by Callie Rose
“Nice shot!” I yelled.
A second later, we burst out of the house into the cool fall air. One of the topiary animals ahead of us exploded in a shower of leaves and twigs as a blast hit it, and I ducked quickly, still sprinting as fast as I could.
“Right!”
Kingston waved his arm wildly, and we all veered in that direction, racing alongside the rear of the house.
The property was so fucking huge that we were nowhere near the edge of it, and I was starting to get a bad feeling about our chances of outrunning our pursuers.
Maybe Jayce felt the same way, because he glanced over his shoulder and panted, “Should we use a portal?”
“Can’t,” I huffed back, keeping my gaze fixed straight ahead, arms and legs pumping as hard as I could. “If they lose us, they’ll go back into the house.”
“Fuck.” He grimaced, picking up his speed slightly.
“There!”
Kingston pointed again, and I let out a groan of relief as I followed the line of his finger. A massive detached garage loomed ahead of us. Fuck, yes. If we couldn’t escape by magical means, then at least we wouldn’t have to do it on foot. I’d gotten into pretty good shape after all my training at FU and having to survive in the underworld, but I really only ran like this if something was chasing me.
Which, you know, things were.
When we reached the garage, Kingston yanked open a door on the side. “Wait here!” he called before disappearing into the large space.
“Yeah, okay. We’ll just be here then,” Jayce called after him, rolling his eyes as he panted for breath.
Xero was lobbing more balls of fire at our attackers, and Hannah, who’d obviously been doing all her homework like the sweet little nerd she was, used some kind of levitation spell to lift the monsters at the front of the pack a foot or so off the ground and slam them back into the creatures behind them, creating a sort of fallen pile-up.
Still, it didn’t keep them down for long. One of the gargoyle flexed its massive stone wings and took to the sky, slipping out of the tangle of bodies and making a beeline for us.
Shit. Would persuasion work on a rock?
“Look up into the sky,” I said soothingly as the stone creature hurtled toward us. “Look at all those pretty clouds. You want to catch them, don’t you? They’re so pretty.”
The gargoyle shook its head, seeming confused for an instant. Then its head tipped back with a scraping sound, and it shifted course, heading upward as it reached out with blunt stone fingers, already reaching for the clouds that hovered high in the sky.
Good. There was no way it’d reach the clouds, of course, but if it flew high enough, the magic that helped its heavy rock body defy gravity would weaken. It’d plummet back to earth and shatter, taking out at least one of our enemies.
Just as the other creatures began to disentangle themselves, racing toward us once again, the roar of an engine echoed from inside the garage. A second later, the broad door swung upward, and a sleek black sports car shot out.
Its tires screeched as Kingston braked, and he leaned over to yell through the open passenger window, “Get in!”
He didn’t need to tell any of us twice. I didn’t know shit about cars, but the one he was driving looked expensive as fuck—and more importantly, fast.
We all dove for the car, yanking open the doors and piling inside. None of us had shifted into our fallen forms, but even in human form, it was an unpleasantly tight fit to get six people into a sports car.
Xero, who was the broadest of all the guys, ended up in the front passenger seat. Kai, Jayce, Hannah, and I ended up in the back, with me and the two men squished together and Hannah draped awkwardly over our laps. She practically elbowed Kai in the junk as she rose up to direct a hand out the window, shooting another blast of magic at the fallen who were racing toward the car.
“Go, go, go!” Jayce yelled, reaching forward to punch the driver’s seat, letting Kingston know that we were all inside.
The dragon shifter gunned the engine again, and we peeled out with the smell of burning rubber. As he raced down the long driveway toward the property’s entrance, I saw the heavy iron gates part and start to swing open—but not fast enough.
“Kingston.” My right foot unconsciously pressed into the floor, as if searching for the brake pedal. “Kingston.” I reached out blindly for something to hold on to, to brace myself with. “Kingston!”
The car reached the entrance going nearly sixty miles an hour, and metal screeched on metal as we slid through the gates with less than an inch to spare. Both side mirrors went flying with a crash of broken glass, but I could barely hear the sound through the scream that tore from my throat.
Then we were through, turning quickly as we hit the street, the back end of the car fishtailing wildly.
Holy fuck. Can demons have heart attacks? Because I think I just had one.
“Guess that stunt driving course really paid off, huh?”
Xero shot a glance at Kingston, and I honestly couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. It wouldn’t surprise me if Kingston had taken a stunt driving course at some point. When you had enough money to do and buy whatever you wanted, you probably got up to some pretty weird shit.
Kingston barely acknowledged the demon’s words. His gaze was glued to the road ahead of us, his hands tight on the wheel. The car was picking up speed, zipping through the quiet, residential neighborhood populated by Toronto’s one-percenters.
I glanced through the back window, craning my neck to see better. “They’re still after us—fuck, they’re fast—but we’re gaining a lead. Keep going.”
“Yup,” Kingston said grimly.
Shit. I hope his team got his parents to safety. I wonder how the hell they explained any of thi—
Before I could finish the thought, the air a dozen yards ahead of us seemed to shimmer, like heatwaves coming off of asphalt on a summer day. A half-second later, six Custodians stepped out of the portal, standing directly in our path.
