“You didn’t put up glamour?” Usually, Lucas was more careful than that.
“I did, but it appears someone is giving humans an elixir. One that allows humans to see past glamour and it makes them immune to compulsion.”
“How is that possible?” I stopped in my tracks.
“There was a powerful witch at the sensor hideout. Perhaps she made batches of it for distribution. She was the one with a daughter they held hostage. Jerome may have been able to blackmail her that way.”
“Damn him.” I resumed walking.
Lucas grunted. “My thoughts exactly.”
“Okay, well, we’re getting attacked at the clinic so get here as soon as you can.”
He cursed. “Be careful. The humans are starting to resort to extreme measures.”
“I’m always careful.”
Which was a big lie, considering I was looking at an entrance that was about to break apart. It would be me who the attackers met. Derrick was busy guarding the back entrance where more humans were trying to break through.
“That’s what worries me,” he said in a dry tone.
Tires screamed against pavement.
“Gotta go!”
I stuffed my cell phone into my pocket, grabbed Yvonne, and pulled her away from the doors. Just in time, too. A truck came crashing into them, spraying glass everywhere. The wards bent under the pressure, which was what had allowed the vehicle to get that far. One more hit like that and they’d be down.
“Go protect the patients,” I ordered her.
The older woman rushed off.
“What can I do?” Ajax asked, coming to stand beside me.
“Can you compel the humans to go away?”
The truck had pulled back and was revving its engine for another go.
He shook his head. “I tried it already. For some reason it didn’t work.”
It had to be the same elixir the humans in New Orleans were getting. I hadn’t been paying attention the last time the attackers hit the doors, but I’d know the next time they got close whether they were under the spell or not.
The sound of tires peeled as the truck headed toward us again.
“Get back,” I screamed.
This time, the vehicle broke through and kept going. It sailed through the lobby, pushing through the chairs, and crashed into the far wall. The humans inside hopped out and came straight for us with their rifles raised high. I grabbed the shaman right before the bullets started flying.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Several rounds hit me as I pulled Ajax to the floor. They burned and took my breath away, but they hadn’t hit anything vital. I rolled away from the shaman and grabbed the nearest assailant, taking hold of his legs and yanking him down. As soon as he lay flat I bashed his head into the floor. Not enough to kill, but enough to knock him out.
The other human from the truck came toward me. I rushed him, took his rifle, and knocked the butt of it into his jaw. He stumbled back but didn’t fall. I swept a leg out and knocked him over. This time he fell to the floor where I kicked him in the side of the head. He stayed still after that.
I looked up to find more humans rushing through the entrance—at least a dozen men and women. There was no way I could take them on alone. The shaman was just getting up and looked a little dazed. Shell-shocked would have been more accurate. He’d never been in a battle before and wasn’t prepared for it.
The humans were climbing over the destroyed furniture, coming closer. I sensed Rob—Hunter’s father—coming toward me from down the hall. Paula had given him a clean bill of health two days ago and told him he could go home, but he’d chosen to stay and help.
“Want some company?” the werewolf asked.
“Absolutely,” I said, nodding at the incoming wave. “But let’s try slowing them down first.”
I grabbed a broken chair and tossed it at a woman getting close. She tried to dodge it, but not fast enough. A yelp tore from her lips as the chair struck her chest, knocking her down.
“Good idea.” Rob grabbed another chair lying next to him.
The werewolf chucked it at a guy who was coming up next. The human raised his arms to protect his head just as the table struck him. He fell back. After that we began grabbing everything we could find, tossing it over as fast as we could. With each piece we got closer to the humans.
It was working and they were backing away, but then the big burly guy I remembered from the news stepped up with a machine gun in his hands. He sprayed bullets at us in a barrage that was impossible to avoid. Several tore into my chest and legs. Rob cried out as rounds struck him as well. The older werewolf staggered and fell to his knees.
“Dad!” Hunter cried out, racing down the hall.
“No. Stay back,” I ordered him.
Hunter didn’t stop or appear to hear me.
Dammit, he was going to get himself killed. I caught the human with the machine gun reloading. I raced toward him, grabbed the weapon, and bent the barrel. After tossing it away, I punched him hard enough to send him flying into a wall. He crashed into it and slumped to the ground. The feelings of rage I sensed from him evaporated.
More gunfire went off. I scanned the lobby and found two human men firing on Hunter. The boy’s body jerked as each bullet hit, but he continued toward them with a steely look in his eyes. I stumbled as fast as I could and leaped onto his nearest attacker. Once I had him on the floor, it took all my strength to knock the human out.
More bullets hit me. Damn. I didn’t even know where they were coming from anymore. With blurry vision, I gazed up and saw Hunter wrestling with a human to get his gun. A shot fired. Hunter’s head became bloody and maybe part of his skull went missing. I blinked my eyes, but he remained hazy to me. All I could be sure of was that he fell back on the floor.
“Hunter,” I called and began crawling toward him.
Someone grabbed me before I made it two feet. It took me a second to figure out who had a grip on my waist.
“We have to get you out of here,” Ajax said, pulling me close.
Half carrying me, he took me down the hallway toward Emily’s room. Kerbasi was there, standing at the entrance.
“Help me get the bullets out of her,” the shaman said. “She’s bleeding out all over the place.”
The guardian nodded. “Of course.”
Working together, they gently set me on the floor.
Kerbasi knitted his brows as he studied my wounds. “Sensor, you have many holes in you. Did you know that?”
I was so lightheaded I couldn’t be angry at him for his inane question. “The bullets…”
“Aha!” He pulled my knife from my pocket. “I knew you’d have one somewhere.”
