But I didn’t know how much longer that was likely to last, when six jumped him and another one came after me and Ray, and I emptied two guns into it at point-blank range. It flew back, only to be replaced by another gaping maw full of teeth that snapped at me as I jumped back—and hit the wall because there was no damned room to maneuver in here. Only that didn’t seem to bother the Were much. I rolled to the side and he hit the wall where I’d just been, slashing and biting at the marble, before turning on me with liquid speed, faster than I could bring up a gun—
And then suddenly stopped.
And made a very strange face.
And crumpled to the ground like a busted toy.
A toy with no head, I realized a second later when it came off and rolled a few feet away. And despite the fact that there were bones and tendons and veins and assorted other things in there, the wound was so clean that it didn’t even bleed at first. Like a rapier had sliced through a candle.
And then heads were popping off everywhere, all around the circle, and bodies were falling and I was wondering if the consul had some wicked new ward I’d never heard of that didn’t like Weres.
But no. Because a moment after the last huge shaggy body collapsed on the pile, a very familiar redhead staggered out of absolutely nothing. It was like he’d stepped out of a portal, only there was no portal there. Just a shimmy of air and then a very confused-looking master vampire.
His hair was everywhere, he was barefoot and swaying slightly, and he appeared to be wearing only a blue bathrobe. But he was holding a rapier so thin and sharp that it was barely even bloody. And okay, I thought.
I guessed I knew what Louis-Cesare’s master power was.
He looked at me, pupils blown huge and dark and vague, like his vampires’ had been earlier. “Who…” He swallowed, and finally managed to focus on my face. “Who am I?”
He sounded a little desperate.
“My boyfriend, come to get me out of this?”
Louis-Cesare blinked. “That’s right.”
And then he pulled me to him and kissed me.
For a second, until Ray pushed us apart. “Can you do that again?” he demanded.
Louis-Cesare looked at him haughtily. “Of course.” And he gave me another kiss, this time with tongue.
“No! I meant that thing you just did.”
“The Veil,” Zheng added enviously.
“Yeah, yeah, that. Can you do that again?”
Louis-Cesare looked up, blue eyes narrowing. “Why?”
“Because I think I have an idea.”
Chapter Forty-five
The balcony was occupied when we slipped back through the portal, but only by a couple of mages. They were looking surprised at not seeing anyone there. But not half as surprised as when they did.
“All right,” Zheng said, after they hit the floor. “Let’s hear it.”
Ray licked his lips, suddenly looking less sure of himself. But then he straightened his shoulders and met Zheng’s eyes. “Okay,” he said briskly. “The fey have to go through the portals to get to us, right?”
“Obviously.”
“But they haven’t cut them all the way through to the other side yet, or we’d have been seeing a lot of gates with nobody coming out of them, and I haven’t.”
“Of course not,” Zheng said impatiently. “They don’t want to telegraph where they’re coming, in case we booby-trap the area.”
“Right. Which is what gives us a chance.”
I was looking at Louis-Cesare, who was still swaying and appeared slightly cross-eyed.