Black Howl by Christina Henry Page A

The only thing holding me upright was the sword and the force of will behind it. He would not take Samiel. I’d promised.
    There was a tiny movement behind Metatrion, and Beezle smashed a sharp-edged metal bookend into the angel’s bare head. It could hardly have hurt him, but it distracted him enough that he loosened his grip just a hair, on both my throat and the sword.
    I thrust upward with all my might, and the sword passed cleanly through his neck and to the other side.
    Metatrion’s eyes widened for a moment before the red light in them blinked out. I put my bare foot on his knee and he toppled backward, the blade pulling free and coated in the blood of the Hound of the Hunt.
    I looked up at Beezle, who grinned at me and dropped the bookend to the ground with a clatter.
    “
Now
can I have cinnamon rolls?” he asked.
    “Totally,” I croaked. It hurt to talk.
    I realized suddenly that it was far too quiet and spun around. Gabriel’s boot was just visible at the end of the hallway. Samiel and the other two angels were nowhere to be seen.
    I ran into the kitchen, my heart pounding.
    “Gabriel! Samiel!” I shouted, and then coughed violently.
    Gabriel lay on the floor in front of the refrigerator, his face covered in blood. Just beyond the back counter of my kitchen was a small covered porch that I used as a breakfast nook. The back wall of the nook looked like it had been blasted through with dynamite. The floor was covered in feathers and spattered blood.
    I fell to my knees at Gabriel’s side.
    “Gabriel? Gabriel?” I said, shaking him. There didn’t appear to be any open wounds on him so I assumed it was someone else’s blood.
    After a few moments he blearily opened his eyes.
    “Madeline?” He sat up a little, leaning on his elbows and looking confused.
    I threw my arms around him and held him tight. He hugged me briefly before pushing me away to stare at me somberly.
    “The soldiers of the Hound took Samiel.”
    My shoulders drooped. “I failed him.”
    I was suddenly acutely aware of how Jude must have felt when Wade was taken. I’d made a promise to Samiel that I would keep him safe, and I’d broken that promise.
    “We both did,” Gabriel said. “There was a third soldier here in the kitchen. He surprised, then restrained, me while the other two removed Samiel.”
    I stood and surveyed the ruined mess that had been my kitchen. Samiel was gone. My home was vulnerable to attack. I needed to make it safe again before any one of my dozens of enemies construed an open wall as an invitation.
    “Lucifer could have warned me of this,” I said dully. “He took the time to tell me of the trial. He could have told me that the Grigori would send Metatrion. Why would he be able to break the barrier that protects the house?”
    “He was the Hound of the Hunt,” Beezle said, landing on my shoulder. “He was like a super-duper ultimate supernatural bounty hunter. If the magic of an abode could keep him out, then how could he fulfill his charge from the Grigori? Anything he hunted would be able to hide behind the walls of their home. So he, and he alone, possessed the power to break the barrier without punishment.”
    “Why do you speak of the Hound in past tense?” Gabriel asked warily, rising to his feet.
    I glanced away from the broken wall to Gabriel, who had a braced-for-impact look.
    “Because I killed him,” I said, rubbing my throat.
    Gabriel closed his eyes. “Madeline. You did not.”
    “Yep, she totally did,” Beezle said gleefully. “I helped.”
    “Metatrion has been the Hound of the Hunt since before the Fall. What do you think the Grigori will make of thatat Samiel’s trial?” Gabriel said angrily. “Do you think that it will dispose them to think more kindly of Samiel?”
    “I was trying to save Samiel,” I snapped back, my voice little more than a croaky whisper. “And Metatrion would have killed me if he had the chance.”
    “He was strangling her to death before I dropped