“Like I said, not a chance.”

Giles lunged again, this time aiming straight for Jaz. He didn’t move. Barely even flinched as the blade slashed open his arm.

“I told you, I’m not moving,” Jaz said.

“Are you crazy?”

“Well, that’s the diagnosis, though I’ve never been happy with it myself.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Getting close to untying that rope, my love?”

“It would go faster if I had the knife,” Hope said.

Jaz laughed and turned back to Giles. “Women. So demanding. I don’t suppose you’d care to indulge her by handing me—”

Giles lunged again, this time slicing Jaz’s leg.

“I think that’s a no,” Jaz said, between clenched teeth. “I’d try to take it from him, Hope, but I’m not good with knives. Apparently, he is.”

“Do you think this is a game?” Giles said.

“I think everything’s a game. If you mean that I’m not taking you seriously, I beg to differ. I’m sure you will kill me. First, though …”

Hope got her hands free and bent to untie her legs.

“Progress,” Jaz said. “Now, if you’ll just give us another minute …”

With a howl of rage, Giles plunged the knife straight at Jaz’s chest. Jaz twisted so it caught him in the side.

“Not quite yet …” he gasped, blood soaking his shirt. Hope got her legs free. She pushed up from the chair just as Elena and Clay smashed through the wall and Adam managed to incinerate a hole. I followed him through it.

Hope stumbled our way, with Giles in pursuit. A bleeding Jaz leaped into his path. Giles’s blade sank into his chest. I grabbed Hope. Adam got between us and Giles as Elena and Clay circled to the other side, blocking Giles’s escape.

“Good timing, huh?” Jaz said. Then his legs gave way and he crumpled to the floor, the knife buried in him.

Giles went for the knife, but Clay had him by the back of the shirt. Chaos raged all around us, but for once, Hope didn’t seem to feel it. She just stared at Jaz, lying on the floor, blood pooling around him. When she tried to go to him, I didn’t stop her, just kept my hand on her arm to support her. She knelt in the blood and gripped his hand.

Jaz’s eyes opened and he managed a lazy grin. “See, you do love me.” His eyelids fluttered, then closed, and he exhaled one last time, then his head lolled back on the floor.

Hope laid his hand on his chest. “No one should die alone,” she whispered. “Not even you.”

“Hope?” A rough voice sounded from the wings.

Karl lurched through, braced on a makeshift crutch, waving aside a guard tripping along after him. Hope looked up and she stared. Just stared. Then she struggled to her feet, sliding in the blood, as I tried to help her.

“They forgot to use silver bullets,” Karl said.

She gasped and ran toward him and—I flew off my feet. I saw Hope fly, too, and grabbed for her, but missed. I hit the floor and for a second, everything went dark. Something echoed in my ears, like a sound I couldn’t quite pick up. Then the shouting started. Lights flickered and came on and when I looked around, the door was open and the audience was streaming out, tactical team members streaming in, the two groups struggling with each other and shouting.

“W-was that a bomb?” I said as I staggered to my feet. I felt Adam’s warm hands on my waist as he helped me steady myself.

“I don’t know,” he said. “But it was something.”

I hurried to Hope. She was still on the ground, clutching her stomach now, her face contorted in pain as she heaved breaths.

Jeremy ran and dropped beside her as Karl hobbled over.

“She’s coming,” Hope gasped. “The baby’s coming.”

“What can I get?” I said.

I looked around as I said it, and saw Elena bent over Clay. Leaving Hope, I hurried over to them, Adam right behind me.

“He’s just unconscious,” Elena said. “But Giles … When I came to, he was gone.”

“Shit!” I frantically searched the crowd for sign of him.

Then a voice said, “There. He went through there,” and I saw a young woman holding her bloodied nose and pointing backstage.

Adam and I took off.

We came out of the back room only to be swept up in a raid. A couple of hundred young supernaturals were trying to get to the compound’s exit while our tactical teams tried to round them up. Every one of those kids was convinced that Cabal capture meant death. So they fought back, and we stepped into a maelstrom of spells and shoves and waving guns.

I tried to get through without using my powers, but ended up resorting to knockback spells to clear the way. We’d gone about five feet when a Cabal goon pointed a gun at us.

“Hands against the wall,” he barked.

“Savannah Levine. Adam Vasic,” I said. “Now move your ass.”

“Better yet,” Adam yelled over the din. “Did Gilles de Rais come through here?”

“I saw him,” another Cabal officer called.

“Where’d he go?”

The guy pointed to a door. I hurried over and pushed it open. The room was empty. There was an upended table in the middle and a rumpled throw rug under it. I stepped in, fingers raised to zap Giles. Then I heard a now-familiar noise. A steel door closing.

Behind the table, there was a hatch. There was still enough room for me to clamber through it, and as I went I lit a light ball and saw a ladder along the side. I grabbed that and went down. Adam barely made it through behind me.

We scrambled down the ladder to a room at the bottom. A corridor led off to the side.

“Secret escape hatch,” I muttered. “Does everyone have them these days?”

“We’ll install one at the agency for you.”

“Good.”

I contacted Lucas and told him where we were. There was no way the Cabal team was getting through that steel hatch door anytime soon, though. So he told us to go ahead and give chase to Giles.

FORTY-SEVEN

We could hear Giles ahead, feet pounding, breath coming hard. He was panicked and not being careful, his flashlight beam bobbing as he ran. We were careful. We ran as lightly as we could until we spotted him at what looked like the end of the tunnel.