“Incoming!” Lila hollered.
There was no time to be nice about this. I took a step back and grabbed the handle of the flail.
“Darcy, close your eyes.”
Her eyes widened and I stared hard at her. “Trust me and close your eyes.”
They flickered shut and I swung the flail at the corner of the box behind her left shoulder. The twin spiked balls slammed into it and stuck. Just like before. When I’d fought to free myself of Ishtar’s hold on me, the flail had freed me.
Black mist poured out from around where the spiked balls dug in. I didn’t yank it out. “It’s magic, you should be sucking that in, you bad boy.”
The flail shuddered under my hand and a pulse of light shot out around the spikes. I closed my eyes as the box shattered. I turned my head away, catching a shard across my cheek.
I swung back around to see Darcy sprawled out, tiny cuts all over her. I handed her one of my blades. “Clothes by the door. Help Lila defend it.”
Darcy blinked up at me. “What?”
“Now!” I snapped the word, pushing a tiny pulse of my own energy into it and she leapt to her feet. I was already headed toward the next box. Kiara was in this one. I repeated the instructions and she closed her eyes right away.
I tried not to notice the blood in the bottom of her box. And the realization that her extreme fatigue was partially depression.
The flail shattered her cage and she sprawled out as Darcy had. I put a hand on her arm and helped her up.
“Kiara,” I said and pushed the handle of my blade into her fingers. “Take it, clothes at the door, defend it.”
Her eyes flickered with pain and then I saw a spark of something she’d never carried before. Rage mingled with the pain. She drew a slow breath. “I want to kill them all, Zam.”
I tightened my hold on her. “Wait for me. We’ll do it together.”
A tear slipped down her cheek. “Yes, Alpha, together.”
She walked away, ignoring the cuts on her body, on her feet. I turned to face the last of my pride members.
I stood over the final box to see Steve glaring up at me. Yeah, glaring, like it was my fault he’d been caught.
Then again, I had sent him after Kiara.
I lifted the flail above my head and gave it a slow swing. “Close your eyes, Steve-O.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Steve’s head tipped, and for a moment, I thought his mouth was moving but I couldn’t hear a word he was saying inside the magic glass box. For just a split second, I thought how nice it was not hearing his voice.
But he was part of the pride, even if he was a limp dick. I brought the flail down on the corner of the box, behind his shoulder like I’d done with Darcy and Kiara.
The glass exploded and he came out swearing a blue streak. But for the first time in a long time, it wasn’t at me.
“Those motherfucking Jinn!” he roared, and I held a hand out to him. He took it and I yanked him up and away from the shards of glass. He landed lightly beside me and I didn’t let go.
“We have to get them out of here.”
His whole body tensed. “You are not my alpha.”
I nodded. “Then perhaps you are not part of this pride. But how about we discuss that after we get the hell out of here?”
There was a scream from the hall and Lila let out a tiny roar. I left Steve standing there and ran for the door.
Kiara and Darcy circled a Jinn, and another body was on the floor. “Take his head,” I said.
The Jinn’s eyes shot to me and he went to his knees. “Please, I don’t want to be here. I’m like you.”
And then he shifted into a lion, his fur a ruddy gold. He stayed on the floor, his body in total submission. Darcy and Kiara stumbled away from him.
Steve snarled behind me and came out of the room in full-on lion form. I put a hand out. “Steve, if you attack him I’ll drop you with this flail right now and just count the loss as necessary.”
The Jinn, or lion shifter, trembled on the floor. Golden eyes rolled up to look at me. “Please don’t leave me here. Please.”
Well, shit, this was not as I’d planned. I reached out and held a hand to him. “Swear your loyalty on your life.”
He shifted back to two legs, clothes intact. Just like me. I fought to keep my face neutral.
“I swear it on my life, to give you my loyalty until death.” He put his hand in mine and without even realizing what I was doing, I took hold of his energy and wrapped it into the pride. He sucked in a sharp breath.
