I sighed. Faith was just like I remembered. “What are they doing to Tony?” I asked.
“None of your business.”
My anger bubbled up and over. “They’re infecting him. On purpose. With demon poison—the exact thing we’re supposed to be fighting against. And you’re okay with this?”
“I follow orders,” she snapped. “What about you?”
“I follow my conscience.”
“And look where that got you.”
I debated the wisdom of strangling her. But the sight of Tony on the floor warned me against any more collateral damage. What I needed most was to get the hell out of here before—
Somewhere in the building, an alarm sounded. It was more of a siren than alarm. A clear indication of a security breach.
A second later, the alarm in the hall behind Faith went off too.
“Shitbags,” Gran hissed.
“Ditto,” I said, eyes narrowing at Faith, who stood between me and freedom. “It’s been a blast catching up. Let’s never do it again.”
Faith opened her mouth, but I didn’t wait around for whatever smart-ass reply awaited. I also didn’t bother with the million choices of predatory killers I could conjure in order to dodge Faith and her deadly weapon. I needed precision. Something she wouldn’t expect.
Angel save me.
I shut my eyes and jumped high into the air, letting the magic take me over.
The shrinking sensation jarred me, and my stomach churned. I dry-heaved, glad there was nothing left in my stomach. But the magic now contained in such a tiny form was a constant buzz that was already making me feel woozier than the time I’d had my wisdom teeth pulled and I thought I was a chipmunk until the drugs wore off.
“Duck dongs,” Gran screamed. “Flap your fucking wings, child.”
I opened my eyes, freefalling until Gran’s words suddenly registered. Using an instinct I’d only just developed two seconds ago, I peeled my wings off my exoskeletal little body and flapped for all I was worth. Then, I almost fell again as I realized I had not two but four wings currently beating the air.
Huh. June bugs were more badass than I thought. They were also not very fast fliers.
But at least I was airborne.
And apparently, small enough to fly under the radar, pun intended.
Faith’s confusion turned quickly to a furious determination as she looked around for where I’d gone. Keeping low, I flew straight at her and through her thigh gap with Gran on my heels.
We were free.
Now, all I had to do was keep it that way.
“Come on,” I urged Gran and hauled ass back into the ductwork.
Our escape route was a convoluted maze of air vents, squeezing through cracks in doors, and one quick stowaway ride in a man’s hair which I could only assume was a wig, judging by the way Gran blew it off-kilter with a particularly powerful sneeze-fart.
All the while, the magic inside me strained against the confines of my tiny insect body. By the time we reached the lobby, I was nauseous and woozy and seeing double of everything.
No wonder Gran talked like a crazy person. She was basically always drunk on her own power.
Since I was in no shape to navigate, Gran led the way, and we managed to glide across a now-chaotic lobby and out the revolving doors undetected. The siren faded once we were outside, the sound muffled by the thick walls of the Delta building at our backs.
Security guards rushed past us, one of them narrowly missing getting a cheek full of insect ass.
“Don’t stop now, kiddo,” Gran said when I paused to get my bearings.
Bright sunlight added to my disorientation, and I tried to remember how I’d ever planned to get away in the first place. My brain was foggy.
“Bat nuts,” Gran said from beside me. She hovered anxiously, her bug eyes urgent.
“What is it?” I asked.
She stared at something over my shoulder. “Uh, we gotta move, girl, before—”
“Gem.”
I turned to see Adrik striding from the building. His clothes were rumpled, and he had a bruise blooming on his cheek, but otherwise, he looked unharmed. Relief washed over me, sending more dizziness through my little bug body.
“Where’s Wolfrick?” I asked. “Is he—”
“He’s safe.” I sighed in relief. “You need to keep moving,” he added, and it dawned on me he had no trouble spotting me on the crowded street. Those Nephilim instincts were no joke. Which meant the other council members could see me too.
I glanced behind him and, through the building’s glass front doors, spotted Raguel speaking with the female security guard who’d let me in earlier. His shirt was torn, and his nose was bloodied. Ha!
But Adrik was right.
It was time to go.
“Tony,” I said, doing my best not to barf on Adrik’s shoes. “He was in my class at the Tiff. He’s in the clinic. They’re experimenting on him. Torturing him. I don’t know. But we need to help him.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
His tone left no room for doubt.
“Gem!”
I spun, lilting sideways as I searched for who’d yelled my name.
At the curb, a familiar car idled.
“What the . . . That’s my car,” I said.
Milo leaned across the passenger seat, motioning for me to haul ass. “Let’s go, Thelma,” he called through the open window. “I’m driving.”
I looked back at Adrik. “You’ll help Tony?”
He nodded.
In the lobby behind him, Raguel’s attention landed on Adrik through the glass. After a moment, his gaze shifted subtly, and I had the sensation that he was staring right at me.
Stupid Nephilim and their superpowers.
“Time to go, muchacho,” Gran said, and I buzzed for all I was worth toward our getaway vehicle.
Chapter Eighteen
The moment we were safely in the car, Milo peeled away, screeching tires and burning rubber. Despite my wings to combat the momentum, I was thrown against the seat hard enough to see stars.
