“Who the hell is that?” he yelled, but Scarlett just shook her head tightly and said, “Human.”
There was a scream from the side of the building, and Jesse returned to his position and checked around the corner. Shadow was backing out of the hedge, the birds-of-paradise near her spattered with blood. One down. She took a few steps toward them, but just then the side door opened and a burly newcomer ran out with an automatic rifle on a strap. Jesse lifted his gun, but hesitated as Shadow raced toward the new threat. He didn’t want to hit her by accident, even if she would recover from it. When she was hunting like this, Jesse wasn’t positive she could distinguish between friend and foe, at least not for anyone besides Scarlett.
He swore and ducked back around the corner just before the guy opened fire in the general direction of both him and Shadow. Bullets sent up tiny poofs of concrete dust along the sidewalk, and then the bargest let out a loud yelp. Scarlett jerked upright, forgetting about Greasy Beard. Jesse got his shoulder around the corner and leaned out just enough to fire two shots at Burly. Before he even had a chance to see if he’d made contact, Scarlett jerked his arm sideways. “Switch!” she yelled. “Trust me!”
She disappeared around the corner of the house to help Shadow before Jesse even had his footing. He stumbled and brought his gun arm up to cover Greasy Beard in the garage, but a bullet hit his vest first. Pain exploded against his breastbone as Greasy Beard ducked back behind the tailgate of the pickup. Jesse gritted his teeth against the pain and dropped down to his stomach, taking aim at the guy’s cowboy boots. He fired, feeling a stab of satisfaction when one brown leather boot seemed to turn into red spray. Greasy Beard fell.
Jesse raced around the truck to check on him. The man was down, screaming with pain. His hands were reaching toward his ankle, but he couldn’t bend his body to reach it. Blood striped down the front of his leather jacket, where he’d pulled out Scarlett’s knife. Stupid.
“That cunt,” the guy moaned.
Jesse saw the knife lying on the concrete floor a few feet away, right by the guy’s .45. He picked up the gun, engaged the safety, and tucked it into his waistband. “Who are you?” he demanded.
The biker gathered his wits enough to glare at Jesse. “You gonna kill me, spic? Get it over with.”
Jesse leaned forward enough to give him a cursory pat down with his free hand. The guy wasn’t carrying a wallet, or he’d left it in the truck. Jesse did find a Ka-Bar knife in a leather holster and picked it up along with Scarlett’s throwing knife.
“Use your belt as a tourniquet,” Jesse directed. He would have liked to tie the guy up, but the gunshots from the side of the house had stopped completely. It made him nervous. He turned to go find Scarlett.
She wasn’t on the sidewalk along the house. There was a spreading blood pool coming out of the bushes, and Jesse registered a body lying there, dead. The first shooter. Bloody paw prints led from that corpse to another, the burly guy who had burst out of the side door. He was lying a few feet away from the door, his eyes staring blankly at the sky. His throat had been torn out, and there was what looked like a knife wound in his chest. Jesse had no idea which had killed him. The paw prints led into the condo.
Scarlett and Shadow had gone inside without him.
He made his way through the doorway, checking carefully around the corners before proceeding. He didn’t want to call out for Scarlett, not without knowing who else was in the building. The bad guys had obviously realized that Frederic would be their next lead, and they’d laid a trap. Had the boundary witch come along? Or even the vampire in charge of things? Silently, Jesse cursed Scarlett for coming in here without him. She could have at least told him whether there were any supernatural occupants.
The first floor of the condo was empty, so Jesse crept quietly up the carpeted stairs, stopping before he reached the top. He poked his head up and took a quick peek: a short hallway with a metal railing around it, two closed doors, and one wide-open door at the end of the hall. Clothing was draped carelessly over the railing, providing a little bit of cover, but Jesse still felt exposed as he climbed the top steps and started down the hall to the open doorway, weapon raised.
Before he’d even reached the doorframe, he saw Scarlett, standing stock still just inside the room, her hands in the air, glaring furiously at something in the far corner. Jesse quickened his step, coming through the door just enough to see what she was looking at: an angry-looking woman in her early thirties, standing with her back to the wall next to a four-poster bed. She was dressed in a simple long-sleeved tee and black pants, and her reddish hair was pulled into a harsh bun.
Shadow was standing less than two feet in front of the woman, her lips peeled back, a low growl emitting from her deep chest cavity. She was crouched to spring at the woman against the wall, but the woman held a large handgun pointed squarely at Scarlett’s center mass. A standoff.
“Hey, Jesse,” Scarlett said without looking. “Meet our boundary witch. I haven’t gotten her name.”
Jesse’s gun was already trained on the other woman. “Drop the gun,” he said in his most authoritative voice. The woman glanced at him for an instant, but didn’t move her gun. “We outnumber you,” Jesse pointed out. “Even if you shoot Scarlett, Shadow or I can take you out.”
“Ah, but if anyone moves on me, I can still shoot your friend,” she said. She had a light accent, Russian or maybe Ukrainian. “I do not think either of you want her to die.” Her gun remained firmly pointed at Scarlett. Jesse was impressed—it had to be getting heavy.
“What’s your name?” he tried instead. When she didn’t answer, he added, “If you don’t tell us, Scarlett will make one up for you, and it will probably be mean.”
“So mean,” Scarlett muttered.
The woman glanced back and forth between them now, looking just a tiny bit confused. “I am Katia,” she said. “What is this, this dog-thing that wants to eat me? I am certain I shot it the other night, but it appears fine today.”
“She’s not a thing, she’s a bargest,” Scarlett corrected. “Although you’re right about her wanting to eat you. She’s indestructible. Shooting her just pissed her off.”
“Bar-guest,” the woman repeated carefully. “I do not know this word.”
She was inching sideways very slowly, pretending she was just shifting her weight. She was only about a foot away from the window. “Stop moving,” Jesse commanded. The woman froze—and then they heard the screaming wail of police sirens. Someone had heard the shots.
Scarlett glanced at Jesse. “Two minutes, at the most,” he said grimly.
Katia bared her teeth. “You two run along. I can wait here for human police.” Her smile did not suggest the police would enjoy the encounter.
“Not a chance,” Scarlett snarled. “We’re taking you with us.”
“Ah, you see, that I cannot allow,” Katia said, almost regretfully. “We are not finished here, and I am needed.”
Jesse risked a glance at Scarlett. He could practically see what she was thinking: they were out of time, and she was wearing the vest. It was a reasonable risk. He opened his mouth to object, but she shouted first.
“Shadow, hold!”
The bargest sprang at Katia, who was already moving sideways toward the window, trying to throw herself against it. She might have made it out, too, except Jesse shot her in the heart.
Chapter 20
It took my brain a second to process what had just happened. Katia had obviously been headed for the window, but she hadn’t yet been in the right position to jump or even throw herself against the glass. It almost looked like she’d been sucked out into the California sunshine.
Only then did my ears register the crack of the gun, and I realized that Jesse had just fucking shot her. I rushed to the window and looked out. Katia lay sprawled across the same sidewalk that was now covered in bloody footprints, only a few feet away from the dead guy by the side door. Her eyes were wide open, staring, and blood had blossomed on the front of her green shirt.
I pulled my head back in and turned to gape at him. Shadow was looking at him too, with blood on her muzzle and disappointment in her eyes. Jesse shrugged. “Boundary witch,” he reminded us.