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light Jace shined into them. “We need to get him into surgery now,” Dimitri announced to no one in particular.
    “He does look bad,” said the officer in charge.
    Jace stored the light in his blue uniform and helped Dimitri load Keene onto the gurney. Then, with a glance at Dimitri, Jace crossed the few steps to me and Ritter. “You look ready to pass out,” he told Ritter, who appeared as healthy as ever. “Were you hit repeatedly?” When Ritter nodded, he said, “That’s what I thought. You may have internal bleeding. You’d better come with us, too. No telling how long before the other ambulances arrive.”
    The officer in charge shook his head. “We have questions for him first.”
    “You can ask them at the hospital.” Dimitri’s tone brooked no argument. His gaze drifted to me. “Miss, you’ll definitely need stitches for that cut. Come along, and we’ll get you taken care of.”
    The police officer opened his mouth but apparently thought the better of objecting when Dimitri’s bushy eyebrows furrowed in his direction. Jace put his arm around Ritter, who leaned on him, nearly pushing him to the ground with his bulk. Ritter’s mouth twitched, but he managed not to grin. I bit the inside of my lip to keep my own expression suitably upset.
    “What about an IV?” The officer with medical training pointed to Keene. “He shouldn’t be moved without an IV.” His eyes slid to Ritter. “And if that man has internal bleeding, he shouldn’t be walking.”
    “Do you want him to bleed out while he waits for another ambulance?” Jace said, feigning offense. “Let us do our job, man.”
    Dimitri was already pushing Keene down the hall, trailed by the two Secret Servicemen who’d arrived with him.
    “What about these other men?” asked the officer in charge.
    “The other ambulances will be here soon,” Dimitri said over his shoulder, apparently unconcerned at how his words contradicted Jace’s. “We can’t help them all at once. This is my patient, and I have to do what’s best for him. He needs surgery now.”
    The officer nodded. “Okay, but one of my men will go with you to the hospital. Until we clear up exactly what happened here, we need to make sure we have contact information from everyone.”
    Dimitri shrugged and continued walking. We followed him around the corner and halfway down the hall where two more Secret Service officers stood guard. They held the door open for us as we left.
    “Nice playacting,” Jace murmured under his breath to Ritter. “But can you stop leaning on me so hard?”
    “Why? You think you might puke?” Ritter teased.
    Jace scowled. “Man, are you guys ever going to forget that?” It was in large part my fault that no one let it rest. Jace seemed to be on a permanent high since his Change and I’d found that reminding him of his reaction to the first deaths he’d seen at Emporium hands was a good damper.
    All four agents walked outside with us. Ava O’Hare, the leader of our group of Renegades, and also my fourth great-grandmother, jumped lithely from the driver’s seat, her chin-length blond hair pulled back from her unlined face in a short ponytail, one hand inside her long jacket. I knew it wasn’t a simple pistol she gripped there—and a good thing because I sensed at least a dozen life forces in the dark, just out of sight. All of them dimmed with their mental shields in place. Emporium agents.
    “They’re here,” I said softly to Jace and Ritter. “A lot of them.” Ritter stepped away from Jace and went to my other side, forgetting he was supposed to be ill. I saw the dull gleam of our nanotech knives in his hand. Jace looked around intently, his hand going to his own weapon hidden in his pocket. But what good were knives against so many guns?
    Dimitri and three of the agents carried the gurney down the few steps to the sidewalk and over to the ambulance. Were our enemies willing to risk a shootout with the Secret Service here in the