“We’re going to be fine,” Marcus told her before opening himself up to his clan and alerting everyone to their location.I’m under attack.
Within seconds, Alaric appeared on the road between Marcus’s sports car and the SUV targeting them. The large black vehicle adjusted its course to aim directly for the Elder in the middle of the street. Marcus shook his head. This wouldn’t end well. For them.
Carina’s scream filled the car, followed by sobs as debris struck the windshield. She ducked under his still-extended arm to shield herself as Marcus steered the car backward, not seeing the massive landscaping rock Alaric had placed behind him. “They hit him!” Car parts from the threatening SUV had flown in all directions.
“He’s safe, Little girl. He’s too wily to get taken out that easily.” Marcus whipped the car around to face the other direction and continued away from the accident. He could sense Alaric’s presence as always.
“But they hit him! He was right there in the way.”
A high-pitched ping sounded, and Marcus’s front tire exploded. As he struggled to control the car, its rear tire burst and flipped the car onto its side. As it slid, Marcus freed his seatbelt, steadying himself inside the vehicle by sheer strength alone. Someone was shooting at them. A skilled sniper. He had to get Carina out of here.
As the car’s skid slowed, he unfastened her seatbelt, and Carina’s limp body tumbled into his arms from above him. Carina moaned, putting a hand against her forehead as she roused. Marcus could smell her blood and struggled to keep himself under control. Rage and bloodthirst battled inside him. Her precious life force should not be spilling. Whoever had wounded his Little girl had just sealed their fate. Their death would be painful.
Marcus pulled himself out of the wreckage and scooped Carina into his arms. He hesitated to use his ability to move quickly. Could the force against her frail human form worsen her injury? He darted at a slower pace to a spot protected on three sides and set her down. This sheltered alcove on the block could protect her if he shifted the metal security partitions.
Carina clung to his neck. “Don’t leave me!” she begged.
“I need to take out those men. Stay quiet for me. Do not move. You will be safe here.”
When she nodded, he bent a metal partition to shield her from view. He climbed up the side of the building in the shadows and scoped out the area. Concentrating on the direction the shots had come from earlier, Marcus spotted a man repositioning himself on the rooftop next to the one whereMarcus crouched. The slim barrel of a rifle cast a shadow, confirming the man’s guilt.
Marcus flexed his shoulders automatically. His sword hung as usual down his spine. This time they’d endangered his mate. Now their fight was with him not with the clan.
Moving faster than any eye could track in the night's gloom, Marcus leapt between the two buildings. He darted behind the prone man, who scanned the area below for new targets with his rifle’s scope. Marcus’s rage boiled over. He yanked his sword from beneath his coat and drove it through the sniper’s hip, pinning him to the roof. Before the injured man could aim at Marcus or cry out, Marcus dropped onto the bleeding man’s back with one knee. The sniper’s breath exploded from his lungs, leaving him gasping for air.
Marcus shoved the rifle halfway across the roof with his left hand while grinding the sniper’s face into the roof with the other. He leaned over so that his lips were close to the squirming man’s ear. “You harmed someone very precious to me, and I will not allow that to go unpunished.”
With a savage snarl, Marcus sank his teeth into the man’s jugular vein. While a bite could be sensual between sexual partners, Marcus pierced the man’s neck, causing excruciating agony. Drinking in the waves of fear coming from the sniper, Marcus savored the sniper’s pain as retribution for his attack on Carina. When that didn’t appease his wrath, Marcus increased the pressure on the man’s skull against the roof. The pops and cracks of his victim’s facial bones shattering as Marcus ground the man’s head to a wet smear below him finally eased Marcus’s anger. Rising from the lifeless shell, Marcus wiped his hands and sword off on the dead man’s jacket before slinging the assailant’s now ownerless rifle across his back. No need to leave the enemy weapons to reclaim.
An instantly recognizable scream sliced through the silence of the night. Marcus leaped over the side of the building and plummeted six stories to the ground in an instant, landing catlike on his feet without a sound. He scanned the street where he had left her, but through their blood bond he could sense she was moving in the opposite direction. Something or someone had spooked her, and he could feel her distress.
He reached out to his clan.
Shut off this area! The men holding Carina are mine.
Mental acknowledgements returned to him like a fiery glow. He could feel their anger. Alaric and Donovan were close. They would handle any threats that might slow him down with the brutal efficiency of their kind. With the avenues of escape closed, he could focus on Carina and whoever had taken her. Rage and the need for vengeance warred within him. Fear kindled in his stomach for the first time in a hundred years. He had to reach his Little girl in time. Gripping his sword in anticipation, he ran.
Carina frozewhen an almost silent footstep whispered on the concrete outside her small nook. The person out there couldn’t be Marcus. He never made any noise when he walked. Someone was out there. That sound had to be the bad guys.
Marcus had told her not to leave this spot. He couldn’t know that they’d found her. Should she hide somewhere else? She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stop her shivers and stay perfectly quiet.
Carina didn’t understand why anyone would shoot out their tires and then pursue them. Last night, she’d overheard Marcus’s security guards on the observation level discussing that someone in town was pissed Nightfall had launched sosuccessfully. They said the word turf a lot, but Carina didn’t understand what they were talking about completely.
The footsteps got closer. They’d find her any moment. Carina’s thoughts fractured into a million pieces. Between her fright and her headache, she couldn’t concentrate to send Marcus a mental message. She panicked and darted out of the sheltered area Marcus had created. Carina ran toward the shadows a few feet in front of her. Surely, she could hide better there.
A hand clamped over her mouth as an arm wrapped around her waist to lift her off the ground. “Be quiet or I’ll snap your neck.”
Instantly, she froze in his arms. This man wouldn’t hesitate to kill her. If she could stay alive, Marcus would rescue her.
When two other men appeared, Carina struggled to get away. Even if Marcus arrived in time to find her, he couldn’t fight against three men. She needed to even the odds, staying quiet wasn’t an option. Carina screamed warnings to Marcus. As she thrashed to free herself, one of the new arrivals grabbed her feet to help carry her away. The other pulled out a gun.Please let Marcus be okay!
The trio fled from the area, toting her along with them as they ran. Her assailants bashed her wriggling body into obstacles on the way—not deliberately, but with utter disregard for her safety. Low, angry curses surrounded her when Carina’s flailing arms or desperate kicks connected. Exhausting her energy, Carina forced herself to resist and slow them down. Marcus would rescue her if she could hold them back. Going with them was not an option—definitely not a safe one.
A black SUV like the one that had careened in front of Marcus earlier as well as a van waited at the curb in front of them. They’d almost reached the open door of the van when the two men holding her tumbled to the ground. A warm liquidsprayed over her as powerful hands caught her before she could hit the concrete. She recognized his bulk immediately. “Marcus.”
Marcus caughtup with them in moments after taking out the sniper. Carina was not going quietly. Pride flared inside him as he noted how his mate resisted. She fought against two men who carried her while a third man, armed with a pistol, led the group. At the end of the street, a black van waited. Its side door gaped open. An SUV idled nearby.
The two men carrying Carina had their hands full. One held her legs, while the other had his arms under her shoulders as she bucked and thrashed between them, screaming the entire way. Her fierce determination had slowed their progress. His mate might be terrified, but she wouldn’t give up.
