by Willa Hart
Even in the midst of the action, a thrill tickled the surface of my skin. My boys seemed to be communicating with each other as easily and silently as they did with me, just like mates could. In that moment, our bond was solidified in my head and my hearts. We were mates, now and forever.
My fingers dug into the hands of each twin, who stood on either side of me as we watched Luka, Mariam, and Alek disappear around the corner so they could loiter in the front as our decoy. Tamar had chosen to stand watch on the side of the building to act as go-between the front-facing crew and us.
Every nerve in my body was on fire, snapping with nervous energy like a downed electrical wire. I was more than ready for this to be over so we could all go back to life as we knew it. Okay, maybe not exactly as it had been before, but just as long as we could go back to sunny Cali with Zoe, I’d be happy. Whatever obstacles and enemies might be waiting for us inside this building, we’d face them together.
Lazlo stood facing us — me, my five guys, Rufus, Elder Almeric, and our four enforcers — as we shuffled uneasily, waiting for the command to attack. Obviously, Almeric, as the oldest among us, would take up the rear, while Danic, Rufus and the enforcers were chomping at the bit to dive into whatever may come.
“This may seem simple,” Lazlo said just loud enough for us all to hear, “but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. Never forget we’re dealing with a group so evil they kill their fellow dragons with impunity. So delusional they follow a mage who has been dead for two hundred years. So devious they will lie, steal and murder to get what they want. We have no idea how many are inside. We can’t foresee what’s to come or how many enemies we will face, but we are a team, a unit, a family. We will work together as we always do, protecting each other as we complete our mission. And today’s mission is to rescue Favor’s human friend.”
“The flat was pretty small,” I said, “so there can’t be too many jadokari hiding inside.”
“Unless they’re crammed in there like a clown car,” Ryen mumbled.
Danic elbowed his brother in the chest, eliciting a grunt of pain. Lazlo and Almeric quirked eyebrows at the boys’ antics.
“Always keep your wits about you,” Almeric growled, warning thick in his voice. “Do not become complacent or it might be the last thing you do.”
I shot Ryen a hard glare, then smiled at the elder with a confidence I didn’t quite feel. “We got this.”
Kellum’s fingers wrapped around my elbow and pulled me to the side. His gentle touch and the apology in his eyes worried me.
”What?”
“I’m sorry, Favor, but…” He glanced at the others, then pressed on. “You can’t go in there.”
“Excuse me?”
Danic joined us, though he didn’t seem sorry at all. “He’s right. Too dangerous.”
I shook my head, not quite believing what I was hearing. “Uh uh, no way.”
“Favor—” Ryen started, clearly ready to side with his brothers.
“I’m the reason Zoe’s in this mess to begin with. I’m the one who knows where she is. I’m the one she knows. And I should be the one who rescues her.”
“We’re not saying you shouldn’t go in,” Ash said, elbowing Hale to continue the argument.
“We just need to make sure it’s safe for you,” Hale added. “Then you can come take care of Zoe.”
Danic cracked his knuckles with an eager smile. “Yeah, let us clear out the assholes first, babe.”
What the hell? The object of this rescue was my bestie. No one would know where she even was without me. Yet they all wanted to leave me behind. I couldn’t help feeling ganged up on, even though common sense tried to tell me they were right. Still, I had my own powers, I could fight.
“I’ll go in at the rear, with Almeric,” I promised. “You all know I can kick ass. I swear I won’t get in your way.”
I had a metric shit ton more arguments, but Lazlo cut off our hushed dispute by giving us all the “go” sign. Jordy, Gunner, Rocco and Zander darted through the glass door, barely making a sound as they went. Danic and Rufus barreled in behind them, followed by Lazlo, Kellum and Ryen. I tried to break away from Ash and Hale, but they pulled me back by my shoulders, while Almeric dottered inside like he was strolling into his retirement home.
“Let me go!” I hissed at them, but they didn’t ease up.
“No, Favor,” Ash said, his expression grim and unyielding. “Don’t you get it?”
Hale stepped in, a resolution I’d never seen before gleaming in his green eyes. “This is the only way to keep you safe, and we must keep you safe. At all costs.”
I wrestled against their hold, glaring up at them, but they were far too strong. And they were barely even trying. Hell, they probably could pin me down with a pinky, so in a way, they were being gentle with me. I opened my mouth to tell them exactly where they could shove their concept of safety, tension making my blood boil, when my head rocked back with an unexpected and unbidden vision.
It was just a flash, like one of those picture postcards, but it spoke volumes. Levan, the melot who’d escaped Luka’s headquarters hours earlier, squatted around a corner at the end of the back hallway. And he wasn’t alone. A gang of at least a dozen more melots and jadokari were lined up, waiting to ambush us. I pulled myself back to the now with a harsh gasp, then sent out a blast to my guys before I could think twice.
“Abort! Abort! It’s a trap!”
My blast was so strong, the others must have heard it too. Jordy and Rocco were edging up to the corner in question when they froze in place. Gunner flattened himself against the wall and poor Zander almost lost his balance. Lazlo whipped his head around and glared at me as the rest of the team skidded to a stop. As quietly as they could, our team backed themselves out of the hallway, out of harm’s way.
