Robert wasn't a particularly skilled driver and his old little car was not made for speeding. The fact that he had to explain the flesh-golems to the newcomers while driving didn't help either, but fortunately, out here in Zone Six there was barely any traffic.

'So I think the best you can do is to handle them like they were ghouls. Be quick and efficient, don't let them get close to you and don't be merciful,' he said, taking a sharp turn. 'They might resemble a child, but they will try to kill you. Kill them first.'

'Man, this is some other level crap,' shook her head Claire. 'Are you guys doing things like this often?'

'More often than we'd like,' answered Rose. She was sitting next to Claire at the back. 'Life's been very eventful lately.'

Now that Jenna was thinking about it, Rose was right. In the past she only had to fight with ghosts and demons, a couple of ghouls sometimes, and it was her job. Sure, she kicked Robert's ass occasionally, but that was it: all those city-saving bullshit stayed someone else's problem. Not now: with the strikes the Met took, their little group seemed to be the ones always on call.

'One more thing,' added Robert. 'If you see a man in a long duster coat and a white mask, you don't pick a fight with him. He will kill you without a question, in a heartbeat. If you see him, you run, understood?'

'Dude, I'm a demon hunter and she is like the best Duel-player ever, don't you think we can take down one man?' asked Remy. He sat on the other side of Claire.

'Also, what's a duster coat?' asked Claire.

'Not this man, no,' replied Jenna. 'He is a real freak and he cannot be killed. Not long ago he took out a whole police squad, all experienced sorcerers, by himself. Just do what Montgomery said, okay?'

'Fine,' murmured Remy. 'I don't like it though. You asked me here to help fight.'

'And you will help, Remy,' said Robert in a calming voice. 'But that one man is just too powerful.'

'I've seen a video on youtube,' said Claire, 'you totally knocked that guy out on Trafalgar Square, didn't you? Like, you weren't even sweating.'

Robert looked at Jenna.

'They need to know anyway,' she said with a shrug. 'I told you last time: in a fight, you need all the information you can have to survive.'

'We need to know what?' asked Rose. 'What's going on?'

Robert didn't tell anyone about his magic yet, not even Benjamin. Marcus knew it, and Teodore worked in the hospital that treated him so he probably heard it too, but that was all.

'Right. So back in Trafalgar Square when I chased that thing away, I was reckless and I overdid myself. As a result, I suffered brain damage, which sent me into a coma, but that wasn't the worst part. You see, I lost the ability to use Runes. I have found a loophole and now I'm able to do some very limited magic, but I will not take on The Priest ever again. I stuck on a tenth grader's level forever.'

A heavy silence followed his words. Then Remy broke it:

'Dude, that sucks. I'm sorry.'

'It's all right,' said Robert with a fake easy voice. 'I get by.'

'I didn't even notice it,' Rose shook her head. 'You kicked some ass in that last fight with the vampires…'

'Hopefully, that will be true with the flesh-golems, too,' he stopped the car. 'There, see? Seven kids on the dark street.'

'Yo, guys, can you hear me?' said Jenna into a radio. She got it from the Commissioner back at the house.

'Loud and clear, ma'am,' came the answer. It was one of the officers in the patrol car that was following the golems until now.

'We have eyes on the suspects,' said Jenna with a serious voice. 'I repeat, we have eyes on the suspects.'

'We know, ma'am, we can see you in the car. We are parking right across the road. What are your orders?'

Jenna waved to the officers.

'Okay, so… Is any of you a vampire?'

'No, ma'am, we are not with the SRU.'

'That's probably wise… Is any of you a sorcerer?' asked now Jenna.

The radio gave a weird screeching noise.

'Negative, ma'am.'

'I think I know the answer, but does any of you have any weapons apart from your tasers and little sticks?'

'No, ma'am. We are not armed.'

'God, our police is useless,' murmured Jenna, then she lifted the radio to her lips. 'All right. Then stay away, let the engine run and if you see us dying maybe run over the bastards and try to save us, okay?'

'Copy that, ma'am.'

Jenna put the radio into her jacket pocket and sighed.

'Are you ready, guys?'

Rose took out a simple wand and nodded. Remy did the same, while Claire put on a pair of fingerless mittens with Runes sewed on them.

'Let's go,' said Robert. He got out, opened the trunk and picked out a number of things. He put them into various pockets, then grabbed his cane and checked if he could draw the sword out of it easily.

'What are they doing, anyway?' asked Remy. 'Why don't they attack a house?'

'I think they are not hungry just yet,' answered Robert.

'Ew…' said Claire. 'Man, you gotta give some warnings before you drop nightmare materials like this.'

'He is probably right, though,' added Rose. 'Can someone remind me why am I here again?'

'Because you couldn't let your friends face those things alone. You are too kind and pretty for that,' replied Jenna.

Rose just rolled her eyes but she was hiding a smile. For a moment she was the old, smiley, happy Rose again.

As they got closer, it became harder to believe that anyone could have mistaken the flesh golems for children. Sure, they were small, but the resemblances ended here. Some of them walked on four legs, or more precisely, on four something that looked suspiciously like four little kid arms. One of the two-legged ones had a muscular tail like a kangaroo, and another had no head whatsoever. They did look like creatures from a nightmare indeed, wrapped into old and raggedy costumes. Jenna was sure that she won't forget the one dressed up as a ghost with a sheet thrown over it any time soon. The sheet had holes not only for its eyes but for the three mouths placed on its body, all full with needle-like teeth. The greyish fabric was red around the holes.

'Okay, so what's our plan exactly?' asked Remy. His voice sounded a little nervous now.

'I'm our plan,' said Jenna with a little half-smile. 'I'm gonna do the killing, and you guys make sure that those things won't escape or eat me.'

