by Ann Denton
I hoped they were working fast enough. The campus was pretty big.
Drake and I landed on the roof of the nearest dorm.
I felt slightly smug about getting a couple swipes at Drake, but an even bigger chunk of me was worried about Aubry. My mate bond tugged at me, letting me know she was slightly to the right. I turned, just in time to see her and Easton emerge from around a rooftop HVAC unit hand in hand. My heart relaxed. So, she'd made the flight from the parking lot into campus alright. Easton swung her in a circle and picked her up to nuzzle her nose.
My jealous mind and dick both responded to the sight. Part of me still didn't like him touching her at all. The other part of me didn't like that he was touching her alone. I wanted to walk up behind her and sandwich her between us again. God, I could still hear her moans replaying in my mind.
The sight of Kira touching down with Rocco on the building to our left knocked sexy thoughts out of my head, though. It was time for business.
"Everyone have their powder?" Drake asked through our earpieces.
Everyone confirmed.
We'd emptied out at least eighty sleep grenades, pouring the powder into plastic baggies that we’d duct taped inside our shirts. If some human cop were to bust us, we'd look like coke runners.
Drake barked out, "Alright. Let's get this done quickly."
He and I walked to the unit on our rooftop. We bent and made quick work of the AC unit's cover, pulling it off. Then I yanked out a plastic baggy full of sleep powder and set it beside the unit so Kira could fly over and use her golden wings to push it through the vents quickly and put the whole building to sleep in under two minutes.
Once our cover was off, Drake grabbed me. We flew off the roof and landed in the grass. We posted up at the exits, ensuring no one could get out while Kira worked her magic above us.
Then Drake and I flew to another building on campus. Then a third. The plan was to hit every single building with sleep grenade powder, just in case someone was inside. It would make a hell of a mess, but Kira assured us she could blow the sleep dust out of there quickly after all was said and done.
When we reached our fourth building, the Student Union Building—by peering into the windows, it looked like this was where all the campus fast-food was—we happened to touch down on the roof at the exact same time as Aubry and Easton.
That’s when Drake pulled the most pussy-assed move I'd ever seen from him.
He fucking took a step back, said, "I'm gonna check... over there." And he flew off.
What the hell? I’d never seen him act like that. He’d killed dozens of people, maybe not as many as I had. And, while I adored my mate, her parents had been dead to me from the moment they hadn’t fought to take her back. That was shit right there. A pack didn’t leave a man behind. I leaned over the roof and watched Drake stride over to guard an exit, shaking my head. "He was my goddamn ride."
"Thought I was your ride," Aubry teased.
I scooped her up and squeezed her ass. "Don't start shit right here, Butterfly. Not yet." But I loved her sass. I smacked her butt and Easton and I got to work pulling the two AC units on this building's roof off.
Aubry wandered over to the edge of the building. I could have asked why, but I liked the view of her ass in the moonlight while I worked, so I didn't.
She turned around and said, "I’m gonna go let Kira know to get this building next." Then she fluttered those gorgeous wings of hers and rose into the air, giving me an even less restricted view of her body as her shirt was tugged down by the wind and the top of her cleavage peeked out.
She turned and pressed her feet together, her lush, biteable, peach-shaped ass dangling just above us before she flew off with a soft whoosh. Even though the sight of her entranced me, I still heard the scuff of someone’s shoe.
And it wasn’t mine or Easton’s.
I turned and gave Easton my wide eyes. He knew that meant to freeze. He did, his eyes glancing side to side, trying to tell what it was I sensed.
I sniffed the air, but nothing came to me on the breeze. So, no one was on the roof. But I turned my head and spotted an access door.
There.
I pointed.
Easton and I made our way toward the door silently. We’d worked together often enough that he knew to let me take point and he covered my six. I pulled out a gun with a silencer already attached.
Easton’s eyes widened and he shook his head. But I was too busy listening to the person on the other side of the door. Whatever mage fuck was on the other side was busy chanting. I could hear him.
I yanked open the door and said, "Like to spell? I got one for you. D-E-A-D." I shot him through the forehead before I finished the line… but still, I thought he got the gist.
The body tumbled down the stairs and I peered inside, looking and listening for any of crusty-old mage fuck’s friends.
Easton immediately grabbed my arm. "Dude! We aren’t supposed to kill anybody!"
I curled my lip. "Oh. Yeah. I forgot."
Easton rubbed his forehead in frustration. Then he laughed up at the stars. "Damn it. We better hide the body, so Larry doesn’t see it." Then he glanced at me. "You’ve got a little something..." Easton gestured across his face.
I reached up and touched my own face then glanced at my fingers. Blood splatter. "Fine," I sighed. "We can hide him." Part of me was annoyed, another part slightly pissed. The mage I’d killed was definitely trying to attack us. It was absolutely self-defense. Not that I cared about that. But Larry would.
Easton was right though; it would be better if Larry didn’t know.
If we called Aubry, she could ash the body and then the three of us could repeat the other night… I went to call out the new plan, but Easton was back at my side way too fast.
"Aubry already flew off to help Kira," he stated, like he was some damn mind-reader at the fair.
