"What's a Stradolan? I want to know what you can do. It might be important in the upcoming fight."

Sucking in a deep breath, he let it out in a long, slow stream. "I can walk between worlds. I can move through the astral and the etheric without a problem, though I'm not very adept at shifting into the Ionyc Lands. I can enter the Nether-world and return. My powers are dilute because of my half-breed heritage, but I can, my lady, work with some forms of magic--shadow and il usion."

"Like the coyote shifters?"

Shade laughed. "They work with il usion, yes, but not to the extent I can. However, as I said, my magical powers are limited. I'm one hel of a fighter, though." Almost as an afterthought, he added, "Oh, yes. I can shift into dragon form, but only during the night in which there are shadows."

I glanced over at him, my heart swel ing. Something about him spoke to me. He was a half-breed, like me. His powers were slightly skewed. He could transform, but he wasn't a ful dragon nor ful Stradolan. He was, for al intents and purposes, a misfit. Like me.

Turning right onto Eightieth, we fol owed the road as it wound through Redmond, then into the suburbs of the city, final y merging into 172nd. A few winding S curves, and we were nearing the address. Stacia stil lived in the suburbs, but the house had a nice piece of land attached to it.

I pul ed to a stop a house or two away and waited for the others. As I stared over at the lot where Stacia and her cronies were hiding out, I knew in my gut this was it. Tonight would be the end. For her . . . or for us. She'd kil ed Henry, she'd destroyed Camil e's shop, she'd subverted Kim and left Carter heartbroken, she'd taken control with Trytian's army, and while they might be working together against Shadow Wing, she was out for our blood.

And we . . . were out for hers.

I glanced over at Shade. "Tonight, we fight. You aren't a pacifist, I hope."

He reached out and gently covered my hand. "I have slaughtered more enemies that you can imagine in my time. I am far, far older than you think.

Whether he knows it or not, I'm older than your dragon friend Smoky. Stradolan . . . we spend much of our time walking out of time, so to speak. I fought in wars before the Great Divide."

I met his gaze and saw the sands of time fal ing away, revealing an unending flow of centuries. How long had he been alive? And then I realized he wasn't anything verging on Fae. Or human. He was a half-breed, but he was the product of two great forces. How he even came to be perplexed me, but the warmth in his eyes was real, and so were the fingers that stroked my own. As I lost myself in the rich coffee of his eyes, Iris leaned forward and tapped me on the shoulder.

"We should go, Delilah."

"Right." I sucked in a deep breath, shaking myself out of the reverie. Whatever energy Shade was running, I wanted to be part of it. Whatever he was offering, I'd already accepted it.

As I climbed out of the Jeep, then helped Iris jump down, she whispered to me. "I like him. He'l be there for you, Delilah. No matter what happens, this one wil be there for you."

I leaned down and pressed my lips against her cheek. "I know. I'm so comfortable around his energy that I want to curl up by the fire and never move."

She flickered her gaze over to where he stood, observing the house, then back. "He bears your master's energy. If he's not an avatar of the Autumn Lord, he's the next best thing. I wonder how they came to be so linked. And how he knew about me."

"About that . . . what does Ar'jant d'tel mean?"

"Leave it for now. It's part of my story. When we win--not if, but when--and the dust has settled on Stacia's dead body, then I wil tel you."

As the others joined us, I gauged the house. It was surrounded by a high fence, but that was nothing new in the suburbs. We couldn't get in from the back unless we managed to find our way through the thicket of trees that bordered her lot, and there were no roads back there. At least not close enough to give us an uninterrupted view of what was going on.

And last time, when we'd snuck in, we'd ended up almost getting blown to smithereens. We might as wel just go in shooting, for al the good sneaking around had done us. I cleared my throat and mentioned my thoughts to the others.

"I say we attack on two fronts," Menol y said. "I can sneak in. So can Shade. Smoky and Roz can't because they don't know what's beyond the gates, doors. But let Shade and me get a head start, we'l come in through the back to try to keep them from escaping."

"I don't like splitting up," I said. "No. This time, let's just go in blasting. Kil anybody or anything that moves and looks remotely demonic. But our prime target is Stacia. This isn't her training camp, so I doubt if we're going to find humans around to get in the way."

