I stopped midspell. Shit. He’d shifted back. Now what was I supposed to—

Lester lifted his head and his bloodshot eyes met mine. The pupils were mere dots in reddish brown irises. His nostrils flared as he inhaled. Then his lips curled and he snarled, flashing teeth threaded with bits of flesh. Okay, he hadn’t Changed back. He just never physically transformed in the first place.

I hit him with a knockback. Lester shook it off and charged. I tried to jump out of his path as I cast a binding spell, but he slammed his fist into my shoulder. It was like being hit with a lead bat. I sailed off my feet and into the wall with enough force to knock the wind from my lungs. As I hit the floor, I saw Lester’s son struggling to his feet.

“Dad?”

Lester lunged. I clambered up. A binding spell was on my lips, but before I could get it out, Lester was on his son. The binding spell failed. I leaped on Lester’s back as his teeth sunk into his son’s neck. I cast an energy bolt on instinct. He roared and ripped his head back. His son’s blood sprayed.

Before I could cast again, Lester hit me with a pile driver to the side of the head. I flew off him. My stomach lurched. Blackness threatened, but I staggered back to my feet.

Adam ran into the room, hypodermic needle raised. He jabbed it into Lester’s back. Lester reared up. He swung at Adam. Adam ducked. I caught Lester in a binding spell, but I’d used up too much power and it only stopped him long enough for Adam to get out of the way.

When the binding spell snapped, Lester lurched into the hall. We followed. Elena was standing under the trap door as Clay lowered himself. When they saw Lester, they stopped, thinking the same thing I had—that he was in human form so he must have reverted. Then they saw the look on our faces and Elena started after Lester, Clay jumping down to follow.

Lester was already thundering down the stairs.

“The boys,” I said.

“I know,” Elena said as she tore past me. “Is the other son—?”

“Hurt. I’m going back for him.”

Adam stayed with Elena and Clay. I raced back into the bedroom. The boy lay on the floor, his throat ripped out, open eyes staring. I checked for vital signs anyway. None. He was gone.

THIRTY-FIVE

I got downstairs to find Lester, snarling and yowling outside a locked door. The two boys were on the other side. They’d caught one glimpse of him and barricaded themselves in. Elena had managed to inject Lester with a second sedative, and he was finally fading. Elena, Clay, and Adam just stood there, watching.

When Lester finally dropped, Elena walked to the door, and with a gloved hand, jammed the knob so the boys couldn’t get out.

“What—?” I said.

She lifted a finger to her lips. Then she motioned for Adam and Clay to carry Lester’s body and we retreated.

It wasn’t until I was outside that I realized what she was doing. We had two survivors. Both had seen Maurice Lester covered in blood. Now they were trapped in there, where they’d remain until the police showed up to free them. All the evidence from the murders would point to Lester as the perpetrator, and he’d be long gone.

Working with a Cabal team might be a pain in the ass, but Elena did agree there was one advantage. She could hand over Lester and walk away. All the associated cleanup belonged to someone else. Which was good, because we had fresh problems to worry about.

While we were hiking to our distant parked rental, Elena apologized for vanishing when we’d tried to contact her. “I had a call when you were inside. Too urgent to ignore, and I’d been assured you’d stay patched into the line if you needed me.”

“Tech fail.”

“Typical,” Clay muttered.

Elena nodded. “Anyway, you remember Veronica, right?”

“Ver—?” I began. “Oh, Roni. Right.”

“She placed a call to Cortez headquarters earlier tonight,” Elena continued. “She wanted to speak to you. She left an urgent message with the poor guy on the switchboard, who’s probably really wishing he’d called in sick today. He was shuttled into an interrogation room for an hour of grilling before they decided the message was legit. It seems Roni is in Houston with an infection team.”

“That’s where Cass and Aaron are, isn’t it? Monitoring one of the secondary targets?”

Elena nodded. “Which is why I need you and Adam there. Aaron can handle it, but I’m concerned that Cassandra may not take the threat seriously enough.”

“She’s been doing a lot better lately,” I said as we continued through the pasture. “But I agree Aaron could use more reliable backup. The question is whether Roni’s telling the truth. Last time she had me come running to her rescue, you got knocked around by guys with guns and I finally tied Jaime’s record for most kidnapped supernatural ever.”

“I think you’ve beat it now,” Adam said. “Definitely if you include the Nast dungeon.”

“That was an arrest, not a kidnapping.” I looked at Elena. “What exactly did Roni say?”

“Well, that’s the problem, and the cause of the poor operator’s angst. Because we’ve got every Cabal line tied up on these missions, Veronica called the real business line, and got a guy who’s accustomed to dealing with laypeople trying to submit résumés or get corporate contact information. When he realized what was going on, he panicked and forgot to turn on the tape.”

“Ouch.”

“According to him, she gave her name and said she needed to talk to you. She insisted on leaving a message, which he jotted down. She gave the name and the address of the Houston target and said you needed to get there because, quote, ‘It’s all gone wrong. He won’t listen to anyone.’ Then some garbled stuff about the virus and the targets, which he didn’t get verbatim. The upshot is that they’re striking in Houston tonight and she wants you to stop it.”

“Any return number?”

“It was blocked and she hung up before he could ask for it. But the name and address matches the secondary Houston target Asmondai mentioned. I gave Aaron a heads-up. Nothing so far.”

Elena sidestepped a pile of horseshit without even a glance down. Her nose kept her shoes clean. Mine hadn’t been so lucky.

I walked along in silence for a moment, then said, “And you guys?”