“What the fuck was that?” Lazlo demanded in a hushed tone as he stormed up to me.
“Language, boss,” Ryen said to his profanity averse employer.
Lazlo seemed less than amused as he stared me down. “Seriously. What was that?”
Danic stepped directly in front of me. “That’s the Favor Fiske Emergency Broadcast System. Didn’t you know?”
Everyone stood around dumbfounded, first by my telepathic ability and second by the fact the jadokari were inside waiting to pounce on us. Tamar hurried toward us from her hiding spot, her color ashen and her eyes wide.
“What just happened?”
As the others explained what had happened, I took a step back and surveyed the area. We were gathered in a huge common area — no more than a slab of cement, a couple of dead trees and a handful of concrete benches — surrounded by several similar apartment buildings. The tree I’d seen in my vision stood smack in the middle, with the cat’s tail of a tip looping to the left.
“Shit!” I hissed, frantically spinning a circle as I inspected each building surrounding the tree.
“What is it?” Tamar asked.
“This…” I turned another half-circle to make sure, then faced her. “This isn’t the right building. When I saw the tree from the hallway, the tip was hanging off to the right, not the left.”
Kellum raked a hand through his hair. “You’ve got to be kidding me. If this isn’t it, which one is it?”
We all took a second to scan each of several identical buildings. Knocking down the door of every apartment five-oh-nine obviously wasn’t a viable option. So close, yet so far away!
Tamar’s jaw set with resolve. “It has to be one of the buildings behind us. You say you saw it out the hallway window, correct?”
“Right.”
“Then it has to be that one,” she said, pointing to a structure peeking between two closer buildings, at least a block away. “We’d better drive around to it so we don’t attract any more attention than we already have.”
We left Lazlo to deal with the aftermath of the failed assault. Turning our collective backs on an ambush in the waiting didn’t seem prudent, plus having them
delay the jadokari once they learned we’d bailed might give us extra time to find Zoe. We’d need every second in order to save her before it was too late.
Chapter 16
We sat out front of the building Tamar believed to be the one I saw in my vision. It looked like every other one in the area to me, but I could tell the gloomy tree would be in the right position to match what I saw. There was very little activity on the street, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t another ambush set up inside. This time we didn’t have the benefit of a planned attack. In fact, time was the only thing we had to work with, and it was against us.
“If we’re going to do something, we should do it already,” Danic said through clenched teeth as he scanned the street for enemies.
“Gimme a sec,” I said, worrying my lower lip until it was raw. “Maybe I should see if one of my blasts will get through to Zoe, let her know we’re coming for her.”
“Hold up,” Kellum said, reaching forward to grab my shoulder.
“What?”
“Assuming the other building was a decoy, they might not know we’re here yet. If you tip her off, she might start acting differently, which could tip them off. We need to hold onto that element of surprise.”
“Crap, I hadn’t thought of that.” My heart sank into my stomach at the thought of Zoe suffering for a second longer than she had to, but he was right. “So what are our options?”
“I say we hit ‘em hard and fast, right now,” Danic said, his fingers looping around the door handle, just in case he got the go-ahead.
“You’d rush into everything if you had half a chance,” Ryen retorted.
“Damn straight. Most stuff gives way when I do. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Ash shot a warning glance at his cousin. “But Zoe might get broken if we don’t use caution.”
“Exactly,” I said, giving Danic a warning look of my own.
Hale leaned forward from the back seat. “And lets not forget there are only six of us.”
Seriously? I made a show of silently counting heads, then corrected him bluntly. “Seven.”
He sighed. “Yes, but I meant dragons specifically.”
“What, humans don’t count for anything anymore?”
“Favor,” Danic said, “Hale wasn’t implying anything, but the fact is that you won’t stand a chance if one of those bastards shifts and pukes out a fireball.”
Ryen shook his head. “That’s the worst description I’ve ever heard for what we do. Makes me want to stay in my human form forever.”
“You’ll be doing the world a favor,” Danic mumbled.
Kellum interrupted their sniping. “Problem is that we don’t know how many are in there, waiting for us.”
“Can’t be many,” Danic said, eyeing the building again. “They probably sent the bulk of their team to the other building, knowing that’s where we were headed.”
“Don’t be so sure,” said Tamar, worry pulsing off her. “They’ve gone to a lot of trouble to get the guli. I would work under the belief more are inside, even if they aren’t lying in wait.”
“We won’t know until we actually go inside,” I said, anxious to get this mission started.
“If by ‘we’ you mean all of us and not you, then you’re right,” Kellum said, his tone firm. “You’re not stepping foot inside there until we clear the building.”
“We don’t have time to argue. After what happened at the other place, there’s no way I’m not going in with you guys. You can try to keep up to protect me, if you want, but I’m not going to stand out here and watch everyone I love put their lives at risk.”
“I swear her fire is hotter than ours sometimes,” Ryen said to Tamar, who smirked.
“And if it’s another trap?” Kellum asked.
“She spotted the last one,” pointed out Ash.
Kellum nodded. “True, but they’ve been able to fool her before. Remember the ambush at the statue with the melots?”
