Well, that answered my question about Brian’s plan.

My heart raced, speeding faster and faster as though it could outrun this nightmare. Ezra and I, cornered in a room, with three super-werewolves and a psycho alchemist. Not good.

“My friends are very loyal,” Brian said, tense but triumphant. “And on the full moon, they’re all but invincible.”

Yeah, I’d noticed that.

The alchemist’s gaze snapped from me to Ezra and back. “I’ll never get to show Compton what I’ve achieved, but I’ve already surpassed his greatest accomplishments. I’ve created a transmutation that can transcend the flesh and alter a spirit.”

“Congratulations,” I muttered, my mind spinning through my options. Except I had no options.

Brian’s chest rose as he took a deep breath and held it. His expression hardened. Muscles tensed. Pupils dilated. Physiological warnings, Kai and Aaron had taught me. The subtle signs of an enemy about to strike.

I knew what was coming, but I was too slow to react.

Brian pulled the trigger—and Ezra’s arms snapped around me, one across my throat and the other my chest, shielding my most vulnerable spots. We pitched toward the floor and slammed hard on our sides.

I lurched out of his arms, my panicked gaze sweeping across him, terrified of what I’d see.

The dart full of serum, its fuzzy yellow top like a beacon, stuck out of Ezra’s forearm—the one he’d used to shield my neck. He plucked the metal syringe out, but the damage was done.

The serum was in his bloodstream.

Chapter Twenty-Three

I lunged away from Ezra, my hand outstretched. Hitting the floor in an awkward dive, I seized the cold metal grip of my gun and swung it toward Brian.

The gray wolf landed above me, a paw planted on either side of my head and its teeth snapping in my face. I froze, the barrel pressed to the wolf’s chest—but one shot wouldn’t take it down, and that was all I could manage before it ripped out my throat.

A few yards away, Ezra had lurched to his feet, his hand pressed to his chest. His pole-arm slipped out of his other hand and clattered to the floor.

“Ezra!” I choked, trapped beneath the snarling wolf.

Brian walked around the table, his feet appearing in my line of sight. “How does it feel? I’ve been wondering what effect my serum would have on a mage instead of a shifter.”

Ezra listed sideways and his shoulder hit a shelf. He panted harshly, his face ghostly pale.

“Looks like it’s poisoning you.” Brian’s dress shoes shifted, his nervous energy leaking out. “There was a slight chance it might have the same empowering effect as it has on the shifters, but … at least your skin isn’t splitting from rapidly engorged muscles. That side effect took me a while to figure out.”

The wolf’s hot breath washed over my face and its foaming drool dripped on my neck. It licked its chops hungrily.

Ezra’s panting breaths rasped in the silence. He dragged his arm up and pressed his hand over his left eye.

Icy cold swept through the room. Crimson light sparked over his fingers, then blazed up his left arm in veins of red light that shone through his gloves.

“What?” Brian gasped.

Ezra pulled his hand off his face, revealing the deep scarlet glow that filled his left eye.

Brian lurched away. “Kill him! Quickly!”

The two wolves in the entrance charged Ezra, their fangs exposed. Red light flared over his arm as he thrust his open palm at the shifters. Power erupted—then exploded in a violent burst.

The wolves flew backward, the table flipped, and shelves tore away from the bolts that held them to the floor. The wolf on top of me ducked its head as the concussion blasted over us.

Shielded from the worst of it, I pistoned my fist into the wolf’s furred chest. “Ori amplifico!”

My magically amplified blow propelled the wolf off me. It crashed into the overturned table, tumbled off, and landed beside its packmates—who were already clambering up. “All but invincible” hadn’t been an exaggeration.

As I shoved off the floor, facing the wolves on trembling legs, an arm clamped around my shoulders. Ezra pulled me into his chest as suffocating cold and darkness plunged over the room. He didn’t bother with a demonic spell. He just flung his arm out and unleashed a band of seething crimson power.

The blast hurled the wolves into the walls. Blood misted the air. As they crashed to the floor, yelping in pain, the door banged open. Hauling his duffle bag over his shoulder, Brian bolted outside. The wolves fled after him, their tails vanishing through the door.

Holy crap. Gasping for air now that we weren’t in immediate danger of annihilation, I turned my head to thank Ezra for saving my lame ass.

He grinned malevolently as power snaked over his arms, one still locked around my shoulders, holding me against him. Matching crimson eyes glowed like molten lava.

Not Ezra. Eterran.

“Hello again, Tori,” he crooned.

