Read Online Angel Town by Lilith Saintcrow - Free Book Online Page A

I’d been planning for that hit, and now I was scrambling to recover as Perry’s head tipped back down, the ichor closing over the hurt and sealing it away. Without silver, bullets would barely slow him down.
    Great.
    Perry twitched his shoulders again, grinned murderously, and launched himself for me with the eerie stuttering speed of hellbreed. The crowd exploded away, the grace of confusion vanishing as awareness of the fight raced through them like ink dropped in water.
    “ Jill! ” Theron yelled, and I had at least the satisfaction of him knowing who I was. If we got out of here, I could ask him some questions, too.
    Like how I’d ended up dead. Who had buried me. And what the bloody blue fuck was going on.
    “ Get out! ” I screamed. “ Theron! Get the fuck ou— ”
    Perry arrived , blinking through space, and my right wrist sent a spike of clear, hot pain all the way up my arm, detonating in my shoulder, tearing across my ribs, and jerking down my legs in one swift lunge. I spun, hip twitching out to provide momentum, my foot coming up as the gem in my flesh let out a high, crystal-stroked sound. My sneaker crashed into Perry’s jaw, force transferred and the jolt snapping something low in my right leg; red pain bolting up to my hip. Knees pulled in, the world turning over as I pushed off, deflecting him by critical degrees, and at least I was light without weapons or anything else hanging on me.
    I flew .
    Landed hard, breath driven out of me in a howl as my abused right leg gave way, and Theron was suddenly there . Skidding to a stop, fingers tented on the floor, bruised face a mask of effort as he snarled. I almost overbalanced, but he uncoiled with sweet grace, legs driving him up as his hand closed around my left arm and Perry tumbled through the crowd, knocking over Traders and other ’breed like ninepins. He hit them hard, too, the crunching of bones breaking and screams of the wounded drowned out the feedback squealing of the music.
    Theron left the ground in a leap of such effortless natural authority I half-expected it to be easy for me too. I pushed gracelessly with both legs, trying to help, ignoring the bones grinding together in my right shin, a red firework of agony.
    His grip popped my shoulder out of its socket with a high, hard burst of pain, my head snapping aside and tendons screaming, the rest of me a boneless flag flopping in the wind. We tore through the moth-eaten red velvet curtain and burst out into the cool darkness outside just as the music juddered to a halt behind us and Perry’s cheated howl shattered several chickenwire-laced, painted-black windows.
    The parking lot reeled drunkenly as Theron yanked me again. A submachine gun opened up in a burst of deafening chatter, glass shattering and metal pop-pinging as bullets dug a sewing-machine trail behind us. My stretched shoulder gave another flare of deep-purple pain, a symphony of damage playing colors behind my eyelids as I tried to return fire.
    This ammo won’t do any good. Been lucky so far, but luck won’t hold. Goddammit.
    We hit yet again, Theron compressing like a spring, and plunged into the scrub brush at the edges of the lot. He cursed, the whisper-screaming of obscenities over a deep rumbling groan. Nobody knows where a feline Were’s purr comes from, but this was a warning growl, shaking my bones and sending a deep pulse of heat through torn muscle and abused flesh.
    Behind us, screams and cries lifted into the chill night air.
    Now they were hunting us.
     * * *
    Being carried along by a cat Were is an exotic experience, even if you can understand what’s happening to you. Being dragged by a cursing, slowly healing, very angry Werepanther was a new one even for me.
    Or at least, it felt new. I hoped it was.
    He skidded aside, and the dark of an alley swallowed us. I hung, almost limp, in his grasp. My entire body twitched, the meat senselessly protesting a brush with its own mortality. Stupid body, getting all