Angel Kin

by Tricia Skinner

  “No way,” Jarrid added.

  Cain had to agree. Tanis’s wings were twisted to hell and his powers were spotty. Risking his brothers was a hard enough struggle. The angel? “No goddamned chance.”

  “Do not kill anyone.” Tanis ignored the team’s sudden shift. “Disable or disorient. Buy Kas time to find the mayor and Cain a shot at escape.”

  “We’ve got this,” Jarrid said.

  Tanis faced everyone. Anger contorted his features. “They hunt your brother. My son.” He tapped the center of his chest. “And in case you’ve forgotten, I am an angel of the God of All.”

  “We don’t doubt you can still bring the pain.” Kas lowered his eyes. “But…”

  Nesty crossed his arms and frowned. “You’re the only parent we have left.”

  A lump blocked Cain’s airway. Look at them. His fierce family. All willing to risk themselves to protect him. He reached out and squeezed Tanis’s shoulder. The pain in his father’s eyes gutted him.

  “I will be careful,” Tanis said. “Disable or disorient, and avoid the shifters if you can.”

  “The humans are iffy,” Jarrid said.

  Murmurs sprang up. Katie poked his side.

  “Humans with guns were always dangerous,” he told her. “‘Friendly fire’ wasn’t a term invented by supernaturals.”

  Kas returned his attention to the computer console. Minutes later, the motel’s power shut off, shrouding the area in darkness.

  Cain grabbed Katie’s hand. “When you get outside, there’s a chance they’ll shuffle you to a police cruiser or van. Don’t fight them. I’ll release you and you’ll head for the SUV and drive like hell for the cabin. Understand?”

  He cracked the door open. “Thompson, there’s an innocent woman in here,” Cain shouted. “She’s coming out. Have your men stand down.”

  Katie grabbed a handful of his shirt. “You better come for me.” Then she reached up, tugged his head down, and kissed him.

  “Send the hostage out.”

  Hostage? Cain wanted to punch that son of a bitch. Calling him a murderer wasn’t enough? “She’s leaving now.”

  He peered through the door’s opening. The strike team closest to the room had lowered their weapons, but the men toward the rear hadn’t. With one last squeeze to Katie’s hand, he stepped to the side. The expression on her face was of pure fear as she slipped out the door.

  Cain closed it behind her and moved to a window. His chest ached watching her walk toward the waiting police. The bright spotlights forced Katie to cover her eyes as she inched away from the room.

  “When I get out there, I’ll hit the front two lines with Grace and then—”

  “Negative,” Tanis said. “That much power would overwhelm you and trigger the Act. As soon as you clear the door, I want Jarrid to shield you. We’ll follow and head for their flanks.”

  Cain cast one last look at the men who’d grown up with him. He owed them his life several times over for their unflinching loyalty. If only Abel had been so lucky.

  He removed his weapons and placed them on the table next to Kas. His Desert Eagles and assorted daggers formed a pile around the computer, although he left a dagger hidden at his back and one in his boot. When he finished, he returned to the door and cracked it open. “I’m coming out. Unarmed.”

  Several gun chambers snapped into place. The Bound Ones were ready, too.

  Cain opened the door and raised his arms. He stepped forward and kept his palms up. The spotlights momentarily fried his vision, but his eyes adjusted.

  “Keep your hands up. Move away from the building.”

  What the hell did it look like he was doing?

  He took another small step. Movement drew his attention to his left. Two black-clothed officers approached, guns pointed at him.

  “Facedown. Now,” one yelled.

  Cain turned his head to face the human. “Not going to happen, pal.”

  “I said on the ground!”

  Cain’s Grace pulsed beneath his skin, but he held off. Going fetal from the Act of Contrition was a bad idea. Still, a little use wouldn’t hurt. He smiled at the approaching men, focused his power, and sent a command.

  “Shoot the lights.”

  The cops went rigid, then turned and took aim. Shouts erupted from their comrades, but they opened fired. As their guns discharged, the three spotlights blew in a shower of sparks.

  “Hold your fire!” Thompson’s voice boomed from speakers around the darkened parking lot.

  Cain crouched. He heard the team move behind him as he scanned the various cars, searching for Katie.

