The hotel rocked under another tremendous assault, which bounced our chopper, sending it turning sideways. It felt like the hotel was going to collapse. Skippy shouted something that had to be orcish profanity. The other Hunters were knocked off their feet and sent jittering wildly across the shaking roof. Lacoco realized that he was coming dangerously close to our dipping rotor and scrambled away on his hands and knees.

A gargoyle fell out of the sky. It didn’t even spread its wings before hitting the roof hard enough to make a crater. The unfamiliar Hunter disappeared, smashed beneath the creature. It had only missed our rotor because of the wild bouncing of the building.

The gargoyle was between us and Lacoco. More were crashing into the roof all around us. One hit and we were done.

The other Hunters weren’t going to make it.

Julie began unstrapping herself. She was going after them.

If we fail here, everyone dies.

“Stone birds! Stone birds!” Skippy bellowed. “Must go!” A gargoyle hit on the other side and the shrapnel cracked the window.

It would be a lie to say that my decision was hard or easy. Those concepts imply having the luxury of time enough to think it through. It just was what it was. We couldn’t risk hundreds of lives for two. I reached out and grabbed Julie’s hand before she could finish unbuckling herself. She tugged against my bloody hand until she realized what I was doing. I made the call. “Skippy! Get us in the air!” I shouted.

“No! Those Hunters—” Julie was stunned.

“Fly, Skippy, now!”

Skippy complied. The Hind rolled forward on the landing pad.

VanZant had managed to maneuver his gigantic sniper rifle around in the prone position and began firing the .50 at the gargoyle embedded in the roof, splattering molten rock with each massive impact. Lacoco staggered to his feet. Understanding registered on his battered face that he wasn’t going to reach us in time, and then we were moving up and forward and I lost sight of him through the door.

Julie was staring at me, eyes filled with disbelief. The Nachtmar is after me, I told myself, trying to not make it any more painful than it already was. He’ll concentrate on me. They can fall back. It’ll concentrate on me. If we fail here, everyone dies. I repeated it like a mantra.

“Hold to something!” Skippy roared. The Hind nearly turned on its side as we left the hotel. Loose items rolled free. Tanya hadn’t gotten strapped in yet, but one of Edward’s hands flew out with lightning speed and snagged her by the shirt. Ed pulled her in and wrapped one arm around her to keep her in place.