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As we loaded up to leave the city, I joined the healers on one of the buses. Now that there was actually something I could do, I wouldn’t have to endure another entire day’s drive stuck in between my guys and a couple of confusing demons. I was actually relieved to be riding with injured, grumpy, traumatized supes instead.
This was my life now.
We split the ones needing the most intense care evenly between the two buses. My bus contained the eagle with the amputated leg and one of the other supes who had been drugged into a coma—a wolf shifter whose instincts had her snapping and growling at everyone who walked by—as well as about half a dozen less seriously injured patients.
Once I was able to get close enough to the wolf to calm her fear with my own golden energy, one of the fae healers applied a smelly, magical lotion over the long slash that cut across the wolf’s abdomen from shoulder to hip. Then we got her calm enough to sleep—a natural sleep this time.
I crouched by the eagle as our convoy trundled along narrow streets and past lines of protestors. He was sitting up in a regular bus seat, having refused one of the modified reclining beds that had been added to the bus for patients. His dark blue eye scanned everything, watching with the intensity of...well, an eagle. I put a hand on his thigh, above his amputated leg. The healers had already tended to the stump, and last I’d seen it, the skin was red, but smooth, the wound closed over. No one was sure if regrowth was possible. Nurse Jones told me that it was likely the opportunity had passed and his body had decided this was the new normal.
“How are you holding up?” I said, sending my energy along his aura, seeking for any pain.
He arched a pale brow at me. “Aside from my missing leg, a lack of depth perception, and a couple weeks of missing memories? Oh, I’m just swell.”
I huffed a wry laugh. “Do you know Gesa Lionheart?” I asked, finding a niggling ache in his leg and sending a tendril of warm gold toward it.
He rolled his eyes. “Everyone knows the Lionhearts. The clan head and her...uh, sister...are either every shifter’s golden idols, or their worst nightmare, depending on how old the shifter is and how much their clan likes change.”
I looked up into his eyes as I felt his pain melting away under my hand. “And you? How do you feel about change?” Gesa hadn’t talked too much about her people, but she’d said enough to convey her contempt for what she called their “backward, medieval, dumb-ass ways.” From what I understood, it was a very alpha male dominated society. And I didn’t think most of the other shifter clans were much different.
The eagle just snorted. “Why do you think I came to live in Ontonagon? It’s about as far away from any of the clans as you can get.”
I ran my hand over the end of his stump, which was hidden under a pair of scrubs with the leg folded up and pinned to the thigh. “I don’t know.... Maybe you came to point and laugh at their antics? Is it still hurting?”
He shook his head. “It’s fine. Thank you.” He sighed. “And I didn’t move to Ontonagon to point and laugh. I went there so people wouldn’t point and laugh at me.” He shrugged and a fleeting expression of disappointment crossed his face. “It was bad enough being gay back in the clan. But now?” He lifted his stump and waggled it. “I’d be the weakest, most pathetic thing around. A truly broken man in every sense.” He snorted. “And what use is an eagle who’s half blind?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Sounds stupid. I’d leave too. Even if I wasn’t one of the ones who didn’t fit in. Gross.”
He huffed a laugh. “You’re not wrong. My vision’s still off...but did I see pudding back there?” He hiked a thumb at the bank of minifridges in the back of the bus.
I winked. “Butterscotch?”
He raised his eyebrows at me. “Those healing powers are strange enough. But now you’re psychic?”
I stood. “Nah. It just matches your...feathers at the tips of your wings. Seemed as good a guess as any.” I wasn’t about to tell the guy I’d chosen that flavor because under all his defenses I got the sense he was as sweet and golden as the pudding cup. That would get my face bitten off.
I got him his pudding and moved on to our more challenging case.
The eagle clearly had a personality that would allow him to bounce back from his mostly physical wounds—he had that sense of “been there, done that” about him. The small, green-haired nymph who was currently curled up in one of the front seats staring blankly out the window was another story altogether.
She had been badly beaten, but most of those wounds were well on their way to healing. I had a hunch that whatever was causing her to refuse to speak was something more damaging than some scrapes and bruises. She was slender and ethereal. Pretty, in that pixie-like way that some girls were. She had magic, but not much physical strength. From what I understood, her magic was the kind that let her communicate with the plants and trees, to draw lifeforce and happiness from nature. She was the perfect victim for the type of human men who might find power in subjugating others.
