“Sip from the rest.” I pushed as much power as I could spare into the command. “Help us take them down.”
The soul of cooperation, Ambrose ricocheted off me and shot across the field to ping-pong off the five remaining creatures.
“I’m a lover,” Remy said from behind me, “not a fighter.”
“You tried to mow down Midas,” I reminded her. “You’ve got killer instinct to spare.”
“That was One.” She pointed to another Remy, one of three I counted in the area. “I’m Five.”
“Do me a favor then.” I aimed her toward the ambulance. “Get them out of here.”
“That I can do.”
With her commandeering the ambulance, we had removed the innocents from the field.
Dividing my attention between Ambrose, who used his earlier hit of power to defy me and take more, more, more, and the battle raging ahead, I spotted my opening and took it. A gap split the line where the lions and gwyllgi met, their fighting styles too different to mesh seamlessly, and I filled it.
One of the beasts wasted no time homing in on me. Its torso was male, but its tail was snakelike, and a cobra’s fan flared around its humanesque head. Its skin was all mottled shades of green, and its blood ran black and sizzled where it hit dirt and grass.
“She lives,” he hissed between fangs the thickness of my thumb. “Take her.”
The remaining four shifted their focus from mowing down the defensive line to capturing me.
Midas fought his way to my side, and I wished I could run my fingers through his fur to reassure myself he was okay, but I couldn’t afford to distract him. Or myself. It would suck to die because I paused to give my boyfriend belly rubs. That’s the kind of end you never live down, not that I would be alive to enjoy my notoriety.
A lion with silver in his mane shot in front of me, raking his claws across the snake’s belly. The plating on its abdomen kept it from being a kill shot, but the snake man hissed and bowed over, and I took off its head with a clean slice.
“Coming through.” Bishop punched his fist through the snake man’s chest and ripped out a heart with no finesse whatsoever. “Back in five.”
There was no time to gawk or protest the sudden violence. Gratitude he had spared me the task warred with fear it wouldn’t count if I hadn’t done the deed myself. We had no way of knowing what Natisha wanted from me, and I fretted that ignorance would cost us down the line.
The rest of the coven expressed no grief stepping over their fallen comrade to reach me. The pack—and the pride, I guess?—kept the worst of it from me, but it was close. At times I proved how worthless I could be, unable to swing my sword without fear of injuring an ally. Trusting the pack and these strangers to protect me played on all my old insecurities.
I hadn’t been enough for my family. How could I be enough for a pack? For my friends? For a city?
There was no choice. I had to be.
A nightmare with six arms fell to the pride, but it took every one of them to finish it.
The pack brought down another, but three gwyllgi had been thrown keeping it off me, and they weren’t moving.
Ambrose was slowing the beasts down, but they were too much even for him. I was expending the magic as fast as he harvested it to boost my healing abilities and increase my strength.
A piercing howl rose behind us, but I couldn’t turn to check. A half goat, half man with bizarre spines similar to a porcupine had stepped into the breach. A woman with silky midnight-blue hair and bright-red skin joined him. Her eyes were trailing comets, and her sensuous voice…
On the ground.
Flat on my back.
Sky overhead.
How did I get here? Why are my ears ringing? Surely even I can’t get blown up twice in one night.
Blinking back to myself, I found Midas on all fours standing over me, a rumble constant in his chest.
When had that happened? When had any of it happened?
Wargs by the dozens yipped, dove, and lunged at the two coven members who had cornered me.
“She’s awake.” Bishop hooked his hands under my arms and hauled me to my feet. “Hey, kid. You had us worried there for a second.”
The questions frothing in my head refused to bubble out of my mouth. “What…?”
“A siren.” He checked a rising goose egg on my noggin then nodded, satisfied. “An old one.”
Age matured into power, which explained why she had so thoroughly rung my bell.
“I have the worst headache.” I clutched my head, but it didn’t help. “Goddess, that was brutal.”
“They must have been holding her in reserve.” Bishop kept me steady. “She whammied you real good, then she fell back. Thank the old gods her range is limited.”
Whammy was definitely the right word. “The wargs?”
“The Clairmonts and the Loups.” He smiled out at the carnage. “They came back as soon as their alphas managed the shift.”
“Oh.” I had no memory of them leaving in the first place. “That’s good.”
“Hold still.” Bishop placed cool hands on my temples, magic seeped into my skin, and he gave me the worst brain freeze known to man. “Better?”
“Ow, ow, ow.” I swatted him away. “No, that’s not better.” I glared at him, noticed my vision was singular instead of plural, and laughed. “Hey.” I straightened. “That is better.”
“Gotta go.” He turned me loose. “The wargs are about to bring down that naga.”
Until he mentioned it, I
