by Lauren Dane
He turned on NPR as he rounded into the third mile and listened to news of the country falling apart.
* * *
HELENA woke feeling physically better than she had in a while. She’d only gotten five hours of sleep, but her body felt like it had been nine.
Tila, her . . . mother-in-law? Yeah, she guessed that was it, had told Helena that with the binding she’d have some of Faine’s strengths. If she only needed three or four hours’ sleep like Faine she could get so much more done.
Or at the very least, they could spend an hour or two every day in bed doing other things.
She deliberately didn’t think about work as she got out of bed. She needed to do some kickboxing and do a few miles on the treadmill. After she sweated a lot and showered, then she’d switch to work mode.
Faine was in the house. She knew it, felt his presence. That piece of him that lay in her belly shifted a little, as if it knew she was thinking of him.
He came around the corner as she headed to the garage to work out. “Good morning, alamah.” He pulled her to his body and kissed the top of her head.
“Mmm, morning.” She tipped her face up and he kissed her lips, his taste settling into her senses.
“What are you up to?”
“I’m going to run a bit. Work out with the bag.”
“Want a partner with the bag? I already did five miles but I’m always happy to stand around and watch you glisten with sweat as you beat the bag into submission.”
“I’m pretty sure you’d be able to make any subject whatsoever sound dirty.”
“I have many talents.”
She laughed and he kissed her again. His joy at doing so flooded the connection between them. She threw her arms around his neck and hung on, making that quick kiss a longer one.
“You taste good.” She grinned and he swatted her butt.
“Keep that up and you won’t get outside for some time.”
“It occurs to me that we haven’t even had shower sex yet.” She went out into the garage and began her stretches.
He poked his head out. “I’m going to start the coffee and then I’ll be out in a bit. But don’t think I’m going to forget about the shower sex comment.”
She moved to the treadmill. “Counting on it.”
The scent of coffee rose and woke her up nearly as well as the miles she ran, and when he came out some time later without his shirt and wearing his snug running shorts, she was plenty awake.
“Suddenly I really don’t care about the bag.” She stepped to him and took a lick over his right nipple. “But I’m really, really dirty. Think you can help with that?”
Laughing, he bent, caught her at the waist and heaved her up and over his shoulder and jogged to the master bath where he gave her a workout and got her all clean. Physically anyway.
* * *
FORTY-FIVE minutes later they came out to the kitchen. “You totally deserve to have me make breakfast after that performance. If I had scorecards you’d have all tens.”
“You’re in a mood this morning. I like it.” He poured them both a cup of coffee.
“Calm before the storm, I think.”
“Are we defining sleep as the calm?”
“Five hours without injury or conspiracy is a win. I’ll take what I can get.” She began to pull the makings for breakfast from the fridge. “And now that I’m exercised, sexed up and clean on the outside, I suppose I can no longer avoid looking at the news.”
He winced and she knew it was pretty bad. “You want to get me up to speed while I cook?”
“They made four hundred arrests last night in St. Louis. At this point it’s millions of dollars in property damage. The mayor declared a curfew.”
“The little girl?”
“She made it through the night so they’re cautiously hopeful. Her parents went on television and begged everyone to calm down. A mob showed up at their house and tried to burn it down. But the Pack had guards there and they prevented such a thing. The cops showed up and arrested everyone, even though the mob started it and the wolves were just defending themselves. Rumors are swirling around. Cats came after that and are guarding the house along with some witches and some humans too.”
“Good lord. Well at least there’re some small rays of hope.”
“The coven offices in New Haven were trashed. Windows broken out. A security guard was beaten. He was treated at a local hospital and released. Several members of the city council showed up today to help with cleanup.”
She blew out a breath. “I’m trying hard to hold on to all the positives in that news.”
“Me too.”
They ate breakfast and watched the national news while she scanned the local news on her notebook. She needed to get out in the field. Things at the office were being handled.
She called to check in and Marian told her Rebecca was fine and they’d moved classes to the nearest enclave and had upped the security. The kids were learning defensive magick along with geometry and poetry. That’s how it had to be and no matter how sad it made her, it didn’t change anything. But it would make them better able to defend themselves in a world where some people wanted to harm them simply for who they were.
“You’re going to carry today?” He tipped his chin at the weapons she’d strapped on.
“Concealed mainly. But if they’re assaulting children now, I’m not taking any chances out there. I need to stop over at the DMV in Montebello. They were refusing to help anyone who appeared to be an Other yesterday. Like you can tell?”
Faine gave her a long, slow perusal that had her blushing within moments. “I don’t know. I can see the magick all around you. Beautiful. Makes me want to lick you.”
She waved a hand to fan her face. “Stop that.”
“You’re breathless. I thought I’d satisfied you enough to hold you over for an hour or three. I apparently didn’t do my job very well.”
“You’re making me all fluttery.”
“I see that. It’s beautiful on you. My beast loves to play with you.”
“You did. Three times.”
He laughed. “Maybe it should have been four.”
