Talbot kicked in the door, and the two of us burst through the doorway. A man and a woman, who had been sitting at a table playing cards, shouted when they saw us. A third man, who had been asleep on a couch, suddenly shot straight up, looking confused and feral. He lumbered toward us and took a wild swing at me. I easily deflected his blow and pushed him away. The woman threw the table aside, accidentally knocking over her companion, and lunged at Talbot. Talbot punched her in the gut, and she stumbled back. She snarled and threw herself at him again.
The noxious demon smell in the room made me dizzy and nauseous. The feral man snarled at me. I assumed he was Gelal from his sour-milk stench. He threw another punch toward my face. I ducked and was about to sweep at his legs with a kick when I caught the glint of steel out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head toward the flash as Talbot swung his sword at the woman’s throat. It sank deep into her skin with the sound of a knife plunged into a watermelon—and, with a spray of blood, her head separated from her body.
Talbot had cut off her head!
I screamed. Like I didn’t know I was capable of screaming. Talbot killed that woman! I dry heaved, and I scrambled back away from her head as it rolled toward me, an expression of sheer surprise on the face.
What had just happened? What had Talbot done?
He killed her!
I didn’t know what I’d expected before we crashed in here. We’d subdue these criminals and leave them for the cops?
But not murder them!
The woman’s headless body took another step toward Talbot, then crumpled to the ground … and shattered into dust before my very eyes. Her head disintegrated, too.
“What did you do?!” I screamed at Talbot.
And then I took a direct blow to the face from the Gelal.
I flew backward and slammed against a picture frame on the wall. I could feel the glass crunch against my shoulder and pain rip into my back. I dropped to my knees. I was stunned, the whole room swimming before my eyes, when the man lunged at me. His fingers elongated into pointed claws, aimed at my throat. Talbot flung his sword at the man. It skewered him through the back and out through his chest. Black ooze spurted from the wound and onto my face. It burned like acid on my skin, and I tried to wipe it away. The man fell over at my feet, clutching frantically at the sword sticking through his chest, but unable to do anything but slice open his own clawed hands.
“Oh, God.” I scrambled forward and reached out to help him.
“Don’t touch him!” Talbot shouted. He was now in a hand-to-hand struggle with the guy who had been at the table.
The man in front of me shook with agony and then suddenly went rigged. His stiff body rocked back and forth and then exploded into ooze. I jumped to the side just in time to miss the brunt of the burning acid.
I shook as I stumbled as far away from the sour-smelling mess as I could get. I steadied myself against the banister of the stairs that led to the upper level. My breathing came too fast. My stomach lurched. I was about to lose the contents of it when somebody grabbed me from behind. My feet left the ground before I could even react, and whoever had grabbed me flung me toward the couch. I landed half on, half off it, but I had no time to move before someone jumped on top of me. A woman. With pink-and-black hair, and sharp, pointy teeth. She grabbed me by the throat.
Where had she even come from?
She must have been the one who’d been upstairs, I realized, which meant Jude wasn’t here at all.
“Don’t look her in the eyes!” I heard Talbot shout.