A Caress Of Twilight   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

"You can't steal my courage with a kiss, Merry. You don't love me enough for that." He ran after the other two before I could think of anything to say.

The police rounded up an armored group of S.W.A.T. officers to back up the men; then they moved forward, through the hole in the wall, and vanished from sight.

Strangely, the Nameless had vanished, as well, as if once inside the wall the shimmer was lost, even though it should have towered above it.

"What if we go in the back and get Maeve out?" Galen said into the heavy silence.

We all looked at him.

"We can't fight the Nameless, but we might be able to do that."

Lucy slapped her forehead. "Dumb. Really dumb, we should have evacuated Ms. Reed before this."

"It will follow her," I said. "Unless you can get a helicopter in here, we won't be able to get her away fast enough."

Lucy seemed to think about that for a moment. "I might be able to swing it. The Reeds have a lot of clout in this town."

"Do it, if you can," I said.

"In the meantime give us a few men and let us go in the back," Galen said.

"I'm going with you," I said.

He shook his head, looking so serious. "No, Merry, you're not."

"Yes, Galen, I am. I was raised to know that a leader never asks of her people what she isn't willing to do herself."

"Your father was a good man … but you're mortal, Merry. The rest of us aren't."

"The police are, all of them, and they're still here."

He shook his head. "No."

We argued, but in the end I got my way because all the men that could have argued me down were inside the broken wall facing off against the thing we'd come to destroy.



Chapter 42

Getting over the wall was surprisingly easy. It was tall, but not that tall, and setting off the silent alarm was no longer a problem. The police were already here. I was helped down into a narrow lane that was planted so thickly with dark green camellias that they formed a second wall to nearly hide the house in front of us. It wasn't the right time of year for blooming, so they were just tall bushes with thick, waxy leaves. I knew exactly how the leaves felt because Lucy and Galen both made me stand in the damn shrubs. I could come along, but they were both going to make sure I didn't get to do anything.

A uniformed officer ducked around the corner and came back with whispered news that there was a sliding glass door: easy access. We were about to slip around that corner and enter the door to search for Maeve Reed, when something awful happened.