Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handeland

talked to her?”
    “How do you think I knew about Hardeyville?”
    “Dumb luck?”
    “Yeah, that always works.”
    “If she told you to come here, why didn’t she tell you what was here?”
    “I’m getting the impression that ‘easy’ isn’t in my job description. So far I’ve had to touch the Nephilim to find out what they are.”
    “That’s going to get old fast,” Jimmy muttered.
    “It already is.”
    Sooner or later, more than likely sooner, I was going to touch one monster too many.
    Jimmy cursed, low and vicious, and I glanced at him with a start. He stared out the passenger window. I turned my head and froze.
    Something furry, actually several somethings, more like a pack, with long, spindly legs and massive heads, slunk down a side street in the opposite direction.
    “I didn’t think there were any wolves left around here,” I murmured.
    Jimmy slid the Hummer over to the curb. “There never are.”

Chapter 14
    Jimmy reached beneath his seat to retrieve his gun. I felt beneath my own but wasn’t so lucky.
    “Stay here.” he repeated, and got out of the car.
    I might not have had any DK training, but I had been a cop. I could shoot things. Hit them too.
    I opened the door and followed him to the rear of the Hummer. The back end was a traveling armory. Guns, ammo, knives, forks—what would he do with those?— swords, syringes.
    “I can see why you didn’t want to ditch it,” 1 said.
    “Get. In. The. Car.”
    I reached for a box of bullets clearly marked silver and a rifle while I was at it. I grabbed a pistol, too, and the appropriate ammo. Never could tell when you might need both short- and long-range firearms.
    “So,” I said as I began to load my weapons, “we just start shooting?”
    “Dammit, Lizzy.” He grabbed my elbow, whipped me around, fury and fear at war on his face.
    “I won’t let you go alone,” I said quietly. “I can’t. So don’t ask it of me.”
    “I’m telling you.” His voice was low and desperate.
    “I’m not listening.” I jerked free of his grasp, finished loading the silver bullets, and strode toward the last place I’d seen the slinking shadows.
    “Wait.”
    I paused, tensed to fight if I had to. But, short of winning that fight, then tying me up, Jimmy wasn’t going to stop me, and he knew it.
    He joined me on the sidewalk, gaze darting from building to building, then to the roofs and the alleyways. “One shot should turn them to ashes.”
    “And if it doesn’t?”
    His mouth thinned. “Then they aren’t shifters.”
    I remembered the chindi. That would be bad. I’d have to touch them to discover what they were; then we’d have to figure out how to kill that particular type of Nephilim. What if Jimmy didn’t have the necessary tools in his handy-dandy Hummer?
    “One thing at a time,” he murmured. “First, shoot a few and see how much dust we raise.”
    “Sounds like a plan.” I moved forward, but he shouldered me back.
    “Stay behind me.”
    I didn’t bother to argue; I just marched a larger circle around him and continued to walk at his side. “If I’m behind you, I might shoot you instead of them.”
    “You’re not that lame.”
    “Who said it would be an accident?”
    He choked on a laugh as I began to smile. At least we were happy when the werewolves found us.
    The alley was dark, but the horizon behind the rangy beasts had gone gray with approaching dawn, throwing them into stark silhouette. There was something off about those silhouettes. They almost looked human, as if men, and a few women too, crept on all fours, backs hunched, heads swaying to and fro as they caught the scent of prey. The wolves also seemed much bigger than the average wolf. Not that I’d ever seen any outside the Milwaukee County Zoo.
    Other than their size and strangely humanoid shadows, they resembled wolves. I couldn’t determine the shade of their coats in this light, but their eyes glowed yellow.
    “Don’t stop shooting until they’re all