by Ann Denton
We moved up to the third row of tables and we both glanced across the aisle. Clear again. Which meant, the mage—or small group of mages—was hiding somewhere in row four, just a few feet away.
My blood sang at the prospect of hand-to-hand combat, even though I knew I should try to avoid that if at all possible.
Use the potion first, I told myself, gripping the bottle firmly. If it fails—and it very well may—then I can whip out Jill and her lesser known counterpart, Vil. I just barely resisted the urge to hold up my clenched fists and glamour the letters up, so they were tattooed on my knuckles. The point was, if the sleep grenade failed, I was going to bibbity-bobbity-throat punch that mage bitch.
Drake caught my attention once more and held up three fingers, counting us down. Three, two... one. On his signal, I ducked low and raced around the corner of my table.
The squeak of sneakers on shiny tiles filled the air around us as Drake and I converged from each side. We found two mages holed up near the middle of the back wall.
Young bucks, the fuckers still had acne and skinny arms. But their expressions were scornful. A small stash of potions was scattered on the ground between them where they crouched.
All four of us reacted at once, chucking our potion bottles as fast as we could. Drake and I bombed the mage students with whatever we'd picked up, while they'd hammered our torsos with Mage Fire Potions. What they weren't expecting, though, was that Drake and I were both fire-proof.
I gave a cocky grin as the fire burned away my shirt. I didn’t have a bra thanks to Bodie.
Drake chuckled.
The mages’ eyes widened, and I wasn’t quite sure if their slack-jawed expressions were due to my rack or the fact that I simply walked forward covered in fire. I didn’t get a chance to ask, because apparently, our potions had been sleep grenades. Maybe not fully brewed, because thing one and thing two weren’t instantly knocked out. But their expressions dulled after a second and they slumped onto the floor, fast asleep, while Drake and I casually put out our flames.
Suddenly, his head jerked up and he stared at me with wide eyes, stepping closer.
I inhaled sharply and every piece of me tightened in anticipation. Half a step more and his naked chest would brush against mine.
But then Drake whispered, "The squeaky sneakers. I can still hear them but they're getting quieter."
My eyes went wide too, because that could only mean one thing—one of the mages had eluded us. There was another out there.
Damn it.
We both jolted into parallel sprints, racing down a long hallway where trophies perched behind glass encasements. I kept one arm over my chest, the other ready with flame, just in case I needed to use it. Finally, our target came into view up ahead.
It was a girl, if the round ass and swaying brown ponytail were anything to go by.
She must have snuck through the middle aisle at the same time as Drake and I moved around the outer aisles. Sneaky little bitch. I was gonna abracadabra her ass.
"Oh fuck," Drake growled, pushing his legs even faster.
I flapped my wings in order to keep up. "What?"
He nodded slightly. "She's headed for an emergency alarm. It's that red thing in the wall. If she pulls that lever..."
Then we were going to be flooded with mages and MPs before we'd even secured the damn campus.
Shit!
Drake touched his earpiece and radioed our teammates. "Two mages down in the science center. Lab five. Get there and chain them up now! Another mage on the run, in pursuit of an emergency lever. Be prepared for a heavy attack if she reaches it..."
We were gaining on her, but there was no way in hell we'd reach her before she got to the lever.
Damn it! Do something, Aubry! My mind bitch-slapped me into clarity.
I yanked one of Easton's earrings from my earlobe, careful not to lose either of the pieces. In my haste, I was pretty sure I used every last drop of Growth Potion, but regardless, the glowing pink blade grew and came to life in my palm. I knew I wasn't supposed to kill anyone—and I was going to try damned hard not to—but if I had to choose between one girl and a bloodbath, then...
The girl stretched her arm out as she ran, almost to the lever. Just a few more feet and it'd all be game over. Hell no. I couldn't let that happen.
I took a deep breath, aimed my knife at my target just as I always did with darts, and let the blade fly. It tumbled through the air faster than the girl's feet could carry her. And with a slushy thwack, it nailed her fucking hand right to the brick wall behind it.