"We could have brought her with us," I grunted. My wolf felt sulky. I’d barely gotten back and now I hardly got to see my mate.
"What if there are more down there?" Easton shook his head. "I don’t want her getting hurt. It’s better if she’s gone."
I wanted to make a face at him for being so fucking considerate. Fuckwad. Aubry was tough. "She can fight her way out." I said as I yanked a little too hard on the access door and started down the steps. The mage idiot hadn’t bothered with a light, so we got to descend in darkness. Awesome. And the stairs were slippery from mage fuck’s blood. Double awesome.
"Aubry could fight. Yeah. But she shouldn’t have to." Easton said.
"Stop being the thoughtful mate," I growled. "Don’t make me the asshole."
"Dude, it’s not a competition."
"Everything’s a competition."
"If I thought that, I’d always be losing." Easton replied as we neared the body, which had tumbled down the stairs.
"What the hell does that mean?"
"You’re a fucking assassin and Drake’s ‘The Shadow.’ The police gave him a nickname and you are just… you."
I furrowed my eyebrows and stared at him. "You do realize we don’t enjoy killing people, right? Not completely anyway. Ok, only sometimes."
Easton laughed. "Yeah, well, next to you, machining a couple guns doesn’t feel like much."
"You’re the nice one," I told him as we reached the mage’s body, which was sprawled across several steps; he hadn’t fallen conveniently all the way down. He’d have to be carried. And we’d have to try not to get blood all over ourselves so that Larry wouldn’t spot it. And clean the stairs at some point. Or just never ever let the mage up here.
I sighed.
"You know what they say about nice guys," Easton told me.
"Please, I saw how she looked after that dinner you made her." My eyes flashed gold despite my efforts to tamp my wolf down. "I smelled the room. How many orgasms did you give her?" I tried to make it sound casual, but next chance I got, I was totally gonna beat his number.
"That doesn’t mat
ter," Easton said. "She was worried sick about you for days. You should have seen it."
"Well, you should have seen her sappy-ass lovesick face when I walked in. And it wasn’t for me." That had hurt. Yeah, she’d rushed to me after. But the idea that she was okay while I was gone, though I spent every fucking waking minute tracking that Triton fuck—who was a goddamned ghost—thinking of her… I wouldn’t have been surprised if someone walked up and told me I had died and gone to hell.
Easton grabbed my shoulder and turned me to face him, even though it was black as hell. "I only gave her that dinner because she was pining for you. She wouldn’t eat. Wouldn’t give Drake back the burner phones so he could destroy them even though she ended up burning them up herself on accident. She just sat on the floor half the day, staring at the wall. She needs you too, Bodie."
I wouldn’t have thought that hearing another person was miserable would cheer me up. But it did. It fucking did. "You telling the truth?" I asked gruffly, trying not to let vulnerability seep into my voice.
"Yeah. You can ask anyone. She helped with the kids in the vault a little. Met with us to talk when she had to. But whenever she was alone… it was bad."
My mate bond sang a little. "Well… thanks for taking care of her, I guess."
"Always," Easton replied. "We’re pack."
I had to swallow the lump in my throat when he said that. Anyone else who was pack wanted to know what I could do for them, how I could help them, protect them. It’s why Easton and Drake had been my refuge. They didn’t ever ask me for things I didn’t want to give. They tried not to ask for anything at all.
Fuck.
I was not gonna have some ‘bro’ moment with a dead body at my feet.
I blew out a breath and studied the body before bending and grabbing his arms. "You got legs?" I asked Easton.
"Yup."
Together we wrangled the body down the rest of the stairs and into a hallway that at least had a couple of lights. There were quite a few doors.
I grinned at Easton as he dropped the legs and I started to drag the body toward the closest door. "Alright, Deadly Dursley... let’s go find you a cupboard to hide in."
"Dude, that was a total Aubry line." I could hear Easton’s grin in his voice. "Our mate’s rubbing off on you."
"No. I’m the one who rubs off on her," I bantered back. "Speaking of, let’s get this guy hidden and lock down the school so I can go do that."
"Roger Dodger."
We stuffed the body in a janitor’s closet. Then hurried back up to the roof, so that Kira could activate the sleep powder and shove it through the vents.
But when we made it to the roof, the night sky was lit up with mage spells that crackled like fireworks.
13
Aubry
"Mage attack!"
I heard the words echo across the night sky, but I had no idea who’d uttered them. It didn’t even matter; I immediately took flight in the direction of the voice, no matter whose it was. I spread my wings out and tucked them back with blistering speed, shooting through the dark air. We had to head off those mages before they somehow ruined what we’d almost achieved—the unprecedented act of taking over a mage school.
My pulse thrummed, ready to fight. But we had to stop them peacefully thanks to Larry and his bleeding heart—and my plan to keep that bleeding heart on our side. That meant the other side got to fight full out while we had to show restraint.
This was gonna be so hard…
I spotted Rocco pulling out a gun as a potion arced through the air and splashed onto the grass beside him. Diving, I touched down a few feet away and forcefully lowered his firearm.
"Peaceful takeover, remember?" I reminded him sternly.
