Tempt the Stars

almost the same shade as the metal surrounding it. It was virtually invisible at any distance. . . 
    But I wasn’t at a distance, and I saw it clearly.
    Like I heard my father’s voice saying, “Do you see a control gem in his forehead?”
    Yeah, I thought dazedly, I kind of thought I did.
    I also thought I knew what Pritkin had been trying to tell me.
    Casanova came running up, and I grabbed him. “Do you have a gun?”
    “Yes,” he said sarcastically. “Of course. I keep it in my underwear!”
    “Then get one!”
    One of his vamps tossed him a Beretta, and he snagged it out of the air even while glaring at me. Vampire senses never ceased to amaze. At least, I really hoped this wasn’t going to be the first time they let me down.
    “I don’t know what good you think this is going to do,” he crabbed. “We’ve wasted a hundred rounds on that damned thing already—”
    Caleb cut him off with a roar. “Casanova! Get her out of here!”
    But it was too late.
    The shield burst and we all went flying, and then landing, in the case of Casanova and me, a good five yards away and on our asses. It hurt, but not as much as it was about to. Only Caleb recovered almost as fast as the creature, tackling it around the knees as it went for me.
    “Shoot the jewel!” I yelled, grabbing Casanova.
    “What jewel? What are you—”
    “Between its eyes! The one between its—”
    “It doesn’t have any eyes!” he screeched as the creature threw Caleb into the line of vamps and launched itself at us—
    And exploded into a bunch of bronze-colored junk when Casanova got off the shot of the century.
    He looked even more surprised than I was, and his hands started to shake. But when I grabbed him and screamed, “Shoot the jewels, tell your men to shoot the—”
    He did.
    At least, I assumed he did; I don’t hear vampire communication. But I saw it when vamps who had been standing around, worrying about crowd control, suddenly spun and started shooting every Allû in sight. And while humans might have had a problem with fast-moving targets smaller than M&M’s half a football field away . . 
    These weren’t human.
    For a second, I just sprawled there on my bruised butt. And watched as suits of armor exploded while leaping off buildings or standing on rooftops or getting thrown off the remains of two once-nice rugs by a couple of enraged demons. And despite the fact that everything hurt, and a migraine was pounding at my temples and I felt like I might possibly throw up, a slightly manic grin spread over my face.
    And then the lights went out.

Chapter Twenty
    The neon cactuses dancing on a bar sign opposite us abruptly went dark. The couple of dozen cell phone screens, which people had been holding up to record the show, went dead. The strings of Christmas lights draping the fake donkey winked out. And then all of it was replaced by a huge blue-black nothingness that tore at my mind.
    And a presence that screamed of age. It was old, old, so very old; I could usually guess vampire ages, but this . . . I didn’t have words for this. Or air, when its power slammed into me.
    I struggled just to gasp in a breath, and didn’t have to ask what was happening.
    If this wasn’t the demon council, it damned well ought to be.
    A voice that spoke every language and none came from all directions at once. “You summoned us?”
    “How kind of you to finally notice!” Rosier snarled as I climbed to my feet.
    And then went back down again when what felt like an invisible fist tightened around my throat.
    Rosier was saying something, something I couldn’t hear over the vast ocean crashing into my ear canals.
    I would have thought I was being strangled by a disembodied Allû, come to wreak vengeance, only they couldn’t without bodies. And anyway, I knew that hand. I just didn’t know what it was doing down here since the bastard of a demon lord it was attached to was on a carpet five stories up.
    Pritkin was shouting something, but I couldn’t tell if it was at me, at his homicidal father, or at whoever was speaking. All I could hear was the rushing of waves and the pounding of my heart, a slow, sluggish beat like I was about to pass out. But if I did, this would all have been for nothing. If I did, Pritkin would go back to his prison, if not face a worse fate for daring to leave it. If I did, the creatures who had sent their damned guards after him might find something else to finish the job, and remove a problem