“I…I don’t know. It was like before, only this time I knew what was going to happen.” He held up the nickel-plated Browning Hi-Power. “I stole this earlier off one of those PT guys. I don’t know how I got a hold of it now…But I got them. I got them all. Even her.” Mosh stepped aside, revealing the last corpse. “Remember her?” Intellectually, I knew it wasn’t the real Lucinda Hood, but it sure was a convincing facsimile. She was a rather attractive young woman with a hacksaw in one hand, but it had been twisted, wedged up under her chin and stuck clear through her throat, surely driven by desperate strength. Mosh giggled. “Bitch didn’t see that coming.”

My brother was seriously out of it. “I’m impressed. I didn’t know you had it in you. Now let’s get you out of here.”

“I should’ve did that the first time.” Mosh was going into shock. “But I’m not like you.”

I put my arm around his shoulder and steered him toward the exit. “Only in the good ways.”

I’d get these guys out, then I had to go back. I had to find Marcus and break the Nachtmar’s spell. There were hundreds of feds and rescue workers trapped in the foggy area, and if the Nachtmar was feeding on all of them, then there was no telling how strong it was going to become.

Lucinda Hood spoke. Mosh had nearly removed her head with the saw blade, but the Nachtmar didn’t need vocal cords or air to speak. “Wait, Chosen.”

“I already told you, no autographs!” Mosh turned around and shot Lucinda half a dozen times. The slide locked back empty, but he kept jerking on the trigger uselessly. “Fucking die already.”

I pushed the empty pistol aside. “Get him out of here, Holly.” She took my incoherently shouting brother by the arm and pulled him away gently. “What do you want, alp?”

The Nachtmar hissed. “I see now you are stronger than my last. Parlay with us, Chosen.”

“Sure. You go back to where you came from, leave us alone, and I don’t destroy you forever.”

“No. I am and always have been. The old realm can no longer satisfy my hunger. The mind worlds have all been explored. Their stories have been told. It is silent now. I would starve there. To go back is to end that which has always been. Ally with us.”

“That’s not going to happen.”