Max could feel Audhilde gathering her magic, too, so she was caught for a moment between the chill of dark magic on one side and the warmer, earthier trace of Audhilde’s magic on the other. She put her hand on the door handle and pressed it down the smallest fraction. Normally, disengaging the lock on a room like this would cancel out the privacy spells built into the room, giving her a chance to hear what was outside before she fully opened the door.

  The soundproofing spell broke with an almost audible pop in her ears and the sounds of gunfire, screams and shouts carried through the door. Max didn’t hesitate, flinging open the door and moving out, pressing herself against the outside wall, gun raised. Her hounds flowed past her at once, heading into the corridor outside, both of them moving as a beautifully co-ordinated pair.

  The corridor outside was a scene of chaos to Max’s eyes. There were bodies on the ground, blood spattered on the walls, and more gunfire as she edge away from the doorway, trying to make sense of what was happening.

  In the midst of a pile of bodies were several furred limbs that looked like Seacast monkeys. Human-shaped and human-sized creatures with blue grey fur, claws at the ends of their powerful hands and jagged teeth that could tear flesh. They were cunning enough to sneak through the barriers of the Wild far too often for Max’s liking, but there shouldn’t be any monkeys this far into the city, and certainly not in the hotel. Max reached down for her shotgun and its tranquilliser rounds, confused when her hand met empty air. She’d left her shotgun in the pick-up, not thinking she’d need it in the exclusive and expensive hotel. She drew her handgun instead.

  Cas and Pol had grabbed hold of one of the furred limbs and dragged the creature out of the pile on the ground. It was a Seacast monkey. Cas and Pol had a hold of one of its arms. The monkey twisted in their hold, trying to break free, teeth bared. It used its free hand to grab at her dogs.

  “Everyone get down,” Max yelled, and lifted her gun. As the monkey surged up, trying to escape her dogs, she shot it, aiming over her dogs’ heads, and everyone else who had followed her direction to get down. Her gun was set to automatic fire and at the short distance, bullets tore into the creature’s torso and head.

  The monkey went limp, thudding to the floor. Cas and Pol let go at once and dove back into the pile of bodies, pulling out another furred creature. Another Seacast monkey. This one was already dead, Max saw. Not just from someone else’s bullets, but from a knife shoved into the join between its neck and shoulder.

  The pile of bodies on the floor began to separate. A pair of Raghavan soldiers, both of them with tears in their uniforms and bloody scratches on their faces, and one of the Huntsman clan, a deep gouge running down his face from just below his eye to his jaw. The three of them stared at the two dead monkeys and then at each other, exchanging wary nods of respect.

  Now that the fighting had stopped, Max took a more careful look around. The pair of heavy-set thugs she’d thought belonged with Connor Walsh were dead, as were the pair of dark-suited magicians that she’d identified as being Lady Forster’s bodyguards. The four dead people were almost unrecognisable as they’d all been ripped apart. Seacast monkeys were strong and vicious in close quarters, using their long clawed hands and their teeth to tear at their prey. The other Huntsman clan bodyguard was also dead.

  The pair of vampires looked unruffled as they put their handguns away. They exchanged brief nods of respect with the Raghavan soldiers and the remaining Huntsman clan member.

  “Were there just two Seacast monkeys?” Max asked them, pulling her phone out.

  “That we saw here, yes. We heard screams from elsewhere in the hotel,” the female vampire said. Kolbyr had called her Greta, Max remembered.

  Max cursed under her breath and dialled the preset number.

  The number rang and rang, with no answer. A chill ran over Max’s skin. She had never known Therese to miss a call. The woman never seemed to sleep or take any time off. She always answered within three rings.

  Frowning, Max hung up and dialled again. The ringing tone let her know that the call was trying to connect, but there was no answer again. She tried Faddei’s number next and had the same result. Her worry deepening, she tried Vanko, as Faddei’s unofficial second-in-command. No answer there, either, just an automated message saying the phone was out of service. Unease ran over her skin and she checked her phone’s messages. Now that she was beyond the magic in the meeting room, she could see that her boss had tried to call her. There was a text message from an unknown number which said: All Marshals return to base. Max stared at it, unable to understand. The individual words were all ordinary, but she’d never received a message like that before. And never not been able to reach Therese, Faddei or Vanko. A dull, sick feeling settled in her stomach. There was something wrong. Very wrong.

