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The Mare reached the end of the don section of Pacific and rounded the corner, heading into a soan to subside and the businesses changed froh-end and trendy establishy of the surrounding venue changed, a new atHe hadn’t sensed it on the other side of town, but here it was prevalent

Solance heavenward It wasn’t a coincidence that he had exited the highway at this particular destination

He watched the Mare turn into the delivery bay of a hotel Unlike the serviceable but a in, this was a full-service establishoyles ririated a group of tengu deuard As long as Infernals had a way towas suspect

Increasing his gait to a lope, Alec reached the mouth of the alleyway Beneath the se in Du his shoulders, Alec limbered up for the battle ahead The dehtened; he could serous When you had nothing to lose, there was no reason to hold back for safety’s sake He knew that froer without prea

There were a half dozen of them, four tag bunch, their clothes and hairstyles as varied as the don crowds They faced hied in a half-moon formation And they all looked emaciated

Their weakened states evened the odds considerably, but deepened the mystery

"Are you hunting Giselle?" the other girl asked

It was a reasonable question If the Mare was an assigned target, nothing could save her But if his pursuit was due to any other reason, they ain her out of trouble

"No" Alec stepped forward "I just didn’t want to miss the party"

"Leave her in peace," one of the ar between lips hidden by an unke way from his native home in the Philippines The protective stance he adopted in front of the second girl--whose Baphomet amulet betrayed her as a witch--offered a possible reason why Kapres followed their loves for the entirety of their lives

"Make me," Alec said

"We’re no threat to you" But the kapre’s voice lacked conviction and his eyes shifted nervously

None of the Infernals would look Alec in the eye

A frisson of warning skated down his spine His Mark senses burst into full acuity in a brutal rush of power Giselle’s gaze darted to a spot just over his left shoulder

Confir ambush came with the whistle of a blade Alec dropped to a crouch As the katana sliced through the space where his neck had been a split second before, the kiss of a breeze told hi at the waist, Alec lunged at his attacker His shoulder raround with jarring force, Alec on top, the winded demon pinned beneath him

In the blink of an eye, Alec noted the deistered his assailant’s sainst his chest

A female

For Alec, fatal battles were as familiar as sex and just as fluid He was a creature of instinct and homicidal precision He didn’t plan or panic, he didn’t flinch or hesitate When his life was in danger, he didn’t think twice And he loved the hunt Every h that couldn’t be replicated Only another hunter would understand the allure The hunger The dark need that was both savage and seductive

Alec drew back his fist and swung Two rapid blows to her covered face The crush of bone echoed in the se of her sword to the ground

The Infernal grappled to regain her weapon Her fingernails pierced through her gloves, shredding the skin on the back of his hands She tried to knee hi the bloith his thigh She lost necessary purchase with the e

He wrestled the hilt free, then bit out, "It’s been fun"

Ai at the tender spot between throat and aronally into the de her chest cavity fro the heart Instantly she exploded into a pile of sulfuric dust, and Alec dropped to the ground, prone He rolled to his back, then ju his neeapon with affected insouciance The fact that none of the other Infernals had tried to join the fray while he was distracted was puzzling De beside Giselle cruround, her multiplicity spell broken by the death of her warrior half A moment later, she burst into ash, unable to survive without the part of herself Alec had killed

The kapre bellowed in agony It turned and leaped to the brick wall that enclosed the end of the bay Punching through the facade with fingers and toes, he crawled halfway up the building Then he threw himself from the sixth floor and hit the oil-stained cement in an explosion of ash

"What the fuck?" Alec was stunned

In centuries of hunting, he’d witnessed only a handful of suicides Infernals would rather go down fighting It was the best way to ensure Saainst themtoo much