I didn’t touch her. Instead, I made sure she could see me approaching and sat in the seat next to hers. I didn’t talk or try to pull her out of her shell. Instead I set my hand on the armrest next to hers, close, but not quite touching. I just sat there quietly, letting my aura reach out to hers in silence. She’d talk when she was good and ready. And until then, I would show her there was another woman here. One who could just sit next to her and ask nothing, expect nothing.
She didn’t speak or make any move to acknowledge my presence. But, after a few minutes of my energy work, she curled up more comfortably and rested her head on the seat, closing her eyes and falling asleep, finally feeling at least safe enough to rest.
I swallowed hard and blinked back the tears that had gathered in my eyes. Humans heard the word supernatural and thought of some immortal, raging monster. They didn’t realize that there was vulnerability on both sides. Just like there was violence and cruelty on both sides. Nothing was ever clear-cut when it came to right and wrong and differences between people.
And yeah, that probably applied to my own life too, but I wasn’t about to go there at the moment. I leaned forward to pull the nymph’s blanket up higher to tuck her in.
A weird squealing noise was immediately followed by a crash, and the whole world spun. Faster than thought, we were flying, the back end of the bus smashing into something, which sent the front end whirling. The bus landed on its side, the windows suddenly the floor. My ribs hit a seat as I fell, the terrified nymph letting out a shriek as she fell on top of me.
I wrapped myself around the smaller woman the best I could as the nightmare continued for seconds that felt like an eternity. There was smoke. Fire. And glass flying everywhere. I felt sharp shards embed themselves into my butt and thigh where they rested against the broken windows as the bus slid then slammed to a halt, clearly hitting something else.
For a second, no one said anything as we sat in the smoky wreckage, glass pattering down around us and fire flickering on one of the seats, sending up noxious fumes from the melted plastic. My ears felt like they were filled with cotton. Sounds were muffled before they slowly came back into focus. One of White’s guards was standing over us, his gun drawn and one hand outstretched. “Up,” he was saying gruffly. “Get up and out the back.”
I took his hand and let him haul me to my feet, dragging the poor nymph along with me. Her blanket was tangled at her feet and I paused to grab it up and wrap it around her narrow shoulders before climbing over the seat next to us, helping her and any others we found along the way toward the back emergency exit. The bus was lying on the front door.
We had to duck and scramble under a section of bus that was on fire—where something had clearly blasted a fucking hole in the side of the bus. As we staggered out onto the street with the others, the three guards took up a semi-circle with the patients and healing staff at the center. The guns were nice and all, but I had no clue what had even hit us.
My hair rose up on the breeze, crackling with electricity as a wave of magic lifted around us. It felt like...a bubble. A barrier, I realized a second later. I couldn’t feel the ward White had supposedly placed all around Ontonagon county, except when we drove through it. But this one was closer, tighter, and I felt it sizzle over my skin. Through the smoke caused by the smoldering bus, I could see the rest of the convoy. The other bus had hit a lamp post, but it seemed mostly undamaged and its occupants were sheltering inside. Another magical bubble went up it. White emerged from behind the bus, his black eyes gone completely red and a set of twisting black horns emerging from his ebony curls. He was accompanied by Rhys, Chike, and the rest of the guards.
They looked bent on murder as they strode down the street to take up a place between the buses. Even my pretty, feminine-looking siren had an air of menace about him, his long ponytail whipping around his shoulders in the breeze, his sharp teeth and a set of knives flashing as he paced along beside Rhys. The vampire’s eyes glowed yellow, and his fangs were extended and glistening.
“Show yourself, you coward!” White shouted, his deep voice echoing with command, carrying over all the chaos around him. What the fuck was going on?
One of the nurses nudged me and I took the roll of bandage she was holding, turning to help her quickly wrap a patient’s bleeding head wound. But I kept half of my attention attuned to whatever the fuck was going on outside our warded bubble.
A flash of movement caught my eye just seconds before something smashed into the magical barrier nearby. I fell on my ass, dropping the bandage as flames crawled over the faintly visible iridescence of the ward before it extinguished.
A heavy shell of some sort lay smoking on the ground. Was that...a freaking rocket launcher?
Nurse Jones clucked at me in exasperation and handed me a clean roll of bandage. “Pay attention to the wounded, Troy. Mr. White will handle the rest.”
I gritted my teeth and got back to my feet, moving in to help staunch the bleeding. Thor’s hairy asshole, how was she so calm?
“What are you protecting in there?” a simpering, sing-song male voice called.
I finished tying the bandage and turned to see a handsome, platinum-haired man standing atop a nearby light post. White growled. “You can change your appearance all you want, Apophis. I still recognize your tainted energy. What do you want?”