'So you are our tank, then,' said Claire.

'Beg your pardon?' frowned Robert.

'You know… When in a video game you send the strongest character of the party through the door first,' Claire explained. 'The tank.'

'I see. I used to have a Game Boy Color, is that still a thing?' he looked at Claire.

'Man, you are old,' said Remy.

'Can we focus?' asked Rose. 'Our little friends spotted us.'

She was right. The flesh-golems stopped and turned towards them. They all stared at them while standing very still. It was terrifying, especially because not all of them had a face, and even those who did were not nice to look at.

'You are up, Jenna,' said Robert.

The girl raised both of her hands. The cold night air went freezing in a second, then Runes lit up on Jenna's silver bracelets. The very ground shook and in the next moment seven huge concrete spikes emerged, each impaling one of the little monsters with a disturbing wet noise. Jenna brought her arms down and the spikes sank back into the footpath.

The golems were still standing, looking at them. Every one of them was bleeding from horrible injuries now, but they didn't seem to notice it. Then the wounds all started to heal, with unnatural speed.

'Hm,' said Jenna.

'That might be a problem,' commented Robert. 'Try to hit their brains. Maybe they are like zombies in that way.'

Jenna did so, but the one she attacked turned out to be hollow-headed. If it had a brain, that must have been somewhere else in its body.

'Trick or treat?' said one of them, and blood poured out of its unnaturally wide mouth as it spoke.

'What now, Professor?' she asked.

'And why are they just staring at us?' added Rose.

'Trick or treat?' asked another one, and all seven of them started to walk towards Jenna, leaving a long bloodstain as they went.

'You had to ask…' she said to Rose.

'Do we have a plan B?' wanted to know Remy.

Robert shot a shiny little ball at the leader. Jenna knew that it must have been a fireball, but she never saw anything like that before. It burned on such a high temperature that a wave of hotness rolled over Jenna. The tiny ball hit the creature at the stomach and went right through it, setting the one behind it on fire. The leader now had a hole in its torso, big enough to fit a football. It finally collapsed and the hole didn't start to heal.

'Apparently, plan B is being as brutal as you can be,' answered now Robert. 'And hope you manage to find the brain.'

'Trick or treat?'

'Shut up, creepy bastards,' said Jenna and she let her shadow hound go. The dog jumped on a creature and tried to tear it apart. Two others were there already, biting the shadows with pointless enthusiasm.

Claire pointed at the one that was still burning, and its limbs started wrapping themselves around their owner. Bones crackled and blood splashed as the creature kind of became a ball. Clair closed her fist and the ball tightened.

'Trick or treat?'

A golem jumped on Remy but Rose flicked her wand and it flew away, hitting a parking car down the road. A loud alarm went off and the car started to flash all of its lights. The golem covered its eyes.

A different monster grabbed Jenna's dog somehow and tore it into half. The shadows became nothing. Robert blew up the creature's head with another shiny little fireball, but it didn't really care about that. Another one got close enough to Claire to use its claws, and the girl cried out as the sharp blade-like things cut her back. Three different curses hit the creature and it was dead before it touched the ground.

'Are you okay?' asked Rose, who reached Claire first. The other girl nodded. She fell on one of her knees but now was up again.

'Trick or treat?'

'Ma'am?' came the voice of the policeman from Jenna's pocket. 'Ma'am, do you copy?'

'A little busy here, dude,' answered Jenna, throwing small concrete spikes into a creature. She didn't speak into the radio, there was no time: she used the Rune of Voice to carry her message directly to the officer.

'Ma'am, another group of those things headed to your way. They will arrive in two minutes. I strongly advise you to retreat.'

Remy pulled Claire a little away, behind a car, to inspect her injury, while Rose covered them. Robert shot yet another fireball but it missed its target and destroyed a mailbox. He had to use his cane to defend himself from another golem. It did not appreciate the taser designed for vampires but it wasn't enough to kill it. Robert's hand sank into his pocket and he took out a marble. He threw it to the rest of the golems. It broke and a force, something very strong caught them. It was almost as if they got stuck in some kind of different gravity, they simply just couldn't move away from the spot where the spell went off.

'Back to the car, now!' Robert shouted. 'The spell will last only for a minute!'

Jenna got rid of the golem that was biting Robert's cane, and he set the very ground on fire under the golems. There were only a very few things in the world that couldn't be killed by fire. Flesh golems seemed to be one of those, they just regenerated too quickly, but it was worth a shot anyway.

'We can't leave them here, people are living in those houses,' argued Jenna.

'We can't kill them, there is no time' pointed out Robert. 'We will be nothing but an early breakfast when their friends arrive.'

Jenna didn't answer. Robert always says that she is the strongest sorceress around, right? That she would be unstoppable if she would learn the ways of magic as he did. Well, let's see if that all was true.

'Trick or treat?'

The Rune of Change lit up on her bracelet, and so did the Rune of Body and half a dozen others. Arms emerged from the ground made out of burning concrete. They grabbed the golems and ripped them apart. Skin tore and flesh was prised.

'Trick or treat?'

The stone arms continued their unholy work. The air was filled with the heavy smell of burning bodies and blood and other things. Jenna just stood there, with a little half-smile on her face. Here is a trick for you, fucking creeps, she thought. She did it. She let her power roar and it was terrifyingly beautiful. Death and pain, all because she wanted it. If she could do that, she could do anything. Anything.

'Jenna, we need to go.'

She almost cursed Robert. For a moment she wanted to hurt him because he dared to touch her. She was angry, so unbelievably angry, but then it all went away.

'Sure,' she nodded. Robert took her hand and led her back to the car. The others already sat in, looking at the horror she made. Nobody said anything for a while, but Jenna was okay with that. She needed a minute to progress what just happened anyway.