by Lucy Lyons
“Figures, you finally look at a guy, and it’s the one man I know with a girl’s name,” I muttered. “We need to keep moving. You good, Jodi?” He nodded and knelt, then transformed seamlessly as we watched, fur rippling as it flowed over his body, revealing the wolf like a curtain as it smoothed down again.
“God, that’s beautiful,” Colette gasped, and I smiled despite myself.
“Can you feel the wild magic in us now? I hope it reaches Ash. She needs the magic more than any of us or we might not get her back alive.”
The reminder seemed to even sober Colette, and she set aside the armor and the AK. I didn’t see where the rest of it went, but Colette had been a soldier longer than I’d been alive. I was certain that I didn’t want to know how many weapons she had on her on a regular day, let alone when there was actual trouble.
Jodi the wolf was still a little taller than a Great Dane and almost as rangy in build. He pressed his face against my side and nudged me over then pushed ahead of us, scenting the darkness ahead of us and padding forward on big, silent feet. Colette slowed down and glanced back at me, shining her flashlight in my face and blinding me for a moment. I shrugged as best I could in the tight space and pressed past her, wishing I had a wisp to help me like Portia had conjured.
Almost immediately, a tiny light appeared far ahead, and I picked up my pace, bent forward and running with my hands tucked into my stomach so they wouldn’t scrape on the walls as I moved. I almost fell on my face as I felt Jodi go to full alert. An image of a woman in black came to my mind, then Ashlynn and confusion. The woman smelled like Ashlynn, but he knew it wasn’t her. The light moved at the same pace we did, and I silently sent my wolf the command to stay and be silent.
We’d found our prey, and I hoped Dirk and company had too.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
We caught up to Jodi as the light snuffed out ahead of us, and I walked with my hand on his back as the tunnel opened and I could stay upright. Colette led her vampires down an offshoot tunnel that had a lot of disturbance in the dirt on the floor. Colette kissed my cheek and whispered so quietly that if she’d been any farther away, I wouldn’t hear her.
“Don’t let that wolf of yours die, Clay. I’ve got a good feeling that she’s down that way. I’ll take out the rest of them if you just go get her.” I hugged her, marveling at how strange it was to be holding a vampire close to me and praying for her safety instead of putting a silver blade through her heart.
“Don’t let you die, Colette. I trust your gut, which means you’ve got a whole lot of unknown magic, some of it Fae, to deal with down there. Don’t take unnecessary risks, and I won’t have to let Caroline take my head for getting you killed.”
I pulled the Glock from its holster and held it in a teacup carry as I followed Jodi down the smaller of the two tunnels, warning him to stay low and close to the wall. We moved quickly, silently as wolves could, Jodi on the leather pads of his canine feet, me in the soft, black moccasins I’d brought with me from my days as a Venatores hunter. Tonight, I’d come full circle and was hunting again, only this time, with a wolf at my side and vampires for my backup as I hunted the human monsters who kidnapped, tortured, and killed innocent creatures of the underworld.
Jodi’s ears perked up moments before I smelled her, roses and honeysuckle and trees right after a storm. Ashlynn. I smelled her blood too, the cloying sweet tang of copper in the air that made the wolf’s hackles raise. He let out a low growl that resounded in my head and drew the same in reply from my throat. I couldn’t smell Rae, but Ashlynn was directly ahead, or had been within the last couple of minutes. I rolled my shoulder and adjusted my grip on the gun to release the cramp that was already starting to form. It had been too long since I’d bothered with guns, and I promised myself a few hours at the range every week if we came through this on the other side.
The tunnel brightened up ahead, and as we neared the source, the tunnel opened into a large room with alcoves all around the edge. From what I could see, we were standing in one of two ways out of the large domed room, and faintly I smelled both Rae and Colette down the other tunnel.
