"Five inside. That was all Thane told me."
"Thane?" Mei dared to look back, surprise on her face. "You got his name?"
"I didn't know he was a damned inquisitor!"
Mei grabbed her arm, yanking Dahlia into the shadows. "How did you not know?"
"Because I didn't expect a priest to be working so hard to pick me up, ok? Never mind the massive hard-on when I pinned him against the wall."
"What?"
She waved that away. "Those idiots rely on their stupid wards. Until I actually touched the cross, he had no idea. We feel as real as any other woman in there."
"Wrong what," Mei snapped. "Why the hell were you groping a priest's dick?"
"The hottie I was planning to take home." Dahlia groaned in frustration. "He didn't feel like one, ok? I've never seen this guy before, and nothing about him says celibate priest. Besides, you didn't notice, either."
"Leave a lot of them alive to see later, do ya?" Mei was enjoying this a little too much.
Dahlia just sighed. "No."
The sound of feet made the women fall silent. They hadn't gotten much of a lead on the inquisitors, but they didn't really need it, just enough to get them someplace where they wouldn't cause a scene. Dahlia wouldn't risk leaving witnesses alive to chase them across the continent, which meant they needed to get this over with quickly. Oddly, the priests seemed to agree. It was in both of their best interests if the public never realized what type of monsters truly roamed the Earth.
"They're pissed," Mei whispered. "I can taste it."
Dahlia nodded, believing her partner without hesitation. "You get anything to drink at all?"
"Yeah." Mei's Asian eyes glinted deviously. "Blue wanted to party hard, so he dropped another hit. I figured if he didn't want his life, then I should take a sip before he wasted - "
She clamped her mouth shut as the first man moved into the almost-alley. It was more of a driveway between two buildings, but it was out of sight, and that was all that mattered. With their backs pressed to the wall, their bodies hidden by the wild weeds struggling to take over the single patch of dirt, the girls waited.
"I saw them go this way," the first man said.
"Hunters lost them," another grumbled. "Just glad we have the club surrounded."
Dahlia met Mei's eyes. If the club was actually surrounded by inquisitors, then this was going to get messy. Mei tipped her head to show she understood, but the priests were still talking.
"Why do we let the hunters work the front line again? The fucking thrall even got away from them?"
One of the men huffed in amusement. "Yeah, but if the vamps eat them, not much loss. Useless pieces of shit."
There were at least four different voices. Two to one were odds they could handle, and Dahlia was tired of waiting. She leaned as far into the reality humans inhabited as she could. The line between life and death strained, and the inquisitors could feel it in their wards. One sucked in a breath. Another hurried toward them. The sounds placed two of them, which meant there were still two waiting to jump them. Why couldn't they just rush in blindly? She'd all but begged them to.
Mei tapped Dahlia's side, then held up a finger. When Dahlia nodded, Mei stepped out, turning to face the priests. "Looking for someone?"
"Vampire," the man growled.
Mei laughed, her almost childish voice making it something eerie. "I prefer nu gui."
"Won't matter when you're in hell." The fool moved closer, but the last two finally moved into the alley.
Dahlia felt it a moment before the men realized what was happening. Mei pushed, shoving her essence further into the real world, and the veil strained. It was enough to make the tiny little girl into something so much more terrifying. Her flesh blanched, her eyes grew hollow, and when she opened her mouth, it was filled with the emptiness of the Abyss. Dahlia didn't need to see to know how her lover changed. It was what happened when their kind came too far into this plane.
It wasn't beautiful. It was death. The woman who had stolen all the attention in the club only minutes before was now a thing from nightmares. If the priests would just back away, they could live long enough to wake up screaming every morning, but these inquisitors had been trained too well. They would rather die than let the paranormal taste any freedom. They were convinced the girl was a demon from Hell.
They were wrong.
A shadow moving at the other end of the alley convinced Dahlia to shove at her own constraints. Before the man could take one more step closer, she was changing, turning into a monster created for the destruction of life. Unlike Mei's version, Dalia was still beautiful, like something straight from Valhalla. If these priests didn't start backing away, they'd end up paying for it with their lives.