Chapter 22 · Neon Bloodbath

"Don't move." Lilith's hand clamped around Kane's wrist before he could take another step. "That sign isn't flickering. It's watching us."

Kane looked past her shoulder. The dead billboard above the alley flashed red, black, red again. Each pulse painted the broken pavement and the blood on his sleeve.

"You dragged me through a mirror," he said. "You don't get to panic over a cheap sign."

"I'm not panicking."

"Your fingers are cutting off my circulation."

"Good. Then you can still feel something."

She shoved him behind a stack of neon crates just as a bullet punched through the sign. Glass burst across the alley. The shot missed Kane's head by less than an inch.

He heard the impact. He didn't feel the fear that should have followed it. His body stayed loose, almost lazy, while his mind counted the angle, the distance, the time between the muzzle flash and the strike.

"One shot," Kane said.

Lilith pressed her back to the crate beside him. Her shoulder brushed his.