“Did the lawyer you killed have any kids?” I asked.

The guard on the right nodded. “Oh yeah. Two girls, both in Texas A&M. That’s some money, right there.”

The female guard snorted. “Hope he had insurance.”

“His kind always do,” the leader said.

It didn’t even bother them. Maybe it had at some point, but not enough to stop.

We reached an abandoned booth in the middle of the floor.

“Wait here,” the scarred man said.

My escort halted. The leader moved ahead along the wall and out of sight. His mind receded, tendrils of my magic stretching after him. Two twin bursts of gunfire popped. The scarred hunter came running back, a big grin on his face. “Never saw me coming.”

The woman chuckled. “Fucking amateurs.”

The leader smiled at me. “It was hard being gone. I was worried bad things might happen to you. I’m not letting you out of my sight, young lady.”

“Let’s go to the door,” I told him.

“You heard her.” He indicated the way with his index and middle finger. “Move out.”

We approached the escalator. A dead hunter sprawled on the floor, blood pooling around his body, a shocking vivid red on the once white floor. A pair of boots stuck out from behind the escalator rail. We skirted the first corpse, and the scarred hunter moved up the steps. The two hunters flanking me followed. I was next, with the female hunter guarding my back.

At the top we turned left. The food court came into view.

“Act natural,” the leader advised me. “Pretend you’re in our custody.”

We turned the corner. Four hunters guarded the entrance. They focused on us, guns raised.

The leader opened his mouth.

Alessandro shot out of the movie theater entrance, blindingly fast. A long piece of broken metal pipe appeared in his hand. He stabbed it into the closest hunter’s throat, turned, graceful, like he could hear music in his head, and drove his makeshift spear into the second man’s mouth.

Oh my God. “Hold your fire!” I snapped.

Alessandro yanked the pipe out, dropped it, and hurled the dying man into the third hunter. The woman stumbled, Alessandro darted around her, and she clutched her throat. Blood gushed out between her fingers. Alessandro lunged at the fourth gunman. A wicked-looking knife flashed in his hand. He caught the man’s HK with his left hand, pushed it aside, and stabbed the hunter once, twice, three times, his hand a blur.

The hair on the back of my neck rose.

“Damn . . .” the scarred hunter said, his voice too loud.

Alessandro whipped around, pulled a gun from a holster on his thigh, and fired four times. The hunters protecting me collapsed like puppets cut from their strings.

He did it again. He killed my source of information.

Alessandro marched up to me. His magic coiled and flexed around him, so potent I could actually see it. It shimmered like hot air rising from scalding pavement, flashing with orange fire that burst into life for the briefest of moments and melted back into transparent heat. He walked like he was a fallen angel, looking for someone to punish.

Breath caught in my throat. So much power . . .

He reached to grab my forearm. “We have to go!”

I stepped out of the way. The little dog let out a surprisingly vicious snarl.

Alessandro halted. “What the hell is that?”

“It’s my dog.”

“Fine, bring it, but we have to leave. Now.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Catalina, we can’t stay here. They called for backup when they got here. More of them are on the way.”

“That’s fine.” I couldn’t go anywhere with him. I had no idea how he was involved in any of this. “You go your way and I’ll go mine.”

“How? They shredded your tires. Your car isn’t going anywhere, you’re not going anywhere, your little dog isn’t going anywhere. Come with me.”

“No.” I jerked back from him.

“I’m trying to keep you alive!”

“I don’t need your help. I’m doing fine on my own.”

“Don’t make me carry you out of here,” he snarled.

“Try it.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

The little dog barked at him.

“We don’t have time for this.” He spaced his words out, speaking slowly and clearly as if to a child. “Why are you being . . . difficult?”

“You just killed eight people! I don’t even know why you’re here, how you’re involved in this or why, and you want me to just get into the car with you.”

He growled and thrust his gun into my hands. “Here, you can have my gun. You can point it at me the entire way.”

“No thanks. I have my own.”

