They’d corralled us together.
Jeff whistled. “He’s built his own army.”
“The only kind he could stomach,” Jonah said. “Vampires who aren’t vampires any longer.”
Jeff blew out a nervous breath. “At the risk of playing Anti–Little Mary Sunshine here, there are a lot of them over there.”
Nervously, I adjusted my fingers on the sword. “Remind me why you didn’t appoint me House librarian?” I asked Ethan.
“Because, Sentinel, you’re so very good with a sword.”
McKetrick emerged from the shadows in black fatigues, his face scarred and one eye milky white.
I didn’t wait for him to speak first. “What have you done to them?”
“Has it ever occurred to you that not everyone chooses to be a vampire? That some, after becoming vampires, realize they have become monsters, and they want to go back?”
“We aren’t monsters,” Jonah said. “And they don’t look entirely human.”
“The catalyst is a work in progress,” McKetrick said. “All science requires experimentation, mistakes. They were willing to sacrifice for the coming revolution.”
“The coming revolution?” Ethan asked.
“When humans finally tire of your antics. Your demands. Your insistence that you be treated like everyone else, when we all know exactly what you are. Genetic rejects.”
“Is that what you told Brooklyn?” Jonah asked. “Did you convince her she was a genetic reject?”
“Brooklyn wanted to live a mortal life. I respected her wish and provided her with a solution.”
“Your solution poisoned her,” Jonah said. “She’s in a hospital bed right now, a sacrifice to your ‘progress.’”
McKetrick didn’t look moved.
“All this because of Turkey?” I asked.
His expression steeled. “Because of Turkey? That’s how you refer to the sacrifices made by men who served this country, who were some of its finest warriors? You freaks killed them, and you know what I got? A citation for letting you get away. For not bringing vampires back so you could be studied and used as weapons.” He slapped a hand to his chest. “My brothers were killed because of your greed, your insatiable appetites.”
“We are sorry for your loss,” I said, “but we weren’t there. I wasn’t even a vampire when that happened. How can you blame us for something we weren’t even involved in?”
“I blame you,” he gritted out, “because you carry the disease. And this city will not be safe from your appetites, your treachery, until you’ve been swept from it, wholly and completely.”
McKetrick pulled a long-bladed knife from the utility belt on his pants and tossed the knife from hand to hand.
His army moved closer toward us, the circle growing tighter.
My stomach knotted with nerves, already taut from the spill of nervous magic that permeated the room.
“Catcher?” Ethan prompted.
“We’re out of mojo at the moment,” he said. “Currently refueling.” Sorcerers had a limited amount of magical draw at any one time.
“Then I think we do this the old-fashioned way,” Ethan said. “Novitiates?”
“Ready,” we said together.
“Jeff, you want to get busy?” I asked.
“Done and done,” Jeff said, and a blinding flash of light shot across the space, as human man turned into gigantic, stalking white tiger.
It was just the distraction we needed.
“Go!” Ethan said, and like the soldiers in a centuries-old battle, we rushed toward each other, weapons raised.
Ethan ran toward McKetrick. I took the minion closest to me. Creatively, he dodged immediately for my feet. Unfortunately for him, I brought the butt of my sword down onto his head, sending him flat to the floor.
Two former vampires, both in snug T-shirts and stylish sheepskin boots, came at me from either side, both with box cutters in hand. There was something pitiful about the weaponry, not just because McKetrick hadn’t trusted them enough, but because he also clearly hadn’t cared enough to make them anything other than expendable.
“You don’t have to fight us, you know,” I said, dodging one strike and sending my sword wheeling around to try to catch the other girl off-kilter.
“You’re the enemy,” she said, dodging the strike and kicking me in the ribs. “You think I wanted to be a monster? My family kicked me out. I got fired. You think this is any way to live? Crawling around in the dark like a snake?”
“You have immortality,” I reminded her, as the other girl tried to box my ears. I got her in the stomach with the butt of the sword, a classic move, and offered the mouthy one a spinning crescent kick. She moved backward but stumbled over a box and hit the ground, skittering away. . . . Unfortunately, she skittered right into the face of a Siberian tiger, who dared her to move.