“I’m going to be so relaxed the DMV people will eat me up. I need to be tough and hard-ass.”
“Mmm. I’ll let you play bad cop if you’ll let me frisk you later.”
She laughed, finishing her coffee and rinsing out her cup. “Come on. Incorrigible.”
Bad things were happening all around them. But it wasn’t all bad. She had this male, this being who made everything better.
“You sure about carrying? I distracted you inside before you answered.”
“Yes. I’ve got a permit. And I’ve got a don’t-look spell on them at the moment. No one is going to see them unless I want it.”
He pulled the car out of the garage and they’d gotten about two blocks when she rolled her window down.
The sun was now up and she waited to hear the birds. But instead she heard . . . yelling and then gunshots.
“Shit. Get to the gates. Now.”
She put her earbud in and called the office. “There’s something going down at the enclave down here.”
Which was an understatement.
Several large trucks had pulled up to the front gates, a few mounted with .50-cal guns. They sprayed the area with bullets as other humans wearing camo and masks tried to get in the gates.
She needed to pull everyone together. She spoke into her phone, “Get the rest of the guards in the area here. I don’t want us to get flanked, so someone needs to get a better view of what’s happening around the entire enclave. People need to stay in place, we don’t want to leave any openings. Remember there are kids here, get someone to contact the school and if they’re not on lockdown protocol, make that happen. Call me when you hear. Don’t bother calling the local cops. Call Gil Anderson at the FBI.”
Faine pulled the car around a corner and they got out, keeping low. “I need to get over there to ge
t people together.” She popped the trunk and pulled out more weapons and ammo. He took what he needed.
He understood it. He’d been in command in military situations for much of his adult life. But if she thought he’d stay behind while she did, she was out of her mind.
“Lead on. I’ve got your back.”
She grabbed him, kissing him hard. “If you get hurt, even one little scratch, I’m going to rip some people apart. Got me? And I’ll make you use my mother’s green soap. So keep your head down.”
“I think I can manage that, boss.”
She harrumphed and he followed her.
One of the trucks with the mounted gun had several people in the guard shack pinned down. He knew she was drawing magick as they moved, felt it build in the air all around them. Their link shimmered and heated as she charged herself. But even then he was not ready for the moment she stepped out, shot the guy at the gun in the head with one hand and blew back the others standing near the gates, trying to pry them open, with a heated blast of power.
She spoke instead of yelling, but her voice was modulated to be heard by those in the shack.
“Get out of there and behind some cover. Weapons hot. Shifters, you’re free to take either form. Witches, don’t waste whatever shot you get with anything but lethal force.”
“We’ve got two down,” one of the guards shouted.
“Leave them in the shack.” It was fortified, Faine knew. “We’ve got backup on the way, but let’s see about clearing out this riffraff before one of these nearby houses gets hit.”
“We got them evacuated first thing. Only one house was occupied. A lot of people had already left for work.” One of the guards, a shifter named . . . Sophie, that’s right, spoke to Helena.
She’d been training this group so they followed her orders perfectly and fanned out, narrowly avoiding getting shot. The problem was that one of the trucks sat at an angle behind the wall so it was hard to get a shot at it, but they had a higher vantage point and kept them pinned down.
“Who are they? Have they made any demands?”
Sophie shook her head. “They haven’t. They just rolled up to the gates and opened fire.”
Helena made a call and ordered her people to run the plates. Faine took film of the situation and emailed it to the Gennessee office.
“I’m going to shift. Cover me.” Sophie got her clothes off and in a blink she was a large, honey-colored wolf.
“Go left, along the wall. I’m going to take out this nearest truck.” Helena drew more power. “They just tossed the dead guy off and there’s another one now. The ones near the gates will be bleeding out the ass for a while, if they’re still alive. But we need to deal with those mounted guns.”
She turned to the others. “You, if you get in that tree over there, you can use magick to short out their engines. I’m going to try something with the guns. I need a distraction because I need to be closer. I’d prefer not to take a bullet the size of a small dog if I can help it.”
“No jokes,” Faine growled at her. “I’ll shift. I can jump the fence easily.”
“No. What I want to do . . . well, everyone needs to be behind me. Cover me. You’re handy with a weapon.”
And then she took off her shoes and began to pull magick, spooling it up at a rate he figured was pretty alarming given the way the nearby witches gaped at her.
“Go on!” He waved at them. “Get in place or this is for nothing.” Once they’d all run off he got in Helena’s face. “I know you’re going to do something scary. And I’m not happy. I get it, I know why. But you’d better not end up dead, Helena. I mean it.”
Her eyes were otherworldly now. The power arcing off her skin. The hair on his arms stood straight up.
“I got this. And stay behind me.”
“Give me a forty-five-second lead. I need to lay down some fire and the rest just got into position.”
She nodded and he had no choice but to put her immediate safety from his mind.
Helena’s heart raced and her mind reeled. She’d never brought so much power into herself, not even when she stopped that bomb. But something about her link to Faine had grounded her. She felt the power rushing through her, knew it could burn her out and leave her brain-dead. But she held the reins.
