Free Veiled Threat by Shannon Mayer Page B

… when it opens. And when it closes. I think they closed this one.”
    “Why the fuck would they do that?” But I knew the answer to my own question. I really had blown it, we’d had our chance to go in after Milly and Pamela and because I didn’t listen to Erik those demons had closed the breach.
    Of course, no one answered my question. They all knew as well as I did the why of it.
    “Doesn’t matter, you still need to go in and check it out.” Erik didn’t pull his weapons out, instead looked at me expectantly. And maybe with more than an ounce of disappointment in his eyes. I blushed under his recriminating gaze. I didn’t need the less than subtle reminder that I’d screwed this up. “Mark your blades,” he instructed. Liam swung his sword in the figure eight and the blade burned, Alex followed suit with his claws, and I reluctantly did the same with my weapon.
    Something didn’t sit well with me, but fuck if I could figure it out.
    “If anything shows up,” Erik said, “that doesn’t fit the descriptions I’ve given you, run back out and I will deal with it.”
    “You’re a human with a few words and a few hand gestures. You really believe you can do this better than me?” I wasn’t being cocky. I’d seen more than one human go down in flames because they tangled with the supernatural with the belief they ‘had it in them’ to do so.
    “It’s unlikely, but if anything does show up, Rylee, this is what I do. It’s always been humans trained for hunting demons.” He pointed at the door and I started forward. Stopping when a question caught me off guard. One I didn’t want to wait on.
    “Why the humans?”
    “Because the demons expect to be able to control a human with hardly a flick of their claws, a tip of their eyes in our direction. Which for the most part is true. But,” he stepped up and held the door open for me, “when a human finally sees the truth, and knows what they are facing, they become an unknown quantity in some ways.”
    “A wild card.” I stepped softly into the house, avoiding the broken glass as best I could.
    “Yes. Exactly. Even now, they don’t think a Slayer has much ability against them, not understanding the fates gave us the words to stop the demonic in their tracks. At least, if you are one of the few families blessed to have the blood that will kindle the words.”
    I left him there, Liam and Alex following me through the shit and piss marking the demon hounds passing, down the hallway and to the closed bathroom door. But I already knew it would be too late, the breach would be closed.
    I pushed the door open and the inside of the bathroom held exactly what I was expecting.
    Nothing.
    “Motherfuckers,” I snarled. The floor was splattered with blood where I’d cut off the creature’s tongues, and the back wall was no longer the swirling violet of the veil. The yellow tile was scorched, chipped and hanging from the wall in pieces.
    But no breach in the veil.
    A low groan drew me to the tub and I raised my blade, whispering, “ Adonani” before actually stepping closer. The word would still my soul, keep it attached to me and keep the demon from sucking me down again. Supposedly.
    Another groan and I leapt forward, my blade sailing downward toward the face of … Eagle. Shit on a stick. Twisting hard, I drove my blade into the side of the tub, just missing Eagle’s face. The porcelain shattered around my blade and Eagle, and what looked like all of his blood spilled out onto the floor. He was a guardian, but more than that, he had been Eve’s mentor, helping her control herself and her harpy tendencies. And I suspected she was more than half in love with him which was only going to make this that much harder on her.
    Ignoring the blood, I dropped to my knees, put one hand on his chest and the other behind his head. “Eagle, what the hell are you doing here, what happened?” As a guardian, there was no way injuries like this should have hurt him so