“Hell’s balls, that was close,” Gran said from her perch on the front of the dashboard.
“Does someone want to explain to me why you’re both June bugs now?” Milo demanded. “And what happened to your tracker? It says you’re still inside the Delta building right now.”
I sighed, too out of it to try shifting back to two legs. Or answer him.
Gran, however, was much more adjusted. “It was crazy in there,” she said. “Gem was roughed up by a Neph in an invisibility cloak, and then we crawled through the vents until we found the Smurf, and then Bitchy Barbie almost shot us. But don’t worry, we escaped.”
Milo shot me a dubious look in the rearview mirror.
“Give me a minute,” I mumbled.
I gathered my strength, hoping like hell I wasn’t going to be stuck this way, and called up my shifter magic. At the same moment, Milo yanked the wheel and made a sharp left, ruining my concentration.
“Motherf—”
Sirens whirred as cruisers slid in behind us, and I gritted my teeth, flying high enough to peer out the back window. Sure enough, a police car had fallen in behind us.
“Milo, you want to stop driving like an amateur and get these cops off our back?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t grow up drag racing like some of us,” Milo shot back. His hands were wrapped tightly around the wheel, squeezing until his knuckles were white. “You’re welcome to sprout arms again and take over,” he added.
I tried shifting a second time, and still, my head swam with the magic overwhelming my tiny body.
“About that…” My voice sounded slurred now.
Milo sent me a frown before refocusing on the road.
“I got this,” Gran said. “I’ve ridden with Gem for long enough to know these roads inside and out. You want to lose those donut-gobblers? Turn right here.”
Milo hesitated but, at the last second, made the
turn.
I went tumbling ass over wing.
Gran hooted.
“Milo, those are human cops,” I said, but it sounded a little long on the vowels. Damn. Whatever was happening to me, it was getting worse. “Just glamour us, and they won’t see us.”
The words came out like a jumble of consonants.
I needed to get out of this bug body. And fast.
Up front, Gran yelled orders, and Milo followed them, his replies becoming more and more high-pitched as more sirens joined the chase. I wasn’t even sure how many tails we had anymore. But I was fairly certain that we weren’t going to lose them. Not with Milo at the wheel. He could tell a lie from a mile away, but he was not a great getaway driver.
And now that the human police had us in their sights, it was only a matter of time before the SSF intercepted us.
The power inside me churned brighter. Emotions swam to the surface, and I sank into them. Jax. Fergie. Adrik. My mother. Gran. My dad.
Every face I pictured brought with it a new roller coaster of feelings.
How in the hell did Gran deal with this shit? How was she not crazy by now?
Right.
She kind of was.
The car stopped abruptly, and I was tossed onto the floorboard.
Pain shot through me, and I grunted, my magic spilling up and out of me as I rode out the spasm that followed.
Milo yelled my name, but I couldn’t answer him, much less move. Everything felt stuck.
Voices sounded.
Gran hissed in my ear.
A car door opened and shut.
Then another.
Fresh air hit me, followed by voices I didn’t recognize.
“She’s here,” someone called.
The voice was male and vaguely familiar.
My brain worked harder to process it all.
The voice came again. This time with a note of smugness. “Bring the restraints. She’s mine now.”
Shit. If they were calling for restraints, they weren’t human cops. These were agents.
I needed to move.
My eyes flew open, and I was shocked at how small the male agent looked. He hovered in front of the open car door, staring down at me with a glint of malice in his dark eyes. Recognition hit me like a brick.
“Rigo?”
He flashed his teeth in a cruel smile. “I’m going to enjoy this. Come on.”
He grabbed me and yanked me to my feet.
Feet!
It wasn’t until I was out of the car that I realized I was big again. Or people-sized anyway. I did a quick check of my body to make sure it was the one I preferred. Blonde hair. Hands. Two legs. I breathed a sigh of relief. I was me again.
But then Rigo’s hands clamped down on my wrists, and my heart sank.
Outside, agents swarmed toward us. One of them held a pair of restraints I’d only ever seen during academy training. These were designed for supes. To cut us off from our magic. To keep us from escaping.
If they got those things on me, I wasn’t getting them off again.
My throat ached at the idea of returning to a room alone with Raguel.
Returning to bug form was an option, but not one I wanted to try. Not with my head still spinning from the magical overload I was still recovering from.
Instead, I waited until the agent had almost reached us and made my move.
I kicked off of him, sending him flying. Using his body to gain leverage, I flipped backward, wrenching free of Rigo’s grasp.
He cursed and whirled to face me where I’d landed behind him. His features began to contort, and I knew it was only a matter of seconds before he shifted into his wolf.
“I knew you wouldn’t make it as an agent,” he said, eyes narrowing. “But to betray your own kind. You deserve what’s coming to you.”
“You’re on the wrong side of this, Rigo. I don’t know what they told you, but—”
“They didn’t have to tell me shit. I know what you think you’ve uncovered. Good luck living long enough to convince anyone it’s true.”
I stilled. “You’re part of it.”
“I’m loyal to my duty,” he said. “More than I can say for your father.” He snarled, his bones beginning to pop, and I felt the beast in me rising at his words.