  “Go,” Tanis said, tapping his back.

  The team broke into a run. Gunfire shattered the night.

  Cain headed for the left flank with Tanis while Jarrid and Nesty went to the right. He plowed into a cop and knocked the guy flat before he sprinted toward three more. They raised their rifles.

  “Down,” Tanis yelled behind him. A split second later, a pulse of light flew past him on a trajectory toward the police. The sphere hit, and they cried out as the force lifted the men off their feet and tossed them several yards.

  He heard Tanis groan and spun around. His father had dropped to one knee, panting. Cain ran to him.

  “I’m fine.”

  “I can see that.” Cain grabbed Tanis’s arm and hauled him up. He couldn’t dwell on the fear crushing his chest. He tapped his earpiece. “Four down.”

  “The light show brought company. Move north,” Kas advised.

  Cain and Tanis headed in that direction. Movement ahead stopped him cold. He summoned his power, ready to face the next obstacle.

  “It’s us.” Jarrid crouched beside a civilian car, Nesty next to him. “Heard Kas tell you to head north. Anyone hurt?”

  “We’re good,” Tanis said, grimacing as he rotated his shoulder.

  Cain let the lie pass. Then his earpiece crackled.

  “Now that the family’s together, you have guests,” Kas said. “Lots of guests.”

  He cursed. “How soon?”

  “Too soon to avoid a fight.”

  Tanis glanced over the car. “We’ll make a stand here. Take out as many as possible, without casualties.” He turned to Cain. “Find her.”

  He glanced at Nesty and Jarrid. Katie was in one of the police cars, but the incoming force would be tough for the team to tackle alone. Torn between his allegiance to his family and his affection for her, he couldn’t move.

  “Go,” his father said, choosing for him.

  Jarrid withdrew two daggers from the harnesses on his thighs. Nesty did the same. Tanis reached over his shoulder. The slow scrape of his angel sword echoed in the open air. Cain reached behind his back and pulled the dagger out.

  “Drop your weapons,” came the first shout from the tactical unit leader.

  He narrowed his eyes as thirty officers surrounded them, guns drawn. A tense, utter silence fell.

  “I’m Tanis, leader of The Bound Ones.” His father’s grip tightened on the hilt. “We are not enemies. Lower your weapons.”

  “I said drop the sword, or I’ll make you, Feathers.”

  Nesty hissed behind him. Jarrid eyed the bigmouthed cop and growled.

  “Try it, asshole,” Cain said coolly.

  “Back away and you will not be harmed.” Tanis’s eyes flared with his Grace.

  In a blink, the mouthy human twitched and fired. In that same instance, Jarrid raised a shield around Cain, Tanis, and Nesty, and the bullets hit and dropped to the ground, harmless.

  “Bring ’em down,” the tactical officer yelled.

  “Shit,” Tanis muttered before muzzle flashes pierced the darkness like lightning.

  Jarrid’s shield held, protecting the team from instant death. A pair of daggers flew from Nesty’s hands and pierced the cloth-covered thighs of two tactical members. The men crumpled, clutching their legs and screaming.

  Tanis prepared another energy blast, his body shaking, but Cain grabbed his
shoulder and looked at Nesty.

  His brother faced the small force surrounding them. Then he parted his lips and unleashed his devastating voice. Pressure built in Cain’s ears, as if he’d been caught on an airplane on descent. Not painful, but uncomfortable. Fortunately the full power wasn’t aimed at him.

  The targeted officers cried out and slapped at their ears as their nervous systems were ravaged. Some fell to their knees. Others flung their rifles down, clawing at their heads. Several sagged against trees, sobbing as blood trickled from their noses.

  “Careful, son.” Tanis monitored the effect of Nesty’s resonance.

  Too much would turn the victims’ brains to gelatin. The sound cut off, replaced by the groans and crying of grown men and women.

  Cain stepped out of Jarrid’s protective shield. “This has to end.”

  Tanis tapped his earpiece. “Kas, what is your status on locating the mayor?”

  “Trying, boss.” Frantic clicks in the background buffeted his brother’s voice. “I can’t find her without running a cell-tower search. It’s taking time.”

