He got serious in a snap, and we picked up the pace.

Seconds before I reached the creatures, I summoned the fire, and just like that, my entire body erupted with flames. Then contact, contact, contact. Ash, ash, ash. The fight wasn’t even fair anymore, I thought with a surge of satisfaction.

The zombies had no defense.

But then, they weren’t the ones we were after tonight.

The remaining monsters branched off, half surrounding me, half surrounding Gavin. The air was so fetid it clogged my nose and tickled my throat. I gagged, felt the flames begin to sputter and practically danced through the ranks to fell as many monsters as possible before it was too late.

I focused on Gavin and realized he hadn’t had the same level of success. Around twenty of the mutated zombies still encompassed him as he sliced and hacked with his blades. I moved toward him, but not fast enough. One managed to crawl up behind him and bite into his calf. Howling with pain, Gavin dropped to the knees.

I dived for the creature, and at the moment of contact my flames licked over him. Buh-bye now.

“Others,” Gavin rasped, the toxin already working through his bloodstream.

I destroyed the remaining zombies and crouched at Gavin’s side, whipping the antidote from my pocket and sticking him in the neck. The white-gold flames hadn’t dissipated, I realized too late. They licked over his throat and face, and he howled, his entire body bowing.

“I’m sorry!” I hadn’t meant... Might have... Crap! What if I’d just signed his death warrant?

He screamed as the flames disappeared under his skin. I fell backward, panting, praying, trying not to panic, and then, babbling, “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” as he quieted and sagged against the brittle grass, still breathing.

He would live.

As the flames at last left me, I looked around and realized piles of ash surrounded us.

Piles I’d seen in our vision.

Excited, and trying not to give way to a rise of dread, I reached out and slapped Gavin across the cheek. “Wake up!”

“I am. Jeez, woman! That hurt.”

There was enough derision in his voice to scare the bravest of men, but I could only laugh.

“What just happened?” he demanded.

“I think the flames burned through the toxin.” Chased away the darkness, like the journal had promised. “Is the toxin still active?”

He thought for a moment, blinked. A sense of amazement radiated from him. “No. It’s gone.”

Would his flames have the same affect on me? Or, because I was part zombie, would his flames destroy me? Either way, I now knew without a doubt this was the solution I’d been hoping for; there just wasn’t time to explore it.

I climbed to my feet and helped him do the same. “Stay aware.”

“Sir, yes, sir,” he said, mocking me as I’d mocked Cole.

Footsteps suddenly beat into my awareness. I spun, my heart drumming swiftly. Hazmats. Coming at us from every angle, soon surrounding us. Guns aimed at our heads.

Because they weren’t slayers, but could see us, I knew they were in spirit form. They must have used the mechanical device Dr. Bendari mentioned.

Gavin and I pressed back to back.

“Where is he?” Kelly demanded as he removed his mask. “What have you done with him?”

The vision.

“Who? Your precious son?” I grinned. Payback sucks, doesn’t it? “I think I’ll keep that information to myself.”

A cock of a gun. “Actually, why don’t I show you where he is?” Cole said from behind him.

Kelly paled.

The slayers were still in spirit form, and they had come out of the darkness to circle the Hazmats.

Our hope was that they would be so intimidated by having our weapons trained on them, they would submit to us. We would lock them up in Mr. Ankh’s basement until we figured out our next move. But that best-case scenario wasn’t what we’d planned for—and I was glad.

Without further ado, the Hazmats exploded into action, and the battle was on.

Some of the slayers’ guns were knocked away. Some weren’t, and the sound of gunfire filled the night, reminiscent of firecrackers. Pop. Pop. Pop.

Two suited bodies fell.

Punches were thrown. Grunts abounded. Bones cracked. Screams joined the chorus. For several heartbeats, I stood there, pinned by uncertainty—I was supposed to step back, wait. Forget being benched. I marched toward Kelly as he watched the madness.

From the corner of my eye I saw Cole knock the mask off one of the Hazmats. Trina took a punch to the chin, but quickly recovered, swung her ax and hit her mark. Another suited body fell. This one didn’t get back up. Frosty played with his prey, grinning as he sliced through his opponent’s suit. Bronx whaled on two men at the same time, punching one and kicking the other.

Justin backhanded the guy in front of him. Mackenzie vaulted on a man’s shoulders, wrapped her thighs around his neck and arched back, forcing him to his back. Somehow she maintained her hold when they hit, choking him until he passed out. Veronica blocked a punch to the head only to take one to the side from another Hazmat. Impact stunned her, but she recovered quickly, and oh, was she angry! Growling, she threw herself into the culprit, and the two hurtled to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Two of the suits had Lucas’s arms trapped behind him while another suit tried to fit a metal collar around his neck.

In front of Kelly, I punched him in the cheek. He stumbled, caught himself and glared, fury blazing in his eyes.

“You won’t stop us,” he said. “I won’t let my daughter die.”

“We will stop you—and you’ll have no one but yourself to blame.”

He made to flee. I kicked out my leg and knocked his ankles together. As he fell, flailing for an anchor, I dived on him. We hit the ground, and he lost his mask.

He swung at me, but I shifted out of the way. Then I broke his nose. Cracked his eye socket. Split his lip. His teeth shredded the skin on my knuckles, but I didn’t care.

He wiggled his legs between us, flattened his feet on my belly and pushed. I sailed backward, and he jumped to his feet, stumbling away from me. As I stood, I searched the crowd for him, but one white suit bled into another, hiding him.

Someone grabbed me by the hair and flung me in the opposite direction. I recovered, rolling and kicking my legs into the culprit’s stomach. I straightened as he tripped over one of his fallen comrades.

I heard the whistle of metal against air and turned to see a man swinging a blade at me. I arched out of the way, but not quickly enough. Impact—

Never came. Gavin had swooped in and removed the guy’s wrist, saving me.

“Thank you!” I called over the screams.

“Anytime, cupcake.”

Movement at my other side. I turned.

Another Hazmat came at Gavin, gun already aimed. I grabbed hold of his arm, his momentum strong enough to pull me to my feet. The moment I was balanced I used all of my strength to twist the guy’s arm behind his back. The gun dropped as bone snapped. He unleashed a wail of agony as his knees buckled.

I caught sight of Trina a few feet away, a collar now clasped firmly around her neck. It was the same collar these people had once used on me, the same collar they used on the zombies to send electrical impulses through their bodies. At least Lucas had escaped the same fate. He savagely fought anyone who dared approach the girl.

I tried to pry the metal from her neck, but the clamp held steady. She peered up at me with hazel eyes now dark with pain. Her lips parted, but no sound emerged.

Anger rose. “Hold on. I’ll find a way to help you.”

“Yes, help her,” Lucas gritted, ducking to avoid a punch.

I looked around the field, found what I needed. I stalked to a motionless suit and dragged the guy to Trina’s side. After cutting away his glove, I pressed his thumb into the small ID pad that acted as a key. Nothing happened.