground behind me. I saw Kat before me, her pupils glowing. I turned slowly, finding a soldier on the ground, a PEP weapon by his lifeless hand.
“I can help,” she said.
You saved my life. I turned back to her. That is so hot.
She shook her head and lifted her chin. “We need to get— Oh my God, Daemon. Daemon.”
My heart tripped in response to the fear in her voice. I started toward her, and then I felt it. I felt it deep and in every part of my being. I saw Dawson stop. I saw Andrew spin back.
Over the neon signs for Caesar’s Palace and the Bellagio hotel, dark clouds moved incredibly fast, blocking out the stars. But they weren’t clouds…or a swarm of bats.
They were Arum.
…
Katy
Things went from bad to craptastic in a matter of seconds.
At no point from the second Daemon had announced his plan, up until the military took down the chopper full of innocent humans, had I believed that it would go down like this. All we’d wanted was to throw them off guard—to cause a little bit of chaos to make our escape.
We hadn’t planned on starting a war.
Now Paris was dead and something worse than monsters under the bed was coming our way.
At no point did I doubt that the shadows racing across the sky were not here on accident. Yeah, there was a lot of Luxen mojo going on right now, but the likelihood of Arum just popping up and joining the fun? Not likely.
They were here because of Daedalus, because they worked with them.
The dark cloud broke apart, streaming across the sky like blotches of insidious oil. It dipped behind Caesar’s Palace, disappearing for a second, and then exploded out of the side of the hotel. Shards of glass and debris flew into the air.
I opened my mouth to scream, but there was no sound.
An Arum came down the Boulevard, moving so fast I couldn’t even say it took a second to get where it was going.
Flying over the back of the Hummer, it slammed into Andrew, lifting him several feet into the air. Ash’s horror-filled scream ricocheted through me. The Arum took shape mid-flight, its skin black and shiny like obsidian. It threw Andrew like he was a rag doll and nothing more.
Another Arum shot down the strip, zipping in and around the cars. It rose, catching Andrew, and the two of them nosedived into the Treasure Island pool.
Daemon leaped off the ground—a burst of bright light and then he was in the air—slamming into the other Arum, cutting him off from the pool. They collided, a mixture of darkness and light, rolling through the sky like a cannonball. Dawson raced forward, dodging the blasts of red light.
The Arum and Andrew resurfaced in the pool and, rearing back, the Arum slammed its hand into Andrew’s chest. He jerked, his light flickering like a lightning bug.
I started forward, but arms circled my waist.
It wasn’t a friendly hug.
Panic sliced through me as my feet were lifted off the ground just as I saw the Arum lift Andrew into the air. Another pulse of light, and then Andrew… Oh God…
Ash’s scream confirmed what I suspected. I saw her switch into her true form and then back out again, like she couldn’t control it. A wave of energy rolled across the lanes.
A second later I was on my back, the air knocked from my lungs, and I was staring up into a shielded face. My breath faltered, and for a moment I had no idea what to do. I was frozen, caught between disbelief and terror. Paris was dead. Andrew was dead.
The muzzle of a strange-looking gun was pointed right at my face.
“Don’t even think about moving,” the muffled voice said.
My brain stopped processing things at a normal level and speed. As I stared up, my own wide eyes reflected in the tactical helmet, the human part of me switched off. Rage boiled up in me, and it felt good. It wasn’t fear or panic or grief. It was power.
The scream that had been building inside me, the kind of scream that left an imprint on its surroundings decades later, let loose. I don’t know how I did it, but the soldier and his gun were no longer above me. All around me, vehicles rattled and slid forward, overturning. Glass cracked and then exploded, pelting the road and me with tiny shards. The little nicks of pain were nothing.