“You!” My relief collapsed under a fresh wave of panic. I shoved away from him but his arm tightened, his strength unmovable. “You broke your promise!”

“I keep my promises.” His eyes glowed more brightly. “The serum has affected my power and Ezra can’t control it. Even I am having difficulty.”

Red light flared over his arms. He stretched his free hand out and flexed his fingers. Writhing veins crawled up to his shoulder.

“Interesting,” he remarked.

This was so bad. Eterran had control of Ezra, the demon’s magic was acting up, Brian was escaping, and Sin was locked in a cage with her last chance at exorcism about to expire.

“Let me go,” I said, straining against his hold. “I have to stop Brian.”

I wasn’t expecting him to release me and almost fell on my face when he did. Stumbling, I whirled toward him. He met my suspicious stare, then strode past me, his arms and shoulders veined in rippling power.

“Wait,” I gasped. “What are you doing?”

Clutching my paintball pistol, I rushed after him. He strolled through the door and onto the lawn.

The full moon illuminated the three wolves arranged in front of the toolshed. Brian walked out, Sin’s unconscious body slung over his shoulder. He moved easily, unburdened by her weight. Yeah, someone had been dosing himself with strength-enhancing serums.

Eterran gave our four adversaries a sweeping glance, then raised his hands. Intricate circles coalesced around his outstretched fingers, but power crackled wildly over the spells and the runes that had appeared in their centers fizzled and melted like wax exposed to flames.

The demon observed his misbehaving magic, then flicked his fingers. The circles dissolved. Power blazed over his arms as he brought his hands together, palms facing outward. He snapped his hands apart.

Raw magic roared outward and exploded across Brian, his wolves, and the toolshed. Trees quaked and toppled in a cacophony of snapping branches. The earth trembled.

“What are you doing?” I screeched, my heart in my throat. “You’ll kill Sin!”

Opening and closing his fists as power raged across his limbs, Eterran glanced at me, his expression easy to read: Do you think I care?

“If you want that amulet, you’ll deal with the wolves only,” I snapped. “I’ll handle Brian.”

His leering smile made me shudder. “As you please, payilas.”

Casual and confident, he ambled toward the wolves as they staggered onto their oversized paws, stunned and unsteady from the demon’s last attack. Leaving him to it, I ran toward the shed’s remains. Brian, groaning, sat up among splinters of wood. Sin lay beside him, still unconscious. I couldn’t tell if she was injured, but she was in one piece—which was more than I could say for the toolshed or mature trees Eterran had blasted into kindling.

I whipped my pistol up. Pop pop pop.

My first shot missed but the second two burst across Brian’s white dress shirt. Yellow stains splashed across his chest. He gasped in pain … but didn’t collapse into an immediate slumber.

“A sleep potion?” he sneered. “I’m an alchemist. The first thing I did tonight was take a universal antidote.”

Shit, really? Snarling, I fired again. Three more shots exploded against him and though he cringed from the impacts, he didn’t even wobble. What was the point of this gun? My track record for knocking out enemies was really stinking low so far.

Jamming the gun in its holster, I clenched my fist around my brass knuckles. Plan B.

Brian whipped a potion vial at my face. I dodged and it hit the tree behind me, shattering. Blue smoke roiled away from the melting bark.

In the yard, crimson power exploded. Brian’s eyes darted toward the detonation, triumph lighting his face.

“I had no idea,” he breathed. “No idea the power my serum could give a regular mythic. It’s wasted on shifters.”

Huh? It took me a moment to understand—then I threw my head back in a harsh laugh. He thought his silly little serum had given Ezra all that power? Yeah right! That was pure demon magic, not an alchemic transmutation.

Rigid at my laughter, Brian pushed onto his knees, his open duffle bag in front of him. “You’re just like Compton, laughing at my work with no idea what I can do. I spent months inventing that serum. It uses ingredients you can’t fathom, so rare you don’t even know they exist. Once I reveal it, I’ll be a hundred times more famous than him!”

“Infamous maybe,” I retorted.

His eyes bulged. Grabbing a vial from his bag, he ripped the cork out and dumped the liquid down his throat, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed.

“You think you’re tough?” he hissed. “Now I’m stronger and faster than you.”

He jumped forward, and before I could understand how swiftly he was moving, he’d buried his fist in my stomach.

I hit the ground on my back, diaphragm paralyzed with agony. The second the muscles unlocked, I flipped onto my stomach and vomited up what felt like my entire stomach and most of my internal organs.