by T. G. Ayer
“Did you go full-psychic on us all of a sudden?” asked Logan.
I gave a dry laugh. “I wish. Nerina showed me what Mika saw. When I smelled this blood, I saw the face of that girl again. She seemed to be the leader because she was the one who called the group together. The killer convinced her to do that. Apparently he wanted to tell them something important—or that’s what it sounded like.”
Logan’s jaw went tight. “Must have been bloody important for such a large group to gather.”
I shrugged. “Or the girl commanded the respect of her group. Think about it. All Storm has to do is send out word and dozens gather.”
Saleem made a face. “Sometimes people obey because they’re too scared not to.”
“Good point,” I said, giving a reluctant nod. “For the record, I didn’t get that impression from the behavior of the people in the room before the massacre.”
“So they trusted her,” said Logan softly as he scanned the devastated room.
I nodded, tempted to lean against the only clean space on the concrete wall.
“And then they died for it.” Saleem’s words hung in the air as he shifted away from me toward a concrete pillar.
I opened my mouth to respond, but didn’t get the chance. A bullet plunged into the wall an inch from my ear, sending small shards of concrete and plaster flying into my face.
I felt the sting as the sharp edges of debris cut into my skin, but I ignored the slight pain and dropped to the ground in a crouch.
Logan grabbed my arm and tugged me closer. “You okay?” His voice was harsh as he ducked below the line of a barrage of gunfire that peppered the back wall.
Something warm and wet slid down my left cheek. Logan swiped his hand over my skin, glared at his blood-stained palm, and then gripped my chin hard while he inspected the damage.
I tugged out of his grasp—I hated being babied—and another bullet whizzed past my ear, so close the heat of the metal warmed my skin as it passed me. I grunted and ducked lower, checking on Saleem as I did so.
He was missing a chunk of his shoulder-length hair and his face was set and grim. “Who the hell is shooting?” he snarled. “And why?”
Another round of gunfire. A dull thud high in my chest. I looked down. Red liquid flowed out from a hole in my leather jacket.
I’d been shot.
Chapter 24
YOU’RE HIT.” LOGAN STARED AT the gory bloodstain spreading from under the palm of my hand and down the front of my shirt, his expression shocked and angry.
Why did people always get angry at me when I got shot?
“You think?” I snarled, keeping the pressure on the wound. My body’s initial shock had worn off. Now the pain was starting and my panther wasn’t happy.
Before Logan could respond the air beside me shimmered cloudy and gray and Nerina materialized.
Her eyes went wide as gunfire peppered the wall above her and she dropped beside me with a sharp gasp.
“What is going on?” she squeaked.
“Kai’s getting shot,” snapped Logan.
I didn’t bother to respond. “What took you so long?”
She gave an apologetic shrug. “Lady Kira was listing her requirements. She wants you to—”
Seriously?
“Not now, Nerina. I’m busy.”
Nerina’s gasp told me she had finally noticed the gaping hole in my chest.
“You’ve been shot.”
“Exactly what I was just saying,” said Logan dryly. He popped his head up to peer over the broken wall. Another burst of gunfire had him ducking down fast.
“We need to stop the bleeding,” said Saleem. “Walkers heal fast but blood loss is still not good.”
To her credit Nerina didn’t miss a beat. She gathered her skirts together and tore a wide strip of fabric off the bottom. “It’s a good thing we’re required to wear such voluminous skirts.” A couple of seconds later and she held a solid pad of material. “Let me see it.”
I lifted my hand. “You don’t need to use that,” I said, shaking my head. “The bullet will come out on its own soon. It wasn’t very deep. See?”
Nerina just stared at my chest, her expression strained. I sucked in a painful breath and realized that somewhere in the last little while my pain had increased, not dissipated. Now agony blazed within my flesh.
Nerina leaned closer and pulled the shirt fabric away from my broken skin. I blinked and tried to focus on what she was looking at. Along with blood there was a light blue liquid leaking out of the wound.
