Free The Graves of Saints by Christopher Golden

whatever it takes to help me find Cortez and his nest and put them all down.’
    ‘Of course—’ Metzger said.
    ‘And,’ Octavian interrupted, ‘I called because there’s a crisis looming that’s going to require your attention. The UN’s attention. The world’s
attention. It would have been my number one priority, but now . . . now I have something to do that’s more important to me than saving this godforsaken world.’
    As swiftly as he could, he laid out what had happened in Hawthorne, Massachusetts, ending with the death of Keomany Shaw and the defeat of the chaos queen, Navalica. He explained that before
they were able to take her down, Navalica had unleashed such a wave of chaos magic that it must have been like sending up a flare to let other supernatural entities know that the path to Earth lay
open.
    ‘Open,’ Allison interrupted, speaking up for the first time. ‘But not undefended.’
    Octavian gave her a nod. ‘No. Never that.’
    When he was done, even stoic Sergeant Omondi looked frightened. Galleti’s gaze was far away, as if she were thinking about all of the people she loved and needed to see before demons tore
the world apart.
    ‘How quickly is this going to happen? This . . . invasion?’ Metzger asked.
    Octavian batted the question away. ‘It isn’t like that. We’re talking about potentially infinite parallel dimensions. Some of them are nothing but scorched ground and dead
civilizations, while others are just . . . stillness, never having had a spark of life. Yes, there are all sorts of horrors out there, but it isn’t as if they’re organized.
They’re not plotting against us. And the barriers have deteriorated dramatically, but they’re not gone entirely. That will slow things down a little. There won’t be any
coordinated invasion, but there might be a hundred small ones. You’re going to need to be able to react at a moment’s notice and shut these incursions down as quickly as possible. You
may need to respond to more than one at a time, and that’s going to require Task Force Victor being able to mobilize regular UN troops, as well as those of allied nations if
necessary.’
    Commander Metzger lowered his gaze. ‘Christ.’
    ‘Yeah, he’s not going to show up like the cavalry,’ Allison said.
    ‘That’s not helping,’ Charlotte said.
    Allison arched an eyebrow, clearly amused that the younger Shadow had thought to correct her, but she didn’t argue.
    ‘Peter,’ Metzger said, his tone wary. ‘I understand that you want to go after this Cortez yourself, but you know that our mandate means that we’re going to be hunting
him, too.’
    ‘I’m counting on it,’ Octavian said, locking eyes with Metzger. ‘That’s why you’re here, Leon. You and I, we’re going to sit down with Charlotte
together and she’s going to tell us every detail she remembers. You’ll go after him your way and I’ll go after him mine. Anything you learn, you’ll pass on to me
–’
    ‘You know I can’t do that.’
    ‘You
will
,’ Octavian said. ‘You will. I’ll speak to the Secretary General myself, and it will all be okay. We’re all on the same side. Some people wish
that wasn’t true, but it is. That includes Allison, and you, Commander, are going to square that with the Secretary General yourself. That’s your end of this.
    ‘You’ll pass along any information you find about Cortez. If you locate him, you will not go after him. You will tell me where he is, and you will stay the hell out of my
way.’
    Metzger looked like he wanted to argue, but he held his tongue. Octavian glanced at Sergeant Omondi and Galleti, but they were both too overwhelmed to do anything now except watch their CO for a
cue.
    ‘Once upon a time,’ Octavian said, ‘I had a coven of my own. Not a vampire coven, but one made up of both Shadows and humans . . . people I trusted. When a supernatural crisis
occurred, we did whatever we had to do to resolve it. A lot of my