I blinked once. “Okay, kid, let’s go.”
Steve grabbed my arm and spun me around. “Are you insane? He’s one of them!”
Darcy thrust clothes at Steve, and he took them, dressing as he glared. I waited until the three of them were clothed. I pushed Steve out front, still not acknowledging his questions.
“Lila, ride with Steve, direct him back to the escape hatch. Darcy and Kiara, go with him.” I did a quick calculation of the time. We’d be coming up on dawn soon, which meant we had to move.
Lila shot a look at me. “Where are you going?”
I looked at the kid. “What’s your name?”
“Benji.” He stared at me.
“Benji, are there others like you, part Jinn, part shifter?” Like him. Like Maks.
Like me?
He bobbed his head. “Yes, and they don’t want to be here either.”
I looked back at Lila. “Benji and I are going to get who we can.” I shook my head at her before she could argue. “It will be easy with two over five, you know that. Go. We’ll be right behind you.”
Steve didn’t wait, but I grabbed at him. “Hold. I have something for you.”
I pulled the diamond out from under my shirt, still wrapped in leather, and slid it over his neck.
“What is it?” He touched it and frowned at me.
“Lila, you explain it to him,” I said. There was no time for more than that. I could feel the clock ticking down.
Benji and I followed the four of them up the stairs. They turned to the right at the top and Benji beckoned me to the left. We hurried, and even so, we were lucky not to run into any Jinn.
“Where is everyone?” I asked the gangly youth at my side.
“Marsum called them to the main council hall. Except for those of us who are half-breeds. Minus Maks, of course. He’s . . . they don’t treat him like a half-breed. Not like us.” He glanced at me and then stopped in front of a door. “There aren’t many half-breeds left.”
I motioned for him to go ahead and open it. The door swung inward and Benji went first. His voice was low, but I could still hear his words, hushed and filled with anticipation.
“We’re going. Come on, get your stuff, quick. Just like we practiced.” There was a shuffle of bodies and the sound of cloth being rustled, the sharp intake of breath.
I stayed just inside the door, watching the hall to either side, glad it was empty, and . . . still bothered by that very emptiness. Even with all the Jinn being called away for a meeting or some such stupidity, shouldn’t there have been someone left to guard the halls? Was this supreme overconfidence on Marsum’s part or something else?
My gut twanged with anxiety because I suspected something else. I just didn’t know what.
“Hurry,” I growled.
Benji came first, holding the hand of a young boy who couldn’t have been more than five or six. Skin as smooth and dark as the night sky reflecting the lights of the torches, and huge golden eyes stared up at me. “Hello, little cub.” I crouched down to him. “We’re going to get out of here, okay?”
His lower lip trembled and then he bit it, holding it still. “Okay,” he whispered. I touched his chin with a finger and stood. I looked over the rest of the escapees and had to do a double take. Nell was behind Benji, her eyes rimmed in red, a bag clutched in her arms.
She looked at me a moment and then looked away. Of course, she hadn’t seen me in Maks’s room.
>
Two others were next to her, both girls. I drew a quick breath, scenting them. One more lion shifter. Nell was a caracal and the final was a cheetah. I nodded. “Stick close. If any Jinn come, fight for your life. Do you understand?”
They all nodded, and I turned, leading the way through the tower. I kept scenting the air, but it was thick with the soured tang of the Jinn and I struggled to pick up anything past that. A hint of lion, of Steve’s distinct musk finally reached me and I picked up my pace.
Too easy . . . those two words kept reverberating through me, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that perhaps I should slow down. But slowing was bad too. The last thing we needed was to sit around with our thumbs up our butts waiting for the Jinn to capture all of us.
Maks’s door came into view; I jogged to it and pushed the door open. Lila and the others waited inside. “I told you to go.”
Steve grinned. “Lila said she was in charge in your absence and she said we were waiting.”
