Chicks Kick Butt

“These aren’t the real council members.” My voice rang through the hall as I spoke. “They’re all Metamorphs. They’ve kidnapped the real members.”

A prickle raced up my spine. I caught a flash of silver in the corner of my eye. I ducked into a crouch. A Dryad screamed from inside a wooden pillar as a dagger buried itself in her midsection. Damn. I had moved instinctively and hadn’t realized a Dryad was behind me.

I turned to see two guards coming at me from the great hall. A low growl rolled from inside me along with my fury. The dangerous white light flashed in my eyes as the poor young Dryad sobbed and sap bled from her belly. I would kill the guards just for what they’d done to the Dryad.

One of the guards had a bow, a gold-feathered shaft nocked in it. The arrowhead glinted in the light cast from the chambers as the guard let it loose. I reached up and caught the arrow, then flung it back at the guard, my air element pushing it even faster than my own power.

I pierced the guard through the heart all the way up to the golden feathers.

“What in the name of—,” Leticia shouted from her seat.

Angel transformed from her squirrel form and appeared behind the chief council member. She yanked Leticia out of her seat and pushed her under the table. “Stay down!” Angel shouted at the Doppler. “These Metamorphs will kill you.”

I was aware of everything, but it all happened so fast it was a blur.

The guard who had thrown the dagger came charging forward, brandishing a sword. The floor rocked as I ordered my earth element to shift through the stone hall floor. A crack in the stone tripped the guard. With another command my air element twisted both the guard and the blade so that the guard landed on his own sword and severed his neck to his spine.

Angel battled three of the five Metamorph imposters. Her side kick sent one sprawling across the room. She grabbed the arm of a female Metamorph and flipped her onto her back. The third, Angel grabbed by the head and snapped his neck.

At the same time I was fighting off the two guards and the other two fake council members who came at me from inside the chamber.

One guard had a gun and I flattened myself to the floor. As he missed me, I rolled toward the other guard, tripped him, and gutted him with Angel’s dagger.

A Metamorph jumped on me but I flipped onto my back, grabbed him by the head, and rammed my knee into his face. He screamed and blood and tears flushed down his face as I broke his nose and his jaw.

The fourth Metamorph had a gun, too, and he and the first guard began shooting at me.

I wrapped myself in a cocoon of my air element and called to fire.

Torch flames from inside the council chambers roared into fiery life. A dragon of fire swooped down and swallowed the guard and the Metamorph, burning them to ash as it carried them down the great hallway.

Another guard came out of nowhere.

Before I had a chance to do anything, a burst of green light came from the Witch. Plant tentacles wrapped themselves around the guard, taking away his ability to move.

A green Witch. I glanced up at her intense face. Witches never killed, but they would fight to protect themselves or others using whatever power they commanded. Hers obviously came from nature.

All thoughts and actions happened within moments.

Seven down. I glanced in Angel’s direction. Her three were down.

That left Smith.

I cut my gaze to the witness stand.

Smith was gone.

Warning chills scrabbled up and down my body.

Too late.

Fiery lead pierced my abdomen and then my thigh before I could react. Blood flowed from the bullet wounds.

Smith had slipped out of the melee and around to my side.

Pain seared me like my fire element had seared the two men.

I gritted my teeth and forward flipped twice toward Smith.

Shock was on Smith’s face as I knocked the gun from his hand, grabbed his head, and slammed my forehead against his.

“Stop. Please.” His begging only made me angrier. “We’ll go away. You’ll never see us again.”

I jerked his head down with my fists full of his hair. I rammed my knee up and into his face just before I snapped his neck.

For a moment, silence filled the chamber and the hall. Dead bodies. Blood everywhere. Cracked floor. Destroyed furniture. Burnt clothes and bones. Stench of charred flesh. Odor of rotting, molding hay.

It was over.

As my eyes met Angel’s, I started to feel dizzy. I looked down and blood was flowing freely from my abdomen.

Two Dryads left their columns and caught me from behind as I slumped.

Then passed out.

CHAPTER 4

“What happened to you?” Olivia eyed me up and down as I pushed open the door to our PI office; the Fae bells jingled as the door slid shut. “Get sucked in through a jet engine this morning?”

“Feel like it.” I’d taken a shower and dressed in fresh clothing, but I did feel like I’d gotten caught in a helicopter’s rotors.

I grinned when I saw Olivia’s T-shirt.

Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?

The real Olivia.

I wanted to hug her but I knew she’d get even by shooting me with one of her eraser-loaded rubber bands.

Last night I’d made sure Adam and Olivia were okay by having a couple of other Trackers check in on them. After being shot, I couldn’t do anything until I shifted back into my human form. To say I was relieved when I was told they were okay—well, we’ll just keep it to “that’s an understatement.”

“So tell me why you look like you got chewed up and spit out in little pieces,” she said.

“I’m fine. Just a rough night tracking.” I smiled my way through my aches and pains. It’s much easier to heal when shifting from human to Drow than it is shifting from Drow to human. I’d mostly healed from my wounds, but not totally. What was more important was that Olivia was here and well. “I am so glad you’re okay.”

Olivia gave me one of her looks . “And why wouldn’t I be…?”

That made me feel even better. If she didn’t know, then nothing had happened to her at all. “Nothing.”

Olivia frowned.

I set my handbag on my Dryad-made wooden desk and a pang went through me at the thought of the young Dryad who’d been shot last night. The Healers weren’t sure she was going to survive.

“What happened?” Olivia narrowed her gaze. When I shrugged she grabbed an eraser from the stash on her desk and loaded it into a rubber band. “Tell me now .”

I held up my hands in mock surrender. “Metamorphs. They went a little crazy last night.”

“Metamorphs?” Olivia looked like she was going to laugh. “Since when did one of them grow a backbone?”

“They chose last night to do it.” I drew my phone out of my handbag, and the worry that had been biting at me all morning snapped at me. “I need to call Adam again. I haven’t been able to reach him.”

“Hold on.” Olivia pulled on her loaded rubber band. “Tell me everything first.”

Fae bells tinkled and I cut my attention to the front door. “Adam!” I dropped my phone into my bag, ran to him, and flung my arms around his neck. His leather and coffee scent was so good, so familiar, that I breathed deep