“Because I’m the Chosen One.” Paranormal Tactical shared incredulous glances. “There’s no time to explain. It’s a long story…”

“You say that a lot,” Armstrong said suspiciously. “I’m all about taking your money, but I can’t do anything that would be a conflict of interest with our current contract.”

“Oh, don’t worry. Stricken will love this.” I looked Armstrong right in the eyes. He needed to know how sincere I was. “This next part is important. If it looks like the Nachtmar has won, and it looks like I’ve been possessed, you need to knock me out. Don’t kill me, because then it’ll just go looking for someone else. You need to knock me cold, drug me if you can, secure my body, and then turn me over to Stricken.”

“Z!” Holly protested. “Are you insane? He’ll kill you!”

“He won’t.” He’ll just turn me into a vegetable and bury me in a chemical weapons dump. Mosh began to say something but I cut them both off. “It’s our only chance. Hopefully we can just kill it or banish it, but if we can’t then we can imprison it again. Otherwise it’ll keep floating around until it finds someone else like me or Marcus and then we’re screwed all over again.” I looked back to Armstrong. “Can you do it?”

He shrugged. “I don’t see why not. I’m down with tranqing you and turning you over to a megalomaniacal nut job so he can throw you in prison. I’m not really seeing the downside here.”

“And it sounds like we’d get paid twice,” Ultimate Lawyer said. “Wait…If you die, how do we collect?”

Armstrong stopped him. “Naw, Shane. It’s all good. I’d do this one for free…But Pitt here is going to owe us a huge favor when this is over.”

There really wasn’t time to debate it. “Only if I’m possessed,” I warned.

Armstrong’s big fake smile looked even more malicious when he was covered in slime. “Of course, Mr. Pitt. Paranormal Tactical is the best in the business. You’re in good hands.”

This had damn well better work.

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The Strip was entirely clear of the choking fog. The power was out. It was strange to see Las Vegas so dark. The casinos around us were big, silent ghosts. There were some lights in the street, headlights mostly, but from only a fraction of the vehicles, and many of those seemed too dim. There were lots of people out here, military and law enforcement mostly, but only a small percentage of them appeared to be okay. Many were just wandering around shell-shocked. Understandable, since they’d all just gotten glimpses of their worst nightmares. Not everybody had the flexible mind that was a prerequisite for being a good Hunter.