One of them raised a hand, and a bolt of lightning shot from her fingertips, striking the road just in front of Kingston’s car.
“Ah, fuck!”
He jerked the wheel, sending all of us sliding wildly across the seat.
Another blast came at us, and the Custodian must’ve anticipated which way he’d go, because she hit the hood of the car dead on this time.
The entire vehicle jolted with the impact, and the back end rose in the air, flipping over the front. The world seemed to tilt and spin in front of me, and I had just enough time to register the horrifying thought that after everything we’d been through, after all the dangers we’d faced, we were about to die in a car crash.
And then Hannah yelled something just before we hit the ground. The top of the car hit pavement, but instead of crumpling and crushing us, it held firm—and the impact wasn’t nearly as hard as I expected. We all tumbled around inside the car as it skidded across the road upside down.
“Oh, fuck…”
Jayce groaned from beneath me, and I scrambled to let him up.
“Everyone okay?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Kingston turned back from the front seat to look at Hannah. “Was that levitation?”
She nodded. “Not strong enough to prevent the impact entirely, but I did what I could.”
“That was fucking amazing,” I told her, my heart still slamming hard against my ribs as my hands shook.
“Thanks.”
“Um, guys. Small problem.”
Kai’s voice was tense, and I shook off the dizziness from our spin through the air and peered out of the cracked windows.
“Shit.”
We were being advanced on from both sides—Custodians on one side and fallen on the other. We’d been about to lose the pack of monsters that was chasing us, but our crash had slowed us down, giving them time to cover the distance. The two groups were hurling spells at each other, and blasts of light punctuated the sounds of howls and
yells that split the air.
“Maybe it’s not a problem,” I muttered. “Maybe they’ll keep each other distracted long enough for us to get the fuck out of here.”
As if they’d heard my words and were determined to punish me for daring to have a shred of optimism, both groups suddenly turned toward Kingston’s downed vehicle.
The fallen snarled and howled, and the Custodians let out a battle cry.
“Motherfucker!”
Xero unleashed several fireballs, exploding the car windows outward and making my skin prickle with heat.
We all scrambled out of the car seconds before it was decimated by several magical attacks. Chaos broke out around us as the Custodians and fallen battled us and each other.
“Focus on the fallen!” I screamed, diving out of the way of another blast. “Try not to kill any of the Custodians!”
“Goddamn it,” Kai griped, but he did as I said, shifting into his vampire form and moving so fast he was almost a blur as he darted toward a demon with dark gray skin.
He sank his teeth into the demon’s neck, tearing at flesh with his sharp canines. But even as he took out one of the threats, a Custodian with dark brown hair raised a hand to hit him with a spell from behind.
Oh, no, you don’t, you asshole.
“Leave him alone!” I put as much persuasion in my voice as I could—a little difficult with panic coursing through my veins—but it did the trick. The Custodian blinked for a second, lowering his hand.
As he did, I realized I recognized him.
“Kyle?”
He’d worked with Dru and Sonja to capture Hannah and me after we were both turned, and I’d gotten the impression he had a bit of a crush on Sonja.
That suspicion was confirmed when he glanced at me, the sound of his name snapping him out of his stupor. The battle raged around us as he registered my features, and his face contorted into a scowl.
“You!”
That was all he said before he launched himself at me.
We hit the ground and rolled, and I landed a solid punch to his face before he grabbed my upper arm and squeezed. Pain shot directly through my body, delivered by his touch, and he squeezed harder, forcing more agony into me.
I groaned, struggling to keep my grip on him. Through the haze of pain, I could see flashes of the fight around us—the howl of a hellhound, the loud crack of a gargoyle’s stone body breaking, screams and shouts.
“What the fuck?” I choked out, my voice thick with agony. “We’re on your side, you asshole.”
“No, you’re not,” Kyle growled. “I know who you are. I know what you did to Sonja. And you’re all branded for death.”
“Yeah, because the organization you work for has their priorities way the hell out of whack.”
As I spoke, I began to subtly shape shift, hoping he wouldn’t catch on to what I was doing until it was too late. Along with being able to alter my appearance, I could also change my size, and I began making myself bigger—slowly at first, and then all at once in a rush. I rolled us over as I shifted, landing on top of Kyle and pinning him down with my heavier weight. I was nearly twice the size he was now, and even though he struggled and grunted, he couldn’t throw me off.
I pinned his wrists too, stopping him from getting a grip on me and injecting his pain magic into my veins.
As he struggled beneath me, I finally became aware that the sounds around us were fading out. I glanced up, my heart hammering in my chest. The fallen who’d been chasing us were all down, taken out by Hannah and my guys—and maybe by the Custodians too.
It looked like one Custodian had been killed fighting a smoke demon, and one was unconscious. The remaining two were being pinned down by my mates and my friend.
Thank fuck.
“Pipes,” Jayce called, his voice strained. “We gotta go. We can’t hold these guys for long.”
He was in his hellhound form, and his muzzle dripped with blood. His paws were pressed to the chest of a Custodian—the one who’d shot lightning at us—who stared up at him with an angry expression. Hannah stood over the woman too, her hands held out threateningly.
