He shot a stream of red crackling light straight at the siren’s chest, and fried her boobs. Thankfully it was enough to distract her concentration; my prison dissolved, a gush of water going everywhere.
I landed on the ground hard, falling partly onto a lawn chair, and possibly cracking a rib or two in the process. My hands tried to catch my fall, but the second I touched my injured wrist to the ground, sharp pain shot up my arm and I yanked it away as if it were on fire.
My body competed between the need to gasp for air, cough my lungs out, and pass out. I gulped in air, choked on it, coughed, and flopped around all while trying to find Cass.
He was taking on Calista on his own, with Molly in the background looking like she was considering intervening. She was totally untrained, and stepping in would only get her killed.
I staggered to my feet, stumbling at first, but sucking it up after. With small steady breaths, I continued to pull in air, like a fish caught out of water as I zeroed in on Calista. No way was the bitch going to hurt my friends. Gran’s water creature spell was gone, and my gun would be no good after taking a dunk, but I wasn’t a two-hit wonder.
Yanking a smoke spell vial from my belt, I pulled the cork out with my teeth, spitting it to the ground. Then I launched the vial right in between Cass and the siren. It was little more than a parlor trick, but Gran’s smoke was thick; it should be enough to allow us to sneak up on the little wench and cuff her. No ordinary cuffs, of course. These cuffs, once placed on the perp, rendered their magic useless.
Thick tendrils of smoke burst into the air beneath Cass and Calista and I grinned, circling the smoke like a shark. I pinned my focus on the place Calista had just occupied, and rounded the smoke, assuming Cass would probably be coming at her from the opposite direction. This wasn’t our first rodeo, and we’d roped far worse than her.
I was just making out the strands of the siren’s thick green hair, and the sparking red magic of my bestie behind her, when thunder clapped overhead. It was so loud and fierce that my bones shook. My wrist and ribs complained. The sky suddenly grew darker than the smoke, and I realized what she was doing. Gran’s sunlight spell would have given us a good ten minutes away from the vamps... but not if the fucking siren was going to affect the weather. I was pretty sure every single vamp my little trick had sent bounding inside for cover, was pressed against the windows, watching the siren’s storm come in. And when it did, we were in a whole boatload of trouble.
Vamps didn’t play nice on the best of days. Even though their seethe had been theoretically harboring a fugitive and breaking the law, they’d see us as the intruders and aggressors. They’d probably just kill us and try to hide the bodies. Mack might figure it out… or he might not; vamps had friends in high places. They were the wealthiest of all the supernatural races.
Thunder clapped again as clouds grew heavy and clashed overhead.
The smoke thinned, enough that I could make out the siren’s shape.
Molly roared suddenly behind me and my head jerked toward the sound just as the human charged at Calista through the smoke.
Oh my God. This was bad. Molly was a supe groupie, not a supe hunter. Calista would eat her alive—literally. Sirens loved bone marrow.
I couldn’t leave Cass and Molly to fend for themselves. As the sky darkened, and the smoke swirled around us, I reached out and fisted Molly’s shirt with my good hand, yanking her toward me with all my strength. She spun off balance and crashed into my chest, taking me to the ground with her on top. I tried not to focus on all the bits that hurt as I made yet another awkward landing. Rolling to the side, I threw Molly off and popped to my feet, dragging her behind me.
‘Time to get the fuck out of here,’ I sent to Cass through our telepathic link.
I’d only retreated a handful of times in my career, but it was time to return another day with more in our arsenal. I didn’t fancy being vampire food, and Calista was way more powerful than I’d expected.
‘You can say that again,’ my furry friend responded right away, sounding like he was moving as fast as his short legs or wings could carry him.
‘I’ve got Molly. Meet you at the car?’
‘Book it, girl. Those vamps are gonna suck us dry if we don’t get out of here.’
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I pulled Molly toward the fence, until I noticed she was on board with the escape and running alongside me. The gate we’d come through had been guarded. So I ran about twenty feet from that spot, and kicked two boards in the middle of the fence down like I was still badass Evie, and not prego Evie with a clusterfuck for a life. Wood cracked loudly, but the boards didn’t go down the first time. A second kick accomplished my intended result, and I side-stepped through the gap with Molly right on my heels.
The cries of the siren and the vamps erupted behind us, but Gran’s smoke should confuse things long enough for us to get to the Jeep. I ran with everything I had left, pumping my arms and whizzing across the long walkway to the bottom of the drive. From the side of my eye I caught a flash of bright purple hair. Good, Molly was keeping up with me.
I’d completely forgotten about my security detail! The two hulked-out werewolves were leaning against the hood of their car, concern etched across their faces.
“Get out of here! Aborting the mission!” I shouted at them frantically.
Brock was going to lock me in a cage after tonight.
