Repairer of the Breach (Stones of Fire Book 4)

by Sarah Ashwood

  He didn’t have time to observe the transformation from shifter to human in an effort to ascertain if it was somebody he knew, because another shot rang out and a second flying shifter fell from the sky.

  “Behind you!” shouted the cop. The Talos heard the terror in her voice. He spun to look in the direction she’d indicated. His heart sank to his guts.

  Chapter Eleven

  His initial thought was of the scene in the old classic film, the Wizard of Oz, when the Wicked Witch let loose the flying monkeys. That was how bad it looked; how big the swarm of flying shifters was. Inwardly, the Talos swore. He should have known. On some level, he likely had known. He’d simply been so focused on getting Ellie out that he’d more or less hoped Nosizwe wouldn’t have gone the extra mile, taken the additional precautions. Of course she would have. She hadn’t gotten where she was by being an idiot, either in her human entertainer’s career or her upward ascent as leader of a shapeshifter gang.

  Security inside the warehouse may have been a bit lax, seeing as how there was one human cop, disarmed, handcuffed to a post. Had he and Ellie not returned to the same spot the Stones were, it was doubtful Detective Ewing would have been capable of freeing herself, given the circumstances. Security outside the building, however…that was quite another thing. Nobody was getting in or out of that place. Unfortunately, many, if not all, of Nosizwe’s followers would have recognized the Talos on sight, since there were no other shifters like him. He was Carter Ballis. He was the Talos. He was a major threat. And he wasn’t passing unchallenged.

  Two of the winged shifters had already been dropped by the detective, with dead eye shots through the head. His human side admired her accuracy, as well as her presence of mind under pressure. She’d be a solid addition to his own security team if he could get her to break ranks and join it.

  Somehow, he doubted that would happen.

  Anyway, no time for such reckonings. There was only time to act, and Carter did, rolling his shoulder to drop Ellie to the pavement. She might wind up with a bump to the head or a couple of bruises, but that was a far cry better than winding up ripped apart by fangs and talons. Mentally, he calculated even as he moved. The cop had spent two shots. She had thirteen left. He had his SIG, still fully loaded. It was too bad Ellie was passed out, since she could handle a weapon. He could have used her, could have given her his gun and let the women shoot while he took on their attackers physically. Unfortunately, he didn’t have her. Instead, he had to protect her.

  He stepped over his wife’s inert form as he drew his gun from its holster, raised it, and fired. Behind him, he felt the cop move into position, also straddling Ellie, her back to his. Together, they formed a shield of defense over the unconscious woman, while also guarding each other’s backs. Echoes of their shots bounced off the warehouse walls and reverberated through the back alley. The flashes of gunfire lit up the gloomy lanes between buildings like lightning bugs in a twilight field.

  Each shot had to count, and it did. In rapid succession, a half-dozen more flying shifters dropped to the ground, but there were still too many. He heard Detective’s Ewing’s groan.

  “We’re going to use up our ammo and they’ll still be coming,” she said.

  One shifter got under the line of fire, dropping close enough to rake its talons across his shoulder. The Talos ducked. The shifter raised, but so did he. It was fast enough to wound him, but not fast enough to avoid the hand he thrust out, catching it by the talons. He tore it from the sky, throwing it to the pavement with enough force to stun it. It was similar to what he’d done earlier, but this one wasn’t fast enough to catch itself and get back in the air. When it hit the ground, Carter jumped over Ellie, one arm raised to defend his face from the flyers, and landed square on in the middle of the lizard head. He heard the crunch of bones, felt the skeletal structure give way. Brains and blood oozed from beneath his bronze feet, but the Talos was well past caring about such things.

  He jolted back into position, spine to spine with the cop. As he did, the roar of an engine, the screech of tires, the squeal of brakes heralded another arrival.

  “We got company!” Detective Ewing shouted.

  Great.

  Or maybe it was great. Maybe they could use this to their advantage.

