Angel Town by Lilith Saintcrow

chest bad enough to put him down on the road with a thud.
    Hopefully the bleeding out would do the rest, but if it didn’t I’d figure something else out.
    Horns screeched. A rending crash, a blue minivan rear-ending another SUV down the line. Someone was screaming from the sidewalk, I hoped it wasn’t collateral damage. Fucking civilians, we’re doing this out in the middle of the road, what the fuck?
    The woman landed, her right-hand gun blurring into its holster and her fingers jerking at something attached to her belt. “ Status! ” she yelled, and wonder of wonders, I understood exactly what she meant.
    She was asking if I could fight. I could, I’d be more than happy to, it would make me ecstatic, I just needed some goddamn ammo that would put these fuckers down .
    “No ammo!” I rolled off the SUV’s roof and landed with a jolt on the road. My legs burned, bone messily healing, crackling as etheric force jerked at them to set the breaks correctly. It was the gem on my wrist doing it, and I didn’t care. Traffic was at a complete standstill. “Civilians all over! Werepanther up on the rooftop, hope he’s headed for the barrio! Fucking hellbreed chasing us! Perry! ”
    “Figures.” She half-turned, eyes roving. Every piece of silver on her ran with blue sparks under the surface, and the ring on my third left finger responded with crackling of its own. “What you packing?”
    “.45. One. Nothing else. Regular ammo.” Frustration turned the words into hard little bullets, but I sounded tight-mouth amused.
    There was another impact. We both turned, guns coming up, and the thing in her right hand was a bullwhip, sharpsilver spines jingling at its end. She twitched it a little, assuring free play, and my fingers suddenly itched. I wanted one, too, in the worst way.
    Theron rose from a crouch. “Devi.” He tipped his head. “Look who’s back.”
    Her name lit up inside my head, another klieg light of memory and meaning. Devi. Anya Devi. I let out a sigh of relief. If she was here, things had just gotten exponentially better.
    So why did my heart suddenly pound in my wrists and throat for a moment, before training clamped down again? Why did I feel suddenly guilty?
    Her face twisted a little, smoothed out. “Barrio?”
    He shrugged, eyes lambent. “Was trying.”
    “Galina’s.” She glanced at me like I would protest, but I didn’t have a damn thing to say. I scanned the perimeter, kept my fool mouth shut.
    Theron looked relieved and stubborn all at once. “Can’t make it. Too many of them, wait for daylight.”
    I lowered my gun, did another half turn. Traffic was hell-to-breakfast higgledy-piggledy, and people were actually starting to get out of their cars to get a closer gander at the trouble. Idiot lookie-lous.
    But then, they didn’t know hellbreed were on the loose. We kept it a secret, we hunters.
    Monty’s going to have kittens over this. Was I in the middle of a case? Were the cops betting on when I’d show up again, was Vice running the pool on sightings of me, nervous because I’d been out of action for a little bit?
    We had to vanish soon, or the crowd would get hurt. As it was, the cops were going to have trouble with this one.
    The woman sighed. “Goddamn stubborn Weres. Jill? You with me?”
    Do you even need to ask, Devi? But I probably would’ve asked me, too. “Yeah.”
    “Are you safe?”
    I looked over my shoulder, shaking aside my tangled hair. The scar down her right cheek was flushed, and she didn’t look happy. Her gaze was disconcertingly direct, and for a moment I thought I could see all the way into the back of her brain. I didn’t look away. “Safe?” I sounded honestly puzzled. I was a hunter . What was she really asking?
    “Never mind. Here.” Her left hand flicked, tossing something; I plucked it out of the air.
    It was an extended clip, and I caught a glint of silver from the top bullet peeking out. Silverjacket rounds, just the thing to pierce a