The saber tooth sneered. "We didn't get powerful in New York by being pussies. You can't be afraid to shed a little blood."
"I'm not afraid of bloodshed, pussy cat," I said, stepping up into his personal space. "But you made a deal with us. You said you'd do this clean, and you damn well better hold up your end of the bargain."
Rocco glared at me, and I glared right back. Another potion bottle splashed at our feet, and a couple drops of damaging potion kissed my ankle like poison. By the looks of the grimace on Rocco's face, I assumed he'd been hit by it too.
Great. Because we’d been arguing, we’d each lost a little bit of our magical ability. My fire wouldn’t be as hot. I had no idea what the potion would do to the tiger—shorten his fangs? But he needed to give in so we could fucking move out of range.
He stuffed the handgun into his belt and grunted. "Fine."
I cocked my head. "Fine. Now go tell Kira to hurry her ass up. We need sleep grenades in—" I peered through the shadowed windows of the building as best I could. I thought I saw rows of little vials and faucets on the tables, and maybe a shadow ducking down. "—the science lab. ASAP."
Rocco nodded once and took off across the lawn. I was surprised he’d listened, but I didn’t have much chance to mull that over because my eyes were busy scanning the area for our attackers.
Drake touched down near me a moment later, his heavy muscular body landing on the yard with a solid thump. "What's going on? I heard someone yell ‘mage attack.’"
I nodded, tilting my head so I could better listen for those mage idiots. "That was Rocco. I sent him to get Kira over here stat."
"Where’d the attack come from?" Drake asked, eyes watching my six.
I tipped my head in the direction of the science center. "In there. Apparently, some mages in the science building haven't been hit with the sleep grenades yet. No idea how many little shitstains there are, but they've only thrown a couple potions, so I assume we can spank them all soundly and put them to bed."
To my surprise Drake smirked and handed me a black piece of cloth. I unfurled it, holding it up to see the boney mouth of a skeleton printed in white. Drake tugged his own piece of cloth over his head—black with sharp white teeth—and covered his mouth and nose.
Then he lifted a challenging brow at me. "You feel like wrecking a few mages?"
"Peacefully," I mocked with an eye roll.
But I wasn't one to back down from a challenge. In fact, part of me was skipping around like a little girl on a playdate. I pulled my own mask over the bottom half of my face and readjusted my ponytail, allowing the cascading waterfall of silvery white hair to fall over the front of my shoulder.
"Right," Drake agreed just as scathingly. "Peacefully. On Larry's honor."
I snorted. "Pretty sure you're supposed to swear on your own honor."
Drake's eyes crinkled in the corners, a sure sign he was grinning, even though I couldn’t see it. "I have no honor to swear on, Dollface. Better to use his, since it actually means something."
Wasn't that the truth, I thought wryly.
"Come on," he said, ducking down and slinking over to the shadows surrounding the building.
I followed him, half tiptoeing half fluttering.
"We're out of sleep grenades," Drake whispered. "Kira has the last of them. So, we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way."
I grinned. "Sounds perfect." My blood started to rush, and my fingers tingled with anticipation.
His eyes searched mine for just a moment before he swallowed and turned back toward the door. "On my signal, we bust in. You take left, I'll take right. Got it?"
I nodded. "Got it."
Drake held up three fingers, silently ticking them down until there were none left standing. We burst through the door and immediately took action. He rushed right, while I tucked and rolled to the left. A potion bottle sailed over my head and crashed onto the tile floor behind me.
It had come from the classroom on my side of the hall, where a door and a window were both propped open. Drake and I walked in just as the mage who'd chucked it ducked behind a back table with a sink and a Bunsen burner on top. Little vials and potion bottles littered the surface, along with a thick spell book open to a page in the middle.
I
followed the mage's lead and found a chemistry table of my own to hide behind. Peeking up so that only my eyes showed, I scanned the potions before me, looking for one that was a powdery white—a sleep grenade—but I found none.
I peered across the room to where Drake was hunkered down behind a different table. There must have been at least a dozen of the damn things—three rows and four deep: my row, Drake's row, and the middle row between us, stretching back with four tables between us and the back of the class. Surely one would have the potion we needed. But then again, we didn't actually know how many mages were back there. We might've needed quite a few.
Drake caught my eye and signaled with his hand for us to move forward. I nodded before glancing around the corner and scurrying up to the next table in line.
Clear. No mage fucks squatting in the shadows. I glanced over at Drake. His side was clear too. Six tables down, six to go. Two more rows.
He signaled again, but I shook my head, pausing to check my new table for Sleep Grenade Potions. I grabbed one that I thought might be right, sniffing it ever so slightly to see if I could detect the sugary smell of a properly completed potion. But I couldn't exactly tell. It might've been ready, but it might not have been. Either way, I grabbed it just in case. A half-assed weapon was better than none.
Actually, a half-assed weapon was better than a good one—especially when we weren't supposed to harm our targets. So, if this wasn’t a Sleep Grenade Potion, but some kind of Damage Potion, hopefully it would only half work.
Drake followed my lead and palmed a white-colored bottle, then signaled once more to move forward. This time, I nodded.