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willed the distance to shrink, it filled with shapes.
    That’s why it was playing. More of ’em. Growling and howling.
    I felt at the waist of my skirt. The Cabal dagger was still there. Luckily Teece hadn’t ruined his manhood on it. I launched myself at them without ceremony.
    They fought each other to get through the doorway, giving me a chance to pick them off.
    One, slit throat. Punctured adrenals.
    Two, slit throat. Punctured adrenals.
    Three, straight into the heart. Punctured adrenals. Then the first one jumped me from behind. It tore my skirt right off and took a chunk out of my neck.
    Blood in a fountain - high. My blood. The world hazed.
    Jeez, I’m gonna die with no knickers on.
    . . . The Angel swooped furiously past my eyes, its sword cauterising-hot . . .
     
    ‘Boss?’
    I blinked. I hadn’t passed out exactly, more like hovered between two realities. Link, Glida and some of the feral children I’d helped in the past, crowded through the door. They liked to follow me around to keep an eye on things. I used to think it was cute. Right now I was just damn grateful. Calmly, they sprayed acid in the last shape-changer’s face. His screaming banished the last of my hallucinations.
    He toppled on to me. Which was bad . . . and good - at least I was covered.
    The ferals tugged at the body, trying to move it.
    . . . The Angel seared my neck wound until it closed . . .
    ‘Leave the body,’ I grunted. ‘Get Teece.’
    . . . Stupid human. Why . . . why . . .
    ‘I’m here, Parrish. Merry called me,’ he answered. I couldn’t see him but at least he’d come, and he’d been running.
    ‘Get . . . everyone . . . out. Don’t let them touch the blood.’ My ribs felt broken with the shape-changer’s weight. I concentrated on just getting air in until I heard the door clunk shut. Then the weight shifted.
    Teece stared down at me. His expression shifted from shock to amusement to disappointment. The room looked like a serial killer’s debut. Dead shape-changers lay around and I was semi-naked and awash in blood.
    ‘I left too early - as usual,’ he said, shaking his head sadly.
    I tried to laugh but my chest burned and ached at the same time and it came out like a gurgle.
    ‘Who were they?’
    I craned my neck up. The beasts had reassumed their human shapes in death.
    ‘Nobody,’ I lied. Loyl was wrong. I’m not the only one left. ‘That’s the problem. Even nobodies want to kill me.’
    He nodded in resigned agreement. ‘I know how they feel.’
    ‘Teece,’ I whispered as I lay there. ‘I’m sorry about before.’
    ‘Yeah, I know. So am I.’
    ‘Paaarrrrr-ish.’
    Merry again. ‘What?’ I growled.
    ‘Message from Laaa-rrrry.’
    I was on up my knees in a second. ‘What?’
    ‘Loyl Daac and a bunch of his men are looking for yoo-oou.’
    Teece moved to the door. ‘I’ll stall him.’
    I nodded. ‘Buy me ten minutes and I’ll be polite and sweet for the rest of my life.’
    We didn’t smile. Or say goodbye.
    I took a quick shower to wash away the shape-changers’ blood.
    My ribs felt like they were broken and the mark on my neck resembled an overcooked love-bite. They wouldn’t take long to fix, though. The only constructive thing the parasite had done for me - accelerated my healing.
    But what had it done to the rest of The Tert? Loyl obviously hadn’t dealt with the problem. The parasite must be spreading of its own accord. Those shape-changers were just the beginning. Not all of them would choose to transform into beasts, either. They could just as easily come after me in the shape of Teece or Ibis.
    That thought got me worried enough to make one last, quick call - to Lize, a bounty hunter who owed me.
    ‘Parrish Plessis?’ She squinted into the comm like she hoped she was seeing things.
    ‘Nice trip down the coast?’ I asked. A casual reminder that I’d let her live when she’d tried to kidnap me - a contract put up by Leesa Tulu.
    She looked embarrassed.
    ‘I need you to