“Now that’s not something you see every day,” I said and caught my breath.
“This is nothing to joke about.”
I peered over the rubble at him and raised my eyebrows. “Well, if you saw this for yourself you’d know what I mean.”
Logan glanced over his shoulder at Saleem. “Cover me.”
The djinn gave him a brief nod and he elbowed over toward me, keeping low to the ground.
Rocks fell and dust rose in the air around us as Logan reached my side. Nerina moved to give him space.
“What in God’s name is that?” he asked, his voice breaking on a harsh cough as he sucked in dust.
Nerina lifted her hand. Blue liquid gleamed on the tip of her forefinger. She squinted at it. “It looks like some kind of liquid metal.”
“Like Mercury?” I felt strangely adrift, as if I was experiencing everything from a distance. Even the agony had grown a dull edge.
“Very much like it. And it glows. So I’d guess it’s poisonous too,” she said, her face dark with worry. “Kai, you need medical help. This isn’t a good. We have no idea what they shot you with.”
Logan touched my arm and then my face. “Nerina is right. We have to get you out of here.” He raised his voice. “Saleem, take Kai out of here while I hold them off.”
But Saleem had an odd look on his face and the moment I saw his grayed, furrowed forehead I knew that something was terribly wrong.
“Saleem?”
He gave me a rueful smile and glanced down at his stomach. His navy shirt was stained dark, and glistening with blood as he leaned back against the rubble. “Don’t worry. I’m not dead yet. But . . . I am grounded. Normally, I’d be able to take you with me even if we’re both injured, but for some reason I’m too weak.”
“It’s that liquid. I’m sure it’s some kind of poison.” Nerina kept her voice low. At least she was thinking straight.
“Something that affects paranormals.” I gazed up at the unpainted ceiling. “Now, who would have a weapon that could injure us like this? That can kill paranormals with a single blast of energy?”
“I have no idea, but I’m damn well going to find out.” Logan crouched over me. “Saleem, can you leave on your own?”
He thought about it for a second. “I believe I could. I have just enough energy for myself.”
“Then do it,” I said. “And stay off Omega’s radar until you’re healed.”
Saleem nodded, saluted with a blood-stained finger to his forehead and disappeared into nothing.
I inhaled, the sound harsh and ragged, and I glanced again at my wound. But, I didn’t have time to pay attention to myself. Not with Logan a sitting duck behind the rubble and Nerina a target if she stayed. “You need to get out of here, Nerina.”
Logan nodded agreement. “Yes, Nerina, Go now. Kai and I can figure out what to do next.”
But she was shaking her head. “I’m not going anywhere. I can leave whenever I want. I can move from place to place within seconds. I’m safe here. And I can help.”
Logan didn’t blink, clearly unimpressed as he studied her face, then returned his attention to the hole in the wall. “How?”
But even as she’d described her ability, I’d had a thought. “Could you get behind the gunmen without them knowing. Maybe shift over there, grab a weapon and come back here?”
Her eyebrows lifted and then she began to smile. “What a brilliant idea.” She pushed into a crouch. “I’ll be
back.”
“I hope so,” I muttered as she shimmered away.
A shout rose from across the road, followed almost instantly by another yell, and then Nerina was back carrying a short rifle fitted with a scope in each hand.
“Well done.”
“It was all I could manage on the first trip.” She handed one rifle to Logan, the other to me.
I grinned. “Did you get an idea of where they are?”
She nodded. “Yes. I had one false start. They are further back than I expected. They’re hiding behind a vehicle on the other side of the street. A navy Chevrolet.”
Logan grunted. “That’s the Omega team’s car.”
“Do you think they’re the ones shooting at us?”
“Maybe they think we’re intruders?” suggested Nerina, her usually ashen skin now flushed.
“That’s a possibility.”
“What about the Sentinel vehicle?” I said, frowning and hoping there wouldn’t be more bodies for us to find outside.