He was an asshole, just trying to bait me. I knew that. But I wasn’t going to walk away from it either.
Before I could shift, an agent grabbed me from behind, and I turned my back on Rigo to face the new threat. Channeling my rage, I took it out on the agent who held the restrains. When I was done with him, he wore the restraints—around his throat.
But in his place, stood three more, and out of the corner of my eye, Rigo stood on four legs now, growling low. Clearly, we’d gone beyond the point of worrying about human detection. This was the middle of the day. And while we were off the main road, we weren’t exactly tucked away from the world.
Rigo had lost his mind.
And he was headed straight for me.
I hesitated.
Even if I shifted, I knew I couldn’t take him and all six of the agents that were left. Not alone.
Wherever Milo and Gran had gone off to, I hoped they were safe. If it was going to end like this—
“Gem, now!”
Milo’s voice cut through Rigo’s growl just before he was knocked aside by a large black panther.
My stomach flipped at the sight of Jax as his panther, and for a moment, all I could do was stare as he pinned Rigo and nearly ripped the asshole’s throat out.
Out of all the things I should be feeling in this situation, turned on was probably the least appropriate. But holy shit, Jax-the-panther was not someone to mess with. My loins were here for this shit.
A fist flew at my face, and I barely managed to get ahold of myself long enough to duck.
After that, I managed to knock out a single agent. The rest were all Jax and Milo.
“Gem.” Milo ran to my side when the last of the agents fell.
A couple of them were injured, but no one was dead that I could see. I sent Milo a grateful look.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine. Much better now that I’m me again.”
He snorted as Gran landed on his shoulder. “That was more intense than the time my friend Betty wrestled a rooster.”
I didn’t bother to answer her. Not when Jax was back on two legs and looking at me with those “I-just-almost-killed-a-guy-for-you” bedroom eyes of his. He stood over Rigo, one foot on Rigo’s throat. Both of them were human again, and while Jax looked slightly rumpled, it was Rigo who was bleeding from multiple claw marks across his arms and abdomen.
“Are you hurt?” Jax asked.
I shook my head. “No. You?”
“Of course not.” He flashed me a cocky smile that left me a bit fuzzy. Or maybe that was the June bug hangover I was still nursing.
“How did you find us?” I asked him.
Milo held up a small, silver device. “Tracker,” he explained. “We all took one.”
Jax nodded at Rigo. “What do you want to do with this prick?”
I glared down at Rigo and fought the urge to tell Jax to just finish him. I could see it in Jax’s eyes, the desire to do exactly that. And I could see the fear in Rigo’s. He fully expected me to order his death. Probably because he would do the same if our roles were reversed.
But they weren’t, and I couldn’t.
“As much as I’d like to let you kill him, adding to my list of crimes isn’t a great idea right now.”
Jax didn’t move.
In the distance, more sirens sounded, and I knew we couldn’t stand around here any longer.
Underneath the weight of Jax’s boot, Rigo struggled for air, his face red.
“We need to move,” Milo said.
Jax scowled.
“Jax,” I said. I waited until his eyes met mine. “I’m unharmed. You protected me. It’s all right.”
“He tried to hu
rt you.” Jax’s voice was rough with fury. The alpha predator in him was still very close to the surface.
I kept my movements slow as I reached for his hand.
His skin was hot against my palm, and his gaze intensified as I laced our fingers together.
“Thank you for saving me,” I said, knowing his beast needed the recognition if we were ever going to get out of here in time.
“He deserves to die.”
“He does.” I didn’t bother to look down at the squeak Rigo made. “And he will. Just not today. Right now, I need your help getting out of here. Can you do that?”
He nodded sharply and blinked. When his eyes opened again, they were clearer. He eased his boot off Rigo’s neck, and the older man gasped for air.
“What the fuck,” Rigo growled.
Moving fast, Jax slipped his hand free of mine and drove his fist into Rigo’s face. Rigo immediately slumped over, eyes sliding shut.
Jax straightened and took my hand again like he hadn’t just taken a time-out from romancing me to K.O. someone.
I decided to go with it.
“Which way?” I asked, still woozy.
“We need to get off the streets,” Jax said.
“We have a car,” Milo offered, but I sent him a look. “That either of you is welcome to drive,” he added.
Suddenly much more clear-headed, I grinned. “That’s an invitation I’ll take you up on.”
Jax tied Rigo to a dumpster, and we set off back to the main road.
The car was still running and neither stolen nor ticketed yet. I considered both a lucky break considering we’d abandoned it curbside just before the freeway entrance.
We piled in with Milo and Gran in the backseat and Jax beside me, muttering about showing too much mercy to the undeserving. I assumed he meant Rigo, but one couldn’t be sure at this point.
While I navigated us back onto the road, Jax never released my hand.
I wasn’t hampered by it; my driving skills were too ingrained at this point. But the skin-on-skin contact made it hard to concentrate and harder still to remember what kind of danger we were really in if any more agents spotted us.
“Everything looks clear,” Milo said after we’d driven for a bit.
I took the next exit and pulled into the alley behind Milo’s mom’s house.
Knock Em Dead (Supernatural Security Force Book 2) Page 19