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stared down into mine and I fought to slow my racing heart. My ankle stung where the creatures’ jaws had tried to crush my bones and I scrambled upright, my hands jerking the torn leg of the coveralls up over my leg, revealing the rapidly healing bite mark that took up half of my lower leg.
    “Jesus Christ.” Graham whistled, staring down at my leg as the last of the skin knitted together and the bones reconnected with a pop. “What was that?”
    “That,” I said, scrubbing my hands down over the place where the bite had been as though my mind itself refused to believe that it was truly gone, “was whatever did all of this.”
    “It’s still here?” he asked, suddenly wary. He glanced around as though at any second the creature that had attacked me was about to jump out on us both.
    “No, just a memory, but whatever Fae it is can reach out through the magic…. The combination of the blood and the symbol,” I said, gesturing up the mark burned into the wall, “amplifies its power.”
    Graham nodded as though he’d understood everything I’d just said, which simply wasn’t possible because not even I fully understood it. “Did you get anything useful?” he asked.
    Shaking my head, I cast a wary glance back at the crime scene. There was nothing on this earth would get me to step back out onto the grass again. I’d felt it inside my head, felt his power, and I knew without a doubt that what he’d said was true; he could control me, use me as his weapon if he so wished.
    It felt like a violation and the more I thought about it, the more I just wanted to get back to my apartment and take the hottest shower known to man. Especially if that meant I could get away from the scene stretched out in front of me.
    “Nothing aside from the fact that he’s really powerful, Graham,” I said, swallowing past my own fear which threatened to block my throat.
    He didn’t answer me but he didn’t need to. I could already see the cogs in his head turning as he contemplated the Elite’s next move. It made me glad I wasn’t in his shoes; the last thing I would be capable of doing was making such heavy decisions.
    “Go home, Amber. I’ll call you in the morning if I have anything,” he said finally, smiling at me.
    Was he disappointed? I couldn’t really tell, but I had the sneaking suspicion that I’d somehow let him down, failed to deliver the Fae that had created so much pain and death. But my power wasn’t infallible and maybe there was a way for me to face the Fae that had done all of this without losing myself completely…. But if there was, then I hadn’t figured it out yet.
    “Fine, call me,” I said, starting for the walkway that led down the side of the church, anger fuelling me.
    “Amber!” Graham called after me, but I ignored him, picking up my pace as I rounded the corner and went out of sight.

Chapter 5
    T he second I made it around to the front of the church, I instantly started to strip out of the coveralls. I’d fallen when the Fae had tried to take me over and the white plastic was streaked with bright and rust-coloured blood. Walking home in the coveralls, while more comfortable, would only raise too many questions and I didn’t fancy getting picked up by the cops and trying to explain to them who I was and why I was covered in someone else’s blood.
    Stepping out of them, I balled them up and used the clean inside to wipe my hands as clean as I could. Nearby, there was a trash collection set up by the Elite for the express purpose of disposing of bio-hazard waste, so I dumped them in there. I headed for the front gate but my eyes were drawn back to the front door of the church.
    The last time I’d been here, I’d come as close as I ever wanted to losing my life. I could still remember the feel of the demon’s breath on the back of my neck, the touch of its claws on my body….
    Knowing what it wanted, what it would have done to me had I not already had a demon mark of my own, still