Seeing twenty of them was like seeing the end of the world.

Pointing a gun at the end of the world seems fairly goddamn futile. I did it anyway. “It’s broad daylight, assholes. Seems bold even for you,” I said tightly. I didn’t freeze, not this time. I swallowed the bile, grew a pair, and kept the Glock steady. Two-headed werewolves, mass murderers, dead bodies hanging like fruit in a tree, I’d faced all of that—I’d face this. “Or did you get the weather report I missed out on?”

“Faithless cousin.” Hundreds of titanium needle teeth bared at me as the closest one spoke. “The blind do not see us.”

“And when your eyes are ripped from their sockets,” hissed another, “neither will you.”

Jesus, family. It was a bitch.

But maybe they were right. Even if the water falling from the sky hadn’t been the next best thing to the biblical flood, it still might not have mattered. Because if you saw them, you’d have to be insane, wouldn’t you? So instead, maybe you’d just turn your head and keep moving as your brain glossed over what simply couldn’t be. Maybe your average human was smarter than I gave him credit for.

“We nearly wiped your race from the face of the earth.” We’d also gotten our asses spanked and handed to us on a silver platter in the process, but Niko didn’t feel the need to mention that. Show the enemy no weakness. A throwing knife appeared in his free hand as he continued without hesitation, “We finish what we start.”

That’s when they fell from the trees. Predators who had no equal. The hundred others we had killed had been a suicide run we’d unexpectedly survived. A big-ass explosion, a collapsing building, and the good fortune of several lifetimes; I didn’t think we’d get that lucky again.