Gore flew and blood splattered in a horror-movie montage. Sasha followed tightly in the wake he cut through the minions, firing whenever anything lunged at his unprotected back. The gate was thirty feet away, then twenty, then five. It was over so quickly. Before the battle had fully begun they were through the doorway, spilling into the murky twilight of the pre-dawn night. Tall, coarse grass tangled around her ankles as she spun, ready to obliterate anything that came through after them, but the minions shied back, hovering on the other side of the portal. “They can sense the dawn,” Jay said behind her. “They won’t follow. We don’t have long.” Sasha spun to face him and found herself looking out over the lights of Los Angeles. The portal had dropped them in the Hollywood Hills, not far from the iconic sign. A suitably dramatic setting for their farewell. And it had to be a farewell. Neither of them knew how to redeem him. “Jay…” She didn’t know what she was going to say.
