Marcus was sure there was more to all this than some weird outbreak of violence. There was something in the air. He could smell it. He could feel it on his skin, something oily about it. It reminded him of the arena. It was the smell of the maddening, murderous fury that he’d felt there. That had been one thing in that small space, for amusement and controlled by Baba Yaga thugs, but what would happen if there was nothing to control it? If that horror had no bounds? If it didn’t fade when a fight was called?

Under the awning, Vasel pointed a finger at one of the thugs and spoke Ukrainian. He glanced at Marcus and deigned to speak English. “You stay here with him. Nobody comes in this door.”

Marcus started to protest, but Olena shook her head. “We will be quick,” she said. “I know the way. Five minutes only and we’ll be back.”

Watching the others vanish into the mouth of the casino, Marcus couldn’t help feeling they were being swallowed. The casino was a living beast. It always had been. Why the fuck am I letting her go? It seemed the worst thing ever. The stupidity of it clenched a fist around his heart and left him gasping. He whispered, “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” He would’ve yelled it but he was afraid to. Afraid of what might hear him.

The thug yanked him around by the elbow. He hissed something. The words were incomprehensible gibberish. The guy looked jittery, his eyes jumping about and his cheeks twitching. “Hey, you all right?” Marcus asked. Of course, the guy couldn’t understand him and didn’t answer.

Marcus shook his head to clear it. He took in the grassy oval in front of the casino and the streets that circled it and the buildings beyond. Figures moved, but most of them were far enough away that he couldn’t see them clearly. That was for the best. One man looked to be dragging a corpse behind him as he limped forward, leaving a dark smear as he went. Something scrambled up the side of a building in the distance, a dark shape that moved from window to window until it found one it liked. It smashed the glass and disappeared inside. A scream cut the air. From inside the room with the smashed window? Marcus wasn’t sure, but he wondered what was happening in there. He had a notion that the scrabbling creature was killing. Eating. He swallowed, wishing he could see. Maybe it was fucking and eating and killing at the same time. He counted the stories to the smashed window and how many rows over from the edge of the building. He could go there and look and maybe he could fuck and eat and—