I heard a whimper, and my head jerked to the left just in time to see a large man in black press a silver cross against the wound in Ashlynn’s stomach. Her whimper turned to a scream, and as the half-dozen denizens of the tunnels turned to watch her torture, Jodi slipped into the central circle. Runes flared on the floor, and Jodi yelped as electricity crackled and the smell of singed fur filled the air. He leaped, still smoldering, onto the back of the closest human, and I dove over the rune line, waiting for the same electrical shock to set me ablaze.
Remind me I owe you a beer for taking the hit, buddy, I thought and rolled to the side and up onto one knee, aiming for any human in all black. Jodi was wrestling with the human he’d attacked, who appeared to be so strong that the giant wolf on his back was like a puppy to him. The man shook himself, hard, and Jodi flew off his back and hit the wall before sliding down to the floor. I shot at him, aiming for center mass, then emptied the magazine into him when he strode toward me like I was pinging him with Nerf darts.
Finally, I stopped aiming for his body and put one between his eyes. The shot was so close I was sprayed with his blood as his face imploded from the silver nitrite bullet. Another man started toward me, sword in hand, but dropped it and ran when Jodi leaped between us and showed his fangs in a malicious sneer.
Jodi placed himself between me and the humans, but before I could reach Ashlynn a small, female kidnapper appeared in front of me wielding a chain that glowed like the runes had. She swung it at my face, and pain exploded as it connected, as though she been swinging a giant, flaming club instead of thin, woven gold.
I cursed silently, in too much pain to even scream, and the chain buzzed and connected with my face again, catching me under the chin and sending me flying. I tried to roll backward to my feet, but the tiny woman was right on me, and she pummeled me with brass knuckles as I tried to figure out which way was up.
Jodi roared, and the unexpected sound was enough to throw her rhythm, just long enough for me to get in a blow. I used that magic that Granny Cailleach had given me and lashed out, striking her with a both hands in a double palm strike. The power was more than I’d even imagined, and the woman flew back, landing hard. Her head slammed against the floor with a loud crack, and I jumped to my feet before she could come at me again.
A warning growl turned my head, and my claws sliced through the chest of the man who was trying to blindside me. My head still ringing, I closed my fist over his heart and squeezed until it burst in my hand, and the man’s surprised look faded to the still of death.
They can be killed, Jodi. We need to take them out and get Ash to safety.
I still couldn’t feel Rae, but scenting her down the tunnel with Colette gave me hope. The vampiress loved violence as much as she loved her family, and Rae was carrying the hope for our future. I knew without asking that Colette would die to protect Rae and her unborn daughter. More importantly, I knew she’d kill to keep them safe.
“Ash!” I yelled, and the man torturing her turned glance back at me. I hit another man as he ran at me, catching him by the throat and ripping it out with my claws before changing my hands back to their human form. “Ash, we’re here. Hold on, baby. I’m right here.”
She didn’t make a sound, and I prayed it was that she’d mercifully lost consciousness and not that he’d killed her. He started to chant, and I slowed in my pace until I was barely moving, slugging along like I was walking in deep mud, even though we were inside. I forced myself to keep moving, and the man strode up to me with a laugh and slammed the same branding instrument against my stomach that he’d been using on Ashlynn.
I screamed in pain and felt the pain and horror of all the wolves in the pack as they felt my pain and saw through my eyes. With monumental effort, I raised enough shielding to keep them out and away from the pain of the iron that roasted my flesh. He jerked his arm ba
ck to thrust again, and I pushed numbly at his arm. He came back again, and I was able to push harder, forcing him back from me. He started to chant, and I threw my arms up over my face, but the magical blow never came. Instead, when I put my arms down, the man was down too, flat on his back under 200 pounds of Jodi the gray wolf.
His face was twisted in pain as Jodi gnawed on his arm, so I gently shoved at the wolf’s side until he stepped off the man, and I put a silver knife through his heart and shot him in the head for good measure. A third man watched us, waiting, but refused to come any closer to fight with the wolf that planted his feet and growled.