  Cain glanced at Tanis. Outnumbered, outgunned, and running out of time to end this without real bloodshed, his father’s shoulders drooped. “We have two choices,” Tanis said. “One, we surrender.”

  Kas cussed a blue streak over the earpiece; Jarrid kicked the ground, while Nesty expelled a long breath. Cain shook his head. Surrender was a foreign concept to The Bound Ones. They’d never bowed to anyone, never given up without a fight, never let the enemy win.

  “Or…” Tanis craned his head to look over the parking lot. “We grab Commander Thompson and have a talk. He lied to me. I want to know why.”

  He gawked at his father. Talk about risky plans. Blasting through dozens of armed, highly trained police without killing anyone and taking their leader hostage was crazy.

  “Same routine,” Tanis said, checking his gear. “Protect yourselves, but do not kill. Right now, you are soldiers, not assassins. Understood?”

  “Got it,” Jarrid said, adjusting the gun magazines around his belt. Nesty nodded beside him.

  “Thompson is in a van near the office,” Kas added over the earpiece. “He’s a big mofo. Bear shifter. Can’t miss him.”

  Cain stowed that last piece of information. Bear shifters were fierce, even before they transformed from their human state. Thompson wouldn’t be taken without violence.

  “They’re holding Katie in one of the squad cars. I’ll have to run through the center just to get close enough to find the right one.”

  Tanis rested his hands on his hip. “We’ll do what we can to draw as many of them away. No matter what happens, the two of you get out of here. Are we clear?”

  Goddamn it. He didn’t like this one bit, but Katie couldn’t stay in Detroit any longer. And Abel must be stopped.

  “Be careful.” Kas ended the connection.

  Tanis gestured with his hands, and the team burst into a run. As they neared the first group of cops, his father fired his Grace like a cannon. The short blast sent a white ball of energy into the seven men and women.

  Jarrid blurred past him, his beloved Desert Eagles cocked in each hand. Five officers saw his brother and flat-footed on the pavement. Jarrid raised his guns and fired, capping the men in the thighs. Four dropped to the ground, but one held tight to his assault rifle and returned fire. Energy shield in place, his brother spun and shot the fool in the other leg.

  Cain zipped through and saw Katie slamming her hands against the rear window of a squad car. He changed direction. When he reached the car, he yanked the door open, and she flew into his arms.

  “Thank God,” she said, crushing against him. “I thought you were hurt.”

  “Freeze!”

  Cain’s muscles locked. He turned slowly and blocked Katie with his body. Five cops stared him down, each with fingers on their triggers.

  “Drop your weapon and move away from the woman,” one officer yelled.

  He raised his hand and let the dagger fall. Gathering his power, he prepared to use it.

  Tanis jumped in front of Cain, knocking him and Katie aside, and a white sphere exploded from the angel’s body at the same moment as the officers fired. The strike team sailed back, but so did his father. Cain caught him as Katie screamed.

  Blood sprayed from holes in his father’s shoulder, arm, and stomach, drenching his clothes.

  “No!” Cain cried out.

  He lowered his father to the pavement and pressed his hands to the shoulder and arm wounds.

  “Get…out…of here.” Tanis gurgled and coughed. A chunk of blood landed on his arm.

  Nesty arrived first and shoved Cain away. He tapped his earpiece “Tanis down. Need a doctor.”

  “I’m coming,” Jarrid said over the secure line. “Hold on, you winged bastard.”

  His brother sliced through the straps on the leather vest and his father’s black shirt.

  “Kas…Thompson…find…” Tanis said through a wheezing breath. “Cain…go.”

  “No fucking way.”

  Jarrid arrived, took one look at him, and exploded. “What the fuck are you doing here? Get out!”

  The harsh order snapped him out of his shock. “I need to help Tanis,” he snarled.

  “Don’t make his sacrifice worthless. Get out of here!”

  Cain’s vision began to blur and burn, but he rose swiftly, grabbed Katie’s arm, and ran for his SUV. He pushed her inside, sailed over the hood, and was turning the ignition before he heard his brother’s voice in his earpiece.

  “Kas.” Jarrid’s tone sounded hollow. “Patch me into the tactical command frequency.”