My jaw dropped. “You actually listened to her?”
Darcy smiled. “She threatened to freeze his balls off and shatter them on the floor.”
That would do it.
I opened the door wide and ushered the newbies inside. “Through the closet, there’s a door. Steve, you pull it open; everyone wait at the base of the tower.”
I stood at the door and did a final sweep of the hall. I should have felt relieved. We were almost out.
But . . . no, there was no relief here. There was no weight coming off my shoulders.
“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. The little lion cub looked up at me. I grimaced. “Sorry, kid. Ignore me.”
“They like traps,” he whispered.
He might as well have tossed me into an ice-cold river for the way my breath shot out of me. “Do you know what they’re planning? Did you hear something?” I dropped to one knee in front of him.
He stepped close to me and tucked his head under my chin as any cub would do with an alpha seeking protection. “I heard them talking. They like traps.”
I wrapped an arm around him. “Can you shift yet?”
He bobbed his head and shifted right in my arms. His fur was not black like Ford’s, but speckled, almost like a leopard with deep brown overtones and lighter highlights. I scooped him up into my arms. “Anyone who can shift, shift now. We’re going to run as fast as we can. Steve,” I lifted the cub to him, “you’re carrying him.”
Steve didn’t so much as blink. He took the boy and set him on his shoulders, then shifted onto four legs. The bulk of lion filled the closet space and I squeezed by him to open the stone break in the wall.
It was damn well heavier to pull in than to push. “Darcy.”
“I’ve got it.” Kiara stepped up beside me and together we pulled the door open. I did a quick scan outside.
“We’ve got very little of the night left for cover. We have backup to the north. Run hard, don’t look back. Do you understand?” My eyes went to the slim girl in the back. “Cheetah chick, you first. Turn on the speed, you got it?”
She grinned at me, showing off perfectly filed teeth. “On it, boss.” She stepped forward and shifted. Like me, her clothes went with her into a bit of a collar around her neck. She crept past Steve and he gave a soft chuff of encouragement. Maybe this time his experience had made him realize what an ass he’d been.
Probably not, but one could hope.
Everyone else shifted, and Lila flew to my shoulder. “You aren’t shifting, are you?”
I shook my head. “We’re going to cover them.”
I went back to the bed where Maks had left his shotgun. Four shots, two grenades. Enough to draw the deadshits to me and buy my family some time.
At the closet, I slipped out through the door. My pride stayed on their bellies, many of them blending with the sand. “Wait for it,” I said as I turned to the east and jogged into the open. My heart was in my throat and fear like I’d never known whispered through me that this was it. I was going to die. But I’d die for my pride. I’d die knowing they had the best chance at safety that I could give them.
I’d die, and Maks would be not long after me with the sickness that coursed through him. Lila . . . she’d likely be along for the ride.
I would not cry. I would not cry.
I jogged until I was closer to the edge of the second rim of the Jinn’s home. Two deadshits sat on top of the tower, their backs to me. “Hey, motherfuckers, what’s going on?” I lifted the gun and sighted down it as they turned.
One breath out and I squeezed the trigger, the boom of the gun breaking the deathly silence of the early morning. The deadshit on the right screeched and fell to the side, his wings barely catching him as he fell. I didn’t know if it was dead-dead or not. Frankly, I didn’t know if you could kill one of those things. But he was out of the sky and everyone’s attention was coming at us.
His buddy launched straight toward me.
“What an idiot,” Lila said.
I shifted my stance and squeezed off another round. The stock bucked into my shoulder and the deadshit howled as he spun in a circle until he hit the ground. Screeching erupted from all over and I broke into a run, racing to the east and the south, drawing them away from my family. I didn’t expect to kill the deadshits, but we’d draw them away and slow them down.
“Lila.”
“Yeah?”
“This is probably not going to end well,” I breathed out as I switched the gun to the grenade launcher.
