He might as well have tossed me into an ice-cold river for the way my breath shot out of me. “Do you know what they’re planning? Did you hear something?” I dropped to one knee in front of him.
He stepped close to me and tucked his head under my chin as any cub would do with an alpha seeking protection. “I heard them talking. They like traps.”
I wrapped an arm around him. “Can you shift yet?”
He bobbed his head and shifted right in my arms. His fur was not black like Ford’s, but speckled, almost like a leopard with deep brown overtones and lighter highlights. I scooped him up into my arms. “Anyone who can shift, shift now. We’re going to run as fast as we can. Steve,” I lifted the cub to him, “you’re carrying him.”
Steve didn’t so much as blink. He took the boy and set him on his shoulders, then shifted onto four legs. The bulk of lion filled the closet space and I squeezed by him to open the stone break in the wall.
It was damn well heavier to pull in than to push. “Darcy.”
“I’ve got it.” Kiara stepped up beside me and together we pulled the door open. I did a quick scan outside.
“We’ve got very little of the night left for cover. We have backup to the north. Run hard, don’t look back. Do you understand?” My eyes went to the slim girl in the back. “Cheetah chick, you first. Turn on the speed, you got it?”
She grinned at me, showing off perfectly filed teeth. “On it, boss.” She stepped forward and shifted. Like me, her clothes went with her into a bit of a collar around her neck. She crept past Steve and he gave a soft chuff of encouragement. Maybe this time his experience had made him realize what an ass he’d been.
Probably not, but one could hope.
Everyone else shifted, and Lila flew to my shoulder. “You aren’t shifting, are you?”
I shook my head. “We’re going to cover them.”
I went back to the bed where Maks had left his shotgun. Four shots, two grenades. Enough to draw the deadshits to me and buy my family some time.
At the closet, I slipped out through the door. My pride stayed on their bellies, many of them blending with the sand. “Wait for it,” I said as I turned to the east and jogged into the open. My heart was in my throat and fear like I’d never known whispered through me that this was it. I was going to die. But I’d die for my pride. I’d die knowing they had the best chance at safety that I could give them.
I’d die, and Maks would be not long after me with the sickness that coursed through him. Lila . . . she’d likely be along for the ride.
I would not cry. I would not cry.
I jogged until I was closer to the edge of the second rim of the Jinn’s home. Two deadshits sat on top of the tower, their backs to me. “Hey, motherfuckers, what’s going on?” I lifted the gun and sighted down it as they turned.
One breath out and I squeezed the trigger, the boom of the gun breaking the deathly silence of the early morning. The deadshit on the right screeched and fell to the side, his wings barely catching him as he fell. I didn’t know if it was dead-dead or not. Frankly, I didn’t know if you could kill one of those things. But he was out of the sky and everyone’s attention was coming at us.
His buddy launched straight toward me.
“What an idiot,” Lila said.
I shifted my stance and squeezed off another round. The stock bucked into my shoulder and the deadshit howled as he spun in a circle until he hit the ground. Screeching erupted from all over and I broke into a run, racing to the east and the south, drawing them away from my family. I didn’t expect to kill the deadshits, but we’d draw them away and slow them down.
“Lila.”
“Yeah?”
“This is probably not going to end well,” I breathed out as I switched the gun to the grenade launcher.
“It’s not over till the fat dragon sings,” she said and shot into the air. I aimed the grenade at a cluster of deadshits swooping straight for me.
The thump of the gun going off, and then the deadshit in the middle caught the grenade and just stared at it. “Not smart,” I yelled as I skidded to a stop, then dropped to the ground as the grenade went off.
The percussion of the blow was enough to send the cluster of deadshits flying in bits and pieces in all directions. The ground around me looked like it was raining body parts. A screech so close it might as well have been right in my ear sent me scrambling forward. I pushed to my feet as something large and black tackled me back to the ground.
“Stay down!” Ford snarled as a deadshit swooped over us. Before I could say anything, he leapt into the air, grabbed the deadshit by the leg and dragged it down, shaking it hard to the side, smashing its head into the tower.
Above, Lila worked with the sapphire, freezing the deadshits in bits and pieces. Not their whole body, but here and there, enough to throw them off balance, to make it hard for them to come after us. There were too many.
But I’d known that going in.
I spun, lifted the gun on sheer instinct as a deadshit swooped down for me. I pulled the trigger, the gun went off and the slug took him in the belly, but he didn’t slow.
Those dangling back legs gripped my one arm and yanked me into the sky. I twisted hard, and reached for my knives, only they were gone with Darcy and Kiara. The deadshit looked down at me, its face pock-marked and caved in as if eaten with acid.
“Lila, I’ve got your friend!” I grabbed hold of the flail with my free hand and swung it over my head, driving it into the deadshit’s belly. He roared and his wings stopped moving as his body pulsed and danced while the flail pushed its way into the dead flesh.
As we fell, he spun, screaming to the sky. I dared to look up.
The morning light had given enough glow to the sky that the mass of dark gray deadshits swooping toward us made it look as though night had not lifted.
“Well, that’s a fucking stinky shit.” I yanked the flail out, the handle warm to my fingers. “No killing me yet.” Maybe it wouldn’t cost me anything since the deadshits were already dead?
I could hope.
The deadshit let me go and I twisted, shifting as I fell.
Static electricity coursed over my fur as I dropped out of the sky. The scent of lightning was there a breath before it crackled through the air around me.
Everything happened in a rush. I hit the ground, lightning blasted the deadshits left and right, hoof beats, shouting, Ford roaring, Lila joining him.
“Are they out?” I yelled up at her.
“They’re clear!”
“Time to go! Ford, let’s move!” He ran toward me and I jumped onto his back. Lila swooped down next to us and flew hard as he raced north. The horse and rider spun and galloped next to us though the horse gave the big lion some serious side eye.
I looked at the rider, and for just a moment, I thought she was someone else. Long black hair and eyes as green as my own . . . but her body was petite, and curvy where my mother and I were both lean and taller.
“Who are you?” I yelled across to her.
She turned her head and grinned, lightning dancing in her eyes. “Your new fairy godmother.”
Ford grunted and Lila said nothing. The woman had helped us. That would have to be enough for now. Twenty minutes later, we caught up with the slower members of the pride.
“Ease off,” I yelled up at those in the lead. Steve and the cheetah girl. They circled around to us and I did a quick head count. Everyone was here.
How was it possible that we’d gotten everyone out?
Well, everyone except Maks.
“Where are all the Jinn?” Kiara sidled up next to me and Ford. Her eyes were gaunt and her ribs showed through even under her fur. She would need time to heal, to gain her strength back.
“That’s a good question,” I said. “They aren’t giving chase though, so that means it’s time to go home.”
The lions and other shifters roared their agreement. The cub dropped to the ground and leapt and ran amongst the others. Different coats, different builds, different packs, but for now we were one family.
Why then did it feel as though I was still waiting for the ax to come down on the chopping block?
My earlier premonition when we fought the Jinn at the Oasis would suddenly make sense in the worst possible way.