Candra relaxed a little bit and she held tighter to his hand. “I feel like if you’re with me, though, maybe the sun wouldn’t be so awful.” It was strange to think that, but the way he drank in her power, she knew it had to be true.
“I guess we’ll find out if you can get a tan, then, huh?” Orlando teased as they ran, looking back at her with a playful grin. She was deathly pale, more like a vampire than the werewolf he knew she was.
Aura wasn’t far behind Nick when she caught up to where he stopped, standing over the body of a woman who was still unconscious by a doorway. She didn’t know the area, and since the woman’s face was hidden, Aura didn’t recognize her. “Why are we stopping?” She asked in confusion, since it seemed as though he had frozen there, staring.
Nick knelt at Zara’s side, glancing up around the hallway to make sure they were still alone. Unconsciously, he moved his fingers and the pendant that Zara wore moved back into place below the hollow of her throat. Though her eyes were closed, the faceted purple gem in the center of the fragile gold filigree seemed to be an ever-open eye, watching on her behalf. He rested a hand on the unconscious woman’s arm before he picked her up. “She tried to tell me. To warn me.” Nick said vaguely, then lifted her easily in his arms and started across the council chambers, which were still empty, towards the main doors. “If this place is going down, she’s coming with us.”
When Aura saw the woman’s face, she gasped loudly. “The Heartborn? Warn you? She works for them!” Aura was bitter and disgusted that he wanted to help the wolf that raped her mind.
“She might have worked for them, but she’s still an outcast, just like we are. And she’s the only person that’s been honest with me about what matters.” Nick explained resolutely without glancing her way.
Aura didn’t even know how to respond, so she just stared at him for a moment longer before she started moving, hoping to get ahead of him. “I was going to tell you. But I got kidnapped on the way to your house. Don’t worry, it won’t happen again.” Aura hissed bitterly, tinged with her own hurt. She knew that it was going to hurt him when she had to tell him about Orlando, but she had planned on being honest with him before everything happened. Aura wanted to keep some kind of friendship with Nick, but now one Heartborn was all it had taken to destroy everything.
He let Aura have her distance, but he was glad she had the sense to wait before walking out the front doors. He set Zara down behind a table as they approached the entrance to the library. Candra and Orlando came up behind them, still hand in hand.
“I’ll look.” Orlando volunteered as Aura approached the doors, hoping she would still listen to him.
Aura stopped walking, but she didn’t look over at Orlando or Nick. She just waited for Candra and Orlando to pass her. Candra stood just behind the door as Orlando moved to look out.
Orlando opened the door just a crack and saw the backs of several of the Iron Guard still in place outside the building. He felt a swell of pride by proxy for Nick’s people that they were so obedient that they managed to hold their positions the entire time he and Nick had been below. “Lea, that you?”
He saw Lea nod in response to his voice, but she didn’t look away from the plaza in front of her as she spoke. “Good to see you’re alive. Did you get Aura?”
“Yes, and a couple more besides. How’s it looking out there?”
“It’s getting nasty. They’re trying to avoid us as a whole, but they’re making their way here.”
Once it was apparent that Orlando didn’t need to start blasting things right from the gate, Nick came up to the door and stepped out. “What about the other units on the perimeter of town?”
“They’re holding, but just barely. If we don’t leave soon, they’ve got us. We’re trapped here in the center if our other units fall, and they will. Quickly.”
“Give them the order to retreat to the rendezvous. We’ll join them shortly.” Nick nodded to one of the other men present. “Charo, see to the woman behind the desk. She’s coming with us. The rest of you, let’s move with a purpose. We need to draw as many of the Council’s units as we can on the way out of the city.”
They went with his orders, but once they made it to the rendezvous on the edge of town, the units holding it had been severely weakened and there were far too many of their own dead and scattered around the area. Only a few minutes after they arrived and started gathering the bodies to take them home, the Council fighters that chased them through the city caught up with them, and they found themselves surrounded on three sides before they could blink.
Orlando had been near Candra the entire time, and had never let go of her hand as he led her through the confusion and all the rough-looking wolves around them. He pulled her in close to him and hugged her for a moment. “This isn’t going to be pretty. Stay close to me, but stay behind me.”
Candra was confused but she nodded against his side before she just slid around behind him. She kept her arms wrapped around him and buried her face into his back so that she wouldn’t see whatever was going to happen.
“Everybody down!” Nick yelled in a booming voice