“It’s not over till the fat dragon sings,” she said and shot into the air. I aimed the grenade at a cluster of deadshits swooping straight for me.
The thump of the gun going off, and then the deadshit in the middle caught the grenade and just stared at it. “Not smart,” I yelled as I skidded to a stop, then dropped to the ground as the grenade went off.
The percussion of the blow was enough to send the cluster of deadshits flying in bits and pieces in all directions. The ground around me looked like it was raining body parts. A screech so close it might as well have been right in my ear sent me scrambling forward. I pushed to my feet as something large and black tackled me back to the ground.
“Stay down!” Ford snarled as a deadshit swooped over us. Before I could say anything, he leapt into the air, grabbed the deadshit by the leg and dragged it down, shaking it hard to the side, smashing its head into the tower.
Above, Lila worked with the sapphire, freezing the deadshits in bits and pieces. Not their whole body, but here and there, enough to throw them off balance, to make it hard for them to come after us. There were too many.
But I’d known that going in.
I spun, lifted the gun on sheer instinct as a deadshit swooped down for me. I pulled the trigger, the gun went off and the slug took him in the belly, but he didn’t slow.
Those dangling back legs gripped my one arm and yanked me into the sky. I twisted hard, and reached for my knives, only they were gone with Darcy and Kiara. The deadshit looked down at me, its face pock-marked and caved in as if eaten with acid.
“Lila, I’ve got your friend!” I grabbed hold of the flail with my free hand and swung it over my head, driving it into the deadshit’s belly. He roared and his wings stopped moving as his body pulsed and danced while the flail pushed its way into the dead flesh.
As we fell, he spun, screaming to the sky. I dared to look up.
The morning light had given enough glow to the sky that the mass of dark gray deadshits swooping toward us made it look as though night had not lifted.
“Well, that’s a fucking stinky shit.” I yanked the flail out, the handle warm to my fingers. “No killing me yet.” Maybe it wouldn’t cost me anything since the deadshits were already dead?
I could hope.
The deadshit let me go and I twisted, shifting as I fell.
Static electricity coursed over my fur as I dropped out of the sky. The scent of lightning was there a breath before it crackled through the air around me.
Everything happened in a rush. I hit the ground, lightning blasted the deadshits left and right, hoof beats, shouting, Ford roaring, Lila joining him.
“Are they out?” I yelled up at her.
“They’re clear!”
“Time to go! Ford, let’s move!” He ran toward me and I jumped onto his back. Lila swooped down next to us and flew hard as he raced north. The horse and rider spun and galloped next to us though the horse gave the big lion some serious side eye.
I looked at the rider, and for just a moment, I thought she was someone else. Long black hair and eyes as green as my own . . . but her body was petite, and curvy where my mother and I were both lean and taller.
“Who are you?” I yelled across to her.
She turned her head and grinned, lightning dancing in her eyes. “Your new fairy godmother.”
Ford grunted and Lila said nothing. The woman had helped us. That would have to be enough for now. Twenty minutes later, we caught up with the slower members of the pride.
“Ease off,” I yelled up at those in the lead. Steve and the cheetah girl. They circled around to us and I did a quick head count. Everyone was here.
How was it possible that we’d gotten everyone out?
Well, everyone except Maks.
“Where are all the Jinn?” Kiara sidled up next to me and Ford. Her eyes were gaunt and her ribs showed through even under her fur. She would need time to heal, to gain her strength back.
“That’s a good question,” I said. “They aren’t giving chase though, so that means it’s time to go home.”
The lions and other shifters roared their agreement. The cub dropped to the ground and leapt and ran amongst the others. Different coats, different builds, different packs, but for now we were one family.
Why then did it feel as though I was still waiting for the ax to come down on the chopping block?
My earlier premonition when we fought the Jinn at the Oasis would suddenly make sense in the worst possible way.
Jinn's Dominion (Desert Cursed Series Book 3) Page 22