He was wearing a new black robe, flaring around him, but the hood was pushed back so she could see his face. His eyes were completely blank, burning with orange flame. Dimly in the bright morning sun, Max glimpsed fiery wings flickering behind him. They weren't large, and in fact she could only glimpse them occasionally, especially when he passed through a shadow and suddenly they were more visible.
Beside her, Sofia stiffened abruptly.
"That's the one you need to watch out for," Max told her, pointing. "Javic. He's their main magician. The rest of them are still dangerous, but they have minimal magic if at all. Javic is—Sofia, what's wrong?"
Sofia shook her head. Her eyes were still riveted on Javic. Then a jaguar, out of sight, gave a high snarling cry of pain, and she snapped out of whatever had distracted her.
"Armory," she told them briskly.
Without thinking about it, Max fell into step behind her. Her sister was the alpha now, no doubt about it. Gio brought up the rear.
They pounded down two flights of stairs, to the cool and dim back passages, with ceilings low enough that Gio had to duck. This was the old part of the hacienda, going back hundreds of years.
The heavy wooden door to the armory stood open. Several of the clan, including Max's father, were passing out weapons. Sofia immediately fell in with this group, while Max nodded to them and went to check out the weapons. It was much the same as when she was a child, well-kept racks of traditional weapons like knives, spears, and swords, next to a smaller selection of guns and—ooh. They did still have the explosives. She admired the selection of grenades, then took down a leather satchel and checked its contents.
"Pick whatever you like," she told Gio.
"You know, a lot of things about you are becoming more clear."
Sofia came back from consulting with the older clan members and began hastily arming herself. She tossed Max a harness. "Still remember how to wear one of these, sis?"
"Haven't really missed it," Max shot back.
The harnesses were worn by patrollers, custom designed with special buckles and expanding cinch straps so they could adjust to fit their wearers in either human or jaguar form. Max quickly slipped into it with the ease of practice and strapped on some weapons.
"Stoneskin!" Gio barked.
Max whirled around. She had completely forgotten this highly inconvenient aspect of dealing with people who had stone-manipulating powers. One of Javic's crude stone humanoids was tearing its way free of the passage wall outside the armory.
Luckily, if there was one thing Max had at hand right now, it was a wide variety of ways to deal with this sort of threat. Entire, literal walls of them. She grabbed the nearest grenade.
"Not in here!" Sofia yelped.
"I wasn't going to!"
Max sprinted past the stoneskin, only to realize that it wasn't following her. She turned back and saw that it was oriented on Gio.
"Gio! We have to get it somewhere I can throw this without hurting anyone!"
"On it," Gio said grimly. He shifted in the blink of an eye and thundered out into the passage.
Nowthey had the stoneskin after them. Max wrapped an arm over Gio's stone shoulders and threw herself over his back like a trick rider in a circus, awkwardly clinging to the grenade and the satchel. She managed to get a leg over, but had to lean low over his back to avoid braining herself on the ceiling.
They thundered out into the open air. The stoneskin lumbered after them.
"Left!" Max yelled into Gio's stone ear. "Those steps!"
Gio bounded up the flagstone steps, which as far as Max could recall led to an open terrace that was likely to be deserted. They reached level ground. The stoneskin appeared over the top of the steps. Max looked around to make sure that there was no one nearby.
"Fire in the hole!" she yelled and chucked the grenade behind them.
The grenade exploded just as it bounced off the stoneskin's chest. When the smoke cleared, all that was left of the stone automaton was rubble.
Max slid off Gio's back, leaving her arm draped over his shoulders. Gio shifted human again, so suddenly she now had her arm looped around his abruptly human neck.
"My dear lady, I admire your problem-solving skills," Gio said. "I wouldn't mind turning you loose on a few investment brokers I've clashed with in the past."
Max was startled into a laugh. "Let's get out of this and I'll solve all the problems you like." She unhooked a gun from her harness and passed it to him. "Here, you seem to have lost yours when you shifted."