  She dialled the city’s emergency number and was almost surprised when it was answered on the second ring.

  “Emergency services. What is the nature of your emergency?”

  “This is Marshal Max Ortis. I am at The Grand Hotel. We have a creature incursion, with several dead and possibly more people wounded. I need armed police at the building entrances to stop anything from leaving while I clear the building.”

  “Marshal. You know you’ve dialled the city number?” the dispatcher said. The voice was warm and human, but with her heart going too fast, and a sick worry taking hold of her stomach, Max missed the almost robotic efficiency of Therese.

  “Yes. I’ve tried the Marshals and there was no answer.”

  “Alright. I’ll alert the special response team. They are likely to be about thirty minutes away,” the dispatcher said. “There’s been some trouble in the city tonight.”

  Max closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the groups of angry people she’d seen and the explosions she had heard on her way over here. They hadn’t been her problem then, but they might well be her problem now, if they were delaying back-up reaching the hotel. Thirty minutes might as well be a lifetime. If there were more Seacast monkeys in the building, they could have killed everyone by the time back-up reached them. “Understood,” she told the dispatcher. “I have shadow-hounds with me. We will try and contain the situation until back-up arrives.” She hung up before the dispatcher could say anything else and looked at Kolbyr and Audhilde. “Will you wait here with the others while my hounds and I clear the building?”

  “No,” Audhilde said, surprising Max. “I’m not letting you do that alone, honey.”

  “It’s my job,” Max said.

  “I can help,” Audhilde insisted. “What did you call them? Seacast monkeys?”

  “Yes. They are tough and aggressive. If you’re coming, stay behind me and the hounds,” Max told her, and started to walk back along the corridor, heading in the direction of the reception area. She paused when she realised that not just Audhilde, but also Lord Kolbyr, was following her. The pair of vampires, Raghavan soldiers and Huntsman clan member were checking their own weapons, staying by the door of the room. Not leaving their posts, despite the assault they’d already endured. Max had to respect that, and could only hope that the people in the room realised how lucky they had been.

  “I can also help. Between us, Audhilde and I have a few tricks to play,” Kolbyr said in a mild tone, when she lifted a brow at him and his escort. “And, yes, I will stay behind you and your shadow-hounds. I do not believe I have ever - what did you call it? - ah, yes, cleared a building.”

  “It is hopefully going to be very boring,” Max said, and kept walking along the corridor. She regretted the words as soon as she’d said them. It was like saying that a work shift was quiet. Everything generally went bad moments later.

  Chapter five

  Afew minutes later and she was regretting her prediction. She turned a corner to get a view of the hotel’s reception area and immediately ducked back behind the wall again, muttering curses that both vampires would be able to hear perfectly well.

  “What?” Audhilde whispered, close to Max’s ear.

  “There’s a damned Harridan in the reception area.”

  “What?” Audhilde’s repeated word was a good deal louder than the first. On Max’s other side, Kolbyr made a soft sound, urging quiet. Audhilde glared at him past Max’s shoulder. “I know, old man,” she said, lowering her voice back to a whisper. “How did it get here?” Audhilde asked Max.

  “No idea,” Max said. She braced herself against the wall, thinking hard. From her quick glance, she’d seen the sinuous, black-skinned creature curled in on itself in front of the reception desk. It was a full-sized adult, and even trying to make itself small, it had still taken up a large amount of floor space. Harridans were fast and deadly when they attacked. They also usually travelled in mated pairs when they were adults, or small groups when they were juveniles. Which made them even harder to stop on the rare occasions they managed to break through the barrier to the Wild and get into the city. The last time she’d faced a pair, she’d been with warriors of the Order and even then, it had taken a rocket launcher to bring the second creature down. With the size and ferocity of the creatures, there was no possible way she could think of that a Harridan could have got this deep into the city without a full alert to the Marshals. It should have left a swathe of destruction behind it, even if it was on its own. Instead, it had simply appeared here, in the hotel, with no warning. Along with Seacast monkeys. Something out of the ordinary was happening. With an adult Harridan not that far away, she didn’t have time to puzzle it out just now. Instead, she needed to find a way of containing the creature before it did any harm.

