"It's a gift from a concerned lover."
Something flared in his eyes-something dark and very, very dangerous. "I'd like to meet this lover sometime and find out where he got it."
"It's silver, Kye. Silver and werewolves are never a good mix,"
"Neither are werewolves and vampires, but that doesn't seem to have stopped you."
His comment surprised me enough that all I could do for several seconds was stare at him, then anger surged and I lashed out. He caught the blow in his fist, holding it tight. "Don't ever hit me, Riley."
"Don't ever creep around in my head," I snapped back, pulling my fist from his. Surprise flickered briefly through his eyes before the mask returned. "Or I'll fry your fucking mind to a crisp."
"It's not like I want to," he said, voice still flat, and yet sounding oddly frustrated. "Trust me on that."
"You're a telepath. You have the choice to intrude or not. Trust me, the not is the best option here."
"I'm not a telepath, Riley. I've told you that-"
I clamped a hand over his mouth, stopping his denial. Not that I believed it, anyway. "Listen."
For several seconds there were no sounds beyond the usual for this time of night. Then it came-the soft scrape of a nail against concrete.
They were on us.
But they weren't just coming from the main street. One of them was above us, on the roof.
Kye swung around and pulled out a gun from under his coat. The burn of silver suddenly became stronger.
"You carry silver bullets?" I asked, slipping my bag over my shoulder and tossing it into the shadows, out of the way.
"In certain situations, yes. Back to back, Riley. They're going to come at us from two angles."
"Thanks for telling me that. I would never have guessed otherwise," I said sarcastically, but he didn't answer.
I looked at the rooflines above us. A shadow moved in low and fast, and then it leapt.
"Drop," I said, doing exactly that, trying to scrunch myself into the smallest possible ball. As the hound flew over the top of us, I slashed with the knife. The blue fire on the blade seemed to blaze even brighter as it scoured the creature's stomach, burning through hair and flesh and down into gut. Blood and God knows what else gushed, thick and black and putrid, splattering across my clothes and burning like acid. I swore and tore off my coat, but by then the creature had turned and was leaping again.
Two shots ran across the night. The creature jerked and twisted away from us. For a moment I thought the shots had missed, then I saw the hole in the side of its jaw, the blood and bone splattered across the nearby wall.
It snarled, revealing wickedly sharp teeth. Kye twisted around and fired off a third shot. It took the creature in the chest, ripped through flesh and bone, then clean through its body, smashing into the wall behind it. The creature howled and leaped.
I grabbed Kye, pulling him sideways, both of us falling to the ground hard. Again the creature flew over us, but this time it lashed out. Claws raked my side, spilling warmth down my hip.
I bit back a yelp of pain and slashed with the knife, missing its belly but getting a hind leg. Toes and gleaming claws plopped down onto the pavement beside me.
"Oh, fuck, here comes the other one," Kye said, scrambling to his feet before reaching down to grab my arm and haul me upright.
"Use the holy water. We have to blind them if we're to have any hope at all."
"Whatever else these things are, they're hounds," he said grimly. "They hunt by scent."
"They can't if you destroy their sensory center as well."
He didn't look convinced that would work, and in honesty, I wasn't, either.
"You take the injured one," he said.
"Kye-" But I was already talking to the air.