His staring, blue eyes seemed to look right through me. “Since you say you’re not with Baalth, which I tend to believe, how’d you find this here place? You didn’t just stumble onto it. You had to have been clued in somehow.” His smile got wider. “There’s not a whole lot of folk with power enough to spot the dampener wards I set up or who’d need to send a mutt to check it out. So, if Baalth didn’t send ya, Abraham must have.”

Powerful and smart. Shit. The look on my face must have given it away.

“Well, howdy. I’d heard rumors DRAC had reformed, but could never prove it one way or t’other. This’ll make the boss’s day.”

He could only mean Asmoday. I was in it deep and sinking fast. “Glad I could help, but I gotta go.”

Knowing I didn’t stand a chance going head on with McConnell, I chose the lesser of two evils. I went after Mike. I dove forward firing. A professional, I hadn’t surprised him. He dodged to the side and returned as good as he got. Almost. My first shot him dead center in the chest. I heard his breath billow out, but knew his vest would hold. My second, however, caught him in the neck. He gurgled and fell back, clutching his throat. His first shot whistled past my ear. His second slammed into my shoulder just as I hit the end of my dive. Unfortunately, the chain shirt I was wearing was great against blades, but it didn’t do much to stop a bullet. It ripped right through it. I let out a groan as I tumbled off balance and slid into the shelves, coming to stop with a crash. I jumped to my feet as soon as I stopped moving. Though the wound hurt like a good case of the clap, I’d had worse. Wounds that is, not venereal diseases.

Although…

Never mind.

A little disoriented by the fall, I looked for McConnell and company. I spotted them just in time to see Henry finish the final flourish of a spell. His hand flashed a brilliant gray and a split second later it hit.