“You should be able to hear the Lear,” Alex said into my headset. I nearly jumped at his voice. Quint almost smiled, as if I was cute. I narrowed my eyes at her in threat and her smile went wider as if taunting me. I eased thewindow down a bit. My hearing in my human ears was far less acute than in my other forms, but within a few seconds, I heard the distant hum that quickly became a roar. This was where the danger increased. Magic might bring down the plane. Or rockets. Explosions. Bombs bursting in air.
I had a mental image of Angie Baby’s body falling from the sky. Arms and legs flailing lifelessly as she plummeted to the ground. The visual wouldn’t blink away.
I pulled on Beast’s speed and strength, opened the door, and leaped out. Quint grabbed at my shoulder rig and tried to stop me, but I twisted my body against her fingers and slipped into the shadows cast by the hangar. Cursing, telling Alex I was on the move, she followed.
I inched into a better angle and watched the runway. The Lear appeared, seeming to float in midair. Slowly it dropped lower, its engine sounding different. Did engines always change pitch when a Lear landed? I couldn’t remember. After too long, afterforever, it touched down. Reversed with a great rumble I could feel in my bones. Grew quieter. Taxied around and closer. Stopped.
Faster than was probably regulation, the hatch opened. Two women in Yellowrock Security garb rolled the stairs up to it and took up places beneath the belly of the plane, long-rifles pointing at the distant trees.
Molly, carrying Cassy (Holy crap. How had I forgotten she would have to bring the baby?), with EJ and Angie right behind her, started slowly down the stairs. Her husband followed, his bulk a protection hovering over them all. Molly’s sisters were right behind, bunched close. Big Evan, the air witch, was whistling a bright tune. In this form, I couldn’t see magical energies unless the casters of the working allowed it, and while there was nothing visible, I knew the Everharts were clustered together because they were manipulating a movinghedge of thorns. I might not like their lack of speed, but I accepted it was for a good cause.
My heart was beating too hard. It hurt in my chest, as if it hammered against my ribs.
The tight group walked down the stairs and right into the brand-new hangar. I blew out a relieved breath. Inseconds, surrounded by a small security team, they were all hustled out the side door and into different SUVs in my motorcade. As they were divided and positioned, the drivers materialized and slid into the vehicles.
“Activity in the west quadrant,” a voice said into my earbuds.
Liz was shoved at Quint. My lady-in-waiting grabbed the curvy witch and heaved her into my SUV, then tossed me in on top of her. Cia followed, landing on top of both of us.
“Drive!” Bruiser shouted into comms’ earbuds.
Wrassler took off. So did three of the other SUVs.
Liz, Cia, and I pushed apart and struggled for our seat belts, the twins now side-by-side. Wrassler drove like the hounds of hell were after us and he was dodging their teeth. As SUVs pulled out of the pickup area, someone screamed into comms, “Incoming!”
I twisted in my seat. Got a glimpse of someone jumping off the roof of the new hangar—the one the Everharts had just walked through. An enormouswhompsounded. My ears popped even through the SUV’s armor. The walls of the hangar blew out. The roof caved in. The vehicle rocked and bounced. Behind us, debris flew and fell. Quint hadn’t gotten in any car. I didn’t see her. Just clouds of dust and smoke billowing.
The witches still weren’t buckled in. I shoved them into the floorboards.
My connection with Eli woke up. He felt my adrenaline spike. I felt his fury, that he hadn’t been informed about whatever I was facing.
The SUVs had all pulled out, tires shooting gravel. All the vehicles going in different directions. White motorcycles were everywhere.
The Lear made a good target. The vamp-hatch in the belly was open, a coffin-sized box being offloaded by a four-person team. A smallsomethingexploded just above the Lear, debris flying. The team hit the dirt. Untouched. No concussive force, no debris touched the jet or the team. How? The witches were all on the ground. In SUVs, moving. No circles. No—
Angie’s magic?
My jaw bones popped. My head ached. I could suddenly see as my half-form did, which included magical energies. There was a blue glow around the jet. A second blue glow covered the four humans again holding Florence’s travel box. Now with no place to go. No SUVs, no hangar. I looked at my hands. I was still human except for part of my face; the shift had stopped there, leaving the rest of me human. A helpful shape for once. When I looked back up, the jet and box were no longer in my sightline. White motorcycles sped after us. I counted three on my tail. I yanked the witches up. “Seat belts.”
“No shit,” Cia said. The moon witch was shaking.
Inside me, Eli raged. I tried to send him calm, but all I got was that he was on the move. On the way home from the hospital? Trying to get to us?Of course. Idiot man.Into comms, I told Alex to find his brother and tell him we were all okay.
At my side, Liz was doing something with her hands, a weird reddish glow gathered in her palms, leading back to the chunky stone necklace she wore, her amulets all glowing. The witch was a stone mage, her magic strongest when she was in a circle, sitting on a fully charged boulder. She’d be limited in the moving vehicle. She reached to her sister and they joined hands. Cia’s moonstone necklace glowed a vibrant silver, though she too was limited as the moon wasn’t in the sky. I scooted closer to the door, trying not to touch them and interfere with their working.
The motorcade SUVs were headed out fast with no prearranged route. That was on purpose in case a time scryer had been watching. One vehicle gunned it toward I-12, one toward 190, circling around, scattering. Wrassler used back roads, taking the long way home. Everyone avoided crossing the bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, where every vehicle would be a sitting duck. We’d regroup near Slidell. Bruiser, in the earbuds, ordered the white crotch-rockets to gather around the vehicles, my three closing the gap.
Someone said, “Transport box is undamaged.” A moment later she said, “Asset is secure. SUV and driver are on the move.”
My Infermieri was still with us. Undead, not true dead.
The woman said, “LZ injured require medic, civilian ambulances, and first responders. Also will need ATF and parish coroners.”
After the briefest hesitation, Alex said, “Understood. ETAs to follow.”
That chatter told me the airport had injured and dead.
I checked my weapons, listening over the headset, which still fit my ears. The drivers checked in. Bruiser had Molly and Evan and the kids. Quint was currently shouting into her mic, the scream of a motorcycle nearly overpowering her voice.