Logan shook his head. “I can’t see anyone inside the car. Maybe they’re slumped down out of sight.”
“Nerina, could you do another recon?” I asked her softly. “Check the Sentinel car and come straight back.”
She nodded, disappeared, materialized again within seconds. Her mouth opened slowly, as if she struggled to say the words.
I saved her the trouble. “They’re dead, aren’t they?”
Chapter 25
NERINA SWALLOWED HARD BEFORE GIVING a jerk of her head, which I interpreted as a nod.
“Did you see anything else the first time you went to take the guns?”
Nerina squinted and studied the ceiling for a few seconds while she thought. “No. Actually I didn’t.”
I sighed and pushed up into a sitting position. “Then it’s probably Omega agents who are shooting at us, which means Omega is part of this whole conspiracy.” I glanced over at Logan, who was now watching me, his eyes dark with worry. “But that doesn’t explain why they’re shooting at you too. You’re Omega. They know you.”
He shrugged. “Not everyone in Omega knows who I am. Maybe they do think we’re intruders.”
We were intruders.
“So it’s okay if an Omega team takes out a Sentinel team and then shoots with intent to kill at anything else that moves?”
My voice held a note of accusation but it was how I saw it and I couldn’t seem to hold back. When Logan turned my way again I was glad to see that he was pissed off. With Omega, I hoped, and not with me for daring to say something against his agency.
I suppressed a sigh and forged on. “So how do we get out of this alive?”
“I can take more of their weapons away,” Nerina said.
I shook my head. “Too dangerous. You’ve hit them twice. They’ll be ready for you now.”
Her face fell.
“But there is a way you can help,” said Logan, although he clearly didn’t like what he was about to suggest.
Nerina’s expression brightened.
“Give us a distraction,” he said. “Go to the other end of the street, cause some kind of disturbance, get them focused on you. Then we’ll try to get out of here.”
She nodded. “Good plan.”
I thought so too. “Just don’t do anything stupid.”
She grinned. “I won’t. I’ll make them come after me—or at least look in my direction.”
I nodded and she disappeared. “We’ve created an adrenaline junkie,” I said as Logan hauled me up. “Kira’s going to kick my ass.”
“Forget Kira. I’m going to kick your ass if you don’t get it moving.”
It was hard moving in a crouch. The fire burning into my flesh was way worse than the wraith obsidian poison I’d encountered not so long ago.
I gritted my teeth as Logan and I crawled across the ground to the door. The passage outside led directly onto the street, its glass windows shattered by the original incident.
If we stepped into the corridor now we’d be in full view of the shooters. But from where we sat on the threshold we were unable to see outside. Both positions were dangerous. I pulled a compact from my bag and flipped it open.
“What are you doing?” Logan asked as I slid the mirror along the floor, slowly positioning it so we could see the street.
“Nice,” he said, nodding his approval.
I pushed the compact further along, got a glimpse of the navy Chevy, a person’s head beside the front end of the car, the thin line of a rifle, a flash of long red hair—and the compact shattered, sending splinters of wood into Logan’s face and fragments of mirror into my fingers and palm.
I yanked my hand away. “Shit! That was close. She’s a good shot.”
“Do you always have to be so blasé about endangering your life?” Logan glared darkly.
“What else do you expect me to do? Cry? Shiver and shake in the corner? I’m alive, so I appreciate the brush with death and move on.”
Logan stared at me for a second, his eyebrows slowly lowering. “Okay,” he said. “Okay.”
I snorted softly. “Come on, Nerina,” I whispered. “Do your thing,”
Logan wiped splinters from his cheek and shifted closer, muscles as tense as mine, ready to spring up and run the moment we were all clear.
It didn’t take long. A yell ripped through the air. Feet and bodies shuffled and scraped.
Logan popped his head around the corner, checked our exit, and hauled me to my feet. “The Sentinel vehicle. Now.”
