Bill drew his pistol and fired at the three shadowy figures, forcing them to scatter. One of them grunted as a bullet hit him in the shoulder and staggered behind a low wall. The other two reached the cover of a narrow side alley before Bill’s bullets could find their targets.

“Winged one,” Bill said.

Lights came on in the windows of the bungalows all around us. Curtains twitched. Bill raised his gun and shot out the street lights above and behind us. There was still enough light from the houses to see who was where, but making out the details would be difficult for the civilians. Bill fired three more shots in the direction our opponents had ducked, preventing them from rushing us.

The assault on Section 13 had been against unarmed soldiers.

On his own but armed, Bill was keeping the demon and his two cohorts at bay.

“Jess, get yourself and Marian out of here,” I said. “Now!”

Jess didn’t argue and grabbed Marian. The gunshots had an effect on the last cursed one.

“I think we should go, dear,” she confided in Jess.

“Lovely,” Jess nodded.

She led Marian away from the impending battle and towards the far end of the street and the limo. Dee, Bill and I spread out across the narrow street, blocking anyone from getting past. Bill fired more shots, suppressing fire. Slammed another clip into his pistol.

The door of the bungalow next to Marian’s opened and the pinch-faced neighbour poked his head out.

“What’s going on here?” he said.

He stared at Dee.

“Is this a terrorist thing? Oh my god, are you a terrorist?”

Dee scowled. He got a lot of ‘jokes’ along those lines at school because of the colour of his skin. Then he thought of something. He grinned his cheeky grin at me and shifted into his blue-skinned djinn form. He glowered back at the pinch-faced man, displaying his vicious looking black fingernails and a row of pointed teeth.

“You have no idea,” he said.

The man yelped and slammed his door closed.

Bill did a double take at Dee. “What the hell?”

“He’s on our side,” I said.

Bill, taken aback by Dee’s transformation, shook his head and took my word for it.

“You sure about that, mate?” Dee asked as we stood in the cold, dark street.

I looked at him quizzically.

“What do you mean?”

“You weren’t sure if I was on your side last week. Or even your mate.”

“Dee, is this the right time?”

“I’m just saying you’d better be sure after this next bit. Now get out of here. Go!”

And then my idiotic best friend charged straight towards our opponents, roaring like a banshee.

“Dee!” I yelled, but it was too late.

As Dee rushed forward, the demon stepped out from the shadows. He grabbed Dee as if he was a small sack of potatoes and tossed him twenty odd metres behind him. Dee came crashing to the ground against a tree and didn’t move again.

“No!” I shouted.

“He’s gone!” Bill said. “We have to get out of here!”

A werewolf shot out of the darkness and sliced through Bill’s stomach, then smacked him with a paw, sending him spinning to the pavement. It happened so fast that I couldn’t do a thing to stop it. Blood sprayed across the street as Bill fell, his pistol clattering to the ground.

“Where is she, Ethan?” a familiar, sardonic voice – or more accurately voices - called out. The demon.

They had taken both Dee and Bill out. I was standing alone on a dark street, facing two demons and a werewolf. The demons were Doctor Pierce and the one I’d fought in High Wycombe, whom I’d nicknamed Mr Stabby.

My theory they were working together had been correct, not that that was any comfort. I saw a glint of the blade that had gutted me a few days earlier.

Like an idiot, I didn’t have a single weapon. The three of them surrounded me. They were so confident they’d won, they shifted back to human form. I clenched my fists, knowing it was over. Sure, I was strong right now, but that made no difference.

I’d lost.

But, see, here’s the thing about the Audi R8 V10 stretch limo.

It’s fast.

I mean stupid fast. Not just by a limo’s standards, but by any non-sports car standards. The thing had been designed to be the fastest stretch limo in existence. It wasn’t quite that – that prize went to a souped-up one-off Ferrari owned by a prince in Dubai – but it was still up there. Despite the extra weight of the interior modifications of the smooth white leather seats, the walnut drinks cabinet and the driver’s partition, it could still get to 60 miles per hour in under 4 seconds and topped out at a fraction less than 195 MPH.

