We had to get out of here. Soon.
I was sitting with my eyes closed, waiting for the Special Agent Ramirez to make his appearance, when magic brushed along my skin. It felt dirtier than the cell and motel room put together. My chest tightened as I slowly sat up.
“Claudia?”
“I feel it, too,” she whispered.
Luciana’s magic. It had a certain flavor of disgusting that I’d become familiar with.
I glanced at the clock. Ramirez should be here any minute, but it wasn’t going to be soon enough. Not anymore.
It was starting, and the humans were so not equipped to handle anything like this. The Weres in the room were tense, barely hanging on to their human forms, and the twins had turned a shade of green.
I started pacing the room. It was another fifteen minutes before I heard faint gunshots in the distance.
“Do you hear that?” Meredith asked.
I nodded.
“What do you think Luciana’s doing?”
“I don’t know, but magic’s crackling along my skin.” I cracked my knuckles. “We might have to break out of here.”
“Midnight seems too early for this much black magic,” Raphael said. “It would be much stronger after three. Why would she jump the gun?”
“Maybe timing doesn’t matter as much if you have two covens worth of magic.” Now she had enough power to open her portal and then some. My anxiety level went through the roof. My skin itched to change, but I kept pacing. Hoping that the movement would help maintain my form.
This was it. Luciana’s endgame was starting. Everything I feared could come true…
We were trying to be good little werewolves, but if Ramirez didn’t show soon, we were going to have to make a run for it.
If a hell portal opened and no one stopped it, none of us would have to worry about the long-term anyway.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Footsteps thundered down the hallway, stopping at our door. Special Agents Ramirez and Morgan stepped into the room.
Morgan scanned the room before fixing her gaze on me. “What’s going on out there?”
Dastien rose from his chair, but I grabbed him before he could move. Stay calm. “I can’t say that I know what you’re talking about.”
“Officers were called to a church. The neighbors reported weird chanting and something that smelled like a broken sewer line.” Ramirez looked pale.
“Demons.”
Special Agent Morgan nodded. “These little raccoon-sized monsters are spewing out of the church, and the police are doing everything they can to stop them—but apparently bullets only slow them down a little. Shotgun shells work okay, but they’re having some serious trouble containing the problem.”
“Raccoon-sized?” That was new kind of demon to me. Even the minor ones were much bigger than that. But the fact that shotguns were working on them was seriously good news.
“You have to let us help you,” Donovan said. “Luciana Alvarez is very dangerous. She’s not going to stop with these little demons. The minor and major demons that we’ve seen… Even if you slow them, they can’t be killed by human weapons. They have to be decapitated or burned to ash with potions or magic.”
“Jesus,” Officer Yeats said. “It’s not like we go around carrying swords these days.”
“I have a sword,” Cosette said. She conjured it for a second to make her point clear.
“And we have potions,” I added. “And wolves with fangs and claws who are much stronger and faster than humans. Please. Let us out, and we’ll take care of these monsters.” The fact that there were so many had my hands shaking, but I shoved them in my pockets.
A call came through Officer Yeats’ radio. I couldn’t understand anything that was being said—it was all static and yelling and some sort of code.