Vessel: The Demontouched Saga (Book 4) by Douglas Wayne

need to stop her before she gets too far.”
    “Let’s go,” Nal says.
    Alana rushes up to take the lead, rifle in hand.
    We pass around the side of the building, noticing a car heading our direction. With my knife in hand, I send it flying at the vehicle, hoping to stick it in the tire. The driver, apparently seeing the knife, swerving at the last second, crashing into a parked car.
    “Good enough,” Nal says, walking ahead.
    Three car doors open, sending the passengers to the ground. Alana takes out the driver and man in the passenger seat with two well placed shots with Nal taking out the man in back before he can get off the ground.
    “Not your gal,” Nal says, tossing me the knife.
    “She can’t be that far away,” I say, looking ahead.
    “She isn’t,” Neil says, walking up from behind. “She is up at that yellow house.”
    I nod. “You realize that means Louis wasn’t the big bad, right?”
    “Could’ve told you that,” Nal says. “There’s a tattooed freak in charge. Louis was just a front.”
    “You’ve got to be kidding,” I say.
    “Nope, this place is all about diversion.”
    “Can you get us to the house?” I say.
    Nal nods. “This way.”
    We follow him as he storms through the streets, amazingly without trouble. Either we’ve taken out all the thugs or…
    “Shit,” Nal says, ducking behind a car. Within moments the rest of us are ducked behind a set of three cars parked on the side of the street.
    “That’s a damn army,” I say. “How the hell are we going to take them all out?”
    “We can try,” Neil says, changing out his magazine.
    I shake my head. “Even with my powers, that’s a suicide mission.”
    “What choice do we have?” Nal says. “It’s not like they’ll let us hide behind these cars all day.”
    “True.” I shift around for a better look at the pack. Just from the ones I see, I can tell we are easily outnumbered nearly eight to one. And that’s assuming we are only dealing with one demon and Isra-Sara. “What do you think?”
    “I hate to say it,” Nal says. “But we need your girl to leave.”
    “I’m not leaving without her,” I say. “I didn’t come out here to leave her to them.”
    “You don’t have much of a choice.” He puts his hand on my shoulder. “Besides. We know where to find her.”
    I nod reluctantly. “Won’t be any more fun there.”
    “No, but we’ll have better odds.”
    It doesn’t sit right with me, leaving her on her own, but I know I won’t be doing her any favors if I get my self killed out here today either. I only hope her powers keep her safe.
    Judging from the way Louis treated her, it’s probably the case.
    “I guess we sit tight, then. Wait until they leave.”
    We don’t have to wait long for it either. After hiding behind the cars for about ten minutes we hear cars starting down the street. A few minutes later they are driving down the road past our position in a convoy of nearly twenty vehicles. We bunch up around the side of the cars as they pass to avoid being seen.
    “That’s better,” Nal says, peeking around the corner once the coast is clear. “The odds are down to three to one.”
    “I’ll take it,” I say standing up.
    “Any day I know the enemy is a good day,” Neil says.
    Alana nods before standing up first.
    Within moments my ears are ringing thanks to the sound of nearby gunfire. It doesn’t take long for my posse to take down the assholes ahead, nearly evening our odds in a matter of seconds. By the time they retaliate, our odds are even better.
    Neil takes a few steps ahead of me, taking out a man who is positioned at a second floor window. “Another asshole down,” he says with a large grin on his face.
    “Good work, kid,” I say watching him work.
    I turn my head to the left, noticing the front door of a neighboring house to open.
    “Get down!” I shout. But it was too late. The man walking out of the door raises a pistol, taking aim at the kid as he turns to face