Roz pul ed out the stun gun. "Anybody want to use this? I have enough weapons to keep me happy for now."

Tril ian held out his hand. "My skil s are fairly adept with a sword, but that wil give me a better edge til the charge runs out." He took the weapon, held it out to calculate the aim, and then nodded, hooking it on his belt. "I'm ready."

"Watch out for snakes," Camil e said. "She's bound to have the place like an oven in there, and where there's a lamia and heat, there's bound to be snakes."

"I'l prepare one of my freezing spel s. Smoky should do the same." Iris inhaled deeply, closing her eyes as the magic began to stir. I could see it, rising around her like a vortex. It was as if the past few months had ripped open her abilities, and the Talon-haltija could cast spel s I hadn't had any clue even existed. Smoky took one look at her and fol owed suit. The temperature around us fel a good thirty degrees.

"Our turn." Morio looked at Camil e, and they joined hands. "Dust to dust, death to death, spell to spell, breath to breath . . ."

Their voices rang softly through the air, chiming a note that sent a shiver of fear through me. They were growing more powerful, and their death magic scared the shit out of me. Until recently, I'd been worried. But now, I found something seductive about it.

Vanzir and Roz prepared their weapons--Vanzir had a nasty-looking sword, and Roz pul ed out a handful of his magical bombs that I guessed were freezing from the icy white of their surface.

Shade looked at me and nodded. "I'm ready."

I longed to turn into my panther self but resisted. Once inside, I'd assess whether I could do more damage on two feet or four. With a glance at the others, I straightened my shoulders. We were ready. The die was cast.

"Menol y--go."

She blended into the shadows, running ahead to set off any traps that might be waiting. Except for Smoky--and perhaps Shade--she was the least vulnerable. As she covered the distance from gate to house, nothing actively moved, but Camil e shook her head.

"They have wards, and she just activated them."

I licked my lips. "They know we're coming. Get your asses in there!"

As we plunged forward, Menol y kicked open the door and leapt to the side as a mass of Tregarts spil ed out. The last time this had happened, Stacia had managed to escape while they distracted us. Not this time.

"Menol y, Shade--go left. Smoky, go right."

As they circled the house, the rest of us steeled ourselves against the oncoming attackers. The first wave hit like a whirlwind, but Camil e and Morio were ready at the front. A wave rippled forward from their linked hands. The first four Tregarts were caught in the wake of the rol ing energy, and my stomach turned as eager earthen hands reached out of the ground to grab the demons' legs and yank them, kicking and screaming, through the soil, deep into the earth, where they disappeared as if they'd never been.

I stared at the disrupted lawn. What the fuck kind of freakish spel was that? Did I even want to know?

It worked. Your sister is helping save your ass. My dagger whispered to me in the night, and I shook off my shock and dove in, looking for an opponent. It didn't take long to find one, as the second wave lurched forward. Zombies and bone-walkers. The walking dead. Stacia's specialty.

I narrowed my attention. One thing I'd learned from the battles over the past year: Never try to focus on everything that's going on. Fight your own battle, then glance around and move on. Otherwise you chanced ending up on the wrong end of a sword. I straightened my shoulders and assessed the skeleton coming my way.

The walking pile of bones would fight until broken to shards. That much I knew. I also knew that they weren't easily hurt by blades. Blunt objects were better, so I sheathed Lysanthra and, guarding my breath into a low, even rhythm, spun, my booted foot landing against the bone-walker's skul .

The skeleton's neck snapped back, and I kicked again, breaking the vertebrae. The head fel to the ground, but the bone-walker kept coming my way.

Without the head, however, it was easier to jump out of its way and circle it. From the back, I pummeled it with a hail of kicks, breaking the tailbone in two.

The creature shattered, fal ing to the ground, and I pul ed out Lysanthra and smashed the hilt through the skul , then severed the hands from the arm bones. One more smash to each hand ensured they wouldn't scuttle around, grabbing our ankles.

I turned around, quickly surveying the battlefield. Camil e and Morio were casting another spel . A circle of light surrounded them, whirling like a vortex, and they walked forward toward a group of five bone-walkers. The creatures disintegrated into dust as the edge of the light hit them.

