Demon Forged

had perfect length and balance—had been created specifically for him.
    Had she made them recently, or carried them in her cache for the past four hundred years? He didn’t know which he hoped it was.
    “These are satisfactory,” he finally said.
    Deacon cleared his throat, and reached back for his short swords. “So, Irena—do you have anything nosferatu-sized in there for me?”
    Irena tossed him a semiautomatic pistol before swinging the door open. Deacon caught the gun and raised his brows in query.
    Alejandro explained as Irena dropped into the catacombs. “The bullets have been coated with hellhound venom. A shot will slow the nosferatu down.”
    “Good to hear. Thank—”
    “ Barely slows it. If the nosferatu comes close enough for you to use your swords,” Alejandro said, moving to the hole in the floor, “then you are already dead.”

    Two steps beyond the narrow, spiraling stairwell that brought them to the third level beneath the church, Irena froze.
    Not just one nosferatu. A nest of them.
    Her heart pounded. She stared down the gray stone corridor, praying that she’d been mistaken. An unlit string of electric lights ran along the ceiling, but she had no difficulty seeing through the darkness. None of the pale, hairless creatures lurked in the corridor, but she detected three distinct heartbeats in a chamber ahead and to the left.
    The nosferatu were lying in wait for them.
    She clamped her lips, swallowing the invectives that leapt to her tongue. They had no time for that.
    Turning, she signed, Three. Is that your count?
    Alejandro nodded, his gaze never leaving the corridor ahead of them. She bit back another curse when she realized how cramped he was in this space. His shoulders were hunched, his knees bent.
    Nosferatu, however, usually neared seven feet tall—and they couldn’t shift their shape. She and Alejandro would have the advantage under the low ceilings.
    We flank the chamber entrance and wait, she decided. If the creatures remained inside the chamber, she and Alejandro would slay them at dawn, after the creatures fell into their daysleep—but the nosferatu were not that stupid. They will abandon their position before sunrise. We’ll take them in the corridor as they leave.
    Deacon looked around Alejandro’s shoulder. “Why did we stop?”
    “It is a nest,” Irena told him.
    “A nest? But I was—” Uncertainty flashed through his psychic scent. He shook his head. “I only saw one. And they are usually solitary.”
    “Usually.” Irena turned away from the vampire before he saw her revulsion. Never had she seen him so disgustingly timid. Dread clutched her stomach at the thought of facing three nosferatu, but she’d never let fear prevent her from doing what needed to be done. “Yet it isn’t unheard of to find two or more together.”
    Not unheard of, but incredibly rare. The only other nest Irena could recall was a group of nosferatu who’d made a bargain with Lucifer two years before.
    She moved silently down the corridor, stopping a few feet from the entrance to the chamber. Had these nosferatu made a bargain with another demon? Or had they been here for years, waiting to carry out one of Lucifer’s plans? Or did they nest together for a different reason?
    Alejandro took the other side of the doorway. We will slay two, he signed. The last, we shall bring back to SI and question him— His hand fisted. Irena’s lips parted. She could hear it now: another heartbeat, rapid and weak. The heartbeat of someone who’d lost too much blood.
    Deacon scented the air and grimaced. “Too much rot. Is it human?”
    Human, vampire—it wouldn’t matter. She and Alejandro couldn’t wait now. The nosferatu would kill whoever it was before they abandoned the chamber.
    She turned to Deacon. “Stay at the door. There may be more nosferatu that haven’t yet returned. Give a shout the moment you see one.” An important task, but it wouldn’t require him to fight. A vampire couldn’t stand his ground against a nosferatu.
    “Christ, Irena.” Deacon smoothly chambered a bullet. Not as nervous now, she noted. “Can two Guardians handle three nosferatu?”
    What a stupid question. She’d just told him nests were rare—how would she know what chance Alejandro and she had?
    But someone needed rescuing, and so she would soon find out. Her blades would taste nosferatu flesh; their blood would run.
    She let her anticipation rise, washing away the fear, the dread, and turned