I ran with him, ignoring the pain and lightheadedness. Logan shielded me all the way out the front door and diagonally across the sidewalk toward the silent Sentinel vehicle.
Just as we dropped behind the vehicle, the back tires blew and bullets peppered the metal. The car sank to the ground—tires hissing as they deflated. At least we no longer had to worry about our legs being shot out from under us.
Stupid move on their part.
Nerina materialized beside me. “Sorry, that’s all I could do. They sent one man my way and I had to get out.”
“Better safe than dead,” said Logan, his finger tight on the trigger of the paranormal gun.
“I hope you aren’t planning on using that?” I snapped. “We don’t need to kill more paranormals.”
Logan glared at me. “They’re shooting at us. To kill us. And you’re worried about their lives?” He shook his head and turned away. “They know what they’re getting into. Whatever the deal is, these guys are prepared to die doing it.”
He had a point. Judging by Nerina’s expression, she agreed with him.
Warfare was one thing when your target wasn’t human. A whole other ballgame when you’re trying to kill your own people.
I blinked.
Silence settled on the street and I pressed against the metal of the car door. Leaning closer to Logan, I whispered, “Now what?”
He continued to watch the street. “We’re going nowhere until we can elude this team. Which means unless they run out of ammo or we manage to kill every last one, we’re stuck here.”
“What if they decide to circle around and advance on us?” I asked.
“Then we’re dead.”
My response was cut off by a thunderous explosion.
Chapter 26
THE EXPLOSION SENT THE THREE of us sprawling on the sidewalk and tossed the vehicle into the air. It hit the ground, rolled a couple of times, and rocked to a halt ten feet further down the street.
Bullets zinged past us as Logan grabbed my arm and dragged me to the now mangled car, using it as a shield. But if they’d tossed the car once they were likely to do it again.
Logan grunted, but kept his eyes trained on the car across the street. “I can see movement. They could be reloading, regrouping, or even calling in backup.”
I sighed and began to shuck off my jacket. “I can’t believe I’m doing this again so soon.”
“What are you talking about?” His voice was muffled, and he didn’t look
my way.
I handed my jacket to Nerina and began to pull my shoes off my feet.
“Do you really need to go full shift?” she asked softly.
I ignored Logan’s “What?” and nodded at her. “It’ll give me more power.” And I couldn’t stomach the thought of a half-shift. It brought back memories of Brand, and his behavior while he’d been half transformed.
“A half-transformation will give you power too.” Nerina’s tone was hard. “There’s no reason to strip, shift, and put your panther in such a vulnerable position. However powerful she is, the feline form itself isn’t all that robust. One well-placed bullet will end you.”
I opened my mouth, then shut it with a snap. She was right. Hunting demons while in panther form made sense, but an attack out in the open would be stupid while in animal form.
I sighed and pulled my shoes back on. “Fine. Just keep the jacket. I don’t want to ruin it.”
She nodded and held the leather close while I pulled my panther to the surface.
The bones in my hands and face burned as those parts of my human body gave way to the feline. Slowly ears, eyes, nose, and fingers all shifted, but only so much that they would provide me with added strength and power. I didn’t give my panther full control. She didn’t like that and bucked against my hold, frustrated.
I ignored her, pretended Logan wasn’t watching.
I had to get over my self-consciousness when it came to a half-transformation. Even with Nerina, I’d kept my face averted not wanting to catch an expression of distaste should she not be able to handle what the half-transformation did to my features.
Ugh. More deep revelations. Kai, you really have perfect timing.
“Shit,” said Logan as he lowered himself back to the concrete.
“What’s wrong,” asked Nerina.
I glanced over and found him staring off into nothing. Then he turned my way and his eyes were dark, the skin pale and tight at their corners.
“I think I recognized one of them.” He had an almost desperate look on his face.
I frowned. “You think? Or you’re sure? Maybe he just looks like someone you know.”