She screamed bloody murder, her eyes widening in terror as the blood spilled from her hand and onto the floor at her feet. She completely forgot about the lever, too focused on her injury as she tried to yank the knife out and only succeeded in cutting her own hand more.
Yes!
"Fucking nice!" Drake shouted enthusiastically.
When I glanced over, I saw he'd pulled his mask down and there was a massive, genuine smile plastered onto his handsome face.
Jesus fuck me with a dragon dildo... Thank god he almost never smiled. I'd never be able to resist.
As soon as we reached the girl, Drake pulled out a set of cuffs from the expandable bag, and I wrenched my knife from her hand and the wall as she shrieked. I shook my head, eyeing her without mercy. What a whiny little bitch. It was just a little stab wound. Nothing to cry about compared to what could have happened to her. I wiped her blood on my pant leg and stuffed Easton's knife into my waistband, since I had no idea how to re-shrink it after use.
Then I yanked on her shirt. "Take it off."
I stripped her shirt off—because she did have a bra and would at least be covered—and then I shoved the thing over my head. Bodie would be disappointed by it. It was black and had some nerdy science saying on it and there was absolutely zero chance of the girls popping out of it.
I turned around to see Drake staring. But he just cleared his throat and busied himself by cuffing the sobbing girl as Rocco and Kira came down the hallway. They each had a chained up, sleeping mage slung over their shoulders and a gun held in their free hands. They looked like badass heroes from an action flick—all that was missing was the slow-motion victory walk with the burning building in the frame behind them.
Drake hefted up our own prisoner like she was light as a feather, and she kicked and screamed in his grasp. My eyes narrowed at the sight of his hand on the back of her thighs, her ass and pussy so close to his face. A growl reverberated up my throat, and I coughed to hide the evidence of my jealousy.
What the fuck, Aubry? Get it together!
"Anybody got an extra sleep grenade?" Drake asked the two newcomers.
Rocco smirked and pocketed his handgun, pulling a baggie from his vest. "One."
"Perfect." Drake lifted his mask over his nose and sprinkled powder into the flailing girl’s mouth.
Her body quickly slackened. Drake held her out in front of him like a doll and shook off any excess powder, before tossing her back over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
His disinterest in her had my ego stroking herself like a cat, or a wanton slut.
"Let's get these assholes to a classroom, shall we?" Drake asked cockily. "Shifter school is now in session."
Rocco and Kira chuckled as they followed Drake down the hall, carting the three mages' sleeping bodies away. I took a deep breath and followed just a few feet behind them. I definitely did not let my eyes slide to Drake’s ass. Not more than once, anyway.
We’d done it. We’d successfully taken over a mother fucking mage school—a feat that had never even been attempted before. I was flying high inside, riding a wave of adrenaline and dopamine as the hormones cascaded through my bloodstream. Disbelief and awe and just pure punch-the-air-victory ran through my system.
A small skirmish had just been won, but it was a massive triumph for the shifters. I had no idea how many other fights lay ahead of us, one thing was for sure…
Here in
L.A.? The ultimate battle in this nasty mage shifter war was About. To. Go. Down.
I just hoped we didn’t go down, too.
14
Aubry
We’d been arguing all day, so much that it felt like I’d been throat-punched. My voice was all raw and rusty-sounding, like an old nail had been hammered into my vocal cords.
After taking the school over, locking the students up in the bursar’s office, cleaning up the sleep powder, and getting the shifters settled in, we’d all basically slept through the entire day yesterday—other than our guard shifts, of course.
So today had been our first attempt at discussing what we should do now. And holy fuck was it ever backfiring.
Everyone disagreed about the next steps we should take. After hours of quarrelling around a circular dining table, we still hadn’t come to a decision. Go after another mage jewel? Destroy all the known caches of potions? Pile all the mages on a pyre and burn them like witches?
To say our disagreements had been fierce would have been an understatement.
