Finale

Scott, but he was
already out of sight. If I chased him now, I’d risk blowing the operation. Instead I hiked uphill toward the parking lot that sat on a ridge overlooking the cemetery.
    Once in position, I gazed down at the crooked rows of headstones rising out of grass so dark it appeared black. Stone angels with chipped wings seemed to float in the air just above the ground.
Clouds obscured the moon, and two of the five lights in the parking lot were out. Below, the white mausoleum radiated a faint ghostly luminescence.
    Scott!
I shouted in mind-speak, putting all my mental energy behind it. When only the whistle of wind sweeping over the hills answered, I assumed he was out of range. I didn’t
know how far mind-speak traveled, but it seemed Scott was too far away.
    A rubble stone wall bordered the parking lot, and I crouched behind it, keeping my eyes trained on the mausoleum. A rangy black dog leaped suddenly over the wall, nearly causing me to fall back
in fright. A pair of feral eyes gazed out from the ragtag animal’s narrow face. The wild dog paced beside the wall, stopped to growl territorially at me, then bounded out of sight.
Thank
goodness.
    My vision was better than it had been when I was human, but I was far enough away from the mausoleum that I couldn’t make out nearly as many details as I would have liked. The door
appeared shut, but that made sense; Scott would have closed it behind him.
    I held my breath, waiting for Scott to emerge dragging Dabria, bound and helpless. Minutes ticked by. I shifted on my haunches, trying to get blood flow to my legs. I checked my cell phone. No
missed calls. I could only assume Patch was sticking to the plan and patrolling the cemetery’s lower gate.
    A horrible thought struck me. What if Dabria saw through Scott’s disguise? What if she suspected he’d brought backup? My stomach slid to my knees. What if she’d called Pepper
with a revised meeting place after Scott and I had left the Devil’s Handbag? Either way, Pepper would have known to call me. We’d traded numbers.
    I was occupied with these troubling thoughts when the black dog returned, directing a menacing gnarl at me from the shadow of the wall. He flattened his ears against his head and arched his back
threateningly.
    “
Shoo!
” I hissed back, gesturing with my hand.
    This time he bared pointy white teeth, pawing the dirt ferociously. I was just about to move a safe distance down the wall, when—
    A hot wire cut into my throat from behind, blocking my airway. I clawed at the wire, feeling it constrict tighter and tighter. I’d fallen back on my rear, my legs jerking. From my
peripheral vision, I noted an eerie blue light emanating from the wire. It seemed to burn my skin like it had been dipped in acid. My fingers blistered with heat where they scratched at the wire,
making it agonizing to grip.
    My attacker jerked back on the wire, harder. Lights exploded across my vision.
An ambush.
    The black dog continued to bark and leap wildly in circles, but the image was quickly dissolving. I was losing consciousness. Summoning what little energy remained, I focused on the dog, urging
it in mind-speak.
Bite! Bite my attacker!
    I was too weak to attempt a mind-trick on my attacker, knowing they’d feel me groping clumsily in their mind. Though I’d never attempted to mind-trick an animal, the dog was smaller
than a Nephil or a fallen angel, and if it was possible to compel
them
, it made sense that a slightly smaller animal would require less effort. . . .
    Attack!
I thought at the dog again, feeling my mind slide down a dark, drowsy tunnel.
    To my astonishment and disbelief, the dog raced forward and sank his jaws into my attacker’s leg. I heard a sharp nip of teeth on bone, and a male’s guttural curse. The familiarity
of the voice stunned me. I
knew
that voice. I
trusted
that voice.
    Propelled by betrayal and anger, I lunged into action. The dog’s bite was just enough of a distraction for my attacker to loosen his grip on the wire. I closed my hands fully around it,
ignoring the fiery burn long enough to yank it from my neck and fling it aside. The snakelike wire skittered over the gravel, and I recognized it in an instant.
    Scott’s whip.

C HAPTER

29
    B UT IT WASN’T SCOTT ATTACKING ME .
    Gagging and wheezing as I sucked air back into my lungs, I saw Dante move to attack, and immediately spun around and shoved my foot into his stomach. He flew back, tumbling to the