I rushed to Ashlynn’s side and almost cried at the pulse I found when I checked her vitals. I cradled her against my chest and almost walked straight into Colette, who led the way as Dirk held his pregnant wife.
“Oh, my God. You’re here, and everyone’s all right, yeah?” I asked, afraid to look at Rae to closely.
“Yeah, we’re OK,” Dirk replied, and I couldn’t hold back the tears as his joy overflowed to every pack member.
“That’s not all there was,” Ashlynn mumbled, stumbling over her words so badly I could hardly understand her.
“What do you mean, Ash? I know there has to be stragglers, but we’ll get them,” I reassured her.
“No. These were the stragglers. They knew you were coming. They knew if you found Rae, they couldn’t stop you. They . . .”
“They had a backup plan,” Rae said, whimpering as she tried to sit upright against Dirk’s chest.
Colette spun around and cursed then ran back the way we’d come. I didn’t hear most of what she said, but I understood all that mattered. She had to get back to Caroline and Ro.
“Shit, we left a skeleton crew back at the hive. Everyone’s looking for you or on another rescue mission,” I explained as I carried her through the tunnel.
“Let me change so I can walk on my own. We don’t have time to waste on you trying to carry me the whole way.” I set her down and she concentrated, changing her form so quickly and smoothly even though she was injured I knew she had to have been touched by the wild magic that we’d shared with the pack.
I stared down at the cinnamon wolf for a moment as my metaphysical beast frolicked at the sight of his bonded mate. She nosed my hand and gently flicked my palm with her tongue then nosed me again, pushing me ahead of her until my feet moved on their own.
“Where’s the rest of our guys?” I asked Dirk, and he shrugged.
“Colette just so happened to send them back ahead of us, saying that there weren’t as many as she’d thought and home base could probably use some help with Haley.”
I nodded and glanced at Rae again. “Is she OK, really?”
“Clay, I really don’t know. Henny will have to look at her, but they seemed to be careful with her. Not like Ashlynn. Were those burns on her face and arms?” I nodded and held him back as we reached the narrowing of the tunnel.
“Yeah, she was burned, stabbed, and I think they stuck her with silver needles. I’ll let you know when she changes back and we can see what scarred and what didn’t.” I glanced ahead as a tiny light bobbed ahead of us. “Can you make it through, carrying her?”
Dirk shifted her in his arms. “Not much of a choice, is there?”
Softly I called Ashlynn over to us from where she’d gone ahead. I took Rae from her husband and gently laid her over Ash’s back, and Rae clung to her like a burr. I gripped Dirk’s arm and took the lead, letting him protect her from the rear. The tunnels were empty except for the bobbing light ahead of us, and that disappeared too the moment we could see the lights from the sublevel.
I led Ashlynn and Dirk to the back door of the vampire hive and left them to get to the medical center on their own then raced ahead to join Colette and the teams in securing Rowena and the clan home.
Racing around a corner toward the living quarters, I tripped over a prone body and went sprawling on my face, sliding in the blood that pooled on the floor. It was Steven, and no amount of wild magic was going to bring him back from where he’d been sent by the humans with Fae magic.
With a mouthful of gorge, I picked myself up off the floor and made my way into the hive, more careful and alert of the danger that might lie ahead. There were no more wolves as I kept on, but I passed a vampire I didn’t know and found Fin in a corner nursing a wounded arm, his leg bleeding profusely.
“Don’t worry about me, Clay. I’ll just shift when you get to safety,” he announced, pressing a new magazine into his forty-five.
“Change now while I can protect you, and we’ll call it good,” I countered, still watching ahead as my anxiety grew. He hesitated then changed shape so that instead of a badly wounded man, I was staring at a four-foot tall rat with a hurt hind leg.
I asked him to keep a lookout for Dirk and help with Rae then hurried on as best I could. I didn’t find any other wounded, and my heart was in my throat, wondering where everyone had gone. When I reached the nursery, I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of the door hanging off is hinges. Growling, I stalked forward, watching the shadow that moved just inside the door, tracking it for the kill.