“Now I know I’m dreaming if I’m letting you use my own knife on me,” I slurred out.
“No, sensor, that would be my dream.”
The guardian unfolded the blade and went to work on my stomach. There was only a sting before a bullet went flying, hitting a wall. He moved to the next wound on my hip and dug that round out just as fast.
I squinted at him. “You’re rather good at this.”
It barely hurt.
“An expert torturer knows what hurts the least and what hurts the most.” He leaned closer, his black hair falling over his face as he dislodged a bullet in my ribs. “Lucky for you, I’m feeling generous today.”
“I’m going to owe you many pizzas for this, aren’t I?” A little of my strength was returning now that he’d tended the worst of my wounds. Foreign objects in the body slowed the healing process by quite a lot—so I’d learned more than once.
“Of course,” Kerbasi answered, going for the last chunk of metal in my thigh.
While he worked on it, the shaman returned with bandages and began wrapping my wounds up. He wasn’t quite as gentle, but he was trying. I noticed a few graze wounds on him. They were already closing and he didn’t seem to feel them.
“It’s too bad neither of you guys can heal me,” I said, sitting up after they finished.
Kerbasi gave me an earnest look. “I would if I could.”
“I appreciate the sentiment.” Putting a hand on his shoulder, I staggered to my feet. “Gotta go back.”
“I don’t think it’s necessary,” Ajax said. “Reinforcements have arrived.”
Through blurry vision, I looked back down the hall but could only see part of the wrecked truck. The gunfire had just come to an abrupt halt. My senses told me Yerik had arrived and was using magic to subdue the humans. At least that stupid elixir couldn’t stop him from doing that.
Something else niggled at my mind—something missing. It took me a moment to realize what was bothering me. Hunter’s signature wasn’t appearing on my radar. He was gone. The memory of him getting shot in the head replayed in my mind, hazy but not so hazy I couldn’t see it for what it was. My throat constricted. He’d died because I hadn’t gotten to him in time.
“I have to check on Emily. Guardian, can you wait here just in case any humans sneak through?”
“Of course,” Kerbasi agreed.
“I’ll go see if they need help up front.” Ajax headed back toward the lobby.
In my foggy state of mind, I didn’t think to put on a suit before going into her room. I just passed through the two sets of doors and staggered toward her. She was lying there, barely breathing. Her face was pale and black marks dotted her face. My senses told me she had little time left if I didn’t do something. I’d lost one teenager tonight, but I wasn’t losing another.
“Fuck the angels and their stupid rules,” I said under my breath.
I snuck my fingers under one of my bandages and coated them with blood. Then I pressed them between her lips and rubbed the blood into her mouth. I repeated the process several times until I sensed a difference. Slowly, her body was responding. Two more times was enough to satisfy me that she’d make it.
Falling back into a chair, I gazed at the innocent girl whose world was about to be rocked again. I’d have to tell her, but not until later when she was better. For now, the black was taking over. I sunk into a deep healing sleep.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Awareness came to me in increments. I wasn’t on a chair anymore, but rather the cot I’d been using since I started staying at the clinic. It was in a different room down the hall from Emily—whose life force now felt much stronger on my radar. I breathed out a sigh of relief. I’d saved her. If I’d accomplished nothing else during the attack, I’d at least done that.
I stretched an arm. My muscles ached and my body felt stiff, but I didn’t feel dirty. I was wearing different clothes. Someone had cleaned me up and put a pair of shorts and a t-shirt on me. I must have been in bad shape not to notice. How long had I been asleep? And how long had Lucas been hovering over the cot?
I rolled over and opened my eyes. Damn, he didn’t look much better than I felt. His hair wasn’t combed and fell partially over his face. Whiskers lined his jaw and there was a haunted expression in his eyes.
“Is Emily okay?” I asked.
He nodded. “She’s doing surprisingly well and resting.”
“What time is it?”
He glanced at his watch. “Almost six in the evening.”
So it was already dark outside. I’d slept most of the day away.
I swung my legs around to the floor and reached for him. It took a couple tugs to get him to come down, but he settled next to me on the cot. I laid my head against his shoulder and breathed in the musky scent of him. He wrapped an arm around me and pulled me closer into his body. The big scary lion had let me into his den.
For a moment we just sat there, allowing the comforting silence to content us. So much had happened in a matter of days to rock our world. It wasn’t often we were actually together when life kicked us. It felt good to share the pain. Tendrils of our mating bond pulsed back and forth, feeding us strength. It was too bad we couldn’t sit together forever.
“How did it go with your brother?” I asked.
Lucas stiffened. “He claimed he had his reasons for hiding until now.”
Well, technically he did. I tried to say as much, but the spell on my hand burned. Damn, Ariel. Even now I was still blocked from talking to him about it. Whether the archangel wanted to or not, she would be removing it the next time I saw her. Until then I’d just have to handle Lucas the best I could.
“How badly did you beat him up?”
He exhaled a weighted breath. “Not nearly enough.”
I didn’t say anything.
He tipped my chin up so our eyes met. “You’ll need to select new furniture for the condo in New Orleans. I’m afraid I destroyed most of the pieces downstairs.”
“That bad, huh?” I gave him a commiserating look.
“I let my temper get the better of me.”
A smile played on my lips. “I’m shocked.”
Humor flashed in his gold eyes, but it was gone a moment later. “It appears the battle here took an even greater toll.”
“Hunter.” I swallowed.
Lucas gave me a squeeze. “I did not particularly like the werewolf, but I did not wish for him to die.”