Another step and Shane shot up in the air in front of me, causing me to jerk backward. Instantly, vines slithered around my leg, keeping me from falling. Before I could fully comprehend what was happening, the wooden tendrils twisted up my waist and began to wrap around my chest. I managed to whip my arms out of reach before they were caught in the tangles.
In front of me, Shane let out a furious cry. To my surprise, I thought I detected a hint of fear.
My attention was pulled away from him as the vines began to tighten around my body, making it hard to breathe. In the moment of panic, I forgot who I was, but it came rushing back in a surge of anger. Flexing my muscles, I heard the creak of the wooden ropes that bound me.
In response, they tightened further.
Fine. If muscles didn’t work, fire would.
“Don’t even fucking think about setting a fire, asshole.”
Jerking my head toward the voice, I found Caitlin standing several feet away. One hand on her hip, the other stretched out toward me.
“Caitlin.”
She sneered. “Demon-boy.”
Again, the vines tightened.
I fought my urge to turn myself into a flame ball. “Come on, Caitlin. This probably isn’t the best time for this, considering there’s a vampire close by.”
She let out a laugh. “There’s hundreds of vampires close by. You’re real close to the Vampire Cathedral, dumbass.”
“Right where you’ve always wanted me.”
“Cut the name calling and get me down!”
I glanced up, following the sound of Shane’s voice. He was suspended in midair. Other than being twenty or more feet off the ground, there didn’t seem to be anything else attacking him.
Caitlin grinned up at him, then turned to the man beside her. I’d been so focused on her that I hadn’t even noticed him. But he would have been easy to overlook in any circumstance. “Good one, Newton. Werewolves and heights. I wouldn’t have thought of that.”
If they hadn’t already realized Shane was a werewolf, the growl he uttered would have left no room for confusion. “Yeah. Brilliant. About as original as a Looney Tunes cartoon. Vines and yanking someone up into the air. Never seen that before.”
The man peered up at Shane, sounding thoroughly unimpressed. “It worked on you, though, didn’t it?”
“Fuck you, fairy. I’ll rip your queer little wings right off your scrawny body when I get down.”
At Shane’s threat, a pair of gorgeous wings appeared behind the man’s back. They were a strange mix of butterfly wings and golden feathers.
He really was a fairy. Huh.
“Caitlin, seriously. Let’s hash this out later. Without the risk of a vampire attack.”
“Again, demon. You forget where you are. There’s nowhere here without the risk of a vampire attack.”
“Get. Me. Down.”
The fairy didn’t even look at Shane when he responded. “We both know you’re ten times stronger than me. It doesn’t seem very smart to let you down, now does it?”
“Tentimes stronger? You wish.”
“Only proving my point, wolf.”
“Faggot.”
Caitlin’s eyes bugged as they glanced up at Shane then back at me. “Traveling with a homophobe, Brett? Really?”
“Like you haven’t called me the same thing, Caitlin.”