My hands elongated into deadly claws, and I rushed into the room, only to skid to a stop as baby Ro cooed at me, inches away from my grasp.
“Looks like I still have the knack of showing up just in time,” Dominique di Borgia purred in her sultry voice. “Somebody thinks this little thing is very, very important.”
I looked at the bodies on the floor behind the sorceress, perfectly still and bleeding out into the cotton candy rug of the baby’s room.
“Lucky us,” I quipped and let out the breath I’d been holding. Whoever it was behind the attack on our wolves and the vampires’ home, it was time to make sure they understood that we weren’t the weak, lesser Fae they were used to. We were the halflings, mutts among the Fae, strong, resourceful, and resilient. They’d started a war with us, thinking they could force us to obey or control us with fear. I glanced down at my clawed hands, curled into fists so tight my blood dripped on the floor. Next time, I was taking war to them.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Dominique cooed and snuggled baby Ro to her chest, pacing the floor and smiling as she kissed the feather-soft curls at her temple. She stopped when I didn’t stop staring, the corners of her mouth drawing down into a frown.
“Babies are sensitive to our emotions, Clay, even when they aren’t the offspring of a vampire and a psychic witch,” she chided me in a singsong voice. “You need to calm down and come love on her a little so she knows everything’s OK.”
I couldn’t say if it was surprise that Dom knew anything about babies or irritation that she was right, but I scaled back my power so it wouldn’t touch Ro. I sniffed the air and glanced out the door again before holding out my arms for my goddaughter, who Dom relinquished after some hesitation. As Ro settled into my arms with a sigh, I watched some of the light fade from my old mentor’s face. She took up the guard position near the door, and I took my turn reassuring Ro, talking to her in a lilting, soft voice and stroking her face with my finger.
Before I realized what I was doing, my feet were moving toward the door, and I felt an overwhelming urge to find Caroline. Dom threw out an arm before I reached the door and snapped long, slim fingers in my face.
“Snap out of it, Clay. Caroline wanted us to wait here until they got back.”
“What if they don’t come back?” I asked in a whisper, like it would stop Ro from seeing the fear in my mind.
“Then we go out the back door to the dojo where my master is waiting with your master . . . so to speak, and we figure out what to do with her from there.”
I held Ro tighter and turned so I was shielding her from Dom with my body. Her eyes narrowed, and I focused on my shields, aiming to protect us from any magic she might throw at us.
“Did you have anything to do with the attacks, Dom? Is Onyxis trying to take the baby? Because the pack won’t let you, and we ha
ve the power to stop you,” I reminded her.
“Clay, sometimes I think you’re willfully stupid,” she snapped. I glanced down at the baby, but she just yawned and started to blink slowly as she fell asleep in my arms. “Damnit, we’re here to help. That baby matters to all of us, and I’ll thank you to remember I’m not some kind of monster. I’ve never sold you out, not once, and your constant mistrust grows tiresome.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but no words came to me. She was right, and I didn’t know how to walk back the foot I’d just stuck in my mouth.
“I know I’m not always all, ‘Yay, team Caroline,’ but I’ve never done anything to hurt you. I’ve even been jealous of her, of what the two of you had,” she sniffed. “She took the life I always wanted, but was too afraid to grasp. It hurt to watch, and I still was there for you both.” She paced and kicked at the debris that had fallen from the broken door. “Now hand me that beautiful little creature, and go find her mother. The magic’s all wonky in here. You’ll have better luck with your nose.”
Despite the pang of guilt that twanged in my stomach, I hesitated slightly before giving Ro back to Dominique. The moment her warmth left me, I reached for her again, aching to hold the soft little bundle.
“Wow. She really gets in your head, doesn’t she?” I gasped and shook myself all over. Dom flashed me a sad grin and shrugged a little, bouncing the sleeping baby against her breasts.