Later that evening, I was back to squabbling with Rocco as we stood on a rooftop watching over the starry night sky. Dude just wanted to go all Gangs of New York on everything. Wasn’t gonna happen, though. Not on my watch.
"There are some good fucking cops out there," I said, shooting his argument down for the third time.
We were posted next to a mounted sleep grenade launcher that Easton had designed and built, because even though we'd protected the grounds themselves from infiltration, pixies and fae could still come at us from the air. So, we'd set up a number of these gun outposts on the roofs in order to ensure the safety of the countless shifters who’d been filtering onto the campus all day and night looking for shelter.
Larry waited at the gates, verifying identities and giving the incoming shifters permission to move once they were inside the circle, while Kira escorted them all to the first level of the Student Union Building—where Rocco and I were currently on watch.
"Good fucking cop," Rocco snorted. "That's an oxymoron."
"You're an oxymoron," I retorted.
"Careful," he warned. "Kittens like to chase butterflies."
Pfft. Kitten? He was a forty-something-year-old saber tooth with a bad attitude. Kitten wasn’t even close.
"Try it." I winked at him, trying to push him just a bit more. "Bodie and Easton would love to have an excuse to fuck with you."
After all the arguing we’d done, a nice bruising fight sounded fantastic.
But he didn’t take the bait.
"I still think we ought to just hunt down the Mage Council fucks," Rocco said before he hocked a loogie onto the rooftop.
I stepped away, my lip curling in disgust. "Great plan, Meow Mix. Only, our best assassin can't find my psychotic former best friend—and he's only a minor player on the Mage Council. So how do you propose we find the rest?"
"Your assassin must not be the best then," Rocco snorted haughtily.
How fucking dare he insult Bodie! I clenched my fists and told myself that pushing him off the building would be a very bad idea. Instead, I allowed a pretty visual to run on replay through my head: one of him falling and exploding in a cartoon-like cloud of dust, Wylie Coyote style.
"And," Rocco continued as he pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, "your idea to move out of the city is even worse than you think mine is. That's fucking rolling over and taking it."
"No smoking," I threatened through gritted teeth. "And fuck you anyway, Calvin and Hobbes. I actually care about the safety and wellbeing of these innocent people. You don't give a shit about casualties."
"The world's not all daisy chains and sing-alongs, Princess," Rocco stated, lighting up despite my death glare. The glowing cherry at the end of his cig brightened as he took a long drag.
Yeah, because that’s what my childhood was: daisy chains and sing-alongs. More like training at the gym everyday with private Krav Maga fighting lessons, an endless stream of tutors teaching me the weaknesses of various shifters, a Mage Council member visiting my house and zapping me with Pixie-Dust Potions every time I got a question wrong in magical Political Science. Stupid cat had no clue.
Whatever. I rolled my eyes and went back to ignoring him.
A minute later, Easton opened the door to the roof, carrying some packaged crackers and a Gatorade. "Broke into a vending machine. Thought I'd see if you wanted a snack."
"Yeah, somebody get this bitch a Snickers bar. She's getting mouthy." Rocco smirked as he walked over to the edge of the roof and peered down.
"I fucking hate that guy," I told my mate as he opened up the bottle and handed it to me. I grabbed it and took a swig.
"Yeah, but he's got one of the few other mages that have swapped sides right now," Easton said. "And Larry and Tony are going through the potion stores here… they’re pretty extensive. It will be way faster if Larry has help."
I sighed. "Beggars can’t be choosers."
Easton ran a hand through my hair, which felt so good. I leaned into his palm as he said, "I dunno… if you beg me, you can pretty much choose anything you want." He winked.
Damn. How could he be sweet and hot in the same moment? With any other guy, I’d roll my eyes at that, but the blush that crept over Easton’s cheeks at that admission, and the thrum of my mate bond let me know he was being completely genuine.
I bit my lip and batted my eyes, trying to appear innocent. Then I clasped my hands in front of me and pressed my breasts together as I gazed up at him. "Please, pretty please can you finish off my shift, Papa Bear?"
"Fuck," Easton groaned. "Not fair."