The other man tilted his head, sending a shimmery curtain of blond hair falling over one shoulder. His clothes were as immaculately tailored as White’s, though he dressed in light tones, while Derek was clothed in gray and black. The newcomer looked like a stereotypical western angel compared to the sooty demon.
“Want? Me? Why, I didn’t think you’d care. If you’re so obliging, I’ll take your human whore.” He tilted his head, his eyes gliding over all the vehicles. “She must be here somewhere on this little humanitarian mission.”
White moved faster than my eyes could follow. I thought Rhys’s vampire speed was impressive. But this...it was like he blinked out of existence and blinked back in somewhere else. He appeared near the base of the light post and fire exploded from his hand, arcing at the blonde.
The other man threw up a barrier and blinked out of sight. He reappeared standing atop the barrier that surrounded the other bus. “Is she in here?” He crouched and tapped the bubble. “Come out, come out, you stupid little demi-cunt.” He titled his head and sent a nasty smile at White. “And where’s my pretty incubitch? Did you leave him tied to the bedpost back home like a good slave?” He kept tapping at the barrier, looking for a way in even as he taunted White. “Do send him my regards when you see him again. Tell him I’ll be coming for him soon.”
More shots were fired from somewhere nearby and Rhys, Chike, and the guards flew into action, searching out the shooters and dragging them from behind dumpsters and, in Rhys’s case, out the third story window of a nearby apartment building. I watched my vampire scale up the side of a vertical building, snatch a guy out the window and throw him to his death with a harsh, hungry grin on his face. What was that I’d said about him being all warmth and sunshine?
Chike was using a combination of flashing blades and siren shockwaves of sound to disable another gunman. The sound coming from his pretty lips caused the man’s ears and nose to start bleeding as he clumsily tried, and failed, to dodge Chike’s sharp knives.
Meanwhile, White was still standing on the ground, trying to reason with the crazy blond.
A prickle of warning walked up my spine and I whirled around to see a ball of crackling blue magic headed right for the bus. “Mages!” Granite yelled, whirling to put himself in the path of the incoming magical attack. The lighting ball hit him, and he went still as stone, then he shook it off, becoming flesh again as he screamed instructions at his men. Huh. I guess it was handy being able to turn yourself to stone. I wondered how that worked? I shook myself. Shock. My brain was trying to leave the chat. I reeled it back in. We were staying for this one. One of the guards was a magic worker, and as I watched, he flung spells right back at the mages as fast as he could form them.
But it wasn’t enough. A couple of big hits to the ward, and it started to flicker. I gaped up in horror at the bubble surrounding us. It was coming down. More mage spells blasted the barrier. White was still just standing there, arguing with the blond as his ward fell. What the fuck was that asshole doing? That ward was the only thing separating the staff and patients from what was becoming a war zone.
The bubble flickered again and collapsed. White didn’t even look back. He just kept following the other man as the blond danced just out of reach. All the while, White flung magic at the other guy in an almost lazy manner. As if he wasn’t even trying to hit him. As if...he was herding him away from the buses.
It all made sudden sense to me when Orion fell from the sky. He snapped his big, blue bat wings in close to his body and dove, hurtling at the blonde before the other guy even knew that death was coming from above. Orion hit the blonde, wrapping around him and sinking his claws and fangs into the other guy as the they crashed to the ground. The blond guy’s demon nature was fully on display now, as he called on his magical strength. Short, golden horns poked out of his hair, and claws and fangs flashed. The two demons scuffled and rolled, as White strode over to them, magic building between his cupped hands. The mages stopped attacking the buses and focused on their fallen leader.
A shot rang out just as Orion rolled on top of the blonde man. The incubus grunted at the impact of the bullet tearing through his torso in a spray of bright red, but he didn’t stop whatever he was doing. I felt his aura swell, the call of his incubus allure bringing a few more gunmen staggering out into the street, dazed and swaying as they stood in the open, not even resisting as they were taken down by our side. The demon under Orion looked like he was having a hard time keeping his wits about him as well. Even way the heck over here, my skin tingled and I wanted to get closer to the incubus.
“Move, Orion. He’s mine,” White said as he moved past the bus, the magic between his hands spinning like a hurricane of fire.