So when I heard it come tearing up the street, there was only one thing to do:

Jump.

I shot over two metres into the air as the white limo hurtled underneath me and Jess rammed into my three opponents. There were a couple of cracking sounds as they were tossed aside, spinning out of the way as best they could. I managed to land on the other side of the speeding vehicle without twisting an ankle as it slammed straight into the front of the silver BMW. The two cars smashed together and caused at least fifty thousand pounds worth of damage apiece.

“Go Jess,” I said as I rolled on the tarmac.

Bill was lying on the grass, still conscious, clutching his bleeding stomach. Jess opened a passenger door. I grabbed Bill and flung him inside.

“Kid,” the demon growled from the shadows. “You’re beginning to get on my nerves.”

“Where’s Dee?” Jess shouted as I threw myself into the car and she put it in reverse.

Dee.

Time slowed to an hour between each heartbeat. Every instinct said I had to go back out there and get him. Every war cliché about ‘You never leave a man behind’ came into my head. Dee was out there. At the mercy of the Monster Liberation Front.

Another heartbeat.

We had Marian, who was sitting in the car and looking terrified now.

I knew the stakes if the demon got hold of her. That was it. Game over. End of the world, or something close enough. I knew tactically what the right decision was. What the only decision was.

We had to leave.

Another heartbeat.

I got up to go back outside.

Bill grabbed my arm, restraining me.

“He didn’t make it,” Bill said, gasping. “Drive. Now.”

“Ethan?” Jess queried, glancing back at me.

I gritted my teeth. Hated myself. Swore if I ever got a chance to make this up to Dee, then I would, somehow. Some way. Counted on the fact that Dee was one of them, so if he was still alive, they wouldn’t kill him. Counted on the fact that Dee had meant it when he’d told us to get out of here.

“Drive,” I said, pulling the door closed.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I could hear Major Wilson softly laughing.

Are you starting to see what an impossible choice is now, son?

Jess hit reverse, speeding back down the street and screeching onto the main road. Considering she’d never handled a vehicle this size before, she was doing pretty well. She’d only taken out three recycling bins so far.

We lost precious seconds as Jess fumbled with the gears, switching out of reverse. Something slammed on top of the limo. Claws tore through the roof like it was tissue paper. Jess floored it, taking us up to sixty, way past the local speed limit. Part of the roof ripped off the slavering jaws of the werewolf appeared through the hole. I sprang up and slammed a fist through the gap, punching the werewolf off the top of the limo and sending it crashing into someone’s prized set of garden gnomes.

And then Jess really hit the accelerator, and we were out of there.

Once we got to the edge of the town, Jess eased off. She was muttering to herself and trembling as she gripped the steering wheel, but she was keeping it together. Avebury was an hour and a half away if we kept within the speed limits and didn’t get pulled over by the police. The main thing in our favour on the last point was Section 13. By now, their social media monitors would be swamped with red flags. Shutting the situation down and covering up the freakshow battle would be their top priority, which included keeping the police locked out. I half expected a phone call from Moorecroft, but it never came.

“First Aid kit, glove compartment,” Bill said.

Jess tossed a green box through the partition window without saying a word. Bill got to work bandaging up the brutal cuts across his stomach.

“I’ll be fine,” he said when he’d finished. Then he passed out.

The route to Avebury took us through some leafy residential roads and then a dual carriageway.

“Stay off the main roads,” Jess said. “Got to stay off the main roads as much as possible.”

I got the feeling she’d done something like this before. She kept to side roads and minor routes. It added another half an hour to the journey, but by the time we’d passed Salisbury with no interference, I relaxed a little.

We got to Avebury shortly before midnight.

Victoria was waiting for us.