  The cop must have read his mind. As the car door opened, she yelled, “I’ll take out what I can while we fight our way to the car. It’s the only way out of here. Grab Ellie. Guard my back. You got any rounds left?”

  A few. In all the action, it was practically impossible to keep track of how many bullets remained. The Talos half-turned, tossing her his SIG. She had both handguns now, and, like in an old western film, came out guns blazing, firing the pair of weapons, taking down attacker after attacker while he scooped up Ellie and flung her over his shoulder. He matched every step the cop took, keeping his back to hers, guarding them from behind, taking slices from the surging, winged shifters, but keeping them off Ellie and Detective Ewing by the skin of his teeth.

  It felt like an eternity, but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. He heard the cop shout, “Get in the car!” She dove into the driver’s door and he stepped on more than one body as he scrambled to the back. A furious screech heralded the arrival of another attacker bearing down on them, but he slammed the door between it and them. Long talons pierced the window, sending a shower of glass over the backseat. The Talos grabbed this one by the talons too, suffering deep gouges from the shifter’s pointed teeth as he wrestled it with one arm.

  Detective Ewing didn’t wait for the battle to end. She had the car in gear and was driving. The Talos heard and felt the thump of tires smashing body parts, but was too busy wrangling the beast to wonder if any of them had still been alive before she ran them over. He didn’t particularly care if they had been. They’d put Ellie’s life at risk. It was sheer luck and lots of grit that had gotten them this far with her unharmed. The luck, or the grit, or both, held as he fought with the flying shifter. Its large wings beat furiously against the car door, its shrieks louder and angrier.

  Finally, the Talos managed to grasp it around the neck, which gave him the handhold he needed. Ruthlessly, he beat the ugly lizard head against the side of the door, smashing it into the blue paint with all his might, until again he felt the crunch of bones. The cries weakened. Stopped. The clutch of the talons around his forearms weakened. He shook his arm violently to shake the beast free. It fell to the asphalt. The last glimpse he caught of it as they sped away was of a young woman, head and face nearly unrecognizable as human, the head was so smashed in. Blood soaked the ground.

  He turned away, and sank back into the seat, releasing the Talos. Immediately, Carter was there, the human side taking over. He eased Ellie off his shoulder and down onto the seat beside him. Worry spiraled through his core. Despite the insanity, she still hadn’t roused. Had he been this out of it during their initial crossing? From what Ellie had said, he’d mostly lain on a quiet beach all day. It wasn’t like they’d been fighting for their lives.

  “How are we doing?” Detective Ewing called from the front seat. Carter saw her dark eyes glance in the rearview mirror, checking on him and Ellie both.

  “We’ll survive,” he replied grimly. The scratches and gouges and cuts he’d taken on his bronze flesh stung on his human skin, but it was more like a wound beneath the surface. Phantom pains, almost. His life wasn’t at risk from them.

  “How about her? Anything yet?”

  “Not yet.” Worried, he brushed the hair back from her face.

  “I’m sure she’ll be okay.”

  The cop said it with confidence, but what did she know? She was probably trying to reassure him, since she didn’t know that any more than he did.

  “Where do you want to go?” she inquired now.

  His initial instinct was to Sean’s. He’d even opened his mouth to say his employer’s name, when something stopped him. The cop thought Ciara had returned to her husband. She would’ve had to p
roduce some type of cover story to explain Carter’s failure to return. No telling what it was. Carter didn’t want to bring Ellie back into that environment until he had some idea of what he was walking into. Never in his life had he dreamed the Costas mansion wouldn’t be his safe place, his refuge, but there it was.

  “How about my place?” he suggested. “Or yours?”

  If anyone was looking for him, they’d be less likely to find him and Ellie at the cop’s home.

  Again, the cop glanced in the rearview mirror. “My place? You hitting on me, Ballis?”

  “Yes,” he answered drily. “I’m hitting on you with my wife here in the backseat with me, asking you to take us both to your place.”

  He caught her smirk in the intermittent flashes of street lights. “Well, I am pretty irresistible. Men won’t leave me alone. Constantly beating down my door.”