I skidded to a stop, bumping straight into the Jeep’s driver’s side door. Cass flew around the hood, and wedged his glittery ass in through the back open window. Two seconds later, Molly and I were also inside. Turning the engine over quickly, fighting the pang of pain from my wrist, I laid rubber as we got the hell out of there. I was pleased to confirm in my rearview mirror that the wolves were right behind us.
Then a couple of vamps appeared out of nowhere—fuck their super speed—and grabbed at the bumper of the car. I squealed, and rammed the accelerator until they let go.
“Gun it, Ev,” Cass urged from the back seat, where he knelt, and watched the vamps who chased us.
For once, I had no problem following orders. I pushed the pedal to the metal, and got us the hell out of there. Brock’s bodyguards were right behind us, but I didn’t stop checking the rearview mirror, until I passed the bulldozer parked at the top of the long road to Gran’s cabin.
13 I’m Grounded
I parked the Jeep in front of Gran’s cabin, but neither Cass, Molly, nor I got out until my security detail skidded to a stop next to us.
“They’d better not be planning on giving us shit,” Cass muttered. “I’m not in the mood.”
Yeah, neither was I.
Blondie and Ginger, the beefcakes Brock had sent to tempt me before we’d found out I had a bun in the oven, sidled over to my Jeep in long, efficient strides. My furious gaze focused on them through the window, even though it wasn’t their fault that Calista’s capture had sucked a big one.
I didn’t lower the window until Blondie knocked on it. Couldn’t they give a girl time to recover after what I just went through?
“Why are you all wet?” was the first thing Blondie asked, and not a good sign as to how our conversation would progress.
“Maybe I felt like going for a swim,” I replied, feeling a bit guilty that I was being surly at them when it wasn’t their fault.
Ginger stepped next to the blond wolf and peered into the car. “Are you guys going to get out or what?”
Or what, I felt like saying, but figured I’d act like a big girl instead of the brat I felt like being.
“Or what,” Cass grumbled behind me, and I shot an understated smile at my grumpy bestie. He’d been bummed about how things went down as much as I.
Blondie pulled the car door open for me, and I stepped out with minimal groaning.
“Why are you groaning? What the hell happened back there!” the blond wolf with the cobalt-blue eyes asked. Clearly, Brock had trained them in the art of smothering.
O-kay, then. I should’ve known subtlety wasn’t my strong suit. “Nothing. I’m fine,” I lied.
Blondie reached out to help me, accidentally brushing my right hand, and I winced. He shared a concerned look with Ginger, but I suspected they were more concerned about what Brock would say to them if they let me get hurt on their watch.
A wave of sympathy rolled through me. I didn’t want them to pay for my mistakes. They probably thought I was a slutty lunatic knocked up with their alpha’s baby—and who could blame them?
“I got hurt in the takedown, but all I need is to rest a bit and I’ll be fine.” What I really meant was that I needed to see if I could find a witch healer, to come by and fix me before Brock figured out what happened.
Blondie and Ginger shared another look. ‘We’re in so much shit,’ Ginger mumbled.
“Seriously,” I said, putting on the best face I could. I figured I probably looked like a drowned, er, fox. “I’d like it if you’d go back to the house, and tell Brock that I got a bit tired out from following up on my lead, and that I just want to go to sleep.”
The wolves didn’t look like they were buying it, and I didn’t blame them.
Molly stepped out of the car and wrapped an arm around me. “I promise I’ll look after her. I’ll get her out of these wet clothes, and into bed right away.”
This time, Ginger waggled his eyebrows and Blondie grinned. Molly slapped Ginger, who stood closest to her, on the forearm. “Not like that, you pervs.”
That only made the wolves’ grin bigger, and Cass chuckled behind us.
I liked Molly.
“Hey, we’re happy to help however we can,” Ginger said in his deep, musical voice, and I swore I felt Molly’s heart skip a beat. The girl was as much a goner for the hot wolves as I was—only I’d been fool enough to fall for the alpha, because who was I kidding? I was into him more than I should be. No matter that he was my baby daddy, I barely knew him.
But don’t you know him? Time isn’t a good measure of knowing someone. The annoying thought popped into my mind.
I growled at myself, but apparently I did so out loud and the wolves looked at me, surprised.
“I’ll be fine. Please, just go back to the house and tell Brock I need to rest for a bit. I don’t want him coming to check on me, I just want to sleep. It’s best for the baby.”
The wolves’ eyebrows nearly shot off their foreheads in twin looks of shock. “Baby?” the redhead asked.
“You’re pregnant?” the blond one asked.
“Fuck,” I mumbled.
I assumed Brock had held a mass meeting, and told his entire pack. Stupid.
“They didn’t know,” Cass observed.
Really fucking helpful to know now. Why was Brock keeping it a secret from his pack? Obviously some of the pack knew, but maybe just his most trusted wolves.
‘He should’ve told you if you were supposed to keep it a secret,’ Cass echoed in my head, mirroring my exact thoughts.