Deadly Desire (Riley Jenson Guardian 7)

"I'm not a telepath, Riley. I've told you that-"

I clamped a hand over his mouth, stopping his denial. Not that I believed it, anyway. "Listen."

For several seconds there were no sounds beyond the usual for this time of night. Then it came-the soft scrape of a nail against concrete.

They were on us.

But they weren't just coming from the main street. One of them was above us, on the roof.

Kye swung around and pulled out a gun from under his coat. The burn of silver suddenly became stronger.

"You carry silver bullets?" I asked, slipping my bag over my shoulder and tossing it into the shadows, out of the way.

"In certain situations, yes. Back to back, Riley. They're going to come at us from two angles."

"Thanks for telling me that. I would never have guessed otherwise," I said sarcastically, but he didn't answer.

I looked at the rooflines above us. A shadow moved in low and fast, and then it leapt.

"Drop," I said, doing exactly that, trying to scrunch myself into the smallest possible ball. As the hound flew over the top of us, I slashed with the knife. The blue fire on the blade seemed to blaze even brighter as it scoured the creature's stomach, burning through hair and flesh and down into gut. Blood and God knows what else gushed, thick and black and putrid, splattering across my clothes and burning like acid. I swore and tore off my coat, but by then the creature had turned and was leaping again.

Two shots ran across the night. The creature jerked and twisted away from us. For a moment I thought the shots had missed, then I saw the hole in the side of its jaw, the blood and bone splattered across the nearby wall.

It snarled, revealing wickedly sharp teeth. Kye twisted around and fired off a third shot. It took the creature in the chest, ripped through flesh and bone, then clean through its body, smashing into the wall behind it. The creature howled and leaped.

I grabbed Kye, pulling him sideways, both of us falling to the ground hard. Again the creature flew over us, but this time it lashed out. Claws raked my side, spilling warmth down my hip.

I bit back a yelp of pain and slashed with the knife, missing its belly but getting a hind leg. Toes and gleaming claws plopped down onto the pavement beside me.

"Oh, fuck, here comes the other one," Kye said, scrambling to his feet before reaching down to grab my arm and haul me upright.

"Use the holy water. We have to blind them if we're to have any hope at all."

"Whatever else these things are, they're hounds," he said grimly. "They hunt by scent."

"They can't if you destroy their sensory center as well."

He didn't look convinced that would work, and in honesty, I wasn't, either.

"You take the injured one," he said.

"Kye-" But I was already talking to the air.

Soft padding steps echoed behind me. I twisted around, the knife held in front of me like a blazing lance. I wished it was a lance-long and strong and wickedly sharp-because it was the only way I was going to beat this thing without getting too damn close.

The bloodied hellhound stalked toward me, its steps measured, its gaze on mine, luminous and deadly. Fear stirred in my stomach, but I pushed it away. I'd beaten these things once before. I could do it again.

It sprang. There was no warning, no bunching of muscles. One minute it was walking, the next it was in the air. I twisted out of its way, slashing at the soft flesh of its neck, hoping to at least sever something vital.

Again the blue fire erupted along the blade, but the hellhound shifted at the last moment, and the knife barely skimmed the creature's flesh.

It snarled and slashed out with its claws. I leapt backward, crashed into some bins, then spilled sideways along with the rubbish. I caught my balance and backed away, down the lane, drawing the creature away from Kye, who seemed to be having no more luck with his creature than I was with mine.

The hound shook its head, spraying droplets of blood that hit the brick walls of the buildings on either side of us and began to sizzle. These things had acid for blood. What the hell kind of hound were they? At least the other hounds I'd faced in the past hadn't possessed deadly bodily fluids.

It leapt again. As I ran backward, out of the way, I drew the small container from my pocket and popped the top. But I didn't throw it, holding steady as the creature hit the pavement and launched again. When it was near enough that I could smell its fetid breath, I threw the holy water. The liquid arced across the air like a silver ribbon, hitting the creature across the snout and splashing upward, into its eyes.

The hellhound screamed, the sound so high and piercing that I had to resist the urge to thrust my hands up to my ears to muffle the sound. I twisted out the creature's way, but it was too close and moving too fast. It hit with incredible force, lifting me off my feet and throwing me backward.