  There was a strange note in her tone. Sardonic humor with a little sadness mixed in. A little resignation. He didn’t call her out on it. He understood. Until Ellie, he’d never dreamed a chance at a real relationship was possible. He was married to the job, performing an undertaking most folks wouldn’t understand and few women would put up with. He figured the cop felt the same about her line of work.

  Rather than remark on it, Carter said, “If you’d rather take us to my place, that’s fine. I was just thinking of lying low for a few hours until I can get a handle on what’s going on with Sean.”

  “No, it makes sense. I agree. I think we’d be wise not to potentially place Ellie in more danger. However, Elia’s people are going to let Elia know what happened. Elia is going to pass it on to Ciara Costas’s people. They’ll be on the lookout for you and me. What’re the first two places they’ll check, outside the Costas mansion?”

  “Yours and mine.”

  The realization hit home. Without his vast network of resources, largely built on his association with Sean, he had virtually no friends or resources. And he couldn’t rely on those until he had a better grip on the loyalties of his people. Who was loyal to Sean and who had Ciara swayed to her side? He needed time to figure it out. Time he really didn’t have, not with Elia having the Stones in her possession. She’d move them too. The Talos was an unmistakable figure in their world. The Talos had seen where the Stones were kept. The Talos had escaped. He didn’t want to lose track of the Stones, but that meant acting quickly. Carter wasn’t sure he could. Not with Ellie in her condition. Not until he knew Ellie was safe. Not until—

  “That’s right.”

  Detective Ewing’s voice broke into the churning mass of his thoughts, interrupting the schemes he was poring over.

  “I suggest we avoid both of our homes for now. I have somewhere else in mind where we can lay low for a little while. I don’t think they’ll think of him right off the bat.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “My partner, Detective Tozzi,” she answered solemnly.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Can we trust him?” Ballis asked from the back seat

  “I don’t see that we have a choice,” Candace, Detective Ewing, answered grimly. “We’re short on allies right now. Most of the folks I work with don’t know about your people. I’m never quite sure who does and who doesn’t; who I can trust and who I can’t. After finding out Mrs. Costas is hooking up with Elia’s side, well—that kind of leaves you short on allies too, I’m afraid.”

  Ballis didn’t argue.

  “Besides,” Candace went on, “Gary’s been in this game a lot longer than I have.” She slowed for a red light, setting her right turn signal. The signal’s rhythmic ticking underscored the weighty silence. It didn’t feel appropriate to speak until the vehicle went into motion again and the sounds of the drive helped cover the solemnity of the cloud overshadowing them. “He knows a lot more about this than I do. He’s in way deeper. I need someone to help cover up the fact that bullets from a cop’s gun are in the alley, in those bodies. I have to make sure both of our butts are covered from the fight tonight. Gary’s got the contacts in the Fort Worth PD. He can help.”

  “I wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

  “Why not?”

  Puzzled, she glanced again into the rearview mirror to gauge if he was joking. He met her gaze.

  “You really think Nosizwe is going to leave anything lying around that can be traced back to her, back to where she kept the Stones? She’s not an idiot. Her folks will have that place locked down tight and cleaned up better than an operating room. Pretty soon, nobody will know a battle went down there except you, me, and the mourning relatives and friends of the shifters who died. They’ll keep quiet. This won’t spread.”

  “Maybe,” she conceded, but Candace could hear the doubt in her own voice. “All the same, I’d rather not risk having bullets from my gun found in a body. And it won’t do you any favors to have bodies with your mark in them, either.”

  “Do what you want,” he said, leaning into the seat behind him. His hand rested protectively on his wife’s shoulder. Ellie still wasn’t budging. Candace couldn’t ignore the prickles of worry, but unless they decided to head to the nearest hospital the best thing they could do for her was to wait it out. “If you’re sure he’s safe, we’ll go there, then.”