“Cazzo.” He raised his arms. “Is there another elephant I can shoot to make you come with me?”

I shut up and ran for the door.

Chapter 8

I jumped into the passenger seat of a silver Alfa Romeo 4C and buckled my seat belt, the little dog on my lap. Alessandro slid behind the wheel and pushed the start button. The tiny car purred. He fastened his seat belt, put the Alfa into gear, and we sped off.

“You shot the elephant?”

The remains of my Element with bald wheels and bullet hole scars in the doors flashed by us.

“Of course I shot the damn elephant.”

At the other end of the parking lot another Guardian roared, coming up the street. Alessandro took a turn at an insane speed. The Alfa all but floated above the pavement. We circled the mall and shot out onto Old Post Road like a bullet.

“Who’s in that Guardian?”

“Celia.”

“What? Rose-gold Celia?”

“Yes. I told you to let it go. I told you to go home. And what did you do?” His magic pulsed with a flash of orange. “You flounced straight into that snake pit.”

“Flounced?”

“Like a lamb, Catalina. Like a stupid, pretty little lamb bouncing over green grass straight into the wolf’s den. Do you have any idea what Benedict does to women?”

“No, why don’t you enlighten me?”

“The man is a degenerate. Ma porca puttana! What were you thinking?”

Well, look who lost his temper. I would have agreed with his assessment of Benedict, except in Italy “that whore of a pig” only applied to situations, and never to a person.

“I was thinking I have a client whose mother was murdered and whose seventeen-year-old sister is missing. Instead of posturing and cursing, you could help me. Where is Halle, Alessandro?”

“I wish I knew so I could kidnap her back and leave her on your doorstep with a bow to keep you from sticking your pretty nose into things you don’t understand.”

He said I had a pretty nose. “Stop treating me like I’m an idiot.”

My phone rang. I answered it. “Hello?”

“Good news,” Bug said.

I put him on speaker.

“I found your vomit muffin. He’s driving a crappy silver Italian import. He’s about to merge onto the I-10. Where are you?”

“In the passenger seat of the crappy import.”

“This is a great car.” Alessandro executed a hair-raising merge and cut across three lanes of traffic with three inches of room to spare. “Italians make the best cars.”

Bug sputtered. “Ask Captain Vapid if he knows what Fiat stands for. Fix It Again, Tony!”

Alessandro shifted lanes again. “You better ask Tony how good he is at fixing surveillance drones.”

“You son of a bitch! When I get my hands on you—”

“You’ll wish you hadn’t.”

“Will the two of you shut up?” I snapped. “Bug, there is a Guardian following us. We need to lose it.”

Alessandro cut across two lanes to the right, weaving in and out of traffic. The Alfa slid between two trucks about an inch from the front vehicle’s bumper. Someone laid on their horn.

“I don’t understand why we couldn’t just fight her at the mall,” I squeezed out through clenched teeth.

“Because your magic won’t work on her in her active state and I don’t have a gun large enough to take her down. I looked.”

“I have the Guardian,” Bug reported. “Bad news. They’ve got a Cockerill MK III 90mm cannon mounted on that thing. People are getting out of their way like the Red Sea before Moses.”

Alessandro stepped on the gas. The Alfa jumped forward into the lane on our left, sped around a semi, and slid in front of it, nearly skidding.

“Find us an exit strategy,” I barked. “Before we wreck.”

“We won’t wreck.” Alessandro’s voice was completely calm.

“If you keep driving this way, we won’t have to. This is Texas, someone will shoot us.”

“It’s not my fault you have barbaric gun laws.” He switched lanes again.

“Stop driving like a maniac!” Bug yelled. “Slow down.”

Behind us a horn blared. I turned. The huge semi we’d passed was moving into the left lane, which was illegal.

“Oh shit,” Bug said.

The semi finally merged over. Behind it the Guardian sped up, a huge barrel pointing at us. Holy crap, that thing could put a hole in a tank.