Trent’s arm slipped around my waist. “I don’t want any of you hibernating. Can you get them there safely, Jenks? We can’t go. It’s the first place they’ll look for us, and I can’t take this to my girls.”

Looking even more disgusted, Jenks nodded again, his expression softening as he saw Izzy holding her tiny middle. “Call me.”

Trent’s expression relaxed, making me love him all the more. “Thank you,” he said, looking over the church as if it was his own. “Have Quen escort Ellasbeth out and close the grounds. He’s to go into hiding if he has to, but Ellasbeth is not to leave with the girls.”

My gut hurt at the thought of damaging the church. It’s just a pile of rocks, I told myself, but it was my pile of rocks.

“It’s going to be fine, Rachel,” Trent said, but the pinch to his brow said differently. “Ellasbeth will be years contesting it in the courts. We’ll be back long before that.” I met his eyes, and he added, “The trick will be to die convincingly without doing too much damage.”

“You think a modified heat charm?” I said, knowing there was a firewall between the old part of the church and the new.

Trent shook his head, his eyes on the vampire at our feet. He took a breath to say something, then froze. His eyes went to the hallway.

Jenks’s wings clattered. Jumoke and Izzy darted out, wings silent. “See you in a few days,” Jenks said as he circled me, his dust falling as if in protection. “Trent, if she dies, I’ll cut your pointy ears off and eat them in front of you.”

I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, but Bis had tightened his grip. “Where do you want me to jump you?” he asked, clearly worried and smelling of iron and pigeon.

The tunnels? I thought, but it was too late, and we ducked below the counter at the soft scrape of shoe in the living room. “Go!” I mouthed to Jenks, and he gave me a last disparaging look as he darted out. This was going to be tricky. We had to destroy the back of the church and get out before it took us with it, and do it all so whoever was attacking would think we were caught up in it.

“Victor?” a masculine voice hissed, and I glanced at the vampire, his legs still in view of the hallway. Oh yeah. What about him?

“Now!” Trent shouted, and we stood, my hand reaching for my splat gun.

What in hell am I supposed to do? I wondered, shooting at the vampire in black.