A black shape streaked past our open door. Wings tucked in and falling like a bomb, the gargoyle had missed our rotor by mere inches. It slammed into the edge of the hotel, obliterating twenty feet of it, and hurtling over the edge. It would’ve gotten us if we’d stayed any longer. The entire world shifted as Skippy turned us the other way. Another gargoyle screamed past. Sparks flew as something nicked our chopper’s side. Then I didn’t know which way was up, as the view through the door was gray nightmare fog, then ground, then fog again. The chopper shook as something clipped us toward the rear. A warning buzzer sounded and a red light began to flash in the interior.

But then we were upright again, the hotel was behind us, and we were hurtling into the unknown. We’d made it through the hail of gargoyles. “Frolugsh!” Skippy exclaimed. “Stone bird hit! Not tail row-tor again. Not good. Not good.” I tugged the door closed. The angry red warning light was still flashing. I couldn’t read Cyrillic but I was pretty sure that one said something about Kiss Your Ass Goodbye. Smoke was pouring into the cabin.

“Keep going straight, Skippy,” I said. We could crash, just please let us get out of this world first. Looking around, Edward seemed calm as usual, Tanya was utterly terrified, especially since the only thing that had kept her from flying out the door had been Ed’s reflexes, but Ed hadn’t let go of her yet.

When I glanced at my wife, she was giving me the angriest, most hurt expression that I’d ever seen from her. Who could blame her? I hated myself too. “I had no choice.”

“You always have a choice!” Julie got on her radio. “John? Jason? Come in John? VanZant, Lacoco, can you hear me? Damn it…Get inside, fall back, find cover. John?”

“I’m sorry.” It was too much for her. Julie hit me. We were sitting too close for her to get much energy into it, but she tried. She hit me again. I let her. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“I’ve heard that before! They’re going to die. You abandoned them!”

Yes, I had. Hanging onto a metal ladder in a hot engine room with a vampire below me and a hatch slammed shut in my face. I knew exactly how it felt. “If we don’t make it out, then every single mortal trapped in this realm is as good as dead. I have to get back to the real world.” It was a new feeling, seeing such anger directed at me from my wife. It hurt a lot worse than my physical injuries. “You’ve got to trust—”

“Shut up.” Julie held up a hand. “I’ve got something on the radio. John? Are you okay?”