  She pulled out her phone and called up Bryce’s details, sending a text: Harridan in the grand hotel. Marshals not responding. Can you help?

  She tucked her phone away, not sure when or if she’d get a reply. As a warrior of the Order, and in the aftermath of the attack the day before, Bryce almost certainly had other things requiring his attention right now.

  And she had had time to remember another important detail. The last time she’d faced a Harridan, she hadn’t known she could use light magic. The creatures had some magic of their own - everything that lived in the Wild did. But she still might be able to use light magic against it.

  Her phone vibrated and she pulled it out again, hoping for a message from Faddei to let her know that Marshals were on their way. It was something better. A text from Bryce. It just said: 5 minutes.

  Five minutes was a lot shorter than the thirty that the police dispatcher had estimated, but it was still a lifetime when dealing with a Harridan. Max’s pulse picked up as she considered her options. She couldn’t simply hide until Bryce got here. There was almost no chance at all that the creature would stay where it was. It would have heard Audhilde, or sensed their presence, at least, and would come looking for them before long.

  She shoved her phone away and blew out a breath, reaching inside for the well of magic. Light gathered on her hands and she willed the magic into her gun, to coat the bullets. It had been a bullet coated with light magic that had killed Oliver Forster. She hoped the same thing could also do some damage to a Harridan. She didn’t know enough about how her magic worked to be certain, but she was willing to try.

  Before she had time to test her theory, or let Kolbyr and Audhilde know what she was planning, a shadow moved at the end of the corridor and the Harridan’s head appeared.

  Next to her, Audhilde gave an almost girlish squeal of surprise, then clapped a hand over her mouth.

  Max didn’t blame her. Seen up close, far too close for comfort, the Harridan was terrifying. Its head was longer than Max was tall and almost as wide, with great, yellow eyes with vertical slit pupils staring straight at her and the vampires. Its lipless mouth opened a fraction and a dusky pink tongue flicked out, almost touching Max as the creature tasted the air.

  Even as Max was lifting her gun to fire, Cas and Pol surged forward, the pair aiming for the creature’s eyes.

  The Harridan hissed and jerked back, out of sight. The hounds followed.

  Max went after them. Her dogs were in danger.

  She rounded the corner, boots making no sound on the hotel’s luxurious carpet, and found her dogs prowling in front of the corridor opening, their attention focused on the Harridan. The creature had settled into a tight coil, its head lifted, the stumpy arms with their ferocious claws held ready under its jaw.

  “That thing is huge,” Audhilde whispered next to Max.

  “I think it knows we are here,” Kolbyr said in his normal tone. “Any ideas, Marshal?”

  “They’re hard to kill, but bullets or magic will work eventually,” Max said. “And they move a lot faster than seems possible,” she added.

  The creature was swaying slightly as it stared back at her dogs. Trying to lull them into a false sense of security, she suspected. While it was occupied, she risked a quick look around and saw a pair of blood-spattered legs poking out from behind the reception desk. There was more blood spatter on the walls. At least one of the receptionists was dead, she thought, her stomach tightening. The Harridan’s stumpy arms might look almost comical, but they were only small in comparison to the creature’s size, and an adult could tear apart a human with just its claws.

  “Cas, Pol, down,” she ordered, and lifted her gun, firing over their heads as her dogs dropped to the floor. A Harridan this far into the city wasn’t something she could deal with using tranquillisers, even if she had them to hand. The light-coated bullets flew out of her gun, slamming into the creature’s hide. She’d been aiming for its eyes, but it had moved, turning the side of its torso towards her. Protecting its eyes.

  Her bullets did some damage, though. The creature shrieked, the sound tearing through Max and making her want to turn and run. She held her ground. Normally bullets didn’t hurt that much. The magic must be working. A trace of relief worked through her. They had a chance. She fired again, emptying her magazine.