I turned back to Kyle quickly. “I’m sorry you lost one of your own. Maybe you wouldn’t have if you’d teamed up with us and let us help you instead of wasting your time fighting us when we’re not the threat.”
His lips curled in a sneer, and I leaned more of my weight onto him, sort of hoping I was cracking a rib or two. This guy was a dick.
“Let me repeat that, fuckhead. We’re. Not. The. Threat,” I said slowly. “Gavriel is. He’s planning a massive attack on earth—way bigger than we anticipated, and soon. Like, within days soon. He hasn’t just been sending more fallen to earth. He’s been mustering an army in the underworld, and he’s not fucking around about this. Why don’t you tell your higher-ups about that, huh? Tell them to go after the real enemy, not a bunch of fallen who aren’t even on Gavriel’s side.”
The angry expression never left Kyle’s face, and I had a feeling I might as well be talking to the broken chunks of what’d once been a gargoyle nearby. The stone would be just as likely to listen as Kyle.
I swore under my breath and turned to glance at the others. As I did, I caught the Custodian with the lightning power staring at me, her dark eyes thoughtful.
Huh. Maybe someone had listened to what I’d said, even if it wasn’t Kyle the fuckhead.
I could only hope she’d believe me. We couldn’t afford to go to the Custodian headquarters ourselves, at least not yet. But maybe she’d at least deliver the news about Gavriel’s plan to attack. Maybe they’d be at least a little prepared to defend earth from his planned invasion.
“We need a portal, guys,” I said, dragging my gaze away from the woman to look at my bond-mates. “Same place we went last time, okay? On three.”
They all nodded, and Hannah bobbed her head too.
Projecting persuasion through my voice, I murmured to the Custodians around me who were still alive and conscious, “We’re going to stand up, but you keep lying right where you are. You’re sleepy. You’re hurt. You need a little rest, right?”
Kyle’s body went limp beneath mine, all the tension bleeding out of it. The persuasion had been easier since it was leaning in to how they probably felt anyway.
I counted down quietly, and then all of us abandoned the Custodians we’d been pinning down, gathering into a circle and linking hands. A second later, a portal opened up and sucked us through space, dumping us back into an alley in Seattle.
Home, sweet home.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Our landing was a lot less rough, since we all knew exactly where we were going this time, and we weren’t teleporting across dimension barriers, just across a large distance on earth.
We’d be drawing Custodian attention by using a portal, but after the melee we’d just had on the streets of Toronto, I figured we were about done with the “lying low” portion of this mission. We were out of time for that. Now we just had to move fast enough to stay ahead of our pursuers—both Custodians and Gavriel’s minions—until we were ready to face them.
“Everybody okay?” I asked quickly, shrinking back down to regular size and glancing around the rough circle we’d formed.
All my mates had shifted back into their human forms, and since we were all dressed in regular street clothes now, I was hopeful we’d blend in better than we had the first time we’d come here a few days ago.
“A little beat up, but what else is new?” Jayce shot me a little grin, which made him look innocent and boyish despite the trickle of blood running down the side of his face from his hairline, and the smear of other people’s blood that still coated his lips.
“You’ve got a little something…” I pointed to my own mouth, and Jayce cursed, lifting up his shirt to wipe his face, baring his washboard abs for a moment.
Kai did the same thing. His most effective method of attack involved literally tearing people’s throats out with his teeth
—which was a bit horrifying if I allowed myself to think about it too much—so he also has blood smeared over his face.
“Okay. So, what now?” Hannah asked, glancing around the alley as if she expected more fallen or Custodians to pop out and attack us at any moment.
Which, for all I knew, was a very real possibility.
“We need to go check out those portals for ourselves. The big five,” I said grimly. “I know it’s risky. We’ll draw Custodian attention, and we could even get caught by one of Gavriel’s scouts if our timing is bad. But we need to risk it. We know when he’s coming—although we still need to account for the different timelines between here and the underworld. We know about the huge fucking army he’s bringing with him. The one piece we’re still missing is the where. Once we know that, we can start figuring out how to stop him.”
“Agreed.” Kingston ran a hand through his brown hair.
The car chase and the battle seemed to have sharpened his focus and brought him down from the sleep-deprivation high he’d been on earlier. At least he’d gotten some breakfast before all hell broke loose, but I was sure that between the shock of seeing his parents and the three days of non-stop work, he was going to crash soon.
I stepped up beside him and wrapped an arm around his waist. He relaxed slightly under my touch, and I could feel the contact healing the scrapes and bruises on my body.
“You’ll have to lead us on this,” I said quietly. “None of us have ever been to the location of these portals before, but you’ve spent the most time studying. We’ll be stabbing in the dark a bit, but at least you know where we’re aiming.”
“Yeah. I can do that. We’ll do Kazakhstan first.”
He nodded, and Jayce came up on his other side, offering him more support. Everyone gathered into a tight knot around us, and we all grabbed onto each other somehow. We weren’t so much a circle as a giant glob of bodies this time, but hey, it got the job done.
A shimmering portal opened up around us, and a moment later, we were sucked through space.