  Sure? It had been a long time since she was completely sure of anything. All of her confidence had changed the day she’d first seen Carter Ballis transform from man to monster, monster to man. Candace used to be sure of what was right and what was wrong. She’d been sure the shapeshifters were wrong, all of them. She’d been sure their warring and killing needed to stop. That the offenders needed to be brought to justice. Now she wasn’t sure any longer who were the good guys and who were the bad guys.

  A few things she was still sure about. She needed a shower. A hot meal. A clean toilet, not the cold, metal disgusting thing she’d been forced to use in the warehouse that looked like it hadn’t been wiped down in months. Sleep in a real bed, not chained up to a metal post. She wanted to feel human again. Hopefully Gary’s house would be the refuge she needed, they all needed, for a little while.

  She knocked on her partner’s door, hoping he was already up and about. Like her, Gary was an early riser, and he’d likely be getting ready for work. He showed up, shirt not yet tucked into his slacks but gun harness already on, newspaper in one hand, cup of coffee in another. His reading glasses were slid down the end of his nose, giving him an authoritative, school teacher air as he stared at the ragtag group standing outside his door.

  “As I live and breathe,” he said slowly. “This is a sight I never expected to see.”

  Gary, more than anybody, knew of her past vendetta against Sean Costas and his henchman, Carter Ballis. Now, here she was showing up unannounced on his doorstep with Ballis, who she’d actively tried to throw into prison.

  “Yeah, yeah,” she muttered. “You going to make us stand out here all day, Gary, or can we come in?”

  “That’s may we come in, and yes, you may,” he said, stepping aside.

  Candace snarled a, “I’ll show you may,” as she stormed past.

  “No coffee yet this morning? My pot’s nearly full. I had a good night’s sleep last night. Woke up rested and refreshed. I didn’t need much coffee this morning to get me going.”

  Candace spun on her heel, hands on her hips. “Are you trying to be annoying?”

  “Hey,” Gary chuckled, “you gotta give me something, since you decided to bring this—” He eyed Carter walking in, carrying Ellie. —“Trouble with you.”

  His humor fell away as he leaned around Ballis to close the door.

  “What are you doing here, Ballis? What’s wrong with her?”

  “Long story,” Sean’s head of security answered gruffly.

  Gary switched his gaze to her. “Candace?”

  She sighed and swiped her hair out of her face, wincing at the thought of how dirty it must be after all that time in the dusty warehouse.

  “Definitely a long story. Can I ge
t a shower first? And coffee? Then we’ll talk. A nap would be nice too,” she admitted.

  “Don’t tell me the great Detective Ewing is human and gets tired when she’s on a case,” Gary teased.

  During their partnership, they’d had many rows over her wanting to work overtime, pursuing a suspect when it was time to surrender for the day and go home. It was a longstanding battle between them. Gary was loving getting to hold it over her head now.

  “Not on the case anymore,” Candace admitted with a grimace of defeat. “I’m not sure who to pursue. I’m not sure who the suspects should be or who the victims are.”

  “She is,” Ballis spoke up, gesturing towards his wife. Both of the police detectives turned his way. He’d been patiently standing there, holding his unconscious wife while she and Gary traded jabs. “She’s an innocent bystander who got dragged into a war. Now she needs a safe place for a little while to rest until she can wake up.” His piercing dark eyes locked with Gary’s. “Can you offer her that? If not, I’ll go now. I’m not asking you to put yourself at risk, but if you think she can be safe here temporarily we’ll stay.”

  Gary looked at Candace. Candace looked at Gary. Finally, her partner shrugged.

  “No eyes on my house and nobody tailing me that I know of. You’re all welcome to stay. Ballis, couch is in there. You can put her on it. Candace, shower’s down the hall, second door to the left. You want some coffee first while I run to the nearest store and grab essentials for you? Afraid I don’t have a lot of women’s clothes hiding around here, and my clothes won’t look as good on you as they do on me,” he smirked.

  “Ha ha. Yeah, I’ll text you a list. Ballis? You want me to have him pick up supplies for your wife too?”