Orion staggered to his feet, his big blue wings slightly extended, blood pouring down his chest and his blue eyes glowing like the hottest flame. That bullet might not have hit his heart, but it sure as hell had punched through a major blood vessel or two. A human would be dead by now. White pulled back his hand and launched his attack at the prone blonde. The guy looked beaten and defeated. It was chilling, the way White just calmly aimed at his unmoving victim. Cold. Demon. Murderer.
The blond demon rolled at the last minute in a sudden flurry of movement, kicking Orion’s legs out from under him and tossing the wounded incubus right into the path of White’s attack.
The fire crackled and sizzled over Orion’s skin for a terrifying second before White planted his feet and pulled the spell back into himself. White grunted at what basically amounted to eating his own attack. Orion swayed, fell to his knees, then toppled over like a singed, smoking ragdoll.
Derek growled in fury and rushed toward the blond, but the moment of distraction over Orion was all the other guy needed to vanish.
I expected White to lose his shit. Rage. Throw a demon-sized tantrum. Maybe go on a rampage to avenge his fallen secretary.
Instead, he pulled the rest of his magic back inside himself and donned his human guise, kneeling beside the fallen incubus. “Granite.”
“Yes, sir,” the gargoyle said, calmly appearing at the demon’s side like magic.
“Pack everyone onto the other bus. We are leaving in three minutes.”
The gargoyle rushed off to do as he was told.
I wasn’t even aware I had started moving until my feet scuffed to a stop next to one of Orion’s splayed-out blue bat wings. White’s red eyes met mine. “Get on the bus.” His eyes flicked down to my torn, abraded thigh and the blood seeping into my jeans. “Get yourself tended to.”
He scooped the incubus up in his arms like it was nothing and turned to head toward one of the transports. I hurried after him, my chest tight and my heart pounding. “Where are you taking him? Is he okay? White! Put him on the fucking bus so the medical staff can look at him!”
The demon ignored me and shoved Orion into the back of one of the transports. The incubus was unconscious, his head lolling and his limp wings tangling on everything. I helped White fold the wings in and curl Orion’s long legs up onto the seat. “Where are you taking him? He’s barely breathing.”
I reached out to Orion instinctively with my healing energy, but White grabbed my shoulder and yanked me back. “Don’t.”
I glared up at him. “I can help him. It’s what I do now, asshole. This demigod bullshit should be good for something!”
He gripped my shoulders and shook me so hard I thought my head was going to fly off. “If you start an energy connection with him now, he’ll drain you like a battery!”
I shoved him. “Then tell me how the fuck to help him. What are you doing?” I scrambled to get into the passenger’s seat as White practically flew around the vehicle and into the driver’s side. My ass stung as I sat on embedded glass shards, but I had other things to worry about right now.
The demon gripped the wheel so hard it creaked, and gave me a dark look. “This is your last chance to get out of the vehicle before you see things you can’t unsee.”
I huffed. “Fuck you. I’m not leaving Orion. Who knows what the hell you’ll do to him, since you’re depriving him of medical care?”
He slammed the transport into drive and fished his cell phone out of his jacket pocket. I could hear Granite’s deep, growly voice on the other end of the line when White put the phone on speaker and tossed it on the dash. “You got your girl with you, boss?”
“She’s here,” he said, making it clear it wasn’t his choice to have me along. “Get the rest of the convoy moving. We’ll rejoin you in about an hour.”
“Sure thing. Uh? Boss?”
“What is it, Granite?”
“The vampire and the siren are kicking up a fuss. Should I subdue them, or would you like to let them speak with the girl?”
I huffed. “The girl has a name, asshole. Put them on so I can talk to them.”
“Troy!” Chike’s voice was full of rage. “What’s going on?”
I sighed. “White has lost his mind. I’m going along with him to make sure he doesn’t kill Orion out of negligence. It’s fine.”
“Hey!” Chike yelped.
Rhys’s deep vampire-powered voice purred down the line. “Demon, if you don’t return Troy in one piece, I will rip you apart and devour your carcass piece by piece. And I’ll savor every bite.”
White rolled his eyes like an exasperated parent. The expression was so unexpected that I burst out laughing. It was all just too much. “Hanging up now,” I said, pressing the end button.
“Where are we going?” I demanded, glancing into the back seat and noting Orion was still out cold, though the bleeding from his bullet wound had slowed to a sluggish seeping.
White sighed. “The plan was to afford him some privacy to heal...until someone butted in and ensured that wasn’t possible.”
I blushed from the tips of my toes to the roots of my hair when I realized Orion probably didn’t need medical attention after all. Incubus could heal themselves, if they had enough power. And it was super easy to power up an incubus. All you needed was a little lust.