  As she was reloading, a ball of dark magic flew past her, the chill of it running down Max’s side, and buried into the creature’s coils. Kolbyr’s powerful attack did some damage. The creature shrieked again.

  A ball of white-hot flame flew from her other side, the heat scorching her exposed skin. The flame landed on the creature’s neck, just behind its head and it screamed again, launching itself forward, towards its attackers.

  Max fired, following the creature’s movement as it rose into the air above her, yellow eyes glaring down at her. One of her bullets penetrated an eye and the creature jerked, flopping sideways. Cas and Pol were on their feet at once, scrambling up the creature’s coiled body, heading for the neck and the flesh charred from Audhilde’s white flame.

  “Don’t fire,” Max said to Audhilde and Kolbyr, putting her hands out to either side, still holding her gun. The Marshals knew not to fire when her hounds were in front of them, but she didn’t know about the vampires.

  “Of course not,” Audhilde said. Max took a quick glance sideways and saw that Audhilde was in her vampire form. The soft, warm humanity had faded away, leaving a stunning, compelling beauty almost too perfect to be believed. The vampire’s true form was designed to draw humans in. Max was aware of the pull, but not affected by it unlike many humans. She glanced to the other side and saw that Kolbyr had maintained his human form. He had another ball of dark magic in his hands, ready to throw if her dogs didn’t finish the job.

  Cas and Pol tore at the charred skin on the creature’s neck, somehow keeping their position on the creature as it writhed under them and tried to shake them off. Her hounds kept working until they exposed the Harridan’s main artery.

  “Get down,” Max told Audhilde and Kolbyr, and took her own advice, scurrying back to the corridor. Not a moment too soon. Her hounds severed the artery, sending a fountain of stinking black blood into the air. Max flung a hand up over her face, protecting herself from the spray.

  The blood never reached her. She lowered her arm to find a shimmer of magic in the air in front of her, a hastily deployed shield made of vibrant magic that she recognised as Audhilde’s.

  “Nice work,” Max approved.

  “Thank you, honey,” Audhilde said. “Sweet Lady, that thing stinks. Is it dead?”

  “Yes, quite dead,” Max confirmed, taking a step forward, away from the corridor. Cas and Pol were back on the ground, both of them covered in the foul-smelling blood they had released. The arterial spray had coated the ceiling as well. Max didn’t envy whoever would have the task of cleaning Harridan blood from the expensive-looking, ornate crystal chandelier almost directly above where her hounds had killed the creature. “Good boys,” Max told her dogs. She pulled a pair of cleaning spells out of a pocket and put one on each dog, getting the worst of the smell and mess off them. Past experience told her that they would most likely need at least another cleaning spell, or a bath, to completely get rid of the stench. But there was no time right now.

  Keeping her gun ready, she moved towards the reception desk, heart sinking when she saw that the receptionist who had guided her through the hotel was now dead, almost taken apart by the Harridan. Max put two fingers to her forehead in a mark of respect for the dead. The woman hadn’t deserved to die today, or in that way. Max didn’t see the other receptionist, so there was a possibility she was still alive. Max hoped so. She’d seen far too many dead bodies already today.

  There was a sign on the wall by the desk, listing the hotel’s floors and what was on each one. There were fully fifteen floors above this one to search. And hundreds of rooms. And that wasn’t counting the kitchens and other service rooms that were likely in a floor below them. It was going to take all night.

  “You aren’t relaxing,” Audhilde said. She’d followed Max across the floor, glancing at the dead receptionist. She turned back to Max. “The Harridan is dead. What’s wrong?”

  “There’s normally more than one,” Max said. “And it shouldn’t be here at all. We don’t get Harridans in the city centre. They come through the Wild, and they’ve always been stopped before they get this far into the city. Then again, I can’t remember the last time there were Seacast monkeys this far into the city, either.” Her stomach twisted into a knot. Seacast monkeys and Harridans didn’t just turn up like this. With three demons and a descendant roaming the city, it was definitely possible that someone had brought the creatures here. From her brief experience with them, demons loved to create chaos and would be pleased rather than horrified by the amount of death and damage the creature had caused already.

 

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