He pulled me in for a hug and I could feel he was already hard.
I decided to press my advantage, literally, pressing my hands down over the head of his cock in his jeans. "I promise I’ll be a good girl for you later."
"Damn it. Get out of here. But leave the snacks. I’m starving." Easton released me and took a step back.
I watched intently as he reached his broad hand into his pocket and then adjusted his ginormous erection. The sight of it made me lick my lips. Now both sets of my lips were wet.
Easton pointed to the door. "Go. Before I send Rocco away and we end up fucking on this rooftop and getting killed because a legion of pixies fly down and maul us when our eyes are closed."
I giggled and blew him a kiss. God, he was the sweetest mate. "I’m gonna go for a swim to cool off. Meet you back at our room."
"If you fuck Bodie before I get back, there’ll be hell to pay." Easton warned.
"Got it."
"Stop talking about fucking, you godawful saps. Fated mates. Shit. This is why you don’t fucking let women into the inner circle."
And that was my cue to leave. Otherwise I was gonna pull out the dagger earrings that Easton had given me and remove Rocco’s balls from his body. He could eunuch his way through life just fine. He definitely didn’t need any progeny.
I’d taken one step toward the door when I heard Easton yell, "Fuck!"
I swung around and immediately saw Rocco barreling through the shadows, straight toward the big mounted gun. My first thought was that the twisted asshole was attacking my mate. I lit a fire in both my palms, jumping into protective mode faster than I could blink.
But then Easton grabbed a Sleep Grenade and loaded it into the cannon. Rocco manned the dual handles and swiveled the heavy beast upward so that the barrel pointed at the dark sky.
I squinted into the night, cursing the fact that I didn’t have their shifter senses. Finally, I spotted movement. It looked like a bird. No… a pixie. Shit.
BOOM.
The guys fired off a shot and the sleep grenade flew through the sky. I watched in a bit of a daze as it exploded in midair. The powder surrounded the pixie in a cloud of white dust.
The council had already found us? That didn’t seem right…
I watched the pixie start to plummet and immediately my training kicked in. I extinguished my flames
and took a running leap toward the snoozing creature. She fell ten times as fast as the dust that drifted on the breeze. I swooped in and used my shirt as a hammock to snag her without letting the powder touch my skin. Then I immediately propelled my wings forward so I’d get out from under the cloud of magic.
When I did that, I ended up hovering above one of the rooftops on the edge of campus, searching for anyone else who might have come with the pixie. When I didn’t see anyone suspicious on the streets, just clueless humans going about their evening—walking dogs and heading into a coffee shop across from campus, I glanced back down at our new captive.
She wore an MP uniform, street patrol style, and she looked young as she snored peacefully in my shirt. Unlike Tee, her hair wasn’t bright pink, but rather a natural green. I didn’t recognize her, although these days that wasn’t uncommon with the new recruits.
Maybe she was just on patrol. Maybe the college was part of her beat. God, I hoped so. That would at least buy us a few hours if she didn’t check in. Otherwise, if someone had sent her on purpose… but just then the radio on her shoulder buzzed with normal check ins. Relief washed over me that she likely wasn’t wave one of some attack. At least, she didn’t appear to be anyway.
I flew above the trees that dotted the campus, enjoying the night breeze as I made my way back to the guys and gently set the cop on the rooftop with them. "She’s probably gonna be out for a while. Looks like a beat cop to me."
"Yeah, well, when she wakes up, she’ll definitely be a beat cop," Rocco growled.
I clenched my teeth and turned to Easton. "Maybe you should question her when she wakes up." The fucking cat couldn’t retract his claws for even a second. Ugh.
Easton nodded. "I’ll take care of it. Good thinking to save her so we can see what the word on the street is right now."
I nodded. But inside I cringed. Was that why I’d saved her? For information? Was that who I’d become? At first, I’d thought saving her was an instinct. But as I trudged down the stairs to go change—and figure out something that would get this damn antsy feeling out of my chest—I couldn’t help but wonder.