Nice! He just had to bring up that little humiliation. My teeth ground as I glared at him. As reasonable as his caution was, I didn’t want to wait another second. His reassuring smile did nothing to calm the anxiety storm inside me.
“Two ambushes,” Hale mused thoughtfully. “How did they know we were coming both times?”
“Only one explanation,” Kellum said, his gaze flicking over to Tamar for a brief second. “We have a mole.”
I hadn’t put words to it, but his assertion didn’t surprise me in the least. He was right, it was the only explanation. But who?
Tamar turned in the driver’s seat to face us. “Agreed. And since I’m a local, you would be wise to at least add me to your suspect list. I would in your position, so I think it would be best if I leave you all alone to work out your plan.”
“Good idea,” Danic grumbled as Tamar reached for her door handle.
“No,” I said quickly, drawing everyone’s attention.
Favor, Kellum started, but I cut him off.
Trust me, Tamar’s cool.
Too much of a risk, Danic insisted. This is a life or death situation.
For Zoe too, I clapped back. We need all the bodies we can get. Even if she is the mole, and I’m telling you she’s not, wouldn’t it make more sense to keep her close instead of setting her free to attack Lazlo’s group from behind?
They remained silent for a moment, then Ash said, She’s right about that. And I also think she’s right about Tamar.
Why don’t you just get inside her head and snoop around like you did with the melot? Ryen asked.
I don’t want to do that unless we have a good reason to think she’s up to something, and I just feel in my bones that she’s not.
Kellum finally nodded. I trust your instincts, Favor. It goes against everything I’ve been taught, but I vote Tamar stays.
The rest voted in kind, so I turned to Tamar, who was watching us carefully and with great interest. Our psychic conversation took less time than if we’d actually spoken, but it was still long enough Tamar was quickly figuring out what we’d been doing.
“We need you, Tamar,” I said.
Her gaze bounced around between us before she spoke. “You’re sure?”
“Definitely. I just wonder how the others are doing…”
I took a deep breath and envisioned Lazlo’s handsome face, his silver hair, his clear eyes.
Lazlo, I called into the ether. I connected to him immediately.
Favor? How are you doing this?
I’ll explain later. We found the right building. How are you guys doing over there?
I couldn’t hear the sounds of fighting behind him, but his grunts told me he was locked in battle as we spoke with our minds.
Holding them off, but don’t dally. Go get her now!
Be safe, I called, then cut the link between us.
Leaning back against the seat, I took stock of my body. The psychic conversations used to drain me to the point of exhaustion, but I seemed to be building up a tolerance. Or maybe it was more like a muscle that was growing stronger. Whichever was the case, I could have lifted a truck over my head in that moment, I was so amped up.
“Lazlo’s keeping the jadokari busy,” I said. “Let’s do this.”
Without another word, we all jumped out of Tamar’s SUV and walked nonchalantly toward the front door, as if we were dropping by to visit grandma, no big deal. This was still a functioning apartment complex that was no doubt populated mostly by clueless humans, despite the faint sounds of a fight happening a block or two away.
Ryen reached the cloudy glass entrance door and turned to us. “What’s the plan?”
“No time for a plan,” I said. “We’ll have to wing it.”
Ryen frowned, his hand holding the door handle so tight his knuckles paled. “Okay, but for the record, I’m pretty sure nine out of ten soldiers say the same thing right before they die.”
“Nice,” Ash said, rolling his eyes. “Favor, can you sense any danger, like yo
u did last time?”
I focused all my energy on the ground floor, trying to peek around any and every corner, but I sensed nothing unusual. “I think it’s all clear.”
One by one, the boys pushed in front of me until I was standing at the end of the line next to Tamar. She smiled and shrugged as Ryen pulled the door open an inch and peered into the gloomy interior. Musty air and stale cigarette smoke filtered all the way back to me, and I gagged. Not just from the stink, but also heightened anxiety.
With a nod, he threw open the door and rushed inside, followed by the rest of us. I could sense my guys’ readiness for battle, but there was no need for it. The lobby was barren.
We stood in a loose circle, a little surprised that no one rushed around a corner to burn us to a crisp. Don’t get me wrong, I had no desire to finally become Favor Fricassee, but I expected some kind of resistance.
“The elevator and stairs are around that corner,” Tamar murmured softly.
I still sensed nothing sinister, but we all crept forward carefully, ready for anything. Blood pounded in my ears as the Dragon’s Heart kept time. I was growing used to the annoyance of it but couldn’t wait to be rid of it. Hopefully soon.
Danic peeked around the corner first, then waved us all ahead. The small elevator landing was also abandoned. Kellum checked the stairwell next to the elevator, then shrugged. As we stood there staring at each other in disbelief, a door opened farther down the hallway and we all tensed. My boys barged in front of me, pressing Tamar and I into a corner as they protected us from the oncoming threat.
The threat turned out to be a stooped old woman shuffling down the hall toward us, a colorful shopping bag in one hand and a cane in the other. It took a full minute for her to hobble past us, without giving us so much as a glance as she picked her way toward the lobby. Only once she rounded the corner and disappeared did we breathe again.