Damn, I'd like to have me some of that magic, I thought.

Roz, Vanzir, and Tril ian were pounding their way through a couple of zombies and a Tregart. Tril ian was wisely holding back on the stun gun. Good.

When we came up against Stacia, perhaps it would do some sort of damage.

Iris was focusing her wand on the house--she was standing on the porch, and as I watched, a layer of mist began to flow out of the Aqualine crystal, in through the doors, turning to frost everywhere it touched. A layer of ice, a layer of cold. Good girl. That would take care of any snakes we might encounter inside.

I realized there was an opening to get to the door now and took it, racing up the steps, sliding on the frost right through the doorway. Morio, Vanzir, and Iris fol owed me while the others hung back, fighting the last of the front guard.

We'd rushed into what had once been a parlor but now appeared to be some sort of barracks. Cots lined the wal s. My guess--they were for the Tregarts. I slowed. Stacia should be in here and--if we were unlucky, Trytian, too. I wasn't sure I wanted to take on the daemon. While he had tried to blow us up, my guess is that he would have left us alone if Stacia hadn't entered the picture. And he was fighting against Shadow Wing.

As I turned the corner, I stopped short. There, ahead, was a tal , lovely woman. Striking. Stunning. Stacia.

Oh crap. Where the hel were Smoky, Menol y, and Shade? I tried to slide back around the corner before Stacia noticed me, just grateful she hadn't shifted to her true form yet, but she turned as I was backing away. Her face--dark, bril iant eyes against an olive complexion--was beautiful, but the look in her eyes terrified me. There was no mortality there--no sign she'd ever felt compassion or mercy.

She smiled then. "I offered you and your sisters the chance to join my army." Her voice was soft, too gentle for the look on her face. "Remember that when you die. I'm not like my predecessor. He enjoyed playing with his food. I just get the job done--that's why I'm alive."

As she began to transform, I turned to yel for Iris and Vanzir, but saw they had engaged four zombies that had appeared out of the corner. And I found myself facing a very large, very scuzzy looking Tregart. Crap.

His fist slammed into my gut, and I doubled over. As he leaned down to grab me by the scruff of my col ar, I managed to thrust Lysanthra straight up and stab him in the face. He shrieked and staggered back, and I forced myself to my feet. Stacia was midway through transformation--apparently it took time to turn into a twenty-foot anaconda woman.

The demon was bleeding like a stuck pig. I pushed forward, stabbing him through a gap in the leather jacket, managing to hit him in the gut as he tried to maneuver his eyebal , which had been dislodged, back into the socket.

At that moment, the front door--which I could see from my position--slammed open, and Smoky, Menol y, and Shade burst through. High five! Backup had arrived. As the Tregart writhed on my knife, I gave it another good twist and slid my blade out of him. He dropped to his knees, and I brought the dagger down on his head, giving him one final gash that did the trick. He keeled over, and I raced into the living room, where Stacia was just finishing up her shift into her lamia form.

"Remember, she's a necromancer!" I eyed the demon general, wondering just how the hel to kil this thing. She was twenty feet long, most of that in giant anaconda form. Her torso, arms, and head were female, grotesquely misshapen, with long fangs that dripped a dark liquid. Constrictor or not, I had no doubt that they contained some sort of venom.

Smoky let forth a low whistle, and frost spread from his breath, rippling through the room in a wave, freezing everything it touched. Stacia hissed at him, spitting some liquid toward his eyes. The dragon jumped back, dodging out of the way as the venom splashed against the frost and sizzled.

Shade began to walk toward her, shimmering so that it was hard to tel whether he was corporeal or not. She cocked her head at him, then struck, grabbing for him, but her arms went right through his image. Shit--he was walking in shadow, and that had probably just saved his ass.

I wondered why she wasn't tossing spel s around--she was a powerful necromancer--and then a thought hit me: Could she cast magic in her natural form? Or did she have to be in human form? Necromancy wasn't an innate ability for her, so maybe she couldn't use it when she shifted back to her normal shape. Either way, I had to figure out some way to get behind her so I could hack into that damned long tail she had. Menol y joined me and pul ed me to one side.