She gave him his forty-five seconds and gunfire began to fill the air. She blocked it all out except to be sure to stay out of the line of their fire. Her focus was on the two remaining trucks and the deafening percussion of the chunk, chunk, chunk of the bullets hitting the pavement and the walls of nearby buildings.
They saw her coming and she let it go. Let them see her full of magick. Let herself be the monster they were frightened enough of that they’d attack a neighborhood filled with innocents.
They’d tried education. They’d tried diplomacy. They’d even fought back and used threats. But PURITY and their buddies kept coming. They would keep coming until all the Others were dead because that’s the only thing PURITY wanted.
So she’d be sure they understood if they wanted that, it would be their bodies at the morgue.
She raised her hands and drew more power. The city had its own sort of energy and she pulled it from the people, from the buildings and cars, from the stored energy in the roads and sidewalks. She drew from the Font as well.
And then she spoke, and turned it on them. Focused on those guns. Made it hot. Made it so hot she knew the metal was softening. She heard a scream. Heard yells to get back. But they shot at her. Before she could shift and shield herself, three bullets tore through her thigh. Her hip was shattered with a fourth.
But she kept standing. Kept sending power at them until the screams stopped. Until the bullets stopped. Until she couldn’t stand anymore and her legs buckled.
The ringing in her ears lasted a while. Faine picked her up, holding her against his body. His heart beat so fast she worried. She knew he was yelling her name, but she couldn’t hear. She just put her finger on his lips and shook her head.
She said, “I’m going to live.”
He frowned and she knew he growled but she couldn’t hear it. Couldn’t hear the sirens. Then the police came with the FBI and they tried to arrest everyone, including the people inside the enclave.
She could sort of hear at that point as one of the enclave medics packed the wounds on her leg.
“No.” She shouted this from where she lay in a pool of her own blood. “If you come in here with weapons drawn, we will defend ourselves.”
“Like you did with these humans?” The cop waved at the molten metal and the mass of bodies.
“Yes. We did nothing wrong. They came here, they attacked. They shot us, they tried to harm children. We told you what would happen. And you kept it up. You kept on and on until we had no other choice. You brought this on yourself. We will not let you harm our young. We will not. So you need to figure out who the enemy is here and act accordingly.”
Her lips tingled.
Gil Anderson shoved his way to the front. “Christ, Helena. Why is it that every time I see you, you’re covered in blood? Stand down. Let the ambulances in. This is a crime scene, let’s get on it.”
“She needs a hospital.” Faine wouldn’t let go of her.
“Yeah, I think I do.” It was harder and harder to talk.
A paramedic approached. “We’re going to get you loaded up and to the hospital, ma’am.” He smiled. “I’m a witch too. I promise to take good care of you. Your, um, guy can ride along.”
“You should stay here and manage the scene. Let the clan know what’s happening.”
The heat of morphine traveled up her arm and through her body. “Oh, that’s nice.”
Faine frowned. “I’m not leaving you. Sophie can handle this from here. I’ll make calls on the way.”
They loaded her into the ambulance and she was only going to let her eyes close once, but it was very hard to get them back open.
So she gave Faine orders with her eyes closed. But it seeme
d like once she closed her eyes it was really a lot harder to talk.
He bent down and kissed lips that were far too pale. If he didn’t have the link with her and her life force hadn’t been so strong, he’d have been far more panicked than he was.
And it was already pretty bad. The smell of her blood and pain drove his beast so close to the surface he’d had to struggle harder than he had in centuries to keep it back.
He called Gennessee and told David what was going on. David assured him they’d handle everything and to just focus on Helena. He said Rain would meet them at the hospital.
He called Lark.
“Lark, it’s Faine. Helena . . .”
His voice must have betrayed him worse than he’d thought because she gasped. “What? Oh my goddess, what?”
“She’s been shot. Four times. She’s lost a great deal of blood. Your mother will meet us at the hospital in case she needs a transfusion. There’s more. The enclave was stormed. She used her magick. I’m frankly not even sure what she did, but none of them will be a threat ever again. I need to go, we’re arriving at the hospital now. Your dad has more details.”
“I’m coming down. Take care of her.” Lark hung up and he turned back to his female, covered in blood and drugged to the gills.
Chapter 27
SHE came to several hours later.
Faine rested, his head on her bed. Her hospital bed. She remembered then what had happened.
He looked up, a weary smile on his face. “You’re awake.”
“I am. I guess I’m alive huh?
“You’re forbidden to joke about such things.”
“Is everyone all right? At the enclave?”
“One of the guards got out of surgery about twenty minutes ago. They’re saying he’s got a good chance of survival. Other guards surround this room and this wing of the hospital. You were shot four times. Your hip is shattered so they’re going to have to replace it. You lost a great deal of blood. Your mother gave you a lot of hers.”
Tears ran down his face and she got worried. “Is my mother all right?”
“Why are you worried about her? My goddess, Helena! She’s fine. She’s in another room, resting.” He burst from his chair and started to pace.