  “You’re in.”

  Inside the SUV, Cain pulled the car onto the road and slammed his boot on the gas pedal.

  “Commander Thompson. This is Jarrid of The Bound Ones.”

  “How did you get on this channel?” he heard Thompson reply.

  “Does it fucking matter?”

  Cain tore down the street in the opposite direction of the motel. Away from The Bound. Away from his dying father.

  “What do you want?” Thompson asked.

  Cain reached for his earpiece.

  “We surrender,” Jarrid said, a moment before Cain tossed the tiny bud out the driver’s side window.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The machines in Jon Logan’s hospital room provided a steady background serenade that Abel found annoying. The injured fireman seemed much smaller lying on the bed than he had when Abel had first observed him at the station. He was a tall man, not particularly built for anything except the normal life he had.

  “How long will we wait?” Dravyn asked. The elf fidgeted in a chair near the window.

  Abel stood at the end of the bed with his arms crossed. Katie would not abandon her brother, not the way Cain had forsaken Abel. The fireman’s injuries had added to his twin’s burden of guilt, of that he had no doubt.

  “I expected his stupid sister to return to keep vigil by his bedside.” The elven sorcerer sighed. “Maybe they’re not as close as I thought.”

  No, she loved him. Abel was certain their relationship was intact. Katie’s absence could only be Cain’s doing. He stared at the firefighter. No, she would come here.

  “Well, well.” Dravyn sat up. “Detective Diego sends word of a siege outside a motel not far from here. The police have taken that team of half-breeds into custody. One of them is hurt.”

  Abel tore his gaze away from the unconscious man. His heart crashed against his chest. “Who?”

  The dark elf laughed out loud and typed a message. “Aw. Are you worried it’s your twin?”

  Was he? Abel dismissed the ache spreading through his tensed muscles. His brother wasn’t inept enough to be caught by a group of fucking law-enforcement officers. Cain was too skilled, too strong, and too stubborn to fail. After all, they shared the same blood.

  Dravyn scrolled the screen on his phone, his satisfied smirk disappearing under a frown.
“The angel was shot. It appears he’ll be keeping the fireman company in this hospital. Your brother escaped with the woman.”

  A surge of emotion nearly blindsided Abel. Relief? He wasn’t sure. Cain lived, and that meant his plans could continue. Nothing more. What if his twin had been hurt? He cast a look at the sleeping figure in the bed. What if Cain lay in his place, unconscious, defenseless?

  Nothing would change. Right?

  “As soon as Diego learns where he’s hiding, my men will flush him out,” the elf said, rising from the chair. “Go back to the penthouse. I’ll stay here.”

  “Why?” Suspicion dripped from Abel’s tongue.

  Dravyn eyed him with unconcealed contempt. “The woman won’t stay away from her brother long. I plan to be right here, waiting. When she shows, I’ll make sure your brother knows he can’t protect anyone I’ve tagged for death.”

  …

  A car backfired in the parking lot outside their door. Katie wore a path in the carpet of the third motel they’d found in a matter of hours. She nibbled her thumbnail, but a yawn crawled out of her mouth. She was ready to fall facedown on the floor. Instead, she peeked over to her companion.

  Cain prowled the room, emitting a coiled menace that had her wired. She understood why. The team hadn’t contacted him since they’d sped away from the standoff. Neither knew what condition Tanis was in, and she worried over the angel with a fierceness that surprised her. Who Cain cared for, she cared for. It was as simple as that.

  No, simple was the wrong word. Katie was currently safe and with Cain because his brothers and father had thrown themselves into the fray. They’d protected her with every bit of strength they’d had, and Tanis’s injuries were proof that all of them would give their lives to help her. Their actions, and Cain’s, left her humbled.

  She approached him with caution. His clothes bore his father’s blood. He’d left his shirt in the SUV so he only wore his jeans and a couple of daggers he’d removed from his boots. If he had more, she couldn’t tell. Katie waited a moment before she spoke. “Do we really have to move?”

  The look he gave her would have left her mute days ago. Not now. “I have my orders.”

  His orders. Katie studied his expression. His pain and worry broke her heart.